Synthese 190 (8):1437-1454 (2013)
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Abstract |
According to the Argument from Disagreement (AD) widespread and persistent disagreement on ethical issues indicates that our moral opinions are not influenced by moral facts, either because there are no such facts or because there are such facts but they fail to influence our moral opinions. In an innovative paper, Gustafsson and Peterson (Synthese, published online 16 October, 2010) study the argument by means of computer simulation of opinion dynamics, relying on the well-known model of Hegselmann and Krause (J Artif Soc Soc Simul 5(3):1–33, 2002; J Artif Soc Soc Simul 9(3):1–28, 2006). Their simulations indicate that if our moral opinions were influenced at least slightly by moral facts, we would quickly have reached consensus, even if our moral opinions were also affected by additional factors such as false authorities, external political shifts and random processes. Gustafsson and Peterson conclude that since no such consensus has been reached in real life, the simulation gives us increased reason to take seriously the AD. Our main claim in this paper is that these results are not as robust as Gustafsson and Peterson seem to think they are. If we run similar simulations in the alternative Laputa simulation environment developed by Angere and Olsson (Angere, Synthese, forthcoming and Olsson, Episteme 8(2):127–143, 2011) considerably less support for the AD is forthcoming
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Keywords | Argument from Disagreement Computer simulation Formal epistemology Bayesianism Probability Trust |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
DOI | 10.1007/s11229-012-0107-x |
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References found in this work BETA
How to Be a Moral Realist.Richard Boyd - 1988 - In G. Sayre-McCord (ed.), Essays on Moral Realism. Cornell University Press. pp. 181-228.
Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong.Fred Feldman & J. L. Mackie - 1979 - Philosophical Review 88 (1):134.
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Citations of this work BETA
Polarization in Groups of Bayesian Agents.Josefine Pallavicini, Bjørn Hallsson & Klemens Kappel - 2018 - Synthese 198 (1):1-55.
Publish Late, Publish Rarely! : Network Density and Group Performance in Scientific Communication.Staffan Angere & Erik J. Olsson - 2017 - In Thomas Boyer-Kassem, Conor Mayo-Wilson & Michael Weisberg (eds.), Scientific Collaboration and Collective Knowledge: Now Essays. Oxford University Press.
Argumentation and Belief Updating in Social Networks: A Bayesian Approach.George Masterton & Erik J. Olsson - unknown
Topological Variability of Collectives and its Import for Social Epistemology.George Masterton - 2014 - Synthese 191 (11):2433-2443.
A Diachronic Perspective on Peer Disagreement in Veritistic Social Epistemology.Erik J. Olsson - 2018 - Synthese:1-19.
View all 9 citations / Add more citations
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