If witches existed today, and if we believed witches existed today, we would still (one should hope!) give them fair trials, convict only on the strength of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, accord the accused all the requisite rights, etc.
We would? That seems incredibly dangerous. Who knows what kind of things a real witch could do to a jury?
If you think humanity as a whole has made substantial moral progress throughout history, what’s driven this moral progress? I can tell a story about what drives factual progress (the scientific method, improved technology) but I don’t have an analogous story about moral progress. How do you distinguish the current state of affairs from “moral fashion is a random walk, so of course any given era thinks that past eras were terribly immoral”?
We would? That seems incredibly dangerous. Who knows what kind of things a real witch could do to a jury?
There is a difference between “we should take precautions to make sure the witch doesn’t blanket the courtroom with fireballs or charm the jury and all officers of the court; but otherwise human rights apply as usual” and “let’s just burn anyone that anyone has claimed to be a witch, without making any attempt to verify those claims, confirm guilt, etc.” Regardless of what you think would happen in practice (fear makes people do all sorts of things), it’s clear that our current moral standards dictate behavior much closer to the former end of that spectrum. At the absolute least, we would want to be sure that we are executing the actual witches (because every accused person could be innocent and the real witches could be escaping justice), and, for that matter, that we’re not imagining the whole witchcraft thing to begin with! That sort of certainty requires proper investigative and trial procedures.
If you think humanity as a whole has made substantial moral progress throughout history, what’s driven this moral progress? I can tell a story about what drives factual progress (the scientific method, improved technology) but I don’t have an analogous story about moral progress. How do you distinguish the current state of affairs from “moral fashion is a random walk, so of course any given era thinks that past eras were terribly immoral”?
That’s two questions (“what drives moral progress” and “how can you distinguish moral progress from a random walk”). They’re both interesting, but the former is not particularly relevant to the current discussion. (It’s an interesting question, however, and Yvain makes some convincing arguments at his blog [sorry, don’t have link to specific posts atm] that it’s technological advancement that drives what we think of as “moral progress”.)
As for how I can distinguish it from a random walk — that’s harder. However, my objection was to Lewis’s assessment of what constitutes the substantive difference between our moral standards and those of medieval witch hunters, which I think is totally mistaken. I do not need even to claim that we’ve made moral progress per se to make my objection.
We would? That seems incredibly dangerous. Who knows what kind of things a real witch could do to a jury?
If you think humanity as a whole has made substantial moral progress throughout history, what’s driven this moral progress? I can tell a story about what drives factual progress (the scientific method, improved technology) but I don’t have an analogous story about moral progress. How do you distinguish the current state of affairs from “moral fashion is a random walk, so of course any given era thinks that past eras were terribly immoral”?
Who knows what kind of things a real witch could do to an executioner, for that matter?
There is a difference between “we should take precautions to make sure the witch doesn’t blanket the courtroom with fireballs or charm the jury and all officers of the court; but otherwise human rights apply as usual” and “let’s just burn anyone that anyone has claimed to be a witch, without making any attempt to verify those claims, confirm guilt, etc.” Regardless of what you think would happen in practice (fear makes people do all sorts of things), it’s clear that our current moral standards dictate behavior much closer to the former end of that spectrum. At the absolute least, we would want to be sure that we are executing the actual witches (because every accused person could be innocent and the real witches could be escaping justice), and, for that matter, that we’re not imagining the whole witchcraft thing to begin with! That sort of certainty requires proper investigative and trial procedures.
That’s two questions (“what drives moral progress” and “how can you distinguish moral progress from a random walk”). They’re both interesting, but the former is not particularly relevant to the current discussion. (It’s an interesting question, however, and Yvain makes some convincing arguments at his blog [sorry, don’t have link to specific posts atm] that it’s technological advancement that drives what we think of as “moral progress”.)
As for how I can distinguish it from a random walk — that’s harder. However, my objection was to Lewis’s assessment of what constitutes the substantive difference between our moral standards and those of medieval witch hunters, which I think is totally mistaken. I do not need even to claim that we’ve made moral progress per se to make my objection.