A forum for discussing Philosophy, Ethics, and Academia
Options Without Constraints Richard Yetter Chappell The paradox of deontology counsels against including constraints in our fundamental moral theory. Consequentialists are generally suspicious of the associated asymmetries, e.g. between doing and allowing, or killing and letting die. We say you should just bring about the best outcome, […] Read More
Here. Looks tasty. Notes of wildflower, woods, and cheshire, with a full-bodied Australian finish (alongside two actual Finnishers).
Chap. 2 of J. S. Mill’s Utilitarianism is widely interpreted as defending qualitative hedonism, as a view about the nature of personal well-being. On views of this sort, your level of well-being is determined by certain facts about your pleasures and pains. However, it is not […] Read More
It is Normative Ethics Month at PEA Soup. Today’s post is by Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin (Sam Houston State University). Take it away Benjamin: Doing the Wrong Thing for the Right Reasons There are two senses in which a piece of conduct may be “immoral.” On the […] Read More
Welcome to our Ethics review forum on Errol Lord‘s The Importance of Being Rational (OUP 2018), reviewed by Nathan Howard. Excerpts from the blurb and the review are below, but you can read both in their entirety via OUP’s website and Ethics, respectively. (Though of course, you are […] Read More
A Dilemma for Effective Altruism This post focuses on an underappreciated debate in normative ethics, viz. the actualism/possibilism (A/P) debate and a problem that I believe it poses for effective altruists (EAs). Roughly, EAs implicitly assume contradictory positions in this debate and, moreover, taking a […] Read More
Kristina Grob and Nathan Nobis have a new, open access ( = free) “public philosophy” book on abortion: “Thinking Critically About Abortion: Why Most Abortions Aren’t Wrong & Why All Abortions Should Be Legal” It engages lots of common concerns and arguments about abortion that […] Read More
I have been wondering how difficult it would be for journals to permit authors to make an audio recording of their papers and allow that to be posted along with the written version. This would increase the accessibility of current philosophy. And I don’t know […] Read More
Kristina Gehrman (Tennessee, Knoxville), who was a public figure in the case against Searle, offers some reflections. Here now is Kristina: I want to share a couple of thoughts, mostly geared towards my fellow philosophers and academics in the wake of the Searle case. I […] Read More