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I do understand that anyone from history will have held views that are morally repugnant to anyone in the modern world. Think of Thomas Jefferson and having chi

I do understand that anyone from history will have held views that are morally repugnant to anyone in the modern world. Think of Thomas Jefferson and having children with his slaves and I think those children were slaves, while also thinking about the universal rights of man (and not women, blacks, or non-landholding white men). But there is a historic millieu that one has to use to judge that person's views and ideas within, and that does allow me to consider the views of people from antiquity. But that notion also applies to judging the ideas of people writing in the world that I live in. Today, it's just clear that women should have civil rights and be equal partners in society with men. It's silly to state otherwise, and so when someone who is a contemporary states otherwise, it does call into question their views.

overgard 10y ago
To be fair though, if you believe people from antiquity had some highly problematic views (no doubt), then wouldn't it be easy to extrapolate that people a hundred years from now are going to look on your beliefs in horror? I cant imagine slave owners thought they were bad people either. It's easy to write it off because you'll be long gone, so who cares, but we'd be a much better society if we realized a lot of what we think is fundamentally true tends to historically go in and out of fashion, and the people that are out of fashion tend to have ideas most of us havent heard. Again Im not arguing for his views, Im just saying, the reason we have the concept of logical fallacies (ad-hominem being one of them) is history is long and these ideas have worked well.
- NotSammyHagar 10y ago
  I agree, I am sure some of my views will be judged to be wrong, horrifying. One I have thought of is because I like to eat meat, I'll be judged to be a monster. I have considered becoming a vegatarian, but I do love a steak with wine, or a burger. I used to visit my grandmother's farm when I was a kid and we had cows and chickens, and I'm under no misconceptions about where food comes from :-) Actually I'm interested in learning more about the world and educating my self and not just being stuck on one view of what is right and wrong. I will disagree with one thing your wrote, about ideas coming and and out of fashion over time - certainly that happens but the idea of civil rights for all individuals must be a universal thing. I think that's very different than views about religion or proper foods to eat or ideas about what are good jobs for men or women.

overgard 10y ago

To be fair though, if you believe people from antiquity had some highly problematic views (no doubt), then wouldn't it be easy to extrapolate that people a hundred years from now are going to look on your beliefs in horror? I cant imagine slave owners thought they were bad people either. It's easy to write it off because you'll be long gone, so who cares, but we'd be a much better society if we realized a lot of what we think is fundamentally true tends to historically go in and out of fashion, and the people that are out of fashion tend to have ideas most of us havent heard. Again Im not arguing for his views, Im just saying, the reason we have the concept of logical fallacies (ad-hominem being one of them) is history is long and these ideas have worked well.

NotSammyHagar 10y ago
I agree, I am sure some of my views will be judged to be wrong, horrifying. One I have thought of is because I like to eat meat, I'll be judged to be a monster. I have considered becoming a vegatarian, but I do love a steak with wine, or a burger. I used to visit my grandmother's farm when I was a kid and we had cows and chickens, and I'm under no misconceptions about where food comes from :-) Actually I'm interested in learning more about the world and educating my self and not just being stuck on one view of what is right and wrong. I will disagree with one thing your wrote, about ideas coming and and out of fashion over time - certainly that happens but the idea of civil rights for all individuals must be a universal thing. I think that's very different than views about religion or proper foods to eat or ideas about what are good jobs for men or women.