My Views on Ethics
Posted in Ethics, Idle Speculation, Philosophy on February 20, 2008 | No Comments »
I thought I’d take some time to write down my views on ethics before they completely change as a result of writing an ethics thesis.
Archive for the ‘Ethics’ Category
Moral Objects, Moral Agents and Consciousness
Posted in Ethics, Minds and Brains, Philosophy on February 10, 2008 | 11 Comments »
That’s my what honours thesis is on. This post is an attempt to rid myself of thesis-writing block. First off, let me just explain what I take ‘ethics’ to mean. To simplify, ethics is about how our actions affect other individuals. This is not universally accepted but it is a useful working definition for certain [...]
Peter Singer on Animals - Part 4: Conclusion
Posted in Animals, Ethics, Philosophy on November 11, 2007 | No Comments »
The Principle of the Equal Consideration of Interests is the foundation of Singer’s moral theory and he makes it clear that to have interests requires consciousness. This poses the rather tricky question ‘How do we detect consciousness in animals?’. His arguments in favour of the irreplaceability of persons also poses a question: ‘What makes self-conscious [...]
Peter Singer on Animals - Part 3: Persons and Replaceability
Posted in Animals, Ethics, Philosophy on October 27, 2007 | No Comments »
From this foundation, much of Singer’s moral reasoning follows standard utilitarianism. However, he departs from this with his notion of replaceability. Utilitarianism holds that it is right to maximise pleasure, or the satisfaction of desires, regardless of the content of these pleasures. Thus it does not matter to the utilitarian whether I derive my pleasure [...]
Peter Singer on Animals - Part 2: Do Animals Have Interests?
Posted in Animals, Ethics, Philosophy on October 24, 2007 | No Comments »
Like many ethicists, Singer takes it as axiomatic that ethics requires one to justify one’s actions, not merely in terms of self-interest, but from a universal standpoint. He points to examples such as the Golden Rule and the Categorical Imperative to substantiate this claim. From here, he goes on to claim that:
Peter Singer on Animals - Part 1: Intro
Posted in Animals, Ethics, Philosophy on October 21, 2007 | No Comments »
If you were to take a sample of the books written on ethics in the last century and sort them into two piles, one containing books published prior to 1970, the other containing those published after, almost all of the books dealing with animals would be in the second pile. One ethicist who helped bring [...]
Chimps, Nematodes and the Ethics of Animal Research
Posted in Animals, Ethics on September 27, 2007 | No Comments »
Here is another one of my essays. It’s a lot shorter than the utilitarianism one and I wrote it last year in a psychology class. My ideas have changed a bit since then but here it is in its original form.
Utilitarianism - Part 6: Conclusion
Posted in Ethics, Philosophy on September 23, 2007 | No Comments »
Well this is the last of it. I probably won’t resume normal blogging until the end of November so I might put up another essay in the meantime.
Utilitarianism - Part 5: Are Consequences All that Matter?
Posted in Ethics, Philosophy on September 18, 2007 | No Comments »
There’s still more…
Utilitarianism - Part 4: It is Right to Maximise that which is Valuable
Posted in Ethics, Philosophy on September 9, 2007 | No Comments »
Part four…
