USH'S MATRIX GAME 2006 FOURTH ASSIGNMENT (PHILOSOPHY)- 'The Door'

"The advancment of society gives reason to your life?"

"The effects of advancement like morals and culture do give meaning to my life."

"But specifically to society? Not just, or even in preference to, such advancment for yourself? You would seek always to improve any society you are in?"

"Advancement to society allows us as a society to have reason. Along with the fact that Tech Advancements allow us to survive even more."

"So you feel that society has no reason to exist otherwise?"

"Survival is first and foremost but society needs something to really wrap around. Some ideals to bond us together. Something that allows us to feel safer."

"That appears to contradict what you have said. You just said it gave it reason. Now you are giving it a practical issue, and that links it back into simply being survival."

"Hey we can survive without it I think. Just exist as mindless animals running around. Still it gives us a chance to add purpose to our life. It lets us be more than what we were."

"And what is the value in that?"

"I'm not sure but whatever it is it feels valuable enough to mention it"

"Purely selfish value then?"

"The only other value different societies can have," says Azrael, "other than survival, is surely personal preference, as Berserker describes. And some people would argue even that personal preference is born out of the society we live in."

OOC:
I always find myself pushed to the radical fringes of these debates because I find myself appreciating the logical argument, even though I still remain, in a way, unconvinced. It's irritating.

"And do you see anything laudable in that?"

"In personal preference? Yes, I do. It seems as good a grounding for value as anything else, and has an honest air about it."

"And so do YOU see anything laudable in a society advancing and developing, beyond those practical issues that you say are related to survifval alone?"

Well, I understand that Lo Qi agrees with Melkor`s view what is laudable in society advancing, because he didn`t challenge it?

Your answer is fairly much clear and needs no more exploring, I feel.

"I only see value when it is in correlation with my own values. I cannot presume to have knowledge of any objective values, however. I consider my answer, then, to be yes."

"Why? What value?"

"Is it necessary for survival? I think so. The more advanced you are, the less threatened you will feel. A simple caveman would cower in fear of a saber-toothed cat, while it would take much more to scare, say, me."