[ExI] moral reasoning

Anders Sandberg anders at aleph.se
Sat May 28 08:08:40 UTC 2016


I think he is stretching the theory too far. That our ability to 
introspect doesn't cover 100% of our minds, nor is 100% perfect doesn't 
mean there are no detectable thoughts or beliefs. These exceptions do 
not have to be minor "limited exceptions". Similarly, that we might use 
a mindreading system inwards does not mean it is limited by sensory 
input: contents of working memory clearly seem accessible to it.

The "new" view that the mind is fairly opaque, embodied, and has a lot 
of biases *is* a challenge to a lot of moral philosophy. My colleagues 
are happily scanning brains and arguing how integrated mental subsystems 
have to be before we can properly say that a person is responsible (or 
that there is a person there, as in minimally conscious states). The old 
view of perfect rationality and perfect introspection is pretty clearly 
not a good model for how people actually act and think morally.

The next question is how to enhance it. Just because a moral system 
might not be implementable in a current human brain might not mean it is 
not morally better than the implementable ones, and if we could update 
ourselves to be able to follow it we should.



On 2016-05-27 21:37, William Flynn Wallace wrote:
> excerpt from link below:
>
> If our thoughts and decisions are all unconscious, as the ISA theory 
> implies, then moral philosophers have a lot of work to do. For we tend 
> to think that people can’t be held responsible for their unconscious 
> attitudes. Accepting the ISA theory might not mean giving up on 
> responsibility, but it will mean radically rethinking it.
>
>
> https://aeon.co/ideas/whatever-you-think-you-don-t-necessarily-know-your-own-mind?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=13a95dde3e-Weekly_Newsletter_27_May_20165_27_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-13a95dde3e-68993993
>
> bill w
>
>
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-- 
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University

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