Sounds very interesting and I'll definitely be checking out a few of these posts. I've always been one to look at moral and ethical questions in their most basic forms. Namely through what they mean in a real world scenario. Too many of people's ideas these days are based on high minded ideals that don't bare any resemblance to how people actually live.
I agree that moral theories that don't work in practice don't do us much good. A key criteria for evaluating a moral theory is whether or not it's something we can feasibly implement in life. It goes back to Kant's dictate that "ought implies can." To say someone "should" do something means that they "can" do it. I look forward to your future comments and to reading posts from your newsletter
The only time when I think it makes sense to be more hypothetical is in looking at what might happen in the future. One of the thoughts which has been in my head recently is what to classify artificial intelligence as. For instance, would we consider them humanity's children? As our pets? A separate species? Obviously going in this direction could be valuable for future moral considerations. How we classify an artificial intelligence would affect how we treat them in the future.
Definitely an interesting area to explore. Especially as we think about what it means to be human or about how we value that which is not human but also alive in a manner similar to the human experience. Ryan Reynolds "Free Guy" (2021) offers an interesting look at how we might think about AI.
Yeah, I’ve been meaning to check out Free Guy because of the whole concept has some interesting philosophical questions. I think that’s one of the great things about media like that is its ability to offer the chance for people to honestly grapple with issues like that. Although sadly many people don’t seem to take the messages seriously. I saw an interesting discussion that people who watched horror movies and things like The Walking Dead handled the past two years much better than those who didn’t. There are obviously reasons why that might be the case.
Very interesting! And that's a perfect opening for social scientists to step in and look into what those numbers are and how/why the show might have helped people. Going back to Aristotle, we know that truly cathartic works aren't those that help us get stuff "out of our system"; the tragic is cathartic when it helps us grapple, more fully, with the human condition. And this tends to support resilience. At the same time, media that fosters desensitization and fearfulness can have exactly the opposite effect. Sissela Bok's book, Mayhem, written about entertainment violence way back in 1998, remains very pertinent even, today
I think it's a product of what's often known as exposure therapy. The way to help people deal with fear is to get them to confront it. Like if you're afraid of elevators, get them to go into an elevator. Similarly, A horror movie deals with death on a regular basis and obviously The Walking Dead has a pandemic as its central story. So people are exposed to the idea of people dying from a virus, and thus they're more easily able to deal with a pandemic in real life.
Sounds very interesting and I'll definitely be checking out a few of these posts. I've always been one to look at moral and ethical questions in their most basic forms. Namely through what they mean in a real world scenario. Too many of people's ideas these days are based on high minded ideals that don't bare any resemblance to how people actually live.
I agree that moral theories that don't work in practice don't do us much good. A key criteria for evaluating a moral theory is whether or not it's something we can feasibly implement in life. It goes back to Kant's dictate that "ought implies can." To say someone "should" do something means that they "can" do it. I look forward to your future comments and to reading posts from your newsletter
The only time when I think it makes sense to be more hypothetical is in looking at what might happen in the future. One of the thoughts which has been in my head recently is what to classify artificial intelligence as. For instance, would we consider them humanity's children? As our pets? A separate species? Obviously going in this direction could be valuable for future moral considerations. How we classify an artificial intelligence would affect how we treat them in the future.
Definitely an interesting area to explore. Especially as we think about what it means to be human or about how we value that which is not human but also alive in a manner similar to the human experience. Ryan Reynolds "Free Guy" (2021) offers an interesting look at how we might think about AI.
Yeah, I’ve been meaning to check out Free Guy because of the whole concept has some interesting philosophical questions. I think that’s one of the great things about media like that is its ability to offer the chance for people to honestly grapple with issues like that. Although sadly many people don’t seem to take the messages seriously. I saw an interesting discussion that people who watched horror movies and things like The Walking Dead handled the past two years much better than those who didn’t. There are obviously reasons why that might be the case.
Very interesting! And that's a perfect opening for social scientists to step in and look into what those numbers are and how/why the show might have helped people. Going back to Aristotle, we know that truly cathartic works aren't those that help us get stuff "out of our system"; the tragic is cathartic when it helps us grapple, more fully, with the human condition. And this tends to support resilience. At the same time, media that fosters desensitization and fearfulness can have exactly the opposite effect. Sissela Bok's book, Mayhem, written about entertainment violence way back in 1998, remains very pertinent even, today
I think it's a product of what's often known as exposure therapy. The way to help people deal with fear is to get them to confront it. Like if you're afraid of elevators, get them to go into an elevator. Similarly, A horror movie deals with death on a regular basis and obviously The Walking Dead has a pandemic as its central story. So people are exposed to the idea of people dying from a virus, and thus they're more easily able to deal with a pandemic in real life.