I have been reading and pondering Johnathan Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory for the past couple of days. The basic idea is this - there are five foundations upon which all cultures base their moral judgments:

"1) Harm/care, related to our long evolution as mammals with attachment systems and an ability to feel (and dislike) the pain of others. ( Read more... )

Today, we're going to take a journey into the world of anthropology. I have written before on the topic of violent orders. Society would be a harsh place if those were the only type of relationships out there, but fortunately there are other types. Alan Fiske, an anthropology professor at UCLA, wrote that there are 4 relationship types that ( Read more... )

One possible reason why welfare only extends to state boarders is that welfare is better constrained by democratic institutions. Foreign welfare is not accountable to any voters and so it is inefficient. Money going to foreign governments that are hostile may be used against the donor country - look at how money going to "nation build" in ( Read more... )

Read/Watch first, then read my commentary. Otherwise it won't make sense ( Read more... )

Proponents of welfare claim it is done because it is a moral obligation for society to help poor. Does this explanation make sense? Is it consistent with moral theory and empirical observation?

Thomas Aquinas divided justice into two parts: commutative and distributive. The rules of commutative justice are precise and accurate. They concern ( Read more... )

Do people own themselves? If so, when are they able to take claim of themselves? Before birth, a mother can kill her child without legal repercussions, perhaps rightly so. Who has the right to "oneself"? The child or the mother? From birth to adulthood, a child is legally dependent on their parents and so are a form of property. In societies ( Read more... )

I've been reading through Law Legislation and Liberty by F.A. Hayek, and the basic theme of the first chapter is how people really don't have enough information to centrally plan society. Existing institutions embody the knowledge of the past and should be seriously considered before being rejected by reformers. Institutions evolve, just like ( Read more... )

Intentions do not equal results. People have goals and act to fulfill those goals, but that does not mean they are successful. The world is a complex place and even simple actions can affect many people. According to Wikipedia (which is rather good on this issue), "Any intervention in a complex system may or may not have the intended result, but ( Read more... )