-- Luke Weiger <lweiger at umich.edu> wrote:
> Yoshie wrote:
> > Justifiable if the Arab masses think it
> justifiable, unjustifiable if
> > the Arab masses don't think it justifiable. I
> leave it up to them to
> > determine.
>
> This is absurd. Was the Earth flat when the masses
> believed it to be so?
>
> -- Luke
Not so quick, young Luke. Whether people think
something i justifiable arguably does bear on whether
it is justifiable. That doesn't mean they can't be
wrong, but the common opinion of mankind, if there is
such a thing, matters a lot. It's not like the earth,
where its; not up to us. Even in your flat-headed
utilitarianism, whether something promotes happiness
or desire-satisaction obviously refers to what we
think. Moreover, Yoshie is referring to a principle
that you, with your White Man's Burden paternalist
arrogance, don't acknowledge, that the opinion of the
people affected matters most. That may be wrong, but
it's not absurd -- not nearly as absurd as
utilitarianism, in my view. jks
>
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