What do I owe my parents
A listener wrote in from Dakar asking whether she must support parents who were not kind to her. Theo brings in Confucius, Aristotle and a modern philosopher of family to answer without flinching.
Is it wrong to lie to be kind
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Show notes
The kindest lie
Your friend asks if you like the haircut. You do not. The first episode uses that tiny moment to introduce two of the biggest positions in ethics: the duty-based view of Immanuel Kant and the consequence-based view of John Stuart Mill. Theo reads a short passage from each and explains the terms as they arrive.
- Why Kant thought even a kind lie corrodes something important
- Mill's reply: look at what the lie actually does
- The murderer at the door, a famous thought experiment, retold plainly
- A third option from virtue ethics that most people find more honest
Next week: do you owe your parents anything, and if so, how much.
Transcript
Bonjour, hello, and welcome to Socrates at the Bus Stop. My name is Theo Lachance, and for eleven years I taught philosophy to eighteen-year-olds who had not asked to take it. This show is the version of that class I wish I had been allowed to teach. One question, thirty minutes, no reading required. Today's question: is it wrong to lie to be kind? Your friend gets a terrible haircut. She asks what you think. You say it looks great. Have you done something wrong? One very serious German philosopher says yes, always, no exceptions. An English one says it depends on what happens next. I will read you a little of both, in plain words, and then I will tell you where I land, and you can disagree with me on the way home. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.
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