Миру провалиться или мне чай не пить?
Sep. 23rd, 2008 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_kleberЗнаменитый, как выяснилось, отрывок из писаний Адама Смита:
«Let us suppose that the great empire of China, with all its myriads of inhab-
itants, was suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake and let us consider how
a man of humanity in Europe, who had no sort of connexion with that part
of the world, would be affected upon receiving intelligence of this dreadful
calamity. He would, I imagine, first of all express very strongly his sorrow for
the misfortune of that unhappy people, he would make many melancholy
reflections upon the precariousness of human life and the vanity of all the
labors of man which could thus be annihilated in a moment. He would too,
perhaps, if he was a man of speculation, enter into many reasonings con-
cerning the effects which this disaster might produce upon the commerce of
Europe and the trade and business of the world in general. And when all this
fine philosophy was over, when all these humane sentiments had been once
fairly expressed, he would pursue his business or pleasure, take his repose or
his diversion, with the same ease and tranquility as if no such accident had
occurred.
The most frivolous disaster which could befall himself would occasion a
more real disturbance. If he was to lose his little finger to-morrow, he would
not sleep to-night; but, provided he never saw them, he would snore with the
most profound security over the ruin of a hundred million of his brethren.
The destruction of that immense multitude seems plainly an object less in-
teresting to him than this paltry misfortune of his own. To prevent, therefore,
this paltry misfortune to himself would a man of humanity be willing to
sacrifice the lives of a hundred million of his brethren, provided he had never
seen them? »
(in Jagdish N. Bhagwati, In Defense of Globalization - pdf p.19)
Смотря какой человек и какой палец, т.ск. Интересно, что аргументы такого рода - при всей видимости стройной логики - не соответствуют здравому смыслу (ср. "я не подам этому нищему, п.ч. тогда придется подавать всем нищим, денег не хватит" или вариант "а что если все разом начнут попрошайничать")
Там же:
Hume famously argued that “it is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger” and that “sympathy with persons remote from us is much fainter than with persons near and contiguous.”
«Let us suppose that the great empire of China, with all its myriads of inhab-
itants, was suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake and let us consider how
a man of humanity in Europe, who had no sort of connexion with that part
of the world, would be affected upon receiving intelligence of this dreadful
calamity. He would, I imagine, first of all express very strongly his sorrow for
the misfortune of that unhappy people, he would make many melancholy
reflections upon the precariousness of human life and the vanity of all the
labors of man which could thus be annihilated in a moment. He would too,
perhaps, if he was a man of speculation, enter into many reasonings con-
cerning the effects which this disaster might produce upon the commerce of
Europe and the trade and business of the world in general. And when all this
fine philosophy was over, when all these humane sentiments had been once
fairly expressed, he would pursue his business or pleasure, take his repose or
his diversion, with the same ease and tranquility as if no such accident had
occurred.
The most frivolous disaster which could befall himself would occasion a
more real disturbance. If he was to lose his little finger to-morrow, he would
not sleep to-night; but, provided he never saw them, he would snore with the
most profound security over the ruin of a hundred million of his brethren.
The destruction of that immense multitude seems plainly an object less in-
teresting to him than this paltry misfortune of his own. To prevent, therefore,
this paltry misfortune to himself would a man of humanity be willing to
sacrifice the lives of a hundred million of his brethren, provided he had never
seen them? »
(in Jagdish N. Bhagwati, In Defense of Globalization - pdf p.19)
Смотря какой человек и какой палец, т.ск. Интересно, что аргументы такого рода - при всей видимости стройной логики - не соответствуют здравому смыслу (ср. "я не подам этому нищему, п.ч. тогда придется подавать всем нищим, денег не хватит" или вариант "а что если все разом начнут попрошайничать")
Там же:
Hume famously argued that “it is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger” and that “sympathy with persons remote from us is much fainter than with persons near and contiguous.”
