From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Tue Aug 06 2002 - 13:21:25 MDT
Mike writes
> --- Lee Corbin <lcorbin@tsoft.com> wrote:>
> > How do you explain Ridley's example of
> > tipping in a restaurant that you know
> > you'll never visit again, or my example
> > of letting someone out ahead of you from
> > a crowded parking lot when traffic's
> > really bad?
>
> These are examples of rational long term
> self interest, because both cited acts
> contribute to the net politeness in society,
> such as flushing a public toilet... "What
> comes around goes around" is the rule here,
> where your acts help maintain a polite and
> courteous treatment by others not only to
> yourself, but to other others who
> will also treat you well.
I think that you are grasping at straws.
A $10 tip that I leave in a restaurant in
Paris for good service directly makes me
$10 poorer. It's not logical to suppose
that somehow this effect will slowly wing
its way back across the Atlantic and
eventually be worth the cost to me.
If I lived in the world I described in
"The VR Solipsist", then I'd never tip.
Moreover, I would never sit in my car
on a hot day and chance missing a green
light by letting some non-existent person
out into traffic ahead of me.
The real reason that I do both these
actions is that some part of me cares
for those individuals my sacrifice
benefits.
> If the social more for behavior in public
> toilets is kept at a high level,
by virtue of the Kantian imperative, I guess
> you are far [???] more likely to enjoy
> clean and decent public toilets in the
> future, no matter whether you actually
> visit the particular public toilet you
> yourself behaved well in in the past.
The probability is miniscule if it's in
a far distant city. I wouldn't bother
except that I want others to do the same
for me---and this is only because I don't
want them to experience a filthy restroom.
*Not* because I expect that the restrooms
I visit in the future will be magically
cleaner.
Lee
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