[Kevin] So getting a correct answer to the betterness question depends on the motivation? If the drive is emotional (read biological) then it may be better for the individual but not necessarity society. But if the dirve is intellectual it's better for the individual _and_ society?
[Arlo] I think I'd say "betterness", or Quality, is pursued on all MOQ levels. Sometimes these levels conflict in value. In you question you say "it may be better for the individual", and I think the represents an external perspective. Certainly, in the immediate moment of action the individual sees some "betterness" to his actions (such as releasing pent up rage), but this does not mean that others, perhaps taking on social or intellectual or even long-term understandings of biological quality would necessarily agree that the act was "better". Take "sex", for example, although in the moment one could say the individual achieves biological-level quality (ignoring the Kama Sutra for this purpose), a longer term view of biological quality may be an avoidance of biological disease. As to you second point, if the drive is intellectual (such as the Boston Tea Party), it could very well be "worse" for the individual and for the current static social patterns, with only intellectual patterns emerging as "better off". (Although you could adopt the neocon perspective that nobody does anything that is not self-interest. Mother Theresa, for example, was an egoist who did good works to make herself appear Great. The Boston Tea Party-ers acted only out of self-interest in being seen as Heroes. Etc.) In any event, here you have to separate out "good for the social level" and "good for the current static social patterns of that level". The BTP was not at all good for the current social arrangement, it thrust the social level into chaos and many likely saw it as undermining comfortable social-level stability. But the social-level itself is better now having its patterns structured on democracy rather than monarchy. 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/
