Ann Althouse posts her near-lyrical reactions to an exhibit of Gunther von Hagens' "plasticinated" cadavers. I must confess to not having seen them in person, only in online photographs. And I must confess Ann's thoughtful comments haven't swayed my opinion, which remains as I put it over a year ago:
Yuck. Double yuck. I want it banned and the harm principle can be damned. Do I have a reasoned analysis of how to fit the yuck factor into a coherent political theory? No. And I don't care. Some things are just too yucky for a civilized society to tolerate. This is what Leon Kass calls the "wisdom of repugnance," which makes good sense to me in this case and a number of others. (German cannibals and Swedish pet lovers spring to mind as other recent examples.) One of these days I really ought to devote some effort to seeing if I can make the yuck factor cohere with my overall world view, but I'm pretty busy, so I'll probably just muddle along on a case-by- case basis. After all, somewhere or another Edmund Burke said that individual reason could never fully comprehend the divine intent, but we grope towards it through history, myth, fable, custom, and tradition. It works for me.
