Perhaps to avoid confusion, my comment wasn’t intended as an in-group out-group thing or even as a statement about my own relative status.
“Better than” and “worse than” are very simple relative judgments. If A rapes 5 victims a week and B rapes 6, A is a better person than B. If X donates 1% of his income potential to good charities and Y donates 2%, X is a worse person than Y (all else equal). It’s a rather simple statement of relative moral status.
Here’s the problem: If we pretend—like some in the rationalist community do—that all behavior is morally equivalent and all morals are equal, then there is no social incentive to behave prosocially when possible. Social feedback matters and moral judgments have their legitimate place in any on-topic discourse.
Finally caring about not caring is self-defeating: One cannot logically judge jugmentalism without being judgmental oneself.
If we pretend—like some in the rationalist community do—that all behavior is morally equivalent and all morals are equal
That’s a strawman. I haven’t seen anyone say anything like that. What some people do say is that there is no objective standard by which to judge various moralities (that doesn’t make them equal, by the way).
there is no social incentive to behave prosocially when possible
Of course there is. Behavior has consequences regardless of morals. It is quite common to have incentives to behave (or not) in certain ways without morality being involved.
moral judgments have their legitimate place in any on-topic discourse.
Of course there is. Behavior has consequences regardless of morals. It is quite common to have incentives to behave (or not) in certain ways without morality being involved.
What do you mean by “morality”? Were the incentives the Heartstone wearer was facing when deciding whether to kill the kitten about morality, or not?
By morality I mean a particular part of somebody’s system of values. Roughly speaking, morality is the socially relevant part of the value system (though that’s not a hard definition, but rather a pointer to the area where you should search for it).
Perhaps to avoid confusion, my comment wasn’t intended as an in-group out-group thing or even as a statement about my own relative status.
“Better than” and “worse than” are very simple relative judgments. If A rapes 5 victims a week and B rapes 6, A is a better person than B. If X donates 1% of his income potential to good charities and Y donates 2%, X is a worse person than Y (all else equal). It’s a rather simple statement of relative moral status.
Here’s the problem: If we pretend—like some in the rationalist community do—that all behavior is morally equivalent and all morals are equal, then there is no social incentive to behave prosocially when possible. Social feedback matters and moral judgments have their legitimate place in any on-topic discourse.
Finally caring about not caring is self-defeating: One cannot logically judge jugmentalism without being judgmental oneself.
That’s a strawman. I haven’t seen anyone say anything like that. What some people do say is that there is no objective standard by which to judge various moralities (that doesn’t make them equal, by the way).
Of course there is. Behavior has consequences regardless of morals. It is quite common to have incentives to behave (or not) in certain ways without morality being involved.
Why is that?
What do you mean by “morality”? Were the incentives the Heartstone wearer was facing when deciding whether to kill the kitten about morality, or not?
By morality I mean a particular part of somebody’s system of values. Roughly speaking, morality is the socially relevant part of the value system (though that’s not a hard definition, but rather a pointer to the area where you should search for it).
It seems self termination was the most altruistic way of ending the discussion. A tad over the top I think.
One can judge “judgmentalism on set A” without being “judgemental on set A” (while, of course, still being judgmental on set B).