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Ethics

Ethics versus Morality

Anja Steinbauer says Don’t Trust the Ethicists (too much).

Ethical issues are a messy business. Trying to get a firm grip on them is like holding a handful of sand and see it trickle through your fingers. Many philosophers love ethics. Equipped with their professional buckets and spades – virtues, maxims, systems and values – they confidently dig away in the sandbox of morality considering it to be their personal playground.

Increasingly I see professional philosophers being consulted as if authority in ethical matters came with the job title.

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