Recent Responses
If, as George Washington said, "All government is force," is not resistance to government a necessary and morally superior corollary to resistance to force in general?
Alexander George
November 10, 2005
(changed November 10, 2005)
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That may be a corollary to the general claim that one ought to resist all force. But is the general claim true? Presumably, the thought behind the general claim is that all force is morally wrong and so resistance to it is morally permissible if not required. But is all force morall... Read more
What is the line between justice and revenge called? Or better put, when does justice become an act of revenge?
David Brink
November 10, 2005
(changed November 10, 2005)
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Retributivists about punishment are keen to distinguish between retributive justice and revenge. They presumably distinguish between punishment as restribution -- where that involves inflicting punishment for wrongdoing because it is wrong and in proportion to is wrongness -- from punishme... Read more
Is ‘philosophy’ singular, or is there room for multiple philosophies? Clearly each philosopher will respond to a question according to their own understanding, but what about schools of thought that fall outside the scope of ‘Philosophy’ as taught in Universities (and perhaps contradict it)? To what extent is ‘Philosophy’ a generally agreed upon pool of knowledge and a set of tools for a rational understanding of life, the universe and everything, as opposed to a continually shifting, subjective and relative arena of debate where alternate and opposing explanations are considered?
Nicholas D. Smith
November 10, 2005
(changed November 10, 2005)
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Like so many things in life and thought, many things have been called "philosophy" or "philosophies." Among academic philosophers, there remain several general approaches or "schools" of philosophy, and you're right to think that philosophers from different points of view might answe... Read more
Do people have a moral obligation to comply with someone's last wishes?
David Brink
November 10, 2005
(changed November 10, 2005)
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I would think that it depends on the details. If B promises A to fulfill her last wishes, then it seems B has a promissory obligation to A. Also, someone functioning as an executor to an estate has a (legal) obligation ot respect A's last wishes. There may be people related to A in ways... Read more
Do the panelists think, perhaps from their own experience, that there are certain philosophies that are more appealing at certain times in people's lives, perhaps even predictable life stages?
Nicholas D. Smith
November 10, 2005
(changed November 10, 2005)
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I am actually inclined to think your hypothesis is correct--though I also think that your question is really an empirical one, which would best be answered by the methods of the social sciences (e.g. with an appropriately designed public opinion poll). But to give just one example of... Read more
Is a parent morally obliged to tell an adopted child he/she is adopted? If so, at what age/stage of the child's life should one do so? What about the birth parent(s)? If they are known, it it incumbent upon the adopting parents to make efforts to include them in the child's life? On the one hand, knowing they are adopted/involving birth parents might hurt the child - make them feel unloved, complicate custody arrangements, etc. On the other hand, not telling them or risking that they find out themselves also seems unfair to the child. What is a reasonable course of action in this probably common situation?
David Brink
November 10, 2005
(changed November 10, 2005)
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That adopted children have a right to know they are adopted and that the adoptive parents have a duty to tell the adopted child that he or she is adopted both seem pretty clear. Surely, one has a right to know whether one's parents are also one's biological parents, and it would be wrong f... Read more
If someone is tolerant, in the sense that they accept, and do not wish to change, views held by others which are different from their own, are they obliged to tolerate intolerance in others?
Louise Antony
November 10, 2005
(changed November 10, 2005)
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I think the matter is a little more complicated. There is a sense of "tolerance" that means "indifference," as in "I don't see why those parents tolerate that kind of behavior from their children." This is the sense I think people have in mind when they say, plausibly, that no one shoul... Read more
If, as some believe, depression is a state of mind, what is the difference between being depressed and thinking that one is depressed? And would the effect be the same regardless of the cause?
Louise Antony
November 10, 2005
(changed November 10, 2005)
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To say that a condition is a "state of mind" is not to say that there is no objective fact as to whether someone is in that state of mind, so that thinking it so makes it so.
So someone could easily come to believe that she's depressed without actually being depressed. Suppose that an... Read more
What philosophical texts and other work would you recommend to someone who was trying to get a feel for the major contours of the debate of "justice?" Is that too large a subject to try to encompass? Is it a speciality in philosophy?
Tamar Szabo Gendler
November 10, 2005
(changed November 10, 2005)
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Others on the panel know moreabout this topic than I do, but since this question has gone unansweredfor several days, here is one non-expert’s answer.
The most important 20th-century work on Justice within the Anglo-American philosophical tradition is undoubtedly John Rawls’ Theory... Read more
Why is human life valued more than animal life in the absence of religion? Are arguments based on our being intelligent or sentient valid, after all we make the rules. If you could ask an elephant it might offer other criteria to value species by.
Jyl Gentzler
November 13, 2005
(changed November 13, 2005)
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This question is extremely difficult to answer, because to answer itsatisfactorily, we must first settle the question of the nature ofmorality. Morality proposes certain norms for our behavior and perhapsalso for our emotional responses to certain events. But unless weknow what these norms... Read more