Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Ethics

  • Is Moral Relativism Dying?

    In a recent Atlantic article we read: . . . the prevailing thought of the second decade of the 21st century is not like the mid-to late-20th century. Law, virtue, and a shame culture have risen to prominence in recent years, signaling that moral relativism may be going the way of the buggy whip. [.…

  • On the Moral Permissibility of Patriotism

    This entry continues the discussion with Jacques about patriotism begun in Is Patriotism a Good Thing?  The topic is murky and difficult and we have been meandering some, but at the moment we are discussing the ground of patriotism's moral permissibility.  What makes patriotism  morally permissible, assuming that it is?  We have been operating with…

  • Mizzou and Public Spaces: The Right to Photograph

    This from reader J.J.C.: I'm sure you've heard a lot about the Mizzou [University of Missouri] protests so I'll spare you the details. But one particular debate caught my eye. Some of these student protesters claimed that the press has no right to photograph them because to do such is an intrusion on their privacy (obviously the press has…

  • Moralizing

    'Moralizing' is what liberals call moral discourse, just as 'judgmentalism' is what they call the making of moral judgments. 'Hypocrite' is what they call those who preach high standards. Am I being fair?  Fair enough.  You are free to nuance the point to your satisfaction so long as you don't miss the truth behind my…

  • The Euthyphro Problem, Islam, and Thomism

    Peter Lupu called me last night to report that it had occurred to him that the famous Euthyphro Dilemma, first bruited in the eponymous early Platonic dialog, reflects a difference between two conceptions of God. One is the God-as-Being-itself conception; the other is the God-as-supreme-being conception.  After he hung up, I recalled that in June,…

  • Death Penalty, Abortion, and Certainty

    Some opponents of the death penalty oppose it on the ground that one can never be certain whether the accused is guilty as charged.  Some of these people are pro-choice.  To them I say: Are you certain that the killing of the unborn is morally permissible?  How can you be sure?  How can you be…

  • The Potentiality Argument Against Abortion and Feinberg’s Logical Point About Potentiality

    I claim that the standard objections to the Potentiality Argument (PA) are very weak and can be answered. This is especially so with respect to Joel Feinberg's "logical point about potentiality," which alone I will discuss in this post. This often-made objection is extremely weak and should persuade no rational person. But first a guideline…

  • Potentiality and the Substance View of Persons

    I suspect that Vlastimil V's (neo-scholastic) understanding of potentiality is similar to the one provided by Matthew Lu in Potentiality Rightly Understood: The substance view of persons holds that every human being either has the potential to manifest any and all properties essential to personhood or does actually manifest them. For the adherent of the…

  • Abortion and Infanticide: What’s the Difference?

    This is a re-post with minor edits of an entry from March 1, 2012.  I agree with it still.  (Surprise!)  I would like Vlastimil V., who is currently exercised by topics in this neighborhood, to tell me how much of it he agrees with, and what he disagrees with and why. ____________________ If you agree…

  • Nietzsche and the New Atheists

    The following quotation from a very interesting Guardian piece by John Gray entitled What Scares the New Atheists (HT: Karl White): [1] The new atheists rarely mention Friedrich Nietzsche, and when they do it is usually to dismiss him. [2] This can’t be because Nietzsche’s ideas are said to have inspired the Nazi cult of…

  • Oughtness, Obligation, Duty

    If I ought to do something, am I obliged to do it?  And if I am obliged to do something, is it my duty to do it? I tend to assume the following principle, where A is an agent and X an act or rather act-type such as feed one's children. P. Necessarily, A morally…

  • “I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.”

    Misattributed to Voltaire, the above saying yet captures his attitude. The parroting of the saying in the wake of the terrorist attack by Muslim fanatics on Charlie Hebdo is becoming tiresome.  It is high time we take a squinty-eyed look at it.  I will be arguing that it does not bear up well under examination.…

  • The Ten Commandments as Survival Manual

    A recent Richard Fernandez column ends brilliantly: We often forget that the sacred texts of mankind began as practical documents.  They were checklists. And we may well rediscover this fact before the end. One can imagine the last two postmoderns crawling towards each other in the ruins of a once great city to die, and…

  • Israel, Hamas, and the Doctrine of Double Effect

    A reader asks whether Israel's actions against Hamas are defensible according to the Doctrine of Double Effect (DDE). According to the New Catholic Encylopedia, an action is defensible according to DDE if all four of the following conditions are met: (1) The act itself must be morally good or at least indifferent. (2) The agent…

  • Weakness is No Justification: The Converse Callicles Principle

    Might does not make right, but neither does impotence or relative weakness. That weakness does not justify strikes me as an important principle, but I have never seen it articulated. The Left tends to assume the opposite.  They tend to assume that mightlessness makes right.  I'll dub this the Converse Callicles Principle. The power I have to…