From: Russell Blackford (rblackford@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Jun 25 2001 - 01:40:47 MDT
Hal Finney said
I believe it is morally incumbent upon us to make sure
>that the choices everyone makes, the paths we follow as a society, are
>fully informed. Rather than trying to fight those who propose caution,
>we need to recognize that they are responding in a natural way to a
>difficult and challenging situation.
>
>This is not a battle. It needs to be a dialog, a conversation, in which
>issues are raised openly and discussed in a constructive way. <snip>
We want to add one more voice to be heard,
>not to suppress others from having their voice heard as well.
I agree with a lot of this. Indeed, my own published writings on bioethical
issues, etc, are fairly analytical and conciliatory in tone, and I try,
quite explicitly, to bracket off issues that are not necessary to the
argument. I now rather regret my deliberately jocular reference on this list
to (metaphorical) "gunsights" the other day, and I'd never use such language
in public, much less wish to suppress my opponents' freedom of speech.
Opponents should certainly be treated with appropriate respect.
However, there is a clash of ideas and world views here. I find it difficult
to avoid thinking of it as a something approaching a battle when I read
pieces such as the following:
http://www.thenewrepublic.com/052101/kass052101_print.html
At the moment, the views expressed therein are winning the debate - not in
the sense that they are intellectually merited but in the sense that they
are attracting adherents at every level, from sophisticated national and
international policy makers to noisy street level demonstrators.
Just my humble opinion
Russell
==================
Russell Blackford
rblackford@hotmail.com
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