ethics

The Moral Switch

mir — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:35:21 -0500

A fascinating piece from the New York Times by Steven Pinker called the "The Moral Instinct" - Thanks Katie!!

The starting point for appreciating that there is a distinctive part of our psychology for morality is seeing how moral judgments differ from other kinds of opinions we have on how people ought to behave. Moralization is a psychological state that can be turned on and off like a switch, and when it is on, a distinctive mind-set commandeers our thinking. This is the mind-set that makes us deem actions immoral (“killing is wrong”), rather than merely disagreeable (“I hate brussels sprouts”), unfashionable (“bell-bottoms are out”) or imprudent (“don’t scratch mosquito bites”).

Take your penile surplus and put it where the sun don't shine

mir — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 11:07:14 -0400

Simon sent me this transcript to read and asked for my commentary. It's not by him, please be advised. He just wanted to know what I thought

Is There Anything Good About Men? by Roy F. Baumeister.

Just to give you a clue of what's in store for you should you decided to fight your way through the entire address:

That's an important first clue to how culture uses men. Culture has plenty of tradeoffs, in which it needs people to do dangerous or risky things, and so it offers big rewards to motivate people to take those risks. Most cultures have tended to use men for these high-risk, high-payoff slots much more than women. I shall propose there are important pragmatic reasons for this. The result is that some men reap big rewards while others have their lives ruined or even cut short. Most cultures shield their women from the risk and therefore also don't give them the big rewards. I'm not saying this is what cultures ought to do, morally, but cultures aren't moral beings. They do what they do for pragmatic reasons driven by competition against other systems and other groups.

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What if I am really hungry?

mir — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 10:57:54 -0400

In further exploration of the Bioethics Forum I dicovered the Women's Bioethics Project.

Back when I had my questions about going on the pill this would have been the place to go for some serious feedback.

Check this post on setting criteria for ethical food choices at the grocery store Never eat anything bigger than your head

Caplan believes there's no need to have "a moral aneurysm" every time we go to the supermarket. Every person, he says, needs to establish a scale of ethical priorities. Is taste most important to you? Cost? The environment? Your health? Animal suffering? Pick one thing that matters most and let that drive your decisions.