Philosophy
Robert Edwards (no, not the NPR host) won the Nobel Prize this year for medicine for his work developing the procedures for in vitro fertilization. I remember back when the first "test tube baby" caused an uproar. Huge scare headlines on prominent news weeklies asked about the morality of it in large part because the Catholic Church denounced it for theological reasons. But theology is not the same as morality. Today couples who have medical reasons why they cannot conceive the usual way go to IVF with the only second thought being financial. There are not any moral issues there. The question is whether there ever were or whether it was just the shock of a new technology allowing us to do something we had never considered being able to do. That, of course, ought to always give us pause in considering whether there are any moral issues we need to think carefully about, but does not in itself mean there are such issues. Are there any here?
- Bullshit Or Not: Nietzsche Edition
There's an old sketch film called Amazon Women on the Moon and one of the bits is a parody of the old Leonard Nimoy show, "In Search Of..." called, "Bullshit or Not?" with the tagline "Bullshit or not? You decide." It's a line I like so much that...
- What Are The Most Pressing Moral Issues Today?
Regular readers know I've been working on a book called Was It Morally Good for You, Too?: A How-To Guide to Ethics in Sex, Politics, and Other Dirty Words. The idea is to present a readable, funny, but robust framework in which to meaningfully discuss...
- Ramesh Ponnuru Is An Asshole (in The Technical Sense Of The Word--personally, He's Most Likely A Nice Fellow, Never Met Him So I Can't Really Say)
Jon Stewart's interview last night with Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review editor and author of Party of Death, was magnificent. One of the points he so wonderfully put forward is that anyone using hyperbolic rhetoric and claiming that difficult moral...
- Frans De Waal - Moral Behavior In Animals
As you probably know, one of the most popular arguments for the existence of God is known as the moral argument. There are variations on the theme, but one of the general ideas is that the human moral sense cannot be successfully explained by mindless...
- Sam Harris Vs. William Lane Craig - Where Do Objective Moral Values Come From?
Whatever its perceived weaknesses (and the critics have been relentless on some technical points), Sam Harris' recent book, The Moral Landscape, has recently reinvigorated the discussion concerning the objectivity of moral values and obligations....
Philosophy
Was IVF Really Ever a Moral Issue?
Robert Edwards (no, not the NPR host) won the Nobel Prize this year for medicine for his work developing the procedures for in vitro fertilization. I remember back when the first "test tube baby" caused an uproar. Huge scare headlines on prominent news weeklies asked about the morality of it in large part because the Catholic Church denounced it for theological reasons. But theology is not the same as morality. Today couples who have medical reasons why they cannot conceive the usual way go to IVF with the only second thought being financial. There are not any moral issues there. The question is whether there ever were or whether it was just the shock of a new technology allowing us to do something we had never considered being able to do. That, of course, ought to always give us pause in considering whether there are any moral issues we need to think carefully about, but does not in itself mean there are such issues. Are there any here?
- Bullshit Or Not: Nietzsche Edition
There's an old sketch film called Amazon Women on the Moon and one of the bits is a parody of the old Leonard Nimoy show, "In Search Of..." called, "Bullshit or Not?" with the tagline "Bullshit or not? You decide." It's a line I like so much that...
- What Are The Most Pressing Moral Issues Today?
Regular readers know I've been working on a book called Was It Morally Good for You, Too?: A How-To Guide to Ethics in Sex, Politics, and Other Dirty Words. The idea is to present a readable, funny, but robust framework in which to meaningfully discuss...
- Ramesh Ponnuru Is An Asshole (in The Technical Sense Of The Word--personally, He's Most Likely A Nice Fellow, Never Met Him So I Can't Really Say)
Jon Stewart's interview last night with Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review editor and author of Party of Death, was magnificent. One of the points he so wonderfully put forward is that anyone using hyperbolic rhetoric and claiming that difficult moral...
- Frans De Waal - Moral Behavior In Animals
As you probably know, one of the most popular arguments for the existence of God is known as the moral argument. There are variations on the theme, but one of the general ideas is that the human moral sense cannot be successfully explained by mindless...
- Sam Harris Vs. William Lane Craig - Where Do Objective Moral Values Come From?
Whatever its perceived weaknesses (and the critics have been relentless on some technical points), Sam Harris' recent book, The Moral Landscape, has recently reinvigorated the discussion concerning the objectivity of moral values and obligations....