Re: Jargon & Questioning LO3422

Willard Jule (75272.3452@compuserve.com)
25 Oct 95 22:35:56 EDT

Replying to LO3360 --

Thank you for your response Jim.

Jim Michmerhuizen wrote

*** Begin quote

On 18 Oct 1995, Willard Jule wrote:

> Now "to end the refrain, thrust home," I am going to make a bold
> statement that may elicit some strong emotional responses. I suggest that
> one of the most liberating things we can do for ourselves and our fellow
> man is to drop words (and the associated concepts) like should, oughta,
> must, right, wrong, good, bad (in the moral sense) from our vocabulary.

In the kinds of contexts you alluded to earlier in your post, yes. In
general, no. G.K.Chesterton somewhere observed that where _real_ moral
discussion weakens, moral values begin to attach to trivia. I think
you've certainly identified such an area. We have all seen, I'm sure,
instances of this: a meeting collapses into chaotic recriminations because
somebody imported evaluative language too easily, too glibly,
thoughtlessly.

But striking moral terms out of the language entirely, making it
effectively impossible to discuss right and wrong where "right" and
"wrong", "good" and "evil" are the correct names of the issues involved --
that seems an extreme measure.

Impractical, even.

> Replace them with awareness of the principles cited above and take
> conscious responsibility to choose our actions in the context of these
> principles.

Again, in the contexts this thread had been concerned with, my
enthusiastic agreement. Perhaps you didn't mean your recommendation to be
taken as generally as I took it?

*** End quote

I mean the recommendation generally because I believe that it helps us get
into a state of unknowing when we are discussing moral issues or any other
issue for that matter. It seems to me that moral issues (and others) tend
to be very emotionally charged so if we can have neutral exploratory
ground we can sometimes gain fresh insights. These insights then help us
choose our actions in a more systemic way to benefit more people affected
by them.

--
Willard Jule 
75272.3452@compuserve.com