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From: mike@hpfclp.UUCP (mike)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Orphaned Response
Message-ID: <13300002@hpfclp.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Jun-85 21:28:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: hpfclp.13300002
Posted: Tue Jun 18 21:28:00 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 3-Jul-85 06:55:38 EDT
References: <-615700@umcp-cs.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:umcp-cs:-615700:hpfclp:13300002:37777777600:1539
Nf-From: hpfclp!mike    Jun 18 15:28:00 1985

>  Just recently, I read part of _Atlas Shrugged_ (part of the long speech by
>  John Galt); apparently Rand's attempt to derive ethics is there at least in
>  outline.  There are gaping holes in what I read, so unless there's much more
>  to the argument, I agree, it's a botch.
>  					--The developing iconoclast,
>  					Paul V. Torek, (soon at) umcp-cs!flink


Hmm.  I take it that  you  have  not  read the  entire  book.  I am very
interested in what you  specifically  consider to be the "gaping  holes"
you identified in ATLAS SHRUGGED and/or Ayn Rand's essays on Objectivest
Ethics.  

Rand's argument is that ethics can be derived  objectively  based on the
axiom  that  reality  is  objective.  If you do not  believe  that it is
possible to derive ethics objectively, then the ONLY alternative is that
ethics are subjective.  Subjective ethics (and subjective  morality) are
tantamount to "Anything Goes".  If you can't deduce an objective code by
which people can live with each other, then there is no code.  In such a
world,   the   only   ethics   possible   would  be  a   collection   of
range-of-the-moment  rules;  rules not  validated  by reason,  rules not
validated by an  understanding  or respect for man's  nature,  rules not
validated  by the  knowledge  required  for  the  proper  survival  of a
rational being.

People who choose their ethics as though they were  choosing  which pair
of shoes to wear  have  never  even  glimpsed  what is meant by the word
"morality".

Michael Bishop
hplabs!hpfcla!mike-b