I disagree that biting the bullet is “almost always a mistake”. In my view, it often occurs after people have reflected on their moral intuitions more closely than they otherwise would have. Our moral intuitions can be flawed. Cognitive biases can get in the way of thinking clearly about an issue.
Scientists have shown, for instance, that for many people, their intuitive rejection of entering the Experience Machine is due to the status quo bias. If people’s current lives were being lived inside an Experience Machine, 50% of people would want to stay in the Machine even if they could instead live the lifestyle of a multi-millionaire in Monaco. Similarly, many people’s intuitive rejection of the Repugnant Conclusion could be due to scope insensitivity.
And, revising our principles to accommodate the new evidence may lead to inconsistencies in our principles. Also, if you’re a moral realist, it almost always doesn’t make sense to change your principles if you believe that your principles are true.
I completely agree with you about all the flaws and biases in our moral intuitions. And I agree that when people bite the bullet, they’ve usually thought about the situation more carefully than people who just go with their intuition. I’m not saying people should just go with their intuition.
I’m saying that we don’t have to choose between going with our initial intuitions and biting the bullet. We can keep looking for a better, more nuanced theory, which is free from bias and yet which also doesn’t lead us to make dangerous simplifications and generalizations. The main thing that holds us back from this is an irrational bias in favor of simple, elegant theories. It works in physics, but we have reason to believe it won’t work in ethics. (Caveat: for people who are hardcore moral realists, not just naturalists but the kind of people who think that there are extra, ontologically special moral facts—this bias is not irrational.)
I disagree that biting the bullet is “almost always a mistake”. In my view, it often occurs after people have reflected on their moral intuitions more closely than they otherwise would have. Our moral intuitions can be flawed. Cognitive biases can get in the way of thinking clearly about an issue.
Scientists have shown, for instance, that for many people, their intuitive rejection of entering the Experience Machine is due to the status quo bias. If people’s current lives were being lived inside an Experience Machine, 50% of people would want to stay in the Machine even if they could instead live the lifestyle of a multi-millionaire in Monaco. Similarly, many people’s intuitive rejection of the Repugnant Conclusion could be due to scope insensitivity.
And, revising our principles to accommodate the new evidence may lead to inconsistencies in our principles. Also, if you’re a moral realist, it almost always doesn’t make sense to change your principles if you believe that your principles are true.
I completely agree with you about all the flaws and biases in our moral intuitions. And I agree that when people bite the bullet, they’ve usually thought about the situation more carefully than people who just go with their intuition. I’m not saying people should just go with their intuition.
I’m saying that we don’t have to choose between going with our initial intuitions and biting the bullet. We can keep looking for a better, more nuanced theory, which is free from bias and yet which also doesn’t lead us to make dangerous simplifications and generalizations. The main thing that holds us back from this is an irrational bias in favor of simple, elegant theories. It works in physics, but we have reason to believe it won’t work in ethics. (Caveat: for people who are hardcore moral realists, not just naturalists but the kind of people who think that there are extra, ontologically special moral facts—this bias is not irrational.)
Makes sense. Ethics—like spirituality—seems far too complicated too have a simple set of rules.