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RE: A wedding by the shallow stream
Well, nzs, have you taken any philosophy courses? I don't like such hypotheticals because I think that deciding what one would do in such a situation isn't equivalent to deciding what to do when one is actually in that situation. I escape the conundrum that way. As for what's actually happening...I stick to dealing with that!
Thanks for your comment. Why do you ask? Do you think I've misrepresented Singer here? There's a good chance I have.
In my experience the story works as a way of connecting the actions that we do and don't make everyday to the very real impact they have. I spent a lot of my time around people that work in cost effective analyses for various health intervention in low income countries. This example isn't so wild, it is possible for us to simply wake up one day a decide to save a life if we so wish. By say investing in long lasting insecticide treated bednets. Whether it is a moral obligation however is up to you. For more on this see The Life You Can Save
No, I don't think that you'"mis"represented anybody. Even if you had, I'm always doing my best to avoid accusing folks of having performed "mis"deeds! Sometimes I question their behavior (and the implication is almost always clear!) but there's a distinction between a query and an accusation. Sometimes I can actually get away with the latter, but practically never the former!
I wonder whether you'll answer my question about your experience, but whether you have or haven't taken formal courses doesn't matter very much to me. What's important to me is whether you and I might have a progressive discussion of ethical approaches and their various applications to moral discernment.
As I mentioned, I did take those courses; twenty of them, and ethics was and is a subject of great interest to me. It’s central to my model of higher order thinking. So what I’m interested in is what you’re interested in discussing, and what possibilities are or aren’t open to you for inquiry and accommodation.
Practical wisdom and social flourishing are core values in my schemata. Those ethical ideals were described long ago by Aristotle, and Kant famously picked up on the first of those.
I've studied many approaches and ideas which were generated by wiser people than I (the sages of the ages!). We might discuss them, but I have no idea yet what’s possible here, so I’m working to find out.
I suggest that you read my second blog entry and discuss that stuff with me. If we can get clear together on a consensual interpretation of science and the nature of inquiry, then we could proceed; otherwise, if we work according to conflicting presumptions and either of us (not me!) insists that he knows the truth, then we’d be very unlikely to progress.
Excelsior! (?)