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From: faustus@ucbvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: absolute value systems
Message-ID: <419@ucbvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 25-Jun-83 15:51:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.419
Posted: Sat Jun 25 15:51:54 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 27-Jun-83 18:46:49 EDT
Lines: 25

Rh@mit-eddi makes a point that is a large part of the philosophy
of Nietzsche (which, by the way, is very relevant to the present
discussion): we are defeating nature and our own continued 
evolution by our charity towards the weaker members of society.
To quote Nietzsche from "Beyond Good and Evil":

	"What, then, is the attitude of the two greatest
	religons... to the surplus of failures in life? They 
	endeavour to preserve and keep alive whatever can be
	preserved; in fact, as the religons for sufferers, they
	take the part of those upon principle... [They] are
	among the principal causes which have kept the type of
	"man" upon a lower level- they have preserved too much
	of that which should have perished."

This is a very extreme viewpoint; in fact, it is the starting
point for the Nazi idealogy.  I think the important lession that
one can gain from Nietzsche is that if you are going to throw
absolute value systems away, you had better have some source of
values that will prevent society from degenerating into
barbarism (of course, Nietzsche thinks that society should
degenerate into barbarism, so you can't argue with him on this
score).  

	Wayne