Whether P should be trusting the oracle is besides the point.
No, it isn’t. You are claiming that P “really” wants the gold to exist, but you are also claiming that P thinks that at least one of the definitions of “the gold exists” is “the oracle said the gold exists.” You are flummoxed by the paradox of P feeling just as happy due to a false belief in gold as he would based on a true belief in gold, and you are ignoring the thing that ACTUALLY made him happy: which was the oracle telling him the gold was real.
How surprising should it be that ignoring the real world causes of something produces paradoxes? P’s happiness doesn’t depend the gold existing in reality, but it does believe on something in reality causing him to believe the gold exists. And if the gold doesn’t exist in reality, P’s happiness is not changed, but if the reality that lead him to believe the gold existed is reversed, if the oracle tells him (truly or falsely) the gold doesn’t exist, then his happiness is changed.
I actually have not a clue what this example’s connection to moral realism might be, either supporting it or denying it. But I am pretty clear that what you present as a “real mental result without a physical cause because the gold does not matter” is merely a case of you taking an hypothesized fool at his word and ignoring the REAL physical cause of P’s happiness or sadness. Or from a slightly different tack, if P defined “gold exists” as “oracle tells me gold exists” then P’s claim that his utility is the gold is equivaelnt to a claim that his utility is being told there is god.
Ps happiness has a real cause in the real world. Because P is an idiot, he misunderstands what that cause means, but even P recognizes that the cause of his happiness is what the oracle told him.
No, it isn’t. You are claiming that P “really” wants the gold to exist, but you are also claiming that P thinks that at least one of the definitions of “the gold exists” is “the oracle said the gold exists.”
I do not claim that. I claim that P believes the cube exists because the oracle says so. He could believe it exists because he saw it in a telescope. Or because he saw it fly in front of his face and then away into space. Whatever reason he has for “knowing” the cube exists has some degree of uncertainty. He is happy because he has a strong belief that the gold exists. Moreover, my point stands regardless of where P gets his knowledge. Imagine, for example, that P believes strongly that the cube does not exist, because the existence of the cube violates Occam’s razor. It is still the case (in my opinion) that whether he is correct does not alter his well-being.
How surprising should it be that ignoring the real world causes of something produces paradoxes?
I do not think that this is a paradox, it seems intuitively obvious to me. In fact, I’m not entirely sure that we disagree on anything. You say “P’s happiness doesn’t depend the gold existing in reality, but it does believe on something in reality causing him to believe the gold exists.” I think others on this thread would argue that P’s happiness does change depending on the existence of the gold, even if what the oracle tells him is the same either way.
I actually have not a clue what this example’s connection to moral realism might be,
Maybe nothing, I just suspected that moral anti-realists would be less likely to accept S. My main question is just whether other people share my intuition that S is true (and what there reasons for agreeing or disagreeing are).
Ps happiness has a real cause in the real world. Because P is an idiot, he misunderstands what that cause means, but even P recognizes that the cause of his happiness is what the oracle told him.
I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying. P believes that the oracle is telling him the cube exists because the cube exists. P is of course mistaken, but everything else the oracle told him was correct, so he strongly believes that the oracle will only tell him things because they are the truth. Whether this is a reasonable belief for P to have is not relevant. You seem to be saying that if something has no causal effect on someone, that it cannot affect their well-being. I agree with that, but other people do not agree with that.
No, it isn’t. You are claiming that P “really” wants the gold to exist, but you are also claiming that P thinks that at least one of the definitions of “the gold exists” is “the oracle said the gold exists.” You are flummoxed by the paradox of P feeling just as happy due to a false belief in gold as he would based on a true belief in gold, and you are ignoring the thing that ACTUALLY made him happy: which was the oracle telling him the gold was real.
How surprising should it be that ignoring the real world causes of something produces paradoxes? P’s happiness doesn’t depend the gold existing in reality, but it does believe on something in reality causing him to believe the gold exists. And if the gold doesn’t exist in reality, P’s happiness is not changed, but if the reality that lead him to believe the gold existed is reversed, if the oracle tells him (truly or falsely) the gold doesn’t exist, then his happiness is changed.
I actually have not a clue what this example’s connection to moral realism might be, either supporting it or denying it. But I am pretty clear that what you present as a “real mental result without a physical cause because the gold does not matter” is merely a case of you taking an hypothesized fool at his word and ignoring the REAL physical cause of P’s happiness or sadness. Or from a slightly different tack, if P defined “gold exists” as “oracle tells me gold exists” then P’s claim that his utility is the gold is equivaelnt to a claim that his utility is being told there is god.
Ps happiness has a real cause in the real world. Because P is an idiot, he misunderstands what that cause means, but even P recognizes that the cause of his happiness is what the oracle told him.
I do not claim that. I claim that P believes the cube exists because the oracle says so. He could believe it exists because he saw it in a telescope. Or because he saw it fly in front of his face and then away into space. Whatever reason he has for “knowing” the cube exists has some degree of uncertainty. He is happy because he has a strong belief that the gold exists. Moreover, my point stands regardless of where P gets his knowledge. Imagine, for example, that P believes strongly that the cube does not exist, because the existence of the cube violates Occam’s razor. It is still the case (in my opinion) that whether he is correct does not alter his well-being.
I do not think that this is a paradox, it seems intuitively obvious to me. In fact, I’m not entirely sure that we disagree on anything. You say “P’s happiness doesn’t depend the gold existing in reality, but it does believe on something in reality causing him to believe the gold exists.” I think others on this thread would argue that P’s happiness does change depending on the existence of the gold, even if what the oracle tells him is the same either way.
Maybe nothing, I just suspected that moral anti-realists would be less likely to accept S. My main question is just whether other people share my intuition that S is true (and what there reasons for agreeing or disagreeing are).
I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying. P believes that the oracle is telling him the cube exists because the cube exists. P is of course mistaken, but everything else the oracle told him was correct, so he strongly believes that the oracle will only tell him things because they are the truth. Whether this is a reasonable belief for P to have is not relevant. You seem to be saying that if something has no causal effect on someone, that it cannot affect their well-being. I agree with that, but other people do not agree with that.