All posts tagged: Moral

Voyages To The End Of The World: The Moral Costs Of Techno-Utopianism

Voyages To The End Of The World: The Moral Costs Of Techno-Utopianism

Published by Jenni Sidey

In their highly read First Things essay “Voyages to the End of the World,” Peter Thiel and Sam Wolfe use Francis Bacon’s utopian “New Atlantis” to argue that modern faith in unlimited technological progress has subtly redefined salvation as a human-controlled achievement rather than a divine gift, displacing religious understandings of human destiny with promises of security, abundance, and mastery over nature. They warn that this Baconian project – disguised in Christian imagery – risks creating a seductive but spiritually impoverished civilization where technological power outpaces moral wisdom, potentially leading to an end-times trajectory of false salvation unless reintegrated into a framework that respects natural and spiritual limits. Authored by William Brooks via The Epoch Times, Founded in 1990 by the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, First Things magazine strives to promote a well-informed public philosophy in the Christian and Jewish traditions. Last year, one of the most read essays in First Things was titled: “Voyages to the End of the World” by Peter Thiel and Sam Wolfe. Thiel is a tech entrepreneur, investor, and …

Physical distance shapes moral choices in sacrificial dilemmas

Physical distance shapes moral choices in sacrificial dilemmas

Published by José Betancourt

When people feel physically closer to someone who could be harmed, they are less willing to sacrifice that person for the greater good, according to a new finding reported in Cognition & Emotion. Moral dilemmas, situations where any available option violates an important moral value, have been used to study how people balance rules like “do not harm” against outcomes like saving more lives. Classic examples such as the trolley and footbridge dilemmas show that people often reject utilitarian solutions when harm requires direct physical contact, suggesting that emotional responses play an important role in moral judgment. The trolley dilemma is a thought experiment that asks whether it is morally permissible to pull a lever to divert a runaway train, sacrificing one person on a side track to save five people on the main line. The footbridge dilemma modifies this scenario by asking if one would physically push a large person off a bridge to stop the train, rather than using a mechanical switch. Federica Alfeo and colleagues were motivated by an open question in …

Moral Witness in Pressing Times

Moral Witness in Pressing Times

Published by Sam Flores

 It’s not a zero-sum game. This week on The State of Belief, interfaith organizer Maggie Siddiqi makes clear that coming together to counter antisemitism and Islamophobia is an essential part of the effort to protect American democracy. And doing that requires countering the narrative that somehow supporting one of these communities is harming the other. Maggie and host Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush discuss some of the concrete ways these communities are, in fact, coming together, but also the very real risks that doing so brings, and the courage needed to persevere in the face of challenges that can include divisions and mistrust within diverse communities themselves. The result can be profoundly inspiring: Paul and Maggie talk in-depth about a major Capitol Hill briefing last December convened by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), in partnership with Interfaith Alliance and Union Theological Seminary. In addition to MPAC President Salam Al-Marayati and JCPA CEO Amy Spitalnick, Congresswoman Lateefah Simon, a Muslim, and Congressman Jamie Raskin, who is Jewish, addressed …

George Saunders’s Moral Novel, ‘Vigil’

George Saunders’s Moral Novel, ‘Vigil’

Published by Daniella Wilson

It was once commonly understood that fiction was in the wisdom business, that it offered not only aesthetic pleasure but also moral improvement. This function of literature was not tough to spot. One of the first English novels was Samuel Richardson’s 1740 work, Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded—a title not meant ironically. Through the 19th century, many authors turned directly to the reader with philosophical and social (if sometimes ironic) commentary: “It is a truth universally acknowledged”; “It was the best of times”; “All happy families are alike.” For readers not up to the challenge of full George Eliot novels, her enterprising publisher compiled a volume of Eliot’s many Wise, Witty, and Tender Sayings, in order to more broadly distribute “a morality as pure as it is impassioned.” Such open authorial musing, and maybe literature’s wisdom-seeking function itself, has been out of vogue during the past century of show-don’t-tell storytelling. Although this has surely spared us some clunky sermonizing, it has brought downsides as well. Too many writers seem to have overlooked what I consider to …

America needs a moral reckoning in 2026

America needs a moral reckoning in 2026

Published by Sam Flores

We are only one week into 2026, and already the execrable nature of 2025 is overflowing into the new year. Adjectives like “horrible” or “gruesome” fail to capture the full texture and energy of what Donald Trump and his MAGA forces are doing to the country’s democracy and to the American people, and yet too many Americans still insist “this is not who we are.” They are wrong. Decades — and at least 150 years — of historical evidence proves that Trumpism is an American-made phenomenon and not something transplanted from abroad or brought here from another dimension through a crack in the time-space continuum. This is exactly who the nation is. Otherwise, Trump would not have been elected twice by tens of millions of people — many of whom would gladly put him back in office for a third term if given the opportunity. At its core, the Age of Trump — distilled in the ugliness of the president’s second term in office — is a moral calamity that demands a great reckoning if …

Contrary to Claims, Bioethics Is Not a ‘Moral Tradition’

Contrary to Claims, Bioethics Is Not a ‘Moral Tradition’

Published by Jenni Sidey

This article is republished from National Review with the permission of the author. Public-advocacy-focused secular bioethics is largely progressive politics covered with a veneer of expertise. While there are certainly university courses and degrees in the field, no bioethicist is licensed as such. Indeed, the entire discourse is purely subjective. It is driven mostly by philosophers, professors, doctors, and lawyers who opine about a particular set of issues, your faithful correspondent included. Image Credit: KulenPark – Adobe Stock But now, members of the tribe apparently want to pretend that secular bioethics has become such a deeply ingrained part of our societal bedrock that it qualifies as a moral tradition. From, “Bioethics as an Emerging Moral Tradition and Some Implications for Adversarial Cooperation,” published in the influential Journal of Medical Ethics (citations omitted): In a forthcoming book titled The Emerging Tradition of Secular Bioethics, . . . we focus on whether the field of bioethics in the pluralistic and increasingly polarised American context can give justified moral guidance in foundational, clinical, research and public health domains. We argue against …

A Hybrid Moral Codex for Human-AI Cohabitation

A Hybrid Moral Codex for Human-AI Cohabitation

Published by Miika Tikkanen

The explosion of artificial intelligence represents more than technological evolution. It’s a societal transformation. As AI-powered robots integrate into workplaces, homes, and public spaces, human-machine interaction lines blur. This cohabitation requires a comprehensive, adaptable ethical framework: a hybrid moral codex. For every human, but in particular every business leader, implementing such a codex should be pursued as a priority, because having and following it will be an asset to building trust in a hybrid society. For decades, science fiction offered Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics as an ethical blueprint. These laws required robots to avoid harming humans, to obey human orders (unless conflicting with harm prevention), and to protect their existence (unless conflicting with the first two laws). While foundational to robotic ethics in popular culture, though, these principles prove inadequate for modern AI complexities. Beyond Asimov: The Insufficiency of Simple Directives Asimov’s Laws falter in real-world AI applications for several reasons: Ambiguity of “Harm”: What constitutes harm in AI contexts? Does it encompass only physical injury, or extend to economic displacement, psychological manipulation, …