[lit-ideas] When Two Wrongs Make A Right
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2012 20:21:57 -0400 (EDT)
Was: Whig 'n' Tory
In a message dated 7/10/2012 7:12:36 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
_profdritchie@xxxxxxxxxx (mailto:profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx) wrote
>>>'whig', a synonym for "wrong."
and now:
Tory.
>another synonym for "wrong."
Oddly, the consequence seems to be obvious.
HOWEVER: _both_ "Two wrongs do not make one right" and "Two wrongs make a
right" are an English phrase, and as Geary notes, we might need to decide
(or otherwise not).
This sentence expresses a Norm (philosophy), according to Witters.
However, somewhat confusingly, in the Blue Book, he writes of "two wrongs make
a
right" as a norm, while in the Brown Book, the norm is "two wrongs do NOT
make one right". (Cora Diamond thinks the "not" is 'apocryphal' -- "hardly
his handwriting").
Grice considers the implicature of the following:
Speaker A: You shouldn't embezzle from your employer. It's against the law.
Speaker B: My employer cheats on their taxes. That's against the law, too!
The unstated premise (or 'enthymeme', as Grice calls it, echoing Aristotle
-- literally, 'in the chest') is that breaking the law (the wrong), Grice
thinks, is justified, as long as the other party also does so.
It is often used as "a red herring" (metaphorically speaking), or an
attempt to change or distract from the issue.
Grice gives this further example of an odd conversational implicature:
Speaker A:
President Williams lied in his testimony to Congress. He should not do
that.
Speaker B:
But you are ignoring the fact that President Roberts lied in his
Congressional testimony!
Even if President Roberts lied in his Congressional testimony, that does
not make it acceptable for President Williams to do so as well. ("At best,"
Grice notes, "it means Williams is no worse than Roberts. By invoking the
fallacy, the contested issue of "lying" is ignored".)
The tu quoque fallacy is a specific type of "two wrongs make a right".
-- cfr. Julius Caesar's ultimate use of the fallacy.
Accusing another person of not practicing what they preach, while
appropriate in some situations, does not in itself invalidate an action or
statement that is perceived as contradictory.
On the other hand, as Buddha, and indeed Geary, note, :Two wrongs don't
make a right" is the proverb that contradicts this logical fallacy.
It means that a wrongful action is not a morally appropriate way to correct
or cancel a previous wrongful action.
Common use of the term, in the realm of business ethics, has been
criticized by scholar Gregory S. Kavka writing in the Journal of Business
Ethics.
Kavka refers back to philosophical concepts of retribution by Thomas
Hobbes, whom he quotes in the vernacular.
Hobbes, in the "Leviathan" (a bestseller in his day) states that if
something supposedly held up as a moral standard or common social rule is
violated enough in society, then an individual or group within society can
break
that standard or rule as well since this keeps them from being unfairly
disadvantaged.
As well, in specific circumstances violations of social rules can be
defensible if done as direct responses to other violations. For example,
Hobbes
states that it is wrong to deprive someone of their property but it is
right to take property back from a criminal who takes other's property in the
first place. He also states that one should be careful not to use this
ambiguity as an excuse to recklessly violate ethical rules.
Conservative journalist Victor Lasky wrote in his novel, "It Didn't Start
With Watergate" that while "two wrongs don't make a right", if a set of
immoral things are done and left un-prosecuted, this creates a legal precedent.
Thus, people who do the same wrongs in the future should rationally expect
to get away as well.
Lasky analogizes the situation between John F. Kennedy's wiretapping of
Martin Luther King, Jr. (which lead to nothing) and Richard Nixon's actions in
Watergate (which Nixon thought would also lead to nothing).
The idea that a double wrong might infer/make a right was yet published in
a poem as soon as 1734.
See also Norm (philosophy), and look for moral justifications alla Kant of
both: An eye for an eye, and
Tit for tat
butter for fat
if you kill my dog
I kill your cat.
Punishment
Retributive justice
References
_http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/two_wrongs_don%27t_make_a_right_
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/two_wrongs_don't_make_a_right)
Kavka, G. S. (1983). "When two "wrongs" Make a right: an essay on business
ethics". Journal of Business Ethics 2: 61–66. DOI:10.1007/BF00382714. edit
It Didn't Start With Watergate. Victor Lasky.
C. Ackers for J. Wilford, ed. (1734). "Poetical Essays in NOVEMBER 1734".
The London magazine, or, Gentleman's monthly intelligencer, Volume 3. p.
600.
An orient star led, thro' his blind- / Side, to a prize his eye of mind: /
The lightning said, its he; in Spight / Of fate two wrongs infer one
right. / let fly; well shot! thanks to my Spark; / A blind boy, once, has cleft
the mark. /
— The Moral (translated - origine ? - in Hudibrastic)
[1]
The Fallacy Files: Two Wrongs Make a Right
Nizkor: two wrongs make a right
Fallacies of relevance
General
Dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid (Accident) ·Ad nauseam (Argument
from repetition) ·Argumentum ad ignorantiam (Argument from ignorance)
·Argumentum e silentio (Argument from silence) ·Argumentum ad temperantiam
(Argument to moderation) ·Argumentum ad populum (Appeal to the people) ·Base
rate ·Compound question ·Evidence of absence ·Ignoratio elenchi (Irrelevant
conclusion) ·Invincible ignorance ·Loaded question ·Moralistic ·Naturalistic
·Non sequitur ·Proof by assertion ·Special pleading ·Straw man ·Two wrongs
make a right
Appeals to emotion
Fear ·Flattery ·Nature ·Novelty ·Pity ·Ridicule ·Children's interests
·Invented here ·Island mentality ·Not invented here ·Repugnance ·Spite
Genetic fallacies
Ad hominem ·Ad hominem tu quoque ·Appeal to accomplishment ·Appeal to
authority ·Appeal to etymology ·Appeal to motive ·Appeal to novelty ·Appeal to
poverty ·Appeals to psychology ·Argumentum ad lapidem (Appeal to the stone)
·Appeal to tradition ·Appeal to wealth ·Association ·Bulverism
·Chronological snobbery ·Ipse dixit (Ipse-dixitism) ·Poisoning the well ·Pro
hominem
·Reductio ad Hitlerum
Appeals to consequences
Appeal to force ·Wishful thinking
Categories: Relevance fallacies
English phrases
Ethical principles
----
Cheers,
Speranza
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