Hi DMB, It's the doctrinal ... "Social Darwinism says ..." that I find unhelpful, but given the personal, human content of your mail, I won't insult your intelligence by turning this into a definitional argument about the "ism".
No I don't see any contradiction. My evolutionary view of society does not say "that's just how the world works and so it sees attempts to regulate the marketplace as a kind of error, as a matter of defying nature." My kind of "social evolution" says - understand that this is how the world works, so that we can better manage and regulate it. Our brains (biological, social and intellectual) are part of that evolution - our nature is part of nature. To leave markets (and democracies) unregulated would be a criminal abnegation of our natural moral responsibilities, like leaving our human brains at the door before entering society. Like I said, a no-brainer ;-) What's wrong with "Social Darwinism" is that it is a doctrine (dogma) which says that capitalist laws of the jungle are best. A no brainer. I was agreeing with you. So what is better, DMB ? (That was of course just an aside in the original response, but no matter.) Regards Ian On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 1:32 AM, david buchanan <[email protected]> wrote: > > dmb said: > Personally, I think that if this doesn't bother you, if you don't think > social justice is more important than a buck, you're not a moral person. > Sorry, but that's how I see it." > > > Ian replied: > > > I would say, that's a no-brainer, no apology required, who could possibly > disagree. [and] Not sure why social Darwinism needs to be a "doctrine". Like > MoQism surely it is just a means of understanding the mechanisms at work. We > still have moral choices to make. > > > > dmb says: > > Social Darwinism is just a matter of understanding the mechanisms at work AND > the desire for social justice is no brainer? You don't see the contradiction > in that? Social Darwinism says that the economy operates according to certain > laws, as if to say "that's just how the world works" and so it sees attempts > to regulate the marketplace as a kind of error, as a matter of defying nature. 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/
