Defining a Belief System

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One rather interesting problem is determining who or what determines the true tenets of a belief system. While this is an important matter in many fields, it seems especially important in regards to religion. To use a current situation, there is considerable debate over the true nature of Islam.
When Muslims commit acts of [...]

Same Sex Marriage, Majority Rule & Bias

Judge Walker recently ruled that California’s Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. For those who have been watching Jersey Shore and not the American news, Proposition 8 banned same sex marriage in California. The proposition had passed with a slight majority. Not surprisingly, those who are opposed to same sex marriage have been quick to argue against this ruling.
One [...]

Beauty & Discrimination

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Dahlia Lithwick wrote an interesting essay in the June 14th issue of Newsweek about the law and beauty bias. This got me thinking about the issues she raised.
It is reasonable well established that attractive people generally have an advantage over people who are less attractive. It is also reasonable well established that some businesses [...]

Balance of Law

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One of the great problems in political and moral philosophy is that of the balance of law. Plato, in his ring of Gyges tale, was one of the first to present this problem. It was later developed by thinkers such as Hobbes, Locke and Mill.
The problem can be presented in the following way. If [...]

Fetal Pain

The state of Nebraska has added a (seemingly) new phrase to the abortion debate, namely “fetal pain.” The gist of the view is that abortions after twenty weeks should not be allowed on the grounds that the fetus might feel what is happening to it.
While it is not known exactly when a fetus can feel [...]

Debating Meat IV: Kantian Kabobs

In part III of debating meat, I examined Descartes’ arguments as to why it is no crime to kill and eat animals. I now turn to a brief examination of Kant’s view of animals.
In his ethical theory Kant makes it quite clear that animals are means rather than ends. Rational beings, in contrast, are ends. [...]

Corporations’ Free Speech

The Supreme Court recently ruled, in a 5-4 decision, that corporations have the same 1st Amendment rights as individual people. As such, corporations are now legally permitted unlimited spending  on political advertisements.
This overturns a restriction set in place in 1907 when Theodore Roosevelt got congress to bar corporations, railroads and banks from using their money [...]

New Moon, Zero Tolerance & Zero Sense

Samantha Tumpach was recently arrested and jailed. She faces the possibility of three years in prison. Did she assault someone? Rob a store? No, her crime was that while she was filming a birthday event she managed to capture a few minutes of New Moon-a crime for which the movie theater folks had zero tolerance.
Being [...]

Does Hate Make a Crime Worse?

The United States senate recently passed a piece of legislation that would make assaulting a person because of his/her sexual orientation or gender identity a federal crime. There are already other hate crime laws, such as those relating to race.
Some conservatives are concerned that the law will infringe on their freedom of speech. After all, [...]

Jury Nullification

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A short while ago, I received a summons for jury duty. Being a philosopher, I naturally set out to research the matter and one of the more interesting things I came across was the concept of jury nullification.
Jury nullification takes place when the members of a jury believe that the defendant is actually [...]