That's a fair point; it's definitely a lot better that the numbers filling the postulated utopias are not just ex culo.
And I don't want to keep fighting this point on an otherwise dead thread, but I just want to articulate my feeling that, at least in the formulation above, there's still something fuzzy about the math: it's not clear h…
That's a fair point; it's definitely a lot better that the numbers filling the postulated utopias are not just ex culo.
And I don't want to keep fighting this point on an otherwise dead thread, but I just want to articulate my feeling that, at least in the formulation above, there's still something fuzzy about the math: it's not clear how exactly to multiply "weak impersonal reasons" by large numbers (and, also of course, by the probability that these numbers are actually attainable) to come to clear conclusions, and it sometimes feels like the strength of these arguments derives from the stupefaction one feels at the largeness of the large numbers.
But, as I say, it's a pretty good reminder that actually, the large numbers are in some ways the least controversial part of that calculation--definitely in comparison to quantifications of "weak impersonal reasons", and probably in comparison to the probabilities too--they are not (usually) just picked to be stupendously large out of convenience, so thanks for pointing that out.
That's a fair point; it's definitely a lot better that the numbers filling the postulated utopias are not just ex culo.
And I don't want to keep fighting this point on an otherwise dead thread, but I just want to articulate my feeling that, at least in the formulation above, there's still something fuzzy about the math: it's not clear how exactly to multiply "weak impersonal reasons" by large numbers (and, also of course, by the probability that these numbers are actually attainable) to come to clear conclusions, and it sometimes feels like the strength of these arguments derives from the stupefaction one feels at the largeness of the large numbers.
But, as I say, it's a pretty good reminder that actually, the large numbers are in some ways the least controversial part of that calculation--definitely in comparison to quantifications of "weak impersonal reasons", and probably in comparison to the probabilities too--they are not (usually) just picked to be stupendously large out of convenience, so thanks for pointing that out.