Saturday, June 27, 2009

Discussion between Rorty and Davidson

There's lots of philosophy videos to watch around the internet.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Iran: Legitimacy of Government, Consent and Revolution

Morally speaking, what are the citizens of a nation-state permitted to do when faced with an illegitimate government; a government that rules without the consent of the people? And what are the citizens permitted to do in terms of violence when the government is violently repressing them?

These are, of course, difficult questions. And you won't find an answer here. But the video below is inspiring.

The reform-agenda protesters face off with government forces and the people make the military turn and run. Watch all the way to the end.



To follow what's going on in Iran Andrew Sullivan's blog at the Atlantic Monthly is a good place to start. The Lede at Nytimes.com is deep into covering it. And there's the always well-informed Juan Cole.

Monday, June 15, 2009

A New Bloggingheads.tv Video



Josh Greene and Josh Knobe discuss the philosophy and psychology of moral judgments at Bloggingheads.tv.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Does Studying Ethics Make You More Ethical?

The short answer is no.
Maybe explicit reflection crowds out other forms of moral responsiveness that are even better; or maybe reflection on philosophical examples eviscerates the intuitions on which we must depend; or maybe moral reflection is mostly just self-serving rationalization, at which ethicists are particularly talented.