From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sun Nov 24 2002 - 10:18:53 MST
Eliezer writes
> Anders Sandberg wrote:
> >
> > I seriously doubt that the pursuit of truth leads to ethics.
>
> It does, or at least I think it would very strongly tend in that direction
> given a human emotional background. It just takes a *lot* of truth before
> the effects get strong enough to play a dominant factor in forming your
> personality - conclusions strong enough to contend with innate emotions...
Well, the only thing that I know of that the pursuit of truth
can directly lead to in philosophical matters, is consistency.
That being said, here is a program for deriving some limited ethics
from consistency: First, we acknowledge that one's value system must
ordinarily include a high regard for self. Second, we observe the
scientific facts regarding the biological similarity of one's self
to other people. Finally, we then conclude that what is good for
one's self---when interpreted as explicit physical processes---compels
our similar or proportional approval as regards other physical processes
i.e., other people receiving benefit.
Does this program derive ethics from science? Not really, because
all that is sought is consistency over actions. Actions that benefit
one's self are merely seen as obtaining very similar physical
consequences to actions that benefit others. In each case, human
nervous systems obtain via their very similar structure agreeable
and pleasant stimulation, almost entirely regardless of their
differing internal value systems.
Lee
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