Ethical concerns over ‘playing God’
There is nothing new in “playing God”, it’s just that we’re getting better at it.
ReadTag: Ethics
Must we be cruel to be kind?
We should always try to avoid reducing individual human beings to impersonal units of welfare, a dehumanisation which is utilitarianism at its worst. One way of doing this is simply to ask: if it were our lives or interests that were being sacrificed, should we accept it, however reluctantly?
ReadDoes life have to be difficult?
Even the most blessed life has its share of illness, disappointment and loss. Philosophical traditions such as Buddhism and Stoicism promise an escape from this by cultivating a disinterested detachment. But for me this comes at too high a cost. Love — for other people, for projects, for the world — necessarily entails pain at its loss or failure.
ReadIs it time to unfriend social media?
Our omni-connected age endlessly feeds us shallow pleasures that demand little time and effort, when most of what is valuable in life requires a fair bit of both. They are the digital equivalent of chunks of cheap milk chocolate: tasty and harmless enough by themselves but ruinous when eaten endlessly.
ReadIs balance boring?
Conviction is overrated and the value of “knowing your own mind” misunderstood. Those who harbour more doubts know their own minds well enough. But knowing the world well too, the result is rarely clear, firm opinions.
Read