- #36
CRGreathouse
Science Advisor
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Crosson said:The argument from pragmatics.
p1. Technology makes people happy.
p2. Technology is born from rational thought.
p3. It is rational to like that which leads to us being happy.
Therefore,
c1. Rational thought leads to us being happy.
c2. Rational thought is rational.
p4. "φ is born from ψ" implies "ψ leads to φ".
p5. "ψ makes χ" and "φ leads to ψ" implies "φ leads to χ"
p6. What makes people happy makes us happy.
p7. If it is rational to like something, it is rational to do that thing.
c1. Rational thought leads to technology (p4, p2)
c2. Rational thought leads to happy people (p5, p1, c1)
c3. Rational thought leads to making us happy. (p6, c2)
c4. It is rational to like rational thought. (p3, c3)
c5. It is rational to be rational. (p7, c4)
So the fairly uncontroversial c5 can be proven from a stack of highly questionable premises. p1, "technology makes people happy", has already been attacked on the grounds that some technologies (say, mustard gas) don't make people happy. I'll instead question the quantifier in conjunction with p6. Just because technology makes someone happy doesn't mean that it should make me happy. p7, one of my 'technical axioms' that you used in going from your c1 to c2, also seems questionable. Many more people like football than actually play.