For years I've grappled with a dilemma which is really only relevant to
people who want to argue with Objectivists. Basically once you claim to
live by a selfish code of ethics, what prevents you from violating the
rights of others for personal gain, in situations where you know you will
not be at risk?
David Friedman calls this the Prudent Predator dilemma, and he's been
twisting up Randroids with it for 40 years. He even got me with it, back in
the day, when I was basically trying to re-write Objectivism into something
that made sense.
Ethics, empathy, and
primate brain holdovers
I wish I knew of this argument a decade ago when a few of my friends fell
heavily into Objectivism. In trying to understand them, I even read all
zillion pages of Atlas
Shrugged (neat story, but she could have used an editor).
The entry also points out some recent research showing that there may be a
biological component to society. Read, as they say, the whole thing.
You have my permission to link freely to any entry here. Go
ahead, I won't bite. I promise.
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