Comment author: SoullessAutomaton 19 July 2009 11:52:42PM 7 points [-]

And if you spend a lot of time being influenced by intelligent people who don't have a token for your autonomy, you'll be making a lot of decisions you wouldn't have made with better information and objectivity.

"Not causing people to make choices they will regret" is a pretty simple ethical principle.

Comment author: noahbody 20 July 2009 01:54:09AM 0 points [-]

"Not causing people to make choices they will regret" is a pretty simple ethical principle.

Actually, it's contradictory. If they actually have autonomy, then you can't truly "cause" them to make a particular choice. So choosing to "not cause" them to make a choice is actually admitting they're not autonomous.

Ergo, given the definition of "objectifying" in use here, you are objectifying someone merely by trying not to influence them.