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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Philosophers’ relevance for therapy and psychology
I’m curious which philosophers are considered especially relevant for therapists and psychology work? I ask because a lot of the discussions philosophers have on a good life, the nature of ...
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Is Goodness Triumphant Over Evil? [closed]
Is Goodness Triumphant Over Evil?
Apparently not. Goodness is honest and plays with open cards, while evil hides its hand until the very last moment. Goodness can hardly compete with evil unless it ...
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How much of a structural/syntactic difference is there between an oath and a promise?
So there's this book I just read, technically it's fiction, but the author does like to throw in some pretty realistic (from a philosophy POV) ethical reflection in his stories, especially these ones ...
user40843
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Can we judge morality?
I often see moral realists claim, 'Relative morality is wrong because objective morality exists.'
I think this answer is problematic, because relativists can claim the opposite: 'Objective morality is ...
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When is a vigilante response to injustice, morally justified?
We discussed a similar question, about facing tyranny and the threat of death, where I'd say the answer is clearer: Is the tyrannicide perpetrated by William Tell morally legitimate?
But what ...
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Where I can develop my own ideas of philosophy, philosophical approach? [closed]
Right now I have some ideas of new approach in philosophy (something between pragmatism and existentialism) and I wonder if I can find people who will find it useful and maybe I will promote it for ...
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Doing or being?
How to reconcile following two quotes:
We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination
left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but
for what they do or ...
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AI Safety - Elon Musk - You have to create a maximally truth-seeking AI that loves humanity. Did philosophers develop these ideas for human ethics?
https://youtu.be/mofEOSUkMpA?t=373
Elon Musk is an advocate for free speech. Free speech includes the liberty to lie to each other with punishment reserved for actionable fraud claims and perjury. ...
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Could you provide a clear distinction between imperfect and perfect duties according to deontologists?
How are the two duties different from each other, while seemingly the same, just as Kant says with regards to the two duties.
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Are there domains of enquiry where nonfalsifiability is a good thing, and if so is this formalised?
In science, falsifiability of a theory is considered a good thing because as per Popper if a empirical evidence can show that a theory is false, then the theory can be replaced by another which has ...
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Revisiting the Trolley Problem [closed]
In philosophy, the trolley problem presents a moral dilemma: you can either take action to divert a runaway trolley, saving five people but causing the death of one person, or do nothing, allowing the ...
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Is there an ethical view that we should always do what is most naturally human?
I vaguely remember reading something about this, and I want to research it further but I have no idea where to look. What I'm looking for is a theory among these lines:
Almost all problems we face as ...
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Which ethical philosophy specifically addresses this type of moral dillema?
Sacrificing all of humanity to save one or two of your most loved ones, such as your parents, versus sacrificing your most loved one(s) to save all of humanity? Is there any philosophy (or philosopher)...
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“Waiting” for the answer to the ultimate questions [closed]
The desire to know the answers to ultimate questions like “Who am I?”, “What is reality?”, and “What is the mind?” has been haunting me throughout my life.
From my understanding, current philosophy ...
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Does logical consistency require alignment with external reality?
There are scientific theories that are pseudo-consistent. That is, they are internally logically consistent when taken on their own terms, but do not align with external reality. Socionics might be an ...
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Should one construct a “pursuit” of life through philosophical reasoning?
Should one first construct a systematic understanding of our senses and the world, and then determine a “pursuit” of life (for example, the cumulative feeling of happiness, achieving immortality, or ...
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Is there something in ethics whereby someone falsely makes themselves seem your responsibility? [closed]
Is there something in ethics whereby someone falsely makes themselves seem your responsibility? Suppose someone makes it seem, and only seem, that you are to blame if they kill themselves or if they ...
user83551
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What is wrong with trolling from a Kantian moral perspective? Can it be permissible in some circumstances?
It's somewhat clearer how trolling generally seems to involve disrespect of others' rational nature. But how does trolling harm one's own rational nature (if it does), from a Kantian perspective? Is ...
user62871
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After death there is immortality or nothing [closed]
After death there is Immortality or Nothing
If you were to die, then what do you think would happen to you?
In best case, you go to heaven, and you live there forever in eternal bliss, but how long ...
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What are the ethical arguments for the boycotting of the art of morally reprehensible people? [duplicate]
Let's first assume that the profit made from the consumption of the art is not used to perpetuate any of the acts which make the artist morally reprehensible - for example, a rapist in a highly ...
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Does the scifi film Gattaca have any relevance to actual people? [closed]
Does the scifi film Gattaca have any relevance to actual people? I heard that the bourgeoisie like to think of true beauty as a genetic thing, rather than say an interaction even. Has any philosopher ...
user83551
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Are there any moral theories, according to which we should give greater moral consideration to non-human animals than to human beings?
Are there any moral theories, whether contemporary or historical, according to which we should give greater moral consideration to non-human animals than to human beings? Regardless of whether such ...
user62871
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Do moral sceptics believe we can live a good life?
Do moral sceptics believe we can live a good life? If so, in what way, what does any of that phrase mean? I would approve of an answer that details a POV for yes and no, if possible.
user83551
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What is "moral autonomy"?
Currently reading David Graeber's Direct Action: an ethnography and he mentions "taking [...] the principle of moral autonomy seriously" (p 223). I wondered if anyone here could explain this ...
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Ethics: If sex isn't dirty, how come they hide the dirty magazines behind the counter? [closed]
Is it because our only purpose in the universe is to mate and die?
This was a critical question for me growing up, and it bothers me that I still can't answer it.
On TV, Michael Jackson's sister ...
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Has "optimism in reason" been explicitly discussed as a philosophical position?
By "optimism in reason" I mean, the belief that reason could - in theory, if taken to its logical extreme - lead to the "best" outcomes. I don't know if "optimism in reason&...
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Are moral statements closed under negation?
Is the class of moral statements closed under negation? That is, if X is a moral statement, is not-X also a moral statement? I believe moral statements are closed under negation, but I would like to ...
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Trying to understand 4P26 of Spinoza's Ethics: Why is reason the foundation of virtue?
The text of the proposition is:
All efforts which we make through reason are nothing but efforts to understand, and the mind, in so far as it uses reason, adjudges nothing as profitable to itself ...
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Does morality exist independently of humans or is it a social construct? [duplicate]
Plato believed that objective moral truths existed separate from human experience, Kant argued that morality is grounded in universal principles (such as his categorical imperative. Nietzsche claims ...
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Is a false belief itself a harm?
No specific examples will be given, as the specifics here aren't the point. I'm also not talking about consequences of holding objectively false beliefs, nor in communicating them (knowingly or ...
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What does Engels' phrase "in the last instant" mean?
In Anti-Duhring Engels was already employing the phrase "in the last
instant", which he was later to use when he tried to exorcize some of
the determinist readings which he freely admitted, ...
user71399
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To what extent is a person responsible for morally reprehensible beliefs if he was raised to believe them?
Somehow this feels like a relevant question in light of the current turmoil. There are radicalized people who are radicalized from childhood and have no regard for anything other than belief or party ...
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"Duty and Inclination" in Kant's ethics
Having considered a lot of ideas: Kant's concept of moral worth, Schiller on grace and dignity, the feeling of respect, the effect of reason on feeling, the psychology of moral sentiment, the role of ...
user82152
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Has anyone written about an embodied phenomenology of experiences of power, in the Nietzschean sense?
Has anyone written about an embodied phenomenology of experiences of power, in the Nietzschean sense? While I doubt any phenomenologists, of embodiment or otherwise, would claim to be Nietzsche's ...
user71399
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Does deontology allow us to combine moral vagueness?
Diversions: Darryl is watching his two-year-old daughter play in a
city park. It is permissible to divert his attention from her for one
second. It is not permissible to divert his attention from her ...
user71399
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Is philosophy of declining influence, effectively dead or irrelevant in modern times? If so, why?
Throughout history, philosophy has played a significant role in shaping societies, morality, and intellectual debates. For example, during the Golden Age of Islam in the Abbasid Caliphate, ...
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How do we know if correlation have an effect or model fit data
Assuming there is an infinite amount of functions that can be applied to a dataset. Then one of them must perfectly match our data and allow for predictions, just by chance.
If so, do these the ...
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Is this a phenomena in ethics: a tension in understanding but not using others?
Is this a phenomena in ethics: understanding, but not using, others, especially if we are to retain our authenticity, or perhaps better, our autonomy as that exists before our encounter with them?
An ...
user71399
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How can moral responsibility be attributed for civilian casualties in war?
If we allocate the direct moral responsibility for the killing of non-military actors, either incidentally or intentionally, to people who most immediately committed the act of killing (squeezing a ...
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Unifying property of ethical theories?
Let’s say there are different theories for what the defining properties of “ethicality” are. Some theories think in utilitarian terms and in terms of maximizing subjective goodness or badness (...
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Does Nietzsche advise sublimating the will to punish?
Apparently Nietzsche advises sublimating some desires. Is one of those punishment? This link says that he thought it was originally the will to life
https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?...
user71399
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Can we understand the meaning of moral statements by what in the mind causes them to be made?
When a person says "this is morally good" or "this is morally bad," something caused them to make this statement. Typical causes may include:
They were told by their parents that ...
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Is it possible to have a counterfactual divine-command ethics? [closed]
What I mean is a theory that starts off with two conflicting premises: (A) that the concept of the divine will is relevant to the proper solution to at least one, and if only one, real moral question; ...
user40843
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Does action matter if the intention is to just take good action and not the action itself? [closed]
I like to try to be good and take the best possible actions for everyone always, but sometimes it's really hard and I get confused for doing it with good intentions.
If I simply like to be seen as ...
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How does Kant define an agent capable of judgment?
Specifically, since we cannot know any object is not a reasoner (as the external world isn't reliable), we couldn't know if anything is a reasoner, so would have to treat everything as a reasoner, ...
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What is that phenomenon when to defend an ideal one has to do the opposite of that ideal?
I'll give you an example.There is a person who believes in nonviolence. He believes it so much that he paints a board which says "nonviolence is the best way, violence is sin." And he is ...
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Were the common people in Germany ("good germans") morally co-responsible of the war crimes of their government? [closed]
I'm relatively new to philosophy and just dipping my toes into moral philosophy (ethics). I'd be interested in finding answers to this question:
Were the common people in WW2 Germany morally co-...
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Is ethics anything other than hand waving and sophistry? [closed]
Philosophy deals with the universal. Even postmodernist philosophers like Derrida would agree that all texts are deconstructible, and that all meaning di(e)ffers itself etc.
Ethics, on the other hand, ...
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Reference on Nicomachean vs Eudemian
Is there an edition that puts both side by side in two columns, or something like it?
Is it even possible or desirable?
I believe they are both lecture notes of a single course Aristotle repeated a ...
user78131
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What is an overview of utilitarian arguments in support of exclusive relationships?
In light of the lack of success with my previous question Is exclusivity optimal from a utilitarian perspective? What's wrong with being non-exclusive?, I’d like to vindicate the topic by asking, ...
user77058