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Re^3: Information sharing

by robartes (Priest)
on Jun 05, 2004 at 06:23 UTC ( [id://361384]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Re^2: Information sharing
in thread Information sharing

At the risk of dragging this thread way OT:

For me to withold that knife, I must assert a greater moral capability than my friend. I am, in effect, making the moral choice for him. This is the same attitude that the Chinese goverment has when they ban certain websites on the grounds that the sites are seditious.

Again, I disagree. You are correct on the one hand if you say that it is not our place to make moral choices for other people. Aside from the fact that if you choose to live in a society that sets certain moral standards (you shall not kill, etc), some of which are even 'universal' standards that you will find wherever more than two people join together, you will have to live according to those standards, people should be able to set their own moral compass.

On the other hand, witholding our hypothetical murderer a knife does not equate to making a moral choice for him. He has already made his moral choice, you are just providing one means of acting upon that choice. In effect, you yourself are making a moral choice - you are choosing to believe that your actions in this case will not have harmful consequences, or rather, that whatever harmful consequences they will have are not your fault, and thus not your moral repsonsibility. That's where I disagree with you. I would withold the knife.

Perhaps, if you want to discuss this further, we should take this elsewhere - this is a Perl community after all, not a moral debating society :)

CU
Robartes-

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^4: Information sharing
by chaoticset (Chaplain) on Jun 05, 2004 at 15:04 UTC
    From dragonchild's post:
    Most Wiccans would also say that if I give someone a knife, knowing they are capable of killing, and they use that knife to kill, I have committed harm. I vehemently disagree with this.
    (emphasis mine) From robartes's post:
    On the other hand, witholding our hypothetical murderer a knife does not equate to making a moral choice for him.
    (emphasis also mine) We are all capable of murder, and we are all hypothetical murderers. Yet I am sure that if a guest comes to your home to eat steak, you hand them a knife, knowing that they may be capable of murder.

    We're all capable of plenty of awful things. Trust is the hope that we won't do awful things. In the absence of direct information about intent, IMHO, information should be spread.



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