Tag Archives: morality

A Series Of Unprincipled Exceptions

The more consistently one attempts to adhere to an ideology, the more one's sanity becomes a series of unprincipled exceptions. — graaaaaagh (@graaaaaagh) February 5, 2015 Meeting with a large group of effective altruists can be a philosophically disconcerting experience, … Continue reading

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Everything Not Obligatory Is Forbidden

[seen on the New York Times’ editorial page, February 6 2065, written by one “Dr. Mora LeQuivalence”] It’s 2065. Not giving your kids super-enhancement designer baby gene therapy isn’t your “choice”. If you don’t super-enhance your kids, you are a … Continue reading

Ethics Offsets

I. Some people buy voluntary carbon offsets. Suppose they worry about global warming and would feel bad taking a long unnecessary plane trip that pollutes the atmosphere. So instead of not doing it, they take the plane trip, then pay … Continue reading

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Bottomless Pits Of Suffering

I. A friend on Facebook recently posted the following dilemma, which of course I cannot find right now so I have to vaguely quote my recollection of it: Would you rather the medieval Church had spent all of its money … Continue reading

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Cooperation Un-Veiled

Related to: The Invisible Nation – Reconciling Utilitarianism And Contractualism Contractualism tries to derive morality from an agreement that even selfish agents would willingly sign if they knew about it. In theory, you would gain from such an agreement, since … Continue reading

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The Invisible Nation – Reconciling Utilitarianism And Contractualism

[Attempt to derive morality from first principles, totally ignoring that this should be impossible. Based on economics and game theory, both of which I have only a minimal understanding of. And mixes complicated chains of argument with poetry without warning. … Continue reading

Nobody Likes A Tattletale

Today at work, one of my heroin addict patients getting treated in inpatient rehab for heroin addiction managed to smuggle…well, you want to take a wild guess? Yeah, he smuggled in some heroin and got high in the hospital. Another … Continue reading

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Ground Morality In Party Politics

My name sounds a lot like Scott Aaronson’s and I get confused for him a lot. I try to encourage this confusion, since it can only increase people’s opinion of me. So let me propose a tool for investigating morality … Continue reading

Who By Very Slow Decay

[Trigger warning: Death, pain, suffering, sadness] I. Some people, having completed the traditional forms of empty speculation – “What do you want to be when you grow up?”, “If you could bang any celebrity who would it be?” – turn … Continue reading

Newtonian Ethics

We often refer to morality as being a force; for example, some charity is “a force for good” or some argument “has great moral force”. But which force is it? Consider the possibility that it is gravity. In statements like … Continue reading