I think that you make good points about how fiction can be part of a valid moral argument, perhaps even an indispensable part for those who haven’t had some morally-relevant experience first-hand.
But I’m having a hard time seeing how your last story helped you in this way. Although I enjoyed the story very much, I don’t think that your didactic purposes are well-served by it.
My first concern is that your story will actually serve as a counter-argument for rationality to many readers. Since I’m one of those who disagreed with the characters’ choice to destroy Huygens, I’m pre-disposed to worry that your methods could be discredited by that conclusion. A reader who has not already been convinced that your methods are valid could take this as a reductio ad absurdum proof that they are invalid. I don’t think that your methods inexorably imply your conclusion, but another reader might take your word for it, and one person’s modus ponens is another’s modus tollens. Of course, all methods of persuasion carry this risk. But it’s especially risky when you are actively trying to make the “right answer” as difficult as possible to ascertain for dramatic purposes.
Another danger of fictional evidence is that it can obscure what exactly is the structure and conclusion of the argument. For example, why were we supposed to conclude that evading the Super-Happies was worth killing 15 billion at Huygens but was not worth destroying Earth and fragmenting the colonies? Or were we necessarily supposed to conclude that? Were you trying to persuade the reader that the Supper-Happies’ modifications fell between those two choices? As far as I could tell, there was no argument in the story to support this. Nor did I see anything in your preceding “rigorous” posts to establish that being modified fell in this range It appeared to be a moral assertion for which no argument was given. Or perhaps it was just supposed to be a thought-provoking possibility, to which you didn’t mean to commit yourself. You subsequent comments don’t lead me to think that, though. This uncertainty about your intended conclusion would be less likely if you were relying on precise arguments.
I think that you make good points about how fiction can be part of a valid moral argument, perhaps even an indispensable part for those who haven’t had some morally-relevant experience first-hand.
But I’m having a hard time seeing how your last story helped you in this way. Although I enjoyed the story very much, I don’t think that your didactic purposes are well-served by it.
My first concern is that your story will actually serve as a counter-argument for rationality to many readers. Since I’m one of those who disagreed with the characters’ choice to destroy Huygens, I’m pre-disposed to worry that your methods could be discredited by that conclusion. A reader who has not already been convinced that your methods are valid could take this as a reductio ad absurdum proof that they are invalid. I don’t think that your methods inexorably imply your conclusion, but another reader might take your word for it, and one person’s modus ponens is another’s modus tollens. Of course, all methods of persuasion carry this risk. But it’s especially risky when you are actively trying to make the “right answer” as difficult as possible to ascertain for dramatic purposes.
Another danger of fictional evidence is that it can obscure what exactly is the structure and conclusion of the argument. For example, why were we supposed to conclude that evading the Super-Happies was worth killing 15 billion at Huygens but was not worth destroying Earth and fragmenting the colonies? Or were we necessarily supposed to conclude that? Were you trying to persuade the reader that the Supper-Happies’ modifications fell between those two choices? As far as I could tell, there was no argument in the story to support this. Nor did I see anything in your preceding “rigorous” posts to establish that being modified fell in this range It appeared to be a moral assertion for which no argument was given. Or perhaps it was just supposed to be a thought-provoking possibility, to which you didn’t mean to commit yourself. You subsequent comments don’t lead me to think that, though. This uncertainty about your intended conclusion would be less likely if you were relying on precise arguments.