baba@spar.UUCP (Baba ROM DOS) (06/09/85)
> > >> Moreover, how can anyone know what's best > >> for anyone else? > >> Mike Sykora > > > >By the same logic, how can everyone know what's best for *themselves*? > > > > Baba > > That doesn't look like the same logic to me. Since it does to you, > it's evident that the real disagreement is metaphysical/ethical; namely, > what is the "good"? Clearly, if you don't think people can know what's > good for themselves, your basic values have nothing to do with an > individual's Pursuit of Happiness (not to mention Life and Liberty.) You mistake me. I was asking Mike to elaborate on his criteria for knowledge of self-interest. Most people resent having decisions made for them, and that is reason enough for a democratic society to try to minimize coercion of its members. But a claim that coercion is of itself *inherently* detrimental to either society or the individual is something I would dispute. The inference that my "basic values" are not in line with the Declaration of Independence is puzzling and, I believe, irrelevant. > Do you place the highest value on your individual life (and thus, by > rational extension, on the lives of others) or do you value something > other than life, to which individual lives may be sacrificed? > > W. F. Linke Neither. Baba ROM DOS