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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31624 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 9, 2023

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Well, as you age, your intelligence will fade. So if you believe you will be worth less morally when you're elderly, has that caused you to save less for retirement than you would otherwise?

Do you believe that you have less moral worth when you are sick, sleep-deprived, intoxicated, distracted, or otherwise cognitively impaired? And if so by how much?

You acknowledge it's possible for something to be true, but for people to poorly acknowledge it, right? Consider telling an addict that "yeah, you may CLAIM cocaine is bad for you, but if you really believe that why's there some white powder on your jeans"?

Do you believe that you have less moral worth when you are sick, sleep-deprived, intoxicated, distracted, or otherwise cognitively impaired? And if so by how much?

wait, what moral worth does a person who's braindead, or in a permanent, unrecoverable coma have? In the normal case, that person will be alert and intelligent in at most a dozen hours, but if that isn't true ...

You acknowledge it's possible for something to be true, but for people to poorly acknowledge it, right?

Challenging people on the implications of their beliefs is a standard argumentative technique. If you're not acting on the implications, maybe there's a part of you that doesn't actually buy into the belief.

wait, what moral worth does a person who's braindead, or in a permanent, unrecoverable coma have? In the normal case, that person will be alert and intelligent in at most a dozen hours, but if that isn't true ...

I agree that if there's a braindead person in a permanent unrecoverable coma, we should probably pull the plug on them and use the resources to help others. (Well, under ideal circumstances cryogenically freeze them first, in case future tech can help them recover from the coma)

If you're not acting on the implications, maybe there's a part of you that doesn't actually buy into the belief.

This doesn't really prove it false though! Consider telling the slaveowner who's having doubts about slavery that "well, you own slaves, so"? The way that codes today is "which is disgusting, and you shouldn't", but the way you're using it is "and slavery is fine, therefore". Morals aren't attempting to "find our current beliefs", as that would make pondering morality entirely vacuous, one can be wrong!

Consider telling the slaveowner who's having doubts about slavery that "well, you own slaves, so"?

So to be consistent with their doubts, they'll want to liberate their slaves. Pointing out inconsistency is valuable.

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