Survivor!

[Justin Schwartz]

Kells, doll. Pardon me for going on like the former philosophy prof I am, or 
was. However, while you are right that egoism is not exactly a minority 
position in our society, you mistake several philosophical theories. 
Utilitarianism is not an egoistic view: it says, briefly, that the right 
asct (or rule) is that which maximizes social welfare, even if that is to 
your own disadvantage. Bentham based his utilitarianism on _psychological_ 
egoism, but he was not amn ethical egoist. As Peter Singer shows, if you 
combine utulitarianism with the theory of diminishing marginal returns, it 
becomes radically egalitarian. Locke was not a utilitarian but a rights 
theorist, and he was not even an psychological egoist. He thought that we 
had a weak but real tendency to follow the "law of nature" and enforce 
natural rights.

I will also add that Chris, in a rather flatheaded way, is pushing a 
question that philosophers have discussed a lot going back to Plato: Why 
Should I Be Moral? And there isn't an obvious answer to that if you want an 
answer that says, What's In It For Me? My real suspicion is that we say to 
Chris: you don't really believe that. And if you do, and if you act onit and 
get out of line, we'll crush you like a bug.

--jks


>From: kelley <kwalker2 at gte.net>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>Subject: Survivor!
>Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 09:56:45 -0500
>
>
>>christopher susi wrote:
>>
>>  or maybe challenge
>>others to think in a way they hadn't considered before.
>
>you are aware, of course, that the way *you* think on this topic in this
>discussion is the predominant way of thinking about these issues?  it's
>called utilitarian individualism, the ethical philosophy at the center of
>philosophical liberalism (Locke, et al).  every single  USer in this
>discussion and on this list, i'll bet, has actually grown up thinking much
>like this and sometimes *still* finds it hard to drop this way of thinking.
>
>there is no equivalence here, as you presume.  there are plenty of
>assumptions about the world that lefties and marxists make and should be
>challenged on.  members of this list who post seem to do a pretty good job
>of  holding one another's feet to the fire.

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