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Re: Diane's email: "can" vs. "must"
Posted By: Darien, on host 207.10.37.2
Date: Friday, October 2, 1998, at 12:20:27
In Reply To: Diane's email: "can" vs. "must" posted by Issachar on Friday, October 2, 1998, at 08:13:08:

> The issue is very complex, and what I have posted is somewhat disjointed, a survey rather than a tightly focused argument. But multiple points must first be introduced into a discussion, and then receive fuller treatment and elaboration. Diane's simple "can" vs. "must" is more crucial a statement than we usually realize. I wish more people echoed her sentiment, and more often.

Disjointed, perhaps, but deep. I agree with you almost wholeheartedly - far too often mankind assumes that the ends justify the means. I know that's not a new idea - Machiavelli dealt with that enough, I don't need to get into it - but that doesn't make it any less relevant. If something yields possible benefits, we often are told that any sacrifice is justified in obtaining it. But is it really? We should definitely begin looking more toward developments that will benefit man without hurting him as well, but that's not exactly easy. In fact, it may not even be possible - technology and progress have histories of being double-edged swords. It is not possible to make a gain without a proportional sacrifice, so the question becomes not "Which does the least harm?", but, instead, "When should we stop?" - at what point are we just going too far, either because it opens a pandora's box of twisted variations - as cloning undoubtedly would - or because the sacrifice is too great. I direct your attention either to Goethe's "Faust" or to Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus", both of which address the subject in fair detail.

Which brings me to my solitary point of dissent - I do not believe the "can vs. must" argument should be echoed more than it is. I'm a philosophy/religion major (along with the significantly less relevant major of theater, which I also pursue - yes, folks, I'm a college student), and, far too often I hear that argument. We don't need the question repeated more often - we need the answer. How far is too far? But, then, who's to judge that?

Brandon "Darien" S.

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