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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   26256 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 3, 2024

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The difference is, I don't believe we are ever again going to see a world where premarital sex as taboo as sex with a 5 year old.

If you want to agitate for it, go for it.

By your argument, that I quoted above, slavery was moral until 300 years ago

This is a fairly common, silly argument.

To clarify, I (a person living in 2024) believe slavery is wrong whether it happened in 1800 or 2000. Some other entity (perhaps, as you suggest, a person living in 1800) did not believe slavery was wrong. That person is not me and I am not them.

@NelsonRushton: By your argument, that I quoted above, slavery was moral until 300 years ago

@anon_: This is a fairly common, silly argument.

The argument you are calling silly is your previously stated argument on the topic of CSAM (supermajority, etc. etc.).

What I asked for is your argument that the abolition of slavery was a moral improvement. I'm now asking for the second time. Whatever argument that is, it will have to prove that majorities don't decide morality, which will contradict your argument for the prohibition CSAM.

What's silly is the idea that my judgment today of has to be based on what people thought in a different century.

What I asked for is your argument that the abolition of slavery was a moral improvement.

The same reason -- it's a near universal truth.

Whatever argument that is, it will have to prove that majorities don't decide morality

They do. And the majority now has decided that slavery was pretty awful.

The fact that majorities in the past thought otherwise doesn't itself (without more) mean anything to my judgment today.

which will contradict your argument for the prohibition CSAM.

This is a strange hill to want to fight for.

What's silly is the idea that my judgment today of has to be based on what people thought in a different century... They [majorities] do [decide morality]. And the majority now has decided that slavery was pretty awful.

Let me see if I understand correctly. Do you affirm the following?

  • Proposition A: Slavery was immoral in 1700, because a majority of people in 2023 believe it was, regardless of what a majority of people in 1700 thought.

If so, why is that true but not this:

  • Proposition B: Slavery is morally permissible in 2023, because a majority of people in 1700 believed it is, regardless of what a majority of people in 2023 think.

For example, is it because 2023 comes after 1700? Or because we are having the conversation in 2023? Or for some other reason?

Yes, A because I live in 2024.

Consider also:

C — Fire is the product of combustion of materials with oxygen in both 1700 and 2024. I know this because there is a near universal consensus on the matter in 2024.

D — Fire is due to the liberation of phlogiston. People in 1700 know this because there is a near universal consensus on the matter in 1700.

Do you believe in the symmetry of C/D? Or do you believe 300 years ago fire really was phlogiston?

Maybe in the future people will have a different view on fire or whatever else. That’s unknown-able to us. They are welcome to it. And anyone can got and promote that view and, if it takes hold, good for them!

Do you believe in the symmetry of C/D? Or do you believe 300 years ago fire really was phlogiston?

I believe that combustion consumes oxygen as opposed to liberating phlogiston. I assume you do too. The next question is why this is true. Do you believe that this is true because (1) a majority of people in 2023 believe it is true, or because (2) regardless of what a majority of people believe, combustion actually consumes oxygen as opposed to liberating phlogiston?

Do you believe that this is true because (1) a majority of people in 2023 believe it is true, or because (2) regardless of what a majority of people believe, combustion actually consumes oxygen as opposed to liberating phlogiston?

This question has two very different parsings:

  • A Do (you believe this is true) because ...
  • B Do you believe (this is true because ...)

I think this is probably the root of the issue, the difference between epistemic and causal modes of thinking.

My point is purely epistemic -- if everyone believes something and a small bunch of people don't, they are very usually wrong. Of course, in retrospect knowing what we know now, one can find a contrarian in the past to our liking. So it does happen, it's just that prospectively, for every such instance there are far more where they're just plain nuts. For every John Brown there's a thousand Ted Kaczynskis, so do the math.

So it does happen, it's just that prospectively, for every such instance there are far more where they're just plain nuts. For every John Brown there's a thousand Ted Kaczynskis, so do the math.

John Brown was also quite evidently nuts, so probably not the example you should have gone with.

Let proposition A be that combustion consumes oxygen, as opposed to releasing phlogiston. Do you believe (1) (Proposition A is true because a majority of people in 2023 believe it is true), or (2) (proposition A is true, regardless of what a majority of people believe, because combustion actually consumes oxygen as opposed to liberating phlogiston)?

I think you using the term "regardless" in a way that doesn't distinguish epistemic from causal thinking.

(2) is true but I would amend it to clarify that

Proposition A is true, regardless[causally] of what a majority of people believe

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