Recent Responses
Is it immoral to spend your days playing World of Warcraft, just eating and sleeping at your parents' house? They have an extra bedroom and plenty of money so the food is a non-issue--they already have to feed 4, so 5 is not much different. Is it any different than playing golf every day trying to go pro when the likelihood of doing so successfully is very remote. Nothing else really interests me and I don't see why I have to live the way everyone else does if I don't want to. I could work and pay some rent but it would have a negligible effect on the overall finances and I can't find a job anyway.
Thomas Pogge
January 1, 2011
(changed January 1, 2011)
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Your rent-free lifestyle does not wrong your parents who can easily afford you and are apparently willing to do so. And there's also nothing wrong with refusing to live like everyone else does -- some of the most admirable people in human history did just that.
If everyone in this world were a... Read more
My current relationship never had the sparks. I was never excited around him. He was very religious and would not even let me sit close enough to see if I liked him in ‘that way’. I met him when I first came to this city, however, we didn’t really seem like we hit off a friendship and lost touch. But after my first semester at college we accidently ran into each other at a common restaurant. We sort of became friends, although not very close. One of my friends at the time really did some things to let me down, and the person I’m now married to ‘came to the rescue.’ He told me that he could not be my friend without marring me because he was in love with me. I told him I was not ready and I wanted to wait for college to be over, but he brought up that it would be better to live together to pay half the bills and not be alone. I thought that was a good idea, and that I would eventually fall in love because we’d get to know each other and even if there’s not a romantic lust we’d learn to love each other over time. However, as time passed I never fell in love with him. I grew more lonely because we had nothing in common on top of never having ‘that spark’ it just felt like a roller coaster of pain, guilt, loneliness, and anger. I did bad in school losing scholarships and am on academic probation (I was a straight A student before). I have decided to move out and get my own place. He has immigration issues so when I bring up leaving he really brings on the guilt that he could be deported and his life ruined. He’s not physically abusive and he’s not out and out abusive but somehow the relationship has never felt right either. I don’t want to ruin his life by moving out (if immigration finds out) but I also don’t want to ruin my own (by not being able to cope and doing bad in school). Should I feel so much guilt? I always feel guilt for not falling in love and for making the wrong choice. I even feel guilt for wanting to leave so badly and despising his immigration situation. I don’t want to hurt him but I also really want to move on and find somebody to be in a relationship that is happy. I know that relationships take work, but this is all work and no fun. I don’t want to hurt him but I also am out of strength to stay not to hurt him. I did everything I could to fall in love with him and feel better about it. I just want the sadness and guilt to end. I care about him as a person, I don’t want to see harm come to him and I’d feel horrible if it did but I also really want to find a happy relationship. Should I feel guilty if I did everything I could not to ruin his life but my moving out ends up effecting his immigration?
Thomas Pogge
January 1, 2011
(changed January 1, 2011)
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From the description you give, it does not sound to me like your husband is, or ever was, in love with you. You might at least consider the possibility that his insistence on marriage -- "he could not be my friend without marring me because he was in love with me" -- was driven more by his imm... Read more
I guess Kant said that it is ALWAYS wrong to lie, even in the most extreme circumstances (and not only Kant, see Jonathan Westphal's answer to question 2701). I do not want to discuss that. But would you explain me why did he think that? Why didn't he just say that "in normal circumstances" it's wrong to lie. Or that it is wrong to lie "when no other value is disregarded by not lying"? Or something like that... Why did Kant (and some modern philosophers) feel he should make such an extreme claim? It's just that Kant's opinion seems to be so contrary to common sense that there must have been a good reason for him to have it... What reason was (or is) that?
Thomas Pogge
January 1, 2011
(changed January 1, 2011)
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Kant believed that you should only permit yourself to do what you could will all others to be permitted to do as well. So you are to ask yourself: what if the maxim on which I am about to act were available to all others as well?
Here is an example. Hijackers are holding 200 passengers hostage... Read more
Is the consensus in favor of Neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory as strong among philosophers of science as it is among scientists in general?
Eddy Nahmias
December 31, 2010
(changed December 31, 2010)
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Yes. As far as I know, there is not a live debate in philosophy of biology (or philosophy more generally) regarding the viability of neo-Darwinian theories of evolution. There are lots of interesting debates about the details of the theories (e.g., levels of selection, how to understand... Read more
Where can I find some good philosophical/political arguments for and against euthanasia?
Jennifer Church
December 31, 2010
(changed December 31, 2010)
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A very thoughtful article against the right to take one's own life is David Velleman's "A Right of Self-Termination?", in Ethics 109 (1999), pp. 606-628. I disagree with his conclusion, but his position is the one that has given me most pause about my own.
Log in t... Read more
Do we have a duty to resolve contradictions within our own thoughts and opinions? For example, does a person who thinks killing animals is very wrong, but who has no qualms eating meat, need to revise one opinion or the other? What about someone who doesn't really believe in a god, yet insists on worshipping one and arguing for its existence? Or is it our choice to live with contradictions as we choose?
Jennifer Church
December 31, 2010
(changed December 31, 2010)
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I would like to add a couple of further considerations to Douglas Burnham's response.
I there is too much inconsistency between what a person professes to believe and what that person does, we have reason to doubt that she really believes what she says she does. If a friend claims to b... Read more
Can someone explain how making someone an offer can be exploitation? I realize it's not exactly charitable to offer an impoverished Indian a $3/hr job in a sweatshop, but how can this be any worse than not offering the job? If the Indian is capable of deciding which option she prefers, why force her to not take the job?
Allen Stairs
December 31, 2010
(changed December 31, 2010)
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I'm going to stick with the first bit: how could making an offer be exploitation?
Suppose I seek out someone in desperate circumstances and make them an offer that I know they can't afford to refuse but that I also know isn't fair and that they would never take if they weren't so desperat... Read more
What are the arguments for aesthetics? A friend of mine believes that "all Art is subjective" - in other words, it's all a matter of personal taste and culture/society. According to him, there is nothing "special" about Mozart any more than Britney Spears. Yet to me it seems obvious that Mozart's works are much more beautiful, in an objective sense. This issue came from a debate we had earlier: if a man bought the Mona Lisa and decided to burn it, I would do everything in my power to take it away from him. My friend believes I'm imposing my ideals of what art/beauty is and that's it's elitist of me. What can/should I answer?
Allen Stairs
December 30, 2010
(changed December 30, 2010)
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I think there's a way to do honor to both sides. What makes works of art valuable isn't independent of human experience. It has something to do with the kinds of responses they call forth in us, though there's no simple story to be told about this. Philosophers sometimes put this by saying... Read more
I believe it would be wrong, in normal circumstances, to break a promise made to someone who died meanwhile, even if no one will benefit from the keeping of the promise. I also believe that, if keeping the promise would cause great damage to someone (to the promisor or to somebody else), it would be right not to keep it (it could even be wrong to keep it). Now, where should we draw the line between the two kinds of circumstances? If the promisee were alive, we could compare his damage to the damage of somebody else, but, since he/she is dead, to what should we compare the damage caused by keeping the promise?
Jennifer Church
December 30, 2010
(changed December 30, 2010)
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In deciding whether or not to keep a promise made to someone who has died, I would ask the following question: Would that person have wanted you to keep the promise even after he or she died? Some promises are specifically about what one is to do after a death ("Promise me that you wi... Read more
I am HIV positive. Is it wrong for me to sleep with an HIV negative person if he knows the risk and wants to take it anyway?
Jennifer Church
December 30, 2010
(changed December 30, 2010)
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One question to consider is whether the willing lover is making a sufficiently thoughtful and informed decision -- enough for it to count as mature, informed consent. We do not usually think of a teenager, or a drug addict, or someone in a rage as capable of mature, informed consent.... Read more