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Old 11-30-2007, 07:38 PM
BluffTHIS! BluffTHIS! is offline
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Default Re: Thread for Kaj on topic of human values

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OK so your principle is basically the golden rule isn't it? As opposed to either acting to the benefit of total selfish interest or for one's tribe perhaps. Is that a correct understanding?

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It may be correlated well to the golden rule, but is not necessarily the case.

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Why do you feel it necessary to engage in sophistry here? Either make an argument it isn't very well correlated or agree that it is, and that for purposes of this discussion we can call your principle by that name.


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Now as to the subjectivity of that rule, would you agree that most philosophical and religious belief systems throughout history have advocated that golden rule in one form or another? Or is that rule only believed in by a minority now and in history?

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Irrelevant to the question of subjectivity. Most Americans prefer pizza to eating grass, but that doesn't mean pizza is therefore an objective standard or a basis for "rights". Preference for pizza is still a subjective choice even if 99.999% of people choose it.

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So if there isn't any kind of inherent morality, however minimal, that all men share, then you can't really advocate that a murderer should be punished either by society or the victim's family can you? If your principle is one sided, as in solely being used in the hope others respond similarly in a game theoretic strategy, rather than a right you and others have to be treated in a certain manner, then when someone declines to play in a game theoretically cooperative manner neither you nor others should seek to punish him for same, but only seek to persuade him regarding future actions, isn't that right?
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