X-Message-Number: 8948
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 1997 07:38:21 -0500 (EST)
From: Ben Best <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #8942

On Fri, 19 Dec 1997, Ettinger <> wrote:

> Ben Best has an excellent piece--one of several--in the current Canadian
> Cryonics News, concerning attitudes and motivations of immortalists and non-
> or anti-immortalists. A few additional remarks and one disagreement:

    While I appreciate Robert Ettinger's flattering comments, I wonder why
he chose to reply to the CCN piece as a CryoNet message rather than as a 
"Letter to the Editor" of CANADIAN CRYONICS NEWS. Few CryoNet readers
subscribe to CCN, and I don't think the context Robert replies-to is 
clearly understandable on the basis of his references. Therefore, if 
Robert does not object, I will accept Message #8942 as a "Letter to the
Editor" to CCN and reply to him in the magazine. 

    If anyone has a burning interest in the questions raised, a
subscription to CCN can be ordered from:

                        CANADIAN CRYONICS NEWS
                        Box 788 Station "A"
                        Toronto, Ontario
                        M5W 1G3   Canada

    Cost is Cdn$10/year in Canada, US$10/year in the USA and US$14/year
in other countries.

> Now the disagreement. Ben--along with almost everyone else outside of the

> dogmatists--suggests that values are individual and above or beyond criticism.
> His example is one's preference in flavors of ice cream.
> 
> The example is misleading because it is trivial. But trivial or profound,
> values are not arbitrary and not beyond analysis and modification. There are
> indeed values one "ought" or ought not to hold. (Of course we need to
> distinguish between societal values and individual values; it is the latter
> that are basic.)

     I will reply briefly to these remarks here, and in more depth in the 
magazine. Robert neglected my caveat. Immediately following my remark
about ice cream flavor preference I made the statement: "But when
preferences are based on misperceptions of the existing choices, it is 
possible to attempt enlightenment & persuasion".

     My assertion is that an "ought" cannot be derived completely from an
"is". Ayn Rand tried to argue for "objective values" on the basis that 
those who do not make choices directed toward survival are not behaving
as "man qua man". I would call this "man qua Rand" -- people frequently 
commit suicide and I see no ultimate grounds for arguing that those people
made the "wrong choice". Unless (as I suggested), the choice to commit
suicide was based on a misperception of facts.

         --------------------------------------------
            Ben Best ()
            http://www.benbest.com/

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