Some ideas that struck me today, which might one day stand up to philosophical scrutiny:
1. The ethics of cycling. Why follow the rules? Why be kind to other road users? The fear and anger which bubbles up when on two wheels, surrounded by traffic, seem to turn one into a red-clawed Hobbesian. But this does not seem a route to safer, kinder roads…
2. How ‘ethical’ is tight control of information and ideas? We tacitly accept the notion of ‘state secrets’, yet acknowledge the need for democracy to allow the free flow of ideas. Also, we now seem to be in a world where the state demands (and controls) vast sets of our data, and yet is not itself transparent. Is this the right way to the ideal polis?
3. From Prof Wiggins’ lecture on knowing how and knowing that. The key chasm to be surmounted in ethics seems to be the gap between mere ‘facts’ (universal, non-evaluative) and judgements (possibly subjective, contextual and definitely evaluative).
things that might have been otherwise 