Tag Archives: Ethics

Is morality objective, yet relative?

Posted on May 26, 2019 by

Jason Mckenzie Alexander at iai.tv makes an interesting proposition, that morality is a social technology, one that goes out of date and frequently needs to be upgraded. He first describes the common sentiment that morals are objective in some timeless … Continue reading →

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Changing what makes us happy

Posted on January 7, 2019 by

from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (click through for the hovertext and red button caption) Greg Egan in his novel Incandescence posits an alien civilization whose ancestors, in order to survive, establish a series of space habitats.  In order to ensure their … Continue reading →

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The system components of pain

Posted on June 5, 2017 by

Peter Hankins at Conscious Entities has a post looking at the morality of consciousness, which is a commentary on piece at Nautilus by Jim Davies on the same topic.  I recommend reading both posts in their entirety, but the overall … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , , , , , | 29 Comments

Is there a moral arc to history?

Posted on June 20, 2016 by

The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. As someone who isn’t able to find an objective basis for morality, I’ve often wondered what that means for the above statement from Martin Luther King.  It certainly … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Morality | Tagged , , , , , , , | 34 Comments

SMBC: What researchers study

Posted on May 6, 2016 by

This seems relevant to some of our discussion on the previous post. via smbc-comics.com (Click though for hovertext and red button caption.) The last caption may be in reference to these developments: The latest genetic modification techniques fall outside of existing … Continue reading →

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The unavoidable complexity of morality

Posted on April 11, 2016 by

I’ve written before on why science can’t determine morality.  This isn’t a particularly controversial position (even if many of Sam Harris or Michael Shermer’s followers find it so).  No one seems to have found an intellectually rigorous answer to David … Continue reading →

Posted in Morality | Tagged , , , , , | 18 Comments

SMBC: Do ethics actually exist?

Posted on February 25, 2016 by

This is just too close to some of our recent discussions for me not to call attention to it.  As usual, Weiner knocks it out of the park. (Click through for hovertext and red button caption.) via: Saturday Morning Breakfast … Continue reading →

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In search of an objective morality

Posted on August 30, 2015 by

I’ve had a few conversations lately on morality, and it strikes me that I haven’t written about it in quite a while.  The discussions focused on whether there is any objective morality, or any objective definition of good and evil. … Continue reading →

Posted in Morality | Tagged , , , , , | 47 Comments

Students showing up at college understanding the fact value distinction is a good thing.

Posted on March 4, 2015 by

Justin P. McBrayer, an ethics and philosophy of religion professor, has an opinion piece in the New York Times bemoaning the fact that students are showing up for college not believing that moral rules are facts. What would you say … Continue reading →

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Wealth may have driven the rise of moralizing religions

Posted on December 17, 2014 by

One of the things that a lot of people are often surprised to hear, is that most scholars don’t believe that religion was always concerned with morality, that moralizing religion didn’t exist to any significant extent before the ‘Axial Age’ … Continue reading →

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