RE: NTSE #8

Loren Haarsma (lhaarsma@OPAL.TUFTS.EDU)
Thu, 27 Feb 1997 17:25:31 -0500 (EST)

On Thu, 27 Feb 1997, John E. Rylander wrote:

> Actually, Utilitarianism is the ethical theory in which the right action
> is the one that produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number
> (or some variant on this theme). I think you're thinking of Egoism, and
> wrt economics, the fiscal "rational maximizer" version of it. (I hate
> it when economists naively start using their technical term "rational"
> as though it's the ordinary term, and then start making the most
> presumptuous pontifications.)

I expected there was a better technical term out there that I couldn't
remember. Thanks.

> That said, I'd have to agree that Schafersman's arguments seemed weak.
> At first glance as excerpted by Burgy, like the stuff in the Skeptical
> Enquirer (which I sometimes call "Popular Scientism"): insightful,
> sweeping, a bit confused, and painfully overstated.

What a beautiful paragraph. >Sniff<

Loren Haarsma