At 06:57 AM 10/12/1999 -0500, Paul C. Smith wrote:
>Mike Scoles wrote:
>> If I wanted students to take this route, I would send them to church!
>>
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>>
>> > My position is simply that hitting children is immoral.
>> > If all the research in the known universe failed to demonstrate any
>long-term
>> > negative effects, I would still feel the same way.
>
> While I doubt that Mike really believes this, his response implies that
>ethics (or at least nonconsequentialist ethics) are exclusively the realm of
>religion. I think this is an almost universal assumption, and I think it's
Or, it could be Mike was responding to the second line of the message,
which seems to imply that it is okay to ignore the evidence and deciding
what is right and wrong based solely on a personal belief. For the sake of
an example, let's look at the original message, but using a different topic:
I believe to not spank your child is immoral.
If all the research in the known universe failed to demonstrate any
long-term positive effects, I would still feel the same way.
Or, I believe that (insert minority group here) are inferior. If all the
research in the known universe failed to demonstrate otherwise, I would
still feel the same way.
So, perhaps Mike was not responding to the immoral line, but to the second
part of the message. Rather than trying to imply that morality only comes
from the "church", he was trying to point out that a belief-based argument
similar to those found in "church" was being made. Although we might agree
with the premise (hitting a child is immoral), it does not mean that we
should ignore the evidence. (After all, I'm sure many people would argue
that belief in evolution is immoral and wrong, and no evidence to the
contrary will make any difference to them.)
Of course, I could be putting a lot of words in Mike's mouth right now, but
this was the take I had when I read his message.
- Marc
G. Marc Turner, MEd
Lecturer & Head of Computer Operations
Department of Psychology
Southwest Texas State University
San Marcos, TX 78666
phone: (512)245-2526
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] or ...
