Category: Ethics

 

When I look back at over a decade of writing about gun violence, I am struck by the fact that I keep writing essentially the same thing. This is not because I am a lazy writer. This is because almost nothing changes other than the names. Those who oppose gun control have a script they follow after each mass shooting, and it contributes to ensuring that nothing changes.

Immediately after a mass shooting, some people demand more gun control. In response, those who oppose gun control respond with thoughts and prayers. They then say that now is not the time to discuss gun violence. Are they right?

On the one hand, this might be reasonable After all, strong emotions can impede good reasoning, and laws should be well crafted. There is an abundance of fallacies “fueled” by emotions that lead people astray from good reasoning, even when they are acting in good faith. Examples include appeal to anger, appeal to pity, and appeal to fear. In these fallacies, something that creates an emotional effect (anger, pity or fear) substitute for a logical reason to accept a claim. People are more likely to commit such fallacies when they have strong feelings. For example, a person’s anger about and fear of violence might lead them to think a bad law is a good idea.

A reasonable concern is that people will make poor decisions about laws or policies while feeling strong emotions and these decisions can have negative consequences or lead to ineffective solutions.  One can argue that better decisions would be made after emotions have cooled down and we should make laws and policies when our reasoning is at its best. As would be expected, the same people who advise a waiting period for discussing gun violence are quick to press for laws they favor when something happens that supports their political narratives, such as when a migrant commits a crime or has a traffic accident.

On the other hand, waiting to discuss gun violence has downsides. First, concern about gun violence fades over time as people are distracted and their emotions cool. So, a delay might not lead to a more reasonable discussion of gun laws and policies but to no real discussion at all. This is illustrated by the usual media cycle: there is a focus on the shooting for a few days and then coverage fades until the next incident. So, it seems reasonable to push for serious discussion when people are paying attention.

Second, there is the worry that the call to wait is not motivated by a desire  to have calm reflection but a tactic to take advantage of the media’s and the public’s short attention span. If the discussion can be held off long enough, people will forget (as noted above) and the status quo will continue.

While I favor a rational discussion, this can be done without waiting until people have mostly lost interest. As such, the time to discuss the matter seriously is now. And always has been.

While we consider ourselves the dominant species, we face dangers from other species. While some are large animals such as lions, tigers and bears our greatest foes tend to be tiny. These include insects, bacteria and viruses.

While we have struggled to eliminate threats new advances in technology and science have provided additional options. One of these is genetically modifying species so they cannot reproduce, thus potentially resulting in their extermination. As might be suspected, insects such as disease carrying mosquitoes and screwworms are a prime target. One approach to wiping out mosquitoes was to genetically modify mosquito eggs so adults carry “extermination” genes. The adult males are released into the wild and reproduce with native females. The offspring have the modified gene which causes the female mosquitos to be unable to fly. The males can fly normally, and they continue to “infect” the local population until (in theory) it is exterminated. There are also other ways such exterminations might be conducted, although we seem to be best at exterminating benign species. As might be imagined, the extermination option raises ethical concerns.

One concern is that intentionally exterminating a species seems morally dubious. However, this concern can be countered on utilitarian grounds. After all, if an organism (such as an insect or virus) is harmful to humans and does not have an important role in the ecosystem, then its extermination would seem morally justified because this would create more good than harm. Naturally, if a harmful species were also beneficial, then the calculation becomes more complicated and such extermination could be wrong if it would do more harm than good.

The utilitarian approach can be countered by appealing to another approach to ethics. For example, it could be argued that such extermination is simply wrong regardless of the beneficial consequences to humans. It can, however, be pointed out that species go extinct naturally and, as such, perhaps a case could be made that such exterminations are not inherently wrong. The obvious counter would be to point out that there is a moral difference between a species dying of natural causes and being destroyed by us. The distinction between killing and letting die comes to mind here.

The extermination of a harmful species can be acceptable, provided that the benefits do, in fact, outweigh the harm of extermination. Getting rid of, for example, the HIV virus would be morally acceptable—as far as we know, it has no benefits and only causes harm. There are some beneficial viruses, such as some bacteriophages.  In the case of mosquitoes, the concern would be the role it has in the ecosystem, and the impact of its extermination. If, for example, a disease carrying mosquito was an invasive species and its elimination would not impact the ecosystem in a negative way, then it would seem to be acceptable to exterminate it. Naturally, if the extermination is local and the species remains elsewhere, then there are less grounds for moral concern. After all, I have no moral objection to the extermination of the roaches, termites, fleas and other bugs that attempt to reside in my house—there are plenty of these critters in the wild and they would pose a threat to my health and house if they were allowed to dwell with me. But there is a concern that selective extermination could spread. For example, while terminates do pose a threat to my house, I would not want them controlled by means that could bring about the extinction of termites—they are an important part of the ecosystem.

A second point of concern involves methodology. While humans have attempted to wipe out species by killing them the old-fashioned ways (like poisons and gun), the use of genetic modification could be of special moral concern.

There is, of course, the usual concern with “playing God” or tampering with nature. However, as is always pointed out, we routinely accept such tampering. For example, by using artificial light, vaccines, surgery and such we are “playing God” and tampering with nature. As such, the idea that “playing God” is inherently wrong seems dubious. Rather, what is needed is to show that specific acts of “playing God” or tampering are wrong.

There is also a reasonable concern about unintended consequences, as exemplified by the use of DDT which had a host of undesirable effects. I do not, of course, think that modifying mosquitoes will create 1950s style giant mosquitoes that will rampage across the land. However, there are reasonable grounds to be concerned that genetic modification might have unexpected and unpleasant results, and this possibility should be seriously considered when modifying species to exterminate or control them.

A final point I will address is a practical one, namely that even if a species is exterminated by genetic modification another species might take its place. In the case of mosquitoes, it seems likely that if one type of mosquito is wiped out, then another one will move into the niche and the problem, such as a mosquito transmitted illness will return. Naturally, if there are good grounds to believe that the extermination would be effective and ethically acceptable, then this would be another matter.

 

 

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The basic problem of evil is that the existence of evil in the world is incompatible with the Philosophy 101 conception of God, namely that God is all good, all-powerful and all knowing. After all, if God has these attributes, then He knows about all evil, should tolerate no evil and has the power to prevent evil. While some take the problem of evil to show that God does not exist, it can also be taken as showing that this conception of God is in error. For example, if God is not all powerful (perhaps because He is opposed by an equally powerful evil being), then evil would be compatible with God.

Not surprisingly, those who accept the existence of an all good, all powerful and all-knowing deity have responded to the problem of evil. One standard response is that God has granted us free will and this necessitates that He allows us to do evil things. This, it is claimed, gets God off the hook: since we are free to choose evil, God is not accountable for the evil we do.

In a previous essay I discussed the old claim by Republican Richard Mourdock’s that “Life is that gift from God. I think that even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something God intended to happen.” In that essay, I briefly discussed the matter of free will. In this essay I will expand on this subject. While this is callback to a debate from 2012, the victories of the anti-abortion view make this discussion relevant today.

For the sake of the discussion, I assume we have free will because I am interested in whether  free will actually get God off the hook for the evil that occurs, such as rape and its consequences.

On the face of it, free will would seem to free God from being morally accountable for our choices. After all, if God does not compel or influence our choices and we are free to select between good and evil, then the responsibility of the choice rests on the person making the decision. It should also be added that God must be be excused from responsibility for allowing evil choices—after all, for free will in the context of morality there must be the capacity for choosing good or evil. Or so the stock arguments usually claim.

For the sake of the discussion, I will accept this second assumption. This does lead to an interesting question: does allowing free will require that God allow the consequences of the evil choices to come to pass? Could God allow people moral autonomy, yet prevent their misdeeds from bearing their evil fruit?

One way to consider this is that free will requires a person be able to make a moral decision and that this decision be either good or evil (or possibly neutral). After all, a moral choice must be a moral choice. On this approach, whether free will would be compatible with God preventing occurrences (like rape or pregnancy caused by rape) would seem to depend on what makes something good or evil.

There are a multitude of moral theories attempting to explain good and evil. For the sake of brevity, I will consider two: Kant’s view and the utilitarian view (as exemplified by John Stuart Mill).

Kant famously takes the view that “A good will is good not because of what it performs or effects, not by its aptness for the attainment of some proposed end, but simply by virtue of the volition—that is, it is good in itself, and considered by itself is to be esteemed much higher than all that can be brought about by it in favor of any inclination…Its usefulness or fruitlessness can neither add to nor take away anything from this value.”

For Kant, what makes a willing (decision) good or evil is contained in the act of willing itself. Hence, there is no need to consider the consequences of an action stemming from a decision when determining the morality of that choice. An interesting illustration of this view can be found in Bioware’s Star Wars the Old Republic game. Players are often given a chance to select between light side and dark side options, thus earning light side or dark side points which determine the moral alignment of the character. For example, a player might have to choose between killing or sparing a defeated opponent.  Conveniently, the choices are labeled with symbols indicating whether they are light side or dark side—which would be useful in real life.

If Kant’s view is correct, then God could allow free will while preventing evil choices from having any harmful consequences. For example, a person could freely will that they commit rape and the moral choice would be noted by God (in anticipation of judgment day). God could prevent the rape from ever occurring—the rapist could, for example, have explosive diarrhea while trying to corner his intended victim in a changing room. As another example, a person could freely will the decision to commit murder yet find that her gun is empty when aimed at the intended victim. In short, people could be free to make moral choices while at the same time being unable to bring those evil intentions into actuality. Thus, God could allow free will while also preventing anyone from being harmed.

It might be objected that God could not do this because people figure out that they could never act on their evil decisions and hence people would (in general) stop making evil choices. Because there would be an effective deterrent to evil choices this would rob people of free will. For example, those who would otherwise decide to rape if they did not get explosive diarrhea every time they tried would stop choosing rape because they would know they would never succeed.  

The obvious reply is that free will does not mean a person gets what they will—it merely means that the person is free to will. As such, people who want to rape could still will to rape and do so freely. They just would not be able to harm anyone as they would be disabled, in this narrative, by debilitating explosive diarrhea.

It is obvious that this is not how the world works—people are able to do all manner of evil. However, since God could make the world work this way if He was all powerful, this suggests that God does not exist He is not a Kantian (which would disappoint Kant). This leads me to the utilitarian option.

On the stock utilitarian approach, the morality of an action depends on the consequences of said action. As Mill put it, “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” As such, the morality of a willing would not be determined by the will but by the consequences of the action brought about by the willing.

If this is correct, then God would need to allow the consequences of the willing to occur for the willing to be good or evil (or neutral). After all, if the willing had no consequences, then it would have no moral significance on a consequentialist view like utilitarianism. So, for example, if a person freely wills to rape, then God must not intervene. Otherwise, He would be interfering with what determines the ethics of the willing. As such, if God did not allow the rapist to act upon His willing, then the decision to rape would not be an evil decision. If it is assumed that free will is essential to God being able to judge people for their deeds and misdeeds, then He would have to allow misdeeds to bear fruit so that they would be, in fact, misdeeds. On the usual view, He then punishes or rewards people after they die.

One obvious problem with this approach is that an all-knowing God would know the consequences of an action even without allowing it to take place. As such, God could allow people to will their misdeeds and then punish them for what the consequences would have been if they had been able to act upon their intentions. After all human justice punishes people even when they are prevented from committing their crimes. For example, someone who tries to murder another person is (supposed to be) punished for attempted murder when they fail. For many crimes, people do not get a free pass if they fail in the attempt.

It might be countered that God can only punish actual evil and not potential evil. That is, if the misdeed is prevented then it is no misdeed and hence God cannot justly punish. On this view, God must allow rape so He can toast rapists in Hell. This would require that God not consider an attempted evil deed as an evil deed. So, actual murder would be wrong, but attempted murder would not. This is contrary to human justice—but it could be claimed that human law and divine law are rather different. Obviously, humans and God take very different approaches: we sometime try to keep people from committing misdeeds whereas God never does. Rather, He is content to punish long after the fact—at least on the usual account of God.

 

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In science fiction, a cyborg (“cybernetic organism”) is a combination of organic and technological components. Daleks, Cybermen, Terminators, the Bionic Man and the Borg are examples of fictional cyborgs. There are real-life human cyborgs, such as a person with a pacemaker.  Cyborg insects are also real. Back in 2012 I wrote about the ethics of converting beetles and checked in again to see if cyberbeetles are still a thing. They are.

Years ago, Michael M. Maharbiz and Hirotaka Sato developed an interesting, if disturbing system, for creating cyborg beetles. They equipped a beetle with a “backpack” containing electronics linked to the beetle’s muscles and nervous system, allowing the beetle to be driven about like a remote-control vehicle. These cyborgs are more efficient flyers than our mechanical creations. So, it makes practical sense to convert a beetle to a cyborg rather than trying to build a better mechanical beetle.

As far as the uses of such cyborgs, in some future battle swarms of cyberbeetles might be deployed to look for enemy soldiers within a city. As a more peaceful example, cyberbeetles might be released into the rubble after a natural disaster to locate survivors. While cyberbeetles could prove useful, there are still moral questions about their creation and use.

One obvious moral concern is that creating cyberbeetles requires modifying a beetle with technology and effectively enslaving it to serve as a drone. This involves two points of concern, namely the modification and the enslavement.

In terms of the modification, the worry is that such tampering with living creatures is morally dubious, perhaps because it is unnatural. The challenge is, of course, to develop an account of the natural in which such alterations would be wrong. I will not endeavor to do so here.

In terms of enslavement, the obvious concern is that the beetles are being treated the way the fictional Cybermen and Borg treat their victims: they take control of them with technology and rob them of their own lives. On the face of it, such technological enslavement is wrong whether it involves robbing a human or a beetle of whatever freedom they possess.

The obvious reply is, of course, that the “victims” in this case are just beetles. They do not have much of a life (or lifespan) even in the natural world and hence they are not being wronged. In fact, it could be argued that as valuable tools they would have a better life than in the wild. After all, they would be fed and protected. Presumably the Cybermen and Borg would advance similar arguments, should they ever consider the ethics of their actions. That is, the same arguments that are used to justify the enslavement of beetles could be used to justify converting humans into human versions of the beetles. This, of course, leads to another moral concern.

While there is obviously a moral distance between cyborg beetles and creating cyborg humans (basically Cybermen), allowing beetles to be converted into cyborgs is a beetle sized step towards converting higher organisms. After all, if a beetle would make a good flying spy, a bird would make an even better one. Also, imagine the usefulness of converted rats, cats, and dogs. From there it is a much smaller step to creating human cyborgs that are controlled by implants to engage in spying or combat. Enslaving humans in this manner is clearly wrong and the path to this begins, obviously enough, with these beetles.

That said, it is obviously possible to stop before we get to humans—I do not, of course, want to use a fallacious slippery slope argument here. However, before going on a journey it is generally wise to consider where it might end.

 

 

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The now infamous Flock cameras have, like data centers, united Americans in a loathing that crosses the political spectrum. But there are those who defend Flock, presumably with some not even being paid to express this view. As those familiar with my writings would guess, I’m consistently opposed to the surveillance state and hence to the Flock camera system. But I am always willing to consider arguments for mass surveillance.

One stock line I have heard from Flock defenders is that they are morally okay because we do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in public. This is partially true. In the broadest sense, the nature of public spaces is such that we cannot expect privacy in public. But there are specific cases where privacy rights can be violated even in public spaces. Obvious examples include someone intruding into your stall in a public bathroom or getting into your backpack or purse at a public library.

While photographing someone in a public space is usually morally acceptable, there are also exceptions, like upskirt photos. Upskirt photos were once legal even when the target was a minor, as a case in Oregon showed. Fortunately, laws making this illegal have passed in the United States. In terms of how this relates to Flock cameras, it does show that even in public spaces there are still privacy rights about what can be photographed. But someone can easily argue that Flock cameras are not doing the moral equivalent of upskirt photographs as they are allegedly “just” capturing images of our vehicles. Smart glasses with cameras, such as those made by Meta, are also raising privacy concerns because, unlike with a smartphone, it can be difficult to tell when you are being filmed.

As would be guessed (as with upskirt photos) women are the main target of such secret filming. From a legal standpoint, such public filming is allowed (aside from in public bathrooms, etc.) but recording audio can run afoul of the law if private conversations are recorded. Flock cameras, as far as I know, only take photos and hence escape concerns about audio recordings. But the same moral concerns about the cameras in smart glasses arise for Flock cameras: while they are not camouflaged as innocent objects, they can be difficult to spot as you are driving. As such, you and your vehicle can be Flocked without your knowledge or consent—much like how weirdos use their smart glasses to film women in public. Defenders of Flock can argue that those using Flock are different from people using smart glasses from perverse motivations and hence the analogy fails. The obvious reply is to point out that as of this writing at least 50 “rogue” officers have been charged with misusing it and other similar systems. As would be expected, much of the misuse has been to stalk women. As such, the analogy to privacy violations using the cameras in smart glasses seems somewhat reasonable.

To be fair and balanced, the analogy will fall apart under sufficient pressure. For example, Flock is an entire network of cameras and software that takes photos of vehicles without our knowledge or consent, while a guy filming women using his smart glasses without their knowledge or consent is obviously just one guy who might upload the video. But defenders of Flock will insist that the analogy does not hold. Or perhaps they would also defend the use of smart glasses in this manner.

In addition to building arguments based on the lack of an expectation of privacy in public, defenders of Flock often draw an analogy to how Flock is like having a police officer at an intersection, checking out cars and taking notes. Or, since Flock is a private company, like having a police officer and a CEO checking out cars and taking notes at an intersection. However, as opponents point out, it is not like having a single person doing this. It is like having thousands of police (and corporate employees) watching everyone and sharing their notes with each other. This, one might argue, is equivalent to stalking.

But a Flock defender might express doubt: how could having many people watching other people be like stalking? After all, stalking involves one person directing repeated unwanted attention at a specific person that causes the target fear or distress. Going back to the police officer analogy, a cop watching an intersection, even with a CEO with them, is not stalking. They are just watching people go by and there is not that pattern of repeated unwanted attention that is essential to stalking. They could apply the same argument to the analogy involving having thousands of police (and other people) watching their own sections of streets—no one observer is repeating the pattern of unwarranted attention. It is just thousands of unrelated incidents of unwanted attention. At this point, you can see where this is going.

While a single Flock camera at one location would not be stalking, a Flock camera that followed you around all day would be. But as the Flock cameras are in a network, you are being stalked by Flock—it is a repeated pattern of unwanted attention and thus violates your moral right not to be stalked. That is, the Flock is following you all day through its many eyes, like a monster.

 

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When I was a boy, I was small, smart and sensitive. As a good father, my dad did his best to help me develop the manly virtues.  As part of this process, I was sent to basketball camp to develop my skills and build character. I was a terrible player with no skill and no interest in the sport. I much preferred reading to shooting hoops. But I tried to do the best I could within the limits of my abilities. This virtue has proven very useful over the years.

During one drill, the coach called for the best player to run to the center of the court. Immediately all the other boys jumped up and ran. Having an honest understanding of my relative skills, I remained seated. The coach had excellent self-control, and I saw the surprise on his face for only a split second—in retrospect, I am sure I was the first boy to ever do that as we are always supposed to think of ourselves as the best, especially when we are not. I am not sure how the original plan was supposed to play out, but the coach had to do something. He made us all do pushups and I had to do twice as many as everyone else. The coach really did do his best to make us better but had probably never had to deal with my brand of weirdness.

Even at the time I thought this was an odd exercise. It seemed to be aimed at encouraging self-deception and that seemed, even to the young me, wrong. The other boys blamed me (correctly) for the pushups, and this made me even more of an outsider at camp. I knew better than to discuss this with the other boys, but the incident has obviously stuck with me.

While the coaches did their best to improve my skills, when I tried out for the basketball team in high school the coach said they had an important position for me, that of manager. When I said “coach, I have to do a sport” he said, “go out for winter track…they take everybody.” He was right, although winter track did have its own hierarchy. Before the season, the coach put everyone through a series of tests to see what they were good at, with sprinting and jumping events being the most prestigious. Those without any discernible talents became distance runners. That is how I became a distance runner. While not great in high school, my talent for getting lost on runs made me into a good college runner and I ended up being all-conference in cross country twice. After college I kept racing and still “race” today.

For years and even now, people ask me if I will win the race. Back in the day, it was a question about winning overall. Now it is a question about winning my age group. I always give an honest answer, which is usually “no.” Although this seems to bother people, honesty compels me to keep being…honest. While I have won races, I am now 60 years old and my only hopes of victory involve either no one else showing up or divine intervention. While this might seem humble, I struggle with arrogance.

Not long ago, my pride would push me to say that my younger self would have run the race faster than the current winner—when that was true. I am arrogant but not dishonest. But my honesty forced me to confront that looking back on how good I was and comparing that past self to the winner of today’s race is unhealthy and petty. My old times do pop into my head, and I cannot help but make comparisons, but I do try to keep that vice in check. So, I have an odd combination of knowing I am not the best but also being arrogant. But is there an advantage to thinking one is the best or at least better than one is? Was I wrong not to run out when the coach asked for the best player?

On the one hand, I get the point of some degree of self-deception. It could be argued that a person who thinks they are the best will push them towards being the best. Having been racing for decades, I know people like this, and they often push themselves because they believe they are better than they are and are driven to contend against people who are better runners. There can be a downside to this, as those who think they are better than they are sometimes get angry and make excuses for losing to maintain the illusion of their superiority.

On the other hand, this sort of self-deception can be a problem After all, a person who wrongly thinks they are the best will not be acting rationally. In fact, they will probably be suffering from cognitive biases.  

One bias is “overconfidence effect.” This bias causes a person to believe they have done better than they have done. As a professor, I often see this bias in students. For example, I have lost track of the times a student has said “my paper felt like an A” when it was a D (or worse) or has said “I think I did great on the test” when it turns out that they did not do great.

A closely related bias is the “better-than-average illusion.” A person falls victim to this when they overestimate their abilities relative to others. As people often think very highly of themselves, they commonly fall into this trap.

While confidence can be a good thing and demoralizing yourself is not going to do you any favors, these biases have negative consequences. One problem is that they can cause people to do worse. After all, a person who overestimates their performance or abilities might not try as hard as they should. They will think they are already doing much better than they are, thus overestimating their performance and coming to a false conclusion about, for example, their grade or skill at running. This is most likely to occur when they do not have immediate feedback, such as on a test or paper. Even when they do get feedback, they will be inclined to think the feedback is mistaken. If someone gets good at rejecting reality, they might have an excellent career in modern American politics.

This bias can also cause a person to “burn out” by trying too hard based on a mistaken assessment of their abilities. For example, inexperienced runners often sprint at the start of a race only to discover that they are not as capable as they had believed. It can even happen to people who should know better. For example, some years ago I went to the USA 15K championship race as part of a team. Before the race, our best runner bragged about running with the Kenyans. While he got off to a good start, some world class female runner passed him. This broke him and he gave up, leaving the race. These women obviously also passed me, but I knew my capabilities and was honest about them, so I just stuck to my plan. I knew what I could do and what I could not do—and I knew I miles left in the race and I would just burn myself out trying to stick with these women. Despite losing one runner, we placed third overall as a team. My experience is that I do better when I have an accurate assessment of my abilities relative to my competition, especially in running. I always try to do my best—but to do this, I must have an accurate gauge of what this is to avoid overconfidence and to resist being defeated by my own pride. While a runner can lie to themselves about how well they should have run and make excuses, one of the many good things about running is that the time you run is an objective fact. This makes it difficult to maintain delusions, and everyone can see how good or bad you are. Unfortunately, this is not true across all of life and incompetent and ignorant grifters can lie their way into positions of power and lie endlessly about their failures being great successes. To be fair and balanced, the incredible success made possible by being good at lying and grifting does tell against my view about honesty. But, perhaps out of spite, I think that the fact that grifting can be seen as a success is condemnation of the system we have collectively built.

It might be objected that my rational assessment of my abilities robs me of the delusional passion that one must have to be a true competitor. This is, however, not the case. As my friends will attest, while I am gracious in defeat I hate to lose. In fact, honesty compels me to say that I hate losing more than I love winning. And I really love to win. As such, when I get to the starting line or play a competitive video game, I am there to win and to make others lose. But victory often rests on knowing what my competitors and I can and cannot do. I gain no advantage by deluding myself into thinking I am better than I am or they are worse than they are. Once again, it might be objected that grifting and lying are very effective in our political and economic system, so being honest is disadvantageous. To be fair and balanced, if we embrace the sophist view that only success matters and define success in terms of getting money and power, then honesty is a losing option. But as we can see the horrific consequences of the griftocracy of lies we live in, it seems evident that honesty remains the best policy.

God & Rape: The Problem of Evil

Way back in 2012, Republican Richard Mourdock said he believed that abortion is acceptable only to save the life of the mother. Then he went on to say: “Life is that gift from God. I think that even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something God intended to happen.” Mourdock was criticized for these remarks, but my interest is not in revisiting the political fights of 2012. Rather, I will instead focus on his claim that if a woman gets pregnant from rape, then God intended it to happen. This is a narrowly focused version of the problem of reconciling a certain conception of God (all good, all powerful and all knowing) with the existence of evil. It also falls under the question of God’s causal relation to the world.

Mourdock presented a view of God that has long  been argued for by theologians and philosophers. This is the view that God is the cause of all that occurs and that nothing occurs contrary to God’s intention.  For example, Hume in his essay on the immortality of the soul, writes “as every effect implies a cause, and that another, till we reach the first cause of all, which is the Deity; everything that happens is ordained by him…”

As far as things happening against God’s intention, this would seem impossible given the assumption that God is all powerful and all knowing. After all, things could only go against His intention if He lacked the power to do otherwise or something took place without His knowledge. If He is all knowing and all powerful, then nothing can happen contrary to His intention. Thus, if someone becomes pregnant from rape, then God (if He exists) intended that to happen-just as Mourdock claimed.

It might be replied that God allows things to happen contrary to His intention because of free will. In the case of rape, the rapist freely willed that they would commit rape and God had to allow that to happen. While this might get Him off the hook about allowing rape, it does not do so in the case of pregnancy. After all, God could allow rapists to freely rape and still prevent rape from causing pregnancy. He could, for example, give women that pregnancy shut down system that Todd Akin infamously mentioned. Or, even better, he could allow people the free will to choose rape but prevent them from ever acting on that choice. God could, for example, give them explosive diarrhea until they stopped free willing an intention to rape.  As such, if God exists, then God does intend for the pregnancies that arise from rape.

There is, of course, the question of whether women should be legally compelled to endure these God intended pregnancies. An anti-abortion person might argue that since God intended the woman to get pregnant from rape, then abortions should not be allowed because God’s intentions must be honored.  The easy and obvious reply to this is that the same logic would entail that we should do nothing in response to anything that happens other than accept it as God’s intention. To use a silly example, if your house is on fire, then God intended it to be on fire and hence you should let it burn.  This is the same logic as reasoning that if a woman is impregnated by rape, then she should complete the pregnancy.

It can also be argued that we can determine God’s intentions about abortion by allowing abortion. After all, if God intends for the pregnancy to go through, then God can guarantee that happens since what God wants God gets. If an abortion succeeds, then either God intended for it to succeed (and thus the abortion should have been conducted) or God does not exist (or was unable to act on His intention). As such, arguing against abortion based on God’s alleged intent is absurd.

 

 

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While there have been improvements in the gender pay gap, women still generally lag behind men. In the United States, the median income for women workers is 81-83% of that of men. This is an improvement from the 75% figure of 1989 but is still a point of concern. Interestingly, there has been an inversion of the pay gap for CEOs.  Way back in 2012 women CEOs made about 72% of what their male colleagues were paid. Now, female CEOs in the S&P 500 have a higher median income than their male counterparts.

While there have been failed efforts to get an equal rights amendment ratified, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 provided women with some tools to address discrimination.

On the face of it, women are morally entitled to the same pay as men, provided the relevant factors are the same. This is based on the principle of relevant difference: a difference in treatment is only morally justified when it is grounded by a relevant difference. The challenge is defining what differences are relevant. As an easy example, if Mike is paid more than Sally because Mike is a full professor and Sally is an assistant professor, then that difference would be relevant, and the pay disparity could be thus justified. However, if Mike and Sally were both full professors and Sally was paid less just because she is a woman, then that would not be a relevant difference and hence would seem to be unfair.  But this view can be countered.

One option is to argue that a person’s biological sex is a relevant difference such that even if all other factors were identical, a woman could be justly paid less solely because she is a woman. This seems difficult to justify as it is like saying that if a man and a woman raced a 5K and they ran identical times (crossing the line at the same time), then the woman would lose just because she is a woman, even though everything else was the same. This is absurd.  While a sexist could claim that even in such cases the woman would lose and should be paid less, the “clever” sexist will argue that women have properties as women that are relevant to being paid less.

The usual claim is that women will generally underperform relative to men because of the qualities women have (or lack). As an illustration, someone might use the example that on average men are faster runners than women. For example, the world record for men in the marathon is 1:59:30 and for women 2:09:56 (my best is 2:45). This is not due to any injustice but to the physical differences between the sexes. The sexist would then argue that this disparity in ability extends into the workplace and hence women, in general, merit less pay then men.

This line of reasoning has some appeal. If the work performance of women is inferior to that of men, then they would justly be paid less and this would appear in the statistics, just as the difference in performance shows up in marathon results. If it is countered that some women are superior to some men, the obvious reply is that this is still consistent with the general disparity. After all, the women’s world record in the marathon crushes mine by 36 minutes, but it is still about 10 minutes behind the men’s record. And the average women’s time in the marathon is slower than that of the men.  Likewise, while Sally might be superior to Sam at work, male workers in general might be superior to female workers, thus justifying the disparity.

This line of reasoning can be countered by showing that workplace performance of women is at least comparable to that of men and thus the pay disparity is unjust. If general gender pay disparity is justified by appealing to relevant differences, then individual women who perform at work as well or better than men in a job should be paid as well or more.

Based on my own experiences, I believe men and women have comparable job performances, and that a person’s biological sex does not warrant pay disparities. But this is, at best, a hasty generalization since my sample is small. But this is an empirical question and can be addressed by an adequate investigation. If an objective and adequate assessment showed that one sex is inferior to another in relevant ways, then the general disparity would be warranted.

Another approach, argued for by Representative Todd Akin (the same person who claimed that the female reproductive system has defense mechanisms against being impregnated by legitimate rape) is that employers should have the right to pay women less than men. Akin said, “I believe in free enterprise. I don’t think the government should be telling people what you pay and what you don’t pay. I think it’s about freedom.  If somebody wants to hire somebody and they agree on a salary, that’s fine, however it wants to work. So, the government sticking its nose into all kinds of things has gotten us into huge trouble.” Distilled, this is the view that employers should be able to underpay women because freedom.

On the one hand, this has some appeal. After all, for the state to impose salary rules on employers would limit their freedom. Some argue that in a free-market people can always decide not to accept a salary and go elsewhere to earn a more desirable salary. As such, if an employer wants to pay women less than men, then women can go work for someone who pays women better. A woman could even start her own business and pay women as well as (or better than) men. Naturally, the same freedom would seem to apply broadly so that an employer should not be forced to pay a minimum wage or provide any benefits that could be considered part of the compensation. If workers also have the freedom to secure better pay, then it would be reasonable for employers to have the freedom to set their pay.

But there are some serious points of concern with the freedom argument First, employees usually negotiate from a position of weakness relative to the employer. So, the market is not free but operating in favor of the employer. This is why employees should be able to form unions and have legal protections to help ensure the wage market is free and that one side does not have an unjust advantage. Part of ensuring a free market could involve minimum wage and equal pay for equal work laws. History shows what happens when employers can set their pay with complete freedom.

Second, the idea that women workers can always go elsewhere and receive better pay or start their own business is unrealistic. After all, if most employers pay women less than men, women will not have many options. Also, the odds of a new business succeeding are low so this option is hardly one that most women can use.

Third, there is also the matter of ethics. While some might hold that employers should have the freedom (or right) to pay workers as they please without the interference of the state, this same logic would grant individuals the freedom to steal from employers (or anyone). After all, if an employer should have the freedom to pay workers less than the value of their work, then they are stealing from the workers. If this theft is morally acceptable, then so too would be theft from the employers. After all, if the employer has the freedom to engage in unjust acts, then the same freedom could be claimed by everyone, thus allowing people the freedom to rob employers.

It might be countered that the workers agree to the pay and hence are not being robbed. This would be true if the workers freely entered into the agreement without coercion. However, if the workers are coerced into these agreements (as can occur when there is a disparity in power) then this is theft. After all, if a person “agrees” to hand me some of his property because he knows I have a gun, then I am still stealing. Likewise, if people must work to survive within a coercive economic system, then they can be robbed even when they “agree” to accept what they are offered. Thus, the freedom argument against fair pay lacks merit, unless one believes in freedom to steal. Which, if we look at our economic system, is a belief held by the ruling class—at least the freedom for them to steal.

 

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The euphemism “right to work” is a useful rhetorical tool beloved by anti-labor politicians. A euphemism is substituting a positive or innocuous term for a more negative one.  It is like sprinkling sugar on something unpleasant as suggested by Mary Poppins, “Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in a most delightful way.”

Euphemisms are also used outside of politics. For example, in my youth people bought used cars. Now people purchase pre-owned vehicles. People used to be fired. Now they are downsized. Secondhand clothing is now vintage.

Euphemisms are often used when naming laws to conceal the awful things within. One example of is calling anti-union laws “right to work” laws. These laws, not surprisingly, are part of the larger attack on unions, including educators’ unions. “Right to work” sounds good and some people probably mistakenly think these laws somehow address real obstacles to employment, such as discrimination. Which is the point of the name. The “Get Rid of Unions” law would not sound as good.

While there are many arguments for the “right to work” laws, one is that they will have an economic benefit for the state. If such laws were beneficial to workers, then it would be rational for workers to support them. Likewise, if they benefit employers, then it would be rational for employers to support them.

Interestingly, the premise is both true and false. By this, I do not mean that it is some sort of violation of the usual laws of truth. Rather, the claim is true for some and not true for others.

For employers, “right to work” laws can yield economic benefits, but precisely because these laws inflict economic costs on those doing the work. Darrel Minor, a professor of mathematics at Columbus State Community College did a 2012 analysis of “right to work” states relative to other states.

One focus was the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of each state. This is a measure of the goods and services produced in the state. Based on the 2009 data, the GDP of “right to work” states was $38,755. For other states, the GDP was $43, 899 which is a 13.3% difference. Interestingly, this indicates that the “right to work” laws can hurt both the employed and the employers— states with “right to work” laws are less productive than other states, thus undercutting arguments based on the claim that these laws enhance productivity. However, it is also worth noting that salaries in “right to work” states are 9.4% lower than those in other states. While this is bad for workers, it can be advantageous for employers who want to pay less for the same work.

Another focus of the analysis was on poverty rates. Eleven of the fifteen states with the highest poverty rates were “right to work” states. In contrast, nine of the eleven states with the lowest poverty rates were not “right to work” states. In 2008, 14.4% of the population of “right to work” states lived in poverty. In the other states, the number was 12.4%. As Minor noted, if the poverty level of the “right to work” states was extended to all 50 states, this would mean 3,670,000 more people living in poverty. This data suggests that “right to work” laws contribute to increased poverty. Minor also found that life expectancy in “right to work” states was lower If this data is accurate, then there are good reasons to oppose “right to work” laws. At least if you think it is bad for poverty to increase. For those who are pro-poverty, “right to work” laws are great.

To be fair and balanced, proponents of “right to work” laws point to different statistics and claim there is higher employment and lower costs of living in states with “right to work laws.” If these statistics are true, then the “right to work” laws might have some benefits in addition to the harms they seem to inflict and these should be weighed against each other.  The weight given to each will depend on the values of those doing the assessment. So, for example, someone concerned with poverty and life expectancy would weigh these laws as more harmful than beneficial. Someone focused on the advantage of lower salaries in attracting businesses would see them as beneficial. Someone who enjoys the poverty of others would also favor such laws; sometimes the reward of a law is the suffering of other people.

It is reasonable to consider that the alleged effects (positive and negative) of “right to work” laws are not solely caused by the laws but are the result other factors. For example, perhaps “right to work” states also have inferior education and hence more poverty and lower wages. Also, which is weird but worth considering, some “right to work” states like the Free State of Florida get regularly hammered by hurricanes and these have enduring and surprising detrimental effects.

 It is also worth considering the “right to work” laws are an effect rather than a cause. For example, a state with higher levels of poverty might pass such laws in the hopes of reducing poverty. It is also worth considering that the laws and their alleged effects are both the result of a third factor. States with extensive and strong business interests would tend to have higher employment rates and these business interests would tend to support “right to work” laws because of their perceived usefulness in combating the threat of unions. These should all be considered, although the simplest explanation is that the laws designed to hurt the unions that help workers end up hurting workers.

 

Taking a moral position comes with a price. Or, more accurately, prices.  The cost of holding a position and the cost of acting upon it are usually different prices.  There is also the cost of professing a moral position because one might hold a moral view in secret or lie and profess a moral view that one rejects.

This assumes someone can hold a moral position while not acting upon it, which raises questions about what it is to hold a moral position. Intuitively, it does seem that people can do this.  For example, a person might believe they should help others in need yet drive past someone in need because it is raining a bit too hard. It might be objected that a person who does not act upon a moral position does not hold that position, so the driver in question thinks they believe in this principle but are lying to themselves.  But we could see morality as analogous to law: a law that is not enforced is still a law. Or maybe it isn’t really.  

The price of holding a moral position usually varies between people. For example, the cost of holding and acting on a belief in free speech is usually low in the United States and higher in China. While the notion of cost in this context could be discussed at length, I now turn to discussing the cost of the anti-abortion position.

The cost of holding and acting upon an anti-abortion moral position obviously varies. In some cases, the cost could be very high. For example, imagine a young girl living in poverty impregnated by rape who is morally against abortion. For her, the cost of acting on her moral position will be very high. After all, the “pro-life” Republican party and the “pro-choice” Democratic party have done little to help single mothers. But, to be fair and balanced, Republicans are often actively hostile to helping mothers in need while Democrat tend to be merely indifferent.

In other cases, the cost could be absurdly low. For example, an elderly wealthy man who has no children could be anti-abortion at no meaningful cost to himself. But it must be said that the cost of a moral position can be inflicted on others. For example, an elderly wealthy man who is a politician could see to it that his view became law and thus his moral position would impose a high cost on women and girls while costing him nothing.  

In the United States, most Americans have consistently supported legal abortion. But in the United States of Oligarchy and MAGA, the majority does not rule. As would be expected, while 55% of men claim abortion should be legal, 64% of women hold that view. As would also be expected, most of the politicians who are anti-abortion are men, although there are female politicians who also have that view.  But women are still in the minority when it comes to holding office or being a national pundit.

It is also interesting, but hardly surprising, that those who take the anti-abortion view tend to be social conservatives or religious (or both). For people in these categories, the cost of their position varies.

For example, the Catholic Church takes a strong stance against abortion. However, the Catholic Church pays a tiny price for this position in that Catholic charities do provide aid and support to girls and women who seek help from them. As such, the church has been willing to bear at least a tiny fraction of the cost of holding and acting on their anti-abortion moral position. Obviously, the Catholic Church can still be criticized for its position.

Many of those who hold to the anti-abortion position are social conservatives. They also profess to be fiscal conservatives, at least when it comes to social programs aimed at helping those in poverty or need—such as infants, pregnant women and girls.

While some women can afford to have children without undue hardship, there are many women and girls who cannot. For example, girls in the lower economic classes will struggle with cost of pregnancy and raising a child. There is also the matter of the cost of an unwanted pregnancy in terms of a person’s life. For example, an unwanted pregnancy can put an end to hopes of an education or career. There is, of course, also the matter of pregnancy inflicted by rape and the potential costs to the victim. While even most conservatives will allow abortion in the case of rape an incest, not all will.

When the anti-abortion politicians prevent, cut or eliminate funding for programs aimed to help pregnant women and girls, this imposes the costs of the anti-abortion position of these politicians onto the women and girls. That is, the females are paying the price of the politician’s “moral” positions. I am, of course, being charitable here and assuming these politicians are anti-abortion as a moral position and not just anti-abortion because they are misogynists.

The anti-abortion view is generally cheap for conservative politicians. After all, they are unlikely to be in a situation in which they or someone they care about is experiencing an unwanted pregnancy and lacking financial support (or to be cynical, lacking access to abortion).  As such, they can hold their view with little chance of having to pay a significant price. It is effectively a free moral stance for them. However, for the women and girls who experience an unwanted pregnancy and lack adequate means of support, the cost is high when the anti-abortion and anti-social support views became instantiated in law.

One interesting (and ironic) way to characterize the approach of conservatives who are anti-abortion and anti-social support is that they are engaging in ethical parasitism: they are holding to moral positions they expect others to pay for. A milder characterization is that they are living on ethical subsidies: the costs of their moral views are subsidized by those who pay the actual cost. Since I am opposed to such freeloading, I am morally opposed to these moral welfare kings (and queens) who are unwilling to pay for their own ethics.

 

 

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