Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 18 (5):971-982 (2015)
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Abstract |
This article gives two arguments for believing that our society is unknowingly guilty of serious, large-scale wrongdoing. First is an inductive argument: most other societies, in history and in the world today, have been unknowingly guilty of serious wrongdoing, so ours probably is too. Second is a disjunctive argument: there are a large number of distinct ways in which our practices could turn out to be horribly wrong, so even if no particular hypothesized moral mistake strikes us as very likely, the disjunction of all such mistakes should receive significant credence. The article then discusses what our society should do in light of the likelihood that we are doing something seriously wrong: we should regard intellectual progress, of the sort that will allow us to find and correct our moral mistakes as soon as possible, as an urgent moral priority rather than as a mere luxury; and we should also consider it important to save resources and cultivate flexibility, so that when the time comes to change our policies we will be able to do so quickly and smoothly
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Keywords | Hedging Moral mistakes Moral uncertainty Progress |
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DOI | 10.1007/s10677-015-9567-7 |
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References found in this work BETA
The Case for Animal Rights.Tom Regan - 2009 - In Steven M. Cahn (ed.), Noûs. Oxford University Press. pp. 425-434.
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Citations of this work BETA
Axiological Futurism: The Systematic Study of the Future of Values.John Danaher - forthcoming - Futures.
Implementation of Moral Uncertainty in Intelligent Machines.Kyle Bogosian - 2017 - Minds and Machines 27 (4):591-608.
Moral Progress: Recent Developments.Hanno Sauer, Charlie Blunden, Cecilie Eriksen & Paul Rehren - 2021 - Philosophy Compass 16 (10):e12769.
The Instrument of Science: Scientific Anti-Realism Revitalised, by Darrell P. Rowbottom.John Preston - 2021 - Mind 130 (519):1028-1032.
View all 6 citations / Add more citations
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