The Drunk Ex-Pastors podcast has evidently become quite a sensation Continue reading
Category Archives: Ethics
Ten or twelve life-changing books: #9
9. 1982. Robert Louis Dabney. Defense of Virginia Continue reading
Homosexuality: Ain’t No Such Thing
Ladies, please skip this section. I feel it is necessary Continue reading
Pipa on The Lord’s Day
The sabbath principle is explained using the analogy of a beautiful park. Continue reading
Byron, Frisbianity, Leibniz’s Law, and Propositional Attitudes
Let us suppose that the following identity statement is true Continue reading
The “human life amendment”
There is a lot of discussion in conservative circles of Continue reading
Berman on Law and Religion
The topic addressed in this little book is important, asking such questions as what is law? where did it come from? what are the dynamics Continue reading
A Brief Critique of Non-Cognitivism (Ayer’s Version)
A. J. Ayer’s view of ethical judgments, often dubbed “emotivism,” is that ethical statements are neither true nor false and therefore are without significance. Behind this stance is his empiricism. In order for a statement to be meaningful, it must lend itself to some sort of verification. Without any possible means of verification statements fail to have to express anything. But Ayer does distinguish ethical judgment from other meaningless talk such that of speculative metaphysics or theology in that the former have at least a semblance of meaning since they display the attitude of the speaker toward certain types of actions. When one says, for example, “treason is wicked,” he is, on Ayers view, not uttering a statement with any cognitive content, but is, displaying his strong disapproval of treasonous behavior. Continue reading
Mill’s Refutation of Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is famous for its many flaws (e.g. committing the naturalistic fallacy, positing a simplistic psychological theory, failing to come to terms with ethical distinctions). All these, and more, have been dealt with extensively elsewhere. Here I merely wish to show that if one of J. S. Mill’s arguments succeeds, then Utilitarianism fails. Continue reading
Nudity in movies
One of our correspondents raised a question about the ethics of nudity in movies in connection with a remark I made in reviewing Dreamlife of Angels. In trying to pen some preliminary thoughts, I soon realized that the topic deserved a thread of its own, both because more needs to be said than is appropriate in a little “comment†box, and also to provide a better stage for our readers to offer additional suggestions on how to address this topic. Here are a few random thoughts to prime the pump: Continue reading
Basics of Christian Just War Theory
In the comments section to a previous post, somebody asked if Continue reading