🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <15421@cs.utexas.edu> turpin@cs.utexas.edu (Russell Turpin) writes:
>In article <1990Dec4.055239.14558@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu> jpalmer@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (John D. Palmer) writes:
>
>> ... I recall spending some time visiting in a sexual dependency
>> clinic and the people there sure weren't happy. . . it made me 
>> wonder about sexuality and whether or not monogamy made one
>> healthier. 
>> Well, I *didn't* get an answer, but it does seem that IF humans are
>> 'naturally' monogamous, it would seem that these people had paid the 
>> price for going against their nature. . .
emphasis added by me. . .
>Those are very appropriate scare quotes.  Whether a behavior is
>the healthiest way to live, or whether it carries a psychological
>price, has very little to do with whether it is natural.  Such
>assumptions reflect the naturalistic fallacy (good=natural) that
>is so common in these discussions.  To name an easy
>counterexample, war is consistent with human nature.  There are
>grave doubts that this is the least costly, 'healthiest', or best
>way to resolve the conflicts that have caused it.

        I look at "Thos are very appropriate scare quotes", and I get
the idea that the author of > thinks that I am trying to scare people.
If you read the above line, I am saying "I don't know whether anything
is natural or not, but it sure does seem that an illogical extreme causes
pain. . . so it MAY be 'un-natural', don't just poo-poo the argument
because YOU don't like it"
     Now, that may not be what the author was saying. . . he may have
been claiming that 'payiing a price' is a scare quote that COULD be
used on the one side of the argument. . . but too many times I see
an argument take MORE than is written, almost like 'I am SURE they WOUDL have 
written this. . .'  and that is a bad scene. . . most especially
because it makes these discussions drag out too long.  As a general
rule for ME, if I mean to say it, it's there, and if it's not there,
I probably didn't mean to put it there.  I imagine that this holds
true for most people.
                                        Crazyman