The core question of any discussion about ethics is: What is “good”? If we humans think we ought to have some standards of behavior and this behavior is “good” (whereas going against it is “bad”), how do we decide what is good and what is bad? Is it “good” if I kill grandma to eat her brains, because my cannibal…
Passover Madness
Pesach, indeed of all religion, defies logic. That does not make it any less significant, valid, or effective. The whole of mysticism, you might say all of our emotions, are the quite non-rational phenomena. Yet clearly Pesach works! But I want to say something about Pesach, so here goes. Here is a religion that requires us not to eat leavened,…
Self-Defense
The case of an Israeli soldier shooting an injured, disarmed, terrorist has divided Israel along the usual and predictable lines. Those who are sensitive to ethical considerations regret and deplore the act. They are impressed that the armed forces as well as the civil have reacted swiftly to condemn it and they have charged him. If the enquiries reveal that…
Shrinks
Why do we think so negatively about psychiatrists that we still insult them by calling them shrinks? Some medics might be quacks, but we don’t generally refer to them as witches! Shrinks; The untold story of Psychiatry, by Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, is a sobering account of how psychiatry has swung from a marginal, unscientific mixture of weird theories into one…
Existentialism
Caught between alternative moral positions, how does a thinking person determine what to do? Of course, your average person cares more about drink, sex, and sport and couldn’t care less about value thinking. For those of us who do, however, the process of self-analysis constantly forces us to examine. If you were a philosopher you would want to think the…
Why I Don’t Criticize Israel More
Once again I feel the need to defend my position on Israel. I do not identify with the political climate in Israel today nor with its government. I do not approve of occupation or discrimination. I find extremism of any kind repulsive and offensive. I believe that risks need to be taken for peace, though not irrational ones, and Palestinian…