The principles of Good/Bad and Right/Wrong examined through a number of different moral theories and a deep look at the philosophy behind them.
What is truth? How can we know if something is true? Do all statements hold a truth value? Can we have subjective truths? When not considered too deeply, these questions seem obvious, but upon greater consideration, they are far more complex. Isn’t everything? In this article, I hope to explain truth and truth-apt statements, give…
When something is subjective, it is based on personal opinion*. We are saying that there is no real external truth value, just opinions. *The term subjective can mean different things, though they are mostly akin to this definition, and this is how it is being used in the article. Preferences and Standards We can see…
I have spent a lot of time thinking about free will and determinism, and a fair bit reading others thoughts on it too. I’ve been trying to sift through my own thoughts on the matter because I am still mostly agnostic towards the whole thing though I do lean towards a form of compatibilism that…
Whilst Morality’s purpose seems geared toward human flourishing and wellbeing, as described in the examination of various moral theories in ‘Does Morality have a Purpose?’ there is another component or two that I feel needs to be examined. To discuss this we will be looking at the higher-level moral theories, consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics….
Wow, what a season that was. We’ve discussed personhood, morality, moral theories, Nietzsche’s critique of morality, free will, a conversation about objective vs subjective morality, ethics in politics, etc. The Fresh AiR Crew Hosts / Co-hosts Davidian/Joe Joe has continued to ask a number of questions that have left the guys wondering if he really…
I’ve written a few articles about vaccinations from the scientific point of view but felt it was time to turn my attention to the morality of the topic; both from the angle of if it is a moral obligation to be vaccinated, and the morality of forcing vaccinations on people. What do we mean by…
Read More “The Morality of Forced/Rejecting Vaccinations.” »
A synonym is a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language. What we should note from this is the word NEARLY. Nearly does not mean the same, but close to. This can cause problems when people conflate normative uses of words with various…
Read More “Sin-onyms; The sinful use of synonyms – CMT: Volume 9” »
Morality is the principles of good/bad right/wrong behaviour, but what is the purpose of these rules? To answer this question we have to look back and consider how morality came about, and how it served us in the past. We will also have to examine moral theories, past and present, to see how they work…
I’m an atheist. *Gasp* ‘Hold the phone!’ Hard to believe that an atheist runs an atheist site right? I’ve even been the keyboard warrior type of atheist, although that was many years ago. I spent lots of time debating theists desperately hoping that either they could provide me with some evidence of a deity, or…
So I’ve been challenged by our resident virtue ethicist to apply my learnings from our discussions and season 2 of our podcast (which is currently available on our Patreon, and will be released here soon) to consider the perfect human using virtue ethics. If you haven’t listened to the podcast or been following ArificialAgent’s “the…
Responding to YouTubers is not something I generally do, though admittedly it is something I have often been tempted by. However, I recently saw a video from YouTube PigPuncher that tempted me into responding. One of the reasons that this particular video and argument tempted me is that a response to it is not only…
Hello, and welcome to Fresh AiR! – I’m Joe… Words you will have heard a few times if you have already started listening to season one. What is Fresh AiR? ‘Fresh AiR’ is a podcast, hosted by Joe, Martijn and Dave. It is part of Answers in Reason but hopes to bring a fresh perspective…
n the last part of this series we discussed, and argued for, certain definitions that were important in any discussion about whether morality is subjective or objective. In this part we will be discussing the topic of subjective morality. In doing so we will cover what it means for morality to be subjective, including how subjective morality is defined, arguments for subjective morality, and rebuttals against subjective morality.
Welcome to part one of the series On Morality. In this short series of articles, we will cover the topic of objective and subjective morality, how the various terms are used, and the pros and cons for each stance. This series is a follow on, and supplement to, Davidian’s excellent article on objective morality posted previously, as well as episode three of the Fresh AiR podcast.
This article is to define and discuss objective and subjective, morals and morality. As with any article on AiR we don’t always agree. Where science is concerned and the evidence is irrefutable we of course accept and believe it to be true. When it is opinion or something philosophical we may have differences. As such…
