Using our brains. Amy Gutmann explains why ethics should be integrated into neuroscience research early and thoroughly. “Too often in our nation’s past, ethical lapses in research have had tragic consequences and derailed scientific progress. … Ethics in science must not come to the fore for the first time after something has gone wrong.”
E2: What makes right acts right?
The math of killing, letting die, and … murder
More on robot ethics. Should your robot car be programmed to sacrifice your life to save two other lives?
Is that ethical? There’s an app for that
Making an ethical decision? Use this app. The disclaimer on Santa Clara University’s new mobile app is forbidding: “In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website/app.” As the Chronicle of Higher Education puts it, “The Ethical Decision Making app is an attempt to bring applied ethics into 21st century. It is not so much a Magic 8_Ball as a pocket Socrates, which is to say the app asks more questions than it answers.”
Does trolleyology promote violence?
Lawmakers blame philosophy for recent spate of trolley deaths. Humor! And yet maybe we should think about the propriety of flippantly talking about flipping the switch in life-and-death cases.
Ethics for robot cars
The robot car of tomorrow might be programmed to hit you. Imagine an autonomous car — a robot car that has been programmed to drive itself. It can collect and process more information and do so much faster than a human driver can. Now suppose that car is in a situation in which a collision is unavoidable. The only options are for it to collide with a motorcyclist wearing a helmet or a motorcyclist without a helmet. Which option should it be programmed to take? What would rational, ethical “crash optimization” require?
What does it mean to be happy?
Happiness and its discontents. Is happiness being satisfied with your life? Is it pleasure and the absence of pain? According to Daniel Haybron, it’s an emotional state. Happiness fulfills our needs as persons. “What sorts of needs are we talking about? Among the most important sources of happiness are: a sense of security; a good outlook; autonomy or control over our lives; good relationships; and skilled and meaningful activity. If you are unhappy, there’s a good chance that it’s for want of something on this list.”
Descartes, Aristotle, and Terri Schiavo
Did Descartes doom Terri Schiavo? “The plea … to prolong Ms. Schiavo’s feeding, against the wishes of her husband or what courts determined to be her own expressed inclinations, echoed the teachings of Aristotle, who considered existence itself to be inviolable. On the other side, the argument that Ms. Schiavo’s life could be judged as not worth living echoed Descartes, the Enlightenment philosopher who defined human life not as biological existence – which might be an inviolable gift from God – but as consciousness, about which people can make judgments.”
Moral duties of artists and their audiences
Must artists, especially classical musicians, stand up for human rights? In particular, what are our moral expectations of conductors?
Is it morally required, morally permitted, or morally prohibited to boycott the works of an artist accused of moral depravity? Case in point: Woody Allen.
Time travel and killing Hitler
Time travelers: please don’t kill Hitler. One of the most popular mind experiments for exmining theories of knowledge and theories of reality is time travel. And for time travelers, one of the most common scenarios (perhaps the most common) is killing Hitler. But … “in almost any science-fiction scenario involving time-travel, the default action is to kill Hitler. As terrible a human being as he was, there are many reasons why this probably isn’t a good idea.”
Socratically Speaking 