The study of goodness, beauty and justice.
“Does knowledge have intrinsic value or is its value respective to how applicable it is?” Thank you, Arjun Sambhi, for another corker of a question. Aristotle is famous for saying that we all naturally desire knowledge. But do we always want to know the truth? (Cue Mario Winans’ “I don’t Wanna Know”.) Imagine you had […]
Does knowledge have intrinsic value? Read More
Thank you, Eoin O’Sullivan, for an important question. A common understanding of justice – namely, “distributive justice” – is that we distribute certain goods fairly across a certain population. Goods represent the fundamental interests of citizens. Some political philosophers have argued that there are certain “primary goods” that are universal across any given political community
Does Walzer’s pluralism about political “goods” make sense? Read More
Thanks to Mojahid Gauraki for the question. This is an interesting question, because while on the surface it seems to be about a single individual and whether they are ‘smart’, it is in fact about what it means for someone to be smart or stupid, and the different ways either might be recognised, or even
Is Jordan Peterson a ‘stupid person’s smart person’? 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
Thank you George Foster for this great question! In order to give you the best answer, it would be wise to turn to people who knew a thing or two about having a good time with their buddies: the ancient Greeks. There is probably no better reference in matters of friendship than Aristotle, who distinguished
Is quid pro quo a good basis for friendship? Read More
Great question! Basically, your freedom exists in your choosing from a set of acceptable behaviour choices provided to you by institutions of power, namely, the state or your culture. That being said, try walking into your neighbour’s house uninvited and pulling some ice cream out of the freezer, and you’ll find that cultural and societal
Thank you, Daniel G. Shayne, for such a relevant and introspective question. Human decadence is one the greatest threats to the health of our environment, those we share it with, and ourselves. This being the case, it is of utmost importance that, if there is a defense against it, we identify and employ it –
Is there any defense against human decadence? 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, Jayle Paña, for such a sensitive question. Hope is a belief in the possibility of some goal or, more generally, toward the destiny of human beings or the world. A state of hopelessness is one in which there are many signs and much believable evidence that point in the opposite direction of our
Why do people hope even in hopeless times? 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
