tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58481470483780337282024-03-17T12:24:27.116+01:00The Philosopher's BeardEssays in philosophy, politics and economics by Thomas R. WellsThomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comBlogger173125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-26199260854898888762024-01-19T16:47:00.006+01:002024-01-31T18:49:16.486+01:00Israel's Crimes Do Not Deserve This Much Attention<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtdIBNz0qDDVCPe_e83FTdPk6F_cP8L7DXOLYLN0tJHp4ZgqgixWXgYCofLLaNHR4nFmzje4R8XTyQ3fy4ZGJF37gJ3YVv8cm0uwDxQXFYwopLwhAwbWPnkniIEw00GQHPtXyhaOnolMmrgfxWeTB4RB80feoo22Lzd1m2qQSepKsLqJ05ri1xDGdabJA/s999/target-israel.gif" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="931" data-original-width="999" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtdIBNz0qDDVCPe_e83FTdPk6F_cP8L7DXOLYLN0tJHp4ZgqgixWXgYCofLLaNHR4nFmzje4R8XTyQ3fy4ZGJF37gJ3YVv8cm0uwDxQXFYwopLwhAwbWPnkniIEw00GQHPtXyhaOnolMmrgfxWeTB4RB80feoo22Lzd1m2qQSepKsLqJ05ri1xDGdabJA/w174-h162/target-israel.gif" width="174"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Israel is a state founded on a principle of ethnic supremacy and a practise of ethnic cleansing at exactly the point in history where these became universally condemned as morally unacceptable. So it is not surprising that Israel gets a lot of criticism, at the United Nations and elsewhere. Nevertheless, the sheer amount of global diplomatic, NGO, and news media criticism directed at Israel is astonishing. (In many years the UN passes more resolutions critical of Israel than of every other country in the world put together - <span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><a class="_1FRfMxEAy__7c8vezYv9qP" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_Nations_resolutions_concerning_Israel" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span data-offset-key="3s5h2-1-0" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">link</span></a></span>.) Such disproportionate attention to Israel's crimes is excessive. It allows morally worse crimes to escape global notice and also directs global attention away from where it could achieve more good.</div><p></p><p><span></span></p><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2024/01/israels-crimes-do-not-deserve-this-much.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-74254129723148814912024-01-10T13:03:00.009+01:002024-01-18T20:08:54.852+01:00Americans Are Not As Poor As They Think They Are<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4zodcDg47W2mrly6fsYmeQzq31AN2eAreEMkaRjrs2BNO4HoRYRYtJR_gRftl_o52w4byv9vSdAKoOKTU2NbY7Z2E5_TD1XLxXbTKxIaFBOSZmO2kUsbJR8Dcoil-LhwOlBOrRssajdcTgwo3lYxl3IGplj7IMoWRJ7SuANstjcNG9JFkExM1ekJIo3A/s640/the-american-dream-is-dead-v0-kb0tmlbh7ubc1.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="629" data-original-width="640" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4zodcDg47W2mrly6fsYmeQzq31AN2eAreEMkaRjrs2BNO4HoRYRYtJR_gRftl_o52w4byv9vSdAKoOKTU2NbY7Z2E5_TD1XLxXbTKxIaFBOSZmO2kUsbJR8Dcoil-LhwOlBOrRssajdcTgwo3lYxl3IGplj7IMoWRJ7SuANstjcNG9JFkExM1ekJIo3A/w285-h281/the-american-dream-is-dead-v0-kb0tmlbh7ubc1.webp" width="285"></a></div>One of the peculiar side-effects of America's hegemonic dominance of global news, social media, and entertainment media is that the rest of the world is over-exposed to what Americans think of themselves. That includes their strange - and actually disturbingly narcissistic - belief that they invented slavery and racism. But also other silly ideas, such as that <i>most Americans these days are poor, and literally cannot survive on what they earn</i>. <span></span></div><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2024/01/americans-are-not-as-poor-as-they-think.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-8215619815008510922023-06-15T17:00:00.004+02:002023-08-26T18:26:16.728+02:00The Problem With Stories<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqhnEVZ7fq6Mu15hE4VP8LBA12FeuDoa8zl8O_MDgNkKyrkuy19gHR9MoxpUJdJeFBnCOHxZ_bSKj40-zWWycnyv7v_bMmdGN_PpGRYF_my36dqMBKGOhh_6UpNNkyN7MIvBFraS23QmSzef1P7IVTiK10gnTELahMqr6O6A0aK9HHSn3vr3z4PFch/s1024/DALL%C2%B7E%202023-05-27%2010.20.23%20-%20A%20book%20monster%20eating%20a%20globe%20representing%20planet%20earth.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqhnEVZ7fq6Mu15hE4VP8LBA12FeuDoa8zl8O_MDgNkKyrkuy19gHR9MoxpUJdJeFBnCOHxZ_bSKj40-zWWycnyv7v_bMmdGN_PpGRYF_my36dqMBKGOhh_6UpNNkyN7MIvBFraS23QmSzef1P7IVTiK10gnTELahMqr6O6A0aK9HHSn3vr3z4PFch/w200-h200/DALL%C2%B7E%202023-05-27%2010.20.23%20-%20A%20book%20monster%20eating%20a%20globe%20representing%20planet%20earth.png" width="200"></a></div>Human minds run on stories, in which things happen for human meaningful reasons. But the actual world is not human centred. It runs on causal processes that are largely indifferent to humans’ feelings about them. <div><br></div><div>The great breakthrough in human enlightenment was to develop techniques – empirical science – to allow us to grasp the real complexity of the world and to understand it in terms of the interaction of mindless (or at least unintentional) processes rather than humanly meaningful stories of, say, good vs evil. Hence, for example, the objectively superior neo-Darwinian account of adaptation by natural selection that has officially displaced premodern stories about human-like but bigger (‘God’) agents creating the world for reasons we can make sense of. <div><br><p></p><p>Science flourishes still, demonstrating the possibility for human minds to escape the fairy tale epistemology that we have inhabited for tens of thousands of years and to inquire systematically into the world, or at least to benefit from the work of those who do. Yet - as the evolution example illustrates - stories continue to exert a powerful psychological hold over human minds. The US is one of the most educated societies in the world, but only <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/02/06/how-highly-religious-americans-view-evolution-depends-on-how-theyre-asked-about-it/" target="_blank">around a third of adults accept the scientific account of evolution</a>. Despite their deficiencies stories continue to dominate our minds, and hence the world that we build together with our minds via politics. From our thinking on the economy to identity politics to Covid to Climate Change to Climate Change activism, stories continue to blind us to reality and to generate mass conflict and stupidity.<span></span></p></div></div><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2023/06/the-problem-with-stories.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-4173877773817058142023-04-03T14:43:00.002+02:002023-04-09T11:55:48.294+02:00Governments Don't Actually Prioritise Economic Growth - But They Should<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5YflkNbFDJK8nLdJEnGS3qhxgURcLL6neBwlAONRnnBKhwoMMoEOvq-pAMMQShNaioHnt6Zt5t9-d1IWUY-L4Ba4KqTmxhErN5DDAomVjNYqH3xLK4FLos5-qR2sKRnqK1Xzqo1IVIqFq5FJ5Fybgwufi2SR5uI9_suDvRd2z_rcwhroFCg_z0gvc/s1024/DALL%C2%B7E%202023-04-03%2014.22.32%20-%20A%20picture%20that%20represents%20economic%20growth%20as%20growth%20in%20individuals'%20opportunities%20to%20live%20a%20good%20life.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5YflkNbFDJK8nLdJEnGS3qhxgURcLL6neBwlAONRnnBKhwoMMoEOvq-pAMMQShNaioHnt6Zt5t9-d1IWUY-L4Ba4KqTmxhErN5DDAomVjNYqH3xLK4FLos5-qR2sKRnqK1Xzqo1IVIqFq5FJ5Fybgwufi2SR5uI9_suDvRd2z_rcwhroFCg_z0gvc/s320/DALL%C2%B7E%202023-04-03%2014.22.32%20-%20A%20picture%20that%20represents%20economic%20growth%20as%20growth%20in%20individuals'%20opportunities%20to%20live%20a%20good%20life.png" width="320"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Environmentalists are always complaining that governments are obsessed with GDP and economic growth, and that this is a bad thing because economic growth is bad for the environment. They are partly right but mostly wrong. First, while governments talk about GDP a lot, that does not mean that they actually prioritise economic growth. Second - properly understood - economic growth is a great and wonderful thing that we should want more of.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><span></span><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2023/04/governments-dont-actually-prioritise.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-85000457284490170432023-02-13T15:18:00.003+01:002023-02-15T09:59:29.063+01:00Strongman Leaders And The Infallibility Trap<p style="text-align: justify;">It is easy to become exasperated with liberal democracy. Various factions bicker and manoeuvre against each other in an endless grubby contest for power, hypocritically appealing to a shared public interest while continuously generating and sustaining social divisions. Things that are necessary – like addressing climate change – do not get done, lost amidst the endless dithering, quibbling, and bargaining for advantage. Things that should not be done – like deporting UK asylum applicants to Rwanda – become official policy against all common sense and multiple laws, seemingly mainly as a way of trolling the opposition and civil society.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br></p><p style="text-align: justify;">So it is disappointing but perhaps not surprising that people around the world are increasingly likely to endorse the strongman theory of government, that “a strong leader who does not have to bother with parliament and election is a good way to run the country”.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2dytzT5BcDzO2RfI_UqH2Tfk3ilKoh3Wh7roiXANsLHM6rPyEHrBT2kJ5ejVWABlFSWeXTUD1-bg0cw7Xjrly-geZXyMzHnpYz-yCkLR_Eoy9g33kJT1vXQeneuYiKt7x4el4TgCawucah-r80VxYzun_HDP855mly8Ly4dkhWNIvs-4xQ6jCFWlA/s603/Mounk%20graphic%20for%20Economist.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="603" data-original-width="567" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2dytzT5BcDzO2RfI_UqH2Tfk3ilKoh3Wh7roiXANsLHM6rPyEHrBT2kJ5ejVWABlFSWeXTUD1-bg0cw7Xjrly-geZXyMzHnpYz-yCkLR_Eoy9g33kJT1vXQeneuYiKt7x4el4TgCawucah-r80VxYzun_HDP855mly8Ly4dkhWNIvs-4xQ6jCFWlA/w376-h400/Mounk%20graphic%20for%20Economist.png" width="376"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Strongman government has two major attractions compared to liberal democracy. First, it promises wise and benevolent rule: undistracted by factions motivated by political interests the strong leader will be freed to make wiser, better decisions in the national interest. Second, it promises decisiveness: without the endless bickering and second guessing, strong leaders can get on and do what needs to be done.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In what follows I want to challenge these apparent advantages and show that the very failings of liberal democracy are actually the solution to the problems that strongman governments run into.<span></span></p><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2023/02/strongmen-leaders-and-infallibility-trap.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-38906065041422058082022-12-12T12:17:00.008+01:002023-01-01T16:42:36.037+01:00Public Protest Is Not A Democratic Thing To Do<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrsZhUO1VD64NNYU46Zrjruh-_g6lws3Y5Qu8RmSyeAwoBJfccytFXb6pDEq9nv9NdiqTfw7ANPZq7VCe82IwKSNDEfxTJ99psF5bGEV7F6KN_KwJmvLL0VQdyYxNoouVZQsJH5oak_jeshSAm_QZqdwG50o4OxRXOWyodYJR_Zq_Q8eMIlVUQHnxA/s3000/29virus-briefing-london-protests-videoSixteenByNine3000.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1688" data-original-width="3000" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrsZhUO1VD64NNYU46Zrjruh-_g6lws3Y5Qu8RmSyeAwoBJfccytFXb6pDEq9nv9NdiqTfw7ANPZq7VCe82IwKSNDEfxTJ99psF5bGEV7F6KN_KwJmvLL0VQdyYxNoouVZQsJH5oak_jeshSAm_QZqdwG50o4OxRXOWyodYJR_Zq_Q8eMIlVUQHnxA/s320/29virus-briefing-london-protests-videoSixteenByNine3000.jpg" width="320"></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">When people take to the street to protest this is often supposed to be a sign of democracy in action. People who believe that their concerns about the climate change, Covid lockdowns, racism and so on are not being adequately addressed by the political system make a public display of how many of them care a lot about it so that we are all forced to hear about their complaint and the government is put under pressure to address it.<span></span></p><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2022/12/public-protest-is-not-democratic-thing.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-35333662100769831562022-10-23T19:02:00.010+02:002022-10-31T17:54:58.920+01:00How Many Children's Lives Is That Worth?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnTE7jk5LGrEyDCwZ9amDdWBX7FzwPbY-Cj5vRs1PEav2VWboXRaVL_WxbCfHcQQyyY8mYJUrrrd-5XiwrhS0QGnL02CXiQVhwBRQzAoY8gQdR29KyG_e1Wha33Mbp_Fc7sL5_qI5xoX1tlLkHYc8gIrYZtCsy77gOS9bYFtqIUlAjyLLSnlIl_fEM/s1024/child%20gravestone.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnTE7jk5LGrEyDCwZ9amDdWBX7FzwPbY-Cj5vRs1PEav2VWboXRaVL_WxbCfHcQQyyY8mYJUrrrd-5XiwrhS0QGnL02CXiQVhwBRQzAoY8gQdR29KyG_e1Wha33Mbp_Fc7sL5_qI5xoX1tlLkHYc8gIrYZtCsy77gOS9bYFtqIUlAjyLLSnlIl_fEM/w150-h200/child%20gravestone.jpg" width="150"></a></div>According to the meta-charity <a href="https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities">GiveWell</a>, the most effective charities can save a child’s life for between 3 and 5,000 US dollars. One way of understanding this figure is that whenever you consider spending that amount of money, one of the things you would be choosing not to spend it on is saving a child’s life.<div><br><p></p><p>Take the median of the GiveWell figures: $4,000. I propose that prices for all goods and services should be listed in the universal alternative currency of percentage of a Child’s Life Not Saved (%CLNS), as well as their regular prices in Euros, dollars, or whatever. For example, a Starbucks Frappucino might be priced at 5$ /0.13%CLNS. A Caribbean holiday cruise might be priced at $8,000/ 200%CLNS (perhaps written as emojis🪦🪦)<span></span></p><p><br></p></div><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2022/10/how-many-childrens-lives-is-that-worth.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-760406844053785032022-08-28T21:12:00.008+02:002022-09-07T11:51:14.308+02:00On The Incoherence Of The Claim That 'Taxation Is Theft'<p></p><div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy3lDYlzYN3bjhEOCILKnCq7wpQN-Ih_YPiGfkxOlX5gz5S06UMJAGq9Ds8QM0od9P0IXNR-3RHWO-XX2Wt1S1s4FCqZkPgGQnMD_9WWIsB-6xkrVsTOjP7gBpoxubDZuufGu1HzBVn35ygcyYsWhsbn-29L6DWRcKmJpuAru9gBjwW8fku_vtqScU/s1001/taxation-theft.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="729" data-original-width="1001" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy3lDYlzYN3bjhEOCILKnCq7wpQN-Ih_YPiGfkxOlX5gz5S06UMJAGq9Ds8QM0od9P0IXNR-3RHWO-XX2Wt1S1s4FCqZkPgGQnMD_9WWIsB-6xkrVsTOjP7gBpoxubDZuufGu1HzBVn35ygcyYsWhsbn-29L6DWRcKmJpuAru9gBjwW8fku_vtqScU/s320/taxation-theft.jpg" width="320"></a></div>The idea that 'taxation is theft' is one of those thrilling, paradigm shifting recognitions that are continually being rediscovered and shared. It is a classic case of pseudo-intellectuality, in which the excitement around an idea determines its popularity, rather than its quality (<a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2021/01/ideas-are-cheap-arguments-are-expensive.html" target="_blank">previously</a>).</div><div><br><p></p><p>First, unlike theft, taxation is legal - and this turns out to be a more significant difference than it first seems since we rely on laws to determine who owns what. Second, taxation is a device for solving collective action problems and thus allowing us (by coercing us) to meet our moral obligations to ourselves and each other - including our obligations to respect each others' property rights. One can't coherently be in favour of enforcing property rights, e.g. by having a police force and judges to catch and punish thieves, without also being in favour of a sustainable system for funding that enforcement.<span></span></p><p><br></p></div><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2022/08/on-incoherence-of-claiming-that.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-55801713570203935712022-07-13T14:50:00.018+02:002022-08-20T18:45:11.678+02:00Taking Decolonization Seriously Means Recognising the Moral Agency of Non-Western Political Actors<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjjpVv5h9GAXbXAN5ZikCIjni-eOmtUgwCo4RWnxJeuocqTrv_rODrYpQYFPBgZnBvbnQqInt8VIgcFIr1yrGJek70-utJHBJDB8JFJlHaBmQiBle74q7pyWH0Tnr7uJOMB6BB3Z54CMXFGmcVtbgJVoO6cJT7qb5ApInzzg9Pxy2Re0VyRT0xLrzW/s474/decolonise.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="474" height="90" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjjpVv5h9GAXbXAN5ZikCIjni-eOmtUgwCo4RWnxJeuocqTrv_rODrYpQYFPBgZnBvbnQqInt8VIgcFIr1yrGJek70-utJHBJDB8JFJlHaBmQiBle74q7pyWH0Tnr7uJOMB6BB3Z54CMXFGmcVtbgJVoO6cJT7qb5ApInzzg9Pxy2Re0VyRT0xLrzW/w121-h90/decolonise.jpg" width="121"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div>In the context of the current decolonisation movement it is rather strange that whenever bad things happen in a non-Western country they are still routinely analysed as the moral responsibility of actors in the West - (former) governments, companies, ideologues, consumers, etc. For example,</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><ol><li>War: If a Western country is involved in a war (or an ally - as in the case of Saudi Arabia in Yemen) then they are routinely assigned the entire responsibility for that war, including for all the terrible things done by those they are fighting.</li><li>Illiberalism: Government oppression of religious and sexual minorities, political opposition, free press, and so on is routinely attributed to 'colonial era laws' or continuing Western ideological influence. </li><li>Misgovernance: Government dysfunction and corruption are routinely blamed on Western consumers/companies' demand for natural resources; terrible environmental and labour regulations (or enforcement) are likewise blamed on Western demand for cheaper products </li></ol></div><div><div>This way of looking at the world is unfounded, patronising and unhelpful. It betrays a pernicious asymmetry in the recognition of moral agency between Western and non-Western actors. Western actors are assumed to have the power to make decisions that matter and to bear moral responsibility for their choices. Non-western actors are not. Although many of those who are so ready to blame Western actors may think they are opposing 'colonisation', this asymmetry actually continues rather than repudiates the patronising moral hierarchy that characterised the West's unfortunate colonial history.</div><div><br></div></div><div>In reality non-Western political actors make important decisions all the time that affect many people's lives, and these are not merely overdetermined reactions to external forces but actions initiated by them for their own reasons. There is no good reason why they should not be held as morally accountable for their choices as they would be if they were making such decisions in a Western country. </div><span></span></div><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2022/07/we-should-recognise-moral-agency-of-non.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-2109173852445754872022-07-03T19:07:00.016+02:002022-07-04T11:09:16.954+02:00To Solve The Global Food Crisis We Must First Stop Fixating On Putin<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihYP3SWbzTSfwYwHOjTd-oSQuSajEGkx8f6s5yk_n1pQuk504DaeCkNQYhWWua_3uE9UzuUS_gTfPj4Ntz8aGi7dyy_S8vahMw80VtxtxcU5qNdJvLo29sPnHERikYC2Nt2rVk2EvIrbr5f36n6jh_a-i2I86OiugdcsmteqZVsp3kd6AjTfl5DTEb/s474/evil%20putin.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="227" data-original-width="474" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihYP3SWbzTSfwYwHOjTd-oSQuSajEGkx8f6s5yk_n1pQuk504DaeCkNQYhWWua_3uE9UzuUS_gTfPj4Ntz8aGi7dyy_S8vahMw80VtxtxcU5qNdJvLo29sPnHERikYC2Nt2rVk2EvIrbr5f36n6jh_a-i2I86OiugdcsmteqZVsp3kd6AjTfl5DTEb/s320/evil%20putin.jpg" width="320"></a></div>There appears to be a moral panic going around that Putin is engineering a global famine to extort a more favourable outcome to his failed Ukraine invasion. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is a delusion with 2 pernicious consequences. First, it grants too much power to a warlord, and thus too much weight to his interests. Second, it distracts us from our own shared global responsibility to prevent food supply disruptions from causing a global tragedy.</div><span></span></div><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2022/07/if-people-starve-it-wont-be-putins-fault.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-49823172753793877502022-07-02T14:16:00.034+02:002022-07-04T11:15:35.608+02:00We Should Fix Climate Change, But We Should Not Regret It<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOKKfkyWcFsQ-t4gMd2B6edHKPRPeCaeE9AKb7X7XBYE1-wRoxXkKmqj279fZBY9MOvXD2ddYhrtnyc-Fbg_KuszCB4q58hz_dU8FY8DQJoFn3hK7tSfugQrvTKW-v6-4gF0P4UjMGw7_WO_F2rl56ZEFyl7me8iDV_znNfpBo3jsQSl96ywNf01Zo/s1200/SEO-1844-bs-Climate-Change-People-Influen-307963654-1200x675.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOKKfkyWcFsQ-t4gMd2B6edHKPRPeCaeE9AKb7X7XBYE1-wRoxXkKmqj279fZBY9MOvXD2ddYhrtnyc-Fbg_KuszCB4q58hz_dU8FY8DQJoFn3hK7tSfugQrvTKW-v6-4gF0P4UjMGw7_WO_F2rl56ZEFyl7me8iDV_znNfpBo3jsQSl96ywNf01Zo/s320/SEO-1844-bs-Climate-Change-People-Influen-307963654-1200x675.jpg" width="320"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">Climate change is a huge and urgent problem. It is natural to suppose that it is therefore a terrible mistake, an unforced error that we should regret and try to prevent ever happening again.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I disagree. Climate change is the unfortunate outcome of the economic growth that has transformed human civilisation for the better. We cannot regret climate change without regretting the vastly better world for most people that the fossil-fuel powered technological revolutions of the last 250 years have achieved. Nor should we draw the anti-technology lesson that solutions are always worse than the original problems, that humans should retreat to living within the bounds of nature rather than attempting to escape them.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br></p><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2022/07/we-should-fix-climate-change-but-we.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-65982357835725133982022-06-26T21:41:00.011+02:002022-08-14T14:07:45.262+02:00Abortion Bans as Conscription<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg64uniZ8jv4X1XR-4iZPt6t3uFWvhs0xFmH71gekNckxyNtl2QvvBfKj_A0ZhP9dqUOb_g-v52A-pZp2UTii3hMOPFjnLRbQGITS7Po0vUPk5ceWFBvuv2KDMsDuM1C4P3PPkztbDSzcwdZwzYH1D0rnffu1v_CaFOGWks6N10UyUmeOHkNIX0ImD0/s800/Right-to-Life-1309787990.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg64uniZ8jv4X1XR-4iZPt6t3uFWvhs0xFmH71gekNckxyNtl2QvvBfKj_A0ZhP9dqUOb_g-v52A-pZp2UTii3hMOPFjnLRbQGITS7Po0vUPk5ceWFBvuv2KDMsDuM1C4P3PPkztbDSzcwdZwzYH1D0rnffu1v_CaFOGWks6N10UyUmeOHkNIX0ImD0/w200-h200/Right-to-Life-1309787990.jpg" width="200"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Recent developments in the US have brought renewed interest to the ethics of abortion. I will skip over most of that rather parochial and politically tribalised debate and instead consider the ethical implications of prioritising the right to life of a foetus over its mother's right to autonomy. I will suggest that banning abortion for this reason could be justified in a liberal state, but this 'conscription' model would look quite different from the straightforward bans on abortion as wrongful killing that we are familiar with.</div><span></span><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2022/06/abortion-bans-as-conscription.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-60717653956490947272022-06-25T16:19:00.013+02:002023-03-12T11:09:19.048+01:00Putting Women In Charge Is Not The Way To Make The World Better<p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0a0fo_6xV9-T50m6we-pRdmfLR_7Cn5eSSfod-PhLWJAlSKVbwv_EDbDSulNxp3T-NScJpMUPXRXvWNU1Z6o3uXb6wnKqfiOF1szuSDUWDCgazPHs4Q12vfRAz2KX17HP2JchF5G5opM5iSnZyZ9JKDAyEj881r9I86HzxJv_MIK_7JAuaS26JaHR/s416/girlpower.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="416" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0a0fo_6xV9-T50m6we-pRdmfLR_7Cn5eSSfod-PhLWJAlSKVbwv_EDbDSulNxp3T-NScJpMUPXRXvWNU1Z6o3uXb6wnKqfiOF1szuSDUWDCgazPHs4Q12vfRAz2KX17HP2JchF5G5opM5iSnZyZ9JKDAyEj881r9I86HzxJv_MIK_7JAuaS26JaHR/w200-h200/girlpower.jpg" width="200"></a></p><div style="text-align: justify;">It is common to see claims that if only women were in charge things would be much better and nicer, for example that people would be much happier at work, inequality would fall, climate change would be solved. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div><p></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM" style="text-align: justify;">There is no good evidence for these claims. They seem to rely on the question begging assumption that the best explanation for why people in charge of things seem so often seem incompetent, mean, self-serving, unresponsive to their constituents' needs, and so on is that they are men. This framing is then used to cherry pick anecdotes about female prime ministers/CEOs that support the possibility, but not the probability that women would do things better. </p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM" style="text-align: justify;"><br></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM" style="text-align: justify;">As a general rule, we should reject claims supported by inadequate evidence. We should also be careful to distinguish moral claims about fairness in the competition for power from claims about how that power would be exercised. The first moral problem of power is whether it is used rightly and for the good. The moral problem of fair opportunity to gain power is a secondary and far less significant moral problem. To put it another way, we should care less about the gender of the super competitive alphas who get the top jobs in our society, and more about the poor saps who will be ruled by them.</p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM" style="text-align: justify;"><br></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM" style="text-align: justify;">Assuming that power is misused because it is held by men leaves us unprepared for the very probable discovery that things will be just as bad when most things are run by women (which in some countries is only a couple of decades away). This is because it is institutions rather than gender that select, train, and constrain those who wield power, and it is highly questionable whether and how far those institutions would be changed merely by changing the gender of those in charge. Instead of trying to control how power is exercised by changing the gender of those in charge, we should focus directly on restructuring the institutions of power, for example by making political leaders more legally accountable and empowering employees with workplace democracy. The aim should be to ensure that whether the people in charge are men or women, they are no longer able to behave like bullies or tyrants. <span></span></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM" style="text-align: justify;"><br></p></div><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2022/06/putting-women-in-charge-would-not-make.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-36558202202939471702022-06-11T16:00:00.016+02:002022-11-08T18:59:09.471+01:00No, Poor Countries Shouldn't Try To Make Their Own Covid Vaccines<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: justify;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCKfOCfGxe8EREO898hec9X_ee220q9UNbTyB50-xmwm19foTAYuPLnedGABJg7q7oUpSHoP-TnKlNxrDfuaA5ecWDwy04rRo3dJuoYBKGTsKi9eGfPg8HgZcnbxNt0qnS0S4fOj4VsS1CgSzQwCpjy79fdhD6bQ2R3DtPNEEniPx42RpK-6Rm9Sbp" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: justify;"><img alt="" data-original-height="578" data-original-width="663" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCKfOCfGxe8EREO898hec9X_ee220q9UNbTyB50-xmwm19foTAYuPLnedGABJg7q7oUpSHoP-TnKlNxrDfuaA5ecWDwy04rRo3dJuoYBKGTsKi9eGfPg8HgZcnbxNt0qnS0S4fOj4VsS1CgSzQwCpjy79fdhD6bQ2R3DtPNEEniPx42RpK-6Rm9Sbp" width="275"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Source: <a href="https://data.undp.org/vaccine-equity/" target="_blank">UNDP</a></span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the impressive features of humanity's response to Covid was the development of successful vaccines within only 10 months, and the production and distribution of 12 billion doses around the world. One of the worst features was the inequality in the distribution of those vaccine doses.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As of June 2022, only 18% of people in low income countries have received at least one dose compared to a global average of 66% and an average of 72% in high income countries (<a href="https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations" target="_blank">Our World in Data</a>/<a href="https://data.undp.org/vaccine-equity/" target="_blank">UNDP</a>). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Obviously this contrast looks very unjust. Many people in rich countries have now received a full course of vaccination and multiple booster shots, even if they aren't particularly vulnerable. They also benefit from access to large well-resourced medical systems and thus high survival rates even if they are unlucky enough to be infected. Covid vaccines are clearly not being distributed to where they would do the most good.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One response to this injustice has been to argue that Low Income countries should be enabled to manufacture their own vaccines. Unfortunately, this is one of those ideas that sound nice but don't stand up well to systematic scrutiny (see previously: <a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2021/01/ideas-are-cheap-arguments-are-expensive.html" target="_blank">ideas vs arguments</a>).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span></span></b></div><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2022/06/no-poor-countries-shouldnt-try-to-make.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-15288872465944555922022-06-05T22:35:00.011+02:002023-01-01T17:03:57.295+01:00Philosophy Belongs in the Sciences, Not the Humanities: A Rant<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-1FD9JKiKaUXL6vZ6bulstVsg5BzM6uR_Sk0RszuvF_a1dr13K9XbN7XgfCFA3E9ZQTY7ipQVJcqVrBCFqoAVZDRZKpRZk2IryeqGqcqmJqMKXltqI8NrkEgn0009mTDDwCAttjdVjWaNNW1FnnJT9Nj_SEynNJJh65BwsXnZMKfJo4riMV2SMpTY/s474/sicence%20vs%20humanities.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="233" data-original-width="474" height="98" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-1FD9JKiKaUXL6vZ6bulstVsg5BzM6uR_Sk0RszuvF_a1dr13K9XbN7XgfCFA3E9ZQTY7ipQVJcqVrBCFqoAVZDRZKpRZk2IryeqGqcqmJqMKXltqI8NrkEgn0009mTDDwCAttjdVjWaNNW1FnnJT9Nj_SEynNJJh65BwsXnZMKfJo4riMV2SMpTY/w200-h98/sicence%20vs%20humanities.jpg" width="200"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Philosophy has traditionally been considered and considered itself a part of the humanities, with a continuity in skills and attitudes, such as an emphasis on scholarship. In many universities philosophy departments are part of larger humanities faculties and thus fall under governance institutions designed for traditional humanities disciplines like literature, history, law, and religion. This association is bad for philosophy. Philosophy is a <i>science </i>of intellectual inquiry and it needs institutions, methods and attitudes suited to that task.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><span></span><p></p><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2022/06/philosophy-belongs-in-sciences-not.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-57945569166779386552022-05-28T21:52:00.018+02:002022-09-17T22:00:43.425+02:00Four Reasons Not To 'Trust The Experts'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZvLG9OvTXlHiqXn9PeYjw47npBE8ZvGBlLo8ogElBbjzKVD5W24Zho4Y1YIVa6DJvmCRiXX_XxvkyaFBXGKmgjAdWpKdwVSs_QvYlaSQMXh-HGYx-NmxnRkZLjKcAZlTnDZcPAK9wOnB8gB2qED5vSSyMMGsg8HGPgS1YOR3s0H_2ZItTiFSQOx9h/s474/expert.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="474" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZvLG9OvTXlHiqXn9PeYjw47npBE8ZvGBlLo8ogElBbjzKVD5W24Zho4Y1YIVa6DJvmCRiXX_XxvkyaFBXGKmgjAdWpKdwVSs_QvYlaSQMXh-HGYx-NmxnRkZLjKcAZlTnDZcPAK9wOnB8gB2qED5vSSyMMGsg8HGPgS1YOR3s0H_2ZItTiFSQOx9h/w200-h150/expert.jpg" width="200"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A standard reaction to the disastrous democratic discourse and political mismanagement of public interest issues from the economy to public health to gun control has been to demand more respect for experts. I am sympathetic to the idea that when it comes to facts it is better to look them up than to try to work them out for ourselves, and that the way to do that is ask the experts: people in good standing in the relevant epistemic community (previously: <a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2010/11/democracy-is-not-truth-machine.html" target="_blank">Democracy is Not a Truth Machine</a>). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nevertheless, there are problems with the 'trust the experts' mantra that should be acknowledged if we are not to fall into an epistemic trap of misplaced faith. Here are four that I try to keep in mind.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><span></span></div><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2022/05/four-reasons-not-to-trust-experts.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-26084297916188769732022-05-02T11:01:00.014+02:002022-06-08T12:43:20.490+02:00Just End Poverty Now: The Case for a Global Basic Income<p style="text-align: justify;">According to the <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.DDAY">World Bank’s latest figures</a>, around 700 million people live in utter destitution, on less than $1.90 per day, poorer than the average pet cat in the rich world. It is easy to agree that this is a terrible thing. It has so far been much harder – even for philosophers – to agree on what should be done about it. Peter Singer, for example, argues that rich people should donate more to effective charities. Thomas Pogge argues that rich world citizens should stop their governments from supporting less than ideally just global institutions. Yet this intellectual debate is an unnecessary distraction. We already have all the moral agreement we need to act. Ending extreme poverty is not an intellectual problem but a practical one, and not even a particularly difficult one. We just need to find the people who are poor and give them enough money so that they aren’t poor anymore.<span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br></p><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2022/05/just-end-poverty-now-case-for-global.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-83046692929238543122022-04-18T15:05:00.006+02:002022-07-04T11:28:09.338+02:00Why Governments Failed the Challenge of Covid and Capitalism Succeeded<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUfchpxoAwhhP5LN2yvVn2pVD35JBIcgITIq1SadYPPmoZ8dP5GQbvAJjx4C6ZK7nmkMRsLGO6O02uOP1OUmurJQuIMhf_4E779WJOE-4H84TZn60r9Z-s1FCYWXuXwa5_IfOiqgSklLU/s864/Capitalism+Flag.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="864" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUfchpxoAwhhP5LN2yvVn2pVD35JBIcgITIq1SadYPPmoZ8dP5GQbvAJjx4C6ZK7nmkMRsLGO6O02uOP1OUmurJQuIMhf_4E779WJOE-4H84TZn60r9Z-s1FCYWXuXwa5_IfOiqgSklLU/w200-h167/Capitalism+Flag.png" width="200"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Capitalism has had a good Covid. While governments of every political hue seem to stumble from one crisis to the next, for profit corporations stepped up to deliver our food and consumer goods to our doors, reroute disrupted supply chains, manufacture huge amounts of PPE, and develop multiple safe and effective vaccines in record time. I put this triumph of capitalism over statecraft down to two factors in particular. </div><p></p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Corporations are better at globalisation than national governments </li><li style="text-align: justify;">Political incentives are less well aligned with the public interest than those for corporations<span></span></li></ol><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2021/09/why-capitalism-won-covid-and-government.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-67300734280452600802022-04-03T19:00:00.009+02:002022-07-04T11:25:55.749+02:00A Dead Man's Switch Method for Insuring Against Dementia<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCECwHSXZASWt1fKFQxhk2mRPOrNQ1ZE0GxeXlvlRQ85iUIOrpxKrDqesx13p59fnvACqG69ee97RTKvoyTK0UAspIc7QtTm4J-Qr9TjPMtW6bEduqFbfAyRSbKyxnPQBPccPxw03fUSWCdrbVymwmt0E9iGxCl5COnUdhA9nY_zrhZSH1dX7VBbgO/s1608/dementia%20leaves.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1608" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCECwHSXZASWt1fKFQxhk2mRPOrNQ1ZE0GxeXlvlRQ85iUIOrpxKrDqesx13p59fnvACqG69ee97RTKvoyTK0UAspIc7QtTm4J-Qr9TjPMtW6bEduqFbfAyRSbKyxnPQBPccPxw03fUSWCdrbVymwmt0E9iGxCl5COnUdhA9nY_zrhZSH1dX7VBbgO/w200-h149/dementia%20leaves.jpg" width="200"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dementia is a terrible condition that afflicts up to 1 in 3 of the elderly (and some younger people too). People with dementia suffer a gradual loss of their cognitive functions, including memories, emotional self-management, and such essential everyday abilities as chewing and swallowing food. Many people consider this gradual decay of personhood and independence a fate worse than death, your still living body turning into an empty husk, a drooling incontinent mindless - but still conscious - burden on your family and carers. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">What can be done to mitigate this risk? I propose a dead man's switch method for ensuring that your body cannot continue living without you in it. <span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br></p><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2022/04/a-dead-mans-switch-method-of-insuring.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-71724169467990407602022-03-12T21:54:00.014+01:002022-07-04T11:33:26.628+02:00There Is No Such Thing As Countries<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh1UWaJuNrd4CHvhCajHFXGvqYhgpW_7vIo3PjVRYlMdJtZxAiNT9oHfn49oBKXFw3QZjvq0tFGp1_Ugzojkdlk9lpHfzP23VOIubGlZuTWOYPTnuRATdI2HO8pJHDCv5-JkIjd_DIpiQQcQVfe_S78rG8wXOFffHjcETtBA8UueF1P9MwDTVB6YipR" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" class="alignright" data-original-height="2165" data-original-width="3317" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh1UWaJuNrd4CHvhCajHFXGvqYhgpW_7vIo3PjVRYlMdJtZxAiNT9oHfn49oBKXFw3QZjvq0tFGp1_Ugzojkdlk9lpHfzP23VOIubGlZuTWOYPTnuRATdI2HO8pJHDCv5-JkIjd_DIpiQQcQVfe_S78rG8wXOFffHjcETtBA8UueF1P9MwDTVB6YipR=w200-h131" width="200"></a></p><p style="text-align: justify;">As any map will show you, the world is divided by political borders into spaces called countries. People and things can live in, come from, or go to these places.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br></p><p style="text-align: justify;">But countries are not any more than that.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Firstly and most obviously, countries are merely a social construction. They are collectively produced fictions (like money, or religions) rather than mind-independent objects (like stones). Being fictional does not mean that countries do not matter, but it does mean that they only exist so long as enough people agree to act as if they do.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Secondly and more significantly, <em>countries are places not </em><i>agents</i>. Places on a map cannot have interests or goals or take actions to achieve them. To think otherwise is to confuse the properties of one kind of thing with another. This category error infects not only general talk, but also much otherwise careful journalism and even academic analysis. For example, the influential Realist<i> </i>school of international relations is founded on the axiom that countries do (or ought to) act only in their national interest. This trades on two category errors: that countries (rather than governments) can act and that they have interests. The result is confusing and unfalsifiable nonsense about buffer zones, access to resources and so forth that is about as helpful for understanding, predicting, and managing conflicts as an astrological map.<span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br></p></div><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2022/03/theres-no-such-thing-as-countries.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-35131642773446348952022-02-20T12:25:00.006+01:002022-04-01T14:24:59.918+02:00Invading Ukraine Can Only Be Bad For Russia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLQj6fOFO5frCvX3e1YGlkp27JfL4AjhoMPILFYY1Zojmqj7ALnFv5wEkVx8u-KS_1oG3UzO2Yu-Bx_NXOSSFvLVOErJLQ1Y5wsRZP6-ls6-XJjp9zTrbgGthaZTPge0PaW4-ItAgW8gwcowEawQC5Dvc03npjtt5y05FhLrqbSakkx7-Ierrgz1XO=s1600" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLQj6fOFO5frCvX3e1YGlkp27JfL4AjhoMPILFYY1Zojmqj7ALnFv5wEkVx8u-KS_1oG3UzO2Yu-Bx_NXOSSFvLVOErJLQ1Y5wsRZP6-ls6-XJjp9zTrbgGthaZTPge0PaW4-ItAgW8gwcowEawQC5Dvc03npjtt5y05FhLrqbSakkx7-Ierrgz1XO=s320" width="320"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If Russia invades Ukraine this will be very bad for Ukraine. This has led many commentators to assume that invading Ukraine would be a great victory for Russia and a great defeat for the US and its allies. Actually the opposite is true. Ukraine doesn't matter geopolitically, and therefore the suffering of Ukraine also doesn't matter. What Ukraine does represent is a huge military distraction for Russia (as Iraq and Afghanistan were for the US) and a huge advertisement for NATO membership.</div><span></span><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2022/02/invading-ukraine-can-only-be-bad-for.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-15469539679013985212022-01-11T17:15:00.011+01:002022-09-04T13:15:58.380+02:00Replace Waiters With QR Codes<p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgazGCReIpm2s7J8nfmlqlGHBOYCdDM0s5yYiLeXegRTTY31_f5JvcHe3qvl9kAZMmPSYybzB6GUu8A53FycXwkBnIeLKvLZAfW3p04cy2G98k1mqksmP4mQtzEH3cNsx1n6rh3J_-SWJrikvW0w4EqPeFZqvFzSN3znnJ-_AYjnHUV87T6dUron2Sk=s474" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="474" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgazGCReIpm2s7J8nfmlqlGHBOYCdDM0s5yYiLeXegRTTY31_f5JvcHe3qvl9kAZMmPSYybzB6GUu8A53FycXwkBnIeLKvLZAfW3p04cy2G98k1mqksmP4mQtzEH3cNsx1n6rh3J_-SWJrikvW0w4EqPeFZqvFzSN3znnJ-_AYjnHUV87T6dUron2Sk=w200-h137" width="200"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A large number of jobs exist not because they create economic value but because they make business sense given the institutions we have - customer expectations, bureaucratic regulations, and so on. They do not solve a real problem but a fake problem created by inefficient institutions. They therefore do not make our society better off but rather they represent a great cost to society - of many people's (life)time being expended on something fundamentally pointless instead of something worthwhile. </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">One way of spotting such anti-jobs is to compare staffing in the same industry across different countries. US supermarkets employ people just to greet customers and bag groceries, for example, which would seem a ridiculous waste of time in most of the world (hence <a href="https://www.economist.com/united-states/2022/06/02/why-americans-are-poorly-served-by-their-grocery-stores" target="_blank">US supermarkets are more expensive</a>). In Japan one can find people standing in front of road construction waving a flag (they are replaced with mechanical manikins on nights and weekends).</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Another way to spot anti-jobs is to to observe the effects of Covid restrictions and look for areas where removing workers or tasks made no impact on performance, or even improved it. Take waiters. In America there are around <a href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes353031.htm">2 million people doing this job</a> (1.4% of all employment). The experience of Covid lockdowns shows that much of what waiters do can be done better by pasting a QR code to tables for customers to scan to visit the menu webpage and order and pay directly. Having learned this, it would be ridiculous to go back to employing people to waste their time and their customers' by doing such fundamentally needless work. We still need some servers to bring the food and drink we ordered (<a href="https://www.robotlab.com/restaurant-robots" target="_blank">for now</a>), and to bus tables, but we don't need nearly as many because we don't need to employ people to ask us what we want and then tell someone else to make it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span></span></p><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2022/01/replace-waiters-with-qr-codes.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-62697007073516049662021-11-22T11:28:00.003+01:002022-03-17T12:56:10.442+01:00Moral Status Should Not Depend On Social Status<p></p><blockquote><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>“The poorest he that is in England has a life to live as the greatest he”</i> (Thomas Rainsborough, spokesman for the Levellers at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putney_Debates" target="_blank">Putnam Debates</a>)</div><p></p><p></p></blockquote><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;">What does it mean to say that everyone is equal? It does not mean that everyone has (or should have) the same amount of nice things, money, or happiness. Nor does it mean that everyone’s abilities or opinions are equally valuable. Rather, it means that everyone has the same – equal – moral status as everyone else. It means, for example, that the happiness of any one of us is just as important as the happiness of anyone else; that a promise made to one person is as important as that made to anyone else; that a rule should count the same for all. No one deserves more than others – more chances, more trust, more empathy, more rewards – merely because of who or what they are.</div><span></span><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2021/11/moral-status-should-not-depend-on.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-31409373115955403572021-10-10T18:37:00.005+02:002022-03-17T12:56:21.488+01:00If We Could All Be Good For Just One Day….It Wouldn’t Make Much Difference<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-o5y8JtACegHQKH_E6O5v1nxE-ycI9_QfPDjJus44k66LW0ZSlTUQhsKzDtYprKRkc-LaQW5UTgg8sn6DnWmQRUKK1AMIRbPNEy8cjWKC4uOH0bf4u5eDB_rkLFHmOFDiF2_-oIM91EA/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="712" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-o5y8JtACegHQKH_E6O5v1nxE-ycI9_QfPDjJus44k66LW0ZSlTUQhsKzDtYprKRkc-LaQW5UTgg8sn6DnWmQRUKK1AMIRbPNEy8cjWKC4uOH0bf4u5eDB_rkLFHmOFDiF2_-oIM91EA/" width="284"></a></div>Suppose that we could all be good for just one day. No one would be tempted away from doing the right thing and towards their own selfish interests or illicit urges. No one would be afraid of retribution. We would be free of all internal and external obstacles to being good. What would happen?<span></span><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2021/10/if-we-could-all-be-good-for-just-one.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848147048378033728.post-2288934112031502272021-08-23T12:03:00.002+02:002022-03-17T12:56:35.298+01:00The Political Economy of Tourism<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkxbWdUH4rS3Gy_-DvK1vciRatyLWhSxZhcWNTUkcY-pToHEwQVX6B5Biu4xe-963C4Bb9K_5_Ko-tgYlEw4HzUJ6BcX7XlNg-krGJY2Vh4JumW7EfhWAXDsPrAUoFEUdbTC5kxItczn0/s474/tourist+go+home.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="474" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkxbWdUH4rS3Gy_-DvK1vciRatyLWhSxZhcWNTUkcY-pToHEwQVX6B5Biu4xe-963C4Bb9K_5_Ko-tgYlEw4HzUJ6BcX7XlNg-krGJY2Vh4JumW7EfhWAXDsPrAUoFEUdbTC5kxItczn0/s320/tourist+go+home.jpg" width="320"></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tourism accounts for perhaps 10% of global GDP and 300 million jobs (<a href="https://wttc.org/Research/Economic-Impact" target="_blank">source)</a>, though obviously much less at present due to Covid. Yet tourism has an awkward unloved place in most societies. Tourists are widely resented by many locals in the places they visit, not only because their behaviour is sometimes obnoxious but also because they are accompanied by businesses catering to their interests and tastes, like Airbnb rentals and expensive cafes. Jobs in tourism tend to be low-level, often seasonal hospitality services that don't feel very meaningful or prestigious (unlike manufacturing or finance).</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I think some of this resentment is entirely misplaced, and other parts are misdirected. The central problem is a failure to recognise that tourism is an <i>export industry</i>. Your country exports <i>things </i>like cars or T-shirts or coffee beans to people in other countries in exchange for tokens (dollars, Euros, etc) that you can use to buy things they make. Tourism is where you sell foreigners things that can't be moved around the world; things that they have to come to your country to consume, like views of your beautiful coastline, authentic cuisine, and the famous paintings in your museums. The fact that cars and T-shirts tend to get made inside large ugly buildings on the outside of town while tourism exports are produced in the prettiest parts of the centre is irrelevant. The things that tourists buy are still exports. </p><p><span></span></p><a href="https://www.philosophersbeard.org/2021/08/the-political-economy-of-tourism.html#more">Read more »</a>Thomas R. Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009016049947278898noreply@blogger.com