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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   25769 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 26, 2024

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That's hard to answer unless the standard of "knowledge" is sufficiently defined for the context.

Agreed. That's why I was so hopeful with Westen's approach to probing his "knowledge prong" of consent. However, I really don't think he got very far with it. I've said here before that if there is going to actually be solid theoretical development on this topic to actually get something useful, it's going to have to be here.

We know quite a lot about child psychology in general, which is sufficient for setting general laws and ethical norms for child behaviour.

I mean, do we? This is kind of a mess. At very early ages, we have some pretty standardized milestones. Beyond that, you very rapidly descend into a nature/nurture mire and all sorts of theories about what children could or could not be educated into being capable of. (I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the details here still need to be connected somehow to the theory of consent to sexual relations in order for this project to be completed, and that is no small task.)

I never suggested that sexual partners should have the same understanding of sex, only more than that possessed by a child.

More in what way? Vague additional "sophistication"? This, frankly, isn't going to cut it.

As for our historical fate, I'm reminded of Allan Bloom in the Closing of the American Mind, when he takes inspiration from Irish monks in the Dark Ages. They were unable to contribute much to the stock of human knowledge, nor to solve the problems of their times, but they lovingly preserved certain ideas and texts, thereby greatly influencing the history of Western Europe and ultimately the world. If those Irish monks did what they saw as their duty, then it seems like others in less hopeless circumstances can do likewise.

This is very nice. I am sort of putting on a bit (hopefully obviously) about us having to put together a theory to be the last line of defense. I'm pretty much at peace with the idea that a couple of schmoes on a whacko corner of the internet aren't going to have a significant influence on the problems of our times. Personally, I actually surprisingly do at the moment feel like I can have a significant influence on my very niche corner of the academic literature (it's about as far of a topic from this conversation as you can imagine; also, I really didn't feel like this about my own work until quite recently, so I hope you don't get the impression that I have a raging ego about my work even in my little niche; my collaborators and I just happened upon what I think is a really cool perspective in the last few years), but I really can't imagine I'll have much influence outside of that. I'm more just curating my own mind, and if I influence any other individuals in the process, I guess that's neat.

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