3 ms·

When considering things that won't likely affect me personally, I wonder if I'd be willing to suffer the consequences to pay for the reasoning. I imagine myself

When considering things that won't likely affect me personally, I wonder if I'd be willing to suffer the consequences to pay for the reasoning. I imagine myself in the shoes of those that will be affected. This tends to be complicated. Would I be willing to put my sons in that position: being innocent? That's easy, no. Would I be willing to have someone guilty of harming my son go free? That's harder. Would I be willing to go to prison for an innocent man? And I don't mean with the hope of going free. The understanding is, would I be willing to give up my life so that another would stay in prison? I do this for a lot of stuff that has a moral complexity. Would I be willing to suffer for this outcome? Sometimes the answer comes easily: yes, I would. It forces me to think through the ramifications of what I'm asking others to do. It's not easy, because it forces me to come to terms with my moral desires and my practical desires. And all of this is really a mind game anyways, it's not real. It's speculative. I don't know how I would react if I was really put into a position. Apologies, this wasn't directly related to the topic itself, but the post made me think of this.

rayiner 3y ago
But you could just as easily try to put yourself in the shoes of the crime victim that doesn’t get justice because the perpetrator is one of the 10 guilty men that go free.
- ta757579 3y ago
  They did, re-read paragraph 3.
dkarl 3y ago
John Rawls suggests imagining that you don't know which person in society you will be. You might be a victim, a defendant, a juror, a family member of a victim or defendant, somebody poor or rich, somebody who lives in a rural or urban area, somebody who lives in a high-crime or low-crime neighborhood. You might be any age, any race, with any sexual orientation or gender identity. If you were about to be dropped into a society and did not know what situation you would find yourself in, what rules and norms would you want society to have?

rayiner 3y ago

But you could just as easily try to put yourself in the shoes of the crime victim that doesn’t get justice because the perpetrator is one of the 10 guilty men that go free.

ta757579 3y ago
They did, re-read paragraph 3.

dkarl 3y ago

John Rawls suggests imagining that you don't know which person in society you will be. You might be a victim, a defendant, a juror, a family member of a victim or defendant, somebody poor or rich, somebody who lives in a rural or urban area, somebody who lives in a high-crime or low-crime neighborhood. You might be any age, any race, with any sexual orientation or gender identity. If you were about to be dropped into a society and did not know what situation you would find yourself in, what rules and norms would you want society to have?