moral law Archives - Keith Shields

Of Moral Compasses and Society

In the Garden of Eden, one of the choices which faced the first humans was a choice between what is good for the community and what is good for the individual. Adam and Eve faced a moral choice to either obey God’s community standards or obey the voice of selfishness personified in a snake. We…

Pedestrian Fatality and Autonomous Cars

(Click on thumbnails for larger image) A recent pedestrian fatality involving an autonomous car is simply the first such tragedy. Science News reported that a woman died crossing the street when a self-driving car, deployed by Uber, hit her.[1] Writers, engineers, and computer science experts had predicted this for some time. What will this mean…

Good without God?

Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote that “If God does not exist, everything is permitted” (The Brothers Karamazov). Others have taken up this thought and asked the question, “Can we be good without God?” and John Stackhouse asks the question this way, Are there adequate grounds to make categorical moral judgments if one jettisons belief in a divinity at…

Autonomous Cars

Self-driving cars, without humans in the driver’s seat, are being tested on the streets of some cities. I used to joke with my nieces that once they were driving I would be turning in my driver’s license. Now, I am not sure whether I should be filled with awe at this amazing autonomous technology or…

The New Atheists on Morality

If you were to destroy the belief in immortality in mankind, not only love but every living force on which the continuation of all life in the world depended, would dry up at once. Moreover, there would be nothing immoral then, everything would be permitted. Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, 1880, p. I, 2, 6…

Robotic Laws

Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics” A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as…

Instincts

There is a common argument that goes something like this: “If we look at the animals of our world we see that many behaviors are normal and natural. Therefore they must be normal and natural for humans as well.” This argument has been used for many years but so has an alternative argument that sees…

Moral Law

Lately, with two different groups of people, I have been discussing how one arrives at universal moral laws. Here is Bill Watterson‘s light-hearted look at the question. His tongue-in-cheek analysis is certainly better than several philosophers I have read. Over the years, as I have read “Calvin and Hobbes” comics, I have often noted a…