gobbo t1_ja90xct wrote on February 27, 2023 at 7:05 PM

Reply to comment by SmilingGengar in Universal ethics/basic law for all people & global moral education: A new way to sustainability and peace? by fortin1984

And yet, some laws are trending toward universal without enforcement by a monopoly on violence. There's a global alignment under way, which is hopeful considering that we are struggling with planning alignment strategies for impending AGI.

For instance, the elimination of slavery proceeds, with a few holdouts like prison systems and regressive states. Incest rules and age of consent rules are becoming more standard. Fraud rules and awareness of conflicts of interest are becoming increasingly prevalent.

These are arguably the international effects of humanism riding the coattails of trade, and wars being won by democratic governments, but there's also a zeitgeist related to the growth of universal education, I think.

SmilingGengar t1_ja9gr1x wrote on February 27, 2023 at 8:45 PM

I cannot deny that there is an upward trend towards universal alignment on some goods. The tricky part is making sure we don't equate universal agreement on what is good with what is good and so ought to be universally agreed to. If we reduce universal morality to just consensus without clearly defining what the good is, we could see universal agreement around things that may not actually be good in the future, especially if there is a reversal of democratization, access to education, and higher standards of living that contribute to certain goods being adopted over others.

gobbo t1_ja9s9n4 wrote on February 27, 2023 at 9:57 PM

Yep, any ethics that doesn't involve reflexivity and rigorous questioning is likely to go off the rails.