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What Would You Do Without Morality? — LessWrong

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Suppose you learned, suddenly and definitively, that nothing is moral and nothing is right; that everything is permissible and nothing is forbidden. Devastating news, to be sure—and no, I am not telling you this in real life. But suppose I did tell it to you. Suppose that, whatever you think is the basis of your moral philosophy, I convincingly tore it apart, and moreover showed you that nothing could fill its place. Suppose I proved that all utilities equaled zero. I know that Your-Moral-Philosophy is as true and undisprovable as 2 + 2 = 4. But still, I ask that you do your best to perform the thought experiment, and concretely envision the possibilities even if they seem painful, or pointless, or logically incapable of any good reply. Would you still tip cabdrivers? Would you cheat on your Significant Other? If a child lay fainted on the train tracks, would you still drag them off? Would you still eat the same kinds of foods—or would you only eat the cheapest food, since there's

x What Would You Do Without Morality? — LessWrong Value Theory Ethics & Morality Personal Blog 87 What Would You Do Without Morality? by Eliezer Yudkowsky 29th Jun 2008 1 min read 186 87 To those who say "Nothing is real," I once replied , "That's great, but how does the nothing work?" Suppose you learned, suddenly and definitively, that nothing is moral and nothing is right; that everything is permissible and nothing is forbidden. Devastating news, to be sure—and no, I am not telling you this in real life. But suppose I did tell it to you. Suppose that, whatever you think is the basis of your

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