5907 UPB, Morality and its Consequences!

Freedomain with Stefan Molyneux

Stefan Molyneux

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4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"Should a moralist ignore consequence and argue for UPB purely on the basis of epistemology and pure philosophical merit, while ignoring the elephant in the room, which is the question we all subconsciously ask. “How does this benefit my survival?”

"UPB isn’t validated or invalidated by its consequences, but at the same time, discussions of UPB inevitably involve consequences. How do we reconcile this? Especially since free will is in the picture and we don’t want predictions about the future to invalidate choice.

"For example, when asked about your thoughts on the success of UPB close to 20 years after publication, you mentioned reductions in violence against children with the expectation that this trend would continue if UPB continues to be spread. Would the theory and observation that UPB leads to reductions in violence against children be a deterministic portrayal of human beings? If we avoid discussing consequences to avoid this issue, then if someone wants to discuss UPB on the merit of usefulness towards themselves and society as a whole, do we stick to purely philosophical merit? Or do we say there are no guarantees, but it will make a desirable outcome more likely.

"If we use terms such as 'more likely' in order to maintain philosophical integrity, how do we out compete those who are certain/dogmatic, benefiting from the momentum of societal norms in order to ‘validate’ their false theories.

"Regarding the first question about the relationship between moral frameworks, their consequences and free will. I was thinking that if your definition is used where free will is defined as our ability to compare proposed actions to ideal standards then UPB provides ideal standards, increasing our capacity for free will. With this increased capacity, it becomes more likely for moral outcomes to occur..."

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Transcript

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0:00.0	All right, sir, hi everybody.
0:02.0	Stephen Mullany from Free Domain.
0:03.5	Sorry a couple of days without shows, but we're back in the saddle.
0:07.3	And we are talking about UPB.
0:10.2	Thank you for the great questions.
0:12.1	Let's dive right in.
0:14.0	Now, should a moralist, should a moralist ignore consequence
0:17.2	and argue for UPB purely on the basis of epistemology and pure philosophical
0:23.6	merit, while ignoring the question we all subconsciously ask, how does this benefit my survival?
0:33.2	UPB isn't validated or invalidated by its consequences, but at the same time, discussions
0:39.8	of UPB inevitably involve consequences. How do we reconcile this? Especially since free will
0:46.5	is in the picture and we don't want predictions about the future to invalidate a choice.
0:52.4	For example, when asked about your thoughts on the success of UPB, close to 20
0:57.0	years after publication, you mentioned reductions in violence against children, with the expectation
1:01.9	that this trend would continue if UPB continues to be spread. Would the theory and observation
1:06.5	that UPB leads to reduction in violence against children be a deterministic portrayal of human beings.
1:12.8	If we avoid discussing consequences to avoid this issue, then if somebody wants to discuss
1:18.2	UPB on the merit of usefulness towards themselves and society as a whole,
1:23.3	do we stick to purely philosophical merit? Or do we say there are no guarantees,
1:29.4	but it will make a desirable outcome more likely. If we use terms such as more likely in order to maintain
1:36.2	philosophical integrity, how do we out-compete those who are a certain slash dogmatic, benefiting
1:41.1	from the momentum of societal norms in order to, quote, validate, end quote, their false theories.
	...

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