[Previous] Negotiating Sex, Gender Roles | Home | [Next] help, my partner isn't ARR! a practical guide

Learning; Bad Syllogism

Quotes from Atheism: The Case Against God by George H. Smith, in the section on Rational Morality.

The section begins:
A rational morality, in essence, is a code of values required by man for his survival, well-being and happiness. The term “rational” is used because such a code must be based on the facts of human value, and only reason can determine what is and is not of value to man. A rational meta-ethics, therefore, is based on man’s need for objective values, his need to determine those goals that are conducive to his well-being. To take a simple illustration, food is of value to man, it is instrumental in maintaining his life; poison is not. If man is to survive, he must value food and disvalue poison. Man’s evaluations must be based on, and agree with, those things that are actually of value to him.

Just as a rational man is committed to facts and the use of reason, so a rational morality is based on the facts of human value and the role of reason in man’s survival. Three aspects of man’s nature constitute the foundation of a rational meta-ethics: the fact that man is a conceptual being, the fact that man is a volitional being, and the fact that man is a purposive being.
Can you tell what perspective the author has, what worldview, what allegiances?

If you can't tell, that's a really damning criticism of you. You have a big problem. To avoid spoilers, I'll provide the answer at the bottom of this post. Think about it a bit.
... A general example of this syllogism is the following:

Mr. Jones wants x.
In order to obtain x, one must do y.
Therefore, Mr. Jones ought to (or should, or must) do y.
This syllogism is false.

It doesn't follow that if you want something, and there is a particular way to get it, that you should do that. Maybe you shouldn't want it.

This kind of thinking is really bad and stupid. It's so grossly wrong it's hard to explain much about it. It's a non sequitur. He missed the possibility that a want could be immoral. There isn't much more to say. It's just awful and such a basic error it doesn't require much explanation.

That people don't know better is why the world is currently burning.

The perspective above is Objectivism. The author is an Objectivist. If you couldn't tell that from the two paragraphs I provided, then you don't know Objectivism very well. Objectivism is the most important and best philosophy. You should learn it really well. If you don't, you're living a bad life, and that disaster is totally avoidable. Read Ayn Rand. Study it. Ask questions, discuss it, learn it. It's that or bad a bad person with a bad life, forever – and when you say you didn't know any better, you will be lying.

Information about Objectivism is readily available. If you have any criticisms of learning Objectivism, post them here or at the Fallible Ideas Discussion Group and I will refute them or else send you $500. Or if you have no criticisms of learning Objectivism, then do it.

(I make this money offer to remove some excuses to evade the issue. If you know better, no you aren't too busy to tell me for $500. No that isn't a waste of your time. Also to be clear, I'm talking about criticisms to the effect that people shouldn't study Objectivism so much. If you merely argue that it's only got 9999998 importance instead of 9999999, I will not pay you, because in that case you should still learn about Objectivism in detail.)

EDIT: I raised the issue of the syllogism with the author. He replied:
You don't understand the point of the practical syllogism, nor do you understand the reason I included a discussion of it in ATCAG. How you got the idea that I was saying that merely wanting x is sufficient reason to pursue x, or how you came to believe that this is entailed by the practical syllogism, boggles the mind. Any such notion contradicts everything I said in my discussion of ethics. So, no, I am not grateful for your "help."
I don't see any substantive counter-argument here, nor any clarification of the book material. He just flames me as a stupid person who doesn't understand – a claim he merely asserts and leaves at that.

Well, it's like I said: this is why the world is burning. Maybe his reply will clarify that for someone who didn't see the connection initially.

Elliot Temple on May 22, 2015

Messages (14)

Exxon Valdez

You are approximately as competent to conduct a course on philosophy as Joseph Hazelwood (pilot of the Exxon Valdez ship that crashed in Alaska's Puget Sound, spilling millions of tons of oil) was at marine navigation.

If there was a category for "Delusional and Clueless Belief" in the dictionary, your name would surely be included as a prime example. You are beyond delusional; it's as though you're living in a parallel world where everyone lives utterly cluelessly, and you are worshipped on that world. A world which no sane person would ever wish to visit.

Larry


Lawrence Ambrose at 4:30 PM on August 6, 2017 | #8905 | reply | quote

y Lawrence Ambrose so ir8


Anonymous at 4:33 PM on August 6, 2017 | #8906 | reply | quote

u wrong cuz my feelings told me.


Anonymous at 5:01 PM on August 6, 2017 | #8907 | reply | quote

maybe he's a George Smith fan who found this on google?


Anonymous at 5:06 PM on August 6, 2017 | #8908 | reply | quote

> You are approximately as competent to conduct a course on philosophy as Joseph Hazelwood (pilot of the Exxon Valdez ship that crashed in Alaska's Puget Sound, spilling millions of tons of oil) was at marine navigation.

without knowing anything about it, my suspicion is he was trained and competent at the field of marine navigation and shit

and he got unlucky or he made an error a trained person could make or he was lazy or some other thing training doesn’t really fix

falling asleep at the wheel or whatevs isn’t some kinda problem of ignorance of marine navigation


Anonymous at 5:10 PM on August 6, 2017 | #8909 | reply | quote

Lawrence Ambrose is such an Ayn Rand villain. how *dare* you disagree with the majority!


Anonymous at 5:10 PM on August 6, 2017 | #8910 | reply | quote

who are you to have your own opinion and think you're right? who are you to live by your own mind and judgement? obey, crawl, defer, and please dear god SHUT UP because i'm not as serenely confident as you and i can't stand to have anyone else doubt me – my self-doubt is bad enough!


Anonymous at 5:12 PM on August 6, 2017 | #8911 | reply | quote

how can you act like you know what you're talking about when so many more famous people say you're wrong, and I, who have done my best to follow the herd, have no confidence in my own judgement at all?


Anonymous at 5:14 PM on August 6, 2017 | #8912 | reply | quote

i can't answer you, but i can call you insane.


Anonymous at 5:14 PM on August 6, 2017 | #8913 | reply | quote

liked "who are you to have your own opinion and think you're right? who are you to live by your own mind and judgement? obey, crawl, defer, and please dear god SHUT UP because i'm not as serenely confident as you and i can't stand to have anyone else doubt me – my self-doubt is bad enough!"


Anonymous at 5:37 PM on August 6, 2017 | #8914 | reply | quote

liked "i can't answer you, but i can call you insane."


Anonymous at 5:37 PM on August 6, 2017 | #8915 | reply | quote

You are so incompetent that it's not worth my time to explain why you're wrong[, yet I have more than enough time to call you stupid.]


Anonymous at 5:38 PM on August 6, 2017 | #8916 | reply | quote

oh wait i fucked up. second try

You're so wrong that it's not worth my time to explain WHY, yet I have more than enough time to write 98 words worth of rhetoric that boils down to "you're stupid."


Anonymous at 5:41 PM on August 6, 2017 | #8917 | reply | quote

#8917

you forgot the 2 words where he wrote his full name. it's an even 100 ;)

of course he could make time to have a discussion if he actually had skill and interest in discussion.


Anonymous at 5:57 PM on August 6, 2017 | #8918 | reply | quote

Want to discuss this? Join my forum.

(Due to multi-year, sustained harassment from David Deutsch and his fans, commenting here requires an account. Accounts are not publicly available. Discussion info.)