"Personal opinion" and "scientific hypothesis" are not necessarily an exclusive categorization of cognitive content...
On Thu, Jan 1, 2015 at 11:16 AM, Matt Mahoney via AGI <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Dec 31, 2014 at 8:11 PM, Peter Voss <[email protected]> wrote: >> Matt -- I can't just let that go... > > Of course you can't. People feel very strongly about their ethical beliefs. > > Just to be clear, my own ethical beliefs are like most other people's. > For example, I believe it is wrong to kill or harm other people. But > that is because of how I was raised. There may also be genetic reasons > why I find cannibalism and incest repulsive. Most other species > display this behavior too. > > But if ethical beliefs were more than opinions, then there would be no > controversy over abortion, animal rights, immigration, gay rights, > women's rights, the death penalty, euthanasia, and so on. We could > just do experiments to see which side was right. > > -- > -- Matt Mahoney, [email protected] > > > ------------------------------------------- > AGI > Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now > RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/212726-deec6279 > Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?&; > Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com -- Ben Goertzel, PhD http://goertzel.org "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." -- George Bernard Shaw ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
