Re: The Ethicist -- Doctor, Bully
From: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com)
Sun Mar 30 19:07:06 2008
Follow up: Turns out Mr. Cohen does not have formal training.
"Cohen has the right answer to this in his book, The Good, The Bad, and
the Difference: “I would, of course, feel better about the job if I had
a Ph.D…. [But] looked at with perhaps excessive generosity, there is an
unexpected advantage to my lack of formal training. The reader must
consider not my credentials but my argument, and be persuaded – or
unpersuaded – by that. I can make no appeal to my own authority.”
Nor can Mr. Cohen appeal to his own expertise, it turns out. He should
consider a career in politics.
Art
PS: Doctor - Bully? I say Bully for the Doctors.
At Sun, 30 Mar 2008, art fougner, md wrote:
>
>Chuck would be proud.
>
>Randy Cohen - the Ethicist Who Isn't
>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1568/is_7_31/ai_57815519
>
>In response to the question about how to handle a poorly performing
>temp, Cohen declared, "if anyone's acting unethically here, it's your
>boss; it is ignoble to force people into soul-deadening, pointless,
>poorly paid jobs.... Organizing work into tedious, repetitive tasks,
>while profitable for the few, makes life miserable for the many; some
>political economists have called it a crime against humanity." In other
>words, as long as we have a division of labor, ethics is inapplicable to
>decisions we face about who does what job. In the face of"a crime
>against humanity," how could there be anything wrong with submitting
>fraudulent resumes, evaluations, or timecards?
>
>So Cohen frequently fails to provide the advice that his correspondents
>are looking for. He shrugs his shoulders and says that, until we live
>in a more egalitarian society, our individual decisions just aren't that
>morally significant. In his August 1 column, he wrote that "the goals
>determined by individual moral choice can sometimes be achieved only by
>acting in concert with others; the dictates of ethics are sometimes best
>expressed as politics." This is a recurring theme: His correspondents
>are damned if they do and damned if they don't, so the only serious
>ethical demand on them is to get out there and vote for politicians who
>will raise taxes and increase social spending.
>
>Art
>
>At Sun, 30 Mar 2008, DoctorJoe@aol.com wrote:
>>
>>In a message dated 3/30/08 10:29:35 AM, dean@thehuffpeople.net writes:
>>
>>> The Ethicist
>>>
>>> Doctor, Bully
>>>
>>> By RANDY COHEN
>>>
>>Wait! Is this Cohen guy the writer who has NO training or experience in
>>ethics? Seems to me I remembered something about that from the NYT, that they had
>>an "ethics" writer who was basically a reporter who started writing an
>>(arguably unethical, under the circumstances) ethics column that became a big hit.
>>
>>Joe P.
>>
>>Chuck Norris wasn't born with feet -- just boots.
>>
>> (http://home.aol.com/diy/home-improvement-eric-stromer?video=15&
>>ncid=aolhom00030000000001)
>
>--
>art fougner, md
>"May The Wings of Liberty Never Lose a Feather." - Jack Burton
>
--
art fougner, md
"May The Wings of Liberty Never Lose a Feather." - Jack Burton
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