From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Thu Nov 21 2002 - 23:59:32 MST
Lee Corbin wrote:
>
> Think about it: you see someone stridently say "It is
> MORALLY WRONG that x!"
>
> What the hell does that mean? At most it could mean,
>
> "I disapprove, and so do most societies with
> which I am familiar, though not all, and most
> people you respect would agree with me."
>
> It cannot, via good epistemology, possibly mean anything
> more. In fact, since it cannot, I usually find its use
> somewhat dishonest.
Um, even if those two statements turned out to be coextensional for all
speakers, I don't think your epistemological work is done until you
explain the origins of the perceived cognitive difference. Why is it that
people seem to see "It is MORALLY WRONG that x!" as a different statement
than "I and most people disapprove of x"? Why does one statement seem to
imply legal prohibition while the other implies, at the most, social
ostracization? What is it that, for you, distinguishes that which you
disapprove of with a frown, and that which many people including you band
together to disapprove of with a gun?
-- Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/ Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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