Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Child Labor in Uzbek: Repercussions of Speaking Out
Activist 'beaten' after BBC story
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Groundhog Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MoOvPIuKAY&feature=related
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
A Series of Great Films to Accompany Great Literature
Monday, October 5, 2009
"The Invention of Lying" On the Topic of Lying vs. Bullshit
The Invention of Lying
-Brian Han
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Saints, Heroes, and Well-Lived Lives
Here is a web broadcast of an NPR program on "Moral Saints" that features an interview with Susan Wolf. Below are the listening notes on the program:
Enjoy.About the Guest
Susan Wolf is Edna J. Koury Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her primary areas of research are moral philosophy and the philosophy of mind. She is the author of Freedom Within Reason (Oxford UP 1993), where she makes a case for freedom as the ability to act in accordance with one's values and the ability to form one's values in light of an appreciation of the True and the Good. Professor Wolf's current research focuses on the relations among happiness, morality, and meaningfulness in life.
Listening Notes
What are moral saints and heroes? Saints and heroes are people that go above and beyond the call of duty. In philosophical jargon, this is called "supererogation". Most moral theories divide actions into three categories: that which is obligatory, that which is forbidden, and that which is optional. Would we have better lives if we were more like the saints and heroes? Ken introduces Susan Wolf, professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Wolf defines a moral saint as a person that is as morally good as can possibly be. Wolf says that while it would be good for there to be moral saints, she wouldn't want to be too close to them. Wolf distinguishes two kinds of saints: loving saints, people that act out of love for everyone, and dutiful saints, people that act out of feelings of duty or obligation.
Wolf argues that it would be very hard to be friends with a saint because they would make you aware of your imperfections. Wolf defines a hero as a person that does one act or one kind of act heroically, and she thinks that it would be easier to be friends with a hero than with a saint. War heroes seem to be a special class of heroes. Are they somehow braver or just unlucky? Should we strive to have a maximally moral life as our life goal? Wolf thinks that it may be obligatory to do something heroic, such as a secret service officer jumping in front of a bullet to save the president. This is one difference between heroism and sainthood. John suggests that we need to distinguish two kinds of loving saints, those in love with an abstract idea and those that care deeply about particular people.
Are there situations in which we could be required to do things that are otherwise above and beyond the call of duty? Wolf thinks there are and that we should raise the bar of what is expected of the average person. Wolf thinks that aspiring to sainthood prevents us from having well-lived lives. If you start giving in to the demands of morality, how do you know where to stop? Wolf thinks that the line is determined partly by what you are interested in and is somewhat arbitrary. Wolf distinguishes between moral relativism and moral pluralism.
- Amy Standen the Roving Philosophical Reporter (Seek to 04:35): Amy Standen asks some people on the streets what they think saints and heroes are.
- Ian Shoales the Sixty Second Philosopher (Seek to 49:55): Ian Shoales give a quick biography of his hero, a war hero, writer, and actor.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The rights of nature
http://www.celdf.org/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx
How far do rights go?
Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Interview with Harry Frankfurt on bullshit
originally posted 9/21/07
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Crying Wolf Over Elephants
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Soda Tax

While reading the NY Times today, I ran across an article (found online at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/business/17soda.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=soda&st=cse) on the front page of the Business section about how a tax should be imposed on sugary beverages like soda. This, supporters argue, would help fight obesity and raise funds for the health care reform. As someone who doesn't drink soda, I can honestly say I am biased in favor of such a tax, but what do you think? Is it right for the government to influence what we drink?
The Trolley Problem: A Short Film
my thanks to Jesse D for the heads up.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Neurath's boat
for more on Apollo 13:
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
The Truman Show and philosophy

There are any number of sites with philosophical discussion of The Truman Show on the web. Sam Vaknin's "Seahaven: A Moral Deliberation" focuses on the ethical side of things and is a pretty decent essay. I'm sure there are more--if you find any worth mentioning, please post a link here.
thanks.
Jim
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Welcome to Ethics and the Environment, Fall 2009 version
glad to get the class started today. Enjoy the blog, and please do share items that you run across that relate (however broadly) to the subject matter of the course.
Jim
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Recreation in the National Parks
From a long time ago, but I just figured out how to post as a new blog, rather than a comment!
After talking today in class about what forms of recreation in the national parks are intrinsically better than another it got me thinking of a personal story from this past summer, that I included in my Mill v. Sax Paper, but I think everyone might find it interesting:
"In defense of Sax’s position that the parks should be kept as natural as possible, I recall a personal anecdote from my family trip to Alaska this past summer.
Our tour bus pulled up to the Princess™ “Wilderness” Lodge right outside of the park boundary and I was appalled at what I saw. This “wilderness” lodge was more like a Disneyworld resort, packed full of tourists who seemed as though they had taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in the middle of
Any thoughts or comments?
-Matt
Ethics of Hunting
I found the discussion of bear hunting with hounds and jelly donuts today in class especially interesting, particularly when the issue was raised: is it unsportsmanlike to hunt in such a manner and if so, should that be penalizable? It was brought up that in sports such as basketball and football that acting in a respectful "sportsmanlike" manner is a personal decision, which not everyone chooses to follow. If a person chooses to act unsportsmanlike this doesn't get penalized. The problem I had with that is in sports such as football, basketball or baseball that's simply not true. If an athlete acts unsportsmanlike in any way he is subject to consequences such as penalties for his team or being ejected from the game. So taking it back to the bear hunting argument, if it is indeed a sport like basketball and football, shouldn't hunters be held accountable if they behave in ways that are deemed unsportsmanlike by their specific sport? Not to say I believe this, I am merely playing devil's advocate and offering up some food for thought
P.S. I found some interesting bear hunting video's with hounds on YouTube; you decide if its ethical or not.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS292&q=bear+hunting+with+dogs&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#
Thursday, November 6, 2008
It's Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature
more info at http://www.tvacres.com/admascots_mothernature.htm .
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Animal Rights
I had to read this article for my debate class and I thought it was really interesting. It discusses ethics in regards to animal rights. A lot of the concepts we covered in this class appear in the debate, like utilitarianism and moral philosophy.
Just thought a lot of you might enjoy it...
http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/interviews-debates/200106--.htm
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Is Fargo a true story? lies and deception redux
"Fargo opens with: 'This is a true story. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred.'
"Great opening. And not a word of truth to it.
"Fargo's
creators, the Coen brothers, are known for their playfulness, the inclusion of 'little touches' that add to a film. Given the Coens' reputation for this, you'd think any responsible film reviewer would have made at least a stab at confirming this bold claim before blithely passing it along as fact. (Had they done any checking, they would have quickly discovered that nothing so much as vaguely resembling that level of carnage had occurred in Minnesota. Not in 1987. Not ever.) As a result of those reviews, an even greater number ended up believing what the Coen brothers had to have thought no one but the incredibly gullible would fall for. Their little read the rest here.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Laws
I was thinking the other day about the discussion of ethics being separate from the legal system and the importance of not confusing ethics and the law, and I though of this book...
"You May Not Tie and Alligator To a Fire Hydrant: 101 Real Dumb Laws"
http://www.amazon.com/You-May-Alligator-Fire-Hydrant/dp/0743230655
It seems to offer some support for the idea that not all of our laws are based on morality...
-Emily
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Filming for the Environment
Money for Green Projects on Campus
How Wild is Wilderness?
An excellent and eye-opening read on just how dramatically the Americas where transformed by humans BEFORE they turned into wilderness, that is, before the majority of humans living in the America's were wiped out by European disease and made room for the beasts to roam:
1491, New Revelations about the Americas before Columbus, by Charles C. Mann
For a very special take on American wilderness see
http://www.rewilding.org/
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Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Ethical and psychological egoism
Don't be bashful about using some of the links to the right from various philosophy resources on the web. Lawrence Hinman's site is very thorough; check out the page on "ethical egoism" at http://ethics.sandiego.edu/theories/Egoism/index.asp , for example.
Please do suggest other links to other resources if you encounter them, and I'll put them on the sidebar.
Jim
