Re:Let's Abolish High School
by Xichekolas on Tuesday August 11, 2009 @09:09PM
(#757001)
It would only be more ethical if your ethical system was based on a utilitarian viewpoint.
In contrast, most capitalist democracies (all that I can think of anyway) are centered on individualism... the only ethically allowable sacrifice is the voluntary sacrifice... and children (anyone under 18) are not considered sentient enough to make decisions about their own lives and futures.
Re:Let's Abolish High School
by loup-vaillant on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @04:45AM
(#757608)
You prove him right: by assuming underage people aren't sentient enough, ethics prevent us to check. Not necessarily bad, but definitely restrictive, and not good science™.
Randomly sample a bunch of kids, hook them all up to monitoring devices, put them in different schools and societies that involve transitions into adulthood at different rates and onsets, set up a control group (Lord of the Flies setup), do the longitudinal study, and write it up. An associate professor and his 5 grad students would get a bunch of solid papers out of it. Theorists would have fun defining "optimality" in this context (to be fair, the philosophers have been gnawing at it for a while..)
This is unethical .. right? Then, you have to ask yourself: wouldn't it be more ethical to do the study, figure out how best to raise kids, and let all human young for posterity (or at least 'til the results are invalidated) benefit from the wisdom?
Hmm.. :)