Everyday Philosophy

A continuing bilingual series approaching philosophical concepts, arguments and judgements through everyday questions.

• Are We Responsible for a Character We Did Not Choose?
• Are You Responsible If You Forgot What You Promised?
• Can a False Belief Still Be Rational?
• Can a Genuine Feeling Still Be Unfitting?
• Can a Deliberately Shaped Choice Still Be Autonomous?
• Can a Choice Be Rational Without a Common Scale?
• Can a Source Prove Its Own Reliability?
• Can a Team Know What No Member Knows Alone?
• Can a True Statement Still Be Deceptive?
• Can a Voluntary Agreement Still Be Exploitative?
• Is a Word Only I Can Understand Still Language?
• Can an Idea Be Owned Like a Chair?
• Can an Impossible Action Still Be a Duty?
• Can an Outcome Be Unjust Without Discriminatory Intent?
• Can an Unpublished Rule Fairly Bind People?
• Can Facts Alone Tell Us What We Ought to Do?
• Can Forgiveness Be Demanded?
• Can Future People Have Moral Claims on Us?
• Can People Who Do Not Yet Exist Have Claims on Us?
• Can Public Rules Be Justified Only by Private Beliefs?
• Can Silence Be a Lie Without a False Statement?
• Can Silence Count as Consent?
• Why Can Two Sincere People Still Disagree Morally?
• Can Someone Voluntarily Give Up All Future Freedom?
• Can What Others Tell Me Count as Knowledge?
• Can the Dead Still Be Wronged?
• Can Voting Be Rational When One Vote Rarely Decides?
• Can We Choose What to Believe?
• Can We Have Moral Duties to Ourselves?
• Can We Intentionally Deceive Ourselves?
• Can We Really Doubt Everything?
• Can You Truly Know How Without Being Able to Explain?
• Does Changing Your Mind Show the Earlier Decision Was Irrational?
• Can Consent Be Withdrawn After It Has Been Given?
• Does Disliking a Person Show That Their Claim Is False?
• Do Exceptions Make a Rule Arbitrary?
• Do Promises to Yourself Count as Real Promises?
• Do Two Agreeing Sources Count as Two Pieces of Evidence?
• Do We Deserve the Advantages That Come from Talent?
• Do We Owe Anything to People Not Yet Born?
• Does a Bad Outcome Prove the Decision Was Wrong?
• Does a Different Outcome Change Responsibility for the Same Negligence?
• Does a Fair Procedure Guarantee a Fair Outcome?
• Does a Friendship Based on Usefulness Count as Real Friendship?
• Does a Good Motive Make an Action Right?
• Does a Long-Standing Tradition Deserve to Be Preserved?
• Does a Lucky True Belief Count as Knowledge?
• Does a More Precise Score Make a Judgement More Objective?
• Does a Rule with Vague Boundaries Have to Be Unfair?
• Must a Simpler Explanation Be More Likely to Be True?
• Is Allowing Harm the Same as Causing It?
• Does an AI That Says It Suffers Have Moral Status?
• Does an Author's Intention Settle a Work's Meaning?
• Does an Identical Replacement Fully Compensate a Loss?
• Does ‘Being True to Yourself’ Excuse Disregarding Others?
• Does Benefiting from Injustice Create Responsibility?
• Does Boredom Show That Life Is Meaningless?
• Does Distance Reduce Our Duty to Help?
• Does Fairness Mean Treating Everyone the Same?
• Does Finding an Unattended Object Make It Yours?
• Does “For Your Own Good” Justify Deciding for You?
• Does Forgiving Someone Require Forgetting What They Did?
• Does Freedom of Expression Include a Right to an Audience?
• Does Freedom Mean Having No Constraints?
• Does Having No Alternative Always Remove Responsibility?
• Does Humility Mean Thinking Less of Yourself?
• If You Are Often Late, Can You Still Blame Someone Else for Being Late?
• Does Hypocrisy Cancel the Truth of a Criticism?
• Does Knowing Something Require Absolute Certainty?
• Does Loyalty Require Covering Up a Friend’s Wrongdoing?
• Does Majority Approval Make Something Right?
• Does Making the Better-Off Worse Improve Equality?
• Does a Lack of Evidence Against a Claim Make It True?
• Does Not Knowing Your Place Make a Rule Fairer?
• Does One Good Deed Show That Someone Is Virtuous?
• Does Owning Something Give You the Right to Destroy It?
• Does Repeating Right Actions Make Us Good?
• Does Respecting a Person Require Respecting Their View?
• Does Saying ‘Sorry’ Complete an Apology?
• Does Toleration Mean Approval?
• Does Trusting Experts Mean Giving Up Independent Thought?
• Does Explaining an Action Justify It?
• Is Favouring Those Close to Us Unjust?
• Do Good Intentions Make an Action Right?
• Does Having a Right to Act Mean the Action Is Right?
• How Can a Promise Create an Obligation?
• If Everyone Did It, Would That Make the Act Wrong?
• Is a Conflict of Interest a Problem Before Any Bias Occurs?
• Must a Promise Made Under Threat Be Kept?
• Is a Privacy Invasion Still Wrong If the Person Never Knows?
• Is a Ship Still the Same After Every Plank Is Replaced?
• Is Causing Offence Enough to Justify a Ban?
• Is Curiosity a Virtue in Itself?
• Is Foreseeing Harm the Same as Intending It?
• Is Happiness Simply a Matter of Having More Pleasure?
• Is It Enough to Do What Someone Else Says Is Right?
• Is It Still Wrong to Lie to Someone Seeking a Victim?
• Is Obedience Absolute When a Law Is Unjust?
• Is Punishment About Desert or Preventing Future Harm?
• Is Suspending Judgement an Evasion When Evidence Is Insufficient?
• Is It Always Wrong to Treat Someone as a Means?
• Must an Unjust Law Still Be Obeyed?
• Must a Definition Find One Essence Shared by Every Case?
• Must I Split the Difference with an Equally Reliable Disagreer?
• Must One of Two Contradictory Claims Be False?
• Must the Best Person Always Do the Most Moral Good?
• Must Tolerance Include Those Who Reject Tolerance?
• Must You Answer Directly When a Question’s Presupposition Is False?
• Is Privacy Just About Keeping Things Secret?
• Is Refusing to Choose Still a Choice?
• Should People Who Know More Get More Votes?
• Why Can True Premises Still Lead to a False Conclusion?
• Is Wanting What Someone Else Has Always Envy?
• What Do We Owe After Receiving Help?
• When Does Missing Evidence Support Absence?
• Can Ignorance of the Consequences Excuse Responsibility?
• When Does Discounting Someone’s Word Become Epistemic Injustice?
• When Everyone Does Only One Part, Who Is Responsible for the Whole?
• Why Is a Praiseworthy Act Not Necessarily a Duty?
• If a Forgery Looks Identical, What Still Makes It Different?
• Why Does Another Person's Report of Pain Deserve Initial Trust?
• Why Is Compromise More Than Taking the Midpoint?
• Why Do We Owe Anything to People Who Do Not Yet Exist?
• Why Can Doing the Right Thing Still Leave Moral Regret?
• Can Emotions for Fictional Characters Be Real?
• Why Is Enjoying a Shared Benefit Without Contributing Free Riding?
• If the Bus Has Always Been on Time, Why Not Tomorrow?
• If One Grain Makes No Difference, Why Does a Heap Eventually Disappear?
• Would a Perfect Copy of Me Still Be Me?