The question of whether or not abortion should be legal is, in fact, the question of whether or not a fetus is a human...
This is the fundamental mistake in moral philosophy—to feel compelled to value according to your categories, instead of categorizing according to your values.
How can you define your values without using categories? I don’t think you can. How can you say that Clippy values making paperclips without referring to a ‘paperclip’ category?
You can’t, because you define words, not values, or tastes, or smells, or sights, or sounds.
Clippy can have pattern matching algorithms without any verbal content. Then he might attempt to identify his values using words, but values can exist without words.
There’s some semantic confusion going on here with the word ‘define’. By ‘define your values’ I meant something like ‘state your values explicitly’.
Clippy’s pattern matching algorithm itself defines (or constructs, if you prefer) a category that can be explicitly stated. It seems natural to say that Clippy values according to its paperclip category.
This is the fundamental mistake in moral philosophy—to feel compelled to value according to your categories, instead of categorizing according to your values.
Probably the reason for this mistake is that we confuse moral philosophy with legislation, where it is very important to have clear rules.
How can you define your values without using categories? I don’t think you can. How can you say that Clippy values making paperclips without referring to a ‘paperclip’ category?
You can’t, because you define words, not values, or tastes, or smells, or sights, or sounds.
Clippy can have pattern matching algorithms without any verbal content. Then he might attempt to identify his values using words, but values can exist without words.
There’s some semantic confusion going on here with the word ‘define’. By ‘define your values’ I meant something like ‘state your values explicitly’.
Clippy’s pattern matching algorithm itself defines (or constructs, if you prefer) a category that can be explicitly stated. It seems natural to say that Clippy values according to its paperclip category.
In actual fact, there’s little reason to believe that anyone in the universe can explicitly state Clippy’s values accurately.
I believe that with sufficient study and analysis, someone could. But positing that Clippy exists in no way entails that anyone can.