“Plato’s Trolley” by dr_s

Epistemic status: I'm sure most of my arguments have already been made and argued to death by philosophers that I'm not knowledgeable enough to name. I'm only writing this to outline what I genuinely, spontaneously have come to think on the matter, regardless of how many wheels I may be reinventing. I'm of course interested in knowing about any related debates or arguments I may have missed, so feel free to bring them up in comments if something comes to mind.

Context: This is written as a sort of long-form response for an argument I've been having on a rationalist chat. The argument stemmed from discussions of post-rationalism vs rationalism, and whether there could be technically false things that make you more moral if believed, specifically re: the existence of some objective criterion for morality outside of ourselves. The text will make it clear enough on which side I [...]

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Outline:

(03:03) Ab absurdum

(05:25) Touch grace

(07:21) Alone in the dark

The original text contained 3 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

July 20th, 2025

Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/pqYxDFz2ckGWr8i8G/plato-s-trolley

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.