I did say in my entry that I didn't believe you should believe true things, particularly that "I should do X" is meaningless.
I argued that one can't help but believe true statements when confronted with evidence.
It has bothered me that though this point of view does give a difference between right and wrong it doesn't give a motivator for improvement.
I think that selfish motivations provide as much a "should" or "ought" as belief systems do. If you selfishly take something you are probably thinking "I should have this" and are mistaken. If you do not have that belief but act selfishly anyway, then you may not really be responsible for your actions.
If "I think I should" and "I am planning" are really equivalent, then if someone acts selfishly with a mistaken "should" belief, then that person will plan ahead. This is consistent with our thinking that "premeditated" crimes are the worst.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: A quick critique:
Date: 2002-02-02 09:38 am (UTC)I did say in my entry that I didn't believe you should believe true things, particularly that "I should do X" is meaningless.
I argued that one can't help but believe true statements when confronted with evidence.
It has bothered me that though this point of view does give a difference between right and wrong it doesn't give a motivator for improvement.
I think that selfish motivations provide as much a "should" or "ought" as belief systems do. If you selfishly take something you are probably thinking "I should have this" and are mistaken. If you do not have that belief but act selfishly anyway, then you may not really be responsible for your actions.
If "I think I should" and "I am planning" are really equivalent, then if someone acts selfishly with a mistaken "should" belief, then that person will plan ahead. This is consistent with our thinking that "premeditated" crimes are the worst.