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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: rights and self interest
Message-ID: <302@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 19-Aug-83 13:41:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: dciem.302
Posted: Fri Aug 19 13:41:21 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Aug-83 05:21:43 EDT
References: <432@ariel.UUCP>
Organization: D.C.I.E.M, Toronto, Canada
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Rights are principles, inventions of the human mind that fill a very real need.
====================

I doubt very much that rights are human inventions. They seem to be pervasive
in animal societies, and to have evolved in order that those societies
could survive. Our "rights" are not *human* rights; they are natural
rights, and if we ignore them, we are likely not to survive as a society,
and perhaps as a species.

I find the whole argument between Tom Craver and his opponents to be
insubstantial, because it revolves around logic and rationality as
fundamental to the correctness of actions. Humans have very little
capacity for either, but are the product of billions of years of
experimentation on methods of survival, during which certain strategies
have proved effective. Among those strategies are respect for the "rights"
of others, capacity for feeling love and hate, feelings of hunger,
etc. Tom's "rational" human would be an omniscient God, and almost
omnipotent in its brainpower, not a real, evolved, human being.

"Rational" behaviour in one's own self-interest requires knowledge not
only of all circumstances that might affect the outcome of an action,
but also of all the interactions among other people, animate and
inanimate entities that participate. In other words, it requires a
knowledge of all science past and future, as well as of all the
boundary conditions that apply to the problems at hand. It seems
totally irrational to claim that humans could even potentially behave
"rationally". The best approach is to trust one's instincts in most
respects, and use the little logical ability we have to the best of
our ability so as to refine the use of those instincts.

Martin Taylor