Thank you, Coffee Jelly, for a great question! Vengeance is usually defined as punishment inflicted or retribution exacted for an injury or wrong (thank you, Google). The question is: Is an act of vengeance – call it, X – ever justifiable? An action can be justified in different ways. Is X legally justifiable? That would […]
Is vengeance ever justifiable? Read More
Thanks, Miguel Pineda, for this intriguing question! Before we can think about how morality and altruism are related, we first need to get clear on what we mean by ‘morality’ and ‘altruism’. Moral philosophers, like the rest of us, generally agree at least roughly about what moral norms require. Don’t kill, don’t lie, don’t steal
Is morality just altruism? Read More
Thank you, Roy Head, for such an interesting question! Hopefully this will help… Imagine you are in your house quietly watching your 10th episode of The Great British Baking Show while drinking wine out of a coffee mug when, all of a sudden, you hear a desperate knock on the door. You tear yourself away
Is honesty always the best policy? Read More
Thank you, Elle Flinn-Shephard, for such a dilemma! This question touches many important ethical issues. It looks a lot like the famous trolley problem: Imagine that you are the driver of a runaway train. Up ahead you see 5 people tied to the track. If you do nothing, the train will kill them all. But
