Sure, I find that take on moral intuitions plausible. But if society has to make a real choice of the order of “how much to tax carbon”, I think that collectively we would not want to make the decision based on people saying “meh, no strong opinions here, future world X just seems kinda prettier”. We need some kind of principled framework, and for that… well, I guess you need moral philosophy!
I don’t think it’s plausible that there’ll ever be widespread agreement on any philosophical framework to be used to make policy decisions. In fact, I think that it’s much easier to make public policy decisions without trying to have a framework, precisely because the intuitions tend to be more shared than the systematizations.
I’ve never seen an actual political process that spent much time on a specific framework, and I’ve surely never heard of a constitution or other fundamental law or political consensus, anywhere, that said, let alone enforced, anything like “we’re a utilitarian society and will choose policies accordingly” or “we’re a virtue ethics society and will choose policies accordingly” or whatever.
The curious thing about your wording is that you go from ‘we would not want to make‘ to ‘we need some kind of principled framework’. The former does not automatically imply the latter.
Additionally, you presuppose the possibility of discovering a ‘principled framework’ without first establishing that such a thing even exists. I think the parent comment was trying to get at this core issue.
Sure, I find that take on moral intuitions plausible. But if society has to make a real choice of the order of “how much to tax carbon”, I think that collectively we would not want to make the decision based on people saying “meh, no strong opinions here, future world X just seems kinda prettier”. We need some kind of principled framework, and for that… well, I guess you need moral philosophy!
Sorry, missed this somehow.
I don’t think it’s plausible that there’ll ever be widespread agreement on any philosophical framework to be used to make policy decisions. In fact, I think that it’s much easier to make public policy decisions without trying to have a framework, precisely because the intuitions tend to be more shared than the systematizations.
I’ve never seen an actual political process that spent much time on a specific framework, and I’ve surely never heard of a constitution or other fundamental law or political consensus, anywhere, that said, let alone enforced, anything like “we’re a utilitarian society and will choose policies accordingly” or “we’re a virtue ethics society and will choose policies accordingly” or whatever.
The curious thing about your wording is that you go from ‘we would not want to make‘ to ‘we need some kind of principled framework’. The former does not automatically imply the latter.
Additionally, you presuppose the possibility of discovering a ‘principled framework’ without first establishing that such a thing even exists. I think the parent comment was trying to get at this core issue.