Philosophy Now Forum

Liberalism Liberalism is a simple value that can easily be corrupted. It is seen as a democratic value opposed to tyranny and bigotry. But in use it is and must be related to other values that define it positively. Self-interested egoism is a simple value in opposition to altruism. Responsibility an...

Free Discussion without random and vulgar Free-Speech Freedom to Discuss is sensible altruist terminology for a sober exchange of opinion, that does not verbally assault a particular person. This does not preclude naming a person or group that is deemed to be morally deficient, while taking the risk...

Marriage and Society It has been stated that, marriage laws are fifty years old and need to be modernised for the 21st century. This is pure political rhetoric. There is no implicit virtue in either age or modernity. The real question is what fits the society we espouse, rather than the society that...

Society and the Person There is a tendency today to treat ethics as a matter of individuals being ‘nice’. to each other. Reducing the debate to the personality, almost in isolation. But we are parts of society, and society itself must be considered. Where a person is born without a limb, it is a gre...

Categories and Little Boxes There is a tendency to put everything into discrete boxes when, in reality, there is an overlap of even melding of all the assumed categories. Thus, we have a view of ‘law and order’ or politics, social-norms, culture, and ethics, as being separate. Especially as between ...

Ethics For a moral altruist society: If we do not discriminate on the basis of Ethics then we do not have any ethical philosophy. If cultures include ethics or moral codes then discrimination is necessary regarding the ethics, although not regarding any innocuous element of culture. If religions inc...

Lies and Lies As today, we often listen to ethicists expounding largely on the matter of ‘black’ and ‘white’ lies. Every mother knows the difference! It is important but misses the fundamentals. The question at heart is that of Integrity and how it employs the ‘truth’ or white and black lies.. In an...

Private Enterprise A typical definition of this is: Business or industry that is managed by independent companies or private individuals rather than being controlled by the state. But an ethical definition of private enterprise, or private ownership, may find problems with this. Particularly in an a...

Brexit and Polls Politics is based on pragmatic ethics. It is not simply about the economy, and is about society. Either we are a rule based authoritarian society, or state, or we are in some shade a democracy’. Assuming we are an Altruist style society, then it is intrinsically necessary for all ru...

The Saintly Sinner Ethics and the Law can be relatively simple for a rule based society. Such as an authoritarian society or state, in which the dictum ‘An eye for and eye....’ or simply do as your master dictates, is the basis of rule. Every crime would have its prescribed and clear punishment. A s...

Pseudo-technical Terminology Rhetoric and pseudo-technical jargon is a good cover for folly. It were better for logical debate for English people to use English terminology. We can be anti-Israel; anti-Judaism: anti-Jewish; anti-Semite; and all in degrees. In the case of anti-Semitism, a large range...

Fundamental and Derived Choice It may not have been discussed that ethics has its levels of choice. We live in a three-dimensional world. The idea of ethics as a single dimension or choice between opposites is far too simple. We only need to listen to debates in parliament to despair. Arising out of...

Redundancy There is a difference between science today and religion. Science is willing to make concepts redundant, whereas religion hangs on doggedly. Light as waves in the ether is dated, and now the ether is redundant. Religion creates or employs terms like soul, divine, mind, body, and spends li...

Discrimination: In Sport and Work Ethics is entirely about discrimination. In sport we do not have intermixed chaos. Men and Women competing in most sports. Lighweight boxers fighting heavyweights. If a women or men, by no fault of their own have unusual genetics, then this may make it unfair for th...

Mechanical Altruism An altruist person or society is altruist because that is what is believed. Albeit, pragmatically, he and society may have unworkable or inadequate ideas of altruism in its application. Altruism that is adopted in obedience to authority, even where termed ‘god’ is mechanical and ...