X-Message-Number: 28437
From: 
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 10:19:23 EDT
Subject: feel-good & morality

Anthony writes in part:
 
>  >The goal of life is to feel  good,  [Ettinger]

>And  perhaps the primary moral question of life is "at what cost am I
feeling  good?"     [Anthony]
 
This is not really off topic, because these issues crucially impact all of  
life and death and potential recruitment as well as post-recruitment  
activities.
 
By "moral" is generally meant inter-personal or societal ethics. "Morals"  

are important, but not primary. Nothing has direct importance to the  individual
except his own welfare, which boils down to feel-good. Naturally  there are 
many ways of feeling good, some of them mutually inconsistent or  ultimately 
self-destructive. The basic, biological or physical nature of  subjective 

experience (qualia) is not yet known, but we do know our immediate  feelings and
can 
make some pretty good inferences. The trick is not just to get  what you 

want, but to figure out what you ought to want, to maximize  feel-good over 
future 
time, and if necessary (as it always is) to modify your  own personality.
 
Getting it straight requires some unlikely combination of brains, courage,  
and luck--but we must either try or die.
 
I have laid all this out at great length in Youniverse.
 
R.E.








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