What place does hunting have in our urbanized society? Is it acceptable to kill for fun? For conservation? Philosophy doesn’t have all the answers, but it can help us understand opposing views.
Voters in Massachusetts passed a ballot measure that assumed so. But a philosopher of animal welfare suggests the ethical issues involved are trickier than a yes/no vote would suggest.
Does including torture or other human rights violations in video games trivialize the actions? Or might it force us to think more critically about them?
It’s a common quirk of human psychology to make the mental leap that the way things are is the way things ought to be. New research into how we explain the world around us sheds light on the phenomenon.
Locavore, freegan, kangatarian, flexitarian … what we eat has become a moral minefield. Religions have long enforced food-related prohibitions, but in a secular context we could do with a little less moralising at the kitchen table.
It helps society function when people punish selfish acts, even at a personal cost. A new theory suggests third-party punishment also confers some benefits on the punisher.
For human groups to grow from small, intimate communities to the huge interconnected societies we know now, people needed to be willing to cooperate with strangers. Religion might have played a big role.
While children from religious households may seem less generous according to one piece of research, seen in another light these traits may be a good thing.