#moral-philosophy — Public Fediverse posts

KARMA – YOUR PERSONAL FAnTASY

https://ridiculousbharath.wordpress.com/2026/05/08/karma-your-personal-fantasy/

Folke Tersman has revised his SEP-entry on Moral Disagreement, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/disagreement-moral/

The author on Uppsala University's pages, https://www.uu.se/en/contact-and-organisation/staff?query=N8-3

#ethics #morality #moralPhilosophy #philosophy #filosofia #etiikka #metaetiikka #metaethics #disagreement #erimielisyys #kiista #hyvä #paha #good #evil #bad #right #wrong #MorallyWrong #cognitivism #psychology #relativism #skepticism #realism #epistemology #uppsala

Michael Cholbi ja Brent Kious ovat päivittäneet SEP-entryään itsesurmasta, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/suicide/

Historiallisen katsauksen lisäksi mukana on itsesurman moraalisuuden ja rationaalisuuden pohdintaa yhdeksän eri näkökulmia valottavan alaluvun kautta, ja lopussa on myös linkki Robert Youngin 2024 entryyn vapaaehtoisesta eutananiasta, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/euthanasia-voluntary/

#suicide #itsemurha #kuolema #death #eutanasia #euthanasia #filosofia #philosophy #morality #prohibition #law #psychology #sociology #humanity #suicidology #autonomia #authonomy #voluntaryEuthanasia #paternalism #oikeus #rights #wellbeing #paternalism #libertarism #moralPhilosophy #ethics

Humans are not rational moral agents.
https://youtube.com/shorts/RAX5mkTopvw?feature=share
#philosophy #moralphilosophy #reason

Vielä kaksi aina ajankohtaista päivitystä SEP:ssa, Rainer Forstin suvaitsevuudesta https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/toleration/, ja Russellin ja Warmken anteeksiannosta https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/forgiveness/

#sep #new #revised #update #ethics #moralPhilosophy #justice #suvaitsevuus #anteeksianto #atonement #emotion #tunne #morality #supererogation

A nice video about moral dialetheism :
https://youtu.be/bWdJ8BRl9lA?si=sYOEggapwwGCpy92

#philosophy #analyticalphilosophy #continentalphilosophy #metaethics #moralphilosophy #ethics

🤖✨ AI's profound journey into the depths of moral philosophy: Step 1️⃣—turn on #JavaScript. Step 2️⃣—check #cookies 🍪. Truly, the future of #ethics is here, as long as your browser settings are correct. 🙄
https://civai.org/p/ai-values #AI #MoralPhilosophy #FutureTech #HackerNews #ngated

“The trolley problem forces us to weigh outcomes against intentions. Do we pull the lever because it saves lives, or because we’re unwilling to be the cause of death?” #TrolleyProblem #Ethics #MoralPhilosophy #DecisionMaking #ThoughtExperiment

Philosophies of Justice in Acholi: Responsibility in Times of Collective Suffering, Book Launch with Benedetta Lanfranchi

December 10, 2025, 5 p.m. (CET)
Hildesheim University, GloPhi Center

https://www.uni-hildesheim.de/glophi/2025/11/03/justice-in-acholi/

#Acholi #africanphilosophy #philosophy #justice #MoralPhilosophy #politicalphilosophy #responsibility #Uganda #worldphilosophies

Bayes’ theorem tells us how evidence should move belief. But with wildly different priors and loyalty-weighted likelihoods, polarisation becomes inevitable.

https://philosophics.blog/2025/09/21/bayes-in-the-culture-war-how-priors-become-prison-walls/

#Probability #Statistics #Political #Politics #Epistemology #Tribal #Beliefs #Public #logic #Reason #Rationality #Perspective #Perception #Video #Philosophy #MoralPhilosophy #Moral #morality

Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue dismantles the Enlightenment scaffolding of modern moral discourse. Unfortunately, like Descartes before him, he tries to rebuild—first on God, now on Aristotle’s teleology. Different crutch, same collapse.

https://philosophics.blog/2025/09/17/je-pense-donc-jai-raison/

#Philosophy #Ethics #CriticalThinking #Modernity #Postmodernism #MoralPhilosophy #AfterVirtue #ThoughtLeadership #Books #AmReading #AmWriting

Applications are still open for an ERC-funded Research Associate position in the History of Philosophy at #UCD School of #Philosophy. Closing date: midday (Irish time), Monday 15 September. #PhilJobs #EarlyModernPhilosophy #MoralPhilosophy #BMoral

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:5rbx6ew3gjgd25eujq4ywrdr/post/3lxk5hjov5c2o

Applications are invited for the post of temporary 48-month Postdoctoral Research Associate within #UCD School of #Philosophy. Further details, along with a link to apply, may be found at www.ucd.ie/philosophy/n.... #PhilJobs #PhilSky #MoralPhilosophy #HistoryOfPhilosophy #BMoral #IrishResearch

ERC Postdoctoral Fellow in the...

Apologies in advance this a one heck of a ramble, about what we should do next in a society where, thankfully, we don't let citizens needlessly die. #MoralPhilosophy #Philosophy #Ethics #Morality #Economics #Society #RedQueen #Malthus #Evolution #Armsrace

We Don't Just Let People Die ~...

All-new in SEP, Algorithmic Fairness by Deborah Hellman

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/algorithmic-fairness/

#algorithm #fairness #llm #ai #machinelearning #logic #information #reasoning #epistemology #filosofia #philosophy #sep #concepts #moralPhilosophy #ethics #new

Thought provoking essay on anthropomorphism and our interpretation of animal behaviour. Make sure to read the comment section as well.

Clearly, the way in which we ascribe - or identify - animal emotions will help shape our thinking about how we ought to treat them.

Less obviously, revising our views about anthropomorphism might change our thinking about moral responsibility. What are we thinking and doing when we say "Good dog!"?

https://aeon.co/essays/when-is-enjoying-funny-animal-videos-not-anthropomorphism

#Animals #Ethology #Philosophy #Bioethics #CognitiveScience #Psychology #Ecology #MoralPhilosophy #Ethics #Science

My School is hiring for a 0.4 FTE Research Administrator for the ERC #BMoral: New Histories of British Moral Philosophy in the 18th Century (c. 1690–1800) project, among other things. Further details and a link to applications below. #philosophy #EarlyModernPhilosophy #MoralPhilosophy

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:5rbx6ew3gjgd25eujq4ywrdr/post/3ltyoktm27k2w

There's a diminishing returns curve on wealth and happiness, so, once we reach that... how can we generate more happiness? The answer's pretty simple. #Podcast #GameTheory #Economics #MoralPhilosophy #Happiness #WellBeing #Thriving #Charity #Sharing #Diagrams

Diminishing Returns ~ On Happi...

”This rhetoric of inevitability serves several convenient purposes. For the people developing their ideas into technology, such rhetoric offers absolution for any unpleasand or unforeseen consequences of their inventions, because they were only uncovering the already extant course of technology, rather than steering it themselves. Where there’s no room for human agency, there’s no room for moral responsibility either.”
-Adam Becker
#amreading #bookstodon #moralphilosophy #techfascism

Applications are invited for a temporary 36-month post of a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Level 1 or Level 2) within the School of #Philosophy at @ucddublin.bsky.social. Closing date: 2 June 2025. Further details at www.ucd.ie/philosophy/n... #PhilJobs #PhilSky #MoralPhilosophy #DigitalHumanities

ERC Postdoctoral Fellow in Dig...

Cary Wolfe on “Another Moral Vocabulary”

This is from Natasha Lennard’s 2017 interview with Cary Wolfe in The Stone:

On the one hand, rights discourse is Exhibit A for the problems with philosophical humanism. Many of us, including myself, would agree that many of the ethical aspirations of humanism are quite admirable and we should continue to pursue them. For example, most of us would probably agree that treating animals cruelly, and justifying that treatment on the basis of their designation as “animal” rather than human, is a bad thing to do.

But the problem with how rights discourse addresses this problem — in animal rights philosophy, for example — is that animals end up having some kind of moral standing insofar as they are diminished versions of us: that is to say, insofar as they are possessed of various characteristics such as the capacity to experience suffering — and not just brute physical suffering but emotional duress as well — that we human beings possess more fully. And so we end up reinstating a normative form of the moral-subject-as-human that we wanted to move beyond in the first place.

So on the other hand, what one wants to do is to find a way of valuing nonhuman life not because it is some diminished or second-class form of the human, but because the diversity and abundance of life is to be valued for what it is in its own right, in its difference and uniqueness. An elephant or a dolphin or a chimpanzee isn’t worthy of respect because it embodies some normative form of the “human” plus or minus a handful of relevant moral characteristics. It’s worthy of respect for reasons that call upon us to come up with another moral vocabulary, a vocabulary that starts by acknowledging that whatever it is we value ethically and morally in various forms of life, it has nothing to do with the biological designation of “human” or “animal.”

Having said all that, there are many, many contexts in which rights discourse is the coin of the realm when you’re engaged in these arguments — and that’s not surprising, given that nearly all of our political and legal institutions are inherited from the brief historical period (ecologically speaking) in which humanism flourished and consolidated its domain. If you’re talking to a state legislature about strengthening laws for animal abuse cases, let’s say, instead of addressing a room full of people at a conference on deconstruction and philosophy about the various problematic assumptions built into rights discourse, then you better be able to use a different vocabulary and different rhetorical tools if you want to make good on your ethical commitments. That’s true even though those commitments and how you think about them might well be informed by a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the problem than would be available to those legislators. In other words, it’s only partly a philosophical question. It’s also a strategic question, one of location, context and audience, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone that we can move more quickly in the realm of academic philosophical discourse on these questions than we can in the realm of legal and political institutions.

#abundance #animalRights #animals #authority #caryWolfe #commitment #difference #diversity #ethicalCommitments #human #humanism #humanity #legalStanding #life #moralAuthority #moralPhilosophy #moralStanding #moralVocabulary #morality #otherness #power #sharedCommitment #standing #theHuman

Race You To The Water

The other day I expressed some misgivings over the word that Earthworks chose to apply to water in the first sentence of its report, Polluting the Future: their characterization of water as an “asset,” I said, made me uneasy. The water flowing from springs and brooks, the water of rivers, lakes and streams, the raindrops that fall from the sky and the dew on the morning grass, the water in our bodies, in plants and trees, the water in dogs, flowers, bugs, fish, elephants, walruses and caterpillars, the water in everything that is alive on earth — water is and will always be something greater, more wondrous and something other than a mere entry in the accounting ledgers of some grand business enterprise, which is all that the word “asset” conjures for me.

I came across the word again today as I was reading an editorial in The Detroit Free Press. I am in complete sympathy with the position it takes against plans to build a huge network of oil pipelines carrying diluted bitumen (or dilbit) across the Great Lakes region, and to transport crude oil by barge across Lake Superior. These are reckless, irresponsible ideas. The threat they pose to the integrity of the Lakes and the life the Lakes sustain is only made worse when you consider a couple of salient facts. First (and it is curious that the editorial does not mention this), the new mining around Lake Superior — as I’ve noted repeatedly — is already going to put pressure on Lake Superior and the Lake Superior watershed; the shipping of oil by barge would bring even more industrialization and greatly heighten the risk of environmental catastrophe. Second, the company building and running the pipeline (the Canadian company Enbridge) has already been responsible for an environmental disaster in Kalamazoo, Michigan — the worst inland oil spill in US history, in fact.

The editorial takes the position that these plans betray a “deep misunderstanding of the true value of the lakes,” but when the editors try to say what that value is, they run into trouble:

It’s easy to wax poetic about the value of the Great Lakes to Michigan and the other states they border. The beauty of the lakes, the wildlife and fish that dwell in and around the lakes, the environmental benefits the lakes present — they’re incalculable.

But let’s get practical: Clean freshwater is one of the scarcest commodities there is. And it’s only going to get worse. Clean water will be an asset that’s worth far more than oil. Jeopardizing the Great Lakes isn’t just morally and ethically wrong. It’s financially foolish, as well.

It’s interesting how the argument here moves, in just a couple of short paragraphs, from the “incalculable” to the crudest of calculations — the “worth” of clean water. This is tantamount to arguing that what is “morally and ethically” right should take second place to what is financially sound — as if finance should have more claim on the imagination and intellect (and the heart) than morality, and monetary value should be privileged over moral and ethical considerations.

I suppose that’s the way it goes nowadays, and I just need to get real. Still, there’s a great swirl of confusion in these two paragraphs, and I have a number of questions about the concept of morality being invoked here, how we’re to distinguish it from ethics, and why those things don’t seem to figure into what are called “practical” considerations. Practice and finance here are unmoored from and unrestricted by moral and ethical concerns; it’s precisely that kind of thinking that got us into the precarious situation we’re now in.

One remedy for all this confusion may lie in the perspective that holds water to be a basic human right — a perspective I also found missing from the Earthworks report. But even then we need to go beyond talking about assets and recognize the limitations of the argument that “clean freshwater is one of the scarcest commodities.” Why? Follow the link from The Detroit Free Press editorial to the National Geographic site on the “Freshwater Crisis.” There you enter a Malthusian world:

While the amount of freshwater on the planet has remained fairly constant over time—continually recycled through the atmosphere and back into our cups—the population has exploded. This means that every year competition for a clean, copious supply of water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and sustaining life intensifies.

Here, all of humanity is engaged in a contest or race. More and more people enter every year to compete for the same, limited resources. This is one reason why it’s imperative to recognize freshwater as a human right. Otherwise, history becomes a death match, or a big, global reality TV show: intensifying “competition” over this scarce “commodity” means that there will be winners and losers in the water game. The winners are fully vested with their rights; the losers struggle to survive in arid, toxic regions, or simply die of thirst.

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