From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Mon Apr 29 2002 - 21:17:28 MDT
Damien Broderick proposes a thought experiment:
> It has been found that raising children in cruel and painful circumstances
> sometimes increases their IQ and artistic abilities significantly over that
> of their siblings, sometimes to genius levels. Certain kinds of physical
> impairment or long stretches of childhood illnesses, the sort that cause an
> irremediable social gulf between ill child and healthier peers, augment
> this effect. Would you choose to raise your child like this? Would you
> allow medical researchers to trial a variety of different diseases and
> minor mutilations on your young child in the expectation of an enhanced
> chance of genius? Even if you find this personally abhorrent, do you as a
> libertarian feel that it would be wrong to prevent other people's children
> having the benefit of such treatment?
I want to hold off an answering my own poll until more people weigh in
but I'll go ahead and give my opinion on this one. I think the issues
are somewhat different than in the case I gave because of the obvious
harm to the child in this scenario.
No, I would not raise my children like this, and in fact I would consider
it child abuse even if it does produce some geniuses. So I would try to
stop other people from treating their children in this harsh way as well,
inflicting illnesses and isolation and cruelty on them.
What is the reason we want to make our kids smarter? Is it to benefit
society as a whole, or is it for their own personal benefit? In my case,
it is purely the latter. I want my kids to have healthy, happy lives,
to feel good about themselves. Greater intelligence can give them a
competitive advantage and give them more options in life. Whatever
challenges they tackle, intelligence can help them with additional
insights and ideas.
Giving them intelligence at the cost of a harsh and traumatic childhood
would undercut that goal. A genius created in this way is likely to
be unstable and burdened with psychological problems. His gifts won't
bring him joy if he has not learned how to be happy as a child.
Creating intelligence through cruelty, supposing that it did actually work
(which I doubt), reverses the ends and means. We want our children to
be intelligent to make them happy; we therefore should not try to make
them intelligent at the cost of this happiness.
Intervening in someone else's child rearing practices is of course a
major step which should not be taken without good cause. Naturally it
will be a matter of degree as to when we should step in. I would not
say that parents are obligated to sacrifice everything to the happiness
of the child. But if the parent is actively working to make the child's
life harsh and painful in the hope that this will somehow turn him into
a genius, that crosses the line in my opinion. I would intervene and
try to improve the situation.
Hal
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