Thursday, March 08, 2007

This is beyond stupid

Those of you who know Pretty Lady, know that one of her pet hobbies is the contemplation of the evolution of moral reasoning among primates, specifically the variety homo sapiens. Having learned from her dear friend Ken Wilber that a test had been developed to establish a person's standards of moral reasoning, or otherwise, she went searching for it.

Unfortunately she got sidetracked by the one at Harvard, and took it.

And she is here to tell you that if this sort of thing is as far as Harvard has gotten in examining the issue, we are in deeper trouble than she thought.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Harvard appears to think that people only make serious ethical decisions when faced with a five-to-one death-to-murder ratio. Furthermore, Harvard allows no room for MacGyver-like solutions to pressing problems, which would obviate the need to throw the guy through the window to save the burning children.

"Means justifying ends," my foot. Harvard appears to believe that the means of setting up highly improbable and manipulative scenarios justifies the ends of proving that people will throw the guy through the window to save the burning children, or not. When friends, the world just isn't like that. The flaw in the test is the flaw in reality, as we perceive it; ends are never guaranteed. Therefore the means are all we've got to work with.

Hmph. Hmph. Hmph. Pretty Lady is going back to look for that Kohlberg test. Hopefully it will be a bit more sophisticated.

UPDATE: This pseudo-Kohlberg OK Cupid test is nearly as bad. Not only did it force leading answers, but it told Pretty Lady that she was a "Law and Order" moral type, when nothing could be farther from the truth. Evidently it took the average between her total-anarchy answers and her transcendent-value answers. HMPH.

Pretty Lady needs to go make a pot of tea.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

50% Law and order. Stupid as it misses the point of why I follow laws.

6.9 on the Harvard test, but and it would be much higher if not for the wording of the questions. I don't often judge others in the situations described. We do the best we can and live with the consequences.

Anonymous said...

"ends are never guaranteed.Therefore the means are all we've got to work with."

That's all I know about life. It's chaotic and full of chance. We never quit looking for the happy ending but means are the only thing we can control and ultimately how we're judged. We must take care with them.

Anonymous said...

A Harvard test?

Harvard, Yale, etc., etc., are some of the best examples as to why these old-money centers of elitest snobbery need to be bulldozed into rubble every now and again, especially when their typical progeny come out like Bush... arrogant, conceited, self-centered and self-elevated, demonstratng a level of misunderstanding and incompetence that is breathtaking, while at the same time surrounding themselves with bloodsuckers, leeches and low-lifes of all stripe and manner.

Sort of like when the chicken coop gets full of chicken sh*t and disease, crawling with blood-sucking fleas, burn it down(chickens and all), build another one, and get yourself a new flock of uninfected chickens.

I know, ain't gonna happen, but one can dream.

Anonymous said...

** clicks the lid on his gunmetal grey Zippo and smiles cruelly **

Anonymous said...

You just got a new fan, crom.

Heh

Pretty Lady said...

You forgot the gasoline, Crom...

Anonymous said...

Crom, You got a light? Cause I got some smokes... want one?