I'm curious what you make of this conversation. It began with Sam's argument that moral values can be derived from science and reason... and then morphed into an intense discussion about how to communicate across religious borders. We have to figure this out, right?https://twitter.com/SamHarrisOrg/status/1057411009474781184 …
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What we *call* these things is less important than what they are. You may call it an intuition. Or assumption. I just call that kind of claim “knowledge”. It depends on context. But not possibly a foundation. :)
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This calls to mind and old philosophy joke: if you call a horse’s tail a leg, how many legs does it have? . . . . . 4! It has 4. . . You can *call* the tail whatever you like. A horse has 4 legs.
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There’s only one moral imperative from which all others follow: To safeguard the means of error-correction. That entails there being one, infinitely high mountain in the moral landscape - and progress consists of climbing (and creating) it.
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Is this your foundation?
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I should say: Progress consists of *beginning to* climb and create it, and we're always fallible when trying to. What is there to stand on?
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To mean something it must be used as a basis for action, and so you must *stand* on it, tentatively, so you can find out if it holds in reality.
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That, perhaps, is a conflation of “stand” (firmly and begin the process of building on a solid foundation) with “stand” (step lightly and test for functionality). The latter is fine but it’s not the former. The latter asks “Does this work?” the former demands “This can’t move”.
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I think Sam means "have YET to see a coherent criticism".
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“Intuitions” are either feelings *about* certain ideas or they *are* ideas and have objective informative content. If the former, they are not part of the critical discussion. If the latter, they are ideas that are open to criticism in the light of other ideas and problems.
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Morality didn't evolve for you (or to reduce suffering), it evolved to maximize the probability that generations of your offspring survive in the social environment without you. Why you built churches, wrote books and made youtube videos. It's taking care of your future genes.
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Are you saying we act according to the morality in our genes, or that we should?
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I'm saying our genes drive us to participate in the process that creates stable social environments (suffering not considered). Then, it just so happens that social environments that value/balance the reduction of suffering the most/best are the most stable (are selected for).
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This might be the worst set up to a joke ever
just kidding, love you SamThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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Excellent question! In some domains our intuitions are 180 of what our best models of that domain show it to be. I wish there was a word for it and fear for most people that is hurdle they will never go past Eg: evolution/gradualism vs creation/essentialism Or Monty Hall problem.
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The intuition may be thought of as a species of the same "nebulae" from which conjectures arise, and when reason follows and explains how the conjecture squares against some other prevailing knowledge this sums as a coherent criticism.
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That’s a nebulous answer.
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It's been a week and no comment on Pittsburgh shooting? I guess it wasn't by an Islamist. Meanwhile Douglas Murray meets authoritarian and bigoted leader of Hungary along with Steve Bannon... IDW seems to be progressing

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Maybe the writer Douglas Murray should only speak to people he agrees with? Could that improve his books? And Sam rarely comments on much at all these days if you look at his Twitter feed. It could have something to do with people here expecting him to comment on everything.
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I'm just noticing interesting patterns in what and who someone condemns, supports or stays quiet on. And about Douglas Murray, this does not look like a man having a debate or disagreement with a know bigot and authoritarian https://twitter.com/moz_zarella/status/1056452398129078272 …
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