Thursday, April 30, 2009

I'm not trying to be obtuse...


I was reading, The Secret History of the Dismal Science. Part I. Economics, Religion and Race in the 19th Century, and I come across this:

In the fight against slavery, Christian evangelicals such as William Wilberforce and Thomas Macaulay were joined by political economists, such as James Mill, Harriet Martineau, J. S. Mill, Archbishop Richard Whately and John Bright. The two sides agreed that slavery was wrong because Africans are humans, and all humans have the same rights. They however disagreed over exactly what it is that ties us together. The economists drew on their assumption that deep down, we all share the same basic human nature. The evangelicals drew on their assumption that we are literally all brothers and sisters since we share the same first parents, Adam and Eve.

Is it really so hard to come up with a frame that see's these two explanations of how we are tied together as the same thing, from a different perspective--as opposed to a disagreement?

Posted via web from jimnichols's posterous

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