On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 6:03 PM, delancey <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> That's interesting. There's also a similar theoretical approach in
> philosophy: a common notion, best exemplified by Kant, that to be a
> person is to be a rational agent.
>
> It sounds like Harris could use being judged delusional as a similar
> case of reduced agency.
Where emphasis is on "being judged", yes, I think she did.
It wasn't a detached argument for her. She was quite willing to make it
clear that she and her husband were Hemlock Society members (she's a very
reserved person, so that's significant), and she got visibly exercised when
I mentioned the death of Alice Sheldon ['James Tiptree'] and her husband
(legally, it was a murder-suicide, but my understanding -- corrections,
please -- is that he was terminally ill). Not sure if she knew Sheldon
personally, but it was an important case for her.
>
>
> The challenge for a personhood spectrum is that at some point it seems
> that responsibilities start to fade out -- it would seem absurd to
> punish a lion for killing a human being (I assume we kill such a lion
> not to punish it but to simply remove the threat). The reason seems
> to be that its agency is somehow different in a very substantial way,
> and even if that is a matter of degree, certain -- albeit arbitrarily
> placed -- lines may need to be drawn, such as between perhaps
> responsible agent versus morally respectable patient.
What's interesting to me are the cases where we impute personhood where
there's no agency. The 'morally respectable patient' basically gets a status
analogous to that of a ritual crocodile: No ability to act on their own
behalf. But they have the actual ability to be conscious of their loss of
agency.
The way we treat prisoners is related, too. We remove their agency outside
of a very restricted portfolio, and then we expect them to be able to
function with full agency when we let them out. And we're shocked, shocked I
say, when they repeat-offend. ("I'm what you call a repeat offender. I
repeat, I will offend again!" -- ROBOCOP)
>
>
> Sorry to whine about theologians. It's just painful how all
> philosophical questions in the United States are handed over to
> clergy.
Honestly, I'm kidn of tired of theology having special status in moral
discussions.
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