[lit-ideas] Re: The Reluctant Water Boarder
- From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:42:24 -0700
JL writes inter alia
"baby" is derogatory for 'cute chick'. If she is not a minor, a witch, and
we live in Saalem, 1720, she was possibly boiled.
I believe, on no particular grounds, you're thinking of 'babe.' But see,
'Come to me, my melancholny bay..bee...'
And where does Elizabeth Anscombe says this? I hope there is a context.
In 'Mr Truman's Degree,' [1956] a pamphlet she published as part of her
objecting to Truman's getting an honorary degree at Oxford, she wrote
'I have been accused of being “high-minded.” I must be saying “You may
not do evil that good may come,” which is a disagreeably high-minded
doctrine. The action was necessary, or at any rate it was thought by
competent, expert military opinion to be necessary; it probably saved
more lives than it sacrificed; it had a good result, it ended the war.
Come now: if you had to choose between boiling one baby and letting some
frightful disaster befall a thousand people—or a million people, if a
thousand is not enough—what would you do? Are you going to strike an
attitude and say “You may not do evil that good may come”? (People who
never hear such arguments will hardly believe they take place, and will
pass this rapidly by.)
....
'We can now reformulate the principle of “doing evil that good may come”
Every fool can be as much of a knave as suits him.'
http://tinyurl.com/dn3mca
-------------------
Robert Paul
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