MD MOQ and The Moral Society (Refined)

From: Arlo Bensinger (ajb102@psu.edu)
Date: Sun Jul 10 2005 - 19:12:28 BST

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    All,

    In a previous post Platt and I had the following exchange:

    [Arlo]
    > > The point is that many people worldwide act in community-minded ways, often
    > > at a material sacrifice to themselves, oriented by a higher ideal than
    > > material capital (economic or symbolic). To make an implication that such
    > > compassionate action is somehow "self-serving" belies a materialist
    > > normalization of people. If you've made no such implication, I apologize.
    >

    [Platt]
    >I question whether sacrifice is a higher ideal than capital. Acquisition
    >of capital is necessary to avoid low quality poverty. Nor do I find
    >sacrifice to be called for by the MOQ except in defense of freedom.

    Since this harkens right back the core of what MSH started this thread for
    in the first place, I thought I remark it and start a new thread getting
    back to this fundamental question.

    Onward...

    First, I question as to whether the two are mutually exclusive. One can
    acquire "capital" necessary to avoid low quality poverty, and still
    sacrifice "capital" towards community or other-oriented (either fellow
    citizens or a Ideal of God, for exampel) actions.

    The assumption Platt makes is that morality "ends" with an obligation to
    "self". That is, no matter how much "capital" I acquire, it is still always
    more moral for me to acquire more capital, than sacrifice my capital for
    the good of an "other". MSH has argued, and I don't think I've seen any
    response yet, that unlimited capital acquisition leads to disparities that
    threaten the social fabric. I would agree, adding that this occurs both in
    terms of resource availabilty and socio-economic power (as MSH's quote of
    Abraham Lincoln eloquently surmises).

    More later, just wanted to refocus and represent for now.

    Arlo

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