[extropy-chat] In defense of moral standards (Was: In defense of moral relativism)

[Eliezer S. Yudkowsky]

Jeff Medina wrote:
> On 5/4/05, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky <sentience at pobox.com> wrote:
> 
>>It was a tad worse than that.  I believe Giulio also said that believing in an
>>external, objective reality leads to mass-murder and atrocity.
> 
> Could you point out where he said this? Because what I read was that
> *morality* was not objective.

Giu1i0 Pri5c0 wrote:
 >
 > Eliezer asks, "How do you rally people to fight for the idea that
 > nothing is worth fighting for?". But moral relativism does not say
 > that nothing is worth fighting for. It simply acknowledges that "worth
 > fighting for" is a value judgment which depends on many factors and
 > may vary according to circumstances. You still fight for your ideas,
 > but acknowledging that you are fighting for your ideas and not for The
 > Truth. Then perhaps you can keep things in perspective and avoid
 > committing atrocities in defense of your ideas.
 >
 > This is, indeed, the main reason why I don't like the very concepts of
 > absolute truth, or objective morality: the "I Am The Champion Of The
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 > Truth" stance leads to gassing people for thinking different.

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence