At 21:56 -0700 10/25/00, Nathan Saper wrote:
I don't think your Hitler example applies, because he could not prove that the Jews were causing pain. In any case, my formulation of act utilitarianism seems to suffer from those sorts of attacks less than the normal formulation, and I have yet to find a moral theory as coherant as utilitarianism.
He had certainly managed to convince himself. And unfortunately if your using act utilitarianism, he's the only one who has to be convinced. I'm not sure your 10,000 screaming sadists was terribly likely either but I didn't whine about it... -- "As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air--however slight--lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness." -- Justice William O. Douglas ____________________________________________________________________ Kevin "The Cubbie" Elliott <mailto:kelliott@mac.com> ICQ#23758827