Sunday, February 28, 2010

Babies and bathwater: abuse and use

There is an ancient and important principle of ethics: abusus non tollit usum; abuse does not abolish use. The fact that a practice or object has been or can be abused does not rule out its legitimate use. A more colloquial way of putting it is that we should not throw out the baby with the bathwater. It seems a fairly obvious point, but it is often forgotten.

2 comments:

gbroughto said...

like... quoting the latin first to add gravitas to what you are saying??? just perhaps ;)

byron smith said...

Mea culpa!