I guess we don’t have more discussions of altruism vs egoism because making progress on the problem is hard. Typical debates about moral philosophy are not very productive, and it’s probably fortunate that LW is good at avoiding them.
Do you agree? Do you think there are good arguments to be had that we’re not having for some reason? Does it seem to you that most LWers are just not very interested in the problem?
I have written a few more posts that are relevant to the “egoism vs altruism” question:
http://lesswrong.com/lw/8gk/where_do_selfish_values_come_from/
http://lesswrong.com/lw/6ta/what_if_sympathy_depends_on_anthropomorphizing/
http://lesswrong.com/lw/2b7/hacking_the_cev_for_fun_and_profit/
http://lesswrong.com/lw/1mo/the_preference_utilitarians_time_inconsistency/
I guess we don’t have more discussions of altruism vs egoism because making progress on the problem is hard. Typical debates about moral philosophy are not very productive, and it’s probably fortunate that LW is good at avoiding them.
Do you agree? Do you think there are good arguments to be had that we’re not having for some reason? Does it seem to you that most LWers are just not very interested in the problem?