Comment author:TheOtherDave
16 November 2010 05:37:57PM
4 points
[-]
Sure. But NihilCredo's point is actually broader than that.
When I adopt an importantly different new referent for a term, it's really not a good idea for me to carry forward old ideas associated with that term without re-evaluating them. It's a special case of the common problem of confusing the label for the referent.
In some cases, the confusion is obvious and easy to avoid. For example, a couple of years ago the U.S. adopted a new referent for the term "current President of the United States" that made previously true statements (e.g., "the current President of the United States is a member of the Republican party") suddenly false. This doesn't really confuse anyone; we understand that the referent for that label changes over time.
But "killing" isn't like that for most people. If I adopt an understanding of "killing" congruent with your comment above I ought to stop and ask myself things like "Is killing a bad thing? Why? Is there any reason I shouldn't go around killing everyone I can? What reason? Is there any reason I shouldn't kill myself every opportunity I get?" and so forth. But there's a strong chance I won't.
At some point it becomes less confusing to just adopt a new word.
In other words, the issue here is not whether magical therapy on Bellatrix is a justified killing or an unjustified killing, but whether it's useful or consistent to refer to it as any kind of killing at all.
Completely tangential to this: I have a lot of difficulty reconciling the idea that reliable psychiatric intervention to "heal" people of criminal tendencies exists in the HPverse with the idea that Azkaban exists there. It's as if a fictional world contained the ability to cure any disease, but wealthy and important people in that world were forced to die of diseases without being cured. I don't claim it's impossible -- human societies are perfectly capable of contradictions this absurd -- but it would be awfully difficult to defend.
Comment author:Dan074
16 November 2010 05:45:49PM
3 points
[-]
Azkaban already seems difficult to defend, versus just killing people in the ordinary sense. Sure, killing people is inhumane, but much less inhumane, and much more secure, than imprisoning people for life in a place that destroys all happiness and goodness.
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Sure. But NihilCredo's point is actually broader than that.
When I adopt an importantly different new referent for a term, it's really not a good idea for me to carry forward old ideas associated with that term without re-evaluating them. It's a special case of the common problem of confusing the label for the referent.
In some cases, the confusion is obvious and easy to avoid. For example, a couple of years ago the U.S. adopted a new referent for the term "current President of the United States" that made previously true statements (e.g., "the current President of the United States is a member of the Republican party") suddenly false. This doesn't really confuse anyone; we understand that the referent for that label changes over time.
But "killing" isn't like that for most people. If I adopt an understanding of "killing" congruent with your comment above I ought to stop and ask myself things like "Is killing a bad thing? Why? Is there any reason I shouldn't go around killing everyone I can? What reason? Is there any reason I shouldn't kill myself every opportunity I get?" and so forth. But there's a strong chance I won't.
At some point it becomes less confusing to just adopt a new word.
In other words, the issue here is not whether magical therapy on Bellatrix is a justified killing or an unjustified killing, but whether it's useful or consistent to refer to it as any kind of killing at all.
Completely tangential to this: I have a lot of difficulty reconciling the idea that reliable psychiatric intervention to "heal" people of criminal tendencies exists in the HPverse with the idea that Azkaban exists there. It's as if a fictional world contained the ability to cure any disease, but wealthy and important people in that world were forced to die of diseases without being cured. I don't claim it's impossible -- human societies are perfectly capable of contradictions this absurd -- but it would be awfully difficult to defend.
Azkaban already seems difficult to defend, versus just killing people in the ordinary sense. Sure, killing people is inhumane, but much less inhumane, and much more secure, than imprisoning people for life in a place that destroys all happiness and goodness.