tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3829599.post115224893628976403..comments2024-01-28T00:20:40.933-08:00Comments on Agoraphilia: IUC in the ICUUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3829599.post-1152352272958710632006-07-08T02:51:00.000-07:002006-07-08T02:51:00.000-07:00This is a very abstract post of yours. I admire yo...This is a very abstract post of yours. I admire your abilities. It's going to take me a few readings to try to fully understand it. My sense is that what you say is true. Although I'm not sure what is wrong with promiscuity per se. For someone who isn't getting any, promiscuity sounds pretty attractive.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3829599.post-1152263456004272182006-07-07T02:10:00.000-07:002006-07-07T02:10:00.000-07:00Your last two paragraphs lead me to wonder if, in ...Your last two paragraphs lead me to wonder if, in fact, the parallel between intrapersonal and interpersonal utility comparisons might not hold up. With regard to the former, you appear to end up with the popular "revealed preferences" viewpoint: Although we lack a rubric for *measuring* intrapersonal utility, we assume that a person's acts show how he or she intends to maximize it. A collectivist might say roughly the same about any given group of persons. "I cannot say specify the mechanism, but I take it that the collective's acts maximize its utility." <BR/><BR/>I suppose you would object to that "black box" approach to analyzing social action; I would. But it's interesting to reflect why. I'd say I grapple with questions such as the one at hand because I *want* to analyze interpersonal exchanges. I'd be rather unhappy if left to judge collectives from only their outsides. (No man--not even Hayek--lives by Hayekian social competition analysis alone.) I want to critique, the better to affect, collectives' internal operations.<BR/><BR/>I'd same more about carrying the analogy backwards, but, hey, I'm writing only a comment.Tom W. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02790351458154066358noreply@blogger.com