The Markus Gabriel Group Ethics Blog

The Ethics of Silence and of Speaking Up The virtues of silence have long been recognized. The popular saying “speech is silver but silence is golden” may date back to ancient Egypt. It probably means that in some circumstances the less you say the better it is. I can imagine that when you are in the company of strangers, discretion would be more appropriate than indiscretion. Keeping a secret can be a form of silence that is highly ethical. Silence in some cases is a legal right. If you are being arrested, you do have “the right to remain silent.” The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution permits you not to answer specific questions when you may, by the answers given, incriminate yourself. Sometimes silence is an obligation as when its purpose is not to disturb the tranquility of others such as in the library or the Amtrak silence car. I am afraid I was oblivious to that obligation last week as I boarded an Amtrak train on my way to Annapolis, Md., to speak t...

Patriotism Today The current “Anthem” protests controversy should hopefully lead to a national conversation as to the meaning of patriotism.   What does it mean to be patriotic today, in a very divided society with sometimes opposing views of America’s core values and what it stands for? Patriotism is perceived as a positive concept and attitude sustained by strong emotions such as love, belonging, gratitude and pride. A position or an attitude perceived as un-patriotic is considered by some as a form of treason that deserves punishment.  According the U.S. Constitution (Article III, Section 3) “Congress shall have the power to declare the punishment of treason.” Patriotism can be misused or even abused if wrongly applied. John Kleinig, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Criminal Justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the co-author of The Ethics of Patriotism , makes the point that patriotism might be conceived as ...

The Daily Stormer & the Limits of “Free Speech.” The recent display of hatred and violence at Charlottesville’s protest was truly shocking. It left one woman dead, Heather Heyer, killed and many injured when a White Supremacist, James Alex Field ran his car into the crowd. The dramatic events at Charlottesville were very well documented in Who HBO-Vice’s “Race& Terror .” GoDaddy, Inc. the web-hosting company decided to ban the Daily Stormer’s site after it posted an article ridiculing  Heather, the victim. Ben Butler, a director at GoDaddy said: “While we detest the sentiment of such sites, we support a free and open internet and, align along the principles of free speech, that sometimes means allowing such tasteless, ignorant content. He added, however:  “In instances where a site goes beyond the mere exercise of these freedoms, however, and crosses over to promoting, encouraging, or otherwise engaging in violence against any person, ...

Grenfell Tower Courtesy Express.co.uk The Grenfell Tower Tragedy The tragic, senseless death of 79 people in the burning of the Grenfell Tower could have been avoided. Last Sunday’s front page of New York Times article , An Accident Waiting to Happen makes it clear. Accidents are defined as “unforeseen and unplanned events or circumstances  (Webster.) This was no accident. As Justin Davidson wrote in NewYork Magazine “There is no such thing as an accident when a high-rise building fails. If gas leaks, wires spark, or a wall crumbles, those are not acts of fate, but the preventable consequence of people not doing their jobs. ” As in most catastrophes, there were warnings that were willfully ignored for cost consideration. Glyndon Evans, a fire safety advisor to the fire fighters’ union had testified in parliament about the risk that the cladding that made up the façade of the tower could combust. He said: “If the cladding cannot resist the s...

Defining and Defending Truth The issue of being truthful or not has repeatedly been in the national  news  over these past few months and that is a good thing. It brings to our attention the importance of some fundamental values in our society such as honesty, integrity and truthfulness. The national discussion also gives us a vertiginous glimpse of the abyss we would fall into if we abandoned those values. However, defining the concept of truth is difficult. Scholars, philosophers, and theologians have struggle with its meaning for ages. The concept has been explored in literature and the arts. The German 20th century philosopher Martin Heidegger believed that the ancient Greek word for truth simply meant “the revealing of something that was previously concealed.” Another German philosopher, Jurgen Habermas believed that truth is whatever is agreed upon (the Consensus Theory.) The poet John Keats made the connection between truth and beauty. He wrote in  Ode on...