Do We Have Moral Obligations to the Dead?

For some, the question of whether we have moral obligations to the dead seems easy. How can we have duties towards people who do not exist? However, the debate is a bit more nuanced and complex than that. For example, some ethicists argue that we have moral obligations towards future generations, even though, like the…

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Two Vital Reasons to Support Immigration

Contrary to the paranoia expressed by anti-immigration groups such as Migrant Watch UK, there are good reasons to support immigration in the UK. One reason is based on libertarian principles. The other reason is based on utilitarian considerations – the economic benefits that immigrants can stimulate. One of our basic freedoms is freedom of movement.…

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Why Did Humour and Laughter Evolve?

People will have different opinions about what is funny and what isn’t; what makes them laugh and what doesn’t. But we do know that humour and laughter exist, so the mysterious question surrounding this fact is: how did they evolve? Is there really some evolutionary advantage to finding ‘humour’ (however you define it) in social…

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Nick Bostrom on ‘Existential Risks’

Nick Bostrom is a Swedish philosopher who teaches at the University of Oxford. His areas of interest include the Simulation Hypothesis (that reality is a computer simulation run by a hyper-advanced ‘post-human’ civilisation) and the ethics of human enhancement (the ethical issues surrounding improving human capacities through science and technology). He is a proponent of…

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Sovereignty Over One’s Mind and Body: The Most Fundamental Human Right

Having control of one’s body and one’s mind – also called self-ownership – is, I believe, the most basic human right anyone can have. Mill summed up it nicely in On Liberty: “Over one’s mind and over one’s body the individual is sovereign” – although he did (rightly so) allow for exceptions involving actions which…

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