If a sixth-former were a fridge I would be very good at evaluating its energy rating, number of shelves, size of ice compartment, and whether it has a bottle rack. I can immediately discard a fridge with a B energy rating and nowhere to put things on the back of the door. But sixth-formers are unlike fridges and in even the most statistically-based descriptions of them individual bits of interestingness shine through. Meeting them makes this even more complex. One possibility would be to think of sixth-formers as fridges; this might make me more efficient at ranking them, to the benefit of both institution and myself, and possibly even the sixth-formers. However I feel it would be morally wrong.
Wednesday, 28 November 2007
A seventeen-year-old is fundamentally unlike a fridge
If a sixth-former were a fridge I would be very good at evaluating its energy rating, number of shelves, size of ice compartment, and whether it has a bottle rack. I can immediately discard a fridge with a B energy rating and nowhere to put things on the back of the door. But sixth-formers are unlike fridges and in even the most statistically-based descriptions of them individual bits of interestingness shine through. Meeting them makes this even more complex. One possibility would be to think of sixth-formers as fridges; this might make me more efficient at ranking them, to the benefit of both institution and myself, and possibly even the sixth-formers. However I feel it would be morally wrong.
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But even rating fridges can be tricky. Does an A-rated fridge with no door storage beat a B-rated fridge with door storage? If so, would a B-rated fridge with a very natty storage system and water dispenser which never got all soggy inside and so on beat an A-rated fridge with none of these excellent properties? (Are the various evaluative properties of fridges commensurable?) VIth formers are certainly more complicated than fridges (though generally less energy efficient); but perhaps we should not underestimate the complexity of fridge evaluation.
ReplyDeleteI put it to you that the fact that we are able to choose a fridge means that its evaluative qualities are to some extent commensurable. People are not measurable and this is why choosing between them provokes moral unease. But also, no fridge has ever looked at me anxiously, and I can guiltlessly pay the council twenty quid to take away a fridge.
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