Modern Wisdom #729 - Alex O'Connor - Are People Becoming Less Moral?
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Jan 8, 2024 
Alex O'Connor, a YouTuber and podcaster known for tackling moral dilemmas, discusses whether society is becoming more immoral in the digital age. He explores the effects of outsourcing morality to technologies like ChatGPT and Wikipedia. The conversation touches on nihilism's potential resurgence, the implications of free will, and the complexities of ethical debates driven by emotions and cultural paradigms. O'Connor also critiques historical narratives like the resurrection of Jesus, questioning the foundations of belief and morality in modern society.
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Horse Hedge
- O'Connor shares a personal "Gettier case" anecdote about seeing a child behind a hedge and assuming it was riding a horse.
- It turned out the child was on their father's shoulders, but a horse coincidentally stood in the background, creating a justified true belief that wasn't knowledge.
Metaethics
- Discussions on ethics require agreeing on a metaethical foundation to avoid definitional problems.
- Without a shared foundation, debates often regress to arguments about word definitions, as seen in the trans debate and lexical overwhelm.
Emotivism
- Recognize how emotions dominate ethical thinking, as suggested by A.J. Ayer's emotivism.
- Ethical statements like "murder is wrong" express emotions, similar to "boo murder."
