RE: Controversial topic but...
September 27, 2019 at 2:29 pm
(This post was last modified: September 27, 2019 at 2:41 pm by Anomalocaris.)
I would say we have two sets of values:
One set of values comes from individual as well as collective evaluation of self-interest, historic experience, and deductions that might plausibly, I most often in perhaps very impressionistic ways, maximize desired good at acceptable cost and risk. This is the sausage making process, much of which may be too convoluted, too embarrassing, to impressionistic, too intuitive, to be set out in a collected an defensible way for general consumption.
Another set comes from an attempt to create an ex-post set of rationalizations for the 1st set of values that would be acceptable to a wide enough range of other people to give the first set a good chance of sticking.
The notion that all people are equal is definitely part of the second set.
In practice, we often forget what is necessary rationalization for ensuring the society adopts a set of standards that would keep it from falling part or be overtaken and suppressed by another, and what is fundamentally true. As a result, we often forget there are reasons for keeping rationalization even if it is not strictly true. Conversely, we try to extend the rationalization as if it fundamentally true, leading to absurd conclusions that in no way help the rationalization serve its real purpose.
One set of values comes from individual as well as collective evaluation of self-interest, historic experience, and deductions that might plausibly, I most often in perhaps very impressionistic ways, maximize desired good at acceptable cost and risk. This is the sausage making process, much of which may be too convoluted, too embarrassing, to impressionistic, too intuitive, to be set out in a collected an defensible way for general consumption.
Another set comes from an attempt to create an ex-post set of rationalizations for the 1st set of values that would be acceptable to a wide enough range of other people to give the first set a good chance of sticking.
The notion that all people are equal is definitely part of the second set.
In practice, we often forget what is necessary rationalization for ensuring the society adopts a set of standards that would keep it from falling part or be overtaken and suppressed by another, and what is fundamentally true. As a result, we often forget there are reasons for keeping rationalization even if it is not strictly true. Conversely, we try to extend the rationalization as if it fundamentally true, leading to absurd conclusions that in no way help the rationalization serve its real purpose.
