From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Fri Nov 22 2002 - 14:42:41 MST
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
> ...
> 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?
It seems to me that the person making the claim that "X is right!" (or
wrong) is claiming that social traditions of respected large groups of
people are on the side of his assertion. That this claim is frequently
incorrect doesn't change what I feel he is asserting. (Lots of
propaganda is contra factual.)
-- -- Charles Hixson Gnu software that is free, The best is yet to be.
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