21 Feb
2006
21 Feb
'06
4:38 p.m.
On Tue, 2006-02-21 at 15:08 -0500, Peter Bessman wrote:
Frank Barknecht wrote:
OK, is it morally wrong to sell yourself into slavery? Mill didn't
think so:
"By selling himself for a slave, he abdicates his liberty; he foregoes
any future use of it beyond that single act. He therefore defeats, in
his own case, the very purpose which is the justification of allowing
him to dispose of himself.... The principle of freedom cannot require
that he should be free not to be free. It is not freedom to be allowed
to alienate his freedom" (p. 158).
http://www.victorianweb.org/philosophy/mill/ten/ch7c.html
Lee
It's even easier for a contract to be morally
wrong, because generally
public law is influenced by the common view of morals more than
private contracts. In German that would be a contract, that is
"sittenwidrig". I think, the legal term in English is "contrary to
public policy". Contracts to sell your vote would be an example for
this, though these are illegal as well in many countries.
The fact that it's illegal to sell your vote does not prove that
contracts can be morally wrong.