X-Message-Number: 30201
From: 
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2007 10:58:22 EST
Subject: more responses

DSS wrote:
 

>You  equate "benefit to you" with "important to you." This simply   
>doesn't follow.

No, I didn't say that. I said that conscious motivation is what is INTENDED  
to benefit you, in the sense of tending to promote future feel-good. The 

things  most important to you now are those presently perceived as most likely 
to  
promote future feel-good. The ways of judging of course vary widely among  

individuals and from time to time, but will eventually be better understood and
organized.
 

>There is no solid way to measure conscious motivation. This is a  not  
>a concept that has been operationalized as far as I  know.


That limits but doesn't vitiate the usefulness of the concept. The  concept 
of utility is valid and useful even though no one has yet produced an  hedonic 
calculus. No one can doubt that we do, in fact, attempt to foresee and  
compare outcomes. 
 

>The  way you have redefined 'self-interest' certainly is at odds with   
>how the term is used in evolutionary biology, not to mention  common  
>usage.


New and improved. 
 
R.E.



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