Does O'ism demand infallibility?

[relsloan]

When people are faced with a choice they rarely know about all options open to them. When dealing with others, how can you expect them to make a rational choice if they don't even know what options they can choose from?

Suppose you have different information as the person you are "freely" trading with, should you explain to them why their item is worth more to you than it is to them? Even if this means that they decide not to trade with you?

While reality is objective, and man has the capacity to reason, man cannot reason perfectly without knowing all the facts.

It is inspiring to see a person in control of their lives and something we should all strive for, but it is not realistic to expect this of our neighbors. In this case, wouldn't we all be better off by helping others to understand the different options in front of them? This is still being self-interested but not immediately self-interested.

[JMeganSnow]

How is this a problem? I think you're taking omniscience to be the standard we should strive to achieve. Well, it's not. No one can know EVERYTHING, so knowing all possible options is, well, impossible. You can only know options by undergoing a specific process of thought, and thought is a characteristic of the individual.

It is every man's responsibility to discover and implement his options for himself. It IS a self-sacrifice to relentlessly "educate" people about their options, but NOT for the reason you stated. It is a tremendous sacrifice of your time and effort, time and effort that you must spend supporting your own life if you are going to continue to live. Compared to that the possibility that they may make a decision you don't like is moot.

[DavidOdden]

While reality is objective, and man has the capacity to reason, man cannot reason perfectly without knowing all the facts.

You're confusing "use reason" with "infallibly reach a conclusion". You're engaging in what's known as the fallacy of perfection.

It is inspiring to see a person in control of their lives and something we should all strive for, but it is not realistic to expect this of our neighbors.

Are your neighbors threatening your life? Maybe you should move to a new neighborhood. We used to have a little problem with the neighbor kids throwing junk into the dog pen, but a little bit of applied reasoning worked quite nicely. I think it's not at all unreasonable to think you can talk sense to kids. There might be exceptions, but that's when you should call the cops.

[AisA]

It is inspiring to see a person in control of their lives and something we should all strive for, but it is not realistic to expect this of our neighbors.  In this case, wouldn't we all be better off by helping others to understand the different options in front of them?  This is still being self-interested but not immediately self-interested.

Since we all have the capacity to learn from experience, each time you trade with another person, you are helping them. You are giving them the chance to learn whether they made a wise or unwise trade.

Have you considered the fact that the vast majority of people probably do not want your advice on the options available to them? After all, if a person is seeking to engage in a trade, they obviously think they will be better off as a result of the trade, otherwise they would not seek it. In the face of that, the rational thing for you to do is decide whether or not you will be better off as a result of the trade, then act accordingly.

Over time, in a free market, people are economically rewarded for making rational choices and punished for making bad ones. Thus, there is a constant incentive for people to learn and improve -- and people are free to learn the lessons or ignore them at their peril. You need not worry about them.