From: Charles D Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Sun Aug 05 2001 - 12:12:06 MDT
On Saturday 04 August 2001 09:38 pm, you wrote:
> Eric writes
>
> ...
>
> We can agree on rules of logic. We can even agree on what
> constitutes evidence and what are strong and weak arguments. We
> perhaps cannot agree on values.
>
> >...
Actually, I feel that it is relatively certain that we cannot agree
(perfectly) on values. This goes all the way back to the point
that if two children have access to a piece of candy, only one of
them can eat it. They may be friends, but each will value most
highly the outcome that benefits them. There is no logical way
around this. Now how severe the conflict is will depend on
several things, for example, how hungry each is. But that the
valuations will be different is inescapable. They aren't using the
same sensory organs. The candy that I taste isn't tasted by you.
I'm not even bringing in the social conflicts: "I'm not hungry
now, but if I don't eat it, then she will eat it, and I won't be
able to eat it later, when I would want to, so I'll eat it now."
(Were you to ask me if that was rational, I'd be forced to say no,
but I almost remember thinking that and making that decision. It
was accompanied by a feel of defiance... that isn't the decision
that my mother would want me to make.)
And this was with me sister. This was with the person I
occasionally risked physical injury to defend. Not some stranger,
with whom I wouldn't have the shared "family"ness. I was less
willing to share with strangers. (I find myself quite convinced by
Dawkins "The Selfish Gene" ... the predictions that it makes seem
to match those that I have been able to observe around me. And the
arguments aren't unreasonable... they merely require a different
point of view than was standard in school.)
--
Charles Hixson
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