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Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a
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rshow55
- 05:16pm Mar 4, 2003 EST (#
9438 of 17697) Can we do a better job of finding
truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have
done and worked for on this thread.
The idea of the Golden Rule is very old, but very basic -
and Details and the Golden Rule http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md01000s/DetailNGR.htm
includes this:
------------------------------
rshowalter - 02:16pm Jun 1, 2001 BST
Professor Harry J. Gensler has great references, to a great
deal of careful thought, in http://www.jcu.edu/philosophy/gensler/goldrule.htm
I liked this -- but how much detail is needed to meet what
is said!
" To apply the golden rule adequately, we
need knowledge and imagination. We need to know what effect
our actions have on the lives of others. And we need to be
able to imagine ourselves, vividly and accurately, in the
other person's place on the receiving end of the action.
With knowledge, imagination, and the golden rule, we can
progress far in our moral thinking. .
" The golden rule is best seen as a
consistency principle. It doesn't replace regular moral
norms. It isn't an infallible guide on which actions are
right or wrong; it doesn't give all the answers. It only
prescribes consistency - that we not have our actions
(toward another) be out of harmony with our desires (toward
a reversed situation action). It tests our moral coherence.
If we violate the golden rule, then we're violating the
spirit of fairness and concern that lie at the heart of
morality. .
" The golden rule, with roots in a wide
range of world cultures, is well suited to be a standard to
which different cultures could appeal in resolving
conflicts. As the world becomes more and more a single
interacting global community, the need for such a common
standard is becoming more urgent."
A key issue, that I think is underappreciated, is deception
. We are all in need of correct information, for fundamental
reasons -- and we need it in such a complex world that we
cannot predict what facts that we have not checked we will
have to rely on.
Lies, taken as correct, can and often do have very bad
consequences.
An essential requirement, to make the Golden Rule more
operational, is to find ways to increase the incidence of
factually correct information, and reduce the amount that is
deceptive.
Checking is a moral issue, as well as a practical one,
right here.
The idea that checking must be morally forcing is still
very much outside the mainstream.
But it is a crucial idea, if we are to get beyond a
"culture of lying" to a culture permitting more complicated,
just, productive cooperation - and the idea that checking is
obligatory in politics is becoming more discussable.
Since we all depend on cooperation for most of what makes
life good and possible, this is an important point of hope.
Lies terminate the possibilities of cooperation and peace,
much too often.
Lies believed to be true - because of acceptance of false
information, are because of self deception, are no better -
and can be more dangerous, because they are both harder to
see, and harder to change.
How much better the world would be, how much less agony
there would now be, if lies and self deception about AIDS
could have been less, and discipline in the common good could
have been greater?
See an admirable NYT Special AIDS at 20 -- http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/aids/aids-index.html
and especially a stunning graphic THE SIZE OF AIDS ON A
(NATIONAL AND GLOBAL) SCALE http://www.nytimes.com/images/2001/06/05/science/sci_AIDS_010605_01.pdf
More millions of people than most people could reliably
count (just in millions) are dead, or certain to die of Aids -
because of human deception, self deception, and moral
weakness.
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