Fact is not Value but Value-of-Fact is Fact.

Should you think about your duty, or about the consequences of your actions? Or should you concentrate on becoming a good person?

Moderators: AMod, iMod

Veritas Aequitas
Posts: 15722
Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:41 am

Fact is not Value but Value-of-Fact is Fact.

Post by Veritas Aequitas »

The fact–value distinction is a fundamental epistemological distinction described between:[1]
  • 'Statements of fact' ('positive' or 'descriptive statements'), based upon reason and physical observation, and which are examined via the empirical method.

    'Statements of value' ('normative' or 'prescriptive statements'), which encompass ethics and aesthetics, and are studied via axiology.
This barrier between 'fact' and 'value' implies it is impossible to derive ethical claims from factual arguments, or to defend the former using the latter.[2]

The fact–value distinction is closely related to, and derived from, the is–ought problem in moral philosophy, characterized by David Hume (1711–1776). The terms are often used interchangeably, though philosophical discourse concerning the is–ought problem does not usually encompass aesthetics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fact%E2%8 ... istinction
I agree we cannot directly derive ethical claims from factual arguments.
But the "barrier" can be transcended where moral facts can be justified with empirical-facts-as-evidences and philosophical reasoning from a specific Framework of Morality and System.

The base standard of justification is to be used to compare all others justifications is that of the Scientific Framework.

Thus,
  • Facts [empirical and others] + Framework and System + justification = Facts [Justified True Beliefs] or knowledge
In the case of evaluation of facts;
  • Facts [empirical and others] + Framework and System of evaluation + justification = Facts-of-Value or [Justified True Beliefs] or knowledge
Here is an example;
  • That diamond gem is a fact [empirical] represented by a physical referent.
    When we apply the above formula with the qualified justifications what we get is;
    the valuation of a fact-of-a-diamond with the Framework of Gemology and Pricing generate fact-of-valuations of diamonds.
    That 'one carat of diamond' cost $5000' etc. is a fact.
    Who dispute the above is not a fact?
The above can be applied to any fact [physical or otherwise] where the fact is subjected to the qualified justification via a specific Framework of Knowledge to produce justified facts, i.e. Justified True Beliefs and Knowledge.

Even in the case of beauty, the above model can be applied to produce "Facts of Beauty" as in the fact that Zozibini Tunzi of South Africa is Miss Universe 2019. Who deny that is is not a fact.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Universe_2019

Many historical facts as claimed are based on the claims of winners which of course is very subjective, but nevertheless they are accepted as historical facts.

As such, the above model can be applied to produce moral facts or Justified True Moral Beliefs from a qualified Framework and System of Morality and Ethics.
Thus;
  • Facts [empirical and others] + Moral Framework and System + justification = Moral Facts [Justified True Moral Beliefs] or Moral knowledge
Note, moral facts are not to be pulled from the air, my point is the justification of the Moral fact must be as rigorous and as close as possible to how scientific facts are justified from the Scientific Framework.

Agree? Disagree
User avatar
FlashDangerpants
Posts: 8815
Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2016 11:54 pm

Re: Fact is not Value but Value-of-Fact is Fact.

Post by FlashDangerpants »

Veritas Aequitas wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:23 am Here is an example;
  • That diamond gem is a fact [empirical] represented by a physical referent.
    When we apply the above formula with the qualified justifications what we get is;
    the valuation of a fact-of-a-diamond with the Framework of Gemology and Pricing generate fact-of-valuations of diamonds.
    That 'one carat of diamond' cost $5000' etc. is a fact.
    Who dispute the above is not a fact?
That's a fact about the market value in which we swao stuff we own for stuff we want. It doesn't measure the 'value' of a sentiment relating to the object, and indeed when we describe objects of such sentimental value we often use the word "priceless" specifically for this reason.

With these arguments (see below) you are falling into the trap that axiologists like Prof always walk into, you are absent-mindedly substituting a thing that you can measure for the theing you cannot without recognising the placeholder is only there at all because the original object is not of a measurable type.
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:23 am The above can be applied to any fact [physical or otherwise] where the fact is subjected to the qualified justification via a specific Framework of Knowledge to produce justified facts, i.e. Justified True Beliefs and Knowledge.

Even in the case of beauty, the above model can be applied to produce "Facts of Beauty" as in the fact that Zozibini Tunzi of South Africa is Miss Universe 2019. Who deny that is is not a fact.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Universe_2019
Again, in common with Prof, you are formalising opinion surveys as a sort of direct measurment of something that cannot be measured.

If 9 out of 10 judges think Miss Ukraine has the shapeliest tits, but judge 10 just likes them to be big so he prefers Miss Bulgaria, it isn't 90% true that Miss Ukraine has the best tits, it's just 100% true that 10 observers came to 10 sets of opinions and 9 correlated. No fact of value has emerged, the opinions collected are all equally unsupportable as a fact, collecting many of them provides a larger number of unsupportable as fact opinions.
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:23 am Many historical facts as claimed are based on the claims of winners which of course is very subjective, but nevertheless they are accepted as historical facts.
Almost the only thing that historians can all be persuaded of is the falsity of that claim. The boring example everyone uses here is why did the Roman empire fall? historical fact is limited to the undisputed bits of the story, there was a cultural and political entity called the Roman Empire, by agreement it began with Augustus, and more or less ran continuously until let's say Augustulus Romulus. But historians tend to doubt a lot of what was written by chroniclers of the period, they do not at all agree that Augustulus Romulus was the last emperor (Odoacer just didn't use the formal title, but was poor little Augustulus really an emperor at all, and was Rome even an empire by then?).

It goes on, but historiographical interpretations are not considered fact, partly because they are all hotly contested (and we tend to think that two conflicting explanations cannot be called facts until that dispute is resolved when we are using our language according to what the damn words mean). But the other factor is that historians understand that there is no basis to describe this sort of thing as actual fact, they are keenly aware that we interpret history according to the interests of today, and future generations will interpret it according to new interests we cannot predict today.
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:23 am As such, the above model can be applied to produce moral facts or Justified True Moral Beliefs from a qualified Framework and System of Morality and Ethics.
Thus;
  • Facts [empirical and others] + Moral Framework and System + justification = Moral Facts [Justified True Moral Beliefs] or Moral knowledge
Note, moral facts are not to be pulled from the air, my point is the justification of the Moral fact must be as rigorous and as close as possible to how scientific facts are justified from the Scientific Framework.

Agree? Disagree
That was better than your usual work. But you really need to stop and think about whether you want these moral facts to actually prove something about competing moral facts being wrong. I suspect you want to do away with relativism, but you are on a path merely to formalise it as a science.
Skepdick
Posts: 16022
Joined: Fri Jun 14, 2019 11:16 am

Re: Fact is not Value but Value-of-Fact is Fact.

Post by Skepdick »

FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 11:07 am Again, in common with Prof, you are formalising opinion surveys as a sort of direct measurment of something that cannot be measured.
You aren't fucking saying anything. That's how ALL scientific measurements work!

Mass cannot be directly measured either. What can be measured is the consequence of mass (which we call weight). From weight we calculate mass.

Just because a thing cannot be measured directly doesn't mean that the consequences of a thing can't be measured.
Proxy-metrics are perfectly good substitutes so long as they are reliable and they predict stuff.

Also, I keep having to refer you to this book: How to measure anything

So you are welcome to insist that you can't measure "wrongness", but as long as you keep denying verificationism - I am just going to insist that right/wrong are inconsequential.
User avatar
FlashDangerpants
Posts: 8815
Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2016 11:54 pm

Re: Fact is not Value but Value-of-Fact is Fact.

Post by FlashDangerpants »

Skepdick wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 12:26 pm
FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 11:07 am Again, in common with Prof, you are formalising opinion surveys as a sort of direct measurment of something that cannot be measured.
You aren't fucking saying anything. That's how ALL science works!

Mass cannot be directly measured either. What can be measured is the consequence of mass (which we call weight). From weight we calculate mass.

Just because a thing cannot be measured directly doesn't mean that the consequences of a thing can't be measured.
Proxy-metrics are perfectly good substitutes so long as they are reliable and they predict stuff.

Also, I keep having to refer you to this book: How to measure anything
Mass is postulated based on observable measurable qualities of matter, science was created to do that sort of thing.

The winsomeness of the swish of the breeze through a willow tree is not the sort of thing that science can calculate even if the windspeed is. Science was not created for that sort of thing. You may have noticed somewhere in your travels that facts and values are not the only things we differentiate by type, art and science would be another.

Trying to incorporate morality into science is a fools errand, exactly similar to inorporating art into the same. A book about how to use proxy measurement for business purposes is going to change nothing. I am well aware that actuarially it is possible to assign a dollar value to a human life, anybody who needs persuading that this is not an actual measurement of the value of a human life is beyond help in the greater scheme.
Skepdick
Posts: 16022
Joined: Fri Jun 14, 2019 11:16 am

Re: Fact is not Value but Value-of-Fact is Fact.

Post by Skepdick »

FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 12:39 pm Mass is postulated based on observable measurable qualities of matter, science was created to do that sort of thing.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Mass is NOT a quality. It's a quantity. It is not a directly measurable quantity! I literally just explained this to you, but your misconception of how science works seems to be firing up some cognitive dissonance.

Science invents communicable and reproducible yardsticks - the SI units. The standard model (key word! MODEL).
You are 100% free to reject all of the SI units and all of the scientific facts that the scientific institution produces.

What you are unable to reject is the consequences predicted by scientific models.

FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 12:39 pm The winsomeness of the swish of the breeze through a willow tree is not the sort of thing that science can calculate even if the windspeed is.
IT CAN!

When you (the scientist) quantify "winsomeness" (self-reporting - did you experience winsomness?)
When you (the scientist) quantify "swish" (auditory - did we detect swish?)

When you capture the range of values, and express those experiences of yours in a mathematical model, and when your mathematical model makes accurate predictions about SOMETHING in the future you have turned the English into a science!

You have expressed a scientific model.

Boom! It's that fucking easy.
FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 12:39 pm Science was not created for that sort of thing.
Science is created for whatever sort of thing you CHOOSE to create it for!

FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 12:39 pm You may have noticed somewhere in your travels that facts and values are not the only things we differentiate by type, art and science would be another.
And you may have noticed that I have a much, much stricter criterion for solving the demarcation problem.

Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do. --Donald Knuth

If you can build a predictive model - it's science!

FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 12:39 pm Trying to incorporate morality into science is a fools errand, exactly similar to inorporating art into the same.
Trying to speak about "morality" while insisting that no such phenomenon doesn't exist, or it doesn't have any measurable quantities is not an errand.

You have arrived at foolery.
FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 12:39 pm A book about how to use proxy measurement for business purposes is going to change nothing. I am well aware that actuarially it is possible to assign a dollar value to a human life, anybody who needs persuading that this is not an actual measurement of the value of a human life is beyond help in the greater scheme.
Then don't assign it a fucking value! Treat it as infinite. That's why we have the bloody "no harm" principle. Or we have saying such as "To kill a man is to kill mankind."

Risk management is always about probability*impact.
User avatar
FlashDangerpants
Posts: 8815
Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2016 11:54 pm

Re: Fact is not Value but Value-of-Fact is Fact.

Post by FlashDangerpants »

Skepdick wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 12:56 pm
FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 12:39 pm The winsomeness of the swish of the breeze through a willow tree is not the sort of thing that science can calculate even if the windspeed is.
IT CAN!

When you (the scientist) quantify "winsomeness" (self-reporting - did you experience winsomness?)
The question really is whether all of that stuff is really adequate to establish these "moral facts" that Veritas is putting so much effort into.

That is not the winsomeness of the swishing, just as your other measures cannot be the badness of the murder, or the goodness of ... fuck it anything at all..

What you have there is just a record of a personal subjective response to some swishing. So it a second person reports that the swishing is not winsome at all, there is nothing science has to offer with regard to resolution of that important dispute, it merely records that one person thinks there was a quantity of one winsom while the other recorded zero winsoms in this experiment.

Now if mister Veritas wants his moral facts to distil down to nothing more than 7 out of 10 cats prefer being stroked to getting kicked, then strong choice, we'll see how it works out for him. Otherwise all you are doing here is setting an example of how far not to go with this stuff.
Skepdick
Posts: 16022
Joined: Fri Jun 14, 2019 11:16 am

Re: Fact is not Value but Value-of-Fact is Fact.

Post by Skepdick »

FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 1:43 pm That is not the winsomeness of the swishing, just as your other measures cannot be the badness of the murder, or the goodness of ... fuck it anything at all..
Skepdick wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 12:26 pm So you are welcome to insist that you can't measure "wrongness", but as long as you keep denying verificationism - I am just going to insist that right/wrong are inconsequential.
FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 1:43 pm What you have there is just a record of a personal subjective response to some swishing.
No shit! What do you think science is? Empiricism is grounded in the observation of human experience. To you-the-scientist-observer your emotional state is as observable as any external phenomenon - is just another event.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Construct ... istemology
Natural science therefore consists of mental constructs that aim to explain sensory experience and measurements.
FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 1:43 pm So it a second person reports that the swishing is not winsome at all, there is nothing science has to offer with regard to resolution of that important dispute
What exactly is it that you expect science to offer in the way of resolving the dispute between the Metric and Imperial systems?

Just choose one system and stick with it. Otherwise bad things happen
FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 1:43 pm , it merely records that one person thinks there was a quantity of one winsom while the other recorded zero winsoms in this experiment.
Perfect! With a sufficiently large sample size you'll know that 90% of people think X is winsom, and 10% think it isn't.

What's wrong with that?
FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 1:43 pm Now if mister Veritas wants his moral facts to distil down to nothing more than 7 out of 10 cats prefer being stroked to getting kicked, then strong choice, we'll see how it works out for him. Otherwise all you are doing here is setting an example of how far not to go with this stuff.
Why? Are you saying you have an implicit goal in mind? A criterion you aren't expressing? A need? A human emotion? A normative expectation that you won't share with us?
User avatar
FlashDangerpants
Posts: 8815
Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2016 11:54 pm

Re: Fact is not Value but Value-of-Fact is Fact.

Post by FlashDangerpants »

Skepdick wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 1:53 pm Why? Are you saying you have an implicit goal in mind? A criterion you aren't expressing? A need? A human emotion? A normative expectation that you won't share with us?
No. Veritas has an implicit goal in mind, I am trying to help him understand that his arguments, and their conclusions, still don't get him there. He has a baby versus bathwater situation going on.

I am saying that...
Quantitative facts about qualitative subject matter based on behaviour (including self reported experience) does not provide qualitative facts, merely quantitative ones. Something I would expect you not to object to, but which seems to be the point and purpose of Veritas' argument.

My additional things I am poiniting out would include:
That reductionist strategies to replace the qualitative features of our moral concpets with pseudoscientific opinion survey stuff are guaranteed to miss the target. And I am stating that estabilshing moral fact is a doomed enterprise, at least using Veritas' methods, yours too if you ever really mean anything you write, but I strongly doubt that there is any method which can bridge the gap there.

Furthermore, I am happy to express an opinion too: Reducing our concept of facts to whatever it is that you can do just in order to do away with the inconvenience of observing the possiblity that there are simply some questions in this world for which science is not the means to look for an answer, is dogmatic and stupid. Refusing me permission to believe that is annoying and stupid.
Skepdick
Posts: 16022
Joined: Fri Jun 14, 2019 11:16 am

Re: Fact is not Value but Value-of-Fact is Fact.

Post by Skepdick »

FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 2:31 pm No. Veritas has an implicit goal in mind, I am trying to help him understand that his arguments, and their conclusions, still don't get him there. He has a baby versus bathwater situation going on.

I am saying that...
Quantitative facts about qualitative subject matter based on behaviour (including self reported experience) does not provide qualitative facts, merely quantitative ones. Something I would expect you not to object to, but which seems to be the point and purpose of Veritas' argument.
And I am saying that if qualitative facts are not consequential then they are distinctions without a difference.

If you think murder is right (and it doesn't spring you to action).
is no difference to murder being wrong (and it doesn't spring you to action).

Your EMOTIONS do not result in MOTION. Your distinction of rightness/wrongness is just pedagogical.

IF your EMOTIONS result in MOTION, then there's a quantifiable consequence. Enter empiricism.
FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 2:31 pm That reductionist strategies to replace the qualitative features of our moral concpets with pseudoscientific opinion survey stuff are guaranteed to miss the target. And I am stating that estabilshing moral fact is a doomed enterprise,
If you want to encode moral facts in languages- 100%. Language is a reductionist instrument.
If you want facts to translate into moral behavior - you are 100% wrong.

Information guides choice.

FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 2:31 pm at least using Veritas' methods, yours too if you ever really mean anything you write, but I strongly doubt that there is any method which can bridge the gap there.
How does you reconcile your "strong doubt" with the on-going success of the medical profession if there is "no method" by which doctors could ever arrive at the "correct course of action"?

How do you reconcile the track record of the aviation industry becoming the safest form of transport in 50 years if there's no method to doing so?
FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 2:31 pm Furthermore, I am happy to express an opinion too: Reducing our concept of facts to whatever it is that you can do just in order to do away with the inconvenience of observing the possiblity that there are simply some questions in this world for which science is not the means to look for an answer, is dogmatic and stupid. Refusing me permission to believe that is annoying and stupid.
I am not refusing you to believe anything. I am not the gate-keeper of your mind.

I am just pointing out is that "science" is just a bunch of instruments you use to make better decisions despite the uncertainty we face in our daily lives.
surreptitious57
Posts: 4257
Joined: Fri Oct 25, 2013 6:09 am

Re: Fact is not Value but Value-of-Fact is Fact.

Post by surreptitious57 »

Skepdick wrote:
Information guides choice
The information in question would first have to be assessed for any informed choice to be made
But human beings dont always do this and so the choice may be compromised as a consequence
Because we are not mere automatons and so we dont always think logically but emotionally too
Veritas Aequitas
Posts: 15722
Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:41 am

Re: Fact is not Value but Value-of-Fact is Fact.

Post by Veritas Aequitas »

FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 11:07 am
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:23 am Here is an example;
  • That diamond gem is a fact [empirical] represented by a physical referent.
    When we apply the above formula with the qualified justifications what we get is;
    the valuation of a fact-of-a-diamond with the Framework of Gemology and Pricing generate fact-of-valuations of diamonds.
    That 'one carat of diamond' cost $5000' etc. is a fact.
    Who dispute the above is not a fact?
That's a fact about the market value in which we swao stuff we own for stuff we want. It doesn't measure the 'value' of a sentiment relating to the object, and indeed when we describe objects of such sentimental value we often use the word "priceless" specifically for this reason.
Your counter is short-sighted.

If you have done Economic 101, you will understand whatever is of market value is imbued with an element of sentiment in relation to the object. The most obvious the Share Price of Shares in the Stock Market.
You cannot deny there are economic facts which are imbued with elements of sentiments.
With these arguments (see below) you are falling into the trap that axiologists like Prof always walk into, you are absent-mindedly substituting a thing that you can measure for the thing you cannot without recognising the placeholder is only there at all because the original object is not of a measurable type.
What original object is a measurable type?
There is no such thing.
Everything regardless it is physical or mental is measurable as long as there is a recognized Framework of Measurement that has intersubjective consensus.

You think 'the table you are writing on is measurable' with absoluteness?
Note Russell's doubt 'Perhaps there is no real table at all' when deliberated with the most refined philosophical reflection.
As such, measuring a table in this case is measuring an illusory object.

Veritas Aequitas wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:23 am The above can be applied to any fact [physical or otherwise] where the fact is subjected to the qualified justification via a specific Framework of Knowledge to produce justified facts, i.e. Justified True Beliefs and Knowledge.

Even in the case of beauty, the above model can be applied to produce "Facts of Beauty" as in the fact that Zozibini Tunzi of South Africa is Miss Universe 2019. Who deny that is is not a fact.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Universe_2019
Again, in common with Prof, you are formalising opinion surveys as a sort of direct measurment of something that cannot be measured.

If 9 out of 10 judges think Miss Ukraine has the shapeliest tits, but judge 10 just likes them to be big so he prefers Miss Bulgaria, it isn't 90% true that Miss Ukraine has the best tits, it's just 100% true that 10 observers came to 10 sets of opinions and 9 correlated. No fact of value has emerged, the opinions collected are all equally unsupportable as a fact, collecting many of them provides a larger number of unsupportable as fact opinions.
Whatever your views, there is the fact is, Zozibini Tunzi of South Africa is Miss Universe 2019. This is an undisputable fact at present.
Value arise from evaluations, in this case, there is evaluation by the judges.
Thus the value-of-fact is a fact-of-value which fundamentally a fact.
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:23 am Many historical facts as claimed are based on the claims of winners which of course is very subjective, but nevertheless they are accepted as historical facts.
Almost the only thing that historians can all be persuaded of is the falsity of that claim. The boring example everyone uses here is why did the Roman empire fall? historical fact is limited to the undisputed bits of the story, there was a cultural and political entity called the Roman Empire, by agreement it began with Augustus, and more or less ran continuously until let's say Augustulus Romulus. But historians tend to doubt a lot of what was written by chroniclers of the period, they do not at all agree that Augustulus Romulus was the last emperor (Odoacer just didn't use the formal title, but was poor little Augustulus really an emperor at all, and was Rome even an empire by then?).

It goes on, but historiographical interpretations are not considered fact, partly because they are all hotly contested (and we tend to think that two conflicting explanations cannot be called facts until that dispute is resolved when we are using our language according to what the damn words mean). But the other factor is that historians understand that there is no basis to describe this sort of thing as actual fact, they are keenly aware that we interpret history according to the interests of today, and future generations will interpret it according to new interests we cannot predict today.
Whatever it is, they are recognize as historical facts, i.e. facts except in this case, they must be taken with the recognized reservations but the majority will not do that.
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:23 am As such, the above model can be applied to produce moral facts or Justified True Moral Beliefs from a qualified Framework and System of Morality and Ethics.
Thus;
  • Facts [empirical and others] + Moral Framework and System + justification = Moral Facts [Justified True Moral Beliefs] or Moral knowledge
Note, moral facts are not to be pulled from the air, my point is the justification of the Moral fact must be as rigorous and as close as possible to how scientific facts are justified from the Scientific Framework.

Agree? Disagree
That was better than your usual work. But you really need to stop and think about whether you want these moral facts to actually prove something about competing moral facts being wrong. I suspect you want to do away with relativism, but you are on a path merely to formalise it as a science.
Btw, you are not my lecturer or thesis supervisor to mark my paper.
Some of my arguments are not presented rigorously because this is merely a philosophy forum and not to waste time, I don't have any obligation to think twice, three times or continually improve to edit them, in here.

My purpose is to promote morality-proper for the well being of humanity.
To be effective we need to establish a model, i.e. a Framework and System [F&S] of Morality and Ethics based on empirical evidence of human nature supported by philosophical reasoning.

To be more effective, the model and F/S must be guided by efficient objectives [moral] or fixed goal posts, i.e. secular objective moral facts.
To ensure credibility the whole Framework and System must be as close as possible to the Scientific Framework and System.
Last edited by Veritas Aequitas on Tue Jun 09, 2020 4:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
Veritas Aequitas
Posts: 15722
Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:41 am

Re: Fact is not Value but Value-of-Fact is Fact.

Post by Veritas Aequitas »

FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 12:39 pm Mass is postulated based on observable measurable qualities of matter, science was created to do that sort of thing.

The winsomeness of the swish of the breeze through a willow tree is not the sort of thing that science can calculate even if the windspeed is. Science was not created for that sort of thing. You may have noticed somewhere in your travels that facts and values are not the only things we differentiate by type, art and science would be another.

Trying to incorporate morality into science is a fools errand, exactly similar to inorporating art into the same. A book about how to use proxy measurement for business purposes is going to change nothing. I am well aware that actuarially it is possible to assign a dollar value to a human life, anybody who needs persuading that this is not an actual measurement of the value of a human life is beyond help in the greater scheme.
Nah, I am not incorporating Morality into Science.

Rather I am relying on scientific facts and other facts to establish Moral facts from within a F/S of Morality and Ethics. This is supported with philosophical reasoning.
These moral facts are not to be enforced but merely to act as GUIDES only.
Skepdick
Posts: 16022
Joined: Fri Jun 14, 2019 11:16 am

Re: Fact is not Value but Value-of-Fact is Fact.

Post by Skepdick »

surreptitious57 wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:50 pm The information in question would first have to be assessed for any informed choice to be made
But human beings dont always do this and so the choice may be compromised as a consequence
Because we are not mere automatons and so we dont always think logically but emotionally too
This is an oxymoron. Without emotions you would have no ability to make any choices.
Without choices you can't make any decisions. Without any decisions you can't think.

The whole dichotomy between logic and emotion is bullshit.

My emotions are my "6th sense" - my well-developed intuition.
User avatar
FlashDangerpants
Posts: 8815
Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2016 11:54 pm

Re: Fact is not Value but Value-of-Fact is Fact.

Post by FlashDangerpants »

Veritas Aequitas wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 4:20 am
FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 11:07 am
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:23 am Here is an example;
  • That diamond gem is a fact [empirical] represented by a physical referent.
    When we apply the above formula with the qualified justifications what we get is;
    the valuation of a fact-of-a-diamond with the Framework of Gemology and Pricing generate fact-of-valuations of diamonds.
    That 'one carat of diamond' cost $5000' etc. is a fact.
    Who dispute the above is not a fact?
That's a fact about the market value in which we swao stuff we own for stuff we want. It doesn't measure the 'value' of a sentiment relating to the object, and indeed when we describe objects of such sentimental value we often use the word "priceless" specifically for this reason.
Your counter is short-sighted.

If you have done Economic 101, you will understand whatever is of market value is imbued with an element of sentiment in relation to the object. The most obvious the Share Price of Shares in the Stock Market.
You cannot deny there are economic facts which are imbued with elements of sentiments.
You aren't equipped to argue economics with me, I say that as just friendly advice. You are talking about the intangible component of a utility function and desire for the object itself resulting from sentiment is only one factor informing prices, along with others such as expectations (what have other people been paying for this item) and scarcity, as well as other motivations aside from admiration such as need. Prices are signals only of what a market has paid for a given commodity recently and where sellers and buyers believe those prices are heading. That's something else you would learn in econ 101.

But of course you know that, which is why you chose the words "imbued with an element of". If beer is imbued with an element of alcohol, I don't pretend I am measuring its alcohol content by just just pouring the beer into a measuring jug and announcing "1 pint of alcohol". If I need to know what the alcohol content of the beer is, I need to find out what percentage of the total beer the aclohol represents. You can't do that ion your example, so you aren't measuring the thing you are pretending to. and you know this too, you are making a clumsy attempt to hoodwink me, but that only exposes the fact that you know you need to mislead me.

Your whole schema here is much like a price tag applied to an item on a supermarket chelf I guess. Not any indication of the intangible value of anything itself, but just a blunt measure of how the item is currently trending. An easy mistake to make, but still a mistake.
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 4:20 am
With these arguments (see below) you are falling into the trap that axiologists like Prof always walk into, you are absent-mindedly substituting a thing that you can measure for the thing you cannot without recognising the placeholder is only there at all because the original object is not of a measurable type.
What original object is a measurable type?
There is no such thing.
Everything regardless it is physical or mental is measurable as long as there is a recognized Framework of Measurement that has intersubjective consensus.
Tell me exactly who is precisely the happiest man in the world today. Now tell me how you measured his exact happiness, and tell is what the current world record for happiness is. Design a machine to measure it.

I think Vermeer's The Milkmaid is the greatest work of art ever, something about it's use of negative space really sparks my joy. My friend is convinced that the cubist masterpiece Guernica surpasses it though. Another friend thinks we are both nuts, ant that The Thieving Magpie Overture by Rossini far surpasses any painting. You can now use your science to prove which of us is right.

You haven't even attempted to cover an interesting topic with your stylings, it's all just "is murder wrong?". If you could do something interesting like examine the role of morality adjacent intangibles such as honour or piety in ethics you wouldn't be stuck doing such banal crap so don't get ahead of yourself.
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 4:20 am You think 'the table you are writing on is measurable' with absoluteness?
Note Russell's doubt 'Perhaps there is no real table at all' when deliberated with the most refined philosophical reflection.
As such, measuring a table in this case is measuring an illusory object.
Ugh, you and your antirealism. The point of debating that endlessly is that the world as we experience it isn't any different either way. Otherwise there would be a way of testing the question. Try to think through the implication that has for any argument you try to shore up with your antirealism stylings and you might get a hint as to why I always ignore them. A question that you would have learned to ask in Philosophy 101 is "what rests on this?" and the answer for you here is "nothing, nothing at all, so quit trying to rescue bad little arguments by with superscope issues"
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 4:20 am
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:23 am The above can be applied to any fact [physical or otherwise] where the fact is subjected to the qualified justification via a specific Framework of Knowledge to produce justified facts, i.e. Justified True Beliefs and Knowledge.

Even in the case of beauty, the above model can be applied to produce "Facts of Beauty" as in the fact that Zozibini Tunzi of South Africa is Miss Universe 2019. Who deny that is is not a fact.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Universe_2019
Again, in common with Prof, you are formalising opinion surveys as a sort of direct measurment of something that cannot be measured.

If 9 out of 10 judges think Miss Ukraine has the shapeliest tits, but judge 10 just likes them to be big so he prefers Miss Bulgaria, it isn't 90% true that Miss Ukraine has the best tits, it's just 100% true that 10 observers came to 10 sets of opinions and 9 correlated. No fact of value has emerged, the opinions collected are all equally unsupportable as a fact, collecting many of them provides a larger number of unsupportable as fact opinions.
Whatever your views, there is the fact is, Zozibini Tunzi of South Africa is Miss Universe 2019. This is an undisputable fact at present.
Value arise from evaluations, in this case, there is evaluation by the judges.
Thus the value-of-fact is a fact-of-value which fundamentally a fact.
So what? That is a fact about an opinion survey. It doesn't tell us anything about what it is that makes a person beautiful, nor anything else from which to extrapolate any information about beauty. You can collect data about all the Miss World winners there have ever been and decide what height is best for winning a beauty pageant, but why use Miss World as your data source for this sort of thing instead of Pornhub, which must collect vastly more information? If Miss World asserts that the most beuatiful women in the world are 5feet and nine inches tall, but Pornhub says they are 3 inches shorter than that, which gave you your fact about what beauty is?
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 4:20 am
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:23 am Many historical facts as claimed are based on the claims of winners which of course is very subjective, but nevertheless they are accepted as historical facts.
Almost the only thing that historians can all be persuaded of is the falsity of that claim. The boring example everyone uses here is why did the Roman empire fall? historical fact is limited to the undisputed bits of the story, there was a cultural and political entity called the Roman Empire, by agreement it began with Augustus, and more or less ran continuously until let's say Augustulus Romulus. But historians tend to doubt a lot of what was written by chroniclers of the period, they do not at all agree that Augustulus Romulus was the last emperor (Odoacer just didn't use the formal title, but was poor little Augustulus really an emperor at all, and was Rome even an empire by then?).

It goes on, but historiographical interpretations are not considered fact, partly because they are all hotly contested (and we tend to think that two conflicting explanations cannot be called facts until that dispute is resolved when we are using our language according to what the damn words mean). But the other factor is that historians understand that there is no basis to describe this sort of thing as actual fact, they are keenly aware that we interpret history according to the interests of today, and future generations will interpret it according to new interests we cannot predict today.
Whatever it is, they are recognize as historical facts, i.e. facts except in this case, they must be taken with the recognized reservations but the majority will not do that.
Mutually exclusive facts. Which is something you really should have adressed already.

If one historian asserts that Rome fell when Odoacer didn't declare himself emporer, styling himself high king of Italy because the traditions of his tribal group were important to maintain than those of the empire he had conquered. To answer the question why did Rome fall, he answers barbarian invasion.

Another says that Rome fell a century before that, when the first provincial governor realised he no longer had to send tax revenues back to Rome and used the money to establish himself as a local king. His given asnwer for the cause of Rome's fall is disintegration.

A third blames the unequal split between East and West, as well as the establishment of Christianity resulting in 4 major power bases and revenue collecting points where there had been only one. A fourth tells us that climate change driven disease and famine broke the empire...

These are interpretations, not facts, informed by historiography - which is basically the stories historians tell to paint a picture of how and why stuff may have worked. If you downgrade your science to that level we will have to take your facts and downgrade those to interpretations too.
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 4:20 am
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:23 am As such, the above model can be applied to produce moral facts or Justified True Moral Beliefs from a qualified Framework and System of Morality and Ethics.
Thus;
  • Facts [empirical and others] + Moral Framework and System + justification = Moral Facts [Justified True Moral Beliefs] or Moral knowledge
Note, moral facts are not to be pulled from the air, my point is the justification of the Moral fact must be as rigorous and as close as possible to how scientific facts are justified from the Scientific Framework.

Agree? Disagree
That was better than your usual work. But you really need to stop and think about whether you want these moral facts to actually prove something about competing moral facts being wrong. I suspect you want to do away with relativism, but you are on a path merely to formalise it as a science.
Btw, you are not my lecturer or thesis supervisor to mark my paper.
Some of my arguments are not presented rigorously because this is merely a philosophy forum and not to waste time, I don't have any obligation to think twice, three times or continually improve to edit them, in here.
Good, you are a very slow learner so I wouldn't envy the poor bastard who's competence is assessed by how well he manages to teach you stuff.
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 4:20 am My purpose is to promote morality-proper for the well being of humanity.
To be effective we need to establish a model, i.e. a Framework and System [F&S] of Morality and Ethics based on empirical evidence of human nature supported by philosophical reasoning.
You are attempting an impossible task. "Empirical evidence of human nature" can only yield behavioural information, but you keep trying to assert that your information goes deeper than that. You have a total mismatch between input and output and you will have to pick one. Either become a behaviourist and get it over with, or keep falling between two stools.
Skepdick
Posts: 16022
Joined: Fri Jun 14, 2019 11:16 am

Re: Fact is not Value but Value-of-Fact is Fact.

Post by Skepdick »

FlashDangerpants wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 12:56 pm You aren't equipped to argue economics with me, I say that as just friendly advice.
FlashDangerpants wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 12:56 pm You are attempting an impossible task. "Empirical evidence of human nature" can only yield behavioural information, but you keep trying to assert that your information goes deeper than that.
Dude. You aren't even equipped to argue economics with yourself.

Utility theory is grounded in the distinction between revealed vs stated preference.

If you keep telling me that you have "deep love for icecream" but you never buy icecream at any price then I have no reason to listen to anything you say about your own self-reported preferences.

The only way to argue "impossibility" is to insist that subjective preference have no causal effect on observed choices, which is obviously bullshit so we
can exploit mutual information to infer one from the other.

And like...predictive models don't require precision to be useful. They require an error rate below max entropy.
Your nit-picking is typical of a person who can't deal with uncertainty. So you want 100% of it.

ANY signal above 0 Decibels is useful. Weak evidence is better than no evidence.
Post Reply