From: Giu1i0 Pri5c0 (gpmap@runbox.com)
Date: Tue Feb 03 2004 - 02:36:48 MST
I can see some element of truth in this statement, but not in the examples. Aquinas, Kant, a Bentham, and Mill (especially these last two) are among the few philosophers who cannot be blamed of unintentional complicity in mass murders. It is very difficult to justify a violent revolution on the basis of the writings of Bentham, you only find low profile rational common sense there.
> (The writings of a great amoralist - a de Sade, a Stirner, a Nietzsche - can
> inspire a handful of murders in two centuries. Over the same period, the
> writings of a great moral philosopher - an Aquinas, a Kant, a Bentham, a
> Mill - can justify, if not indeed incite, the deaths of millions in just
> wars and just revolutions. Morality is an immensely dangerous and
> destructive force, which must be restrained by the strongest human passions
> and sympathies if it is not to break all the bonds of society.)
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