From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Mon May 26 2003 - 22:20:00 MDT
Excellent comments, Lee! I look forward to hearing more.
> On the whole I agree, except for the last sentence. There really is a
> truth to most political matters (this perhaps is or is not what you
> meant), e.g., either the CIA and the United Fruit Company overthrew
> democracy in Honduras or they didn't, and the North Vietnamese either
> did or did not kill more civilians than did the Americans.
Yes, there is a truth to factual questions, I agree. What I meant or
questions about goals, motives and "goodness". As you pointed out, some
people would let a thousand criminals go free rather than execute one
innocent. Other people rather kill a few innocents to get more criminals.
These are goal-based decisions. I am not sure either one can be argued as
"right" or proven logically. I think not killing innocents is an obviously
good goal, but I can envision others arguing a greater utility for allowing
a few innocents to die. These are the "truths" that don't exist. We can
agree on all the facts, and still disagree on what to do about it. Whenever
the question of what "should" happen, we are in subjective land.
(This reminds me of the copy and kill question. We can agree on every
single atom in a thought experiment and still disagree on how to label or
evaluate what was described.)
-- Harvey Newstrom, CISSP, IAM, GSEC, IBMCP <www.HarveyNewstrom.com> <www.Newstaff.com>
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