Paul wrote...
> We do not assume a new born human baby (or even toddler) to have moral
> judgement. Within a human life there is a therefore a continuum between
the
> amoral and moral. This suggests two things to me a) It is perfectly
> legitimate to accept that some complex living things have no moral sense
> and b) we can accept that we can have a moral responsibility towards those
> that are themselves amoral.
I think the idea of a "contunuum" between amoral and moral/immoral in human
life is well pointed out.
Not only do we have less (or no) (im)moral capability when we are biological
infants, but not all human beings develop their moral sense at the same
rate. Paul mentioned that the chimps might not know it's wrong to do
violence. I say that some humans might not know it's wrong either. For
example, I imagine that the Grand Inquisitor of the Christian Inquisition
did not think it was wrong to torture "witches." In fact, my understanding
is that he thought he was saving their souls. Dare I say that Hitler might
not have thought it was wrong to commit genocide?
I'm not sure what my point is here. Perhaps it will be fleshed out in
subsequent posts.
Bryan
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