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From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: How Rich's Absolute is more absolute than mine
Message-ID: <1035@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 29-Jul-85 23:08:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.1035
Posted: Mon Jul 29 23:08:15 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 31-Jul-85 22:52:41 EDT
References: <996@umcp-cs.UUCP> <1335@pyuxd.UUCP>
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 28

In article <1335@pyuxd.UUCP> rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen) writes:

>As I've said in n+1 other articles, this is only true if you assume (which
>you are) that I was seeking to *justify* human survival as an absolute.  That
>wasn't the question, and I wasn't trying to do so.  Such a thing cannot be
>done without anthropocentric "special status for humanity" claims such
>as those that permeate certain religions.  The question was "Why do we
>value survival?"
>and the answer is "Because we like surviving, because our chemistry is such
>that we humans gain pleasure from surviving, and seek to continue to do so".
>Sounds objective enough to me.  It's not "appealing" to our likes and 
>dislikes as justification, it's simply stating facts.

1) The reason for asking the survival question in the first place was because
   Rich seems to think he can construct a moral obligation (whether it is
   absolute or not) directly out of this principle.

2) Rich's so-called objective facts are far from established.  At best they 
   are unproven hypotheses.  And the existence of an important minority which
   does not value survival indicates that, to be called facts, these
   statements must have percentages attached to them.

3) Comments about certain religions are rather beside the point, since, for
   the sake of this argument, I have abandoned Christian moral principles.
   I agree with Rich to a large extent; th problem is, I don't agree with his
   reasons for believing what he does.

Charley Wingate