The most important influences on a debate occur in the cultural background, before any arguments are even exchanged. In practical ethics, especially, these background assumptions are deeply shaped by vibe bias: attunement to what sounds superficially good. www.goodthoughts.blog/p/vibe-bias

This was a fun interview! philosophyandfiction.substack.com/cp/168005453

Part I of my review explained why we should be worried about below-replacement global fertility and subsequent depopulation. Today’s post asks what we should do about it. (Spoiler: make parenting easier and more appealing.) www.goodthoughts.blog/p/a-human-ab...

The procedural principles advanced in philosophy's latest condemnatory "open letter" seem pretty bad to me.

A fun and wide-ranging discussion! www.goodthoughts.blog/p/ethics-dis...

One of the top priorities of public policy should be to shape our choice environment so that it’s easier to do good and worthwhile things. Requiring a license to exercise, parent, or donate to charity would violate this principle. www.goodthoughts.blog/p/the-costs-...

Why should life or death decisions turn on a question so empty and trivial as mere metaphysical taxonomy? www.goodthoughts.blog/p/death-by-m...

New book makes a compelling case for thinking that depopulation is a serious moral concern, and we should do more as a society to make parenting easier & more appealing, so more people want to do more of it! forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/B7bLd4...

Are there reasons to doubt the objectivity of moral truths that aren’t equally reasons to doubt the objectivity of metaethical claims like “there are no objective moral truths”? www.goodthoughts.blog/p/meta-metae...

If the status quo is genuinely atrocious, is there an inoffensive way to convey the truth of the matter? www.goodthoughts.blog/p/the-moral-...

For both theoretical and substantive reasons, I don’t think that death could be absolutely bad. (Though happy life is certainly vastly better!)

Voting Footbridge: a trolley will kill five, unless a robot pushes a fat man in front of the trolley. The robot is controlled by a voting group of bystanders consisting of one utilitarian and several deontologists. What should the deontologists do (by their own lights)?

If you’re proposing a policy that involves clear utilitarian harms, you need to say something about why the other properties you’re interested in—vaguely egalitarian symbolism, or whatever—should take priority over others’ lives and vital interests.

My paper ‘Preference and Prevention: A New Paradox of Deontology’ has just been published in the inaugural issue of the open access journal Free & Equal! freeandequaljournal.org/article/id/1...

The story of the most disastrous typo in history: www.goodthoughts.blog/p/the-worst-...

How to avoid being duped or exploited by clever-sounding but ultimately facile reasoning? My latest post sets out a suggested middle-path between (Easy Dupe) and (Dogmatism).

Moral uncertainty is for people, not theories: www.goodthoughts.blog/p/moral-theo...

"Fairness" talk too often functions, rhetorically, to give lexical priority to either strict equality or to individual complaints against a proposed change, while ignoring the really important question of net benefit...

The View from Everywhere (Oxford University Press) released today! A must-read for anyone interested in ambitious metaphysics, or curious to read analytic philosophy addressing “Big Questions”. I blogged some thoughts: t.co/WIK1hhZ3yI

Academic journals should charge hefty submission fees, and use the money to pay editors and referees for their service. www.goodthoughts.blog/p/a-quick-fi...

I think there’s a lot to be said for a moderate, middle-ground view on social justice. (And even more to be said for focusing on more important issues.) www.goodthoughts.blog/p/a-pox-on-t...

There’s a striking distinction between “analytical” approaches to bioethics versus those who uncritically regurgitate whatever conventional attitudes (often highly politicized) they’ve previously imbibed... www.goodthoughts.blog/p/analytic-v...

Inspired by Helen's new book, *The View from Everywhere*: www.goodthoughts.blog/p/idealism-t...

Next time you pet Fluffy, and she purrs appreciatively, take a moment to appreciate in turn how wonderful it is that she exists. Then consider sharing this post, or finding some other way to push back against the value-of-life denialists. www.goodthoughts.blog/p/dont-void-...

Folks are really gonna hate this one: www.goodthoughts.blog/p/theres-no-...

The best way to explain our messy moral intuitions may be that they aren’t tracking intrinsic features of actions (per se) at all, but rather subtle signs of good vs bad character. www.goodthoughts.blog/p/moral-intu...

At the start of the pandemic, Peter Singer and I argued that our top priority should be to learn more, fast. I feel similarly about AI, today. This post shares some ideas and resources I've found helpful, and invites others to do likewise! www.goodthoughts.blog/p/ai-changes...

I'd really like it if people who dunk on EA-style quantification would say more about what they think constitutes good reasoning (and why).

A simple yet compelling argument that we should (typically) maximize expected value, which also helps to make sense of the principled exceptions to this rule... www.goodthoughts.blog/p/shuffling-...

New study guide, glossary updates, and guest essays... www.goodthoughts.blog/p/utilitaria...

Depends on the alternative. Compared to an empty void, our world seems well worth creating, despite the horrors it contains, for the loss of all the wonders of life would be even worse. To me, the problem of evil is just why an ideal God wouldn't create an even better world. A possible solution:

Join Dr. Richard Yetter Chappell, lead author of An Introduction to Utilitarianism: From Theory to Practice, for the final installment of his video series on the principles of utilitarianism. This video, Part 3 of the series, uncovers effectiveness. vimeo.com/1053867644?s...

Join Richard Yetter Chappell (@rychappell.bsky.social), lead author of An Introduction to Utilitarianism: From Theory to Practice for the second installment of three-part video series on the principles of utilitarianism.

My latest post argues that it's deeply messed up (revealing a massive collective moral failure) that we can so easily do immense amounts of good. In order to nonetheless live a normal life, I argue for pragmatic compartmentalization over outright denialism. www.goodthoughts.blog/p/facing-up-...

Richard Yetter Chappell, lead author of An Introduction to Utilitarianism: From Theory to Practice launches the first in his three-part video series on the principles of utilitarianism. Click on the link in this thread to learn the basic moral theories of this philosophy, and...

My annual "Year in Review" summarizes the best of the 70 blog posts I wrote in 2024, ranging across meta-philosophy, ethical theory, applied ethics, and more: www.goodthoughts.blog/p/2024-in-re...

People commonly dismiss consequentialism on the basis of Transplant-style “counterexamples”. If I’m right about the deontic ambiguity noted in this post, this is too hasty: their putative “counterexamples” are no such thing. www.goodthoughts.blog/p/deontic-am...

We should not expect a perfect being to create the best possible world (or universe), but rather the best possible multiverse. This inverts the force of important arguments in the philosophy of religion, from the problem of evil to harmony arguments. www.goodthoughts.blog/p/the-best-o...

My latest post argues against framing ethics in terms of axiology and deontics. Instead: first ask what, in theory, we should want (the telic question); and then how, in practice, to pursue it (the decision-theoretic question). www.goodthoughts.blog/p/axiology-d...