Key feature of ChatGPT arguments

ChatGPT makes distinction between the way things "are" and the way things "should be."

This is reasonable enough. But hides an important issue.

Suppose you live in 1950s America where discrimination against Blacks was normalised.

It is a fact that Blacks are treated as "inferior." But can we infer from that that they "are" inferior.

Well in the sense that ChatGPT argues yes you can argue they are inferior because Americans believe them are inferior and treat them as such. If you doubt that Blacks are inferior then just visit 1950s America and you can get all the evidence you like that they are subordinate human beings. For that matter you can visit 1930s Germany and gather all the evidence you like that Jews are subordinate human beings. These are all facts.

But humans are more ideological than this. When a modern Western sensibility sees human beings being treated in any way other than with equality they are "usually" rather challenged. I say "usually" because even in the West today most people are still happy to see "enemies" treated with no equality and even killed for what they believe. But "usually" we do not like to see people treated with inequality.

Now in the West we argue that human beings actually "have" equality. This is expressed in "Human Rights" which means that even if factually people are treated with inequality say Blacks in 1950s America or Jews in 1930s Germany we argue that this is not "true" and they are still "equal." In the West we place Ideology before Reality. You can't persecute someone because that is just what is going down at a particular time and place, that person is protected by universal and fundamental laws and you are "wrong" to persecute them even while other people may do so. A prison guard at a Concentration camp in 1940s Poland while expected to carry out executions as part of their job, we expect to disobey orders because of a deeper reality about the value of human life. Likewise all soldiers everywhere should do they same to protect the human life of everyone.  

So it is worth noting that ChatGPT does not necessarily see things like this. In the previous blog discussion about the Equality of Ethnic groups it used factual evidence that some ethnic groups are not equal. And conversely that Jews are often seen as special. To which we could equally say that there is plenty of historical evidence that they are not equal for example their place in Germany in the 1930s.

 Something to burrow into later...