prophex:
We determine what is right and moral with reason. We are born with the ability to know what is right. We do not determine what is moral through societal majorities.
Societal majorities don't reason, societal majorities are not rational beings.
I see you haven't got to John Locke yet.
'Individual = Good / Society = Bad' is a false dichotomy. Society is made up of individuals.
If you believe that individual human beings are rational--and you say you do--and that individuals are born with the ability to discern right from wrong--and you say you do--then you have little to fear from 'societal majorities.' After all, the 'majority' is nothing but a group of these reasoning creatures possessing an innate capacity to know what is right. As is the minority, for that matter.
These creatures operating in a group will logically possess greater resources than any one individual--precisely
because the group consists of a plurality. Hence the term 'collective wisdom.'
And the fact that the majority population of a community is, in fact, a
group gives it a built-in insurance. The numbers make it resistant to being skewed too far off center by the extremist or aberrant beliefs of less rational individuals. The quality of the insurance depends mainly on freedom of speech. This freedom allows as many ideas as possible to be heard and sorted. (If the group is structured as a dictatorship, the aberrant beliefs of a few already prevail. Collective wisdom is suppressed.)
For a group to find insurance against herd mentality is, of course, another matter. But this should cause you no worry. Your belief in the innate reasoning ability and moral discernment possessed by human beings precludes any serious damage from this.
Human beings are social creatures. Community is how we do things.
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Edited by Archer Opterix, : html.
Edited by Archer Opterix, : tinkering.
Archer
All species are transitional.
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