tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post6236723080484153600..comments2024-03-28T08:57:53.180+00:00Comments on Darwinian Conservatism by Larry Arnhart: 20 Natural Desires Will Motivate People, Not Politicians, to End the Shutdown and Restore LibertyLarry Arnharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14619785331100785170noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-40156330671582265892020-05-04T19:03:05.496+01:002020-05-04T19:03:05.496+01:00Awesome post. I am delighted. Now you have one reg...Awesome post. I am delighted. Now you have one regular visitor to your site for new topics.John Confidushttp://www.confiduss.com/en/services/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-30997303180235064292020-04-24T01:06:05.929+01:002020-04-24T01:06:05.929+01:00One doesn't need a worked out theory of "...One doesn't need a worked out theory of "natural desires" in order to see that nobody wants to be quarantined, even on an interim basis. But that hardly settles the question. I also have a natural desire not to be dead, nor to see my family, elderly parents and others in the community die or become ill suddenly, which may in the interim surpass other natural desires and require me to defer their satisfaction. I recall in the past you quoted MacIntyre's return to the view that virtue ethics is not enough- the virtues must be understood in conjunction with biology and in particular with human vulnerability and frailty. <br /><br />So for example, human beings may have a natural desire, as Adam Smith says, to truck, barter and exchange. But this free operation of the market may be limited by my ability to trust the other party or to enter into exchange without risk. I am not going to risk my health and life unnecessarily to enter a store when I can do so online etc. <br /><br />One may say that ordinary human prudence is enough to allow people to make these judgments as to the safety of public gatherings or transactions. But human beings can also be impulsive, irrational, thoughtless and ignorant and poor judges of risk- as e.g. were many of those who gathered in Florida for spring break in March, and spread the virus at the public expense. Any theory of rights must recognize emergency conditions in which those rights and natural desires are put aside and left to the prudence of government, what Locke called prerogative. <br /><br />Many responsible religious communities are performing their services online rather than gathering in person and risking the lives of their own congregations as well as the larger community. The Jewish laws, for example, recognize that the commandment to preserve life (Pikuach Nefesh) overrides nearly all of the other religious laws that are recognized (the only exceptions being laws concerning forbidden sexual relationships like incest and bowing down to false gods). So there is no question that religious services in person can be suspended. Those who of whatever faith continue religious gatherings, far from exercising natural rights are endangering the entire community as well as their congregants.<br /><br />You imply that Thucydides got the plague, got over it and then everything was fine. But the plague he described was not merely a widespread illness but caused a deep moral change that undermined character and the entire civic order of Athens and brought it near to collapse. As Thucydides describes it, <br />"And moreover it was the plague which first fostered greater lawlessness in the city in other respects. For people now blithely ventured what before they would have done covertly and not just as they pleased, seeing the sudden changes and how, some rich person dying suddenly, another man who before possessed nothing now straightway owned what had been the other's. And so they decided to spend quickly and for the sake of enjoyment, holding their bodies and their wealth to be alike but things of a day. And no one was keen to persevere in what had been reputed noble ], holding it un- certain whether they would survive to achieve it. But instead the pleasurable and what- ever procured it, these were established as both noble and useful. Fear of gods and law of men deterred no one, for as to the former, people judged it all the same whether they revered [the gods] or not, seeing that all died regardless, and as for crimes none expected to stay alive long enough to come to trial or pay the penalty, but held rather that a much heavier sentence had been decreed against them, and that before it fell, it was only fair that they enjoy life a little.." <br /><br />And it is arguable, that on Thucydides telling, Athens never fully recovered from this overturning of the character of the community. <br /><br /><br /><br />Xenophonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09664620430604622777noreply@blogger.com