"Realistic fiction leaves out too much." - Gene Wolfe

David Stockhoff · 01 May 2011, 12:08 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Sun, 01 May 2011 08:08:22 -0400
Subject: (urth) "Realistic fiction leaves out too much." - Gene Wolfe
In-Reply-To: <4DBCD692.1070506 at io.com>
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	<4DBCD692.1070506 at io.com>
Message-ID: <4DBD4D36.7030609 at verizon.net>

Is it impossible? I had no idea. ;)

On 4/30/2011 11:42 PM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
> On 4/30/2011 10:23 PM, Matthew Knapton wrote:
>> Well you're asking a mouthful there. It's certainly meaningful, at least
>> - what constitutes a morally wrong thing, whether such a thing can be
>> justified (and how, if so), etc, are all real issues in the field of
>> ethics. More particularly, Omelas seems like a utilitarian society; a
>> criticism of it is a criticism of its principles, and there has been
>> plenty of criticism and discussion of utilitarian ideas over the years.
>>
>> Whether the story is useful is less easy to say, though even if it is
>> you can't really move from dismissing it to dismissing the large swathes
>> of ethics it happens to touch upon :)
>
> But there aren't any societies that are able to avoid harm to 
> innocents for the benefit of others. How can it be morally wrong when 
> it's impossible to do otherwise?
>


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