Posted by Racer on March 20, 2006, at 11:46:19
In reply to Re: Moral facts » special_k, posted by AuntieMel on March 20, 2006, at 10:43:44
A while back, I was on a jury, and during deliberations one of the members taught us something called a negative concensus. It was a great tool for us, during deliberations, because it kept us from wasting a lot of time on aspects of the case taht we all agreed on.
Basically, it was a case of "Does anyone here NOT agree [with/that] [x]?" Until we got to something someone didn't agree about, we could just keep going. Some was kinda obvious, but still worth asking: "Does anyone here NOT agree that a crime took place?" "Does anyone here NOT agree that the crime in question was murder?" etc. The procedure, though, worked great, overall. Kept us honest, and kept us getting along. Only when we came to a lack of concensus did we have to debate.
Maybe there's a way something like that could help us here, in communicating, without raising blood pressure or bringing down on our heads the wrath of admin? I don't know how -- I'm just the idea-bringer on this...
One thing I do want to say, though, to Special_K, is that while I see what you're saying about moral facts, I disagree with their use because I think it's too easy to slip from something which might be universal, into something which is clearly cultural. Sort of Wittgensteinian boundary issues, you know? While torturing small children for fun might seem pretty universally rejected (I am having a lot of word finding issues these days, try to bear with me), that might lead closer and closer to the edge, until you're saying something like "spanking children for any reason should be illegal." I know -- *you* personally might be able to avoid that classic blunder, but there are other people in the world who might say, "Well, since it's always wrong to torture small children for fun, then it's clearly wrong to give them shots, because they experience that as torture." Yes, that's extreme. But it fits in trying to make my point. Does that make any sense to you?
Keep in mind, I'm one of those who says that it's wrong to judge someone else based on culturally defined measures, if that person is not part of the same culture. It happened to me as a kid, too. "That's close to child abuse, giving those children alcohol!" Uh, no, it's about a spoonful of wine in our water at dinner at family dinners. It was considered appropriate to teach us to eat like the adults we would someday become. Culturally appropriate for us, but others saw it as Morally Wrong. Make sense?
OK. I gotta go. I get to take my mother shopping today...
poster:Racer
thread:621784
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20060304/msgs/622497.html