Re: noodling request: Faustian bargains

Zeborah <zeborah@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Jonathan L Cunningham <spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Zeborah <zeborah@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Would you say "my feeling is that messing with someone's innards is a
Bad Thing"? It's exactly the same. If someone's healthy, you don't do

It's not the same, as your own words (snipped) make clear: the
difference is one of informed consent.

Yes it is and no it's not, respectively.
(snip)

I don't want to talk about exactly what constitutes informed consent.
That's not my area of expertise nor was it ever my point. But the fact
that it's a complicated thing doesn't negate my point, which was merely
that body illness and mental illness are ethically and morally
equivalent; and it particularly doesn't negate my refutation of your
belief/feeling that "messing with someone's brain chemistry is a Bad
Thing".

<nitpick>
I object to your claim that you have refuted my point. You have denied
it, argued against it, objected to it, disagreed with it. All those I
would accept. You have not, IMO, refuted it.
</nitpick>

I react even more strongly when a politician, accused of some
misdemeanor, say, "I refute that absolutely."

"No!" I say to those politicians. "You haven't! Your denial is not a
refutation. A refutation requires proof."

In a matter of opinion (which this is) I'm not even sure that a
refutation is possible.

The reason it's a nitpick, is that the language (mangled by politicians)
seems to be changing, and "refute" seems to be weakening to "deny". But
what new word can we find, which has the stronger meaning?

Jonathan

--
"I think too much - therefore I am mad!"
Agatha Clay playing Lucrezia Mongfish.
.

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