On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 1:12 PM, david buchanan <[email protected]>wrote:
> > Craig asked: > But is it more moral for a bad idea to kill a good society than it is for a > good society to kill a bad idea? > > John replied: > > That is a interesting question. ... Part of my definition of "good society" > is one that is immune to bad ideas. And it is always the ongoing task of > good society to kill bad ideas. > > > dmb says: > > Part of my definition of a "good society" is one that can stand up to > intellectual scrutiny, one that can survive new ideas, freedom of > expression, free speech and freedom of thought in general. But the > suggestion that it's okay for a society to kill ideas defies the MOQ's moral > hierarchy. Qualifying the hypothetical society with "good" and qualifying > the ideas as "bad" doesn't alter that principle. John] Well on the third level, "good" is relative to social goals - success, longevity, prospering, rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing. And society kills bad ideas all the time. Even if Mein Kampf isn't actually banned or burned, it sure is frowned upon in a way that "kills" the bad ideas therein as effectively as governmental censorship. Pirisg didn't say it's immoral for a society to kill an idea. He said it was comparatively more moral for an idea to kill a society. dmb] > Craig's question strikes me as the verbal equivalent of a card trick. In > fact, the whole notion is quite half-baked and confused. I mean, on what > basis can we judge an idea to be good or bad? John] Dude, if you have to ask that, you'd better get you a more useful metaphysics. dmb] Since the evaluation of an idea can only take place with intellectual tools > at the intellectual level, bad ideas are going to be killed by better ideas, > not social values. > John] Ideas are evaluated by reality, biological reality, social reality and maybe intellect. All have their "evaluation" of an idea and any one of them could conceivably kill the idea. This is difficult with my tired brain. I really need to think of a concrete example and get away from the abstract here. It took more than intellectual evaluation to kill Hitler's ideas - it took tanks and guns. What about the media? A social phenomena which constantly kills intellectual ideas by the simple expedient of ignoring them while trumpeting the latest celebrity death. I have a prophecy. Based on math. In the future, someone famous will die every fifteen minutes. John > > 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/ > -- ------------ There are differing interpretations of Reality, some are just better than others, that's all. ------------ 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/
