What’s in it for me? This could appear on the practical side, and is similar to questions of maximum effective charity (the charity being myself). This could also appear on the theoretical side (why should I care about the non-me?).
How high a price is a claimed truth worth paying? I’m plenty ignorant and won’t say yea or nay to James D. Watson being correct in his controversial claims. But he made those claims, and sometimes had to pay a price for them. How much heat I’m willing to take for controversial claims is an important unsolved ethical question. One specific resolved area: I’ll keep saying publicly that there’s no God / Allah, but I’ll say it in the United States and not in nations that have hate speech laws or laws against apostasy / blasphemy. In those countries I’ll smile and nod, or maybe not go there at all. That’s how much heat I’ll take (and produce) in that one area.
The tricky issue of when to not tolerate intolerance, that’s a real corker.
What’s in it for me? This could appear on the practical side, and is similar to questions of maximum effective charity (the charity being myself). This could also appear on the theoretical side (why should I care about the non-me?).
How high a price is a claimed truth worth paying? I’m plenty ignorant and won’t say yea or nay to James D. Watson being correct in his controversial claims. But he made those claims, and sometimes had to pay a price for them. How much heat I’m willing to take for controversial claims is an important unsolved ethical question. One specific resolved area: I’ll keep saying publicly that there’s no God / Allah, but I’ll say it in the United States and not in nations that have hate speech laws or laws against apostasy / blasphemy. In those countries I’ll smile and nod, or maybe not go there at all. That’s how much heat I’ll take (and produce) in that one area.
The tricky issue of when to not tolerate intolerance, that’s a real corker.