Modern comforts that exploit others
Accepting we’re all sinners is no reason not to try to sin less. That’s not always easy. But when the only thing we have to do is stop snorting cocaine, there really is no excuse.
ReadTag: Politics & society
Time to abandon grand ethical theories?
There is space for a kind of moral seriousness that sees importance in doing the right thing without believing we can ever have a formula for specifying what the right thing is. Many moral philosophers are at work in this space, trying to show that even if we can’t tidy up every inch, there are more or less rigorous ways of muddling through.
ReadTo die for an ideal
Mandela was not risking his life primarily for an abstract cause or principle. He risked it for his people. His individual life was worth risking because he never existed as a pure individual, only as a member of that people. He stood up for others because it was because of others that he was able to stand up at all.
ReadA truce in the truth wars?
What unites both sides in the old “truth wars” is more important than what divides them.
ReadAristotle’s attack on democracy
Aristotle’s criticisms of democracy were often insightful and prescient. They are more relevant in the age of Trump than ever.
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