If you hold a position that affects only your own actions and your opinions of them, I don’t see much reason for calling it an ethical system. I read the blog post; that second section defends acting on non-universalizable principles, but doesn’t so far as I can see defend thinking of them as moral principles and that’s what I’m casting doubt on.
For clarity: I am also a moral nonrealist, and my doubts about the moral-theory-ness of fitnessism aren’t because it doesn’t involve a claim that its values are Objectively Right And Good. Rather: I think a moral theory is something that guides moral judgements by an adherent, and one feature of moral judgements is that they are applied to other people as well as to oneself. Something that affects only its bearer’s own behaviour I would call a “preference” or a “motivation” or something of the kind, even if it gets expressed using the word “should”.
I agree that if the principle is “maximize long-term number of copies of genes that influence my behaviour” then the counterintuitive consequences I described don’t clearly follow. (I’m not sure they don’t follow, though. The answer may depend on exactly what you’re prepared to count as a “behavioural gene”.)
It’s true that most of my genes are shared with other human beings, even ones I wouldn’t normally think of as related to me. But it’s also true that a lot of my genes are shared with, say, pomegranates. Your restriction to “behavioural” genes doesn’t (I think) make that problem go away; only in popular magazine articles are there genes for behaviours in any very strong sense; how sure are you that there are no genes you share with (some or all) pomegranates that have an effect on your behaviour? If it turns out that there are some, would you start regarding it as an important obligation to increase the number of pomegranates (at a rate, perhaps, of 1000 pomegranates per human life)?
I suspect that if we pay attention (as you do) to the very long term, it actually matters rather little in practice what we care about there—in particular, it’s likely that much the same actions now maximize long-term human happiness, long-term human numbers, long-term number of books-or-equivalent written, etc. (A similar thing happens in computer game-playing: the further ahead you look, the less the details of your evaluation function matter.) So it may be hard to distinguish between fitnessism and almost anything else, in terms of the actual decisions it provokes...
As a fitnessist I certainly do not “hold a position that affects only [my] own actions and [my] opinions of them”. I not only evaluate my own actions, but have opinions of the actions performed by other individuals as well. These opinions are based on how other individuals affect the survival of my behavioural genes. In that sense I pass moral judgement on others, like they pass moral judgement on me.
The fundamental question for any moral theory to answer is “Which actions should be performed?” and ethical fitnessism fully answers that question, although in an indexical fashion. The central question to answer is “Which actions should I myself perform?”, since that question is relevant to what I directly am in control of, namely my own body. The actions of other individuals I can, furthermore, only affect by my own actions, for example by what I say.
The principle is actually not “maximize long-term number of copies of genes that influence my behaviour”. The survival of my behavioural genes is directly linked to how long they survive and only indirectly linked to how many they are.
What I am “prepared to count as a ‘behavioural gene’” is not really the issue, rather the issue is what science counts as a behavioural gene. The Extended Phenotype [O.U.P., 1982] gives a good idea.
There is no problem with being related to pomegranates. I do believe that humans share behavioral genes with them, but that does not mean that focusing on the production of pomegranates would maximize the survival of my behavioural genes. Such a production would seem to be a short-sighted and narrow-minded behaviour and probably not the behaviour which natural selection tends to maximize.
Perhaps there today does not seem to be much difference between maximizing the survival of one’s behavioural genes and maximizing “long-term human happiness” or “long-term human numbers”, but over time the difference will add up and show itself. For example, the difference would be apparent when we create new entertainment technology so well adapted to our prehistoric minds and bodies that there is no way for hedonists to resist the urge of such endless happiness, or when we evolve beyond humans, when my behavioural genes are carried on into new species.
On a theoretical level ethical fitnessism has stronger arguments than have the moral theories of maximizing long-term human happiness or long-term human numbers. Fitnessism lacks neither hedonism, altruism, intuitiveness, nor consideration of future generations, and is complete, consistent, to the purpose and non-dependent on indoctrination. The application of any other moral theory through its behaviour is per definition evolutionarily self-defeating and undermines its own long-term existence.
If you hold a position that affects only your own actions and your opinions of them, I don’t see much reason for calling it an ethical system. I read the blog post; that second section defends acting on non-universalizable principles, but doesn’t so far as I can see defend thinking of them as moral principles and that’s what I’m casting doubt on.
For clarity: I am also a moral nonrealist, and my doubts about the moral-theory-ness of fitnessism aren’t because it doesn’t involve a claim that its values are Objectively Right And Good. Rather: I think a moral theory is something that guides moral judgements by an adherent, and one feature of moral judgements is that they are applied to other people as well as to oneself. Something that affects only its bearer’s own behaviour I would call a “preference” or a “motivation” or something of the kind, even if it gets expressed using the word “should”.
I agree that if the principle is “maximize long-term number of copies of genes that influence my behaviour” then the counterintuitive consequences I described don’t clearly follow. (I’m not sure they don’t follow, though. The answer may depend on exactly what you’re prepared to count as a “behavioural gene”.)
It’s true that most of my genes are shared with other human beings, even ones I wouldn’t normally think of as related to me. But it’s also true that a lot of my genes are shared with, say, pomegranates. Your restriction to “behavioural” genes doesn’t (I think) make that problem go away; only in popular magazine articles are there genes for behaviours in any very strong sense; how sure are you that there are no genes you share with (some or all) pomegranates that have an effect on your behaviour? If it turns out that there are some, would you start regarding it as an important obligation to increase the number of pomegranates (at a rate, perhaps, of 1000 pomegranates per human life)?
I suspect that if we pay attention (as you do) to the very long term, it actually matters rather little in practice what we care about there—in particular, it’s likely that much the same actions now maximize long-term human happiness, long-term human numbers, long-term number of books-or-equivalent written, etc. (A similar thing happens in computer game-playing: the further ahead you look, the less the details of your evaluation function matter.) So it may be hard to distinguish between fitnessism and almost anything else, in terms of the actual decisions it provokes...
As a fitnessist I certainly do not “hold a position that affects only [my] own actions and [my] opinions of them”. I not only evaluate my own actions, but have opinions of the actions performed by other individuals as well. These opinions are based on how other individuals affect the survival of my behavioural genes. In that sense I pass moral judgement on others, like they pass moral judgement on me.
The fundamental question for any moral theory to answer is “Which actions should be performed?” and ethical fitnessism fully answers that question, although in an indexical fashion. The central question to answer is “Which actions should I myself perform?”, since that question is relevant to what I directly am in control of, namely my own body. The actions of other individuals I can, furthermore, only affect by my own actions, for example by what I say.
The principle is actually not “maximize long-term number of copies of genes that influence my behaviour”. The survival of my behavioural genes is directly linked to how long they survive and only indirectly linked to how many they are.
What I am “prepared to count as a ‘behavioural gene’” is not really the issue, rather the issue is what science counts as a behavioural gene. The Extended Phenotype [O.U.P., 1982] gives a good idea.
There is no problem with being related to pomegranates. I do believe that humans share behavioral genes with them, but that does not mean that focusing on the production of pomegranates would maximize the survival of my behavioural genes. Such a production would seem to be a short-sighted and narrow-minded behaviour and probably not the behaviour which natural selection tends to maximize.
Perhaps there today does not seem to be much difference between maximizing the survival of one’s behavioural genes and maximizing “long-term human happiness” or “long-term human numbers”, but over time the difference will add up and show itself. For example, the difference would be apparent when we create new entertainment technology so well adapted to our prehistoric minds and bodies that there is no way for hedonists to resist the urge of such endless happiness, or when we evolve beyond humans, when my behavioural genes are carried on into new species.
On a theoretical level ethical fitnessism has stronger arguments than have the moral theories of maximizing long-term human happiness or long-term human numbers. Fitnessism lacks neither hedonism, altruism, intuitiveness, nor consideration of future generations, and is complete, consistent, to the purpose and non-dependent on indoctrination. The application of any other moral theory through its behaviour is per definition evolutionarily self-defeating and undermines its own long-term existence.
Seconded.