I don’t have access to a “here and now” exchange with these gentlemen. But I sure as shit would be curious to know how folks here who embrace their philosophies today might imagine their answers to the question “how ought one to live?” By imagining in turn their reactions to the components of my own argument.
Given the answers that they would provide as it relates to an actual “self” embodying a set of value judgments that come into conflict with another out in a particular world where conflicting behaviors must eventally come to terms with who has the power to enforce one particular moral narrative and political agenda.
My own narrative however grapples with the manner in which “you” [as an existential contraption] become who you think you are out in a particular world living a particular life. And then in noting any number of contexts whereby that which makes one person feel good results in making another person feel bad.
Yeah, that’s life. You can choose how much you want to do to prevent that person from feeling bad.
But how do we account for the manner in which “you” choose one thing rather than another? And the manner in which different people choose conflicting things? Is “I” here largely embedded existentially in the manner in which I construe the meaning of dasein above, or is there in fact a font [God, Reason, Nature etc.] able to resolve these conflicts such that all rational men and women are obligated to share it.
Ooops, I forgot that you’re a falling domino with not control over yourself. What is there to grapple with, in that case? You’re not “doing” anything in that case.
I don’t know if “in fact” I do or do not have access to some level of autonomy. Again, the arguments from both sides here can be both profoundly persuasive and profoundly problematic.
But one thing for sure: The objectivists among us are absolutely certain.
Go ahead, ask them.