(no subject)
Incidentally, while Katie (who is pretty sweet) and I were hanging out today we were looking over her roommate's Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics. It's an interesting read: encouraging, I think, because it's getting people to take a "serious" moral position, but discouraging in that...well, I have huge problems with their moral position. Also, there's this strange tension between the guide presenting arguments for their position (which it really does, in an admirably straight-forward and succinct way, at times), and the gross presumptions it makes. But even these are well-cited in what I gather is authoritative Catholic literature! There were only a couple bald fallacies, as far as I could tell. The rest was just comically alien:
"In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed, by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person."
There's so much that Catholic church does right, especially compared to the stuff that gets handed out by proselytizing Christian groups.
My favorite part was the section where they were forced to acknowledge a kind of moral nuance ("WHEN THERE IS NO "ACCEPTABLE" CANDIDATE"). People may correct me on this, but I think they make a shift here from deontological to consequentialist ethics which I found quite striking.
Also, note the implied moral psychological theory in the "THE ROLE OF YOUR CONSCIENCE" section. Since that theory would be a verifiable descriptive claim, I wonder where they got it. Folk psychology, probably. But part of me wishes that they really had a team of psychologists working at the Vatican verifying that the conscience reacts as expected to moral education via the Catechism.
I have mixed feelings about the idea of an institution coming up with a moral platform and shoving it down its followers uncritical throats. On the one hand, it would be nice if everybody functioned as rationally critical moral theorists. But since they don't....
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One of the sampled noises used in Four Tet's "As Serious As Your Life" sounds exactly like my cell phone on its beastly vibration setting. It's funny how forcefully that sound can shift my attention away from the music which I was happily listening to to the dormant phone.
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Dang, folks. I don't mean to brag, but I can make one delicious dish with the following ingredients: broccoli, lots of nuts (peanuts, walnuts), garlic, olive oil, ginger (powdered is fine), soy sauce and, if I'm feeling fancy, mirin. .... want some?
"In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed, by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person."
There's so much that Catholic church does right, especially compared to the stuff that gets handed out by proselytizing Christian groups.
My favorite part was the section where they were forced to acknowledge a kind of moral nuance ("WHEN THERE IS NO "ACCEPTABLE" CANDIDATE"). People may correct me on this, but I think they make a shift here from deontological to consequentialist ethics which I found quite striking.
Also, note the implied moral psychological theory in the "THE ROLE OF YOUR CONSCIENCE" section. Since that theory would be a verifiable descriptive claim, I wonder where they got it. Folk psychology, probably. But part of me wishes that they really had a team of psychologists working at the Vatican verifying that the conscience reacts as expected to moral education via the Catechism.
I have mixed feelings about the idea of an institution coming up with a moral platform and shoving it down its followers uncritical throats. On the one hand, it would be nice if everybody functioned as rationally critical moral theorists. But since they don't....
----
One of the sampled noises used in Four Tet's "As Serious As Your Life" sounds exactly like my cell phone on its beastly vibration setting. It's funny how forcefully that sound can shift my attention away from the music which I was happily listening to to the dormant phone.
----
Dang, folks. I don't mean to brag, but I can make one delicious dish with the following ingredients: broccoli, lots of nuts (peanuts, walnuts), garlic, olive oil, ginger (powdered is fine), soy sauce and, if I'm feeling fancy, mirin. .... want some?