Category Archives: Philosophy

Pagan Perspectives and Interactions

Posted on May 31, 2011 by William Blumberg

What is a Pagan Perspective? Note the hedge of ‘a Pagan Perspective’ ensuring that the multiplicity of Pagan voices be given adequate space. These voices will give rise to questions on some of the themes presented by both Schwartz and … Continue reading →

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Five Ethical Issues with Future Generations

Posted on May 15, 2011 by William Blumberg

Ernest Partridge, in his “On the Rights of Future Generations,” examines five particular problems when dealing with future generations: the re-population paradox (which is based upon Schwartz’s ideas),[1] temporal remoteness, ‘No-claims’ argument, non-actuality, and indeterminacy.[2] As seen with Schwartz’s challenge … Continue reading →

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Thomas Schwartz and the Identifiable Fallacy

Posted on May 9, 2011 by William Blumberg

Thomas Schwartz, in his “Obligations to Posterity,” claims that there are no moral obligations to future persons based on the identifiable fallacy.[1]Any action that changes the future means that those persons born would be different than those who would have … Continue reading →

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Who Speaks for Future Generations?

Posted on May 2, 2011 by William Blumberg

Who speaks for future generations? When I say that ‘we should protect the environment for the future,’ what moral or legal authority do I speak from? By future persons, individuals or generations, I mean those who live non-concurrent lives to … Continue reading →

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The How to of Daily Ethics: Why I like Randy Cohen

Posted on April 24, 2011 by William Blumberg

I was falling behind on listening to some podcasts when I realized that Randy Cohen produced his last edition of “The Ethicist” for The New York Times. I found Randy insightful and humorous; however, more importantly, he was willing to … Continue reading →

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Responsibilities to Future Generations

Posted on April 16, 2011 by William Blumberg

One consideration in sustainability is our responsibilities to future generations. This topic often falls under applied ethics and has close ties to environmental ethics. However, applied ethics has concerns with relationships between individual persons. One problem that arises with dealing … Continue reading →

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Love and Emotions and Robert C. Solomon

Posted on April 7, 2011 by William Blumberg

Solomon, Robert C. About Love: Reinventing Romance for Our Times. Lanham, Maryland: Madison Books, 2001. Robert C. Solomon was the Quincy Lee Centennial Professor of Philosophy and Business at University of Texas at Austin whose untimely passing caused me great … Continue reading →

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Tsunami, Taking Actions, and Piety

Posted on March 11, 2011 by William Blumberg

I woke this morning and checked my twitter account (@williamblumberg) to find that a major earthquake occurred near Japan and that a tsunami had already impacted some coastal areas in Japan. My heart goes out to all those affected by … Continue reading →

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Ritual as Dissipation System

Posted on March 8, 2011 by William Blumberg

Ritual operates as a self-organizing dissipation system for ontological embodiment. Philosophers really know how to take all the fun out of something like ritual. Permit me to rephrase by saying that ritual permits the flow of energy, which is akin … Continue reading →

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Aristotle and Confucius are Friends

Posted on March 1, 2011 by William Blumberg

Yu, Jiyuan. The Ethics of Confucius and Aristotle: Mirrors of Virtue. New York: Routledge, 2007. There are dangers with comparative philosophy. These include incommensurability, relativism, misinterpretations and heavy reliance on secondary sources (language), and Eurocentric standards. Jiyuan Yu faces all … Continue reading →

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