From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Nov 24 2002 - 17:18:15 MST
Lee Corbin wrote:
> I apologize for the put-down
Apology accepted.
> Okay, here was the *argument* I gave:
[gts wrote]
>> This is all there is to rights. There is nothing mystical about
their
>> existence. We can agree to the existence of moral truths in the same
way
>> that we can agree to the existence of mathematical truths, and with
the
>> same kind of realist interpretations.
> Oh. Okay. Majority rule determines truth, eh?
You've been accused more than once of misstating another person's
position and I'm afraid this is yet another case. Nowhere in my words
above did I state that majority opinion determines moral truth. We
drafted a Bill of Rights and created a Supreme Court to help us avoid
the mob-rule that would result if we were to adopt such a view.
I said that we can agree to the existence of moral truths in the same
way that we agree to the existence of mathematical truths.
e.g., "We hold these truths to be *self-evident*, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit
of Happiness."
>From moral truths that we hold to be self-evident, we can create a
system of laws and ethics, one that is grounded in realism rather than
relativism. (I don't like the term "moral absolute" but probably not for
the same reason you don't like it.)
>... your so-called "moral truths"---just get the
> right people to agree!
The point I wish to make here is that by stating your disapproval of
slavery, you are in effect asserting that you believe people have a
right not to be enslaved, i.e., that you believe people have a right to
be free. And yet from the other side of your mouth you are telling us
that that in your opinion rights do not exist.
Please differentiate between the meanings of these two sentences, the
first of which you have claimed ownership but the second of which you
deny:
"I disapprove of slavery; I think blacks in America ought not have been
enslaved."
and
"I disapprove of slavery; I think blacks in America had a natural right
to be free prior to their legal emancipation."
-gts
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