Philosophy & Ethics

Living Forever - Boring? A recent article ["Would it be boring to live forever"] raised the question that if science could resolve the problem of dying and prolong human life indefinitely, in a healthy state, would we become bored with such an existence and look at death more favorably.   The two perspectives are essentially expressed in the following quotes. This is the concern of bioethicist Nigel Cameron who worries that extreme longevity will cause people to become listless and utterly dissatisfied with their existence owing to a complete lack of engagement, novelty — and purpose. It…

The latest issue of Philosophy Now features an interesting collection of articles on human enhancement, with articles arguing that the approach is “essential” to humans in order to avoid catastrophes, that it can be used to extend youthfulness, and so on. There are also a couple of essays that are more cautious about the likely success, and even perils, of enhancement, so the full package (five entries) makes for stimulating reading. Here I want to focus on the contribution by Brian D. Earp, on “Love and other drugs” (link here, but you have to be a subscriber, which is definitely worth it…

I recently came across an article entitled "Synthetic biology: 'playing God' is vital if we are to create a better future for all".   As you can imagine, the article itself is primarily focused on the advance of science and the counter-arguments that are often viewed as being "anti-science".  Many of the comments support this view by arguing that we have been "playing God" since we domesticated the first animal, or planted the first food plant (1). One of the primary issues is what this phrase of "playing God", actually means and the article addresses that point (2). "Detractors use…

In 2010, when Dr. Paul Muizelaar of U.C. Davis began performing illegal experimental treatments on terminally ill brain cancer patients, he earned over $800,000. (1) That's pretty good money for an academic, especially while we are enduring the political theater of universities canceling core curriculum classes to try and pressure taxpayers into agreeing to tax increases if we 'care about education'.   Let's not pretend sports gets more attention.  Only 4 coaches make more than that, and 3 'executives' who run the byzantine higher education behemoth.   But 27 other doctors…

Since the unicellular creature, going through the evolution of the living organisms, until the recently ones, with complex and different kind of neurons, the nervous system has had only one purpose; to receive a particular change of energy of the environment, integrate it as an stimulus, and give a particular response to it. The stimulus can only be of two different types, harmful or beneficial, and they can have variations according the species and the particular state of the living creature. The purpose is to survive; if an stimulus means feeding as an example, the living organism will tend…

Eugenics, the darling of elite, educated progressives 100 years ago in their quest to create Utopia, has been out of favor since those crazy Germans took it too far in the late 1930s, but there is one sound reason it found favor; why wouldn't we eliminate serious diseases beforehand instead of treating them after?  Obviously there is a difference between voluntary and involuntary solutions to diseases and mental illnesses - Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes spoke for America's highest court that a rape victim should be sterilized because he believed she was a whore and she…

Plato famously maintained that knowledge is “justified true belief,” meaning that to claim the status of knowledge our beliefs (say, that the earth goes around the sun, rather than the other way around) have to be both true (to the extent this can actually be ascertained) and justified (i.e., we ought to be able to explain to others why we hold such beliefs, otherwise we are simply repeating the — possibly true — beliefs of someone else).* It is the “justified” part that is humbling, since a moment’s reflection will show that a large number of things we think we know we actually cannot…

A trial of HPV vaccines in India, which has now been halted and is the subject of an investigation by the Indian government, was examining the safety and feasibility of offering a vaccine against the virus associated with cervical cancer.  The trial was run by the international health charity PATH and involved more than 23,000 girls from Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh states. A committee of scientists commissioned by the Indian Government to look into the trial said that the study involved a number of serious ethical violations. A new study by researchers at Queen Mary, University of London…

Plato and a platypus walked into a bar. The bartender gave the philosopher a quizzical look, and Plato said, “What can I say? She looked better in the cave.” The relationship between humor and philosophy has been explored for a long time, with the authors of the popular Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar...: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes, Daniel Klein and Thomas Cathcart, arguing that good jokes are structurally similar to good philosophical arguments: they start with a familiar, apparently non-threatening, situation; lead the listener toward a path he thinks he can see; and then…

I'm thoroughly impressed with "The Descent of Religion: Its Evolution from Nurturing to Bullying...and Back!" by Liz Carr-Harris.　 It is a singular work of research; fearless in its questioning of scientific consensus. I think Liz's choice of title is unfortunate.　 "The Descent of Religion" is a deceptive title. Her work is of such sweeping scope and originality, comparing it to books like "The End of Faith" by Sam Harris, or "The Faith Instinct" by Nicholas Wade is a disservice.　 Carr-Harris's book is of the same caliber as the profound just published "The Social Conquest of the Earth" by…