Philosophy
The notion of a maid is always one that I've thought worrisome. It seems that if one has any moral obligations, one of them is to clean up after oneself. You made this mess, you clean it up. By hiring someone to clean your house, you are failing to take full responsibility for your own actions. You made that toilet, shower, carpet dirty, you need to know what you've done and you need to make it right. Like the spoiled rockband who trashes their hotel room and leave an accountant to straighten out the situation financially, it seems to say, "I have enough money that I can do whatever I want, so I don't have to care."
It's not that the job is menial or degrading and that by hiring someone to clean your house you are treating them as a less than human tool, there are lots of jobs that suffer from that and while that conversation is an interesting one, this is something different. I'm proposing the idea that there are just certain jobs that you have an obligation to perform. If someone hired someone else to raise their children or serve their jail sentence that would seem to be a similar dereliction of moral duty. It's not just your responsibility to see that it gets done, it is your responsibility to be the one who does it.
Sense here or did I just wash too many dishes last night?
- The Moral Responsibility To Friends And Family
We grant special moral considerability to people who are our friends. Friendship comes with responsibility. You care about your friends in ways you do not care about strangers and therefore there will come times when you have to do things...
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In the wake of the unprovoked spraying of peaceful demonstrators at the University of California at Davis with pepper spray by a police officer associated with the campus, the Chancellor, Linda Katehi, said, "I am deeply saddened that this happened on...
- A Gratuitous Question About Gratuities
So I am in Lake Charles, Louisiana to give a talk tonight about Einstein and the wonderful lecture series folks have provided me with a very posh room at a hotel in town. I go down stairs for breakfast yesterday morning when the woman at the cash register...
- Promises And Care
Promises are like contracts. If you promise something to someone, they have the power to dissolve the promise, morally freeing you from the promised responsibility, if they choose. If you promise to wash someone's car and then they decide they don't...
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Philosophy
Ethics of Maids
The notion of a maid is always one that I've thought worrisome. It seems that if one has any moral obligations, one of them is to clean up after oneself. You made this mess, you clean it up. By hiring someone to clean your house, you are failing to take full responsibility for your own actions. You made that toilet, shower, carpet dirty, you need to know what you've done and you need to make it right. Like the spoiled rockband who trashes their hotel room and leave an accountant to straighten out the situation financially, it seems to say, "I have enough money that I can do whatever I want, so I don't have to care."
It's not that the job is menial or degrading and that by hiring someone to clean your house you are treating them as a less than human tool, there are lots of jobs that suffer from that and while that conversation is an interesting one, this is something different. I'm proposing the idea that there are just certain jobs that you have an obligation to perform. If someone hired someone else to raise their children or serve their jail sentence that would seem to be a similar dereliction of moral duty. It's not just your responsibility to see that it gets done, it is your responsibility to be the one who does it.
Sense here or did I just wash too many dishes last night?
- The Moral Responsibility To Friends And Family
We grant special moral considerability to people who are our friends. Friendship comes with responsibility. You care about your friends in ways you do not care about strangers and therefore there will come times when you have to do things...
- What Does It Mean To "accept Full Responsibility"?
In the wake of the unprovoked spraying of peaceful demonstrators at the University of California at Davis with pepper spray by a police officer associated with the campus, the Chancellor, Linda Katehi, said, "I am deeply saddened that this happened on...
- A Gratuitous Question About Gratuities
So I am in Lake Charles, Louisiana to give a talk tonight about Einstein and the wonderful lecture series folks have provided me with a very posh room at a hotel in town. I go down stairs for breakfast yesterday morning when the woman at the cash register...
- Promises And Care
Promises are like contracts. If you promise something to someone, they have the power to dissolve the promise, morally freeing you from the promised responsibility, if they choose. If you promise to wash someone's car and then they decide they don't...
- The Teacher-former Student Relationship
Having lunch today with some former students who were back for Homecoming Weekend. Good, smart, funny alums who always seem to need recommendations for amazing things they are going on to do. The student-teacher relationship is itself a complex one. How...