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Episode 77: On the Moral Nature of Nazis, Jerks, and Ethicists (with Eric Schwitzgebel)

Very Bad Wizards

Ethics Professors Get Back at a Much Higher Rate Because They Had Run Their Arguments

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Episode notes

Researchers sent three different emails to ethicists, philosophers and other professors at the same universities. They found no statistically detectable difference in the response rates among the three groups. "My favorite by far is because it's from the twisted mind of social psychology," he says.

Special guest Eric Schwitzgebel joins David and Tamler to discuss the moral behavior (or lack thereof) of ethicists. Does moral reflection make us better people, or does it just give us better excuses to be immoral? Who's more right about human nature--Mencius or Xun Zi? What did Kant have against bastards and masturbating? Plus, we talk about jerks, robot cars, and killing baby Hitler. (Godwin's Law within 1:42--might be a new record for us).

Links

Eric Schwitzgebel publications. (Has links to all the discussed papers).
Why Self-Driving Cars Must be Programmed to Kill [technologyreview.com]
Bonnefon, J. F., Shariff, A., & Rahwan, I. (2015). Autonomous Vehicles Need Experimental Ethics: Are We Ready for Utilitarian Cars? [arxiv.org]
Mencius [wikipedia.org]
Xun Zi [wikipedia.org]
"The Philosophical Problem of Killing Baby Hitler." [vox.com]
Why it's Unethical to Go Back in Time and Kill Baby Hitler. [forbes.com]

Special Guest: Eric Schwitzgebel.

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