Raymond Tallis reveals the
\nphilosophical connection between medical ethics and hair loss.<\/p>\n
\n\n\tPhotographic evidence shows that in 1980 I had a full head of hair,
\n\twhile in 1990 I was bald. It follows from this that some time in the
\n\t1980s I became bald. However, it seems impossible \u2013 or daft \u2013 to state
\n\twhen it was I crossed the boundary \u2013 to say, for example, that I became
\n\tbald at 8:30 p.m. on 27th August 1987. And yet there must have been a
\n\tmoment between the two dates when I became bald, otherwise I would not
\n\thave arrived at the state of being bald by the time 1990 came. The
\n\tfundamental problem is that of mapping a dichotomous distinction \u2013 not-bald<\/em>
\n\tversus bald<\/em> \u2013 on to what is essentially a continuous process
\n\tof hair loss. (It’s not quite continuous, of course, because my loss was
\n\thair-by-hair; but it would be continuous to the naked eye looking at my
\n\tincreasingly naked skull. No jokes about ‘fuzzy logic’ at this point,
\n\tplease.) We are required to find a non-arbitrary way to divide a
\n\tcontinuum.\n\t<\/p>\n\n\tThis is also what makes the other dilemmas I have discussed
\n\timpossible to resolve entirely satisfactorily. The relevant divides in
\n\tthe examples I have given are: between non-negligent and grossly
\n\tnegligent medical practice; between perfectly acceptable speech and
\n\ttotally unacceptable speech; between respecting an individual’s autonomy
\n\tand being concerned for their welfare in a way they might not accept;
\n\tbetween a handful of cells that clearly does not have personal interests
\n\tand a new-born infant who clearly does; and between a person who is
\n\tfully responsible for the crimes they have committed and one who cannot
\n\tbe held responsible for them. The Sorites problem that pops up in all
\n\tthese superficially unconnected cases exposes the seeming arbitrariness
\n\tof decisions that allocate behaviour, speech, a foetus, or whatever, to
\n\tone category or the other.\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nLink<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Raymond Tallis reveals the philosophical connection between medical ethics and hair loss. Photographic evidence shows that in 1980 I had a full head of hair, while in 1990 I was bald. It follows from this that some time in the 1980s I became bald. However, it seems impossible \u2013 or daft \u2013 to state when … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"koromo_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-blog","koromo-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post\/11706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post\/11706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monochrom.at\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}