Posts Tagged David Brink

The Is/Ought Gap: It’s real but doesn’t pose a problem for “scientific moralists”

In the past two weeks I’ve stumbled upon blog entries that argued for a “scientific morality”, and in doing so challenged the “is/ought thesis”, which seems to be a rite of passage to be a naturalist these days. Unfortunately, the writers misunderstand the “is/ought” thesis, and so their arguments against it fail (but both entries […]

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A Few Thoughts on The Death Penalty

Opposition to the Death Penalty Should Be the Default View With the botched execution of Clayton Lockett comes renewed attention on an important topic in retributive justice, and an opportunity for abolitionists of the death penalty to make their arguments heard. Recently I have been stricken by how strange it is that the abolitionist must […]

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“Moral values aren’t absolute, but aren’t arbitrary either” (reblog)

Originally posted on SelfAwarePatterns:
(Photo credit: Wikipedia) I’m working on another post with details about foundational moral instincts, but after some discussion on the ‘Morality arises from instincts‘ post, I realized that I failed to make a couple of things clear.  So, I’m inserting this additional post to do that. First, let me clarify that,…

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Breaking Bad’s Walter White (and Amoralism, Internalism, Humeanism, and Moral Motivation)

There are many qualities to love about “Breaking Bad”, but I think the feature that so deeply engrosses audiences is the moral terrain that Walter White walks, and the cool and collected manner he amorally navigates it. I will argue that Walter White is an amoralist, and then posit that White’s amoral existence undermines the […]

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