My reply to this seems to have got lost, so here goes again.
Surely nobody believes ALL their decisions are ethical? Like which shoelace
to tie first, for example? I would have thought the ethically neutral
decisions of this kind outweigh the ethical ones by several thousand to one.
For an interesting treatment of such decisions, see John Barth's brilliant
novel The End of the Road, where a character becomes paralysed by an
inability to make them and has to be taught tiebreaking rules by a therapist
(eg always pick the option on the left, or the one that comes first in
alphabetical order). Otherwise he was like the chess program that ran out of
time because it couldn't choose between two moves that both gave mate.
Best wishes
Matthew
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 10 February 2001 01:09
Subject: Re: Statement
>>David K writes:
>>>
>>I was present at a conference in Salford last year
>>and heard John Kinsella explain very patiently to a questioner that his
>>anarchist and vegan beliefs mean that all decisions in his life are
ethical
>>choices.
>
>>With all due respect, this sounds impossible to me. At any rate, it would
>>surely make life unbearable.
>
>I'm curious why this is impossible - one doesn't have to be a vegan or an
>anarchist to aspire to an ethical life. I've no doubt it makes life
>difficult, perhaps very difficult, at times: but why would it be
>impossible?
>
>Best
>
>Alison
>
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