Thought For The Day

[kerravonsen]

It just occurred to me that the Judgement of Solomon didn't necessarily discover which of the two women was the real mother of the child... instead, it discovered which of the two women was worthy to be the mother of the child. Which would have been the best outcome for the child anyway. Yes, it's more likely that the worthy mother was the real mother, but it is faintly possible that the real mother was suffering from, say, post-natal depression and thus behaving irrationally.

Just thinkin'.

In other news, I STILL HAVEN'T PACKED! I was so exhausted last night I was crying over songs, so I figured it would be better if I simply went to bed. So I did. Feeling better now.

Comments

[dragonfly]

I like your thinky-thoughts, there.

[fred_mouse]

Assuming I'm remembering correctly, that this is the one about cutting the baby in half, my (mostly-second hand) experience with post-natal depression is that the kinds of irrational thinking that occur don't map very well to that kind of response.

However, if the actual arrangement was about time-sharing the baby, then the one willing to share looks like the more rational one, because then everyone gets some rest.

And on the gripping hand - if the thought process went 'this baby would be better off dead than full-time with Other Claimant', what does that say about the relative value of each as parent? If the one who ended up looking good was known for some kind of immoral/unethical treatment of children that the magistrate wasn't going to be aware of, coming from a different social class/circle?

[marta-bee.livejournal.com]

Interesting thought on the judgment of Solomon. I'd substitute biological mother for real mother because, the way I read the story, the one who would put the child's best interests first really is the real mother. (Living in a city, I've sadly seen people who don't sufficiently bond seem to sufficiently bond with their child, and others - family members or even neighbors - who are more motherly than the woman who gave birth, and it's not always a sign of psychological illness like post-partum depression.) Anyway, this is really a very interesting point.