Thank you, Agar Mayor Gai-Makoon, for this intriguing question. The more I reflect upon it, the more mysterious it is that people are made happy by the fulfillment of their interests. I don’t think I have a good explanation for this; all I can do is hazard a few hypotheses. I will understand “happy” to […]
What makes people happy when their interests are fulfilled? Read More
Thank you, John Presley, for a great question and a great opportunity to reflect upon the fluid and slippery nature of our cultural icons. As good Aristotelians, we need to break down the question in order to get to the truth. We can start by defining the term icon. We get the word from the
What makes an artist an icon? Read More
Thank you, Roy Head, for such an intriguing question. When considering this question, I assume that most people would think of ‘health’ or ‘life’ insurance, rather than ‘car’, ‘fire’, ‘liability’, ‘property’, etc. Yet they are all insurances, and I intend to cover all of them in this Opinion. Google defines insurance as “an arrangement by
Is insurance (and selling it) moral? Read More
Thank you, Hannah Hughes, for such a thoughtful question. As I explore the question, I will assume that by ‘wealthy’, you mean something like having much more money than would be necessary to live without a constant worry about one’s financial situation. I think that there are two moral perspectives to take into account here:
Is it bad to aspire to be wealthy? Read More
Thank you, Ali Muràád Bàloç, for this fascinating question. The first thing we have to ask is, what is hypocrisy? Ask most people, and they will tell you that hypocrisy is not practicing what you preach. But consider this: in the process of becoming mature adults, we often do things that we later condemn, or
Do people live without hypocrisy? Read More
Thank you, Daryl John Dumanig Panibon, for this important question. One way to begin answering a question is by making the question itself more precise. I propose that we understand the question, “is life worth living?” as equivalent to the question, “is there a reason to continue existing?” Since it is within our power at
Is life worth living? Read More
It seems so clear to me that living in rational way would benefit us way more. Thank you, Ayli Inrovdop, for this long-standing question. Your question already seems to imply a hypothesis that has had a long history in philosophy and continues to have a certain influence in everyday discourse, namely, the opposition between reason
Should we seek to live rationally rather than emotionally? Read More
Context: He’s also been described as a vigilante and anti-hero, but he beats up bad guys for a living? Thank you, Olivia Rose Brown, for this wonderful question! I agree that Batman’s violence makes him problematic, but there are even more ethical issues related to his activity. Batman spends most of his time fighting criminals,
Is Batman a superhero? Read More
Thank you, Barbara Getliff, for this fabulous and quite practical question! There are two concepts at play in the question: boredom and death. After considering each separately, we can then evaluate if and how they work or fit together. Boredom can be described as an existential state of mind, that is, one relating to the
Can you actually die of boredom? Read More
Thank you, EM IL, for this intriguing question. The first thing we must ask is, what is innocence? We can answer this question by thinking about the attributes possessed by paradigmatically innocent creatures, such as puppies or newborn babies. It seems to me that when we call such creatures innocent, we are primarily remarking upon
