Aliens and Ethics

What ethical obligations would we have to aliens who arrived from outer space? If these aliens were ethically superior to us, what obligations might we have to ourselves as a species? Is it even possible for us to make sense of such questions? What can such thought experiments tell us about the nature of ethics in general?

And, more concretely, and immediately, what might these questions illuminate about the nature of our obligations to those other kinds of “alien” creatures – i.e. the animals that exist all around us, and with whom we’re generally forced to communicate as “aliens”?

The late great philosopher Bernard Williams tackles these and other questions in the provocative essay “The Human Prejudice”, available here - http://www.nyu.edu/classes/gmoran/WILLIAMS.pdf

(Also find it in his volume of essays Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline - http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Humanistic-Discipline-Bernard-Williams/dp/069113409X )

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Let’s talk about aliens! (and Bernard Williams...)