@JonahW will present on Virtue Ethics as a way of framing discussions of global crises, including both how to understand the ‘Metacrisis’, and a closer look at the specific case of AI risk. The format will be a short talk with plenty of time for discussion.
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Very much looking forward to this.
@RobertBunge maybe a very short primer here with links to what Virtue Ethics is - maybe we even have a short “wiki topic” here on the forum on Virtue Ethics.
First, here is a good standard reference to virtue ethics:
In the call today, you brought up Wilber’s idea of Paradigm as Injunction. I’d just like to respond a bit to that.
When I introduced ethics in IT security classes, I presented four main types of ethics: virtue ethics, deontology, consequentialism, and discourse ethics. Of these, discourse ethics (associated with Habermas) is of most recent vintage. I suggested to students they must form their own opinions about the best form of ethics for their particular purposes, but I also shared that the class itself would be conducted along Habermasian lines. Why this choice? Pragmatism, among other things. My classes routinely featured students from up to five continents, with familial backgrounds representing numerous global cultures and world religions. To asset a particular version of the “good” from professorial authority would have encouraged unwelcome sorts of conflicts and controversies. So the better educational method seemed to me to let the truth emerge from the ebb and flow of the many differing student perspectives. (IMO, this all worked out rather well in the end!)
In considering Wilber’s thinking on “injuction”, I generally agree what would should be linking paradigms to practices or to processes. In considering SD meta-memes and so forth, I’ve always been drawn to questions such as “what kinds of daily activities are required to get a person to think this way?” My general educational approach is hands first, heads will figure it out later! Where I differ from Wilber perhaps, is in his strong emphasis on contemplation. My leanings are more toward phronesis, vita activa, or karma yoga if you will. Habermas speaks to me directly (in our current scenario) on how to be a political animal now, today, in the politics we actually have. A question I have always had about Wilber’s system is how, apart from thousands of hours of meditation, is one supposed to actually practice that? Wilber does advert to “showing up”, but to me that side of the analysis is quite a bit less developed than all the other ones.