Sent the following to my 3 classes today. Ed Kent Subject: May Majorities Impose Their Moralities on Minorities? (6,10,43) Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 11:26:50 -0500 From: Ed Kent <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Student Concerns <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Comments welcomed here on what follows from our list advisors as well as students. Below are some web sites relating to a grand debate re-raised by the recent presidential election: may/should a dominant majority in a democratic country impose its moral code legally (with threat of punishment or deprivation of rights) upon minorities? This debate has been waged previously in philosophic/legal encounters: in the 19th century between one of the famous Stephens family and John Stuart Mill (On Liberty, 1869): http://94.1911encyclopedia.org/S/ST/STEPHEN_SIR_LESLIE.htm http://www.jsmill.com/britannica.htm in the 20th century between Lord Patrick Devlin (The Legal Enforcement of Morals, 1965) and H.L.A Hart (Law, Liberty and Morality, 1963). http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20040106-093956-1160r.htm http://www.ibiblio.org/gaylaw/issue6/sylla.htm (erroneously identifies Hart as an American, but summary generally accurate) http://www.ibiblio.org/gaylaw/issue6/sylla.htm Alexis DeTocqueville warned in the 1830s of our potential for majority tyranny here in our U.S. republic -- which he otherwise greatly admired, despite our 'founding fathers' constitutionally endorsed slavery: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/home.html In "On Liberty" Mill picked up this caveat regarding "tyranny of the majority" and propounded his famous 'no harm principle', i.e. that the state may only restrict (competent adults) from harming others and should use persuasion to guide people not to harm themselves. H.L.A. Hart, Britain's most eminent legal theorist, took the same line -- with the possible exception of some restrictions on dangerous addictive drugs subject to abuse. Joel Feinberg added the possibility of extremely _offensive_ things in addition to harms, but cautioned that sensibilities vary tremendously as to what offends this or that person: http://uanews.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/UANews.woa/wa/MainStoryDetails?ArticleID=8930 Devlin and Stephens insisted that majorities not only had a right, but an obligation to enforce the dominant (national religious) morality. Most nations do have a dominant (established) national religion and the U.S., far more 'religious' (a large majority so self-identified) than any of the European nations (10% on average), is one of the very few with a constitutional protection against establishment: -- Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. -- We shall be exploring this topic in 6 Tuesday under the rubric: "What limits, if any, should be placed on one's control of one's own body?" This question touches on many of the issues that we have explored (as well as raised by the recent election: abortion, euthanasia, gay marriage, smoking, use of prohibited substances, etc.). We may also look at this debate later in 43. And if students in 10 are interested, we can explore the issues there, too, after we get the moral arguments foundations established. When I was publishing some of his writings in a legal philosophy text, I corresponded several times with Hart. Gay relationships were only re-legalized in England as a consequence of the Wolfenden Royal Commission Report published when I was studying there in 1957: http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/wolfenden_report.html Joel Feinberg, Martin Golding, and I started a fruitful working group in philosophy of law when he was at Rockefeller University where he was developing his sketch of the various conceptions of liberty and rationales for restricting it. John Hospers, noted philosopher and subsequent presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party, left Brooklyn's philosophy department shortly before I arrived there when he was rudely denied confirmation of his election to its chairmanship by the then autocratic president of the college -- because he (Hospers) was gay. I only discovered by search for a web site that he died only this past September: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hospers On a personal note I am being bothered by a minor injury to a nerve currently for which medical stuff is scheduled, but it should not affect our class meetings. It does slow typing, as it is focused on my left hand -- growl! So pardon any typos. EAK P.S. The problem above obviously makes the Bush notions of democracy in Iraq somewhat absurd. A Shia majority there will presumably prefer an Islamic Republic along the lines of that in Iran with suppression most likely of the two minorities -- one of which is now fighting back -- and the imposition of strict Muslim morality. One despairs of such naivet� emerging out of Texas -- and the murderous loss of lives (1,600 so far?) now being reported. Manifestly anyone who moves in Falluja is being designated by our military as an 'insurgent' -- contrary to the reports of international human rights and aid groups deeply worried about the civilians trapped and being killed and injured there per the BBC reports this morning. We have blown away most of their clinics and taken over the major hospital there, precluding care of the injured ones. We have no idea how many are buried in bombed out buildings in this city originally of 250,000. P.P.S. Another npr report noted yesterday that the U.S. of all the developed countries has the highest rate of AIDS and other serious venereal infections as well as abortion rates, which the report attributed to our failure properly to institute and maintain effective sex education programs in our schools and elsewhere. These are supported by a vast majority of Americans, but a fierce 'moral' minority and lack of adequate funding are apparently -- tragically -- blocking same. Posting the Ten Commandments on the court house door does not do it! Sex is still alive and well, if pretty confusing and confused, in America. Outlawing abortion here again would be a disaster -- as it now is in Brazil where thousands of women still die horribly each year from botched abortions! P.P.P.S. As most of you know, as one who studied theology with our best minds and persons mid 20th century, I am appalled by the murderous hate mongering into which some members of our contemporary religions have now degenerated. Such is a perverse deviation from their founders' visions -- but an apparent correlative of modernity, which challenges the authority of ever less qualified religious institutional leaders. What a sad betrayal of once noble endeavors. We all must worry about the potential culture wars -- at home as well as abroad -- that we may be unleashing. The world is still a most dangerous place, given the deadly weapons that can fall into the wrong hands. Never again! -- "A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy) -- Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns -- "A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy) -- Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. 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