Your reply to Eric’s fourth objection makes an important point that I haven’t seen mentioned before:
By contrast, I think there’s a much more credible risk that defenders of conventional morality may use dismissive rhetoric about “grandiose fantasies” (etc.) to discourage other conventional thinkers from taking longtermism and existential risks as seriously as they ought, on the merits, to take them. (I don’t accuse Schwitzgebel, in particular, of this. He grants that most people unduly neglect the importance of existential risk reduction. But I do find that this kind of rhetoric is troublingly common amongst critics of longtermism, and I don’t think it’s warranted or helpful in any way.)
A view, of course, can be true even if defending it in public is expected to have bad consequences. But if we are going to consider the consequences of publicly defending a view in our evaluation of it, it seems we should also consider the consequences of publicly objecting to that view when evaluating those objections.
I blogged a response to Schwitzgebel’s four objections, here. But I’d welcome any suggestions for better responses!
Your reply to Eric’s fourth objection makes an important point that I haven’t seen mentioned before:
A view, of course, can be true even if defending it in public is expected to have bad consequences. But if we are going to consider the consequences of publicly defending a view in our evaluation of it, it seems we should also consider the consequences of publicly objecting to that view when evaluating those objections.