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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (60448)	10/1/2002 12:11:02 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

I am distinguishing two things that I'm not sure you are distinguishing. One is what it's pragmatic to do. The second is what one is obligated for some reason to do. Pragmatism is easy, and is an element of selfishness. If it's to my benefit to foster relationships, and the relationships will be fostered by my explaining things to my friends, and I perceive that the benefit of such explanations more than offsets any embarrassment or loss of privacy which I will suffer, then I do it. You seem to me to be basing your position much on this -- allaying anxieties is a pragmatic matter, not a duty matter. But you also do talk about responsibility and duty. And in my world view, duty has to arise from some basic principle that creates the duty. That's what I'm still not seeing from you. I understand the pragmatism. I understand that apologies and explanations grease the wheels of social intercourse, and that if you refuse to do those things, you may lose a favorable relationship with those people, so it is in your best interests to do so. But I am not seeing from you the core principles that make it a DUTY to do those things, which you have been saying it is.