tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post6520409091337209662..comments2023-10-24T04:29:23.693-06:00Comments on Atheist Ethicist: The Individual vs The CommunityAlonzo Fyfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05687777216426347054noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-59192648067077599062009-01-08T18:15:00.000-07:002009-01-08T18:15:00.000-07:00Are you arguing for a "lesser evil" approach to in...<I>Are you arguing for a "lesser evil" approach to individual right-deprivation, then?</I><BR/><BR/>Is the alternative greater evil? If your choices are between less evil or more evil, the ultimate answer seems obvious, as hard as it may be to accept any evil.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-40809934307760415002009-01-08T14:01:00.000-07:002009-01-08T14:01:00.000-07:00"This does not imply that it is always wrong to sa..."This does not imply that it is always wrong to sacrifice the interests of some individuals for the sake of other people. In fact, we do it all the time. We have a prison and court system that every honest person knows does harm to the interests of a lot of innocent people.<BR/><BR/>"However, we know that it would be foolish for us to abolish it, and to accept only a prison and court system that guarantees without the possibility of error that no innocent person will be punished. We know that we are doing harm to innocent people for the sake of the community, but we do so anyway."<BR/><BR/>Are you arguing for a "lesser evil" approach to individual right-deprivation, then?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-25390568670710424302009-01-08T11:24:00.000-07:002009-01-08T11:24:00.000-07:00I'm not sure this entirely answers the questio...I'm not sure this entirely answers the question. A lot of people I meet with aversions to sacrafice wouldn't disagree with any of what you said, but...<BR/><BR/>It is my understanding that some level of desire to sacrafice yourself for the good of others is a good thing. We have reasons to promote in others a desire to sacrafice themselves for the good of the community (a collection of interdependant individuals). We want someone to have the desire to give their own life if it means saving the lives of a thousand of his friends & neighbors. Likewise, others also have reasons for instilling that same desire in us.<BR/><BR/>Most people who loudly trumpt the importance of the individual over the community not only lack this desire, they have an aversion to anyone else having such a desire either.<BR/><BR/>Personally I believe thier arguements are incoherent, because if they are willing to sacrafice themselves for even two people (which I'm assuming most of them would) then their argument is hypocritical. I think it's supposed to be some sort of bulwark to argue against taxes. Some of the points are legitimate, but they tend to cling to this anti-helping-others stance so extremely that they often become people you really wouldn't want to know.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com