Lumps and Statues

I'm still thinking about "first contact"--whether seeing blobs on an ultrasound is seeing our children for the first time. Or is that just an organism we see, and does the organism only later come to "constitute" (but not literally become) a child/person?  Which means I am reading and thinking a lot about ...  you guessed it ... lumps and statues.

The constitution view says a lump is one thing

The Reasons of Love

Reposting, because I'm discussing this book in my class today. The title has become pleasantly fused in my mind with "The Hazards of Love" from The Decemberists--enjoy!

What a lovely book. The second chapter has a rather compelling objection to the sort of view of the good life that I defend in my book The Weight of Things. I defend what Parfit calls "the objective list view." There are

Eating Meat, Raping Women

The long comment thread triggered by Gary Francione's Philosophy Bites interview degenerated in predictable ways, but did get me thinking about one of the standard abolitionist "moves".  Francione and another commenter toward the end of the thread argue that supporting "humane" animal products is like supporting "humane" rape, or supporting "humane" child molestation. I got to thinking about

Sexists in Atheist-Land

Rebecca Watson's Slate article is a must read, but will it convince everyone she's been treated abysmally?  Ha! The problem with the sexists in atheist-land is that they cannot imagine that they have their own biases and blindspots. We're super-smart skeptics, right?  If you look at what Watson has been through (if the Slate article isn't enough, look at her page o' hate) and think someone else (

The Meaning of Life

The religious view of the meaning of life is wonderfully stated at the end of one of my favorite movies of all time (and I do mean it)--THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN! Haven't seen it? You must!

Space Pasta

click to enlarge


My "book" (manuscript, so far) on parenthood is going to have a chapter on parental pride.  What's it all about? Why are we entitled to it?  Why is it so enjoyable? Today's occasion for parental pride--"Space Pasta" by my daughter Becky. Think of the wheel on the left as the sun, and you'll get it.

The Thinking Animal Problem

I'm still in "pondering mode" on the question of when we make first contact with our children. I wrote about that topic in July and again in August. Now I'm reading Eric Olson's book What Are We? and ... still pondering.

I'm fond of the animalist view--Olson's view--which says we are animals (or organisms) that come to have mental properties at some point, whether before or after we are born

Loving Life

There's nothing like a health scare to make you love being alive. I love all the pictures in Greta Christina's latest post.  (Hope she won't mind if I borrow one.) Best, best, best wishes to her ... and to other folks I know who are going through this sort of wretched stuff.

Philosophy at the Movies (repost)

Reposting because I just saw Moon again and I'm back to thinking about its connection to the issue of personal identity. Terrific movie!

Last night I watched Moon (2009), the movie Duncan Jones made before Source Code (2011).   Duncan Jones went to graduate school in philosophy for a while, before fleeing to film school, and yes indeed, both movies deal with philosophical issues--in fact, the

Animal Ethics Links

You might be interested in this Philosophy Bites interview with Gary Francione.  Don't miss the first couple of comments by Spencer Lo, who draws on many passages in Practical Ethics (the latest edition, published in 2011) to argue that Francione misrepresents Singer's position on killing animals. Francione at first writes off Lo as a defender of "corporate welfarists" but (fortunately) settles

Looper

I've been discussing the movie Looper with my husband and kids ever since we all saw it last weekend--it takes a lot of talking to get clear(er) about what happened and whether it's really possible.  Plus the movie raises some interesting ethical issues. 

SPOILER ALERT! I'm going to ruin the whole thing. Don't read this if you plan on seeing the movie.  Also, feel free to correct me if I have

The Hidden Cost of Following the Principle of Procreative Beneficence

Lately I've been thinking (and writing) about the principle of procreative beneficence that's been advocated by Julian Savulescu (lots of links here). Here's the basic idea, from an abstract to one of his papers--



It seems to me there is at least a tension between following the principle of Procreative Beneficence (PB) and having what you might call a "parental attitude".  But the tension is

Animal Pain

This is a terrifically interesting and well done video responding to the contention that animals can't feel pain.  I'll make some comments below.




1:08 The video starts in a shaky way, speculating that sea mammals may be aware of the feelings of the humans they interact with. Well, maybe. Fortunately that's just the entry point into the main question: do animals feel pain?  Wish I could refer

How many "great books" have you read?

Fun question from James Garvey over at Talking Philosophy.

Looper

Coming soon: discussion of the movie Looper. It's a very entertaining movie with a wildly fun time travel theme, but what I really enjoyed was the way the movie raises questions about our having (or not having) special duties to children.  Stay tuned.

Guilt by Association

Recently observed in certain combat-ridden regions of the internet: overuse of the phrase "guilt by association."  People seem to think who you associate with can't make you guilty, and that's absurd.  Let's say (just hypothetically) that X associates with a racist website.  He likes to criticize Obama, which is of course fine, but does so at White Guys R Us, knowing that this will incite the