morality
Morality, whether you want it or not
People worry. That is, sometimes people worry about whether or not morality is real. If morals were real, then it would mean that there are facts about the world that, by their very nature, motivate us to do good. We would know right and wrong by our instincts.
If morals were real then we would not [...]
The Nature of Cruelty
The notion of cruelty seems to be an important concept in both law and morality. Not surprisingly, what acts count as cruels is a matter of significant debate. My intent here is not to focus on sorting out specific actions or developing a cruelometer. Rather, I am going to address a slightly more abstract issue: [...]
Debating Meat V: Utility
One common approach to debating the ethics of meat is to argue within the context of utilitarianism.
Put is simple terms, for the utilitarian, an action is right if it creates more utility for the morally relevant beings than disutility. A key part of the debate for the utilitarians is the moral status of animals: are they morally [...]
Debating Meat III: Cartesian Cutlets
In my previous post on this subject, I discussed the theology of eating meat. My main focus was on the Christian view of the matter as exemplified by the writings of Thomas Aquinas and Augustine. I now turn to look at the metaphysical view put forth by Rene Descartes and how this relates to the [...]
Debating Meat I: Meat Matters
When the issue of the ethics of eating meat comes up, people often regard the matter as being primarily of academic concern. Or, far worse, a matter than only really matters to those who hug (and perhaps eat) trees. However, the ethics of meat does matter on a much broader scale.
Since the subject is rather [...]
Eating the Happy Dead
In my previous post I mentioned that reading an article in Newsweek entitled “Vegetarians Who Eat Meat”, got me thinking about two issues. The first is whether a person can be a vegetarian and also eat meat. The second is whether the way the meat animal is raised impacts the morality of eating it. I [...]
Vegetarians Who Eat Meat?
I recently ran across an article in Newsweek entitled “Vegetarians Who Eat Meat”, which got me thinking about two issues. The first is whether a person can be a vegetarian and also eat meat. The second is whether the way the meat animal is raised impacts the morality of eating it.
On the face of it, [...]
America, Iran & The Obedient Mind
Reading Maziar Bahari’s article about his ordeal in Iran reminded me very much of the novel 1984 and all the other descriptions of “interrogations” I have read. Thinking about this, I began to suspect that there is a core authoritarian mindset that remains the same across a wide variety of ideologies. In the case of [...]
Abortion & Torture
For the past few years I have been caught between pro-choice arguments from the left and pro-torture arguments from the right. I had been able to keep them neatly compartmentalized until recently. Somehow, like flu viruses swapping genetic material, they became blended together. This monstrous hybrid enabled me to see the arguments in a new [...]
PETA & Vick’s Pits
The other day I saw a brief bit on CNN about Michael Vick’s rescued pit bulls. As most people know, Vick got into considerable trouble for his horrible treatment of dogs. He and some associates trained and fought them. The dogs that lacked the desire to fight were killed, often in rather brutal ways.
When the [...]
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