Friday 10 February 2012

Teleological Suspension of the Ethical

'Suspension', though? It has a tendentiously temporary sound, doesn't it? 'We're just going to suspend ethics for a little while; very soon we'll come back to it ...' Except that the ethical injunction in this case (thou shalt not kill) entails something -- death -- that cannot be undone. To 'suspend' the ethical in such a case is tantamount to obliterating it. That, after all, is the point of death: its permanence.

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