Tagged: ethics

Have It Your Way: Cheeseburgers and Moral Responsility

Here at the Core, we spend a great deal of time examining a wide range of perspectives on morality, returning semester after semester to examine questions such as “how do we define right and wrong?” and even “do right and wrong really exist?” As we explore these ethical questions through the lenses of science, literature, […]

Does just thinking about science trigger moral behavior?

A recent post from Scientific American discusses the sticky subject of science and its role in morality. The scientific method has spewed some seemingly immoral conclusions. How do deal with that? Here are some thoughts: Researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara hypothesized that there is a deep-seated perception of science as a moral pursuit […]

Sting & Confucius

The Core presents a song by Sting titled Englishman in New York. It’s message relates to CC102’s study of the Analects of Confucius. The Confucian idea of the ethics of a “gentleman”, to some extent, provides directions on how to behave in the “gentlemanly” way when in a foreign land. Sting addresses this idea of […]

Applying Confucian Ethics to International Relations

In view of CC102’s study of the Analects of Confucius, the Core presents an interesting discussion of Confucian ethics when applied to international relations. Here is a sample: Chinese ethics is a deontological system that has a continuity spanning a range from personal to public concerns, without differentiation. A good society, a good state, and […]

Because it is Wrong

Frequent Core lecturer and former Core seminar leader Gregory Fried has co-authored a new book, Because it is Wrong: Torture, Privacy and Presidential Power in the Age of Terror , in collaboration with his father, Charles Fried.  Harper’s magazine recently posed 6 questions to them, probing into the reasons behind the points made in the […]

Analects of the Core: Aristotle on friendship and justice

Between friends there is no need for justice, but people who are just still need the quality of friendship; and indeed friendliness is considered to be justice in the fullest sense. It is not only a necessary thing but a splendid one. — Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics