By Spencer Greenberg and Amber Dawn Ace
Image created using the A.I. DALL•E 2
This is the third of five posts in my sequence of essays about my life philosophy, Valuism - here are the first, second, fourth, and fifth parts (though the links won’t work until those other essays are released).
Sometimes, people take an important value - maybe their most important value - and decide to prioritize it above all other things. They neglect or ignore their other values in the process. In ...
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choice
The Poison-Cactus-Vampire-Ward Problem
The Poison-Cactus-Vampire-Ward Problem, an ethics and "fairness" thought experiment I wrote for you in which your moral intuitions are represented as a number between 0 and 100:
Suppose there are two villages, "Parvitas" and "Amplus," which are a 5-minute walk apart. Once per month, when the full moon is out, all men, women, children, and wizards of the two villages must meet to conduct the vampire ward ritual. The ritual requires all people from BOTH villages to be chanting at the same time...
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Making Really Hard Decisions
Suppose that you have to make a decision that will significantly alter the course of your life. For instance, imagine that you are trying to:
decide whether to marry your boyfriend or girlfriend
choose between two job offers in different fields
decide whether to finish your PhD program or drop out
pick between two cities that you're thinking of moving to
These kinds of decisions can be excruciatingly hard, and people often waffle in an unpleasant state for months trying to ch...
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Wanting While Not Wanting
Why do people who hate that they overeat keep overeating? Why do people who know that their girlfriends or boyfriends are bad for them keep taking these girlfriends and boyfriends back? Why do so many people who want to go to the gym never actually bother to do it?
These circumstances can be explained, at least partially, in terms of desires changing and conflicting with each other. What we want when we consciously reflect on a situation sometimes differs from what we want when we are actuall...
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Do We Know Why We Act?
Looking back on our decisions, we generally feel as though we can explain them. Why did we hire that candidate instead of this one? Because he was clearly more qualified for the job. Why did we go on a date with that person and not the other one? Because he or she seemed nicer. Why did we sentence that criminal to a harsher sentence than this other one? Because she committed a more damaging crime. If we are making our decisions for rational, well thought out reasons, we should be able to explain...
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