Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Ethics

  • On Blaming the Victim

    A reader wants my thoughts regarding the following hypothetical scenarios. I own a modestly nice car, say, a 2014 Honda Accord with some bells and whistles. I treat it fairly well, ensuring that it receives in a timely fashion all of the required maintenance. I get it washed and waxed with pride. The one deficiency…

  • The Dirty and the Funny

    The muse of philosophy must have visited my otherwise undistinguished classmate Dolores back in the fifth grade.  The topic was dirty jokes and that we should not tell them or listen to them.  "But sister," Dolores piped up, "what if you laugh not because the joke is dirty but because it is funny?" It was…

  • Kant, Supererogation, and Imperfect Duties

    Can Kant's ethical scheme  accommodate the supererogatory? If obligatory actions are those that one is duty-bound to perform, a supererogatory action is one that is above and beyond the call of duty. Michael A. Monsoor's throwing himself on a live grenade to save his Navy SEAL buddies is a paradigmatic example. But in a wide…

  • The Obligatory, the Supererogatory, and Two Moral Senses of ‘Ought’

    This is an old post from the Powerblogs site, written a few years ago.  The points made still seem correct. ………………… Peter Lupu's version of the logical argument from evil (LAFE) is committed to a principle that I formulate as follows: P. Necessarily, agent A ought to X iff A is morally obligated to X.…

  • From ‘Is’ to ‘Ought’? Help for Hodges

    Our  expat friend, Seoul man, and professor of English, Jeff Hodges, has been puzzling over whether an 'ought' statement can be validly derived from an 'is' statement.  Here is his example, put in my own way: 1. Democratic regimes contribute more to human flourishing than do non-democratic ones. Therefore 2. If we want to maximize…

  • Sex, War, and Moral Rigorism: The Aporetics of Moral Evaluation

    Fr. Robert Barron here fruitfully compares the Catholic Church's rigoristic teaching on matters sexual, with its prohibitions of masturbation, artificial contraception, and extramarital sex, with the rigorism of the Church's teaching with respect to just war.  An excellent article. Although Fr. Barron doesn't say it explicitly, he implies that the two topics are on a…

  • Conscience, Brain, and Scientistic Pseudo-Understanding

    One of the tasks of philosophy is to expose and debunk bad philosophy.  And there is a lot of it out there, especially in the writings of journalists who report on scientific research.  Scornful of philosophy, many of them peddle scientistic pseudo-understanding without realizing that what they sell is itself philosophy, very bad philosophy.  A…

  • Judgmentalism, Moral Judgment, Moral Relativism, and God

    This from a reader: I still read your blog conscientiously, but sometimes stare at your words in ignorant awe. I have a question for you this morning which may be of interest. In a recent conversation with someone who described himself as a "gay" Christian (or is it a Christian "gay" ?), I gave reasons…

  • Can One Forgive Oneself? An Aporetic Triad

    I pointed out earlier that forgiving is triadic: x forgives y for z.  There is the forgiver, the one to whom forgiveness is proffered, and that which is forgiven.   Nominative, dative, accusative.   It is of course correct English to say 'I forgive you,' but this fact about usage cuts no ice since 'I forgive you'  is elliptical for…

  • An Analysis of the Concept of Forgiveness

    In my last post on this topic I advanced a double-barreled thesis to the effect that (i) unconditional forgiveness is in most cases morally objectionable, and (ii) in most cases conditional forgiveness is genuine forgiveness.  But now we need to back up and focus on the very concept of forgiveness since deciding whether (i) and…

  • More on the Putative Paradox of Forgiveness

    This just over the transom:  Finally, a post on forgiveness. 🙂 But my spirit within me won't permit me to forgo responding to what you've written. You characterize the paradox this way: It is morally objectionable to forgive those who will not admit wrongdoing, show no remorse, make no amends, do not pay restitution, etc. …

  • The Putative Paradox of Forgiveness

    I understand Aurel Kolnai has a paper on this topic.  I haven't read it.  But the paradox has been put to me as follows in conversation. It is morally objectionable to forgive those who will not admit wrongdoing, show no remorse, make no amends, do not pay restitution, etc.  But if forgiveness is made conditional upon…

  • Duty

    My duty is my duty whether I am inclined to do it or not.  Being inclined does not make it any less my duty; being disinclined does not make it any more.

  • Death Limits Our Immorality: Death as the Muse of Morality

    How much more immoral we would be if we didn't have to die! Two thoughts. 1. Death sobers us and conduces to reflection on how we are living and how we ought to live.  We fear the judgment that may come, and not primarily that of history or that of our circle of acquaintances. We…

  • The Morality of Suicide

    There is a well-informed discussion of the topic at Auster's place.  I have serious reservations about Lawrence Auster's brand of conservatism, reservations I may air later, but for now I want to say that I admire him for his courage in facing serious medical troubles and for soldiering on in the trenches of the blogosphere.  He…