From: Jay Thompson <jay_thompson AT rocketmail.com>
To: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [percy-l] Fw: Percy-L Digest, Vol 80, Issue 2 - Re: A Walker Percy piece written for the NY Times 30 years ago
Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2011 10:40:57 -0800 (PST)
----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Jay Thompson <jay_thompson AT rocketmail.com> To: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org Sent: Tue, February 8, 2011 12:39:27 PM Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 80, Issue 2
"You ask what Walker Percy is suggesting in this editorial. He is suggesting, as an observer of humanity, that when someone cavalierly destroys a fetus because a baby is an inconvenience, instead of thinking beforehand and behaving more responsibly, that he destroys his humanity and perhaps our society." (Janet Cantor)
I appreciated the comments by both Wade Riddick and Janet Cantor, though I would suggest that Riddick's scientific Summa Biologica essentially points back to Percy's essential dilemma with science in the first place: what does science say to the matter of actually living as a human being? Or, in this case, what does it ultimately say about the ethical dilemma of abortion or the philosophical aspects related to the origins of life.
At the end of the day,
surely a healthy respect for science, alongside the muse of the novelist/poet, and the logical arguments of the philosopher can at once be informative to our culture - a culture (as Percy would surely agree) is increasingly soul-less.
Jay Thompson jay_thompson AT rocketmail.com
[percy-l] Fw: Percy-L Digest, Vol 80, Issue 2 - Re: A Walker Percy piece written for the NY Times 30 years ago,
Jay Thompson, 02/08/2011