AboutCharles K. MacKay Expertise I can answer a number of questions in philosophy; my academic concentrations (graduate school at Cornell) are ethics, political philosophy, and 19th-century German philosophy (Marx, Hegel, and hangers-on.)
Experience EDUCATION:
BA, New College, 1971, Philosophy and Religion
Awarded four graduate fellowships upon graduation
MA, Cornell University, 1974
Social and Political Philosophy, Danforth Fellowship
All course work and dissertation drafts completed for Ph.D. Cornell University, 1971-1975, Social and Political Philosophy, Danforth Fellowship
Courses in statistics and microeconomics, George Washington University and The American University, 1976-1978
EXPERIENCE:
Health Insurance Specialist 2005 - Present
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service
US Department of Health and Human Services
Allentown Business School Instructor (Computer Science) 2003 - 2005
Northampton Community College
Adjunct Professor of Philosophy 2003 -2005
Lehigh County Community College
Adjunct Professor of Philosophy and Computer Science
PUBLICATIONS:
Medicare Made Easy (with Charles B. Inlander) Addison-Wesley, 1989
Good Operations, Bad Operations (with Charles B. Inlander) Viking Press, 1993
Health Rebooted: Information Changes Everything (in press), 2008
Is it it ethical to indoctrinate people into a cult? I am using Lifton's (1961) definition of a cult. Would it make a deference if the cult in question is a nationally renowned self-help group?
Thank You,
John
Answer It depends on whether you're inside or outside the cult. If you're inside, it's obviously ethical to inculcate people. You have the truth, it has to be shared, the individual's salvation depends on it.
From outside, the kinds of things cults do to members and recruits violate the dignity and autonomy of the individual; there's no philosopher would support it.
From inside self-help groups that are truly effective, the same ideas as in the first paragraph apply. From outside, one could argue that IF the cultic organization is the only way that one can escape a worse fate than being in the cult, it is ethical to inculcate him. But that judgement needs to be made by the person himself BEFORE he joins. And almost all the time, it will turn out that there are means other than the cultic organization to solve the problem.
