Virtues and utilitarianism: an impossible dialogue?
At first sight, utilitarianism and virtue ethics are absolutely incompatible currents of thought: utilitarianism calls for a principle of maximization, to an instrumental calculation of consequences as a criterion for the classification of moral acts, while virtue ethics requires careful analysis of the situation and the context in which the agent finds himself to determine […]
Honor: a forgotten virtue?
Aristotle, in his two books on ethics and his treatise on politics, deals less with honor than with other virtues; Mesquita (2014) points out that although the Greek philosopher recognizes the social importance of honor and shame, these are not themes of his predilection. The framework of virtues presented in Eudemian Ethics, Book II, does […]
The utility of staying at home
For much of 2020, we have stayed at home, even if we do not wish. The pandemic that hit the world showed the government’s inability in dealing with serious public health problems, and individual behavior has become the main way to prevent the situation from worsening. When it comes to individual behaviors, then, ethical issues […]
Ethics and the rise of sentiments
In 1759, Adam Smith published his book “Theory of Moral Sentiments”. In this book, the Scottish thinker considered that moral actions were guided by sympathy, that is, in the inate human capacity of putting oneself in the place of other people, in choosing to act morally not having in mind what the action can bring […]
The P and N theories in ethical thought
More than 50 years ago, Alberto Guerreiro Ramos wrote an article in which he discussed two forms of thinking about the problem of the modernization of societies, to which he titled Theory N and Theory P. Basically, by “theory N” he wanted to say a form of thought in which every society, by a law […]
A note on whaling
The debate on whaling has resurfaced recently. Such a debate, in my opinion, rekindles the question of the ethical status of animals over humans, and raises questions about how they are treated by us. My goal is to express just one point of view on the topic. I want to begin quoting David Hume: from […]
Morality Policies: What’s the limit?
Public policies have become one of the main ways in which governments interfere in society and modify individual and collective actions in the pursuit of their goals. It is common to think of the different types of public policies from the classification of Theodore Lowi, but several attempts to modify or expand this typology have […]