Questions tagged [ethics]
For questions about ethics, a branch of philosophy dealing with morality, justice, virtue, vice, good and evil.
2,323 questions
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Who is to blame when one person offends another?
In todays sensitive climate about [insert sensitive topic here], I often start wondering about who is to blame when one person offends another with their words or actions.
On one hand, it's obviously ...
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Are all actually equal? [closed]
”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of ...
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Whats the point of the human function in the Nicomachean Ethics?
Is "the good" Aristotle mentions for a human just the same as saying the eudaimonia for a human (since that would seem to connect the two)? Otherwise, I do not see how he arrives at a ...
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Is atheism religion with all attributes? [closed]
To people who are believers, that science proved that God doesn’t exists, I want to remind that science tell that consciousness doesn’t exist too, however obviously consciousness exists.
I guess ...
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Trying to understand reality lead to understanding useless things?
If one sets his purpose as achieving the truest possible understanding of reality (I know one might die and not achieve it), then doesn't this mean that he needs then to understand all the things that ...
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Hume's Guillotine
I struggle to understand how logic doesn't validate the deduction of a moral judgement that's not present in the first premise, even if we add a second premise?
I might not be profound upon the matter,...
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What is the core argument for anti-natalism in this paper by Jiwon Hwang?
I stumbled upon this paper written by Jiwoon Hwang. It's about why it is better to cease existing. He uses David Benatar's assymetry to come to a pro-mortalist conclusion; but unlike Harman, he ...
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Are all morals grounded in the family structure?
How important is family? Family comes first is an old maxim, if a parochial one. No-one is asking anyone to sacrifice their children by limiting that, but I wonder whether our moral duties only really ...
user71399
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Classifying the ethical characteristics of entities by cognitive properties, non-human-specific
I am wondering if any theorists have developed a way of classifying entities by their cognitive properties in order to build general theories such as ethics, based on such properties. It should ...
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Origin of a story about the dilemma involved in helping the turtle cross the road
I'd like to know the origin of the story I heard/read long ago (translated to English here) so that I can perhaps have a more accurate version and quote it.
I did several searches on the Internet ...
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What is the difference between sublimity and fearsome things? [closed]
What is the difference between sublimity and fearsome things? Is a despot sublime in their immoral actions? I would suggest critical thinking.
See e.g. Burke and a "delightful horror"
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Can moral theories be "elegant" or beautiful or sublime?
It is often said that mathematics has some (peculiar) sort of beauty to its name. Whether beauty attaches as such primarily to the notation/style of mathematical writing, or to the interplay of the ...
user40843
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What's the best introductory book to philosophy of ethics?
Well there are many suggestions already there and many books available about ethics, but what I want is not just a overly simplified book for a complete beginner. I have spent some time studying ...
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I wanted to ask about "EGO", how philosophers have defined ego? [duplicate]
Many philosophers have touched the topic of "Ego". For instance, Freud, Buddha, Iqbal and many others. We all have fragile ego. In simple terms, how ego can be defined? What is the most ...
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When does permission equal moral permissibility?
When does permission equal moral permissibility?
I definitely feel there is a difference, but am struggling to verbalize it.
In Nazi Germany, I may be legally permitted to execute Jewish people, but ...
user71190
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How to start learning philosophy and overcome my bias towards mathematics?
I am interested and curious about philosophy, especially topics like morals, justice, ethics, etc. I want to read books that explain the philosophy behind them. However, I am very ignorant and I don’t ...
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When is it ethical to be ethical towards the unethical?
Suppose there are some criminals who have no respect for ethics and will lie/cheat/steal/kill whenever they perceive it could gain them some advantage. Suppose that to treat these people with fairness ...
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How does the quasi-realist claim that the claim to moral mind-independence is a moral claim work?
As part of metaethical quasi-realism, a noncognitivist (expressivist and projectivist) position which attempts to justify the use of realist language without committing itself fully to cognitivism or ...
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Why is emotivism unpopular?
I grew up in a protestant American household. I worked hard to redefine my beliefs, epistemology, and ultimately my meta-ethical views as those that I could defend. I find that emotivism is easily the ...
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Are morals and justice meaningless? What do philosophers think about them?
I am curious about the concepts of morals and justice. Do they have any objective reality, or are they just subjective illusions that we create for ourselves? Are they meaningless? How can we define ...
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Is there a name for the idea that some actions are good because they solve problems, even if they hurt people?
I wonder if there is a name for the idea that some actions are good because they solve problems, even if they hurt people. For example, if a country has an overpopulation problem and it decides to ...
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When will a Philosopher stop asking questions? [closed]
Apparently Philosophers keep asking questions and "ALL" of their questions involve some form of contradiction, or some form of critical analysis. What will be the "end game" where ...
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Is it bad to seek power? [closed]
I'm a 17-year-old high school student interested in human nature. I've always been a curious kid by nature, so unfortunately, I ask a lot of questions, especially when something goes against my ...
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Questioning the category of the “moral”
Briefly: it occurs to me that taking as given the pre-existence of the terms “morality” and “ethics” structures our thinking preemptively and heavily. In the manner of discursive analysts like ...
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What are valid rebuttals to utilitarianism?
From Britannica, utilitarianism is an ethics concept in which
an action (or type of action) is right if it tends to promote happiness or pleasure and wrong if it tends to produce unhappiness or pain—...
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What are the moral arguments for slavery? [closed]
We undoubtedly must have read and heard passionate arguments justifying the abolition of slavery, be it from the clergy, and philosophical and political clerisy; however, what has been absent from the ...
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Is the existence of free will even important?
I don't see the existence/non-existence of free will as meaningful, ethically speaking. I'll explain what I mean.
Let's say we have some agent, and the agent takes an action we think is bad. In a ...
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Is the doctrine of modern Human Rights considered to be supreme form of Ethics by modern philosophers?
I am from a suburban place in India and honestly, people usually look towards common sense, combined with some Hindu Ethics to live their lives here. Pretty much nobody knows or cares about Human ...
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How mature must one be to be able to have sex?
For context, I don't study philosophy; however, I often have philosophical discussions with fellow university students. One of the topics that came up recently was:
Disregarding any moral obligation ...
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Is psychological egoism, or some other descriptive theory about some inescapable pattern of human nature, compatible with normativity?
Can true normative statements exist if our behaviour is determined by some uncontrollable process? If we can only act in our self-interest, is the norm 'you ought not kill' reasonable to hold someone ...
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Should animals be ethically considered?
I've heard lots of people say that animals just shouldn't be considered ethically, and so actions against them that they would consider morally wrong to do to humans don't matter. This doesn't make ...
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Do companions in guilt arguments wrongly assign the burden of proof to the antirealist?
Proving the existence of epistemic normativity might pose issues for some arguments for antirealism, like the queerness argument, but it doesn't seem like sufficient proof. There is one ground on ...
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A possible counterargument for a theoretical argument in support of antinatalism
I have seen some of the common arguments for anti-natalism, one being David Benatar's asymmetry argument. I am worldbuilding for a science fiction story in which there are some technologically-...
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Where do morals come from? (Specifically someone who doesn't belive in God) [duplicate]
If someone doesn't believe in a God that gives Objective morals, where do they get their morals from? If life is this straightforward then no objective morality or even truth can be claimed. So why do ...
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Why is having true beliefs so important?
Of course, when you need to describe reality or make predictions about it, it's important that the beliefs correspond to reality, but say a religion makes an unfalsifiable and unverifiable claim. Does ...
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Self discipline moral or immoral?
violating someone's autonomy or free will raises ethical concerns, then isn't controlling own thought (that is supressing certain thoughts and nurturing specific thoughts which is function of thought ...
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Resource request for philosophical arguments regarding the ethics of killing animals
If we consider the animals have a right to live, then killing them for consumption should be considered a violation of their rights. On the other hand, if we don't consider that animals have a right ...
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Aristotle's Happiness Argument [closed]
In Aristotle's view and Nicomachean Ethics, why does a person always have happiness if he once has happiness?
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Using the Universal Quantifier, Existential Quantifier, and logical connectives, write a description of a time when somthing bad for you was not bad
The following is an exercise in ethics, logic, the use of the universal quantifier and the the use of the existential quantifier.
In the following context, the syntax for the universal quantifier is ...
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Does childism influence evolution of humans?
Childism can be defined as follows :
Childism can refer either to advocacy for empowering children as a
subjugated group or to prejudice and/or discrimination against
children or childlike qualities....
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On a reductionist/functionalist account of consciousness, would we have ethical obligations toward robots?
If consciousness arises from specific functions instantiated by physical systems, consider a robot with functions mirroring those found in carbon-based life, particularly in humans. Would this imply ...
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About ethical sleeping in Islamic philosophy [closed]
In Islamic philosophy, those who die are divided into those who die in sleep and those who do not die in sleep. The following link is the relevant question: Sleep and Death
The truth is that if a ...
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Is Ethics essentially the same as Utilitarianism?
I have no training in philosophy so bare with me here. I often feel like the way people, including philosophers, talk about it is irrational. I am here to ask if you agree with me on the following. If ...
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Have philosophers debated the notion that "existence or the capacity for experience" may be homo sapiens' fundamental value?
I assume the 2600-year search for an ethical principle has two challenges: establishing homo sapiens' fundamental value; and articulating principles of action that target that value. Have philosophers ...
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Does every nation on Earth have a right to exist or do only peaceful nations have a right to exist?
I have been wondering lately as to what it is that gives every nation on Earth the right to exist.
Throughout human history, at any point in time, the Earth has been a mixed bag of nations that were ...
user68506
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Ethics of involuntary participation in an unethical hegemony
If you're an anticapitalist in the West or Global North you're an unwilling participant in the prevailing hegemony (capitalism), but usually without much choice. You can't find shelter without ...
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Is there any idea of goodness which is absolute?
Suppose I am very generous and forgiving then can I call myself good?
Is this goodness absolute in time(past ,present and future)and space( east , west , north , south) ?
Generally, is there any ...
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What would be the requirements for constructing an ethical calculus?
I am aware of Bentham's hedonic calculus, for which I feel is insufficient for describing ethical propositions outside of its weak implicature. There likely have been many critiques of it, so I shall ...
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What is the moral difference between saving a life and creating a life?
In modern society, a lot of people think that giving birth is either wrong if it leads to some suffering or at the very least non-morally optional. However, saving a life is considered good. Why is ...
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Should freedom of speech accept speech against liberal values? Such as hate speech?
Should freedom of speech accept speech against liberal values such as diversity? Focusing on a particular scenario as an example: If people want to protest against the existence of say black people, ...
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