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My examples are just 4 quick things off the top of my head, there are probably many more. I also don't see your point about the deaf person (they're still treat
by xkvd 9y ago
My examples are just 4 quick things off the top of my head, there are probably many more. I also don't see your point about the deaf person (they're still treated differently -- you wouldn't talk vocally to them).
I agree with your rule of thumb, but that seems like a positive description of the situation, not the normative one I'm looking for. You're giving me the conditions under which there will be outrage for discrimination (i.e., there exists a socially vocal/outspoken group that identifies with the quality being discriminated on). However, I was trying to tease out what the moral rule purported by such groups could be, since I see the "don't discriminate for how I was born" claim so often (and so forcefully put). I would suppose there should be some deep moral law being broken.
- TeMPOraL 9y agoI don't know if there even is a moral rule there. I feel like the root cause is simply people being insecure about threats to their identity, and anything above that being just rationalizations.
- xkvd 9y agoYeah, but I have a feeling that we're both outside of the set of people who would make the statement I was quoting in my OC, which might explain why you and I can't find such a rule.
- greglindahl 9y agoHave you considered the Golden Rule?
- xkvd 9y agoYes, and it's still unclear to me how it'd be applied here.
- ZeroGravitas 9y agoThe related "veil of ignorance" test also applies. Would you advocate for the systematic mistreatment of group X if you didn't know whether or not you yourself would be born as part of that group?
- xkvd 9y agoAppealing to the veil is a good but insufficient step. For instance, we might disagree what people would agree on behind the veil (imo because we encode moral assumptions into our conclusions from it). Nonetheless, if we were to get that far I'd say the veil would be doing its job. For example, suppose I beleive in the systematic rejection of blind people from bus driving positions. I can see myself getting behind this even if I wouldn't know whether I'd be blind or not because I imagine behind the veil I'd put greater moral value associated with the safety of bus passengers than blind people's rights to the bus driving job. In other words, I've exposed the "driving" moral valuation behind my stance.