Universally Preferable Behavior, in a Nutshell

04Jan08

From an email to a friend, thought it could be useful here. Needs refining, and I should include Stef’s proof that UPBs exist too, at the beginning.

UPB is a restating of what rational morals are: they are UPBs. If a statement ‘passes the test’ of UPB, it is a legitimate moral statement. According to herr Stef, it is true, or valid.

The major requirements are:
1. Non-self-contradictory. Its application does not lead to logical implosion.
2. Universifiable for its proper category, which with morals is ‘all capable human beings’.
3. It both predicts and describes what we observe.

# 2 includes the coma test in the way that I’ve stated it.

The proof that ‘UPB’ is a valid concept is its own separate argument that Stef often takes up in the beginning to show that yes, universally preferred behaviors do ‘exist’. The second part, or heart of the moral theory, is basically the three requirements above.

The basic way of using UPB would be to test whether something is moral or not. Is taxation moral? Well, what does it say we should do. Is patriotism moral?

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Tags: FDR, LiMi, mind, moral sense, morality, Psychology, reason, self-deception, UPB