A thread through the archive
Essays tagged “moral philosophy”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Scott Alexander defends the use of extreme thought experiments in moral philosophy, using Phil Robertson's controversial remarks as an example to explain their necessity and purpose.
Scott discusses the challenge of incorporating animal welfare into effective altruism, proposing a balanced approach to expand moral circles while preserving sanity.
Scott Alexander examines the concept of 'ethics offsets', exploring its applications and ethical implications from simple cases to extreme scenarios.
Scott Alexander argues that donating 10% of income to effective charities is a more impactful way to do good than political activism, and recommends joining Giving What We Can.
Scott examines why the rich appear to influence politics despite theoretical barriers, proposing that moral philosophies may emerge to solve wealthy coordination problems.
Scott Alexander examines contractualism and its limitations using a thought experiment of 100 men with varying strengths, exploring how power dynamics affect moral agreements.
Scott explores the concept of an 'Economists' Paradise' to derive a form of contractualism as a basis for morality, potentially grounding utilitarianism and resolving some of its paradoxes.
Scott Alexander explores the ethics of tattling and promise-keeping, arguing for the importance of trustworthy promises even when they conflict with moral imperatives.
Scott Alexander addresses misconceptions about Moloch and human values, clarifying points from his previous post on the subject.
Scott Alexander explores a thought experiment based on the Asch conformity experiment to examine the strength and flexibility of personal beliefs and societal norms.
Scott Alexander examines the concept of infinite debts in personal and societal contexts, proposing a practical approach of paying manageable 'interest' rather than attempting full repayment.
Scott Alexander explores the nuances of apologies, their meanings, and societal implications, using personal and political examples to illustrate the complexities involved.
Scott Alexander explores whether atheists can fully appreciate Chesterton's work, arguing that the moral beauty in his writing stems more from modern humanism than Christianity itself.
Scott satirically proposes and 'proves' that morality is a form of gravity, using pseudo-scientific reasoning and calculations.
Scott argues that virtue ethics is not merely intuitive morality and that relying on intuition alone fails to address complex ethical dilemmas.
Scott Alexander critiques Alasdair MacIntyre's 'After Virtue', finding fault with its arguments for virtue ethics and its historical claims about morality in ancient societies.
Scott Alexander examines his doubts about utilitarianism and explores moral contractualism as a potential alternative for grounding morality.
Scott shares a draft FAQ arguing for consequentialism, targeting intelligent readers without philosophy backgrounds, and requests feedback especially from non-consequentialists.
Scott uses a thought experiment about aliens making British people sensitive to salmon photos to argue that causing offense should be viewed through a consequentialist harm-minimization framework rather than a deontological blame-assignment framework.