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June 28, 2005

Comments

Abiola Lapite

Now *that* is clever. Don't you worry that you have yourself a little Cardinal de Richelieu there? Imagine how many moves ahead she'll be thinking by the time she gets to the "terrible teens" age.

Ciarán

But that can be seen either way: she may indeed have simply calculated the best tactic to forestall the grab. Alternatively, she may have figured that inegalitarian schemes tend to breed resentment and that arrangements should be established that benefit the least well off.

You have a Rawlsian on your hands!

Frank McGahon

..a little Cardinal de Richelieu there?

An eminence terrible!

she may have figured that inegalitarian schemes tend to breed resentment and that arrangements should be established that benefit the least well off.

Ciaran, tempting though your hypothesis is, it ignores the fact that in this circumstance, she is the "least well off": the "redistribution" she proposes is to the person who (currently) enjoys a quasi-monopoly of force. Further, it's not exactly a redistribution, she is arranging for her brother to receive property he would have been due anyway, but at a time and in a manner as to reduce his incentive to grab hers.

eoin


She didn't "calculate" anything. She is 1 and a half, for chrissakes. She is a generous girl. Let's apply Occam's razor where tis due, unless you think this "calculation" is inate, unknown to her, and unwillful.

Frank McGahon

I'd say that Occam's razor favours calculation over altruism - it might seem natural for a child to be "generous" but that is just "adultomorphising", self-interest is innate, altruism is acquired.

Frank McGahon

What I mean is that altruistic behaviour is actually harder to explain than self-interested behaviour

Ciarán

Fair enough. She's evil.

Frank McGahon

Well, I remember at the age of 3, on holiday in Spain, "calculating" that if my (2 year old) sister wasn't around anymore that I'd have our parents all to myself and pushing her into the deep end of the swimming pool. Perhaps she's just her father's daughter!

Ciarán

Don't worry. At least she's not a boy. I never tire of recounting the tale entitled 'the day my brother hung me by the neck of our neighbour's wall.'

Importantly, though, we did get the football back.

Ciarán

I mean 'off our neighbour's wall...'

Obviously the blood-flow hasn't quite returned...

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