A universal standard of ethics must have practical utility in every society at every point in history.
I suppose so, but why would you want one?
Because if I do not follow a universal standard of ethics then my entire ethical system will be founded on nothing more than transient fashions. Little g is sufficient for most practical applications. Big G is about understanding the universe. I want to understand the universe.
Because if I do not follow a universal standard of ethics then my entire ethical system will be founded on nothing more than transient fashions.
Alas, you won’t find that in mysticism, as mystics’ ethics isn’t universal either.
What I observed reading and listening to many mystics over the years is that, while their ethics did indeed change in a more or less similar way due to their mystical experiences, it didn’t do so in a “big G” way, but rather only in a “little g” way. Basically, their experiences change their utility function in a very specific way: they end up believing that achieving those experiences is a value unto itself, that everyone should have them, and so they propose changes and tweaks to their pre-existing, culturally conditioned moral framework that, if applied at large, result in facilitating and encouraging more people to achieve mystical experiences.
Now, this isn’t to say that having those experiences doesn’t provide objective benefits. It seems to do, as it’s been shown that people who’ve had them are in general calmer, more focused, less anxious etc. But that’s a far cry from “understanding the universe”. Mystical experiences don’t provide for that, for if they did, mystics wouldn’t all keep disagreeing with each other about how the universe works, which they definitely do, on most of everything.
Also, depending on how those tweaks to pre-existing moral norms are done, the end result sometimes can be worse than the original. For a remarkable example check Kelley L. Ross’s article Zen and the Art of Divebombing, or The Dark Side of the Tao, which shows how incredibly wrong things can go in that area.
My answer to that question it is so far off the collective map of Less Wrong that stating it here would not result in a productive conversation. If our timeline is the blue walk of the post’s 3D plot then my answer comes from the red one.
Because if I do not follow a universal standard of ethics then my entire ethical system will be founded on nothing more than transient fashions. Little g is sufficient for most practical applications. Big G is about understanding the universe. I want to understand the universe.
Alas, you won’t find that in mysticism, as mystics’ ethics isn’t universal either.
What I observed reading and listening to many mystics over the years is that, while their ethics did indeed change in a more or less similar way due to their mystical experiences, it didn’t do so in a “big G” way, but rather only in a “little g” way. Basically, their experiences change their utility function in a very specific way: they end up believing that achieving those experiences is a value unto itself, that everyone should have them, and so they propose changes and tweaks to their pre-existing, culturally conditioned moral framework that, if applied at large, result in facilitating and encouraging more people to achieve mystical experiences.
Now, this isn’t to say that having those experiences doesn’t provide objective benefits. It seems to do, as it’s been shown that people who’ve had them are in general calmer, more focused, less anxious etc. But that’s a far cry from “understanding the universe”. Mystical experiences don’t provide for that, for if they did, mystics wouldn’t all keep disagreeing with each other about how the universe works, which they definitely do, on most of everything.
Also, depending on how those tweaks to pre-existing moral norms are done, the end result sometimes can be worse than the original. For a remarkable example check Kelley L. Ross’s article Zen and the Art of Divebombing, or The Dark Side of the Tao, which shows how incredibly wrong things can go in that area.
What universal system of ethics would apply both to humans and aliens who eat their own young?
My answer to that question it is so far off the collective map of Less Wrong that stating it here would not result in a productive conversation. If our timeline is the blue walk of the post’s 3D plot then my answer comes from the red one.