Re: virus: Reinventing the Justice meme

David McFadzean (dbm@merak.com)
Thu, 11 Jul 1996 17:24:38 -0600


At 08:00 PM 09/07/96 -0500, KMO wrote:
>>Agreed. I guess my point was merely that the Justice meme is a necessary
>>if not sufficient condition for social cooperation.
>
>Is it necessary? I'm not saying a concept of justice ISN'T necessary for
>cooperative social behavior, but I don't have any strong intuition that it
>IS necessary either. As I understand capitalist dogma, rational

I seem to be retreating further and further from by original assertions
but I have to concede you are right again. I can quite easily imagine
two sociopaths who have no concept of justice collaborating for mutual
benefit.

Still, I'm not ready to give up on the concept altogether. It seems
like the Justice meme provides the basis for social collaboration
between parties who do happen to be infected by it. The reasoning
goes something like this: I believe you have made a good decision
by trusting me enough to enter a contract with me. Since I am infected
by Justice, I will do my best to control matters to the extent I
can so that the outcome of the decision is beneficial to you,
because to do otherwise would be to allow an injustice.

My question is: Does this line of argument derive morality from
justice, or is it begging the question?

--
David McFadzean                 david@lucifer.com
Memetic Engineer                http://www.lucifer.com/~david/
Church of Virus			http://www.lucifer.com/virus/