telos, rationality and action

Ed, thanks for the thoughtful response. I would like to respond to your 
point
that you "find such questions (concerning questions of the good or goals of
society) perplexing to the point of thinking that perhaps they should not be
raised.  It's too much like trying to assign purpose to the universe, which 
pays
no attention to us anyhow.  Too much questioning might lead to a conundrum 
that
could freeze all action, good as well as bad."

Your point is well taken, but some minimal conception of the social good is
necessary is we are to be rational and moral in our attempts to act. One 
can get
bogged down in theory, but some is absolutely necessary. Otherwise our 
actions
merely flail around emotively. In another post I suggested a world-wide 
minimum
of health care (which would probably require a minimum caloric intake as 
well)
as a starting point. My earlier post also suggested "higher" goals such as
cultural goals, and I can see where that might get bogged down, especially 
since
we are so far from providing even a minimum of basic goods for the world's
population.

Randy Groves