Morality is a very real part of the universe as it can be observed in the functioning of the human brain.
I try, of late, not to create sections of map that don’t correspond to any territory. What if we taboo the word morality? Is there brain function that corresponds to morality and that is distinct from preferences, beliefs, emotions, and goals? It seems that positing the existence of something called morality creates something additional and unnecessary.
It does correspond to territory: that specific functioning of the human brain. Human preferences are not part of the map, they’re part of the territory. Admittedly, you can describe the same thing using different words, but that’s true for everything. Morality is a subset of preferences in that it only covers those preferences that describe how intelligent agents should act. It is still a useful term for that reason.
I have found however that talk of morality leads to enormous amounts of confusion (fake agreements, fake disagreements, etc.) and so I agree that tabooing the word and substituting the intended meaning has a great deal of merit.
I try, of late, not to create sections of map that don’t correspond to any territory. What if we taboo the word morality? Is there brain function that corresponds to morality and that is distinct from preferences, beliefs, emotions, and goals? It seems that positing the existence of something called morality creates something additional and unnecessary.
It does correspond to territory: that specific functioning of the human brain. Human preferences are not part of the map, they’re part of the territory. Admittedly, you can describe the same thing using different words, but that’s true for everything. Morality is a subset of preferences in that it only covers those preferences that describe how intelligent agents should act. It is still a useful term for that reason.
I have found however that talk of morality leads to enormous amounts of confusion (fake agreements, fake disagreements, etc.) and so I agree that tabooing the word and substituting the intended meaning has a great deal of merit.
I agree with your argument in the sense that you meant it, though I interpreted the question differently.