Philosophy
We grant special moral considerability to people who are our friends. Friendship comes with responsibility. You care about your friends in ways you do not care about strangers and therefore there will come times when you have to do things for them. But with some friends, we elevate the friendship to a level higher. We will often say "you are not just a friend, you are family." This seems to imply that being family grants a level of moral responsibility even higher than that we have to friends. But we choose our friends and not our family. Do we really owe a greater degree of moral consideration to our relatives than we do our friends?
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With North Carolina's enshrinement of bigotry into their state constitution and Obama's evolution to accepting the need for gay men and lesbians to receive fair and equal treatment under the law, there has been lots of talk about the ethical dilemma...
- High Maintenance As A Moral Category
We had our senior thesis presentations the other day and one of our seniors wrote on the moral responsibilities that stem from friendship relations. She took an Aristotelian sort of approach and during the Q&A section, a colleague raised the...
- Best Friends
Given that "best" is a superlative, can one have more than one best friend? How many could one have and still rightly claim that all are best friends? We have special moral obligations to friends on the basis of the relationship, but are there special...
- The Dignity Of Inanimate Objects
Working in Gettysburg and driving past the cemetery where Lincoln delivered his address every morning, you understand the ways in which we take things and places and grant them a special status. I have a student who argues that this status is dignity...
- What Do You Do When Your Friend Is An Asshole?
Buridan has a recent post quoting H.L. Mencken: Someday the plain folks of the land will reach their heart?s desire, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. I must admit, I have a soft spot for Mencken. Maybe it's because I'm...
Philosophy
The Moral Responsibility to Friends and Family
We grant special moral considerability to people who are our friends. Friendship comes with responsibility. You care about your friends in ways you do not care about strangers and therefore there will come times when you have to do things for them. But with some friends, we elevate the friendship to a level higher. We will often say "you are not just a friend, you are family." This seems to imply that being family grants a level of moral responsibility even higher than that we have to friends. But we choose our friends and not our family. Do we really owe a greater degree of moral consideration to our relatives than we do our friends?
- So What Are These Ethical Issues Around Gay Marriage?
With North Carolina's enshrinement of bigotry into their state constitution and Obama's evolution to accepting the need for gay men and lesbians to receive fair and equal treatment under the law, there has been lots of talk about the ethical dilemma...
- High Maintenance As A Moral Category
We had our senior thesis presentations the other day and one of our seniors wrote on the moral responsibilities that stem from friendship relations. She took an Aristotelian sort of approach and during the Q&A section, a colleague raised the...
- Best Friends
Given that "best" is a superlative, can one have more than one best friend? How many could one have and still rightly claim that all are best friends? We have special moral obligations to friends on the basis of the relationship, but are there special...
- The Dignity Of Inanimate Objects
Working in Gettysburg and driving past the cemetery where Lincoln delivered his address every morning, you understand the ways in which we take things and places and grant them a special status. I have a student who argues that this status is dignity...
- What Do You Do When Your Friend Is An Asshole?
Buridan has a recent post quoting H.L. Mencken: Someday the plain folks of the land will reach their heart?s desire, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. I must admit, I have a soft spot for Mencken. Maybe it's because I'm...