[ExI] Rational vs good

The Avantguardian avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com
Thu Jan 20 04:21:27 UTC 2011


----- Original Message ----
> From: Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com>
> To: extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> Sent: Wed, January 19, 2011 7:34:40 AM
> Subject: [ExI] Rational vs good
> 
> On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 5:00 AM,  Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 18 January 2011 05:11, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> This would make it a "rational" war mode by definition, wouldn't it?
> >>
> > >From the viewpoint of genes yes. ?From the viewpoint of the poor
> >> schmuck who gets his ass shot off, no.
> >
> > If "rational" is a synonim of "good", you are right. But even good is
> > essentially a matter of perspectives, isn't it?
> 
> Indeed.  For you a hamburger is good.  From the viewpoint of a cow . . . .

Well that would depend on whether the cow was a utilitarian or not. From a 
utilitarian point of view the cow might be inclined to think hamburger was good 
because it allows the existence of some 1.3 billion heads of cattle. About 
two orders of magnitudes more than the wild bovine population and probably more 
than the ecosystem would otherwise allow. Especially considering that a lot of 
large carnivores like the taste of beef. Of course this might be considered an 
indictment against utilitarianism rather than "good".

Stuart LaForge 

"There is nothing wrong with America that faith, love of freedom, intelligence, 
and energy of her citizens cannot cure."- Dwight D. Eisenhower 



      




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