callas@eris.DEC (The tea leaves never lie) (04/18/85)
Very simply the "Golden Rule" says: "Love your neighbor as
yourself"; it doesn't say love your neighbor BETTER than
yourself. Therefore, if it is a choice between two people on a
life raft, save yourself first!
No. The "Golden Rule" says, "Do unto others as you would have
them do unto you."
Laura obviously expects me to murder her for my own survival, so
she is willing to beat me to the punch (it also seems that you
agree). I, on the other hand, expect Laura to *not* murder me,
and am horrified that her definition of morality supports this
view.
It would seem that we are both following the golden rule, but
Laura, has a very effective means of ensuring herself a solo
life raft.
Jon Callas
...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-eris!callas
Callas%Eris.DEC@DECWRL.{ARPA|CSNET|BITNET}padraig@utastro.UUCP (Padraig Houlahan) (04/21/85)
> > > Very simply the "Golden Rule" says: "Love your neighbor as > yourself"; it doesn't say love your neighbor BETTER than > yourself. Therefore, if it is a choice between two people on a > life raft, save yourself first! > > No. The "Golden Rule" says, "Do unto others as you would have > them do unto you." > Gee. And I always thought that the Golden Rule was "He who has the gold, makes the rules". :-) Padraig Houlahan
laura@utzoo.UUCP (Laura Creighton) (04/22/85)
Just a short note: *I* don't claim to live by the golden rule at all. It is too difficult to practice. ``Do unto others as you would have others do unto you'' - what if other people want you to treat them differently? I would rather ``do unto others as others would rather you do unto them'' for the most part - but I am not going to sacrifice my own interests to them, just that , all things being equal I would like it if everybody got whatever they wanted. But people want the strangest htings -- I sure can't read their minds and figure out what it is that my neighbour wants. So what I practice is more along the lines of ``do unto your neighbour whatever the hell you want to do unto your neihgbour''. If you want to practice this one without becoming the ``slavering grasping monster'' sort that egoists are often considered (which is a mindless brute -- something no egoist I know wants to become) you have to develop a lot of compassion for your fellow man. If you have compassion you may find that morality comes naturally -- that is the idea, after all. But what happens in an emergency situation will not reflect a moral standard very well. Emergencies are relatively rare and the overwhelming concern of people involved in an emergency is to get out of hte emergency. Emergencies also dramatically decrease the courses of actions open to you. Either I eat you - or I die -- not a usual situation. The person who values death above becoming a cannibal (or a murderer) will choose to die. The person who values thier own life over becoming a cannibal will chose cannibalism. In no case does this imply that the one that chooses death actually will enjoy or value dying -- or that the cannibal is actually pleased at the prospect of eating human flesh. Laura Creighton utzoo!laura
polard@fortune.UUCP (Henry Polard) (04/25/85)
Catch fish. Harvest plankton.
But I'm going outside the terms of the situation? Precisely!
If you give in to an obstacle or a dichotomy, you lose. If you
circumvent it, master it, destroy it or use it as a stepping-stone, you win.
--
Henry Polard (You bring the flames - I'll bring the marshmallows.)
{ihnp4,cbosgd,amd}!fortune!polard
N.B: The words in this posting do not necessarily express the opinions
of me, my employer, or any AI project.