Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!uflorida!novavax!proxftl!twwells!bill
From: bill@twwells.uucp (T. William Wells)
Newsgroups: news.sysadmin
Subject: Being anti-moral (was Re: Getting Complacent)
Summary: responding to weemba is a waste
Message-ID: <172@twwells.uucp>
Date: 12 Nov 88 06:23:45 GMT
References: <44439@beno.seismo.CSS.GOV> <16742@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <5366@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: bill@twwells.UUCP (T. William Wells)
Organization: None, Ft. Lauderdale
Lines: 56

In article <5366@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford) writes:
: In article <16742@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> weemba@garnet.berkeley.edu (Obnoxious Math Grad Student) writes:
: >In article <44439@beno.seismo.CSS.GOV>, rick@seismo (Rick Adams) writes:
: >>Does that make it less of a crime?
: >
: >Who cares?  Why is it SO IMPORTANT to have the MORAL HIGH GROUND?  So
: >that you can feel justified about being smug and complacent re security?
:
: 2) Some of us are concerned about ethical issues in addition to
: technical issues.  Too many people are not concerned with ethics,
: professionalism, liability, et. al.  and we see technology as not
: providing all the answers to important questions. That you are
: unconcerned with ethics does not seem surprising to many of us.

Consider this part of a posting from Mr. Wiener:
<10185@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>, 21 May 88 07:50:12 GMT

: What I'm saying is that I consider my perception of right and wrong
: to really *be* a sense, like vision and hearing.  It varies far more
: strongly than the standard five senses, between people and over time,
: yes, but it is still a basic sense.  I would no more accept a theory
: of ethics that contradicts my observations of right/wrong than I would
: accept a physical theory that tells me I am seeing red when in fact
: I am seeing blue.

Here is my response to it:
<251@proxftl.UUCP>, 3 Jun 88 04:35:36 GMT

: Let me translate the previous paragraph: What I feel to be right
: is right and what I feel to be wrong is wrong.  Why?  Because I
: feel it.  Suppose that you have a theory that tells me how to
: distinguish right from wrong?  If I do not feel it to be right, I
: will reject it, no matter what its merits.
:
: What you have asserted (minus the "perception" window dressing)
: is subjectivism (Websters Ninth collegiate: subjectivism 2b: a
: doctrine that individual feeling or apprehension is the ultimate
: criterion of the good and the right), pure and simple.

Mr. Wiener is unqualified to think about anything requiring moral
judgement. Which is to say, everything of importance.

: 3) Please, please insult Indiana some more -- it makes you appear so
: terribly clever and humorous.  You're so cute when you're rabid.

He is in my kill file because of a number of things; when I see the
drivel he continues to spout (in the responses to said drivel) I am
pleased that he is there.

Mr. Spafford, you have been most reasonable in this debate; don't you
think that it is a good idea to stop encouraging this ethical midget
to post?

---
Bill
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