263 Thinking Rationally Part 9: Rational Ethics

An historical overview of rational ethics, focussing on the revolution in moral philosophy that happened during the Enlightenment. Although there was amazing progress during the Enlightenment, the contradictions of enlightenment thinkers eventually led them to lose their way on ethics and abandon a rational approach to morality. Understanding this background is helpful if you want to use rational thinking to make sense of ethics for yourself. Show Notes: TVL Episode 151 Your Own Moral Compass Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 TED talk by Michael Huemer: The Progress of Liberalism Episode 227 Review Of The Better Angels Of Our Nature By Steven Pinker All Previous Episodes in the Thinking Rationally Series

 

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"For centuries, the battle of morality was fought between those who claimed that your life belongs to God and those who claimed that it belongs to your neighbors - between those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of ghosts in heaven and those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of incompetents on earth. And no one came to say that your life belongs to you and that the good is to live it." ~Ayn Rand