Reddit reviews Beyond Morality

My problem with /u/diversity_is_racism and his philosophy is that it is barely recognizable as nihilism. It simply makes too many morally substantial claims. He might not do this intentionally, but having read his blog from time to time, he certainly borders on it all the time. Might is not right; inferiority is not wrong; they simply are. There may be an objectively descriptive component to might and inferiority and their effects, but ultimately whether or not you end up calling these non-morally good or bad will depend on the subjective evaluation of each individual. The kind of society which he desires is just unlikely to match what most of us would want.

Stevens' position (or /u/diversity_is_racism) is that we can adopt nihilism as a tool to make a world more suitable to our individual liking. I agree with this. But the problem is that his re-evaluation of our values hardly seems suitable with a world most of us would be happy to inhabit. For instance, he defends elitism and inequality. Yet far more sophisticated moral nihilists (and actual academic philosophers) like Richard Garner, Russell Blackford, Joel Marks and Ian Hinckfuss have more or less argued that it is belief in morality, and not nihilism, that tends to lead to this kind of society. Indeed, Ian Hinckfuss has even written a short book on how morality ends up defending elitism, inequality and authoritarianism, which ultimately leads to lower desire-satisfaction and less happiness for most of us. To me, I hardly understand why the rest of us would hope to be among the elite in Stevens' desired society instead of trying to make life better for everyone; the chances of indirectly being better off ourselves are greater by striving for the latter.

Instead of reading Stevens' book, I would recommend reading Hinckfuss book The Moral Society: Its Structure and Effects. It is free and can be read or downloaded here.

I also recommend buying Richard Garner's book Beyond Morality. It is the best and most comprehensive book on amorality thus far.