Christmas and Capitalism: A Call to Give Mindfully
Have you ever wondered why, exactly, we give gifts at this time of year? Regardless of whether you celebrate Christmas or not, nearly all religions and cultures celebrate a winter […]
Category Archives: Ethics & Philosophy
Do We Owe Anything to the Poor? Rutgers’ Event w. Prof Thomas Pogge
By Jimmy Goodrich, Rutgers University What obligations do we have to the worst off among us? Thomas Pogge, Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University, recently lectured […]
The Irreverent Trauma of Being Just a Human: Event Review of Salman Rushdie at Rutgers University
Last week, world-famous author Salman Rushdie appeared at Rutgers University as part of the English Department’s new Writers at Rutgers Reading Series. Hundreds of eager students, faculty, staff, and community […]
4 Ways Philosophers Answer Children That Keep Asking, “Why?”
“Why is the sky blue?” asks a curious child on the drive to school in the morning. The child’s parent, being a worldly person, happens to know the answer. “Blue […]
3 Explanations of the Groundings of Naturalistic, Non-Theistic Ethics
In a previous post about Cultural Relativism I proposed 4 arguments for relativism and then argued that none of them really work. It’s not that I had any arguments for […]
Of Evil Demons and Betting on Chicken Bones: Understanding Descartes’ “I Think, Therefore I Am”
In the early 1600s Rene Descartes penned what has become the most oft-quoted catch phrases from epistemology, if not all of philosophy. Compare the phrase to other philosophical catch phrases, […]
Four Reasons Why Determinism is Irrelevant to Ethics & Free Will
Free Will, determinism, moral responsibility and how they work together, or don’t, is an enormously complicated question. Honestly, it’s probably one of the most intractable and complex questions in philosophy. […]
Are We Climbing the Same Mountain? Secular-Religious Ethical Disagreement and the Peter Singer & Charles Camosy Discussion
By James Goodrich, Rutgers Class of ’14 Many moral philosophers – or at least those who think there are objective facts about what is right and wrong – find widespread […]
A Note in Each Pocket: A Parable on Humility, Pride, & Comparative Religion
Rabbi Simcha Bunim Bonhart of Peshischa was born in Poland in the mid-1700’s and later became one of the most prominent leaders of Hasidic Judaism in his country. He’s also […]
Happiness Is…? What Makes the Happiest Countries the Happiest
“Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.” Robert […]
Applied Sentience 