read it as taking the moral superiority of our age for granted … this seems like a very superficial and careless reading
I think it’s an accurate reading. I think based on Eliezer’s other writings, he believes that, while modern morality is wrong on many points, on those issues where modern and ancient morality differ, it’s generally because moderns understand things that ancients did not.
I haven’t read all that he’s written on the topic, so it may be true for all I know. But I’d still be surprised and disappointed if he and other prominent participants here take for granted, for example, that one-person-one-vote democracy is a good idea for all places and times, which is given in the original article as one of the ideas that a proponent of modern values might want to transmit. (Of course, this is a widespread and high-status delusion nowadays, but the amount of evidence against it beats almost anything that’s normally considered superstitious.)
I think it’s an accurate reading. I think based on Eliezer’s other writings, he believes that, while modern morality is wrong on many points, on those issues where modern and ancient morality differ, it’s generally because moderns understand things that ancients did not.
I haven’t read all that he’s written on the topic, so it may be true for all I know. But I’d still be surprised and disappointed if he and other prominent participants here take for granted, for example, that one-person-one-vote democracy is a good idea for all places and times, which is given in the original article as one of the ideas that a proponent of modern values might want to transmit. (Of course, this is a widespread and high-status delusion nowadays, but the amount of evidence against it beats almost anything that’s normally considered superstitious.)