Ethics

Hi Everybody,

For our August philosophy discussion, we’ll take on some of the big questions in ethics, including but not limited to the following:

1. Are ethical claims objective or subjective? Could a claim like “Lying is wrong” be true for me and false for you? Could it be true in one culture and false in another?

2. If there are ethical truths, and not just opinions, where do they come from? Would the same ethical truths hold even if no humans were around?

3. How are we to distinguish between what’s right and what’s wrong? We don’t seem to be able to investigate ethical claims in the way that we can investigate claims about the physical world. So how do we learn them, and how do we verify them?

4. If there are ethical truths, why should we act in accordance with them? Why not disregard them and act out of self-interest?

See you there! Stephen