Re: Subjective Morality

Samael (Samael@dial.pipex.com)
Wed, 13 Jan 1999 11:33:11 -0000

-----Original Message-----
From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky <sentience@pobox.com> To: extropians@extropy.com <extropians@extropy.com> Date: 12 January 1999 21:25
Subject: Re: Subjective Morality

>Billy Brown wrote:
>>
>> For us, now, I agree completely. The question is this: is the fact that
we
>> can find no firm grounding for morality a fundamental feature of reality,
or
>> the result of our own cognitive limitations? Is there a way of grounding
>> that regress, or of reformulating the problem so that you don't need to?
I
>> don't know, and I doubt that anyone else does - I don't know that I could
>> even tell the difference between a real proof and a flawed one.
>
>I think I can now extract the basic point of contention:
>
>Subjectivist: If there were an objective morality, I would have found it
>by now.
>Objectivist: I don't even understand the problem. Recurse on an IQ
upgrade.
>
>Does anyone disagree with this stereotype?

Could you qualify slightly?

For objectivist's answer, do you mean "I don't understand what the question 'what is moral' means." or do you mean 'I don't see why there is a problem in working what is moral."

If you mean the former, I'll plump for that.

Samael