Re: [Bulk] Re: Death penalty

> Sure there are. They're both doing something that may hurt an innocent
> party. They're both doing something they know is wrong. They're both
> breaking an implicit contract (she, with her lover; he, with society).
> Both activities entail unpleasant consequences if they're found out.
> Both activities can result in the relief of pent-up frustrations, at
> the expense of something greater. Both can be justified, given the
> proper context.<
>
> Oh, I thought we were talking about similarities that didn't involve gross moral
> equivocation.  Silly me.

The only moral equivocation here is whatever you're applying. Bruce's
analogy was prefaced by acknowledgement that the two *weren't*
equivalent.

> And on your last one - when exactly can murder be justified?  If homicide were
> justified it wouldn't be murder.

I should have been more clear on this point -- the person committing
the "sin" can justify their behavior to themselves.

To your more direct point, what if I said *no* homicide is justified?
Would that make it *all* murder? I suspect that in your mind, it would
not, and you would prefer that I didn't impose my viewpoint upon you.
Why, then, should I accept that any homicide is justified, simply
because someone else says it is?

>>There are as many similarities (and dissimilarities) as you care to
> see. The purpose of an analogy is to draw attention to a *specific*
> similarity between two situations, and illuminate that particular
> point by casting it in a *different* light. If analogies were intended
> to exactly reproduce the original situation, there wouldn't be any
> point in making them.<
>
> So all analogies are equal?

Not sure where you're getting that from.

My point is that, by your apparent definition, *every* analogy would
be flawed because every situation carries countless considerations
which make it utterly unique, and thereby inequivalent to any other
situation, and that's without even getting into the Rashomon effect.

Me killing your mom is not the moral equivalent of you killing my cat,
but a legitimate analogy could be drawn between the two -- not to
demonstrate that a cat's life is worth as much as a human life, but
that it's cruel to deprive someone of a relationship they treasure.
Unless someone specifically says they're demonstrating a moral
equivalent with their analogy, you're attacking... (wait for it)... a
straw man.

-- 
-pcg
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