[lbo-talk] Revolutionary preferences & pathways (was "pointing finger of the neighbourhood")

[Chris Doss]

But isn't the judgment that a society is better that
more fully satisfies the prefences it engenders itself
a value judgment? It's anathema (no pun intended) to
many religious worldviews, and thus societies built on
them, or to essentially antidemocratic (in a strong
sense of the term) worldviews.

Also, I don't see why a priori one could exclude the
possibility that such a society would contain features
we (the royal we :) ) find repugnant.

--- Michael McIntyre <mcintyremichael at mac.com> wrote:
One need not understand "better" in the sense Chris
does here.  One  
could imagine a quasi-Rawlsian "veil of ignorance" in
which the those  
choosing the best society  know, among other things,
the distribution  
of preferences in these alternative societies.  The
"better" society  
- the one preferred behind this veil of ignorance,
would presumably  
be the one which satisfies best the preferences it
engenders.  No  
system of values need attach to this choice - one is
amoral with  
respect to the moral goodness or badness of the
preferences themselves.

Mataiotes mataioteton, eipen ho Ekklasiastes,
mataiotes mataioteton, ta panta mataiotes.

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