Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Moral principles are never entirely "black and white" - one has to be sensible about applying them. In the case of 2nd hand bookshops I think that their benefit to society (that of keeping out of print books in circulation) outweighs any potential loss to an author of a lost sale as a result of someone buying a 2nd hand book rather than a new one. Don't you agree?
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That sound suspiciously like fudging the moral principle so that it fits what you intuitively believe. The whole point of a moral principle is that it should be a principle that you apply strictly and if it contradicts your intuition you have to change the principle or change the intuition.
I agreee with your benefit argument but I also believe the benefit argument is correct in a lot of cases where you would call people thieves.