Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Ethics

  • When Praise is Out of Place

    A thousand times you do the right thing and receive no praise. But the  one time you do the wrong thing you are harshly blamed. This is the  way it ought to be. Praise should be reserved for the supererogatory. To praise people for doing what it is their duty to do shows that moral…

  • Ego, Sin, and Logic

    Ego is at the root of sin, but also at the root of obsessive preoccupation with one's sinfulness. If the goal is to weaken the ego, then too much fretting over one's sins in the manner of a Wittgenstein is contraindicated. There is such a thing as excessive moral scrupulosity. Though Wittgenstein's ego drove him…

  • Moral Responsibility in Dreams

    I had a lucid dream the other night in which I lost my cool to an extent I would consider morally reprehensible in waking life.  But was there any moral failure in the dream?  And then there are the dreams in which I am having sexual intercourse with a woman not my wife.  I'm aware…

  • A Letter from the Ukraine on the Morality of Stock and Currency Trading

    I have been following your blog with great interest for a couple of years now and I feel honored knowing that there are people like yourself on this planet in our times. I live in the Ukraine and represent the post-soviet cultural enviroment where philosophy has been practically persecuted and distorted by Marxists. I have…

  • Praise and Supererogation

    Here is a little argument in support of the category of supererogatory actions: 1. Some good actions are praiseworthy.2. No obligatory actions are praiseworthy.—3. Some good actions are not obligatory. Since by definition a supererogatory action is one that is good but not obligatory, the above amounts to an argument for supererogatory actions. The argument…

  • John Haldane on Christopher Hitchens

    The piece ends as follows (emphasis added): Hitchens is a case worth studying. He is more interesting than Dawkins because evidently more psychologically complex and humanly engaging. If we Catholics are right about God and humanity, why was he so wrong? Or, put another way, what can we learn from his attitude about how to…

  • More on Naturalism and Nihilism

    A reader comments: You say: "I would argue that a naturalist/physicalist/materialist ought to be a moral nihilist, and that when these types fight shy of moral nihilism that merely shows an inability or unwillingness on their part to appreciate the logical consequences of their own doctrine, or else some sort of psychological compartmentalization. "  …

  • Beckwith, Hitch, and the Foundations of Morality

    Here.  Excerpt: . . . [Christopher] Hitchens writes that he and other atheists “believe with certainty that an ethical life can be lived without religion,” thus implying that he and others have direct and incorrigible acquaintance with a natural moral law that informs their judgments about what counts as an ethical life. But to speak…

  • Can What Is Impossible to Achieve be an Ideal for Us?

    In The Stoic Ideal, I stated that the Stoic ideal is "is for us impossible, and so no ideal at all."   The ideal of the Stoic sage is the attainment of a state of god-like impassibility by means of a retreat into the inner citadel of the self, a retreat  of such a nature that…

  • Temptation Again

    This from a reader:   I have been a follower and great admirer of you and your blog writing for some time. I enjoyed reading your most recent post, especially as this topic has been fresh in my mind from preaching a sermon last week from James 1:13-15 on the nature and power of temptation…

  • Temptation and Meta-Temptation

    Is it built into the very concept of temptation that if one is tempted to do something or leave something undone that the act or ommission is morally wrong? I should think so.  This is not to say that in ordinary English 'temptation' is not used in looser ways. For example, 'I am tempted to…

  • On Private and Public Morality

    Many liberals have the bad habit of confusing private and public morality.  They think that moral injunctions that make sense in private ought to be carried over into the public sphere.  Such liberals are dangerously confused.  There are those who, for example, take the Biblical injunction to "welcome the stranger" as a reason to turn a…

  • On Black Reparations

    Warning to liberals: clear thinking, moral clarity, and political incorrectness up ahead! If you consider any part of the following to be 'racist' or 'hateful' then you are in dire need, not of refutation, but of psychotherapy.  Please seek it for your own good. There is no question but that slavery is a great moral…

  • Moral Objectivism, Mackie’s Argument from Queerness, and Alterational Change

    Our old friend Vlastimil Vohanka from the Czech Republic asked me if moral objectivism is a respectable metaethical position.  It depends on what exactly moral objectivism is.  Let's first of all see if we can locate it on the metaethical map.  Then I take a quick look at Mackie's 'argument from queerness.' Let's think about…

  • Is There a Good Introduction to Ethics?

    A reader inquires, "Would you be able to give me 1-3 book titles that would provide a reasonable grounding in ethics?" Does anyone have any suggestions?  William K. Frankena, Ethics would appear to fill the bill.