There's a certain moral paradox my debate coach cites as a way of testing whether or not you're a deontologist (moral value of actions come from act, as opposed to results) or a consequentialist (moral value of actions come from the results, rather than the act):

You are taking a walk when you come upon a group of mad philosophers who have taken ( Read more... )

1.] How much faith do you have in people? Do you believe they are inherently good or evil? (I'm not sure if "bad" or "evil" would belong there... -__-;; )

I believe people are inherently good because they want to be good. I don't think I have an unreasonable amount of faith in people, though; I know they can and very often are sadistic, rude, ( Read more... )

Rights are a social and legal construct intended to protect certain things that we all hold near and dear, and I almost-officially have to repudiate my earlier position on them. Anybody on here have their own opinion of rights they'd like to share? :D 'Cause I'd be perfectly happy to steal someone else's...

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OH MY GOSH WALL-E IS THE CUTEST MOVIE ( Read more... )

"Would you torture someone's family in order to make them reveal the whereabouts of a nuclear bomb that's going to go off in a heavily populated city?"

"No, torture doesn't work."

"You know that it will in this case."

"How the hell do I know that?"

"You just do."

"Fine, I send my underling out of the room with the family and tell him to start screaming ( Read more... )

"But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand-grenades, your bayonet, your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the ( Read more... )

Can any of you guys think of valid justifications for homicide (defined here simply as the killing of one human being, by another human being) outside of a just war, self-defense, euthanasia, and situations wherein one person's right to life could be argued as being overridden by another person's right to something else? For the latter situation, ( Read more... )