Their point still works though, just reword it for less unnecessary baggage if you prefer.
Do you press the button which saves some random human somewhere in the world, or the button which saves some random cow? I’m pretty sure most people choose the human
Most people would also press a button that will save a random human of their country over a random human from another country. Does that mean people have different value depending on which country they are from?
That’s so weird. I would just pick one at random because they are both people I know nothing about besides country status. I understand emotional bias (choosing to save a friend over another random human, and frankly I can understand why: both are a life saved, but one is a person whose death will cause you suffering, and you presumably think the friend is a good person while the random human is a total wildcard). But with the country one… where is the benefit to you, hmm? Where’s the educated guess based on your judgment that this person is good? I don’t think people from my country are more or less moral than someone from another country. And given how many people there are both are probably strangers. I get no benefit or satisfaction from picking the human of my own country over someone else…
Their point still works though, just reword it for less unnecessary baggage if you prefer.
Do you press the button which saves some random human somewhere in the world, or the button which saves some random cow? I’m pretty sure most people choose the human
Most people would also press a button that will save a random human of their country over a random human from another country. Does that mean people have different value depending on which country they are from?
That’s so weird. I would just pick one at random because they are both people I know nothing about besides country status. I understand emotional bias (choosing to save a friend over another random human, and frankly I can understand why: both are a life saved, but one is a person whose death will cause you suffering, and you presumably think the friend is a good person while the random human is a total wildcard). But with the country one… where is the benefit to you, hmm? Where’s the educated guess based on your judgment that this person is good? I don’t think people from my country are more or less moral than someone from another country. And given how many people there are both are probably strangers. I get no benefit or satisfaction from picking the human of my own country over someone else…
Well, yes, not surprising at all. It’s a monkeysphere thing.
“What do monkeys have to do with war, oppression, crime, racism and even e-mail spam? You’ll see that all of the random ass-headed cruelty of the world will suddenly make perfect sense once we go Inside the Monkeysphere.”
(That article really changed how I view people.)