Basic principle? [EM]

[Mike Ositoff]

On Fri, 12 Jun 1998, Fillard Rhyne wrote:

> >MS> But my point is: The assertion that a "basic democratic principle"
> >must always
> >MS> select the candidate preferred by a majority - is merely that, an
> >assertion.
> >MS> I do not believe it is a necessary or even useful component of a valid
> >group
> >MS> decision-making method.
> 
> >MO> Wrong. The desirability of majority rule isn't just an assertiion of
> >MO> mine; it's a very widely-held standard.
> 
> Okay, majority rule is a very widely-held standard.  Fair enough.
> But isn't the whole point of this list to call very widely-held
> standards into question, to analyze them and their alternatives?
> My guess is that when Mike Saari said "assertion", he meant it
> was an opinion, not a fact.  Did he ever actually say it was
> just _your_ assertion and no one else's?
> 
> I for one prefer majority rule to any of the alternatives I've
> examined so far.  But huzzah for independent thinking...

But I stood up for relativism in my letter, so it can't be
said that I tried to discourage anyone's independent thinking.

Standards are so fundamental that I doubt that one could be
proved better than another. All I said was that Saari might want
to not criticize the many many people who have a standard that
he doesn't agree with.

Well of course a standard could be argued-against by showing that
it's incompatible with another standard. But it still comes down
to the individual's own choice about which standard is more
imortant to him/her.

Mike



> 
> Fillard
> 
> 
>