From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Sat May 25 2002 - 09:07:53 MDT
Lee writes:
> You appear to be regarding the Extropian Principles as you might
> the U. S. Constitution, or a body of law, except worse: You
> sound as if from time to time you try to bring your thinking
> more into line with the Principles. This is utterly and horribly
> backwards. You can use them as inspirational guides if you wish,
> but in no way can they replace your own thinking processes.
I think the kind of analysis Harvey provides is legitimate in terms of
seeking internal consistency. It doesn't have to be the Extropian
principles specifically, but whatever philosophical beliefs you hold,
it makes sense to test them for consistency among themselves, and to
consider new ideas and beliefs in terms of whether they are consistent
with your basic principles.
This doesn't necessarily mean that you should reject new ideas which
are inconsistent with your internal philosophy; it may be that the new
idea is so attractive that it illustrates a flaw in your pre-existing
ideas and will force you to revise them. But generally you don't
want to hold mutually contradictory ideas, because they will lead to
inconsistent conclusions on other issues, and you might be unable to
choose between them.
Hal
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