Law in Contemporary Society

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DoingWrongByNotDoing 17 - 26 Apr 2010 - Main.DavidGoldin
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I keep thinking back to something Eben brought up in class last week (Tuesday)- namely, the idea that if you see a problem, or something that you don’t think is OK, you should be doing something about it. I think Eben’s comments resonated with me because they struck a chord with a sort of guilty feeling I’ve often had. The guilt doesn’t come from actively doing anything wrong, but from not actively doing anything that seems particularly right. I’ve often felt uncomfortable with the idea that my life could be considered a moral life when I don’t really think I do anything to correct problems that I see around me. I think the issue boils down to a question of inaction as a morally culpable offense. I do think there is a moral imperative to act when we see something that we think is wrong. I think this idea leads to guilt because I don’t think that I do enough to act, and it’s something that I hope to change if I can figure out how. It made me start thinking about ideas that I’ve struggled with before- for instance, what difference is there between letting someone die before your eyes and not giving them (for example’s sake) the five dollars in your pocket that could save them by buying them food, and not sending food or support somewhere when you can spare it and where it could have a similar lifesaving impact? When does not doing something become as wrong as doing something positively wrong? It’s hard for me to figure out the difference- maybe this is because there isn’t a meaningful one.
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 This morning, I saw this article about an incident that happened about 5 minutes from my house, and thought this was the appropriate place to post it.

-- DavidGoldin 25 Apr 2010 \ No newline at end of file

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An update which discusses a few more of the issues.

-- DavidGoldin 26 Apr 2010

 \ No newline at end of file

Revision 17r17 - 26 Apr 2010 - 13:36:51 - DavidGoldin
Revision 16r16 - 25 Apr 2010 - 14:33:37 - DavidGoldin
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