Re: Operational Closure

[Howard Pattee <***>]

Tim and John M,

I meant the ambiguous normal usage of "ethics" as a branch of metaphysics based on 
cultural moral standards of what is right and wrong. It contrasts with the concepts of 
what is true and false, but at times they are hard to separate. Natural selection is 
assumed to be amoral because it values only survival. Some scientists consider making 
weapons of mass destruction as ethically wrong, but that might depend on the level of 
threat, as in WWII.

People have strong different opinions.

>From G. B. Shaw's Major Barbara:

LADY BRITOMART: Barbara, I positively forbid you to listen to your father's abominable 
wickedness. And you, Adolphus, ought to know better than to go about saying that wrong 
things are true. What does it matter whether they are true if they are wrong?

UNDERSHAFT: What does it matter whether they are wrong if they are true?

Howard