Here's the new thread for posting quotes, with the usual rules:
- Please post all quotes separately, so that they can be voted up/down separately. (If they are strongly related, reply to your own comments. If strongly ordered, then go ahead and post them together.)
- Do not quote yourself.
- Do not quote comments/posts on LW/OB.
- No more than 5 quotes per person per monthly thread, please.
I assume that what you mean by "whatever he says it is" is whatever preferences his choices reveal, not literally what he says it is.
Believing that a person's good is literally what they say it is can just as easily lead to "nannyism", if we decided to prevent people from acting against their own good.
It's a balance, what with akrasia and all - but yes, flat out accepting that people want precisely and only what they verbally and publicly indicate would be problematic.