Greetings Ham,
By rational, do you mean 'whatever you think'? Because it seems to me that humans are comprised of very different patterns of thought. Marsha At 07:29 PM 9/28/2007, you wrote: >HI Marsha -- > > > > > Well, there is the obvious problem, the sadomasochist. Both the > > Golden Rule and Kant's Categorical Imperative seem to make their > > point-of-view permissible. How would you define being rational? > >You'll note that I said "generally it can be described in terms of the >Golden Rule." You have mischievously come up with an exception to this >rule, but I believe I could make a good case for the irrationality of >sadomasochism. In fact, I can think of no deviant behavior, from child >molestation to shop lifting and xenophobia, that could not be understood as >irrational by the perpetrator. I'm not saying that he would admit it, nor >am I denying that "genetic predisposition" or environmental influences may >be a factor here, but it is inconceivable to me that a reasonably >intelligent person could doubt the rationality of anti-social behavior. > >With the possible exception of psychotic individuals, the vast majority of >humans in a free society innately recognize the value of life and respect >the right of others to behave as they please, provided this behavior does >not impose on their freedom. Indeed, our laws are written from this >rational point of view. So that the social deviant need only be informed of >these laws (which are often read to him after the initial offense) in order >to be aware of his unreasonable behavior. Even if one cannot comprehend >that what harms his fellows harms himself, there is little excuse for >irrational conduct in a society founded on rational principles. > >--Ham > > >Moq_Discuss mailing list >Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. >http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org >Archives: >http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ >http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
