Re: ExI = Truth First ?

Ian Goddard (igoddard@netkonnect.net)
Fri, 15 May 1998 23:36:26 -0400


At 07:11 PM 5/15/98 -0700, Max More wrote:

>>In the Extropian society, is the core principle:
>>
>>"We acknowledge only those truths that are useful."
>
>Before you all get involved in arguing about this, let me note that this is
>NOT a core principle. In fact it's not a principle at all. Where did you
>get this from, Ian? Perhaps it's a view of some people on this list, but
>it's hardly a principle of "the Extropian society" whether that refers to
>ExI to the the Extropian community as a whole.

IAN: I did not mean to imply that * was * a core
core principle of ExI, not at all! My point is to
raise the issue of should a principle, or "prime
directive" of an Extropian community be "utility
first" or should it be "truth first." I believe
this addresses the utilitarianism vs some other
principle issue, and the broad issue of truth.

I've generally adhered to a libertarian/utilitarian
paradigm and believe that utilitarianism generally
defines a principle, or prime directive, of the
humanist community, and it seems to me from
discourse on the list, that the consensus
adheres to that humanist principle.

I believe that the possibility that the false
can be inserted into the set of "useful things"
not to mention atrocities, renders a "utility
first" paradigm unwise and to be rejected.

What makes libertarian economics the logical
goal is not that it is useful, but that its
framework is truthful, such as defined by
Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian school.

As such, we need not define a "utilibertarian"
paradigm, but instead a truthitarian paradigm.
It may all be sematics, particularly if we can
show that truth = utility, but I'm not so sure.

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