I really dislike the phrase "human values". I think it's confusing because:

It obscures a distinction between human preferences and normative values, i.e. what the author thinks is good in a moral sense
- Insofar as the author thinks that fulfilling human preferences is good, they often leave this unjustified
It's unclear who the "human" in "human values" is. Is it...
- The person using the phrase "human values"
- Any particular single individual
- Most humans
- Certain humans
- Humans as they will be in the future, or after "reflection"
It's often used with an unjustified implicit assumption, like:
- Humans will eventually converge on deciding to value to same stuff, provided enough time/intelligence/information
- What most/some humans value must be objectively good to pursue
  - Because they have intuitive access to moral truths, or
  - Because of an ethical framework that necessitates this like preference utilitarianism
- Most humans already value the same stuff

Instead of "human values", people should either:

Talk about someone's preferences
- Their own preferences
- The preferences most / some people share
- The preferences they / some / most people would have after reflecting
- A special type of subset of those preferences (e.g. preferences that stay [...]

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First published:
November 15th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/dyDpJyNLgAHTAHeX9/don-t-use-the-phrase-human-values

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“Don’t use the phrase ‘human values’” by Nina Panickssery

LessWrong (30+ Karma)