Assignment for Wednesday, November 6, 2019
OK, I feel like there's a lot to discuss here, and you guys are doing a great job at discussing it. I'm inclined to slow down a little, temporarily--so that we can bring some old threads forward.
We'll still quiz.
But this time just read four more chapters. So just up to the end of Chapter 28.
Recap of Today:
Olivia and others were suggesting that Hank is criticizing slavery, but not necessarily from a _moral_ standpoint. That would be important. Because if he is criticizing it from a moral standpoint, he's open to the charge of inconsistency.
So then we talked about what standpoint he could be speaking from. If one point is that slavery kills off certain important sensitivities, perhaps he means to be saying that it is not normal. Or maybe not natural.
My hunch at the moment is any non-moral term we try is going to morph back into a moral one, eventually. But we'll see. If Twain can't be courageous, at least he might be consistent.
(I shouldn't make it sound like I'd be more courageous than Twain, in his times. I hope I would, but I suppose that everyone hopes that.)
Then Nicola and others were substantiating the idea that desensitization is real, and that it can have pretty bad effects. This is really important, too. I think that any time someone worries about this, someone else thinks that they favor censorship. But that's a distraction. What do we do if we want people to pursue certain things and recoil from others? How ought we to train them?
(And whatever your answers to that are...where did you get those preferences, except from your own training???)
(See, Lauren, philosophy is extremely relevant.)
We'll still quiz.
But this time just read four more chapters. So just up to the end of Chapter 28.
Recap of Today:
Olivia and others were suggesting that Hank is criticizing slavery, but not necessarily from a _moral_ standpoint. That would be important. Because if he is criticizing it from a moral standpoint, he's open to the charge of inconsistency.
So then we talked about what standpoint he could be speaking from. If one point is that slavery kills off certain important sensitivities, perhaps he means to be saying that it is not normal. Or maybe not natural.
My hunch at the moment is any non-moral term we try is going to morph back into a moral one, eventually. But we'll see. If Twain can't be courageous, at least he might be consistent.
(I shouldn't make it sound like I'd be more courageous than Twain, in his times. I hope I would, but I suppose that everyone hopes that.)
Then Nicola and others were substantiating the idea that desensitization is real, and that it can have pretty bad effects. This is really important, too. I think that any time someone worries about this, someone else thinks that they favor censorship. But that's a distraction. What do we do if we want people to pursue certain things and recoil from others? How ought we to train them?
(And whatever your answers to that are...where did you get those preferences, except from your own training???)
(See, Lauren, philosophy is extremely relevant.)
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