Kass Steps Down
9 September 2005 by BobBioethics Council Head to Step Down
Leon R. Kass, the University of Chicago medical ethicist who four years ago today was named by President Bush to head the newly created President’s Council on Bioethics, will step down as chairman Oct. 1, the White House announced late Wednesday.
And let’s all be reminded of the genius that Kass was in explaining why cloning might be repugnant to some people:
Revulsion is not an argument; and some of yesterday’s repugnances are today calmly accepted — though, one must add, not always for the better. In crucial cases, however, repugnance is the emotional expression of deep wisdom, beyond reason’s power fully to articulate it.
Not really a shock, then, why Dubya liked him.
9 September 2005, on 1:37 pm
HangGeorge.com
11 September 2005, on 6:06 am
Actually, it’s very alarming that the man doesn’t know what “disgust” is, because it explains perfectly why “some of yesterday’s repugnances are today calmly accepted.” It’s something you learn very early as a student of literature when discussing horror (which is one of the few literary genres defined by their ability to cause physical responses: in this case – horror and disgust).
Disgust is, very simply – perceived transgression. When two things that shouldn’t conflate do so – we respond with disgust. Big/small (think giant insects), inside/out (think gooey slime on the outside instead of the inside where it belongs), etc. It gets more complex when addressing cultural issues – but again, it’s all in the transgressive perception. Mixed marriages once caused disgust because they were socially transgressive.
The only “wisdom” in disgust is the fact that it expresses consciously all our unconscious convictions of “what belongs where,” and reacts with disgust (which is just another word for “repulsion” or “get it away from me now!!!!” when something appears where we think it doesn’t belong.