I’ve written many articles about atheism, atheists, theists, gods, logic, rationality, ethics and morality etc. but as this is my 100th published post on Answers in Reason I wanted to do a special post. I wanted to give you an insight into my past and what lead me to my present, as well as how…
The Truth is Out There! What is truth? How can we know if something is true? What is a truth-apt statement? Do all statements hold a truth value? How does truth relate to morality? Can we have a subjective truth? In this stream, we hope to cover off these questions and examine a few theories…
Artificial Ethics We venture into the world of AI and consider the ethical implications and applications. Will our future overlords be moral and just? We will be considering how morality is used in the automated world from now and into the future, looking at various thought experiments, and pondering ethical culpability and responsibility when things…
Moral Particularism and Value Pluralism Do particular circumstances affect the moral value of an action? Are there multiple values to assess when looking at moral judgements? Are there any particular standards we should base morality on or is it just what we feel is right at the time? Joi@kriss, @trolleydave and @davidian for tonight’s ethical…
What is ‘The Problem of Dirty Hands’? We discuss the problem of dirty hands, no, not the german porn star. We question if it is possible to do the “right thing” by doing the “wrong thing”? We also question if that makes the “wrong thing” a “moral action”. If you hadn’t guessed ‘Dirty Hands’ is…
What’s this feedback stream about? Having streamed ‘Morality and Misconceptions’ Found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhLwA… We have collated the feedback we have received so far. Some were minor tweaks about the ordering of the slides, which we have amended for the final PDF/Slideshow available here: Whilst others were questions and critique – some from very long conversations…
Read More “Feedback on: Morality and Misconceptions – SciPhi: 023” »
Consequentialist moral theories, like utilitarianism, are quick and easy to use, like using fingers in the air to gauge the direction of the breeze, but they are not without fault. In this post, I hope to demonstrate the issues with consequentialist moral theories. What is Consequentialism? Consequentialism, as its name suggests, is simply the view…
Morality and Misconceptions Morality is a complex topic often discussed on the internet. There are a number of misconceptions surrounding it and as such, I created some “cards” for quick reference based on a number of learnings from a variety of sources and moral theories. W e will be leaning on a number of things…
Read More “Morality and Misconceptions – SciPhi: 018 [Video]” »
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….
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.” »
What is Justice? (e.g. is it simply fairness?) Cardinal Virtue / First Virtue of Social institutions Kantian Justice – The preservation of human dignity, respecting a person as ends in themselves rather than a means to an end. Rawlsian Justice (aka Distributive Justice) – The fair and equal distribution of goodsThis includes more than just…
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…
What is Political Ethics? We ask the question tonight, ‘What is Political Ethics’ and discuss topics such as: Why is Morality important (to all parties) Legitimacy (covered in a later chapter) Perception of Voters Do all parties act in accordance with their moral compass at all times? We also cover off our what chapters to…
Read More “An Intro to Political Ethics – Fresh AiR – S02:E05:C01” »
Subjective? Objective? Something Else? It is common to hear many reduce morality to it either being subjective or objective, but how accurate is that? Are people defining these terms properly? Are there correct definitions for the context? If one part of morality is subjective, does that make it all subjective? Well, tonight these two atheists,…
Read More “On Morality: Subjective vs Objective – A Discussion – Fresh AiR – S02:E04” »
Tonight we embark on our last chapter of specific moral theories and our penultimate chapter of episode 2. Moral Subjectivism and Relativism We discuss a number of topics around subjective and relative morality. What these terms actually mean. What it would mean if morality was wholly subjective or wholly relative. Common misconceptions folks have about…
Read More “Moral Subjectivism and Relativism – Fresh AiR – S02:E02:C11” »
What is Virtue Ethics? Tonight we discuss virtue ethics, covering topics like: What is a virtue? Which virtue is the most important? How do we apply virtues? If you apply one virtue too much, e.g. bravery, are you still brave, or do you become stupid? And of course we segue into a number of topics…
