Lifeboat ethics

Between Plato’s dialogues and the Greek tragedies composed by Sophocles, there remains a rift between the idea that knowledge is the ultimate achievement versus the idea that it is ultimately the downfall of one’s mental and emotional well-being. While Plato argues that knowledge of absoluteness, true beauty, and otherwise complete enlightenment can only be achieved in fractions by means of cognitive awareness or fully after death, Sophocles presents the notion that we are better off blind to…

The act of actively combating our inductive bias in Kathryn Schulz’s Evidence in Kathryn Schulz’s essay, “Evidence”, the argument of the essay follows various situations brought up by Schulz, showing that people should take a positive approach to being wrong, and accept our error-prone nature, rather than obsessing with a perfect inadvertently-free ideal. Schulz ties together a lot of strong evidence, but fades back from a clear conclusion, steering the readers toward a relationship between…

Doing good for others has been an act of kindness that countless humans have done. Being a person that is genuinely kind to others permit a person to sense a better feeling about themselves because they know that they have done a good deed, which the good could come back to assist them in the future. Even so, according to the novel, Superfreakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, they address different situations about the people who do good for the world, which is known as altruism;…

complicated and we may not always know for sure what the virtuous person would do in a situation. “Being” is a state. Not like Minnesota. Having the right intentions and doing the right things make us a virtuous person. We may not always be able to prove our intentions though and what we might find to be the right thing to do, may not actually be. Jonathan Bennett seems to be a combination of the different theories, seeking balance in our decisions. I found his sympathies and moralities theory…

Pursuit of Happiness What is happiness and how do we measure it? We mostly know when we are happy and when we are not happy. But, is there a way to achieve happiness if we are not? People define happiness in so many different ways and also prescribe variety ways to achieve happiness (Taber). Are there some specific ways that make human in general happy or the way might work not depends on the individual? Different individuals pursued happiness in different paths in these movies Groundhog Day,…

“Tell a lie once and all your truths become questionable” Why do people always insist honesty is the best policy? Honesty is valued extremely highly with good reason, it is praised, professional, and good for your health, we as a species should strive to be more honest to ourselves and the people around us. “Lies”, the word itself has an evil sound and feel that resembles a frightened snake ready to strike. With its fangs bared, ready to spread its venom into the minds of the people around it…

Evaluating ourselves is not an easy thing to do. We have trouble being truthful about ourselves because we are human. We tend to block out what we do not think is true about ourselves. On a day-to-day life as a white, heterosexual, middle class women with the full ability to do things, I do experience some privilege in my day-to-day life. However, I am also oppressed based on my gender and age. My privileges are something that others may need to battle with every day. White privilege is still a…

Why is it that people reject the opportunity of education from experts in such a way we start to divide ourselves? In Tom Nichols book The Death of Expertise, Nichols explains a world full of opportunity for education and knowledge while we as citizens deny the title of “professional” or “expert” to one another when information is misunderstood, incomprehensible, and presented with wrong connotations and question the authority of those with any type of title. Ordinary people believe they are…

Free parking? It sounds like an idea too good to be true, and that’s because quite possibly, it is. At least that’s what Donald Shoup argues in “Yes, Parking Reform is Possible”. A public policy which allows an extensive amount of parking in a crowded city at little to no cost, regardless of budgets or consequences, will have serious negative effects to a community. Shoup predicts that we can achieve major social, economic, and environmental advantages at virtually no expense merely by…

Kant’s argument is convincing. He makes believing in God rational by providing several questions to consider. He raises his point by bringing up objective moral facts. First stating that God's existence is reasonable because there must be a first cause. He also talks about individual morals and how God and morality go hand and hand. He then brings into light the categorical imperative, and how rational people create maxims. Furthermore, Kant mentions the highest good and happiness and how our…