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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 19, 2023

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I understand your point. Though I posit that people generally understand there are differences in taste in a way they don't understand differences in morality.

Be that as it may, my concern was more narrow, specifically that @PerseusWizardry will have a better time if he drops all of his moral questions. They are simply not questions that can be resolved through conversation or better data.

You've never changed your mind on a moral question, due to more information?

I'm racking my brain and coming up blank. As an adult I'm reasonably sure the answer is no. Have you?

Well, I'm rather young, so my "as an adult" timeframe is limited, and my memories aren't timestamped.

Maybe going from anti- to pro-sweatshop would count? I'm sure there are other specific examples. Does that count as a moral question?

For more overarching moral theory, I've become aware that there are decision-theoretical theorems that I would want whatever theory I embrace to manage to either agree with the conclusion, or disagree with the premises.

Yes, many of the questions are moral questions, but they are specific moral questions. You can point to things that could play relevant factors in their moral analysis, since we tend to moralize according to principles to some extent, it's not arbitrary.

For a lightning rod, let's look at one example he gave: “Abortion is morally permissible.” Pro

Here are some relevant questions that might affect your opinion in one way or another:

What normative ethical systems seem plausible enough to you that we should take them into account? What things might plausibly give humans moral value, under the way you think about ethical systems? How do you value animals? How do you value 3-day olds? The mentally ill? What do you think about population ethics (and, of course there are all sort of arguments there as to what systems within that make sense)? What about harms contributed to the mother? To the father? To society? Demographically, are we trending toward overpopulation or underpopulation? Aren't they cute? But don't you feel bad for that girl in Ohio? Is AI going to kill everyone before they live a proper life anyway? Might they have lasting souls? If Christianity's (or any other religion) right, will killing them send them to paradise? Or hell? What about rights—can they place an obligation for you to let them use your body, like the musician thought experiment? Do you share any guilt or praise for harms or, I suppose, benefits from differentially aborting groups that society could do better or worse with more of (see China's birth ratio)? And I'm sure there are many more.

All of these can affect your opinion on that issue, which means that arguments bringing up those features aren't useless.