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From: sts@ssc-vax.UUCP (Stanley T Shebs)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: rights for ssc-vax!sts
Message-ID: <391@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Aug-83 16:08:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: ssc-vax.391
Posted: Tue Aug  9 16:08:44 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 10-Aug-83 04:58:51 EDT
References: <372@houti.UUCP>
Organization: Boeing Aerospace, Seattle
Lines: 36

*very* interesting.  Some answers and some sidestepping.

After sending off the original article, I realized that Objectivism
only claims that humans can and should be rational, not that they
actually are.  I suppose it's a nice dream, but what evidence is there
that *any* human *can* be rational according to the standards set
by Objectivism?  Ayn Rand's heroes appear to be completely rational,
but they are also much larger than life.  My question remains
unanswered.

"Are there any completely rational humans?"

(I'm not going to quibble over definitions until I see some examples
of real persons as models of rationality)

I assume that the answer to the question "Do I have a right to eat?"
is No (which is what I expected).  I do like the answer to "Do I have
a right to noninterference with rational thought?", which was Yes.
I thought the "problem in general" was obvious, but no, so it here it
is again:

"Can rights conflict with one another, and if so, how are they resolved?"

It appears to me that they can, the easiest example being a case where
only one of two people can survive in some situation, and it is up to
a third person to decide who will live (perhaps a robot, hence the
reference to Asimov).  Many abortions might also fall into that
category, so it's not a purely theoretical problem.  A trickier
problem might be that of a ship's captain who is left with only
enough food and water for half the crew, and might be able to reach
a port if half the crew were killed immediately (I know, there's
a lot of variables, but am looking for ideas).  I sure we can all
think of similar situations.  What's the answer?

					stan the lep hacker
					ssc-vax!sts (soon utah-cs)