Episode 77: On the Moral Nature of Nazis, Jerks, and Ethicists (with Eric Schwitzgebel)
Very Bad Wizards
Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro
4.8 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 9 November 2015
⏱️ 80 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Very bad wizards is a podcast with a philosopher, my dad, and a psychologist, Dave Pizarro, |
| 0:06.3 | having an informal discussion about issues and signs and ethics. |
| 0:09.7 | Please note that the discussion contains bad words that I'm out of allow to say, and knowing |
| 0:14.4 | my dad some very inappropriate jokes. |
| 0:17.1 | Isn't that a minor miracle? |
| 0:20.0 | To stay to the world today, the level of conflict, and misunderstanding. |
| 0:26.1 | That two men could stand on a lonely road and winner and talk calmly and rationally. |
| 0:37.1 | All around them, people are losing their mind. |
| 0:56.1 | Who are you? Who are you? |
| 1:00.1 | I'm very bad men. |
| 1:02.1 | I'm a very good man. Good man. |
| 1:08.1 | They think he's lost, and with no more brains than you have. |
| 1:12.1 | We're in our kitchen. Can I have men? |
| 1:18.1 | Anybody can have a brain. |
| 1:22.1 | You're a very bad man. |
| 1:24.1 | I'm a very good man. |
| 1:26.1 | Just a very bad wizard. |
| 1:29.1 | Welcome to very bad wizards. I'm Tamler Summers from the University of Houston. |
| 1:33.1 | All right, Dave. Let's say you have the DeLorean from back to the future, and you go back in time to the late 1800s when Hitler's about to be born. |
| 1:44.1 | Now, do you program the DeLorean so that it will automatically swerve into Hitler's mom's horse carriage on her way to the delivery room or where he's going to be? |
| 1:54.1 | Whatever the Germans had then in order to save five other Germans who would otherwise be hit. |
| 2:00.1 | Is one of the five him. |
... |
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