Re: ExI = Truth First ?

From: Ian Goddard (igoddard@netkonnect.net)
Date: Fri May 15 1998 - 21:36:26 MDT


At 07:11 PM 5/15/98 -0700, Max More wrote:

>>In the Extropian society, is the core principle:
>>
>>"We acknowledge only those truths that are useful."
>
>Before you all get involved in arguing about this, let me note that this is
>NOT a core principle. In fact it's not a principle at all. Where did you
>get this from, Ian? Perhaps it's a view of some people on this list, but
>it's hardly a principle of "the Extropian society" whether that refers to
>ExI to the the Extropian community as a whole.

   IAN: I did not mean to imply that * was * a core
   core principle of ExI, not at all! My point is to
   raise the issue of should a principle, or "prime
   directive" of an Extropian community be "utility
   first" or should it be "truth first." I believe
   this addresses the utilitarianism vs some other
   principle issue, and the broad issue of truth.

   I've generally adhered to a libertarian/utilitarian
   paradigm and believe that utilitarianism generally
   defines a principle, or prime directive, of the
   humanist community, and it seems to me from
   discourse on the list, that the consensus
   adheres to that humanist principle.

   I believe that the possibility that the false
   can be inserted into the set of "useful things"
   not to mention atrocities, renders a "utility
   first" paradigm unwise and to be rejected.

   What makes libertarian economics the logical
   goal is not that it is useful, but that its
   framework is truthful, such as defined by
   Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian school.

   As such, we need not define a "utilibertarian"
   paradigm, but instead a truthitarian paradigm.
   It may all be sematics, particularly if we can
   show that truth = utility, but I'm not so sure.

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