Modern capitalist western ideology preaches individualism as a pinnacle of freedom and democracy. Is there any evidence that a society or a world full of people making individual rational choices will have a rational outcome?

Only if they do so collectively.

That would require humans to think about others, beyond their own individual wants.

What you're suggesting doesn't even make sense. If you think about others, you are necessarily doing so because you want to.

As for your original post, you seem to cleave off anything like morality. Given there is a world with creatures with the capacity to reason, they'll necessarily (if they don't want to get picked off) have to have some kind of cooperation. This is where employing one's rational decision-making through moral decisions comes into play.

(November 24, 2013 at 3:24 pm)MindForgedManacle Wrote: What you're suggesting doesn't even make sense. If you think about others, you are necessarily doing so because you want to.

As for your original post, you seem to cleave off anything like morality. Given there is a world with creatures with the capacity to reason, they'll necessarily (if they don't want to get picked off) have to have some kind of cooperation. This is where employing one's rational decision-making through moral decisions comes into play.

I agree. I'd also like to add that the idea of a "rational outcome" is nonsensical."

.... If I lived in a far off, extremely secluded land, I find the need for visitors far less pertinent than living in a farm community and relying on the tomato farmer and horse rancher to trade for my fruits and smithy.