Why mild confidence? Why not complete confidence or no confidence? — Average
I would use the criteria of medicine. What I mean is that historically some treatments that have been adopted were later abandoned due to new evidence demonstrating the lack of any value. Bleeding a patient would be an example. — Average
How do we determine if we are right or wrong? How can we be certain that our actions are actually beneficial and not counterproductive? — Average
What you call the criteria of medicine seems to be health. Problem is, is health morally right ? If so, then are there exceptions ? — Hello Human
Complete confidence blinds you. No confidence cripples you. — Hermeticus
But still, for the sake of this discussion, let's assume that happiness is the highest Good, like most claim. — Hello Human
As others have pointed out already, you're asking questions that are too broad to be dealt with. — Hello Human
I think that mortality is irrelevant. What I mean is that regardless of whether or not health is morally right we need to be healthy in order to do anything in the first place. Also health is only the goal in this example but if I used other examples it would become clear that my criterion is different. For example if we shifted to a military scenario it would become clear that certain tactics and strategies historically adopted were later abandoned due to new evidence demonstrating a lack of any value. The same argument would still apply. — Average
Please define broad — Average
Idk I’d prefer to avoid assuming that happiness is the highest good
1h — Average
But what about when the objective can only be accomplished at the detriment of one's health ? — Hello Human
So, what do you assume to be the highest good ? — Hello Human
Something about your question seems ambiguous to me. What does it mean for a decision to make sense? To who? Right and wrong to who? Who is to judge? — Yohan
Can you think of a specific example where this would be the case? — Average
Now imagine that to do so, I must activate a device that can only be activated manually and destroys everything in a 50 km radius, destroying the asteroid and me. — Hello Human
Whenever we decide to do something we believe that what we are about to do actually does make sense. — Average
So if you try something and fail, does that mean it didn't make sense to try?I think that in order for a decision to make sense it needs to actually produce the desired result. For example in the field of medicine bleeding a patient doesn’t make sense because it does not produce the desired result. — Average
Assuming you trust the consensus of medical experts on the efficacy of blood letting, then you already have reason to think blood letting will not produce the desired result.For example in the field of medicine bleeding a patient doesn’t make sense because it does not produce the desired result. — Average
So it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to try something when you already feel sure it will not succeed. — Yohan
However, if blood letting was not yet widely tested, and there is some reason to think it may work, and the consequences of failure aren't dire, it could possibly make sense to try blood letting. — Yohan
I can imagine doing that in the medical profession, but I'm not sure how that can be done outside of a setting where there are standard procedures. (And even in medicine people can still come up with new or improved procedures or run into unprecedented or rare cases, and the experts don't always agree 100% on which procedures are best for which particular cases.)I don’t think that it would make sense to try something even if you feel fairly certain that it will succeed. What we need is some sort of proof or evidence that guarantees that we are making decisions that make sense. — Average
in medicine people can still come up with new or improved procedures or run into unprecedented or rare cases — Yohan
I'd think the best one can hope for is to know oneself enough to know that one isn't fooling oneself and is making the best possible decision in light of the known information. — Yohan
I agree but people can also come up with horrible ideas that can end up doing more harm than good which is why it’s important to have a method that can detect problems in advance if possible — Average
i dont believe there is such a thing as objective truth about the important matters one’s life. — Joshs
That doesn’t mean we can’t agree on many important things , but this requires that we start from
where the other person is at rather than from assumed objective standards. — Joshs
Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.