Category: ethics

• August 6, 2014

  The Good Life and Sustaining Life: An Inquiry into Our Great Vexation (An excerpt)

  Preface: Our Great Vexation There may be no greater vexation in our time than the question of how to make a living in a manner that accords with leading a good life. Laypersons may evade the question merely by closing their eyes and keeping their heads down; doing so involves the great effort of remaining…
• July 29, 2014

  The tragedy of the commons: Existential homelessness

  I have been discussing the three ways of making a living, one of which is concerned with using the property we have. One good test of my first maxim–using properly what you’ve got–would be the ‘tragedy of the commons.’ In a now famous paper, ‘The Tragedy of the Commons,’ which was originally published in Science in 1968,…
• July 24, 2014

  The virtues corresponding to our economic relationships

  I have been discussing three ways of making a living, which correspond also to three kinds of economic relationships. Cast as maxims, these ways are: I. Use what you’ve got. II. Exchange what’s in hand. III. Offer what you can. I. ‘Using what you’ve got’ is a territorial as well as a (for lack of…
• July 23, 2014

  Why Kickstarter can’t work and other related matters

  I now want to begin the slow and steady work of teasing out the implications of this tripartite model of making a living. Here is that schema again: I. Use what you’ve got. The ‘getting’ part refers to acquiring something or other. The ‘using’ part may have as its referent land, waste, plants, animals, tools, people,…
• July 22, 2014

  Our 2 conceptions of work: work as toil vs. work as performance

  Yesterday, I wrote about the three ways of making a living, and I still have many implications to spell out. Today, I set this subject off to the side and turn to a related topic, this being our conceptions of work. I believe that there are only two conceptions that vie and belie each other, that each…