| Aristotle thought that the aim of human life was happiness, and that ethics was about how to live the best life. Epicurus thought that the aim of life was the avoidance of pain, including the pangs of desire, and that ethics was about achieving a tranquil, contented life. The Stoics also thought that the avoidance of pain was the goal of ethics, but made it more a goal of extinguishing the passions and controlling the appetites, and living in harmony with nature. Thomas Aquinas accepted Aristotle's theme, with the proviso that seeking the greatest good meant seeking the Beatific Vision, and therefore living a pious life. Your impression that there is anything novel about using enlightened self- interest as the yardstick, or that "tradition" is monolithic, is wholly unwarranted,as is your assumption that I am merely being "traditional" in my thinking on these matters. Even the business about the absolute right to follow one's predilections as long as one doesn't harm others is not new, and can be found pretty fully articulated in John Stuart Mills "On Liberty", way before Ayn Rand. Indeed, he puts a social dimension on it, as permitting experimentation that may lead to improvements in lifestyles. Montaigne argued against blaming people for things, as we have little control over our opinions, which inform our actions, and Plato thought that bad behavior was a result of ignorance, and that to know the good was to do it. In general, your notion that I have never considered a self- interest paradigm, or some of the other features you have propounded, is mistaken. I am just waiting for you to say anything which is new and will make me rethink my current position..... |
