I think I can restate your view; there is no moral objective truth, but individual future lives are equally valuable to individual present lives, (I assume we will ignore the epistemic and economic arguments for now,) and your life in particular has no larger claim on your values than anyone else’s.
That certainly isn’t incoherent, but I think it’s a view that few are willing to embrace—at least in part because even though you do admit that personal happiness, or caring for those close to you, is instrumentally useful, you also claim that it’s entirely contingent, and that if new evidence were to emerge, you would endorse requiring personal pain to pursue greater future or global benefits.
I think that’s an accurate restatement of my view, with the caveat that I do have some moral uncertainty, i.e. give some weight to the possibility that my true moral values may be different. Additionally, I wouldn’t necessarily endorse that people be morally required to endure personal pain; personal pain would just be necessary to do greater amounts of good.
I think the important takeaway is that doing good for future generations via reducing existential risk is probably incredibly important, i.e. much more than half of expected future value exists in the long-term future (beyond a few centuries or millenia from now).
I think I can restate your view; there is no moral objective truth, but individual future lives are equally valuable to individual present lives, (I assume we will ignore the epistemic and economic arguments for now,) and your life in particular has no larger claim on your values than anyone else’s.
That certainly isn’t incoherent, but I think it’s a view that few are willing to embrace—at least in part because even though you do admit that personal happiness, or caring for those close to you, is instrumentally useful, you also claim that it’s entirely contingent, and that if new evidence were to emerge, you would endorse requiring personal pain to pursue greater future or global benefits.
I think that’s an accurate restatement of my view, with the caveat that I do have some moral uncertainty, i.e. give some weight to the possibility that my true moral values may be different. Additionally, I wouldn’t necessarily endorse that people be morally required to endure personal pain; personal pain would just be necessary to do greater amounts of good.
I think the important takeaway is that doing good for future generations via reducing existential risk is probably incredibly important, i.e. much more than half of expected future value exists in the long-term future (beyond a few centuries or millenia from now).