[MD] The Moral Landscape

[118]

On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 6:57 AM, Steven Peterson
<peterson.steve at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi Arlo,
>
> On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 9:44 AM, Arlo Bensinger <ajb102 at psu.edu> wrote:
> > [Steve]
> > Scientists will tell you that not washing your hands after using the
> > bathroom spreads disease. Have you ever been forced by a scientist to
> wash
> > your hands?
> >
> > [Arlo interjects]
> > Well I don't know if its a "scientist" who does the enforcement, but you
> can
> > damn well but that in many situations such "force" is warranted. I WANT
> > doctors and chefs and those that handle my food, and those that work in
> > delivery rooms... and I am sure you can think of many other situations,
> > where your "right" not to wash your hands is superceded by the dangers
> posed
> > to me (and others) by the transmission of germs. Your doctor gives up the
> > "right" not to wash his hands when he accepts the role of treating your
> > wounds, your chef gives up the "right" not to wash his hands when he
> accepts
> > the role of preparing and handling your food.
> >
> > I would think the MOQ argument would be that society has the moral right
> to
> > coerce such behavior because if left uncoerced the biological fallout
> could
> > undermine the stable functioning of society.
>
>
> Steve:
> Right. And we don't need to appeal to any special MOQ vocabulary here
> to make the case. It is clear that disease threatens human wellbeing
> and our handwashing practices affect the health of others, therefore
> we have a moral obligation to do it especially in the food service and
> medical fields. It is time for scientists to stop pretending that
> science has no moral consequences, and time for liberal intellectuals
> who are cultiral relativists to stop pretending that we know nothing
> about morals (that morals are merely the practices that unite a given
> society with nothing to be right or wrong about).
>

[Mark applauds]
Yes Steve, you are right on with that paragraph (IMO).  Cheers.

>
> Enforcement of such a moral obligation is of course not done by
> scientists. Like always, when we know that something is immoral we
> still need to decide through the democratic process when it is and is
> not important and justified to enforce a moral obligation through the
> coercive power of government (itself a moral question that oinly
> rational inquiry can inform us about). But such decisions are best
> made with the knowledge of what is right and wrong in a given
> situation--knowledge that we can only acquire through rational
> inquiry.
>

[Mark cautions]
Any enforcement should be viewed with skepticism, eg. Kill the
intellectuals, kill them all.

>
> Best,
> Steve
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