If you are a car salesman and have a button you can legally press which makes your costumer buy a car, you’d press it. Instrumental rationality, no?
Instrumental rationality doesn’t get you this far. It gets you this far only if you assume that you care only about selling cars and legality. If you also care about the welfare of others then instrumental rationality will not necessarily tell you to push the button (instrumental rationality isn’t the same thing as not caring about others).
Of course, I don’t expect anyone who doesn’t care about the welfare of others to find any of what I’m saying here compelling. A certain level of common ground is required to have a useful discussion. However, I think most people do care about the welfare of others.
I find it extremely condescending to say you’re responsible with how a woman you just met feels, it’s treating them like a child, not like an adult who can darn well be expected to make her own choices, and turn away from you if she so desires.
There is, of course, a line between compassion and condescension and I agree that it is bad to cross that line. However, I think it’s unreasonable to think that showing the level of concern that I’m talking about here for someone’s welfare is crossing this line. To choose a silly example, it would be undesirable for me to shoot someone for no reason but a selfish desire (I, of course, do not actually have this desire). However, if I didn’t shoot someone for some reason, this would be taking some responsibility for the welfare of others. However, this hardly amounts to treating them like a child. Similarly, not deliberately making a woman feel bad about herself is simply showing compassion and being respectful toward others. There’s no reason to think this amounts to treating someone like a child.
Externally imposing unwritten rules (other than a legal framework) is infantizing adult agents.
I’m not “imposing” rules, unwritten or otherwise. What I am doing is suggesting that insofar as you care about the welfare of others, it is undesirable that you deliberately make people feel bad about themselves. Having a concern for the welfare of others is hardly infantising adults (consider the gun example again: it is not treating someone as an infant to decide not to kill them on the grounds of their welfare).
I find your comment to be quixotic. I live in a sheltered bubble, but apparently not yet so far up the ivory tower.
Whenever you walk into any department store, get a loan to buy a car, a new stereo, or whatever, noone there who’s trying to sell to you is going to care whether that purchase is in your self-interest, or whether you can afford it (other than your ability to pay), other than to make you happy so that you become a repeat customer, which also isn’t a function of the customer’s self interest, just think about tobacco companies.
Whether it’s the educational sector signing you up for non-dischargeable student loans, car loans, new credit cards offered in the mail, or just buying a PC game, noone will inquire as to your actual self-interest. They’ll assume you’re an adult and can do what you darn well please—and your self-interest is your business, not theirs. They can pitch you, and if you listen, it’s your decision and responsibility.
Would you say that the overwhelming majority of modern day society does then not care at all about the welfare of others, just because they allow others to make their own choices, and let them be autonomous regarding their own self-interest?
The infantizing part is saying “I don’t think women are capable of disengaging from a negative conversation, therefore they ought to be protected since their own agency doesn’t suffice. There must be rules protecting them since they apparently cannot be trusted to make their own correct choices.”
I don’t think further conversation on this topic is going to be useful for either of us. I presume we both accept that we have some responsibilities for the welfare of others and that sometimes we can consider the welfare of others without being infantilising (for example, I presume we both presume that shooting someone for fun would be in violation of these responsibilities).
Clearly, you draw the line at a very different place to me but beyond that I’m not sure there’s much productive to be said.
I will note, however, that my claim is not about doubting the capability of women nor about “protecting” women in some special sense that goes beyond general compassion. It’s about respect for the welfare of other people.
Other than that, I think this conversation has reached the end of its useful life so will leave things at that.
Instrumental rationality doesn’t get you this far. It gets you this far only if you assume that you care only about selling cars and legality. If you also care about the welfare of others then instrumental rationality will not necessarily tell you to push the button (instrumental rationality isn’t the same thing as not caring about others).
Of course, I don’t expect anyone who doesn’t care about the welfare of others to find any of what I’m saying here compelling. A certain level of common ground is required to have a useful discussion. However, I think most people do care about the welfare of others.
There is, of course, a line between compassion and condescension and I agree that it is bad to cross that line. However, I think it’s unreasonable to think that showing the level of concern that I’m talking about here for someone’s welfare is crossing this line. To choose a silly example, it would be undesirable for me to shoot someone for no reason but a selfish desire (I, of course, do not actually have this desire). However, if I didn’t shoot someone for some reason, this would be taking some responsibility for the welfare of others. However, this hardly amounts to treating them like a child. Similarly, not deliberately making a woman feel bad about herself is simply showing compassion and being respectful toward others. There’s no reason to think this amounts to treating someone like a child.
I’m not “imposing” rules, unwritten or otherwise. What I am doing is suggesting that insofar as you care about the welfare of others, it is undesirable that you deliberately make people feel bad about themselves. Having a concern for the welfare of others is hardly infantising adults (consider the gun example again: it is not treating someone as an infant to decide not to kill them on the grounds of their welfare).
I find your comment to be quixotic. I live in a sheltered bubble, but apparently not yet so far up the ivory tower.
Whenever you walk into any department store, get a loan to buy a car, a new stereo, or whatever, noone there who’s trying to sell to you is going to care whether that purchase is in your self-interest, or whether you can afford it (other than your ability to pay), other than to make you happy so that you become a repeat customer, which also isn’t a function of the customer’s self interest, just think about tobacco companies.
Whether it’s the educational sector signing you up for non-dischargeable student loans, car loans, new credit cards offered in the mail, or just buying a PC game, noone will inquire as to your actual self-interest. They’ll assume you’re an adult and can do what you darn well please—and your self-interest is your business, not theirs. They can pitch you, and if you listen, it’s your decision and responsibility.
Would you say that the overwhelming majority of modern day society does then not care at all about the welfare of others, just because they allow others to make their own choices, and let them be autonomous regarding their own self-interest?
The infantizing part is saying “I don’t think women are capable of disengaging from a negative conversation, therefore they ought to be protected since their own agency doesn’t suffice. There must be rules protecting them since they apparently cannot be trusted to make their own correct choices.”
I don’t think further conversation on this topic is going to be useful for either of us. I presume we both accept that we have some responsibilities for the welfare of others and that sometimes we can consider the welfare of others without being infantilising (for example, I presume we both presume that shooting someone for fun would be in violation of these responsibilities).
Clearly, you draw the line at a very different place to me but beyond that I’m not sure there’s much productive to be said.
I will note, however, that my claim is not about doubting the capability of women nor about “protecting” women in some special sense that goes beyond general compassion. It’s about respect for the welfare of other people.
Other than that, I think this conversation has reached the end of its useful life so will leave things at that.