Hi,
LuckyR,
LuckyR wrote: ↑March 15th, 2023, 6:17 pm
As it happens, those two extremes cover a small minority of interactions. What of the vast majority?
If I cannot agree with someone on the more black-and-white simplified examples (what you call "extremes"), then I would not want to get into even muddier waters with them.
For example, consider my
three-answer poll about abortion.
The vast majority (73%) of people agree about both of the two extremes, so with those ~73% of people, I'd interested to dig deeper into muddier waters between those two extremes. But with anyone who falls in the 27%, I would only want to talk to them about that extreme case on which we disagree. To have logical discussions and make logical arguments, we must start with agreeable premises. We cannot have fruitful discussions without first working our way back to agreeable premises.
I'm generally not going to waste effort talking to someone about 2nd-trimester abortion if they believe male masturbation is murder of human life and that male masturbaters must be executed for murder.
Likewise, I'm generally not going to waste effort talking to someone about 2nd-trimester abortion if they endorse the violent murder of already born healthy newborn babies.
I might debate those two people about their extreme positions, but even then to have a meaningful conversation I'd have to find an even more "extreme" case upon which we do agree to get some agreeable premises.
Everyone's beliefs are different, and to have effective fruitful meaningful conversations, we must find both (1) our interlocutors most agreeable statement with which we disagree, and (2) our interlocutor's most disagreeable statement with which we agree, with agreeability/disagreeability measures by how they closely they relate to our own views.
Some people think killing healthy already born newborn babies isn't 'murder' or otherwise encourage and endorse it. Some people think killing sperm is murder and want it be illegal.
One man's trash is another man's treasure. One man's extreme is another man's moderate. One man's extremely agreeable is another man's disagreeable.
I think things like
my three-question poll about gun control and
my three-answer poll about abortion. In my poll about abortion, of 70% of people agreed with me, with no more than 20% taking either one of the two extremes. I wonder if we will get that much agreement in this thread.
What is your answer to the poll?
Do you think Martin Luther King consented to being in jail?
Do you think the jailing of Martin Luther King was consensual?
LuckyR wrote: ↑March 15th, 2023, 6:17 pm
What's the criteria by which an interaction qualifies as consensual? Without that, answers will differ based on the personal criteria used by those who attempt to answer the OP.
Indeed. Similarly, asking about whether killing sperm is murder, or killing a newborn baby is murder, would result in different answers depending on how one defines 'murder'.
Thus, people's answers will be different.
Often, I think we can best infer what different criteria people use to define murder by getting examples from them. We can simply ask, "Do you think killing sperm is murder? Do you think intentionally killing a healthy newborn baby is murder?" Their answers give away their criteria. Many times people think they are expressing a view about abortion or such when really they are just telling us their semantics.
Please answer the poll question based on how you define 'consent'.
That way, the poll will indirectly help us see how similarly or differently we all use the word 'consent'.
Thank you,
Scott
My entire political philosophy summed up in one tweet.
"The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master."
I believe spiritual freedom (a.k.a. self-discipline) manifests as bravery, confidence, grace, honesty, love, and inner peace.