| | Benezet goes on to say this at the meeting:
And we likewise earnestly recommend to all who have slaves, to be careful to come up in the performance of their duty towards them; and to be particularly watchful over their own hearts; it being by sorrowful experience remarkable, that custom, and a familiarity with evil of any kind, have a tendency to bias the judgment, and deprave the mind; ... So he's not just saying that it's wrong to take some or all of the fruits of someone else's labor -- in order to satisfy the personal interests you may hold dear (e.g., big house, pruned lawn, full pantry, free or lowered-cost medical care, etc.). He is also saying that when you dabble in such things -- holding your own interests out as something that not only competes with the interest of others, but actually somehow supersedes the interests of others -- then you begin to lose the ability to objectively evaluate the matter.
Here are the 3 possible notions:
1) your interests can, and they often do, harmonize with the interests of others
2) your interests are stuck in a dis-harmonic competition with the interests of others, but they do not metaphysically supersede the interests of others
3) your interests are stuck in a dis-harmonic competition with the interests of others, and they metaphysically supersede the interests of others (e.g., because you are more "human" than they are, or because you are more "worthy" than they are, or whatever)
Ed
(Edited by Ed Thompson on 5/25, 2:59pm)
|
|
... if we continually bear in mind the royal law of 'doing to others as we would be done by,' we should never think of bereaving our fellow creatures of that valuable blessing, liberty, nor endure to grow rich by their bondage. To live in ease and plenty, by the toil of those, whom violence and cruelty have put in our power, is neither consistent with Christianity nor common justice ...
