army1987 comments on 2013 Survey Results - Less Wrong

74 Post author: Yvain 19 January 2014 02:51AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (558)

Sort By: Popular

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: [deleted] 30 January 2014 07:59:39PM 1 point [-]

Actually I'm under the impression that the ‘standard’ resolution is not about the “harm” part but about the “want” part: it's assumed that people below a certain age can't want sex, to the point that said age is called the age of consent and sex with people younger than that is called a term which suggests it's considered a subset of sex with people who don't want it.

(I'm neither endorsing nor mocking this, just describing it.)

Comment author: Lumifer 30 January 2014 08:08:09PM *  4 points [-]

Actually I'm under the impression that the ‘standard’ resolution is not about the “harm” part but about the “want” part

I think your impression is mistaken.

it's assumed that people below a certain age can't want sex, to the point that said age is called the age of consent

Nope. It is assumed that people below a certain age cannot give informed consent. In other words, they are assumed to be not capable of good decisions and to be not responsible for the consequences. What they want is irrelevant. If you're below the appropriate age of consent, you cannot sign a valid contract, for example.

Below the age of consent you basically lack the legal capacity to agree to something.

Comment author: [deleted] 30 January 2014 08:09:48PM 1 point [-]

I assumed “want” to mean ‘consent’ in that sentence.

Comment author: Lumifer 30 January 2014 08:18:19PM -1 points [-]

That's not what these words mean, not even close.