As I said, there obviously are changes that can’t be considered positive, or that are just arbitrary reversals, but there are also changes that you can intellectually recognize as improvements.
If there exist lots of arbitrary reversals, how do you know whether any particular change is an improvement? Unless you can provide some objective criterion… which we both agree you cannot.
For some examples of judgments about changes being positive or negative, take a look at Which Parts Are “Me”?. You can look forward to changes in yourself, including the changes in your emotional reactions in response to specific situations, that figure into your preference. When you are aware of such preferred changes, but they are still not implemented, that’s akrasia.
Now there are changes that only become apparent when you consider an external argument. Of course, it is you who considers the argument and decides what conclusion to draw from it, but the argument can come from elsewhere. For analogy, you may be easily able to check a solution to an equation, while unable to find it yourself.
The necessity for external moral arguments comes from you not being logically omniscient, their purpose is not in changing your preference directly.
If there exist lots of arbitrary reversals, how do you know whether any particular change is an improvement? Unless you can provide some objective criterion… which we both agree you cannot.
For some examples of judgments about changes being positive or negative, take a look at Which Parts Are “Me”?. You can look forward to changes in yourself, including the changes in your emotional reactions in response to specific situations, that figure into your preference. When you are aware of such preferred changes, but they are still not implemented, that’s akrasia.
Now there are changes that only become apparent when you consider an external argument. Of course, it is you who considers the argument and decides what conclusion to draw from it, but the argument can come from elsewhere. For analogy, you may be easily able to check a solution to an equation, while unable to find it yourself.
The necessity for external moral arguments comes from you not being logically omniscient, their purpose is not in changing your preference directly.