To Harry Pollards slogan: > > > > 1. People's desires are unlimited
I am just reading Fichtes "Foundations of Natural Rights" (Grundlage des Naturrechts nach Principien der Wissenschaftslehre - from 1797). Among the first axioms are that to be a rational being one has to put limits to ones freedom to allow other persons freedom. Second Theorem, �3, is: "The finite being cannot ascribe to itself a free efficacy in the sensible world without also ascribing such efficacy to others, and thus without also presupposing the existence of other finite rational beings outside itself." Harry Pollards sentences are just to stupid!! It is, of course, only small children who wants everything! And his propositions are only valid for small children. To be a free rational being you have to know your limits because you have to recognize other humans. If you do not recognize other humans, you are not a human yourself!!! It is just a child who wants the moon! I do not want it in my pocket or on my property, even though I like to look at it!! And I do not envy other people who are looking at the moon. The moon does a perfectly good job for me shining in the sky!! Harry Pollard should read som philosophy, about intersubjectivity! > > If wishing to enjoy the limited pleasures of a healthy mind and body > in good companionship forever is "unlimited", then only a person > who wishes to die has limited desires. > > > 2. People seek to satisfy their desires with the least exertion > > This is trivial, since presumably a person who decided to > accomplish something the hardest way he could think of would > be doing it with the least exertion too. > > > 3. People have a curiosity beyond present needs for survival > > Not if you give them enough thorazine. > > > > > Then Arthur Cordell came up with a fourth: > > > > (AC) > > >>>> > > How about a fourth? Humans are meaning seeking creatures. We are > > taxonomists. One of the ways in which we find meaning is to order and > > label things. Another way in which we find meaning is to "discover" > > self-evident truths. A sort of benchmarking. A way of providing building > > blocks for whatever intellectual edifice we are seeking to build. > > >>>> > > > > . . . which could be summarised as: > > > > 4. Humans are meaning-seeking creatures. > > It is not possible to imagine human existence without > meaning-orientation. > This is the basic notion of Husserl's phenomenology: "intentionality". > > But this "meaning seeking" need not seek after anything *honoricfically > meaningful*. A person who likes to torture animals is seeking meaning > too.... > > > > > You haven't mounted a response to my suggestion of a third, though you have > > to Arthur's fourth. I don't understand this. > > > > Instead, let me suggest that Arthur's suggestion is a consequence of my > > third. Curiosity leads to myths, taxonomies and, of course theories and > > science. > > > > While I was away, I examined my third axiom further and decided that it > > still stands. (So I await your attempt at rebuttal!) I then fell to > > wondering whether there was yet another axiom: > > > > 4. Man has an inherent sense of justice. > [snip] > > Or at least a sense of self-righteousness, sometimes. > > Sophocles summed up a lot of it in his Ode to Man in Antigone: > > O clear intelligence, force beyond all measure, > O fate of man working both good and evil [etc.]! > > The opium addict is human. Hitler was human. Bill Gates is > human. Edmund Husserl was human. Thoman Mann was human. > Sophocles was human. Jeffrey Dahlmer was human. Archie > Bunker is human. Jeff Skilling and George Bush (and Al Gore > and Ralph Nader and Maggie Thatcher... are human). > > They all instantiate[d] existential structures like > having a past and having a future, etc. > > A coworker posted on his door: > > Three things are not possible: > The desire of the rich to always have more, > The desire of the sick for something different, > And the desire of the traveller to be any place but here. > > These wishes are, of course, different from the desires of (e.g.) the > poor, the involuntarily idled (the industrial reserve army, e.g.), and > those trapped in sunken submarines. > > \brad mccormick > > -- > Let your light so shine before men, > that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16) > > Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21) > > <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/ > >
