Hi Wim, Horse, Rick, all
All men are mortal,
Socrates is mortal,
Therefore, all men are Socrates.
(S.Martin, quoted by Rick)
All men are mortal
I'm alive,
Therefore, only after my death I will know if I'm a man.
(Marco)
WIM:
> '"Habeas Corpus" literally in Latin means "That you have
> the body", but it doesn't refer to a right to life. It's
> a "writ requiring that a prisoner be brought to
> court to determine legality of confinement"
> But doesn't this (historically) mean that a prisoner
> had the right to not be left rotting to death in a dungeon?
hmmm, as long it allows capital punishment, I don't see how it can be a
"right to life".
> Marco wrote 24/1 22:17 +0100 (privately to me):
> 'I don't kill posts automatically ... as I've always the hope to
> find something of good in everyone.'
> Did you know that (trusting the existence of) 'something of good
> in everyone' is a favorite expression of Quakers and a common way
> for us to justify our pacifism?
No, but I'm glad for that. Maybe I will buy a book (in Italian) about
Quakers, I'm curious.... I've always been fascinated by religions, even if
I'm not religious. But, you know, when I step into an ancient cathedral I
feel the spirit that has animated humankind....
I realize that for millennia only religions have -rarely- supported right to
life. They had not a basic rational foundation for that,
nevertheless -rarely- they felt it was good. I think nowadays rationality
can explain why capital punishment is a crime.
> How can killing anyone be good if that also kills
> the good in him/her?
> It is an argument that closely resembles Pirsig's:
> 'The strongest moral argument against
> capital punishment is that it weakens a society's Dynamic
> capability-its capability for change and evolution.'
> ('Lila', ch. 13).
Yes. And let me also remind "A thing that has no value does not exist".
Anyway, there is another question about capital punishment: How do you teach
that murder is a crime by mean of murder?
The point is that in a civil country punishment should not be the first
important issue for justice. Prevention and rehabilitation should be at the
first place. Pragmatically, I'd say, there is the evidence that capital
punishment does not frighten criminals (they already risk much more their
life when they commit crimes) so it is completely ineffective as prevention.
And, as rehabilitation, no need to write ....
Capital punishment is just good to calm the thirst for blood of the
relatives of the victims. That is a somewhat understandable reaction... but
a civil nation should keep at bay this and others low-quality biological and
social quests.
Anyway, to balance the reasoning, let me also add the right to life is
basically biological. I mean: even if it is terrible, death is not the worst
possible thing. I'd prefer to die for my freedom than being reduced in
slavery. I also support the right to euthanasia... these reasoning's put
life in a different context. Socially and intellectually life is a
*necessary* support. But it's not anymore IMO the higher purpose.
of course, ICBW
Ciao,
Marco
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:01:51 BST