RE: The Fundamental Theorem of Morality

From: Marc Geddes (marc_geddes@yahoo.co.nz)
Date: Sun Feb 29 2004 - 22:32:20 MST


 --- Ben Goertzel <ben@goertzel.org> wrote: >
> Marc,
>
> But what is this "Universal Morality"?

Ben, good question ;)

>
> Your definition gives some properties that UM should
> have, but that's not
> enough.
>
> Someone walked into my house this morning and
> threatened to dissolve my
> children with acid. Should I have shot him with my
> AK47, or tried to
> wrestle him to the ground and immobilize him? What
> does UM say about this,
> or any other particular situation?
>
> -- Ben G
>

Ben, at this point I'm just trying to clarify the
fundamentals. FAI is the greatest problem in the
history of humanity. So isn't it reasonable to start
with the fundamentals first? So, I've said, what are
the most general truths about morality, and I've
written that down.

The key points are that there's a Universal Morality,
which has to have certain general charactertistics,
there's a personal morality, which has to have certain
general characteristics, and all sentient minds are
defined to be the interaction between UM and PM.
Ethical goodnesss is the extent to which sentient
minds can harmonize their Personal Moralities with
Universal Morality.

=====
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