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Tag Archives: Ethics
The One Where I Told a Little Lie
Can you go through life and never tell a lie? Honesty is the best policy. But it’s a policy — not an unbreakable rule. If most of us weren’t honest most of the time, social life would be impossible. Nobody … Continue reading
Posted in Human Relations, Life
Tagged Ethics, Grading, Graduate school, Higher education, Honesty, Morality, Motivation, Pragmatism, Teaching, Utilitarianism
1 Comment
Everyone’s Welfare Counts
We should try to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of people. It sounds like a pretty good idea. And it is. But it’s not the whole answer. The problem is that like lower animals, humans distinguish between … Continue reading
Posted in Judaism, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology
Tagged Choice, Ethics, Group behavior, Group membership, Human Dignity, Moral Choice, Nozick, Side constraints, Utilitarianism
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Immigration and the Image of God
My new blog post for The Jewish Journal: Surprisingly – or maybe not – many of our current debates were foreshadowed by ancient rabbinical disputes. One such foreshadowed debate was our national conundrum about immigration, legal and otherwise. In his … Continue reading
Morality Needs Both Logic and Feeling
My new blog post for The Jerusalem Post: As a child, I was a big “Star Trek” fan. I never wanted to be like Captain Kirk. The world was full of Kirk wannabes. My hero was Mr. Spock: stoic, brilliant, … Continue reading
Posted in Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, Philosophy, The Jerusalem Post
Tagged Adam Smith, B.F. Skinner, Descartes' Error, Ethics, Feeling, Heschel, Hillel, Logic, Moral judgment, Morality, Mr. Spock, Psychology, Star Trek
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Is It Moral to Have Children?
My latest blog post for The Jerusalem Post: The question is strange but not crazy: Should we have children? Are there cases when we shouldn’t? Judaism and common sense agree that generally we should and sometimes we shouldn’t. But there … Continue reading
Posted in Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, Philosophy, The Jerusalem Post
Tagged Children, Ethics, Individualism, John Rawls, Mitzvot, Nominalism versus Realism, Parenthood, Rivka Weinberg
3 Comments