Category: Ethics

  • Eros and Ethos Announcement

    by Jason Stotts After much agonizing over this decision, I’ve decided that I will be publishing Eros and Ethos, my forthcoming book on sexual ethics, as two separate volumes. Thus, instead of: Eros and Ethos: A New Theory and Application of Sexual Ethics It will be: Eros and Ethos: Volume 1, A New Theory of…

  • Assisted Suicide Now Legal in California

    by Jason Stotts The governor of California, Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown, has recently made the right choice to sign into law a bill that makes it legal for physicians to prescribe lethal doses of drugs for people who are terminally ill and still mentally competent to make the choice to die (LA Times). This is a…

  • News and Other Interesting Things

    by Jason Stotts 1. Scientists Celebrate the Weird World of Animal Genitalia Have you ever wondered what penises look like throughout the animal kingdom? Well, it’s your lucky day. (NSFW? Article on WaPo; more on Twitter) 2. How Many Scientists Does It Take to Write a Paper? Apparently, Thousands  In less than a decade, Dr. Aad,…

  • Arguing Online About Ethics

    by Jason Stotts Sometimes when I’m arguing about ethics online, I need to remember my Aristotle: “To examine then all the views held about happiness is superfluous, for children, sick people, and the insane all have views, but no sane person would dispute over them.” EE I.3.12b30.

  • Authenticity

    by Jason Stotts Not long ago I came across a picture with a quote on it that stopped me cold. In case you can’t read the picture, it says: “You,” he said, “are a terribly real thing in a terribly false world, and that, I believe, is why you are in so much pain.” In…

  • Ill-Defined Harm: A Review of Jesse Bering’s Perv

    by Jason Stotts Let me start by saying that overall, I enjoyed Jesse Bering’s new book Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us.  Bering does a great job of parsing psychological studies and medical texts in a way that’s easily readable and interesting.  In fact, overall I recommend Perv and think that most people…

  • The Obama DOJ and the War on Porn

    by Jason Stotts In a move that sounds like it should be coming from the Republican/Theocratic party, the Obama administration is targeting the bank accounts of porn stars and forcing banks to close them through a program they’re calling “operation choke point.” This is a massive overreach (again) of the Obama administration and a flatly…

  • Happy American Independence Day!

    by Jason Stotts The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays because it has a very important meaning to it: the value of freedom and its necessity for a good life.  On the Fourth of July, American Independence Day, we are asked to remember the great struggle it took to win our freedom…