[lbo-talk] is law enforcement a way to raise money for localeconomies?

[Carrol Cox]

In the past it has been vigorously argued on this list that capitalism is
immoral, and this immorality constitutes the grounds for opposing it. I and
others have argued that moral judgments cannot be used as arguments, since
there is no way to ground ethical propositions. Consider the proposition
that "Killing an innocent person is wrong." (Assume we know the meaning of
"innocent.") We immediately discover cultures in which in feuds if a member
of family A kills a member of family B, it is perfectly right for members of
B to kill _any_ member of A, regardless of that member's "innocence." And we
end up with a cultural relativism. Sparticus and his followers did not
condemn slavery as an institution; they simply did not want to be slaves
themselves. Any moral condemnation of slavery will lead to relativism. And
so forth. Ethical judgments simply cannot ground an argument.   The ethical
intuitions you speak of are socially constructed. In some social orders
ethical intuition will condemn a man who fails to beat his wife when she
errs. (See _The social Origins of Private Life_ by Stephanie Coontz) So
opposing wife-beating on moral grounds leads to relativism. Better to follow
the practice of the women of Long Bow: beat the hell out of a man who won't
stop beating his wife. Don't worry about abstract moral principle.

Carrol

-----Original Message-----
From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On Behalf Of Michael Smith
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 8:24 PM
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] is law enforcement a way to raise money for
localeconomies?

On Wed, 9 May 2012 18:40:55 -0400
// ravi <ravi at platosbeard.org> wrote:


> I think [Smith] is saying you and shag might be the only people *less
> moralistic* (perhaps in the first sense you define i.e., sermonising)
> than him.

Exactly. You're the reader we scribblers dream of. 

Personal morality as I understand it is moral intuition, and 
the very human desire to either do the right thing, or believe 
at any rate that one is doing the right thing. This is a desire 
that everybody but a psychopath feels. 

Where I agree with Carrol (I think) is in the view that *collectives*
(nations, classes, political movements) are not moral agents. They 
don't have moral intuitions (as individuals do) and they do not hunger 
and thirst after righteousness (as individuals do). It's silly to apply 
moral criteria to them, as it would be silly to reprimand a great white 
shark for eating people.  

They are not simply Us writ large. They're a different breed of cat. 

 
-- 
--

Michael J. Smith
mjs at smithbowen.net

http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org
http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com
http://cars-suck.org

When one does a foolish thing, it is right to 
do it handsomely. 

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