The following question about how to handle a soldier’s sexual orientation in an obituary was recently posed on a writers’ listserve to which I subscribe. It provoked such a heated discussion that the moderator had to shut off debate. It’s worth another look here.
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In some ways, we’re all victims of circumstances, but a new analysis by Alfred Mele and Joshua Shepherd suggest we can overcome the negative influences inherent in certain situations and still do what is ethical.
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The Janesville Gazette, a Wisconsin newspaper, set off quite a furor when it published a list of “problem drinkers” distributed by the Janesville police to bar owners with a warning that those named shouldn’t be served. The police did not intend for the list to be made public, and the newspaper’s decision prompted a debate about the ethics of the actions by both the police and the newspaper.
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Talking Ethics aims to grapple with readers’ real problems, and we hope you’ll feel free to e-mail us here for advice. For now, though, let’s look at a hypothetical situation, a composite pieced together from real events to provide food for thought…and debate.
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Researchers from Harvard University and the University of Utah confirmed what has been obvious for eons: Money changes the way we think and the way we behave, and not in a good way. But the researchers went further to see why money has such a corrosive effect.
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One of the things Talking Ethics aims to do is grapple with readers’ real ethical problems. In most cases, I’ll offer my thoughts and then open the floor to everyone else. But until we build an audience, we’ll have to come up with our own questions. Let’s start with a hypothetical situation, a composite pieced together from real events to provide food for thought…and debate.
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If you liked Randy Cohen’s “Ethicist” columns in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, you’re sure to love his two collections of the columns, the recently published Be Good and the 2002 volume, The Good, The Bad & The Difference. The books are a natural choice for our first review because Cohen and his column had so much to do with inspiring Talking Ethics. I never miss the column, which is now in its fifteenth year, with Chuck Klosterman currently holding the “Ethicist” mantle. (Cohen held it for an astonishing twelve years.)
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