Eton’s Ethically Equivocal Entrance Exam Essay
Students seeking entry to one of Britain’s most prestigious secondary schools were asked a morally difficult question.
Tagged: morality
Dropping the Atomic Bombs Was Good, Actually
The atomic bombs dropped on Japan are not only defensible, but actively good. The critics who ignore the historical record and embrace presentist analysis fail to deal in reality.
Against Primary Schooling: Anecdotes, Questions, and Commentary
To dismantle the primary school system is not desirable, but it is necessary. What we have now is a triumph of the middle of the 20th Century…
Monday Afternoon?!! Balzac’s Old Goriot & Midnight Cowboy
A day late and a dollar short with two stories of the rake’s progress.
Teaching Philosophy to Weaponized AI
The philosophical questions of morality in warfare are as old as recorded human history. With the rise of AI, drones, and technology, those age-old questions are only getting more complicated.
What Trump has in Common with a Subsistence Farmer
Not paying taxes for 18 years is not necessarily tax evasion
The Punisher’s Alignment
League Alum Jamelle Bouie asked: “On a D&D alignment chart, where would you put The Punisher?”
Questions From the Headlines
When headline writers use questions, Burt Likko answers them. Briefly, completely, and unabashedly expressing his own opinion. Ten questions about politics, the business of news, news of business, and grizzly bears.
Comment Rescue: Cultural Merits of Abortion
I’ve never done this before — promoted my own comment, that is. But I think I got a pretty decent thought out there.
A Sore Test of a New Conviction
Strong is the desire for vengeance. Pretends to be “justice,” vengeance does.
But down that path, no benefit will you find.
The Development of Sex, Marriage, and Nature in Christian Thought
“To have intercourse without intending children is to violate nature, which we must take as our teacher.” – Clement of Alexandria Throughout many traditions of Christian thought, theologians have taken nature, by which they’ve...
According to David Brooks, All Morality is Local
I normally try to stay away from taking pot shots at David Brooks columns, but today’s raises a question that informs a lot of my political critique and which I reflect on a lot personally....
A Terrible Starting Point
From today’s Boston Herald (via memeorandum): The Tsarnaev family, including the suspected terrorists and their parents, benefited from more than $100,000 in taxpayer-funded assistance — a bonanza ranging from cash and food stamps to Section...
Inadequacy and the Problem of Misery
[Belated Preface-12/29/2012-: My original intention with sharing the below experience was to set a rather basic philosophic question in a rhetorical situation that might prove more resonant. This is about me, but it actually...
On Ross Douthat, More Children, and Less Decadence
Decadence: “moral or cultural decline as characterized by excessive indulgence in pleasure or luxury”—Oxford English Dictionary Online. Douthat tries to rebut critics of his Sunday column. The original article is full of dubious claims...
Visiting Heaven
Eban Alexander has journeyed to heaven and returned to tell the tale. In addition to writing an upcoming book, he chose to publish his private revelation in the pages of Newsweek. He’s a neurosurgeon,...
Human Sexuality and Religious Norms
Decades after the sexual revolution, many religious conservatives remain fiercely committed to preaching, if not always living, an absolute and absolutist understanding of human sexuality. Mainstream biologists, psychologists and sociologists, building on the science...
