#moral intuitions

[omegaphilosophia]

The Philosophy of Intuition

The philosophy of intuition delves into the nature, reliability, and role of intuition in human cognition and understanding. Intuition is often described as immediate, non-inferential knowledge or insight that does not rely on conscious reasoning or evidence. Philosophers have long debated the epistemic value of intuition, its sources, and its implications for knowledge and decision-making. By examining the philosophy of intuition, we can gain a deeper understanding of how intuitive insights contribute to our beliefs, actions, and comprehension of the world.

Key Themes in the Philosophy of Intuition

Nature and Definition of Intuition:

Intuition is typically characterized as a form of direct, immediate knowledge or understanding.

Philosophers explore the distinction between intuition and other forms of cognition, such as perception, reasoning, and inference.

Epistemic Value of Intuition:

The reliability and validity of intuitive knowledge are central concerns.

Discussions focus on whether intuitions can provide genuine knowledge or whether they are prone to error and bias.

Sources of Intuition:

Intuition may arise from various sources, including innate cognitive structures, past experiences, and subconscious processing.

Philosophers investigate the origins of intuitive insights and their connection to other cognitive processes.

Intuition in Decision-Making:

Intuition often plays a significant role in decision-making, particularly in situations requiring quick judgments or lacking complete information.

The balance between intuitive and analytical approaches in decision-making is critically examined.

Intuition and Rationality:

The relationship between intuition and rationality is a key area of inquiry.

Philosophers explore whether intuition can be considered a form of rational insight or if it fundamentally contrasts with rational thought.

Intuition in Ethics and Morality:

Moral intuitions, or immediate judgments about right and wrong, are significant in ethical theory.

The role of intuition in moral reasoning and its implications for ethical theories, such as intuitionism, are explored.

Intuition in Science and Mathematics:

Intuition is often invoked in scientific discovery and mathematical problem-solving.

The validity and limitations of intuitive insights in these fields are analyzed.

Challenges to Intuition:

Various cognitive biases and errors can undermine the reliability of intuition.

Philosophers discuss ways to mitigate these challenges and improve the accuracy of intuitive judgments.

Cultural and Individual Differences in Intuition:

Intuitive abilities and tendencies can vary across cultures and individuals.

The impact of cultural background, education, and personal experience on intuition is examined.

Development and Training of Intuition:

Whether intuition can be developed and refined through practice and experience is a significant question.

Philosophers consider methods for enhancing intuitive skills and their practical applications.

The philosophy of intuition offers a rich and multifaceted exploration of a fundamental aspect of human cognition. By examining the nature, sources, and epistemic value of intuition, philosophers seek to understand how intuitive insights contribute to knowledge, decision-making, and ethical judgments. This field encourages a nuanced appreciation of intuition's strengths and limitations, highlighting its complex role in our cognitive lives.

[bogkeep]

anecdote i think about often is my mom telling me how back at the family farm way back when, there was a pair of polish guys helping out over the winter (probably through the wwoof program or something similar, it's how my mom came to norway, too). they took a liking to a norwegian equivalent of nutella (either nugatti or hapå, can't remember which) and started eating absolutely bonkers quantities of it. they had to buy more and larger containers of it to keep up with their ravenous hunger for chocolatey spread. when it was their time to leave, they each got their big bucket of it to take home with them.

they stayed in touch, and much later the polish guys admitted to not understanding how they could eat so much nugatti. they had barely made a dent in their souvenir buckets for all the time that had passed. as it turns out, when you're toiling outside in the arctic winter, the body Craves the sugar to keep up with the phsyical demand. it makes sense right!!! turns out bodies crave things for a reason and it's not a personal failing!!!

[nimbuswafflingabout]

I feel like when uplifting a member of the Golden Trio, sometimes people will actively downplay the others strengths. With Harry specifically, people will praise his intuitiveness and cleverness, but will insult Hermione’s intelligence to try to make it even more of a feat than it already is. With Hermione, people will praise her intelligence and then downplay Ron and Harry’s intelligence.

I find this mostly annoying, but also counterproductive, each character is incredibly valuable on their own and downplaying another is just not necessary, ESPECIALLY since all members of the Golden Trio are needed, they’re stronger together than they are apart, and it’s irritating to see the others being diminished for no real reason.

What one member lacks, the other makes up.

[the-mountain-flower]

Me: I'm scared for Theia. I'll write a fic abt and then give her some help from a sympathetic person to make it a little better

Me: this is a one-off character who I only made for the purpose of this one-shot, I'll probably never come back to them

*one Tumblr ask and over 1000 words later*

Me: wow I really thought I was done with this bit lol

[inkats]

my boy-coded behaviour for most my life makes my exploration of gender due to newfound freedom era lean more into feminine things but my anti-capitalist feminist value system makes this feel like a betrayal of my moral code.

[bat-the-misfit]

sei não

[tanadrin]

They also make an argument that conceptions of property are often outgrowths of, or connected to, ideas of the sacred: in societies with weak or no other form of strong property laws, there still may be ownership or exclusive rules of possession around sacred objects and rites, together with the obligations these things carry. This makes sense to me: consider also the rise of early city states around Sumerian temple complexes, the outgrowth of bureaucracy from the need to track the wealth temples collected, the role of the sacred and the concepts of personal possession that accompanied the development of indo-European kingship, etc. Roman property law, with its unusually strict construction, came out of a society where public administration was closely bound up with the performance of religious rites. All this is in accord with my suspicion that the most accurate framing of “private property” as we understand it today is as a kind of religion or even supernatural belief (cf. also the “color of bits” essay about IP law and data).

[quantomeno]

The Gilded 7 Casino

This song is clearly influenced by Take 5. Or at least I want to think it is. I discussed time signatures in my previous song analysis, but like I said then the most common time signature is 4 4 (it's even called common time). It's 4 crotchet beats per bar. If you can dance the Macarena to it, it's 4 4 time. If you can dance a waltz to it, it's 3 4 time. Take 5 uses a very unusual time signature: 5 4 (5 beats per bar). Take 5 also always makes me think of casinos, even before I played this game.

Now, the Gilded 7 Casino also has a relatively uncommon time signature, but it sadly hasn't got the number 7 in it. This felt like a massive missed opportunity but it would have also been quite odd to write so I can accept it.

Anyway, to the actual analysis: the song is written in 6 8 time. Note that both numbers are different from usual. The unit beat is different: instead of a crotchet (quarter note) it's a quaver (eighth note). This is known as compound time. It's the time signature used for songs such as Greensleeves or INXS' Never Tear Us Apart.

It is my favourite time signature.

A waltz has the accent repeating every three beats (1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 for an example see this video at 1:22), and so does 6 8 (but it's more like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). You have to imagine it like two beats played per bar, and those two beats are split into thirds.

The easiest way is to say 'coventry' two times a bar.

Take a listen. Note that the tempo is quite slow relative to each 'coventry' (it's almost one coventry a second, I think it's 48 a minute), but because it's three little beats per each two big ones, it feels quite fast.

(Note that I've seen people write sheet music for it using 3 4 time. I think this wrong, but if you change the tempo the two time signatures are virtually indistinguishable, so who knows.)

So, why 6 8 (or 3 4 even)? What does this bring?

Let's take a step back and look at the rest of the song first.

It's rich. The piano feels weighty, with nice, heavy chords punctuated by deep, low notes which anchor us to the beat. You have that warm, arco violin paired with that husky-voiced saxophone. We have that constant heartbeat of the piano along with a walking bass in the back that fills out the sound nicely. It is a thick texture that is veritably thrumming with life, yet... there is still something not quite wholesome about it, isn't there?

My sources tell me it is written in D minor. This accounts for part of the discomfort it engenders. The minor key brings a sinister atmosphere to the piece; you feel like something bad is happening, if not evil than at least something dodgy. Exactly how it feels to be in a casino, surrounded by all the money being thrown around and the shady dealings going on. The casino is a Family-run business after all.

(D minor to me is also an elegant and rich key, that evokes deep purples with touches of crimson. It's because of the D being the tonic. It just is OK.)

The dynamics are decidedly loud, again creating a bustling atmosphere. I feel it is pertinent to note here that the first time we hear this song (correct me if I'm wrong but I distinctly noticed this last time I played) is during the slot machine gun scene. Unless you voluntarily choose to go back to the casino afterwards, this cutscene is the only time you'll hear the song. This piece is designed to evoke a sense of chaos and thrill.

And now, we reach the rhythm.

6 8 time. It evokes a waltz or a ballroom dance, which aids in building that elegant, luxurious vibe, but, being 6 8, it is notably quicker than a normal waltz would be. It gives the piece a briskness, but since each fundamental beat (the 1 and the 4 I pointed out earlier) is quite slow, it doesn't lose that languid, almost bloated feeling.

Then we have the violin and sax. The violin tends to jump between playing short, detached, strongly accented notes (e.g. at 0:52) and longer, smooth notes, but never really losing any intensity (e.g. 0:41). The saxophone is much the same (listen from 1:20 to 1:43). Again we have this contrast between the stateliness, the weighty feeling of wealth, and the buzz of the casino. It's a bit like the ostentatiousness of the nouveau-riche compared to old money: the casino has cash and it's showing it off. The elegance here is all bought and as a result it ends up feeling tawdry. It also helps with the action-packed scene that it features in. This is further evoked by the sax's tendency to add ornamentation to its longer notes: little flitterings of notes at the start of the drawn-out ones. It feels like it's trying to impress you.

Also, big shout out to the percussion: that cymbal crash really brings out the bam! and could be a bit of a play on the sound of coins falling. The drum beat enters quite late, at the same time as the sax. It doesn't quite work to keep the beat, however, if anything it seems to land on off beats, opposing the regularity and pacing of the piano. Once again, we have a song that brings out unease but also bewilderment and hustle and bustle. The song feels fun, it just has a dark undercurrent.

Exactly how the casino should feel.

It is not Layton-esque, and it highlights how future London has become a seedy city ruled by criminals. Recall that Layton, a man of simple elegance and refinement, who appreciates the craftmanship of a simple lacquered stool, is now (supposedly) the owner of this den of iniquity.

It evokes all the things Layton patently isn't and in doing so encourages a sense of revulsion that things could become so bad. The whole casino makes me feel sad, because it stands opposed to everything Layton believes in, and the thought he has changed so completely he would forgo those values hurts.

[starryoak]

I have to say, as someone who generally identifies as an atheist, the only even remotely plausible afterlife system, imo, is completely random reincarnation; reincarnation just makes sense if there’s anything to consciousness but random electrical signals, (the plausibility of that put aside for the moment) but the idea of karma is just cope, let’s be real here. There’s just no evidence, and in fact, significant evidence to the contrary considering how many different ethical systems there have been across time and cultures, that morality is anything other than something humans just made up because it’s advantageous not to kill each other. I mean, I still believe in following it because there’s no reason not to, but the evidence is firmly against the universe having any sense of fundamental morality.

[cosmogenous]

hell is other people... but moreso if you attach your worth to the aspects of yourself that are liable to change and falter

[spitzobsessed]

basic figure sketch

per 6-7 heads rule vs my "adapted" method

[buttonsgoblin]

If I ever had the time and resources to develop a super immersive video game I would give it a moral choice system but not a binary “good evil” moral choice system. I would get a selection of various ethical philosophies, each of which get/lose morality points for wildly different criteria, and the game is constantly tracking how ethical you are with respect to all of them. So like you’ve got a hedonism meter, a Kantian deontology meter, a rule utilitarian meter, some meters for various religious ethical systems, etc etc. Each morality system would ideally have an in-game manual explaining what actions will gain or lose points, but they’d all be really long and use dense philosophical jargon to disincentivize players from ever actually reading them. I don’t know what the meters would actually do, maybe whichever one has the largest positive or negative value determines what ending you get. Idk I’ll figure it out. The only downside is that to accomplish this I would have to read ethical theory, but we all must make sacrifices for our art.

[rodrickheffley]

being into the idea of tabletop rpgs but not being into fantasy at all.....no one suffers like me

[cheezitboss]

hot take ppl need to stop making judgements and decisions based off of "vibes." yes trust your gut but you are not omniscient and it's irresponsible to put your internal intuition over a desire to understand your external world

[21st-century-minutiae]

The "Selfish Gene" was a mid to late twentieth century book about evolution by Richard Dawkins. It formulates evolution from the perspective of individual sections of DNA trying to replicate as much as possible for as long as possible. This is in contrast to the until then standard mode of thinking where species were considered the smallest biological unit of evolution. Genes use individuals as tools to propagate from this perspective.

The "Selfish Gene" was a very impactful book. Notably it is where the term "meme" was coined, representing arbitrary strands of information that can replicate and mutate (such as jokes, facts, lies, culture, religion...).

"Jean" is a category of fabric, usually denim, that is used for clothing. It comes from the French word for "Genoa", as in, fabric from Genoa.

The above is playing a pun between Gene and Jean. Individuals in the early twenty-first century are likely to understand the pun, even if they have never read the book that is being referenced. Though it is reasonable for them to have never encountered the concept of 'the Selfish Gene,' which would leave them somewhat lost.

[jcapologetics]

What you're saying is you believe in moral intuition.

What about psychopaths, for one instance?

Moral intuition requires morality to be objective in the first place (because it assumes there's a "right answer") and we know that in order for morality to be objective there must be a source outside of human feeling or social agreement. Atheism fails to provide a convincing enough argument against the "moral argument" - brain chemistry or evolution - because those can only explain how we feel about morality, but not why anything is truly right or wrong.