flink@umcp-cs.UUCP (11/12/83)
Mockery is not an appropriate response, Laura. If you want to do that, please move it to net.flame. I'm pretty flaming myself right now, so here goes, you deserve it. Laura, instead of donning your robes and sandals and going to see the master, how about reporting to the hospital for a brain implantation. And then you can go back and read what I said in my previous articles, with special attention to what I *didn't say*. Like, that I know any more than you do about right and wrong. I do, but I haven't said so until now. (And that's not to exagerrate my own knowledge -- knowing more than you do about anything obviously takes little accomplishment.) Please to note that although I claimed that my views are clearly superior to "some viewpoint that I find paticularly obnoxious" [e.g., that of the 19th century Americans who argued for slavery], I did not make a similar claim for all views in general. Like, that there is an interpersonal truth of the matter in ethics which I personally can perceive. I do believe that there is such an interpersonal truth of the matter, but I haven't stated that belief (until now) in my articles on this subject. Alas, if only I didn't believe that, I could impose my beliefs with complete impunity. As it is, I have to worry sometimes that I could be mistaken. Nor have I claimed to be an expert in ethics. HOWEVER: I *do* have my opinion, and I *will* sometimes impose it. And while I don't know the complete truth about what's right, I *do* know that certain views are wrong. In the same manner, one might not know the exact answer to some mathematics problem, but still be able to say for sure that some answers are incorrect. As for your facetious request for a methodology, I'll give you the short answer: reason and experience. Experiences can establish or refute evaluations of them. Other things can be evaluated by their consequences for experience. And I think you already know the rest of my ethical viewpoint, although you seem to have forgotten when you asked me all the questions in the other two parts of your nonsense ... Pissed off at the intentional caricature of my position, --Paul Torek, U of MD, College Park ..umcp-cs!flink