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To: neverdem

> "Can you name a scientific discovery that has ever added to our understanding of morality?"

Well, a whole bunch of 'em led to the industrial revolution... which led to the discovery that slavery was immoral.


2 posted on 01/27/2006 11:40:52 AM PST by orionblamblam (A furore Normannorum libra nos, Domine)
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To: orionblamblam; All
Here's the URL to Tania Singer's paper,

http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/~tsinger/publications/Singer_NATURE_2006.pdf

or you can find the link here.

5 posted on 01/27/2006 11:47:30 AM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: orionblamblam
I disagree.

I would postulate that the industrial revolution did not show that slavery was immoral, rather that it was economically costly.

After all, in the pure calculus of profit, a slave must be bought, fed, protected from the elements, and there is an additional cost of the enforcement of the slavery. If you want to lower the cost of purchasing slaves, then each slave must have certain basic maintenance to stay alive and productive.

On the other hand, machines also require maintenance (mechanic instead of a doctor) and housing and even food (coal, steam, oil etc).... but there is one cost machines to not require.... the cost to enforce the condition of slavery. No guards, no whips, no injuries, no dogs and slave hunters etc.

I would also postulate that had a machine been available to pick cotton then within a decade or two slavery would have simply been too costly to maintain in the US.
6 posted on 01/27/2006 12:01:18 PM PST by taxcontrol
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To: orionblamblam
Well, a whole bunch of 'em led to the industrial revolution... which led to the discovery that slavery was immoral

Hmmm. I tend to disagree. Inventions are just tools, and tools have no morals; the morals are based on what humans decide to do with the tools (do I use a hammer to build a house, or make a warhammer to kill with). I propose that the industrial age inventions simply made slavery less economical. A cotton gin could do the work of dozen slaves who needed to be fed, clothed, housed, etc.

7 posted on 01/27/2006 12:02:39 PM PST by Clock King ("How will it end?" - Emperor; "In Fire." - Kosh)
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To: orionblamblam
Can you name a scientific discovery that has ever added to our understanding of morality?


The invention of the telescope and the subsequent discovery of the moons orbiting around Jupiter.

This led directly to humanity's re-evaluation of our place (and importance) in the universe and marked an important milestone in the philosophy of looking to natural rather than supernatural explanations for how things work.
21 posted on 01/27/2006 3:51:49 PM PST by spinestein (All journalists today are paid advocates for someone's agenda.)
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To: orionblamblam
"Can you name a scientific discovery that has ever added to our understanding of morality?"

Te discovery of global warming led to the understanding the SUVs were immoral.

22 posted on 01/27/2006 4:23:57 PM PST by Oztrich Boy (Liberal comes from "liber" the Latin word for "free" - Liberal Republic, you know it makes sense)
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To: orionblamblam

This is nothing new. Almost 2000 years ago it was written in the last book of the Bible that slave traders (chattel slavery) are going to hell.


33 posted on 01/28/2006 4:10:10 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck
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