Showing posts with label questions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label questions. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 05, 2012
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Philosophy experiments
These kinds of internet quiz things are fun to do, but ultimately I think they're pretty silly. It is almost always necessary to grossly simplify situations, construct some false analogy, or find non-existent contradictions in order to create these easy-to-answer yes-or-no kinds of questions. I need room for nuance in answers. As is, they're only useful to suss out the extremes -- to find people who are, say, 100% utilitarian in every situation.
Most importantly, and I'm thinking specifically of the "Should you kill the fat man?" quiz, these kinds of discussions lack what I think is the key fact of the human condition: sometimes there is no right. People are in situations (all the time, in fact) in which there is no morally right answer, and whatever you do, you've done something wrong. There might be less wrong answers, or decisions that are a different kind of wrong, but you're wrong either way.
Most importantly, and I'm thinking specifically of the "Should you kill the fat man?" quiz, these kinds of discussions lack what I think is the key fact of the human condition: sometimes there is no right. People are in situations (all the time, in fact) in which there is no morally right answer, and whatever you do, you've done something wrong. There might be less wrong answers, or decisions that are a different kind of wrong, but you're wrong either way.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
I can't be the only one
Does anyone else watch The 40 Year Old Virgin and get jealous of all the free time that Steve Carrell has? I'd like to play video games for a couple of hours in one of those big chairs every night.
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