Should porn be allowed at the public library?

[TheLuckoftheDraw]

Originally Posted by Moth

I have never heard of a public library that includes Penthouse amongst their periodicals.

Same here. The idea wasn't that some do. The idea is that a type-of-media or mode of expression categorization can't do the trick for excluding it. The exclusion has to be done on some kind of value-based content grounds, and the only value-based content ground that would be consistent there is a morally-based objection.

I also do not view art books- I presume you mean ones with nudity- as akin to pornography.

Neither do I, and I didn't have nudity in mind. I was simply pointing out that libraries have significant collections of books that are primarily pictures. So we wouldn't be able to exclude pornography books on the grounds that they're primarily pictures rather than writing.

So no, porn is not relayed via those mediums

It is, but libraries do not usually carry most of it, rather.

Again, my comment was only about the logic of your argument. You were making an argument based on media or mode-of-expression categories. I was pointing out that that does not work in a logically consistent way.

except, by default, the computer. And they can filter that just as my office does.

They can, but it has to be on value-based content grounds. The argument you were making for doing it on media or mode-of-expression categories doesn't work.

As for moral ground, well, why not? I bring my 3 year old to the library. I do not wish it to be a place where people are watching Ole Wicked Wanda on the computer in his view.

Right. Nothing logically inconsistent about that. In that case I just do not agree with your morality.

[Moth]

Right. Nothing logically inconsistent about that. In that case I just do not agree with your morality.

Why not? What is the utility in my 3 year old being exposed to porn in a public library? It is the public, tax-funded sphere? Porn is distributed in the private sphere to, in theory, individuals who are old enough.

It is not the function of the library. And there is simply no way around that.

[TheLuckoftheDraw]

Originally Posted by Moth

Why not?

Because I have different moral views (and I'm a subjectivist, basically an emotivist, on ethics).

What is the utility in my 3 year old being exposed to porn in a public library? It is the public, tax-funded sphere? Porn is distributed in the private sphere to, in theory, individuals who are old enough.

I'm very pro sex, pro polyamory, and would like to see our cultural norms about sex be very different. I certainly have no moral objections to consensual sexual activities, and think it's as fit for a library as materials on, say, fishing, would be.

[Moth]

Originally Posted by TheLuckoftheDraw

Because I have different moral views (and I'm a subjectivist, basically an emotivist, on ethics). I'm very pro sex, pro polyamory, and would like to see our cultural norms about sex be very different. I certainly have no moral objections to consensual sexual activities, and think it's as fit for a library as materials on, say, fishing, would be.

Pro sex? I was unaware that anyone was anti-sex. I like sex as well- who doesn't? But I do not discuss my past exploits at Christmas dinner. There is a time and a place for most things.

A government institition such as a library is not designed to spread your agenda. And that's that.