{"id":2822,"date":"2011-08-10T09:37:47","date_gmt":"2011-08-10T16:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moscowcoffeereview.com\/carpecakem\/?p=2822"},"modified":"2011-08-10T09:37:47","modified_gmt":"2011-08-10T16:37:47","slug":"why-spanking-your-kids-is-not-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/moscowcoffeereview.com\/carpecakem\/2011\/08\/10\/why-spanking-your-kids-is-not-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Why spanking your kids is not violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leithart had a fantastic post<\/a> yesterday on the philosophy of action. Here is some of it.<\/p>\n

Is an adulterous one-night stand the same action as a night of marital love with one\u2019s wife?<\/p>\n

If we say Yes, what have we assumed? \u00a0We have assumed that the determinative dimensions of actions are the physical actions of sex. \u00a0To an outsider who didn\u2019t know that one woman is a mistress and the other a wife, the action looks identical \u2013 same foreplay, same change of blood pressure and temperature, same climax, etc. \u00a0To put it more starkly: If we say that adulterous and marital sex are the \u201csame\u201d action, we have assumed a materialist view of action. \u00a0Action is defined by the physical facts of the case.<\/p>\n

We have also assumed an individualist view of action. \u00a0The fact that one act is man-with-mistress and the other is man-with-wife is irrelevant. \u00a0Relationality is canceled. \u00a0What makes the action what it is is simply male-with-female. \u00a0Move this another step, and it\u2019s easy to see that homosexual relations are \u201cthe same\u201d as marital sex.<\/p>\n

Only on an materialist and individualist basis do the two acts appear to be variations within a genus of action, two varieties of \u201csex.\u201d \u00a0We can reach that conclusion only if we have stripped each participant down to his\/her individual body.<\/p>\n

If we deny materialism and individualism, then the two acts are not<\/em> the same.<\/p>\n

Now, the upshot: If this is true of sexual acts, then it is presumably true also of acts of force or \u201cviolence.\u201d \u00a0Using deadly force to save a Hebrew slave who is being beaten to death is not the same as beating the Hebrew slave. \u00a0The two actions are not species in the same genus, but two different actions. \u00a0 So too, carrying out a death penalty against a murderer is not another murder; it is an act of justice. \u00a0Fighting a just war against violent oppressors is not another act of violent oppression.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The thing that immediately came to mind as an extension of this insight is the nature of corporal punishment with children. By far the most common argument presented by advocates of “gentle discipline” is that spanking your child is a form of violence. If they hit their brother and then you hit them, you are a hypocrite. But this is not so. Only raw materialism could arrive at this conclusion – as if all instances of striking MUST be exactly the same. But they are not.<\/p>\n

The metaphysical reality of a properly applied spanking from a loving parent to his child has almost nothing to do with a violent outburst of wrath against a brother over a stolen toy. Just like a night with one’s wife is thoroughly different than a night with a prostitute. Only on the very thin surface do they appear to be the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leithart had a fantastic post yesterday on the philosophy of action. Here is some of it. Is an adulterous one-night stand the same action as a night of marital love with one\u2019s wife? If we say Yes, what have we assumed? \u00a0We have assumed that the determinative dimensions of actions are the physical actions of … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Why spanking your kids is not violence”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/moscowcoffeereview.com\/carpecakem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/moscowcoffeereview.com\/carpecakem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/moscowcoffeereview.com\/carpecakem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moscowcoffeereview.com\/carpecakem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moscowcoffeereview.com\/carpecakem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2822"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/moscowcoffeereview.com\/carpecakem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2825,"href":"http:\/\/moscowcoffeereview.com\/carpecakem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822\/revisions\/2825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/moscowcoffeereview.com\/carpecakem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moscowcoffeereview.com\/carpecakem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moscowcoffeereview.com\/carpecakem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}