Steve wrote:
I assume you mean this in the sense of "single issue voters" and in the
more general sense of multivariate optimization being more "effective"
than univariate in general problem solving?
One might argue that is harmful to eat animals. One way argue that would be
to imagine that you were to be eaten. How would you feel? That assumes that
all species are equally valuable or perceive things in a comparable way. A
hedonist might argue that the pleasure of eating meat is self-evident and not
arguable. Another way would be to argue that raising animals is too energy
intensive, and that it produces greenhouse gases. That would be pointing to a
shared environment that would impact many species. Or one might argue that
carnivores are evolved for eating flesh, and so if all life is valuable then
there is a paradox. There are many perspectives one could take on the
matter, some there are more objective and quantifiable than the others. A
rational decision involves agreeing on what matters and then making a decision
based on all of those things. Prescriptive cultures either fail to recognize
the complexity of what matters (poor modeling), or they make up some random
stuff and fail to learn from their social experiments. The failure becomes
doctrine and impacts their economies and quality of life for centuries.
Steve writes:
The article on Cosmopolitanism seems to reference this somewhat...
That "giving a damn about the world at large" does not have to be in
opposition to "giving a damn about one's
family/community/region/nation", yet it is caricatured/characterized
that way so often. How might one (one self or all-one) resolve this
kind of (artificial/rhetorical?) difference without geologic upheaval?
Logic? If the whole is in equilibrium than the parts are in equilibrium.
I think upheaval is ok. A few small earthquakes here and there won't release
the energy.
Marcus
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
