Everyday Ethics

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Recently, Senator Todd Akin made some questionable comments regarding the prevalence of pregnancy in cases of “legitimate rape.”  In an earlier post, I argued that while Akin’s comments were biologically ridiculous, they don’t obviously imply a deeply flawed moral character.
Akin has now apologized for his comments, claiming that he used “the [...]

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With apologies for the badly rhyming title, the current debate spurned by Chick-Fil-A CEO Dan Cathy’s comments about the proper structure of marriage has led to a serious backlash from both gay-marriage supporters and defenders of either Cathy’s comments, or his right to make them.  Clearly, this is a good place for some philosophical analysis, [...]

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The latest issue of Sports Illustrated’s famous swimsuit issue is now on newstands, its cover graced by a scantily bikini-clad Kate Upton.  Miss Upton is something of a phenom in the world of modeling (or super-modeling, as the case may be), and has also made something of a name for herself by exchanging snide comments [...]

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The Miss USA pageant is certainly not something that most people interested in philosophy pay attention to.  Frankly, I’m a little shocked that they can find enough women to participate in this thing, since it’s clearly a contest that evaluates women as objects.  That aside, the recent Miss USA pageant produced an interesting sound bite [...]

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In the last several articles on liberalism and social problems, we have focused on a variety of different liberal arguments regarding illegal drugs, gun ownership, and pornography.  We saw that one can give a liberal argument on both sides of these issues, and that relevant considerations on one matter sometimes suggest an undesirable policy endorsement [...]

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The final social issue relevant to our discussion of liberal values in society is whether pornography out to be legally permitted.  Studies have shown that there is a statistically significant correlation between misogynistic pornography and violence against women.  Viewing pornography is not a part of most peoples’ idea of the good life, and there is [...]

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There is perhaps no better place to consider issues of ethics and morality than in the world of intimate human relationships.  It is in these arrangements that we find our own sense of what is right continually challenged, and it is especially easy for our own psychological hang-ups and insecurities to negatively affect our ability [...]

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It is a commonly held belief that it is very natural for men to look at other women with a degree of sexual interest despite their involvement in a monogamous relationship.  This activity is often rationalized as “just being a guy” or some other cliché statement.  I do not know if this practice is common [...]

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