Daniel C. Peterson Calls The Maxwell Institute Unethical

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_Drifting
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Re: Daniel C. Peterson Calls The Maxwell Institute Unethical

Post by _Drifting »

ldsfaqs wrote:But what is new with anti's, lying is your trademark.


Paul H. Dunn was an 'anti', who knew...
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_Everybody Wang Chung
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Re: Daniel C. Peterson Calls The Maxwell Institute Unethical

Post by _Everybody Wang Chung »

ldsfaqs wrote: We all have our ethics. Clearly Dan felt his ethics were not compatible to the ethics involved in the "re-alignment".



Hello ldsfaqs,

I agree 100% with your above post. If Dan feels his ethics were not compatible with the Maxwell Institue, then Dan clearly feels the Maxwell Institute is unethical.

Thanks for pointing out the obvious.

Peace,

Wang
"I'm on paid sabbatical from BYU in exchange for my promise to use this time to finish two books."

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_Res Ipsa
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Re: Daniel C. Peterson Calls The Maxwell Institute Unethical

Post by _Res Ipsa »

I'm really having trouble understanding how what Peterson said can be construed as calling the MI unethical. He clearly disagrees strongly with the new direction the MI is taking. It would be perfectly reasonable to take the position that it would be personally unethical for him to go out and fund raise for the MI when he disagrees strongly with what it is doing without branding the MI as unethical.
​“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”

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_Jaybear
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Re: Daniel C. Peterson Calls The Maxwell Institute Unethical

Post by _Jaybear »

Brad Hudson wrote:I'm really having trouble understanding how what Peterson said can be construed as calling the MI unethical. He clearly disagrees strongly with the new direction the MI is taking. It would be perfectly reasonable to take the position that it would be personally unethical for him to go out and fund raise for the MI when he disagrees strongly with what it is doing without branding the MI as unethical.


The language is clumsy, but it appears to me that he did not support the "realignment of the Maxwell Institute" for ethicial reasons, not as your read ... he could not support fundraising, for ethical reasons.

But, your charitable interpretation, may have been what Dan meant to say.
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Re: Daniel C. Peterson Calls The Maxwell Institute Unethical

Post by _Everybody Wang Chung »

Brad Hudson wrote: It would be perfectly reasonable to take the position that it would be personally unethical for him to go out and fund raise for the MI when he disagrees strongly with what it is doing without branding the MI as unethical.



Hi Brad,

Good point. However, he didn't state what you wrote above. You're right though, Dan could have clarified himself about exactly what he finds unethical about the Maxwell Institute.

Instead, we are left with his clear and unambiguous statement that he finds the Maxwell Institute unethical. It's really inappropriate.
"I'm on paid sabbatical from BYU in exchange for my promise to use this time to finish two books."

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Re: Daniel C. Peterson Calls The Maxwell Institute Unethical

Post by _Doctor Scratch »

He means that he can't "ethically" support a Maxwell Institute that doesn't engage in polemical apologetics. He's said this repeatedly: he thinks that Elder Maxwell wanted them to aggressively defend the Church, publish "smear" pieces (he wouldn't put it that way, of course, but in essence that's what he means), and mock Chapel Mormons. Because Dr. Bradford and the Powers That Be want the MI to be more professional and scholarly, DCP felt that he had to quit, for "ethical reasons."
"[I]f, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
_Res Ipsa
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Re: Daniel C. Peterson Calls The Maxwell Institute Unethical

Post by _Res Ipsa »

Everybody Wang Chung wrote:
Brad Hudson wrote: It would be perfectly reasonable to take the position that it would be personally unethical for him to go out and fund raise for the MI when he disagrees strongly with what it is doing without branding the MI as unethical.



Hi Brad,

Good point. However, he didn't state what you wrote above. You're right though, Dan could have clarified himself about exactly what he finds unethical about the Maxwell Institute.

Instead, we are left with his clear and unambiguous statement that he finds the Maxwell Institute unethical. It's really inappropriate.


Hi Everybody Wang Chung,

I think it's ambiguous as hell. It's a horribly constructed sentence. Given the opening clause of the sentence, I read the word "support" as meaning "support as a fund raiser." My own practice is to give ambiguous sentences a "charitable" interpretation. I don't have the history with Peterson that most of you folks do, but it seems to me he's very good at digging holes for himself. I don't understand the rush to dig them for him. :wink:
​“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”

― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
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Re: Daniel C. Peterson Calls The Maxwell Institute Unethical

Post by _Res Ipsa »

Doctor Scratch wrote:He means that he can't "ethically" support a Maxwell Institute that doesn't engage in polemical apologetics. He's said this repeatedly: he thinks that Elder Maxwell wanted them to aggressively defend the Church, publish "smear" pieces (he wouldn't put it that way, of course, but in essence that's what he means), and mock Chapel Mormons. Because Dr. Bradford and the Powers That Be want the MI to be more professional and scholarly, DCP felt that he had to quit, for "ethical reasons."


Hi Dr. Scratch,

Since the topic of the sentence was quitting his rule as fundraiser for the MI after being replaced as editor, I think he meant he can't ethically fund raise for the "new" MI because of his strong disagreement with the new direction. I think there's a significant difference between "I can't ethically fundraise for this organization because I don't believe in it's mission" and "I can't fundraise for this organization because it is unethical."

Ain't language grand?
​“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”

― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
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Re: Daniel C. Peterson Calls The Maxwell Institute Unethical

Post by _Dr. Shades »

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Re: Daniel C. Peterson Calls The Maxwell Institute Unethical

Post by _Kishkumen »

Little Stevie Smoot to the rescue. He wonders why Dehlin didn't just take his smear like a good academic.
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