moral paradox

[alocispepraluger102]

http://blog.talkingphilosophy.com/?p=496

Paradox #9: Moral Complaint

Posted on December 17th, 2008 by Jean Kazez

A story in the news perfectly captures the next paradox in Saul Smilansky’s book 10 Moral Paradoxes. A woman in Iran was blinded by a “suitor” who threw acid in her face after she rejected him. The man was arrested and convicted, and the woman asked the court to have him blinded. The court sentenced him to blinding by acid. Question: can he complain?

(Let’s pause here…The woman says she doesn’t actually want acid thrown in the man’s face–that would be “savage and barbaric”. She just wants his eyes to be gouged out. Human Rights Watch reports that eye-gouging is a proper judicial punishment under Iranian law. But not blinding by acid? Can the court impose that penalty? What about the idea that gouging is more humane than acid-throwing? Er…)

OK, never mind everything in the parentheses, interesting though all that may be. Can the man complain if a member of the Iranian department of corrections blinds him with acid?

I think the puzzle here is immediately obvious, but let’s sharpen it up with a few principles. Quoting now from Saul’s book, we have:

(N) The non-contradiction condition for complaint. Morally, a person cannot complain when others treat him or her in ways similar to those in which the complainer freely treats others.

(U) The unconditional nature of some moral standards. Some moral standards apply unconditionally. These standards allow anyone to hold others to them, and to complain if those others do not act in accordance with those standards.

(N) and (U) are both intuitively plausible. If you accept them both, you will find yourself oscillating between the thought that the acid-thrower can’t complain if he’s blinded, and that he can.

Is there any way out?

Previous posts on 10 Moral Paradoxes: Paradox 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8.

Edited December 19, 2008 by alocispepraluger102

[Jazzmoose]

So throw the acid in his face and let him complain. What's the paradox?

[DTMX]

Fuck'im. If he doesn't like the ruling he can kill himself. Paradox resolved.

Next!

[Van Basten II]

Let's do it the American way, put them all on Jerry Springer