There are some moral theories that sound simple and reasonable in the abstract (“maximize happiness”, for example) but in reality do not encompass the full range of human value. There are two possible responses to this; you can either examine the evidence and conclude you missed something, or you can decide your theory is self-evidently true and everyone else must be biased, and bite the bullet
Of course, everyone sometimes is biased, and some bullets should be bitten. But when you start advocating forcible wireheading (or eating babies) you should at least reexamine the evidence.
Eliezer may be right. But I predict he hasn’t examined binary personhood … ever? Recently, at any rate.
With respect to Eliezer in particular, it would greatly surprise me if your disagreement with him was actually about complexity of value as you seem to suggest here, or about unexamined notions of binary personhood. That said, my preference is to let you have your argument with him with him, rather than trying to have your argument with him with me.
With respect to your general point, I’m all in favor of re-examining evidence when it leads me to unexpected conclusions. But as you say, some bullets should be bitten… sometimes it turns out that habitual beliefs are unjustified, and re-examining evidence leads me to reject them with greater confidence.
For my own part, I probably value human infants less than you think I ought to… though it’s hard to be sure, since I’m not exactly sure where you draw the line.
Just to put a line in the sand for calibration: for at least 99.99999% of children aged 2 years or younger, and a randomly chosen adult, I would easily endorse killing any 10 of the former to save the latter (probably larger numbers as well, but with more difficulty), and I don’t think I’ve walked off any cliffs in the process.
Oh, I daresay I value infants more than most people think I ought to. That’s the problem with consistency :(
Still, I think it’s fair to say that binary personhood has a problem with the fact that most people seem to care about things on a sliding scale, and it’s probably not just bias.
Anyway, seems like this point has been quite thoughrily clarified...
Pretty much.
There are some moral theories that sound simple and reasonable in the abstract (“maximize happiness”, for example) but in reality do not encompass the full range of human value. There are two possible responses to this; you can either examine the evidence and conclude you missed something, or you can decide your theory is self-evidently true and everyone else must be biased, and bite the bullet
Of course, everyone sometimes is biased, and some bullets should be bitten. But when you start advocating forcible wireheading (or eating babies) you should at least reexamine the evidence.
Eliezer may be right. But I predict he hasn’t examined binary personhood … ever? Recently, at any rate.
OK.
With respect to Eliezer in particular, it would greatly surprise me if your disagreement with him was actually about complexity of value as you seem to suggest here, or about unexamined notions of binary personhood. That said, my preference is to let you have your argument with him with him, rather than trying to have your argument with him with me.
With respect to your general point, I’m all in favor of re-examining evidence when it leads me to unexpected conclusions. But as you say, some bullets should be bitten… sometimes it turns out that habitual beliefs are unjustified, and re-examining evidence leads me to reject them with greater confidence.
For my own part, I probably value human infants less than you think I ought to… though it’s hard to be sure, since I’m not exactly sure where you draw the line.
Just to put a line in the sand for calibration: for at least 99.99999% of children aged 2 years or younger, and a randomly chosen adult, I would easily endorse killing any 10 of the former to save the latter (probably larger numbers as well, but with more difficulty), and I don’t think I’ve walked off any cliffs in the process.
Oh, I daresay I value infants more than most people think I ought to. That’s the problem with consistency :(
Still, I think it’s fair to say that binary personhood has a problem with the fact that most people seem to care about things on a sliding scale, and it’s probably not just bias.
Anyway, seems like this point has been quite thoughrily clarified...