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fubarobfusco comments on On private marriage contracts - Less Wrong Discussion

8 [deleted] 12 January 2013 02:53PM

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Comment author: fubarobfusco 12 January 2013 06:32:51PM *  0 points [-]

Yes, pretty much. Republics are not good at morality but they are not uncaring, either.

EDIT: I have difficulty taking Konkvistador's comment as anything but a joke, because I specified what I meant by "not amoral", namely "it has moral (or moral-like) objections to some contract terms". I should probably clarify what counts as "moral-like objections": ones grounded on consequential, deontological, or virtue premises, e.g.:

  • "We don't enforce that contract term because doing so would cause harm."
    • "... to the contracting parties."
    • "... to society at large."
  • "We don't enforce that contract term because we're obligated not to."
    • "... because it would violate someone's rights."
    • "... because we couldn't do so without exceeding our legitimate authority."
  • "We don't enforce that contract term because good people wouldn't do that."
    • "... because it would reward bad behavior."
    • "... because doing so would make us like the Bad Example People."