| | Mme. Cohen-
Thank you for your lengthy response. I was referring to the extreme kind of consistent Hedonist, the type who elevates his pleasure above the rights of others. A Hedonist who respects the rights of others can certainly be an ally of Objectivists.
Well, thank you for your open-spirited reply, and glad to be accepted as an ally. The only correction I'd make is that it's no more right to treat the rights-respecting hedonist as inconsistent or non-extreme than it is to say the same of the rights respecting egoist. The egoist and hedonist both have good egoistic as hedonistic reasons to respect rights precisely because they are consistent and extreme.
The real issue is just whether you apply the principle of causality to one's own actions: one who acts on a principle encourages that principle, and all kinds of harm to others, including coercion, deceit, and simple nastiness, encourage the same, sustain the same kind of environment, and undermine the experience in oneself of the more enjoyable contraries. Or, to put it more colloquially: "what goes a'round, comes a'round." These reasons are sufficient, if not exhaustive, to demand a respect for rights on principle.
That said, I am quite aware there are hedonists (and egoists) who don't- in principle- respect rights. And while I will accept such people as actual hedonists (or egoists)- and I will deal with some of them as they respect rights always by prudence or selectively under knowable circumstances; not all are vicious persons. That said, I think their philosophy is self-destructive and don't like their aesthetic attitude; they have it all bass-ackwards.
my regards, v
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Jeanine Ring )( )(
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