Re: telos, rationality and action

Just a thought, Randy: Most people are neither rational nor moral when
they act. You can certainly see this is business, especially sales and
marketing, both of which are built on essential dishonesty, and where all
participants suspect that all other participants are lying by commission
or omission. 

I would hypothesize in a scientific sense, that, given the sets of all
actions all individuals commit during a particular time interval
(excluding times when they are asleep), at least 50 percent of all acts
are either irrational or immoral for at least 50 percent of all the people
in the population (note: NOT 'sample' but population). 
 
As for 'social good' -- social good has never been produced without
leadership, sometimes immoral acts, and rarely through a collective
concensus we might call the democratic process. I think history will bear
out the fact that minorities of leaders have accounted for the emergence
of 95 percent of anything we might refer to as a 'social good.' (Example:
Only 5 percent of the population supported the American Revolution.)

//CJR

On Wed, 1 Dec 1999 John_R_Groves@ferris.edu wrote:

> 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
>