Newsgroups: bit.listserv.politics
Date:         Thu, 3 Sep 1992 09:52:00 EDT
From:         rf35 <Richard_A_FYFE@UMAIL.UMD.EDU>
Subject:      Re: To Missy: On Wrongness
Comments: To: Forum for the Discussion of Politics <POLITICS@ucf1vm.cc.ucf.edu>

Greetings:  To Missy

>What *makes* you "desire an aversion"?

<From brni>

> i suspect that this sort of question requires a rather intensive
> investigation into specific behaviors rather than vast generalizations
> based on preconceived theory.  however, it is entirely possible that
> the subjects investigated would not be suitable for the list.  if
> anyone wants to take this off list, i would be happy to engage the
> question.

        At this point I belive that what Missy has in mind can be
answered without entering into a discussion of specific behaviors
just yet except as examples to more general points.  However, I
confess that I as of yet have no idea where she is wanting to go
with this line of questioning.  For any person who has followed
this discussion, it pertains to ways of justifying political and
moral claims.  This is in the general area of "meta-politics," but
it sill has relevance.  So far, I am seeking to defend a reduction
of moral ought claims to claims about what it is good or bad for
people to desire (or to form aversions against--as the case may be).
My preference is to continue to answer he questions on-list, for the
time being.  However, I will yield to the desires of Missy Justice
on this.

        As for the answer to the question, "What makes you desire
an aversion?"

        I take the question to be asking "What causes you to desire
an aversion?"  This question can be asked by examining the causes of
desires and aversions generally.  First, I will begin by stating that
beliefs, desires, fears, hopes, etc., supervene on brain states.  For
any differences in the mental states of one person with respect to
another, there is a corresponding difference in brain structure.  This
difference may be large and easy to locate, or it may be as subtle as
a difference in the connections made by a few dendrites and axions.

[Note: It is still possible for two brains with a different structure
to have the same mental states--just as it is possible for two com-
puters with different physical structures to run the same program.
The fact that differences in brain function must imply a difference
in the physical structure does not imply that differences in physical
structure implies differences in mental functioning.  An example of
this is the way in which lithium can replace some other chemical
(the name of which escapes me at this moment) in the brain to restore
"normal" brain functioning to manic-depressive patients.  Here, a
difference in brain structure does not imply a difference in brain
functioning.]

        So, in asking what causes an individual to have a particular
belief or desire is strongly correlated with asking what causes the
brain to have the particular physical structure it does.  This ques-
tion can be answered on a number of different levels.  On the level
of biochemistry, some forms of brain functioning are associated with
genetic factors and linked to particular levels of chemicals in the
brain.  Sexual desire and aggression have been linked to testoster-
one levels, and there are biochemical determinants influencing the
physical structure of the hypothalamus--which in turn effects the
type of sexual behavior one wishes to engage in (in particular, the
physical features that identify a preferred sexual partner--relative
physical size and shape, amount of body hair, voice pitch, etc.).
Another example is the association of monoamine oxydaze with dis-
positions to take risks.  People with low levles of M.A.O. tend to
be risk takers (and fall asleep in class) while people with high
levels may even find a teacher's monotome dribble to be exciting.
[Note: low levels of M.A.O. have been associated with gambling
addiction.]

        Conditioning influences the acquisition of some desires
and aversions.  People learn aversions to states of affairs which
result in physical pain, desires for states of affairs which pro-
duce pleasure.  Part of the way we teach children to have an
aversion to lying, stealing, harming others, etc., is by assocating
such behavior with the loss of something else important to them
and by use of painful punishments and pleasurable rewards.  That
which, at first, is desired as a means of obtaining something else
which is desired comes, over time, to be desired for its own sake.

        Simple repetition causes the generation of some desires
and aversions, particularly those associated with habits.  Most
students in a class begin with no strong preference concerning
where to sit, but will still sit in the same area and, after a
while, will acquire an aversion to sitting anywhere else.  They
will experience anxiety at entering in a room and discovering that
somebody else has taken their place.
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