> > No; it's faulty and arguably inferior. There are two proofs of that, > one historical fact and the other a bit more feel-goodish but still > valid (IMO). One, the Nazis lost the war. That happened at least in > part because of their arrogance and belligerence, but possibly too > because of the sense of outrage that formed when it was realized what > was really going on over there.
Huh? People accepted what was really going on over there after the allies marched into the death camps. Further, to zeroth order, it was Stalin's USSR that defeated the Nazis. >Not all who sieg heiled were bad people. Its fairly well established > Two, any social system that attempts to quell diversity will suffer and > probably fail when it is forced to compete with another, more > cosmopolitan social system. That sounds like arguing what happened must have been inevitable. I presume you agree that, without a powerful United States, it would have been a contest between the Nazis and Stalin's USSR for dominence, right? > Yes. Cold-blooded killings happen all the time in Texas, as an example, > under edict of law. And I say it is wrong. > > No, but it's harder to nail down the particulars because there are so > many situations in which different conclusions can be reached to the > same dilemmas (well, superficially the same anyway). > Yes; I intimated one way above. But, that is a very suspect arguement. Very unethical systems have suceeded for centuries. > > That doesn't affect the fact that your right to life doesn't exist as > anything but a human-defined idea, not a law of nature. Right, it is not deducable from observation. > > Does free will exist? Does responsibility exist? Do reflective > > self-awarenesses exist? > > Ah, I see what you were asking, sorry. Free will -- good question. I > honestly don't know, though it sure seems like it exists. > > Responsibility -- if there is no free will, then naturally no. > Otherwise, yes. OK, does free will exist. You know there is no experimental evidence for it. > Reflective self-awareness -- since I use that to arrive at my ethical > decisions, I'm inclined to think it exists as well. OK, can you point out the increased predictive power of using "brain + reflective self-awareness" compared to "brain" in modeling observation? I think this is dependant on the existence of free will, otherwise reflective self awareness is merely an effect. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
