Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Epicurus on informed desire-satisfaction

71. Question each of your desires: “What will happen to me if that which this desire seeks is achieved, and what if it is not?”
Vatican Sayings

Monday, February 23, 2009

Is morality objective? James Rachels' view

A truth in ethics is a conclusion backed by reasons. The “correct” answer to a moral question is simply the answer that has the weight of reason on its side. Such truths are objective in the sense that they are true independently of what we might want or think. We cannot make something good or bad just by wishing it to be so because we cannot merely will that the weight of reason be on its side or against it. And this also explains our fallibility: We can be wrong about what is good or bad because we can be wrong about what reason commends.