From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!psinntp!kepler1!fcaggian Mon May 25 14:05:44 EDT 1992
Article 5689 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!psinntp!kepler1!fcaggian
>From: fcaggian@rentec.com (Frank Caggiano)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: AI failures
Message-ID: <857@kepler1.rentec.com>
Date: 14 May 92 14:06:18 GMT
References: <uetinINNco5@early-bird.think.com> <1992May9.165946.7983@waikato.ac.nz> <1992May12.170823.23059@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Organization: Renaissance Technologies Corp., Setauket, NY.
Lines: 45

In article <1992May12.170823.23059@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> pindor@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Andrzej Pindor) writes:

>To make thinks clear, would perhaps specify where does this 'absolute set of
>tenets' come from? If your answer reduces to 'from God', then that's fine. 
>I am not going to ague with this. However, if it does not, then from where? 

Actually morality or a sense or what is good must precede God. In order to
be able to say "God is good" or "God's laws are moral" we must already 
know what is good or moral. 

>As far as I can see looking through various moral codes of different societies,
> now and in the past, it is hard to find a single rule which everyone would
>agree on.

Well there is the prohibition of murder, stealing and lying to name three. 
In most cases where there appears to be a conflict on closer examination
you usally find its a different interpertation of the terms rather than
a different moral code.

For example lets look at murder. A more exact wording might be 'the 
taking of inocent human life.' So the murder of slaves for example might 
not appear as murder to one society because they don't beleive that 
slaves are human. Or capital punishment gets by because its believed that
the condemmed isn't inocent. Or take lying, it would be difficult to
think of a society being able to survive if everyone lied to eveyone
else constantly. There would be little point in communicating if I could
not be fairly confident that you were telling me the truth.

Now this isn't an attempt to justify these actions, only an attempt to 
show  that there is more of a universial moral code than might at first 
appear.




-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------
	`The sensibility of man to trifles, and his insensibility
to great things, indicates a strange inversion.'
					Blaise Pascal

Frank Caggiano                      INTERNET: fcaggian@rentec.com  
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