MetaFilter posts tagged with morality

HHS baits, switches

casarkos — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:42:20 -0800

Not just for religious pharmacists anymore: the Department of Health and Human Services proposes a rule that protects anyone who refuses to provide medical services on moral or religious grounds. Missing from this final draft is (previously discussed) language that defined birth control devices as abortions - which could leave doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, and other healthcare workers free to define abortion however they want. HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt says their consciences are protected under the First Amendment.

Dignity and Bioethics

homunculus — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:35:43 -0800

The Stupidity of Dignity: Conservative bioethics' latest, most dangerous ploy. Steven Pinker reviews Human Dignity and Bioethics, the latest report from the President's Council on Bioethics. dgaicun posted Pinker's article in the Leon Kass vs. ice-cream thread, but I think it and the report deserve their own post.

7 new mortal sins, per Vatican

wallstreet1929 — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:30:17 -0800

Vatican lists seven new mortal sins. Not recycling? Go to hell.

The psychology of the moral instinct

homunculus — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 09:31:52 -0800

The Moral Instinct. "Evolution has endowed us with ethical impulses. Do we know what to do with them?" [Via The Mahablog.]

I could smother the child. I could not smother the child.

amyms — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 01:02:35 -0800

What Makes Us Moral and The Morality Quiz. It's war time, and you're hiding in a basement with a group of other people. Enemy soldiers are approaching outside and will be drawn to any sound. If you're found, you'll all be killed immediately. A baby hiding with you starts to cry loudly and cannot be stopped. Smothering it to death is the only way to silence it, saving the lives of everyone in the room. Assume that the parents of the baby are unknown and not present and there will be no penalty for killing the child. Could you be the one who smothered it if no one else would?

Armenian genocide

homunculus — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:55:11 -0800

Genocide: An inconvenient truth "The Armenian genocide bill has been attacked by both the right and the left -- and it may make matters worse. But it's necessary." [Cookie.]

Jonathan Haidt on the "Five Foundations" of Morality

McLir — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:06:18 -0800

"From a review of the anthropological and evolutionary literatures [Edge.org]... there were three best candidates for being additional psychological foundations of morality [embedded video], beyond harm/care and fairness/justice. These three we label as ingroup/loyalty (which may have evolved from the long history of cross-group or sub-group competition...); authority/respect (which may have evolved from the long history of primate hierarchy, modified by cultural limitations on power and bullying...), and purity/sanctity, which may be a much more recent system, growing out of the uniquely human emotion of disgust, which seems to give people feelings that some ways of living and acting are higher, more noble, and less carnal than others. "...It might seem obvious to you that contractual societies are good, modern, creative and free, whereas beehive societies reek of feudalism, fascism, and patriarchy. And, on balance, I agree that liberal contractual societies such as those of Western Europe offer the best hope for living peacefully together in our increasingly diverse modern nations (although it remains to be seen if Europe can solve its current diversity problems). "I just want to make one point, however, that should give contractualists pause: surveys have long showed that religious believers in the United States are happier, healthier, longer-lived, and more generous to charity and to each other than are secular people. Most of these effects have been documented in Europe too. If you believe that morality is about happiness and suffering, then I think you are obligated to take a close look at the way religious people actually live and ask what they are doing right." [$1000 prize for those who can expand or refine the five foundations, scroll down to #2. Previously]

Brain

semmi — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:17:51 -0800

Impaired emotional processing affects moral judgements. People with damage to a key emotion-processing region of the brain also make moral decisions based on the greater good of the community, unclouded by concerns over harming an individual.

An Evolutionary Theory of Right and Wrong

Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 08:03:15 -0800

Moral Minds, a new book by Marc Hauser, is based on research by Hauser and colleagues such Josh Greene and John Mikhail. In it, he posits that an innate moral sense is analogous to "universal grammar"^[Wiki] from Chomskyan linguistics. As reviewed by a Science Times staff member. ...And a philosopher.

"An archaic, vestigial piece of ridiculousness."

EarBucket — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 10:19:41 -0800

A judge has thrown out a 201-year-old North Carolina law making it illegal for unmarried couples to live together. The case was previously discussed here.