I agree that it isn’t particularly private, except perhaps in the sense that you technically aren’t effecting other people at the time of decision as there aren’t those other people yet.
But, also, private doesn’t mean limited to a solitary individual, or else people wouldn’t speak of sex being private.
I guess I’d define private as an event that one can limit the involvement (including knowledge of) to those of their choosing. Perhaps possible with raising children but not the norm.
Your definition is near to what I think of when I hear “private”, save that I would add that the event must be consensual for all the people involved. That is: “an activity performed by a set of persons can be considered private only if the direct consequences of the activity are limited to those in the set, and the activity is consensual for all the involved”*.
I may be projecting my own moral intuitions, but I think this is the definition that is informally evoked when there is talk of non-intrusion into others’ private lives; in this case, a right for non-intrusion seems morally defensible. However, the problem in my view is that sometimes the meaning of “private” is extended to situations where the right of non-intrusion is no longer so clearly worthy of defense.
*Actually, I think I would prefer to include sentients into the definition, but I doubt that is a mainstream view at the moment.
Well, I’m not going to feel qualified to discuss whether the word as is commonly used connotes justified secrecy & non-intrusion or simply the fact of the matter, but it would be useful to have words for both meanings (or else taboo it and spell out the justification for non-intrusion/investigation when debating whether someone’s privacy is a suitable excuse).
In which sense is it private? A person having X kids will have affected the lives of at least X other persons.
I agree that it isn’t particularly private, except perhaps in the sense that you technically aren’t effecting other people at the time of decision as there aren’t those other people yet. But, also, private doesn’t mean limited to a solitary individual, or else people wouldn’t speak of sex being private. I guess I’d define private as an event that one can limit the involvement (including knowledge of) to those of their choosing. Perhaps possible with raising children but not the norm.
Your definition is near to what I think of when I hear “private”, save that I would add that the event must be consensual for all the people involved. That is: “an activity performed by a set of persons can be considered private only if the direct consequences of the activity are limited to those in the set, and the activity is consensual for all the involved”*.
I may be projecting my own moral intuitions, but I think this is the definition that is informally evoked when there is talk of non-intrusion into others’ private lives; in this case, a right for non-intrusion seems morally defensible. However, the problem in my view is that sometimes the meaning of “private” is extended to situations where the right of non-intrusion is no longer so clearly worthy of defense.
*Actually, I think I would prefer to include sentients into the definition, but I doubt that is a mainstream view at the moment.
Well, I’m not going to feel qualified to discuss whether the word as is commonly used connotes justified secrecy & non-intrusion or simply the fact of the matter, but it would be useful to have words for both meanings (or else taboo it and spell out the justification for non-intrusion/investigation when debating whether someone’s privacy is a suitable excuse).