Does anyone own "The Moral Landscape"?

[Silver]

So how do you drop to a lower gear when you want to accelerate faster? Or to save on your brakes when going down a long mountain slope? Or a higher gear when driving on snow and ice? Sounds a bit rubbish to me.

You have the gas pedal, faster, and the break pedal, slower, on the floor by your feet. Dur.

[I_am_not_mafia]

So how do you drop to a lower gear when you want to accelerate faster? Or to save on your brakes when going down a long mountain slope? Or a higher gear when driving on snow and ice? Sounds a bit rubbish to me.

You have the gas pedal, faster, and the break pedal, slower, on the floor by your feet.  Dur.

So do manuals.

Manuals also only have one stick for forward and reverse and all the other gears. But you get more control than just using the pedal.

[Angrboda]

I haven't watched the video, but I have read the book, and though I'm very critical of it and his argument, I don't regret having read it.

[emjay]

Well how do you go into reverse?

By using the same gear shift that allows one to "drive".

And where is it? And where's the handbrake?

Sorry for butting in, but I still have no idea how American cars with three people in the front seat are designed, if that's what you're talking about? If not and you're just talking about normal automatics (and/or if they're the same thing), is it the case then that most cars in America are automatics, since so many people seem to find 'stick shifts' novel or confusing? It's the opposite here in the UK; manual is the norm, automatic the rare exception.

[possibletarian]

So they do have a stick getting in the way?

Not at all. There's a difference between having one stick to either drive or reverse, and then having an extra stick just to shift gears of speed while driving.

Stick shifts don't have an extra stick, it's the same one.
I remember driving an automatic and becoming frustrated at its slowness to change gear up a notch, that and it can't anticipate conditions like traffic lights, bends, or hills, which with a stick shift you can gear down for in anticipation.

[Silver]

[I_am_not_mafia]

So how do you drop to a lower gear when you want to accelerate faster? Or to save on your brakes when going down a long mountain slope? Or a higher gear when driving on snow and ice? Sounds a bit rubbish to me.

You have the gas pedal, faster, and the break pedal, slower, on the floor by your feet.  Dur.

Wait, I was asking how you can drop to a lower gear when wanting to accelerate faster. A gas pedal won't do that. It will put you into a higher gear when you go faster.

[SaStrike]

You have the gas pedal, faster, and the break pedal, slower, on the floor by your feet.  Dur.

Wait, I was asking how you can drop to a lower gear when wanting to accelerate faster. A gas pedal won't do that. It will put you into a higher gear when you go faster.

I drive manual at the moment, but automatic is much better, it was designed to make driving easier than manual. There is no need to drop to a lower gear to go faster, it automatically (hence the name) is in the right gear. If I had to drive automatic it would take getting used to though.

[I_am_not_mafia]

Apologies for derailing the thread by the way.

Sam Harris looks a bit mental in that picture in that video (haven't played it, don't intend to). I think he was trying to look enigmatic.

[The Grand Nudger]

That sounds about right. It appears he just announces morality to be exactly what he says it is, and then hand-waves away all other possibilities (including Hume's guillotine), with next to no explanation. It appears to serve no practical purpose whatsoever, as he covers nothing more nuanced than, "Be nice or kill people". It's a really long-winded way to arrive at a conclusion most people agree with anyway. Moral dilemmas don't seem to be addressed at all.

I think that people put far too much stock into moral dilemmas, as though their existence is indicative of a flaw in a moral system.  All sufficiently complex value systems will necessitate dilemma.  If my entire schema was I like chocolate - I would never have any dilemma at the ice cream isle.  The moment I add just one other flavor...well. 

I was reading a few summaries and some criticism of the book and he does mention that even within his own utilitarian hedonism..there is more than one way to flourish..some of them at odds with each other.  

What problems do you see arising from the is-ought issue?