* * * * *
                                        
                    A biological basis for the Golden Rule?
                                        
> For years I've grappled with a dilemma which is really only relevant to
> people who want to argue with Objectivists. Basically once you claim to
> live by a selfish code of ethics, what prevents you from violating the
> rights of others for personal gain, in situations where you know you will
> not be at risk?
> 
> David Friedman calls this the Prudent Predator dilemma, and he's been
> twisting up Randroids with it for 40 years. He even got me with it, back in
> the day, when I was basically trying to re-write Objectivism into something
> that made sense.
> 

“Ethics, empathy, and primate brain holdovers [1]”

I wish I knew of this argument a decade ago when a few of my friends fell
heavily into Objectivism. In trying to understand them, I even read all
zillion pages of Atlas Shrugged [2] (neat story, but she could have used an
editor).

The entry also points out some recent research showing that there may be a
biological component to society. Read, as they say, the whole thing.

[1] http://michaelduff.livejournal.com/279048.html
[2] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2001/10/23.1

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

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