Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: notesfiles Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!whuxl!houxm!mtuxo!mtunh!mtung!mtunf!ariel!vax135!timeinc!phri!pesnta!hplabs!hp-pcd!hpfclp!mike 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> Lines: 31 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