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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!wucs!esk
From: esk@wucs.UUCP (Paul V. Torek)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Densinger -- still has it wrong
Message-ID: <497@wucs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 19-Nov-84 17:26:57 EST
Article-I.D.: wucs.497
Posted: Mon Nov 19 17:26:57 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 21-Nov-84 00:11:07 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Washington U. in St. Louis, CS Dept.
Lines: 35

Densinger's errors center on this assertion:
>> We simply CANNOT ever know moral Truth.

First of all, knock off that capital T.  Second, it ain't so.  We can so
know moral truth, using plain old human reason and experience.  Note that
small t.  Moral truth is human truth; if a norm is valid for humans then
it has to be knowable for us.

Densinger goes on:
>> This is why making personal moral decisions is so difficult ...

If Densinger were right it wouldn't be difficult, it would be IMPOSSIBLE.
The very concept of human freedom depends on our ability to know what
norms apply to us.

Tense, painful moral decisions are disvaluable, not valuable.  It would be
nice (though the possibility is purely hypothetical) if tough decisions were
unnecessary.  Tense decisions are also no paradigm of freedom.  The less
certain a decision is (if correct), the less free.  (The more certain the less
free if the decision is incorrect.)

Densinger argues that "legalization is different because it is an arena in
which the ... rules are known ... Laws are human-made ...".  What he fails
to realize is that laws can be criticized from a moral/philosophical point
of view.  Laws can be human-unmade too.  The mere fact that our country
has certain laws or Constitutional principles says nothing about what we
should do.  

Densinger should reflect that the same Kant to whom he refers upheld the
thesis that moral truths are humanly knowable and that universalizable
principles can and must be used.  There are limits to the limits of human
reason.
		--The THIRD side, Paul V Torek, ihnp4!wucs!wucec1!pvt1047 
Please send any mail directly to this address, not the sender's.  Thanks.