Initial Thoughts

Moral value, I think, does come in terms of degree based on a variety of factors.

I suppose I can agree that being the subject of the life has some value, in that we do not really need to deal with the ethics of how to treat rocks and dirt. I think, however, that the focus should fall more on certain relevant characteristics of life. Sentience, for instance, is a relevant characteristic of life, whereas the ability to respond to a stimulus is less relevant, given that it doesn't really require much in the way of biological complexity in order to do so. I don't think it would suffice to choose more complex relevant characteristics given the diversity of the human experience and ability. I imagine that we could draft some more relevant characteristics. 

I suppose that the problem, after you choose the relevant characteristics, is deciding what kind of treatment is appropriate for each degree/extend of the relevant characteristic. We need to be ever aware that humans can fall very low and very high (since they are currently the point to which all others are scaled) on the degree to which they hold any characteristic.

Hallo

Greetings,

My name is Brandon. I am a human. I am a philosophy major with a double minor in business administration and computer science. I grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts, so that's interesting; I've been told by many people that I have an interesting accent and most people are kind of shocked when I say that I am from the Worcester area. This isn't really relevant at all, but I am an asexual grey-romantic (if anyone is at all curious about these, feel free to ask in whatever medium you so choose).

Just like everybody else, I have a number of philosophies to which I generally adhere. However, I think that I shall begin the course by not really defining or describing any of them in any significant detail. I personally think it's interesting to try to figure that sort of thing out as you go along. Anyhow, I am greatly looking forward to blogging and class discussions, I think, at least it seems to me, that this class will be very active. I am 100% excited. I look forward to being inspired, and I hope that I can inspire some of you.