It’s one thing when you make that choice for yourself. This is about a disagreement so heinous that you can’t countenance others living according to a different belief than your own. I read JMH as arguing for a humility that sometimes looks like deferring to the social norm, so that you don’t risk forcing your own (possibly wrong) view on others. I suspect they’d still want to live their life according to their best (flawed) judgment… just with an ever-present awareness that they are almost certainly wrong about some of it, and possibly wrong in monstrous ways.
This is about a disagreement so heinous that you can’t countenance others living according to a different belief than your own.
Beliefs and values aren’t just clothes we wear—we act on them, and live by them. (And don’t confuse me for talking about what people say their values are, vs what they act on. Someone can say they value “liberation for all,” for example, but in practice they behave in accordance with the value “might makes right.” Even if someone feels bad about it, if that’s what they’re acting out, over and over again, then that’s their revealed preference. In my model, what people do in practice & their intent are what is worth tracking.) So it’s reasonable to assume that if someone has a particularly heinous belief, and particularly heinous values, that they act on those beliefs and values.
I read JMH as arguing for a humility that sometimes looks like deferring to the social norm
Why should that particular humility be privileged? In choosing to privilege deference to a social norm or humility over $heinous_thing, one is saying that a {sense of humility|social norm} is more important than the $heinous_thing, and that is a value judgment.
I suspect they’d still want to live their life according to their best (flawed) judgment… just with an ever-present awareness that they are almost certainly wrong about some of it, and possibly wrong in monstrous ways.
If you think your judgment is wrong, you always have the option to learn more and get better judgment. Being so afraid of being wrong that a person will refuse to act is a kind of trap, and I don’t think people are acting that way in the rest of their lives. If you’re wiring an electrical system for your house, and you have an ever-present awareness that you’re almost certainly wrong about some of it, you’re not going to keep doing what you’re doing. You’ll crack open a text book, because dying of electrocution or setting your house on fire is an especially bad outcome, and one you sincerely care about not happening to you. Likewise, if you care about some moral value, if it feels real to you, then you’ll act on it.
It’s one thing when you make that choice for yourself. This is about a disagreement so heinous that you can’t countenance others living according to a different belief than your own. I read JMH as arguing for a humility that sometimes looks like deferring to the social norm, so that you don’t risk forcing your own (possibly wrong) view on others. I suspect they’d still want to live their life according to their best (flawed) judgment… just with an ever-present awareness that they are almost certainly wrong about some of it, and possibly wrong in monstrous ways.
Beliefs and values aren’t just clothes we wear—we act on them, and live by them. (And don’t confuse me for talking about what people say their values are, vs what they act on. Someone can say they value “liberation for all,” for example, but in practice they behave in accordance with the value “might makes right.” Even if someone feels bad about it, if that’s what they’re acting out, over and over again, then that’s their revealed preference. In my model, what people do in practice & their intent are what is worth tracking.) So it’s reasonable to assume that if someone has a particularly heinous belief, and particularly heinous values, that they act on those beliefs and values.
Why should that particular humility be privileged? In choosing to privilege deference to a social norm or humility over $heinous_thing, one is saying that a {sense of humility|social norm} is more important than the $heinous_thing, and that is a value judgment.
If you think your judgment is wrong, you always have the option to learn more and get better judgment. Being so afraid of being wrong that a person will refuse to act is a kind of trap, and I don’t think people are acting that way in the rest of their lives. If you’re wiring an electrical system for your house, and you have an ever-present awareness that you’re almost certainly wrong about some of it, you’re not going to keep doing what you’re doing. You’ll crack open a text book, because dying of electrocution or setting your house on fire is an especially bad outcome, and one you sincerely care about not happening to you. Likewise, if you care about some moral value, if it feels real to you, then you’ll act on it.
In order to argue for humility, one would have to give the “scissors statement”.
Have you read the fictional sequences?