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DudleyAndMorality 5 - 15 Apr 2009 - Main.MichaelDreibelbis
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| | Dudley and Morality | | | Caroline, when we talked about this in my Crim class, our professor focused on the court’s fixation on the lack of drawing lots. I agree with you, Keith, and Justin, that part of the purpose is to place a moral stigma on cannibalism—but that this doesn’t really change anything. It’s hard to imagine that many moral stigmas could run so deep in people that they would choose to die rather than commit the offence (though there are certainly some over which people would rather choose death).
While I realize that the court does not sanction cannibalism if lots are drawn, there is a reason that this instance of cannibalism at sea among others was chosen to be the defining landmark case, and I think that it has a lot to do with the choosing of the weak boy with no dependant relatives over the respected family men. This is the time of Charles Darwin, and, perhaps more importantly here, Herbert Spencer. Perhaps the court wishes not only to place the stamp of moral taboo on cannibalism for all society to see, but also on the idea that men may choose who is to be sacrificed by whose life is of greater social value. While the famous takeaway of the case is that cannibalism will not be tolerated, perhaps it should be instead that the social value of a man does not determine the value of his life. | |
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I think we're all missing the point when we say that this moral stigma doesn't do anything because it won't keep starving sailors from eating each other to survive. Enforcing the law against Dudley is not meant to deter the Bad Man from killing and eating his crew members. The Dudley ruling can be better understood as part of a larger project of inculcating values into society's citizenry. To analogize to child-rearing: parents who are trying to raise a child to be honest punish the child for lying. However, this does not mean that their ultimate goal is to instill a child with a fear of getting grounded. That would miss the mark. Parents punish bad behavior and reward good behavior to raise their kids to be people who believe in certain values, whether or not they yield social advantages.
Similarly, enforcing an absolute prohibition against killing reinforces messages transmitted by other means in society. If the law against killing is the stick; the carrot is, say, a high school student receiving an A on a paper about human dignity. Enforcing the law sends the message: “yes, we really do mean it when we say killing is wrong, no matter what the social station of the victim is, etc.”). The goal is not merely to deter the Bad Man, but to make sure people don't turn out as the Bad Man.
-- MichaelDreibelbis - 15 Apr 2009 |
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