If it feels good

[From Rick Marken (990204.1500)]

Me:

You yourself explain the role moral principles play in
behavior:

[you] make it [a moral principle] up as it feels good to
you.

Kenny Kitzke (990204.1100EST)

Another misrepresntation that misleads (like your hero
Mr. Bill).

Yes. I was trying to mislead people into thinking that
you understood control of system concept perceptions
by variation of references for moral principle control
systems. The honest thing for me to do would have been
to let your confusion speak for itself. But you do that
in your (990204.1100EST) post anyway. You say:

I merely speculated about ways that people might establish
their moral beliefs other than the way I do (from the
revealed word of God):

* from the roar of the ocean (one of your stated ways)
* from scientific experimentation
* from observations about how society likes to function
* from whatever feels good to you in body or mind

What you don't seem to understand is that option 4 ("from
whatever feels good to you in body or mind") is the _only_
way people "establish their moral beliefs" according to
PCT. A control system varies lower level references (for
moral principle perceptions, in this case) as the means
of bringing a higher level perception (a system concept in
this case, such as "Christian" or "Libertarian") to it's
reference state. When the system concept perception is in
the reference state, we feel good; so whatever moral
principles we adopt are adopted because doing so makes us
feel good at the system concept level; similarly, whatever
rules we follow are followed because doing so makes us feel
good at the moral principle level; and whatever sequences we
carry out are carried out because doing so make us feel good
at the rule level; and so on, down to the intensities
we perceive.

But remember, we don't "do it" (adopt moral principles,
for example) because it feels good. It feels good (reduces
error) because we "do it".

Best

Rick

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--
Richard S. Marken Phone or Fax: 310 474-0313
Life Learning Associates e-mail: rmarken@earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~rmarken