Vladimir, I am comparing two worldviews and their values. I’m not evaluating social and legal norms. I do think it would be great if everyone loved their children in precisely the same manner that I love my hypothetical children, and if cuckolds weren’t humiliated just as I hypothetically wouldn’t be humiliated. But there’s no way to enforce that. The question of who should have to pay so much money per year to the mother of whose child is a completely different matter.
Fair enough, but your previous comments characterized the opposing position as nothing less than “chauvinism.” Maybe you didn’t intend it to sound that way, but since we’re talking about a conflict situation in which the law ultimately has to support one position or the other—its neutrality would be a logical impossibility—your language strongly suggested that the position that you chose to condemn in such strong terms should not be favored by the law.
I do think it would be great if [...] cuckolds weren’t humiliated just as I hypothetically wouldn’t be humiliated.
That’s a mighty strong claim to make about how you’d react in a situation that is, according to what you write, completely outside of your existing experiences in life. Generally speaking, people are often very bad at imagining the concrete harrowing details of such situations, and they can get hit much harder than they would think when pondering such possibilities in the abstract. (In any case, I certainly don’t wish that you ever find out!)
Generally speaking, people are often very bad at imagining the concrete harrowing details of such situations, and they can get hit much harder than they would think when pondering such possibilities in the abstract.
Fair enough. I can’t credibly predict what my emotions would be if I were cuckolded, but I still have an opinion on which emotions I would personally endorse.
the law ultimately has to support one position or the other
Someone does have to pay for the child’s upbringing. What the State should do is settle on a consistent policy that doesn’t harm too many people and which doesn’t encourage undesirable behavior. Those are the only important criteria.
Vladimir, I am comparing two worldviews and their values. I’m not evaluating social and legal norms. I do think it would be great if everyone loved their children in precisely the same manner that I love my hypothetical children, and if cuckolds weren’t humiliated just as I hypothetically wouldn’t be humiliated. But there’s no way to enforce that. The question of who should have to pay so much money per year to the mother of whose child is a completely different matter.
Nisan:
Fair enough, but your previous comments characterized the opposing position as nothing less than “chauvinism.” Maybe you didn’t intend it to sound that way, but since we’re talking about a conflict situation in which the law ultimately has to support one position or the other—its neutrality would be a logical impossibility—your language strongly suggested that the position that you chose to condemn in such strong terms should not be favored by the law.
That’s a mighty strong claim to make about how you’d react in a situation that is, according to what you write, completely outside of your existing experiences in life. Generally speaking, people are often very bad at imagining the concrete harrowing details of such situations, and they can get hit much harder than they would think when pondering such possibilities in the abstract. (In any case, I certainly don’t wish that you ever find out!)
Fair enough. I can’t credibly predict what my emotions would be if I were cuckolded, but I still have an opinion on which emotions I would personally endorse.
Well, I can consider adultery to generally be morally wrong, and still desire that the law be indifferent to adultery. And I can consider it to be morally wrong to teach your children creationism, and still desire that the law permit it (for the time being). Just because I think a man should not betray the children he taught to call him “father” doesn’t necessarily mean I think the State should make him pay for their upbringing.
Someone does have to pay for the child’s upbringing. What the State should do is settle on a consistent policy that doesn’t harm too many people and which doesn’t encourage undesirable behavior. Those are the only important criteria.
Well, infanticide is also technically an option, if no one wants to raise the kid.