That said, I can imagine cultures that don’t. For example, I can imagine a culture that forbids me from forcibly blinding people (including my children) but doesn’t obligate me to grant them sight, and arrives at those mores consistently by framing the whole question as one of property rights… much like my culture forbids me from forcibly taking your money but doesn’t obligate me to provide you with money if you lack it (1).
Of course, such a hypothetical culture would also need to have a notion of children’s property rights as distinct from their parents’, which my culture mostly doesn’t, but that’s easy enough for me to imagine.
Even if I couldn’t imagine such a culture, though, I generally think it’s a mistake to treat my failures of imagination as data about anything but the limits of my imagination.
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(1) - Individually, I mean. Collectively/indirectly my culture does obligate me, in the form of taxes and welfare programs… but then again, collectively/indirectly my culture also allows me to forcibly take your money, in the form of government- and court-imposed fines.)
(nods) I share your intuitions here.
That said, I can imagine cultures that don’t. For example, I can imagine a culture that forbids me from forcibly blinding people (including my children) but doesn’t obligate me to grant them sight, and arrives at those mores consistently by framing the whole question as one of property rights… much like my culture forbids me from forcibly taking your money but doesn’t obligate me to provide you with money if you lack it (1).
Of course, such a hypothetical culture would also need to have a notion of children’s property rights as distinct from their parents’, which my culture mostly doesn’t, but that’s easy enough for me to imagine.
Even if I couldn’t imagine such a culture, though, I generally think it’s a mistake to treat my failures of imagination as data about anything but the limits of my imagination.
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(1) - Individually, I mean. Collectively/indirectly my culture does obligate me, in the form of taxes and welfare programs… but then again, collectively/indirectly my culture also allows me to forcibly take your money, in the form of government- and court-imposed fines.)