Yes, but I still think the "is this a measurable idea" is the point.
And I've realised an interesting ambiguity in that wrong and right are not the same as true and false
If a concept is measurable, then it can, with the right measuring, be proved factually true or false. So for "foo is bar" - if the barness of foo is a measurable concept, the hotness of icecream, the fatness of icecream eaters, the trueness or falseness of the statement is always factual. It is odd to want to say a statement is wrong when it is true. I think my "what you eat affects how you think and act" is a nice fuzzy one for you to think about here - it's meaasurable, it does make a difference (just take the limits ;-) ) and it is true. But it feels so so wrong to me... ;-) But even though I want it (in some sense morally) to be wrong, I would never build a moral code about its wrongness because it is a Fact about the world that we can observe and measure to be true
The point being we can't agree on a definition of badness, so we can't measure it, so it's not measureable, so it falls under your "moral-fact"ness
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Date: 2005-04-05 03:55 pm (UTC)And I've realised an interesting ambiguity in that wrong and right are not the same as true and false
If a concept is measurable, then it can, with the right measuring, be proved factually true or false. So for "foo is bar" - if the barness of foo is a measurable concept, the hotness of icecream, the fatness of icecream eaters, the trueness or falseness of the statement is always factual. It is odd to want to say a statement is wrong when it is true. I think my "what you eat affects how you think and act" is a nice fuzzy one for you to think about here - it's meaasurable, it does make a difference (just take the limits ;-) ) and it is true. But it feels so so wrong to me... ;-) But even though I want it (in some sense morally) to be wrong, I would never build a moral code about its wrongness because it is a Fact about the world that we can observe and measure to be true
The point being we can't agree on a definition of badness, so we can't measure it, so it's not measureable, so it falls under your "moral-fact"ness