December 30, 2002
RAISING THE BAR FOR PETER SINGER:
Don't Dream the Impossible: a review of The Ideal of Equality Edited by Matthew Clayton and Andrew Williams (David Gordon, The Mises Review)This useful anthology contains the single most deplorable comment on a philosophical topic that I have ever encountered. [...]Larry Temkin...startles us with the following comment: "Isn't it unfair for some to be worse off than others through no fault of their own? Isn't it unfair for some to be blind, while others are not? And isn't unfairness bad? . . . But, the anti-egalitarian will incredulously ask, do I really think that there is some respect in which a world where only some are blind is worse than one where all are? Yes". Readers will readily grasp why Professor Temkin wins my award for most unfortunate philosophical comment. (I ought to have said that the works of Peter Singer are excluded from the competition.)
Temkin hastens to assure us that he does not favor blinding everyone to make things fair: "Does this mean I think it would be better if we blinded everyone? No. Equality is not all that matters. But it matters some".
It is heartening that Professor Temkin shrinks from this final absurdity, but his position remains bizarre.
Isn't that really just a particularly appalling statement of what egalitarianism requires generally: that the more able be disabled in order to equalize things? Posted by Orrin Judd at December 30, 2002 11:22 PM
It is not necessary to blind everyone, so long as we inculcate a profound sense of "sighted guilt" amongst the non-blind.
Posted by: Robert D at December 31, 2002 9:12 AMThe opinions of Temkin and Singer are bizarre in that they come out of a strictly materialist, evolutionary psychology-type worldview. The concept of unfairness is a non-starter in a world of pitiless chance and indifference.
Posted by: Jim at December 31, 2002 9:40 AMBetcha can't remember which president said "life isn't fair."
Posted by: Harry at December 31, 2002 12:26 PMAl Gore
Posted by: oj at December 31, 2002 1:17 PMHe woulda if he coulda. But I was thinking of Carter.
Posted by: Harry at December 31, 2002 3:11 PMI read a SF story that posited a society just like this, many years ago.
My father thoutht that Science Fiction was bad, bad, bad, but western's were OK. Go figure.
I think, however, that I learned more from SF than I did from Dad.
Well, if love is blind, maybe we should just all fall in....
Posted by: Barry Meislin at December 31, 2002 4:43 PM