I received my BA in philosophy from the University of Chicago and my PhD from the University of Notre Dame. I specialize in ethics, with a particular focus on the nature of normative reasons and the ethics of hypocrisy in its myriad forms. My favorite philosopher is Henry Sidgwick, since I believe—to borrow a line from Alfred North Whitehead, speaking about Plato—that much of analytic ethics in the 20th century is a series of footnotes to Sidgwick.
Thank you, Sajad Ali, for this interesting question. Aristotle famously believed that virtue is a mean between two extremes—for example, courage is a mean between recklessness and cowardice. Does this work for the desire for knowledge, too? In particular, can there be an excess of such a desire? There is no name for the virtue […]
Can the desire for knowledge be considered greedy? Read More
Thank you, Agar Mayor Gai-Makoon, for this fascinating question. To begin with, the question is somewhat ambiguous. If by “right” we mean a legal right – a right created by some law-giving authority, backed by its coercive power – then it seems clear that we can have a right to do a bad thing. For
Can we ever have the right to do a bad thing? Read More
Thank you for this crucial question. Aristotle believed that the highest human end is happiness, and that politics (or what Aristotle called “statesmanship”) is the science that directs the political community toward happiness. One possible consequence of this view is that what we nowadays call “science”—the systematic examination of the empirical world—is subordinate to politics
Is politicization of science justified? Should science be governed by politics? Read More
Thank you, TG Dee, for this perennial question. To understand why this seems to be the case, we have to understand what it is to be good or to be evil. It seems to me that to be good involves acting, desiring, feeling, in accordance with certain standards. For multiple reasons it is not easy
Why is evil consistent and the good is faltering? Read More
Thank you, Arjun Sambhi, for this interesting question. I want to argue that diamonds are intrinsically valuable because they are intrinsically beautiful and resistant to change, both of which are intrinsically valuable properties. Let’s start with beauty. Beauty is an intrinsically valuable property. To see this, consider two worlds that are identical in all respects,
Do diamonds have intrinsic value? Read More
If someone – Ben, say – was suddenly evaporated and replaced with an indistinguishable replica, did Ben die? What about if Ben was aware of his death? If Ben was gradually transformed by genetic and behavioural modifications into someone else – James, say – and the transformation happened so slowly that at no point did
Some questions about death Read More
How practical is it to not fall into the trap of good vs evil dichotomy? Thank you, Kirti Lamba, for this fascinating question. It is difficult to define the concepts ‘good’ and ‘bad’, if by “define” we mean analyzing these concepts into better-understood constituents. For example, it’s not clear that we can do to ‘good’
How can we define good, bad, and evil? Read More
Thank you, Agar Mayor Gai-Makoon, for this crucial question. The word “honesty” designates a virtue, or a settled and stable disposition to think, feel, and choose appropriately in some sphere of human experience. The particular sphere of experience in which honesty can be located seems to be that of truth-telling. There are three principal types
What does it take to be honest? Read More
Thank you, Ehab Syed, for this fascinating question. The question is full of interesting ambiguity. What does it mean to live for others or ourselves? And in what sense of ‘better’? Are we asking which form of life is better? I will assume that to live for others or ourselves means to embrace one of
Is it better to live for ourselves or others? Read More
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
