This week Philosophy Talk had a great caller-submitted conundrum: A woman bought a used children’s book for her nieces which turned out to contain inappropriate content (racism). Should she simply return it to the store and risk another child being exposed to it, or should she destroy (by recycling) the book and become a censor?
I found the crucial concept to be that of separating the type of the book (which is really the idea) from the token of her copy. For her to destroy her personal copy is not censorship, because the idea is still available. She is just doing her best to ensure the ethical transmission of the idea (i.e. not falling into the hands of impressionable children). The caller also noted that she might hang on to the book in order to educate the girls about racism at a more suitable age.
I have considered the same question when a friend became convinced that some CDs were not appropriate but sold them to a used record shop instead of destroying them. So overall, I think I would destroy media I thought to be harmful.
*11/711/13*
