Norin
@Norin@lemmy.world
- Comment on Luigi Mangione pleads not guilty to murdering health insurance CEO 3 days ago:
That’s a great question. MLK is absolutely appealing to a higher power in this letter, which you’re picking up on. Pretty much anything under the “natural law” perspective sort-of requires that belief. Some try to go without it, but it’s rare in this branch of philosophy.
I also think it’s notable that just about every “western” legal system in some way sits on the ideas of natural law ethics (either through Thomas and Augustine or Locke, etc… and there’s a lot of variation there. Thomas and Locke have very different ideas about property and individual good, for example). I think it’s important to wrestle with that, especially in our pluralistic societies that can’t impose a belief in said higher power.
But, back to your question. I’m not personally a natural law thinker, mostly because I chafe at the idea of law to begin with. It just doesn’t quite square with my more anarchist tendencies. So, I’m less interested in “just” and “unjust” and more in what makes something wholly “good.”
On that front, I borrow my definition of good from a guy named Ivan Illich: something is good when it is uniquely and incomparably appropriate in it’s given setting. This accounts for the situational nature of things, but also for the variance between cultures. There’s also more of a simplicity to asking if something is good then if it’s just. Justice can be hard to define, but goodness is pretty easy and obvious.
It’s rarely good to be hungry, thirsty, and tired, for example; so it’s good to give people food, water, and rest.
If I remember correctly, this definition of the good comes from a paper of his called “Needs.”
Thinking with something like the US healthcare system, we can ask if it’s good (that is, uniquely and incomparably appropriate) to receive lifesaving care. The answer there is an obvious yes.
If we ask if it’s just… then we find ourselves dealing with what people deserve, what can be afforded, and a million other ways of weaseling out of responsibility for doing the right thing.
- Comment on Luigi Mangione pleads not guilty to murdering health insurance CEO 3 days ago:
I mean US colleges.
My mistake on not noticing that this is an Australian community. I was sorting by new.
- Comment on Luigi Mangione pleads not guilty to murdering health insurance CEO 3 days ago:
It deepened on where you go, but we definitely still require Ethics as a gen-ed at a lot of schools. In fact, I teach it.
Speaking of which, this whole case made for some very good conversation toward the end of this last semester in that class. As it shook out, we were reading MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail that week.
There’s a bit in there that’s particularly relevant here:
“One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.”
For my money, the US healthcare system degrades human personality.
- Comment on Justice should be equal 4 days ago:
I’ve been thinking for a few years now that, since no one with power ever seems to know what they’re doing, there’s something about power itself that makes the person who holds it selfish and incompetent.
- Comment on I'm an educator and have to tell my students the same lie every day. 1 week ago:
Teaching people to be compassionate out of a promise of reward was always a terrible idea. No society has ever really rewarded kindness.
We should be teaching young people that compassion is an act of rebellion against uncaring systems and always has been.
- Comment on Unethical relationship advice 2 weeks ago:
- Comment on I am a very liberal person and I have very liberal children, except for one. I'm pretty sure my Gen Z son has been taken in by fascist doctrine. What can I get him for Christmas? 4 weeks ago:
Do you know if the doctrine he’s been taken in by is religious or secular in nature?
I ask because I could recommend some books you could get him that just might get the kid to think a little harder about things.
For context, I teach philosophy and religion for some community colleges and have been looking for ways to get these Gen Z alt right boys to quit the propaganda.
While a lot of them seem to be lost causes, there are some who can be challenged to read outside their sphere, so long as what I give them isn’t too overtly “other.”
Depending on what he’s into, there might be some authors who know how to talk to an oppositional reader.
- Comment on What happens when the US runs out of SSNs? 2 months ago:
MikeSmith2.22.1989
See, Mike can’t forget his username if it’s his name and birthday.
- Comment on Missed Connection 2 months ago:
I regularly see 2 on my commute. I wouldn’t exactly notice that I have a similar commute to other people, but a Cybertruck sticks out.
1 of them has been painted a matte black that looks like a chalkboard (good luck to them when the road salt comes out) and the other is the regular finish.
Either way, I’m always thinking about just how fucking dorky the things look compared to everything else on the highway.
And it’s not like they’re using it for anything cool. They’re both just stuck in the same traffic as the rest of us.
- Comment on 👣👣👣 2 months ago:
In academia (my line of work) they’re required to have positions posted and open for a certain amount of time, interview a certain number of applicants, etc.
In theory, it’s for equal opportunity and finding the best person for the job.
In practice, it’s a waste of time, money, and hope.
- Comment on 👣👣👣 2 months ago:
We are deeply honored to have received your application (which we did not bother to read).
We’re sorry we didn’t hire you, but also never contact us again.
Signed,
Someone in HR who has nothing to do with this process.
- Comment on People warn about culture shock, but nothing prepared ne for this solid toilet paper roll in Vietnam 3 months ago:
You can buy something like this here in the US.
The roll is smaller, and they market it as being made for camping (takes up less space in the pack, etc). It also, of course, costs more because of this, since modern camping gear loves to price gouge.
If you’re going to pack TP though, just spool what you need around something smaller in diameter (like a skewer). Or if you know what you’re doing then just use leaves instead, those are free.