Questions tagged [ethics]
For questions about ethics, a branch of philosophy dealing with morality, justice, virtue, vice, good and evil.
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For Kant, are spider moms that eat their kids immoral?
When we talk about morality, do we mean to say morality for human beings?
It is morally bad for human mothers to eat their newborns.
Black widow spiders females eat some of their newborns after ...
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Are moral theories arbitrary?
So far, I've concluded for me that moral is only based on axioms. And those axioms are essentially arbitrary as the axioms in mathematics are. Hence, I've to choose my axiom system, e.g. be an ...
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How might one counter Bertrand Russell's criticism of Stoicism as "not true" and "insincere"?
Reading about Stoicism, I have encountered a criticism to which I cannot form a strong counter-argument. Did anyone or can anyone provide a rebuttal to the following argument against Stoicism?
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Are all ethical systems consequentialist?
Quoting Milton Friedman here
"If the end
does not justify the means, what does? But this easy answer does not dispose
of the objection; it simply shows that the objection is not well put. To
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On a kantian perspective, is it morally wrong to find a terrible event in our history very interesting?
I feel currently a personal dilemma: I find events like the Abu Grahib torture scandal highly interesting, especially under what circumstances people do such terrible things. At least, when i only ...
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What is feminist care ethics?
I've heard the term thrown around, but I haven't gotten a good explanation of the core tenets of that particular branch of ethics. Can anyone explain, in plain English, what it is?
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How might we define morality or ethics such that we can program it into an Artificial Intelligence?
With the speed at which AI is being developed, there is a pressing need to develop a clear system of morality that we might have an Artificial Intelligence operate from.
In my understanding, there ...
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Would it be ethical to make a bot that would answer stack exchange questions? [closed]
Lets say the bot would be markov chain based and trained on the answers given previously on that tag. Would the answer to this question be different if it was based on neural networks? Would this ...
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What is mauvaise foi as it relates to ethics? Philosophy?
The title says it all. I know it means 'bad faith' but I'm really looking for a more concrete explanation of what it means and how it relates to ethics. Additionally, it would be helpful to understand ...
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Is it possible to define (legally-useful) inalienable natural rights without a deity?
Here's my understanding of natural rights:
Natural rights are those rights inherent to a being.
Those rights are inalienable if they may not be overridden by social contract.
Without some sort of ...
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Is deriving natural rights from nature a logical fallacy?
According to the view of natural rights, rights are derived from nature (a la John Locke), and these rights are possessed by all humans by virtue of being human.
To provide an example based on my ...
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Could we take the fully rational and fully informed idealized agent that Peter Railton talks about as God, to give a theistic metaethics?
Recently, I finished Alexander Miller's book "An Introduction to Contemporary Metaethics." After reading about Peter Railton's reductionism, I wondered if it would be possible to take the agent which ...
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Does anti-discrimination contradict free will?
Does anti-discrimination imposed by laws, or as a universally held position and imposed by society, contradict the idea of free will?
Take for example:
In a business context, choosing to not ...
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Does a moral act have to be necessarily beautiful?
Kant argues in his Third Critique (sec. 59) that moral uprightness and decency brings us pleasure as in a reflective, judgment of taste:
Now I say that the beautiful is the symbol of the morally ...
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How can I be a philosopher [closed]
In this our age of information, i discover that every one is clamming to be a philosopher because of little experience they have or acquire in school or even by friend. And in this information age ...
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Is there injustice in division of labour?
The division of labour is a "micro-level" as well as a societal phenomenon.
It means that different individuals are "coerced" into doing different parts of larger projects and that the labour is ...
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Are social justice perspectives more often agent-centered or patient-centered deontology?
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on deontology, there are two main types of deontology - agent-centered and patient-centered. Which kind are social justice views of ...
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Is it a good argument in utilitarianism that you should always be truthful because you might later change your values?
I was thinking that one might justify lying because using his values he can maximize the utility of all people in the future by doing so. But then this came to my mind that what if someone changes his ...
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Is truth telling important or just having good intentions is enough? [closed]
Are good intentions enough to warrant not telling the truth?
I am especially interested in when we've already lied, and the point in question is whether we should confess.
Do any philosophers write ...
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Is it ever morally ethical to override the majority in a democracy?
Is it ever morally ethical to override the majority in a democracy if you feel morally obliged to do so?
For example, a recent 'yougov' poll stated that a majority (I think somewhere in the mid-...
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Within a duty based framework, are apologies contingent on the harmed party's acknowledgement of or contrition for wrongdoing?
During the debate on whether Obama should apologise for the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as some people making trolley problem style comments about how many would have been ...
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Ethics of Using an Experience Machine/Going Against Someone's Wishes for Their Own Good
Similar to the question of Do experiences need to be “real” to be worthwhile or desireable?
Robert Nozick has argued against pure hedonism as a means to happiness based on the fact that a person ...
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Where is the line drawn between immoral inactivity and a simple lack of action?
I've heard a lot about the supposed evils about not voting/voting for a 3rd party in recent political discussion here in the States. The reasoning seems to posit that (e.g.) in the Trump/Hillary race, ...
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Is it ethically wrong to not vote?
I'd like to describe a scenario and understand what sort of general philosophical tools or schools of thought may be used to answer the question one way or another. The scenario involves an individual ...
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"Saving" Nietzsche?
Nietzsche claims we must say "yes" to life, and be healthy and strong that way.
But he also makes scathing remarks both in Zarathustra and in his late notebooks, about the Biblical maxim "thou shalt ...
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Why is engaging others as friends considered good while engaging others sexually considered bad?
Cheating on one's partner(s) is considered a bad thing in most societies; it's definitely often taboo. With "cheating", I mean engaging with another human being in an intimate way, without your life ...
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My Car, She Was Driving, Who Pays the Lapsed Registration Ticket? [closed]
The title sums the situation up pretty well.
My friend was out driving in my car (with my permission) when the car received a ticket (while parked--she wasn't in the car) for a lapsed registration. ...
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How can I convince a racist that he's wrong?
Starting from the assumption that there is no absolute morality and that good and bad are stories we tell ourselves, how can I logically convince a racist person that he's wrong?
There is no right ...
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Poison and antidote gambit morality problem. If the antidote is sold at fair price, and all negative impacts blocked, what is moral?
The poison and antidote gambit is a frequently used trope in zombie and outbreak fictions, where a poison was distributed followed by selling the antidote at lucrative price as a means to generate ...
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How can we define "sanity" across cultures?
I have witness the following scene in my childhood :
A group of tribe people abducted a newborn baby from a village close to the forest they lived in. The purpose of the abduction was to sacrifice ...
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How do total utilitarians respond to the problem of future people?
If humanity survives for a long time, then people today could have an extremely large number of descendants. Imagine that there are 100 drowning people, all of which happen to be infertile and one ...
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Has Kant's application of the Categorical Imperative failed?
To what extent does Kant successfully apply his four illustrations to his categorical imperative test? (Do not make false promises etc)
The question can be split into two questions:
What makes Kant'...
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What is a rebuttal for this argument that "fast passes" are unethical?
Many amusement parks offer fast passes. This option costs a premium over a regular guest pass and allows a fast pass guest to cut in front of a regular guest in line for rides.
An argument that this ...
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Is it possible to measure the "rightness" of moral thought?
Fifty years ago it was widely believed in Europe that homosexuality was an awful perversion that should be cured or, failing that, punished.
A hundred years ago it was widely believed in Europe that ...
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Ethics and countries looking out for their citizens overseas [closed]
Was it ethical for countries to look out for purely just their own citizens / nationals overseas abroad and leave the citizens of other countries to their own devices when the people in those other ...
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From a Kantian perspective, could any aspect of this situation be considered moral?
The situation: Let's say two teams are competing in a research competition. The rules require the teams to have members that have never competed in this competition in the past. The director of Team A ...
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Is there a set of basic moral "rules", outside of religion or culture, that all intelligent life might theoretically agree on?
Any time I consider asking a question involving "right" or "wrong", moral values at even the most basic level (like "don't needlessly hurt people"), I stop myself, deciding that the question would be ...
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Books on moral realism and moral relativism?
Does anyone know any good books on the topic of moral realism / moral relativism? The kind of book I would most prefer would be one that would address both (realism and relativism) from a completely ...
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From a consequentialist perspective, how is using slaves to build buildings immoral?
The consequences I can think of:
The slaves die
The slave's death can affect their families financially etc..
The buildings benefit people for many years ahead by providing shelter
To me it seems ...
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Is it moral for humans to procreate? [closed]
I know it's in our nature and that we want to have kids so that humanity can continue. But is it moral to continue bringing kids into a world that's dying and is full of evil and hate? I feel having ...
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Can utilitiarianism require informed consent?
Background
In 2014, it was revealed that Facebook had manipulated news feeds to study emotions. Facebook did not go through any sort of ethical review at the time and has been criticized for this and ...
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Does Sartre imitate Kant in moral philosophy?
This is not originally my question but someone deleted their question while I was typing an answer to it. Consequently, I'm reposting the question and then my answer -- n.b., I've changed the title ...
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Is the Golden Rule only half of the story?
One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated.
The rule is self-referential and entirely independent of "other".
One should not treat others in ways that one thinks/...
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Is the topic of adoption by same-sex couples treated by contemporary applied ethics?
The Italian parliament is currently discussing whether to allow same-sex couples the possibility of step-child adoption. This is fueling a heated debate across the whole country, but, as far as I can ...
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How does Badiou summarise Levinas' approach to ethics?
In Badiou’s opening paragraphs he offers an account of Lévinas’s concern with philosophy and its hostility to an ethical relation to the Other. In Badiou’s characterisation of Lévinas, why is it ...
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Are religions at the end more humble comparing with the more Asian streams?
The three monotheistic religions all have a God who provides commandments and rules which are to be obeyed.
In Asian religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism there isn't such a God who gives ...
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In defense of consequentalism
Deontologists such as Thomas Nagel say Consequentialism permits actions that aim at evil, which is why it is a false theory.
If a (moral) Theory permits actions that aim at evil then it is wrong.
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What makes the "lazy arguments" (you have no chance, so don't bother) valid or invalid?
What I am thinking of is not exactly like the Lazy argument described in Wikipedia. I am thinking of a general argument where a normative conclusion towards inaction is drawn from the knowledge of the ...
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Can we be ethical and still deny someone a health procedure or treatment, even if the procedure or treatment is necessary?
Recently, I have been getting in conversations with people who are politically active. The main discussion point I find myself struggling to be able to answer is the ethics of single-payer health care ...
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If it's impossible to separate science from metaphysics, is it is also impossible to separate science from ethics and values?
One of the most important results in philosophy of science is that every observation is "theory-laden", i.e. that the outcome of any scientific experiment is affected by the theoretical ...
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