Dmitry Chernikov’s Blog

Happiness engages or takes hold of the whole of you, the body, the intellect, and the will. It is not merely pleasure but (1) pleasure bound up with (2) the thing which belongs to you that brings pleasure and (3) your capacity to receive that pleasure into yourself.

Virtue perfects and directs human natural powers, whereas art perfects human powers that are augmented by technology. Of course, human art is not merely skillful use of tools; art creates tools and technologies themselves. Also, some arts use few or no tools at all but only, say, human hands; and some arts perform the work [...]

Right?

“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” It may be immediately objected that this rule fails, because my desires may be different from the desires of others. For example, if I want P to give me a bottle of rum, must I give him a bottle of rum, too? What if [...]

Should it be proportional to what it cost the benefactor or to what it is worth to the recipient? Answer: if the transaction is a trade, then the benefactor should profit, as you do, so he should receive from you more than his costs. If the transaction is out of the goodness of your benefactor’s [...]

Consider a massive accident, such as an airplane crush. Note that the people who perished in it, say, all 300 of them, had nothing in common with each other, other than the manner of their death. They were all different people with unique and perhaps highly interesting stories to tell about their lives who just [...]

You should guess: the kinds are: metaphysical, moral, and physical. Metaphysical humility is keen awareness of the limitations of human nature. We are at infinite distance away from God, from self-sufficiency, from goodness. We are less perfect than angels. We are born helpless. We are tempted to all sorts of evil. We are natural savages [...]

Ron Paul, who is sometimes given the title “Champion of the Constitution” by his friends, has often been accused of “Constitution worship” by his enemies. This sounds similar to “rule worship,” a mistake that act utilitarians claim that rule utilitarians commit. Neither kind of charge is justified. The latter, because even act utilitarians will end [...]

Remember that socialism can be reached in two ways. The first is through violent revolution which destroys the old order and erects a total state, as happened in the Soviet Union. The second is as a logical outcome of government interventionism, the “third way.” This third way is internally inconsistent; it is a contradictory set [...]

A simple question: how can a successful action ever be immoral? It achieved the goal set by the actor; what more can we ask of an action? Three things. First, the action can fail on its own terms by turning out to be less profitable than an alternative (which was not contemplated or rejected foolishly). [...]

People sometimes ask how a loving God can punish. Well, Jesus both unites and divides. He unites through love, by saying “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mt 32:29) But He does not merely Himself love; He wants us to love. He wants initiative from us. Human beings are lovable by God precisely to the extent [...]

It has always puzzled me how people can look forward to retirement even while they are still young. For, first, most of their life they will not be enjoying themselves and their work but dreaming about distant future. Second, retirement almost by definition entails being useless to your fellow man. It means sitting in your [...]

Economists have argued that utilitarianism urges that consumer surplus obtained due to gains from trade be maximized. But what about producer surplus? Well, under indirect exchange the producer does not receive goods but money which is de facto debt of society to him. So, the producer receives no surplus until he spends this money, at [...]

In a single sentence Sidgwick gives such an example: “All are agreed that usurpation ought to be resisted; but as to the right behavior towards an established government which has sprung from a successful usurpation, there is a great difference of opinion.” (The Methods of Ethics, 300) In other words, it is a law that [...]

Sidgwick asks whether “we are to apportion the reward to the effort made, or to the results attained.” (The Methods of Ethics, 283) Reasons for the former: 1. Results attained or success is its own reward. 2. Success may depend in part on fortune, failing to reflect inner character. Reasons for the latter: 1. Rewarding [...]

Sidgwick expresses the following sentiment: “the duty of fighting the national enemies is prominent in many countries: and even where this function has become a salaried and voluntary adopted profession, it is often felt to be in a special sense the ‘service of one’s country,’ and we think it at least desirable and best that [...]

Sidgwick opines upon a perennial problem: Virtue is imperfect so long as the agent cannot do the virtuous action without a conflict of impulses; since it is from a wrong bent of natural impulse that we find it hard to do what is best, and it seems absurd to say that the more we cure [...]

Says Danny Shahar. Imperfect duties in Kant’s moral philosophy are those you have to do sometimes in your life and to some extent, but precisely when and how to discharge those duties is left to your own judgment. Typical examples include the duty to develop your talents and the duty to help others in need. [...]

The subtle distinction between fortitude and courage is that the former focuses on defense, while the latter, on attack. And, indeed, “fortitude” comes from the same Latin word fortis as “fort,” which, of course, means “a strong or fortified place.” I have pointed out that you cannot directly attack evil spirits or temptations or even [...]

Is that this principle is entirely formal and lacks any content. For non-aggression presupposes a theory of violence which in turn requires a theory of property and its just and unjust possession and ways of acquisition. Consider, for example, that we can say: nobody has a right to the full fruits of his labor; other [...]