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Just reading those intro chapters of Genesis, and I noticed what seems quite a contrast between the human vocation statements in the two creation stories. Gen 1:28 says humans are to ‘fill‘ (מָלֵא mala – be full; fill) and ‘subdue‘ (כָּבַשׁ kabash – be raped; subjugate; be humiliated; etc.) the earth… Then Gen 2:15 says they are to ‘tend‘ (עָבַד . . . → Read More: rapists into lovers? Very few people would say that killing humans is categorically wrong (all times, places & circumstances). Most would have general ideas about extenuating – and tragic – circumstances which justify it. So, a kind of moral calculus is almost always at work where the weight of the consequences of killing is contrasted with the weight of the consequences of not . . . → Read More: good killing? Not only are Sam Harris’ recent thoughts about morality in tension with basic philosophical distinctions such as is/ought and fact/value, it also re-raises basic questions raised by utilitarian ethics – namely which version of ‘happiness’ is right? I listened to an interesting discussion of Sam’s ideas today (thanks to Damian for highlighting it), and at one point they were talking . . . → Read More: good maximal happiness? Ethics has been on the brain for a while – particularly how ethics are formed and shaped by value-judgments about the quality of a given thing. I’ve did a little image a while back mapping my current understanding of how ethics works philosophically: ontology (what is it?) precedes teleology (what is it for?), which precedes ethics (what is right or . . . → Read More: toothpaste & philosophical ethics I being the good, wise, delegating father I am, let Thomas hold the hose as I… ahem… we… filled up his 3-ring circus… err… pool. Suffice to say the stream of water did not stay aimed within the pool borders during the entire filling procedure. But he’ll learn. God, being the good, wise, delegating Father He is, lets us play . . . → Read More: delegation I just saw an ad for ‘the Warehouse’, which used the by-line: “Get more Christmas for less.” This reminded me of the observation (or should I say gross-but-still-relatively-accurate-generalisation?) I’ve made about the USA since moving to New Zealand. We (yes, I said ‘we’) looooooooooove to get a lot of stuff for not very much money. Examples – ‘all you can . . . → Read More: more for less? This post – in less overtly philosophical language… We can talk about what something factually is and we can also talk about what it is worth. Science can tell us factually what a foetus is, but not what it is worth. We can talk about the way things ‘do’ behave, and we can also talk about the way things should . . . → Read More: it’s going good Whilst a quantitative ontology is perfectly useful for scientific study, only a qualitative ontology can make the necessary (qualitative) value judgments that form the foundation of ethics. Even the ‘obvious’ idea that suffering is ‘bad’ is a qualitative (‘bad’) ontological (‘is’) statement. And whilst a descriptive teleology is wonderful for observing how things ‘do’ tend to behave, only a prescriptive . . . → Read More: value & purpose A quick gun-related post after some recent events in NZ & thinking about it. When you encounter an action or idea that you find utterly insane or impossible to understand, it’s always good (pun intended) to look for some good reason behind it, which may have been distorted. In the case of “gun rights” it’s not too hard to see . . . → Read More: good guns TVNZ’s programme ‘Sunday’ included a segment related to concerns over tween (8-12 yrs) fashion, particularly the issue of girls dressing “too sexy too soon” (which was the title). In addition to this being evidence that modesty is not just the concern of conservative Christians, I was also interested in the introductory comment about the struggle of parents “to keep them . . . → Read More: tween fashion |
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