For everything I have said here and here and here – and a hundred other places – arguing that a certain behavior “will preserve society” is a weak argument.
Why is a society worth preserving?
And even if you have a good answer for that…
Why is your desire and reason for wanting to keep society more valid than my desire and reason for not caring?
Physics does not offer an answer to this.
And stardust is just physics.
From propositions about fact alone no practical conclusion can ever be drawn. This will preserve society cannot lead to do this except by the mediation of society ought to be preserved. This will cost you your life cannot lead directly to do not do this: it can lead to it only through a felt desire or an acknowledged duty of self-preservation. The Innovator is trying to get a conclusion in the imperative mood out of premisses in the indicative mood: and though he continues trying to all eternity he cannot succeed, for the thing is impossible.
-C.S. Lewis, The Abolition Of Man (Amazon)
