Dreptul la moarte. Cazul Eluana

“Eluana Englaro, italianca de 38 de ani aflată în comă de aproape 17 ani, a decedat luni noapte, dar disputele politice privind dreptul unei persoane în suferinţă de a muri continuă” (aici) Despre eutanasie s-a vorbit mult in ultimele doua decenii si inca se mai vorbeste. Fiecare caz dramatic este un bun subiect de presa, [...]

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Libel and hypocrisy

Recently, I had a discussion here with a friend of mine. I held that it is perfectly coherent to publicly support basic equal rights for ethnic, racial, and sexual minorities, while still making privately jokes about their ways of life. My friend accused me of hypocrisy. Now here’s a quote from Bhikhu Parekh: “In most [...]

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The Neverending Story: Our Treatment of Animals

(copyright Mark Cox; source) I am not hypocrite. I do not hold that it is ok to kill pigs for food, but it is not ok to kill dogs or dolphins with the same aim. “Superior” flesh-eating animals (humans included) always kill in order to feed themselves. This is nature’s food chain. Moreover, what we [...]

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Man shoots wife with Alzheimer’s

[Article written on December 3, 2007] You can read the story (related by CNN) here. Do you remeber Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby”? Well… once again, about bioethics and euthanasia… I only hope police will not arrest that old man. He suffered enough. Probably I would have done the same. What about you?

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Gender Fundamentalism and Hate – part II

[Article written on February 21, 2008] UPDATE. George has also commented Iddo Landau’s talk and the reaction of gender fundamentalists here. The first example of political correctness and gender stupidity (this is taken from a serious philosophical text): “One way to flesh this idea out is to pretend that there is a superbeing, GOD, who [...]

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Can Ethical Intuitionism Be Defended?

Robert Audi defines ethical intuitionism as “the view that we can have, in the light of appropriate reflection (my emphasis!) on the content of moral judgments and moral principles, intuitive (hence non-referential) justification for holding them”. He proposes a Kantian (!!!!!) version of ethical intuitionism and attacks the common conception of intuitionism (the infallibilist, immoderately [...]

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The Best Defense of Ethical Intuitionism

Probably the best defense of ethical intuitionism I’ve read is that of Pekka Väyrynen, in his article Some Good and Bad News for Ethical Intuitionism. Now here’s a synopsys of his ideas. His intention is to defend ethical intuitionism (according to which some of our ethical knowledge is non-inferential) against an objection put forth by [...]

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Art and Morals (Plus a Debate About Street Dogs I)

Can anyone do everything in the name of art? Alina is researching this problem. And I think it is a serious one. The “artist” Guillermo Vargas Habacuc starved a dog to death – that was his greatest artwork! Read the news in Romanian here, and in English here and here. Now I cannot say that [...]

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Milan Kundera, animal love, and humanity’s fundamental debacle

Milan Kundera is one of my dearest writers. Because in the last days I had a debate with two of my friends about the street dogs in Romania, I want to end the debate with an extensive quote taken from “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”. Please do read this. The quote is taken from here, [...]

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Rousseau and Bentham on animal rights

„By this means, an end can also be made to the ancient disputes regarding the participation of animals in the natural law. For it is clear that, lacking intelligence and liberty, they cannot recognize this law; but since they share to some extent in our nature by virtue of the sentient quality with which they [...]

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