MetaFilter posts tagged with morality

Homeowners! You Have Nothing to Lose But Your Mortgages!

jonp72 — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:05:20 -0800

The Moral Dimensions of Ditching a Mortgage: University of Arizona law professor Brent T. White has written a provocative new paper (pdf) that urges homeowners with "underwater" mortgages" to walk away by strategically defaulting on their mortgage debts. White argues that most "underwater" homeowners don't default on their mortgages, because "social control agents," ranging from the housing industry to President Obama, enforce an "asymmetry of norms" that makes it immoral if an individual homeowner walks away from a debt, but allows banks to walk away from debt with impunity. Meanwhile, other economic research appears to confirm White's argument that main barriers to homeowners engaging in "strategic default" are moral and social, not economic and legal.

...Their tastes may not be the same

ServSci — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:16:36 -0800

On Thursday, the 12th of November, Karen Armstrong (previously & previously) unveiled her Charter for Compassion. The charter is the product of her Feb 2008 TED prize wish to “restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious doctrine.” The project began with a “unique web-based decision making platform”, allowing “thousands of people from over 100 countries added their voice to the writing of the Charter.” These contributions were then given to the Council of Conscience for the construction of the final charter. Previous attempts at the promotion of a "global ethic" grounded in the Golden Rule have been largely, globally, ignored. Some people dislike the idea of blurring the differences between religions, some have problems with the Golden Rule itself.

"If therefore, the document and its fashioners have dedicated their work to explicating the unity of religious wisdom and morality, He would undoubtedly applaud that action as a very sensible and enlightened thing to do, especially in an ever-more-connected and shrinking world. If, however, when pinned down, those same fashioners had to confess as well to an attempt to make all religions seem to be little more than enculturated expressions of ways to the same God or end, I suspect He would have shaken His head and said, 'Can we talk?'"

- Beliefnet: How Would Jesus Respond to the Charter for Compassion?: Phyllis Tickle Weighs In

The Color of Sin - Why the Good Guys Wear White

filthy light thief — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:34:06 -0800

When the Chrysler car company released its new model Dodge Coronet in 1967, the theme of its ad campaign was the "White Hat Special," with some ads featuring the "Dodge Girl" in her signature white Stetson, saying that "Only the good guys could put together a deal like this." These ads didn't need any elaboration. Madison Avenue knew the potential buyers had all been raised on film and TV Westerns, and knew the symbolism of white hats. Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, the Lone Ranger — cinematic heroes wore white hats, and bad guys wore black. It was all very simple. The colors white and black have carried layers of moral meaning since long before American infatuation with cowboys and automobiles, and some scientists believe that those associations may be automatic and universal and ancient (abstract). Blackness and whiteness may be wired into our neurons, and tightly tangled up with notions of sin and virtue and cleanliness and dirt, according to research by doctoral student Gary D. Sherman and professor Gerald L. Clore, from the University of Virginia Psychology Department (print view). Clore and Sherman tested the concept of grounding of metaphors with a method similar to the the original studies performed by J. Ridley Stroop. The result showing something of the Stroop effect, but instead of displaying a delay in stating the name of colors because of the color of the text, there was a lag in identifying positive and negative words when colored black or white. And the amount of delay changed when the participants were primed to think about immorality.

First, they administered the color identification test with moral and immoral words. Then they asked the participants to hand-copy a very short first-person story about a workplace incident. Half the stories had ethical endings and half had unethical endings. Then they issued the color identification test again. For those who had little trouble with the color identification initially, exposure to the unethical story made it harder to identify word color when it didn't match the moral/immoral dimension of the word. "This shows you can bring this out in people," said Sherman. "We were struck how easily it could be moved around." But even more interesting was that for those who struggled more with the identification in the first test, priming immorality made these participants better at naming the color. This was a bit puzzling. Clore believes that for those already thinking about immorality, becoming even more attuned to it helped bring it to consciousness, where it could be controlled. "If you make something obvious, people appear to be able to regulate it," he said. "What we find with emotion is that if you make something really salient, people are better at making proper discrimination. By making it salient, people got rid of it."

A third study was performed, in which they asked people to rate several consumer products, some of which were cleaning products. Those who ranked cleaning products most highly turned out to be the individuals who had the hardest time identifying the colors when they didn't match the moral dimension of the words. This last test is associated with the Macbeth effect (abstract), where physical cleanliness is psychologically linked to concerns for moral purity. More fun with the Stroop test: Neuroscience for Kids, and the Stroop test and Mount Everest.

Tyler Cowen on why it's OK to pay for sex

reenum — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:18:25 -0800

Tyler Cowen on why it's OK to pay for sex The rest of the debate can be found here.

a new politics of the common good

kliuless — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 07:11:35 -0800

Markets and Morals -- "without quite realising it, without ever deciding to do so, we drifted from having a market economy to being a market society" -- is the first of the 2009 Reith Lectures delivered by Michael Sandel. (previously) cf. Yglesias on free markets... which kinda reminded me of clay shirky's LSE lecture (mp3; 43 mb; approx 93 minutes) esp the bit in the Q&A around 56.50 wrt money, motivation and ed deci :P bonus!

Morality and context.

limon — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 21:02:15 -0800

How wrong is it to use a kitten for personal sexual pleasure? Depends on whether you've washed your hands.

Keepin' gay club nights safe for the Moral Majority.

markkraft — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:00:23 -0800

Homophobia is still alive and well in... San Francisco?! The DNA Lounge, the high-tech nightclub of former Mozilla/Netscape wunderkind Jamie Zawinski, has apparently run afoul of the local Alcohol Beverage Control board. In 2008, during a period of time when the DNA Lounge -- with SFPD and neighborhood approval -- successfully appealed an ABC decision blocking the club from offering all-ages live music, the ABC sent agents into the club during their GLBT nights, and are now trying to shut the club down for "lewdness", "discrimination", and "running a disorderly house injurious to the public welfare and morals".(NSFW!) The DNA is determined not to go quietly into this goodnight.

Evolution and Emancipation

homunculus — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:31:28 -0800

Darwin the abolitionist. "The theory of evolution is regarded as a triumph of disinterested scientific reason. Yet, on the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species, new research reveals that Darwin was driven to the idea of common descent by a great moral cause." [Via]

"It is very dangerous to try picking and choosing which truths we dare acknowledge."

tybeet — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 08:37:20 -0800

"The more we understand why we demonise certain scientific advances, the better we will be able to decide whether some areas of research are so sensitive they should always remain off limits to science." Is Science Out of Control?

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.

GATTACA

Gyan — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 04:15:19 -0800

The Promise and Perils of Synthetic Biology

Forever Pregnant II: Morality Boogaloo

boost ventilator — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 18:43:10 -0800

The new lies about women's health (image slightly NSFW) according to Glamour. More on why every egg is sacred to the Bush administration. [via Wired's Sex Drive Daily]

The only moral abortion is my abortion?

cybercoitus interruptus — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 10:54:49 -0800

The only moral abortion is my abortion? What do some anti-choice women do when they experience unwanted pregnancies themselves? "I never dreamed, in my wildest nightmares, that there would ever be a situation where I personally would choose such an act. . . ."

The Hart/Devlin Debate

dios — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 12:46:41 -0800

The Hart/Devlin debate. One of the primary issues in the philosophy of law was addressed in a dispute between HLA Hart and Lord Devlin. The issue is to what extent morality can be embodied by the law. It is a debate which continues today.

The Angina Chronicles

Saucy Intruder — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 15:15:03 -0800

"We can't do anything about it. We just have to obey." Fulton (Mo.) High School drama students learn that resistance is futile.

'Cause The Bible Told Me So

willmize — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 12:02:13 -0800

Five Reasons Torture Is Always Wrong. From the magazine "Christianity Today", David P. Gushee, a professor of moral philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, is against torture. Period. No exceptions. Complete with Bible verses to prove it.