The hottest Ethics Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Science Topics

Reflections on Ethical Vegetarianism, Part 2

Bet On It • 191 implied HN points • 23 Jul 25
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. Many people find ethical vegetarian arguments hard to understand. This might be because philosophy can be tricky, and most people don't have great responses to common issues.
  2. Common sense really matters in philosophy. When people doubt basic ideas about the world, appealing to common sense can help clear up confusion.
  3. Eating meat and treating animals differently isn't seen as absurd to many people. It's okay to think this way, especially when there are bigger issues, like helping hungry humans.

Lord Verulam's Idols

Fields & Energy • 279 implied HN points • 18 Dec 23
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. Francis Bacon proposed a new idea of science that focused on human control over nature and knowledge. His vision was about creating a scholarly place that could influence society.
  2. Bacon is often labeled as the 'Father of Scientism' rather than the father of modern science. This suggests that his ideas shaped more than just scientific methods; they also influenced how we think about science and its role in society.
  3. Literature like Bacon's work, along with stories like 'Brave New World' and '1984,' can serve as warnings about the dangers of letting scientism dominate our lives. They encourage us to think critically about where scientific progress is leading us.

Gnosticism: Inversions

Secretum Secretorum • 606 implied HN points • 11 Dec 24
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. Gnosticism focuses on seeking knowledge and self-discovery, rather than blind faith. It believes understanding who we are and where we come from is the key to spiritual liberation.
  2. Gnostics had a very different view of traditional figures, often seeing them in an oppositional light. They believed that the mainstream teachings were a form of deception and celebrated figures like the serpent or Judas as misunderstood heroes, emphasizing personal experience over established doctrine.
  3. Many Gnostic teachings involved breaking away from societal norms and moral restrictions. This led to controversial practices and beliefs about liberation being found through transgressions against established moral codes, although the full reality of these practices is still debated among scholars.

Some Episodic Memories of Issues in Philosophy of Memory 4

The Memory Palace • 39 implied HN points • 02 Jul 24
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. The conference focused on many topics related to memory, including how moral values can affect the way we understand our memories. It highlighted the idea that some accurate memories might still cause harm, which makes them less genuine.
  2. Memory is not just an individual experience; it's also social. Speakers discussed how memories can change through interactions with others, helping to foster communication and resolve conflicts.
  3. The event encouraged sharing personal experiences about memory, inviting attendees to reflect on their own thoughts and insights. It created a sense of community among researchers passionate about exploring the complexities of memory.

Ethics and Insecticide

Bet On It • 211 implied HN points • 07 Jul 25
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. Insect suffering could challenge views about animal suffering. If we think insects feel pain, it might mean many everyday actions are wrong.
  2. Intelligence might affect how bad suffering is. The more intelligent a being is, the worse their suffering could be seen as.
  3. Concrete facts should guide ethical theories. It's better to start with real experiences and observations, not just abstract ideas.
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Sophistry & Over-Socialization

Becoming Noble • 398 implied HN points • 16 Jun 23
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. The post discusses the 'respectability' debate involving Plato, Kaczynski, Strauss, and Peter Thiel.
  2. The conversation between Johann Kurtz and Brian C. Wilson emphasizes the idea of being less respectable.
  3. The essay encourages support for the project by leaving likes or considering paid subscriptions.

You're so smart

Becoming Noble • 398 implied HN points • 07 Jul 23
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. The author highlights the importance of encouraging readers to engage in thoughtful discussions and voice their opinions.
  2. There is a discussion on academia's need for a more formal network and standards, similar to a sacred order, to enhance knowledge sharing.
  3. The post delves into the complexities surrounding AI and how it impacts society biologically and socially, urging a deeper understanding of the system's dynamics.

Happy 1st Birthday, GPT-4

Marcus on AI • 1383 implied HN points • 16 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Ethics
  1. There seems to be a possible plateau in GPT-4's capability, with no one decisively beating it yet.
  2. Despite challenges, there has been progress in discovering applications and putting GPT-4 type models into practice.
  3. Companies are finding putting Large Language Models into real-world use challenging, with many initial expectations proving unrealistic.

Weird people doing good things

Samstack • 1768 implied HN points • 29 Nov 23
🎭️ Culture Ethics
  1. Effective Altruists do some weird things, like considering options like eliminating predators or flipping a coin with huge consequences.
  2. Effective Altruism is about using evidence to do the most good possible, even if some of the ideas seem strange or unconventional.
  3. Being weird is an integral part of doing good - the unconventional practices of Effective Altruists contribute to their impact.

The Left Has a Problem with Cheaters

Dilan’s Newsletter • 393 implied HN points • 01 Mar 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Ethics
  1. Cheating is a significant issue on the Left, affecting various areas like academic testing and benefits programs.
  2. Enforcing rules against cheating is crucial to maintain fairness and prevent resentment among those who follow the rules.
  3. The Left, while supporting programs to help disadvantaged individuals, often struggles with implementing effective enforcement mechanisms against cheaters.

AI as Symptom and Dream

SCIENCE GODDESS • 393 implied HN points • 08 May 23
🕹 Technology Ethics
  1. Many AI researchers are calling for a pause in advanced AI research due to concerns about potential apocalyptic scenarios.
  2. There is a need to question the motives and proposed solutions of prominent AI organizations and figureheads.
  3. Ethical considerations around AI should focus on issues like worker exploitation and power concentration, rather than just sensationalized fears of AI surpassing humanity.

Is it possible for a human to argue with an AI assistant? 😅

Prawfeed Newsletter • 12 implied HN points • 24 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Ethics
  1. Misalignment between human intent and AI output is common and often invisible.
  2. AI can move fast on partial signals and end up going the wrong way. Fixing it takes pausing, naming the drift, and resetting direction instead of just blaming.
  3. The real advantage is human clarity and cognitive leadership. Thinking clearly, communicating boundaries, and guiding the AI matters more than clever prompts.

Six Reasons Why Current AI Won't Displace Lawyers

Autonomy • 34 implied HN points • 20 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Ethics
  1. Current AI doesn't generalize or perceive the world like humans, so it misses novel facts and real-world cues that lawyers use to build and win cases.
  2. Litigation is inherently adversarial, so both sides will adopt AI and the human lawyers who best direct and strategize with those tools will decide outcomes.
  3. Lawyering involves client counseling, moral responsibility, and institutional rules that AI can't fulfill, and greater AI productivity may actually increase demand for legal services rather than eliminate lawyers.

The Role of Mood in User Experience Design

UX Psychology • 218 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Ethics
  1. Understanding user mood is crucial in user experience design as it influences interactions over time.
  2. Moods can be monitored, expressed, and regulated in UX design to create more personalized and empathetic experiences.
  3. Implementing mood-focused strategies requires considering ethical challenges, personalization opportunities, and continuous testing.

Recent Media Appearances

Good Thoughts • 216 implied HN points • 20 Jan 24
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. Recent public philosophy discussions cover effective altruism, longtermism, and synthetic a priori knowledge.
  2. Critical discussion on the reliance on supernatural forces in discerning philosophical truths.
  3. Rejecting the causal debunking principle in favor of relying on coherent philosophical methods for truth-seeking.

AI rights and human harms

imperfect offerings • 219 implied HN points • 17 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Ethics
  1. AI industry co-opts the term 'learning' to justify its innovations and obscure responsibilities
  2. There is a call for an AI rights movement, drawing parallels with animal rights that may oversimplify complex ethical issues
  3. Human rights are at risk when powerful corporations prioritize their interests over accountability and regulation in the development and deployment of AI technology

LECTURE: Roots of How Ownership & Trade Have Made Us Truly Weird: "Property" & "Exchange" as a Coördination Mechanism at Societal Scale

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 192 implied HN points • 13 Jul 25
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. The idea of ownership is really strange. We believe we can own things even when we're not present, which is a unique concept for humans.
  2. Trade and exchange are important for how societies work. They help people specialize in tasks and improve efficiency, leading to greater productivity.
  3. Markets and property rights help coordinate action in society. They distribute resources but don't guarantee fairness, so the rules around them shape who benefits and how much.

Watching Football with Friends

Opaque Hourglass • 239 implied HN points • 01 Jan 24
🎭️ Culture Ethics
  1. Expressing complex thoughts or feelings can be challenging, especially when others may not understand.
  2. Articulating your viewpoints through writing can help clarify your ideas and potentially facilitate better communication with others.
  3. Seeking to convey deeper meanings behind your beliefs or emotions, even if not fully reciprocated, can lead to a sense of connection and understanding.

Causal realism, or should you eat your pet?

The Lifeboat • 206 implied HN points • 27 Jun 25
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. Causal realism suggests that what is real isn't just about facts but about how ideas and beliefs can have real impacts. This means both true and false information can shape our actions and the world around us.
  2. Drawing lines between what's real and not, or true and false, has become tricky in today's vast, information-rich world. It's important to recognize these lines can shift based on personal beliefs and cultural contexts.
  3. We need to be cautious about simplistically labeling things as real or fake. Both can influence people's thoughts and behaviors, so acknowledging the complexity of information is crucial for understanding our reality.

Centaurs and Cyborgs on the Jagged Frontier

One Useful Thing • 1988 implied HN points • 16 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Ethics
  1. AIs can significantly enhance performance in professional work tasks.
  2. AIs work as skill levelers, boosting performance across different proficiency levels.
  3. Integrating AI into work tasks as 'Centaurs' or 'Cyborgs' can yield better and more varied results than using AI or human effort alone.

Hidden Open Thread 353.5

Astral Codex Ten • 688 implied HN points • 30 Oct 24
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. This is a thread for subscribers to discuss various topics openly. People can share their thoughts and insights freely.
  2. It is exclusive to those who have paid a subscription. This means that the discussions here are intended for a smaller, dedicated group.
  3. Engagement is encouraged, with comments and sharing options available. Subscribers can interact with each other in a more personal space.

Why I Don't Buy The Moral Argument

Bentham's Newsletter • 196 implied HN points • 29 Jan 24
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. The traditional moral argument for the existence of God is not convincing because the premise that without God, objective moral values do not exist is not plausible for all.
  2. Having God as the source of morality does not provide a satisfactory grounding for morality as it creates more questions and issues.
  3. Explaining the existence of moral facts by positing God as the source is as arbitrary as positing other explanations like pleasure being good.

What's Your Theology of AI?

What Is Called Thinking? • 40 implied HN points • 02 Dec 25
⛪ Faith & Spirituality Ethics
  1. Many people are optimistic about AI, but academics and religious communities tend to be more cautious or skeptical.
  2. Framing AI theologically can help faith communities address its moral, spiritual, and educational implications.
  3. Jewish educators are being invited to consider and develop a distinct theology of AI to guide teaching and community conversation.

The Revaluation of All Values, Part 4

Intimations of a New Worldview • 373 implied HN points • 14 Mar 23
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. The will to power is a metaphysical doctrine similar to Heraclitus' Logos and Schopenhauer's primacy of the will.
  2. Nietzsche's will to power aims to promote and justify the flourishing of life, opposing pessimistic philosophies like Schopenhauer.
  3. The will to power is based on empirical findings in biology and psychology, generalizing to explain all aspects of life.

Only the Thumotic Will Survive

Less Foolish • 373 implied HN points • 29 Jun 23
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. Thumos is essential for achieving harmony within ourselves and in the world.
  2. Anger is necessary for honor and shame to exist in society without demonizing it.
  3. To thrive and survive challenges, we must embrace thumotic passion and not fear appearing unreasonable.

TBM 315: The Self-Sealing Argument Trap

The Beautiful Mess • 727 implied HN points • 13 Oct 24
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. Self-sealing arguments trap you into a no-win situation. No matter how you respond, it feels like you lose.
  2. These arguments often happen in discussions where your personal beliefs are questioned. They can make it hard to express your true thoughts without feeling defensive.
  3. It's important to recognize when you're in these traps. Finding a different way to respond can help you avoid feeling stuck and give you a better chance for a positive outcome.

What Would Ayn Rand Say About Existential Risk From Misaligned AI?

The Future of Life • 39 implied HN points • 28 Jun 24
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. Ayn Rand's Objectivism suggests that intelligence and morality are connected. This means that a superintelligent AI could likely develop values that align with human rights.
  2. The Orthogonality thesis argues that intelligence and goals are separate. However, from an Objectivist viewpoint, a really smart being would need to adopt certain virtues to be effective.
  3. Even if an AI is intelligent, it doesn't mean it will care about humans. There’s no guarantee an advanced AI would think our survival is important, even if it acts morally toward other intelligences.

Import AI 329: Compute IS data; don't build AI agents; AI needs a precautionary principle

Import AI • 399 implied HN points • 15 May 23
🕹 Technology Ethics
  1. Building AI scientists to advise humans is a safer alternative to building AI agents that act independently
  2. There is a need for a precautionary principle in AI development to address threats to democracy, peace, safety, and work
  3. Approaches like Self-Align show the potential for AI systems to self-bootstrap using synthetic data, leading to more capable models

A proposal for importing society’s values

Musings on the Alignment Problem • 519 implied HN points • 09 Mar 23
🕹 Technology Ethics
  1. AI systems like ChatGPT face value-based decisions that are complex and can be polarizing, highlighting the need to align AI to individual and group preferences.
  2. A proposed process called simulated deliberative democracy aims to use large language models to simulate human deliberations on value questions, offering a scalable and transparent approach.
  3. The proposal presents pros like scalability, transparency, and potential for inclusivity, but also faces challenges such as representativeness, aggregation method complexities, and difficulties in simulating how people change their minds.

Swimming in the Tensions

Cybernetic Forests • 199 implied HN points • 21 Jan 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Ethics
  1. When creating images with AI, we are essentially building data visualizations based on training data, and this can lead to reproducing stereotypes found in the training data.
  2. Archives, like Wikimedia Commons, require curation and community engagement to ensure responsible and equitable representation in AI training datasets.
  3. There is a need to recognize the cultural and emotional value of images and data, and to approach AI training data as more than just facts, but as part of a larger social and cultural fabric.

1.1 Calculation Versus Understanding: Why Care?

Fields & Energy • 319 implied HN points • 01 Nov 23
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. Understanding is important, not just getting the right answers. If we want to make sense of our world and society, we need deeper insights and not just calculations.
  2. Ideas about causality and certainty have changed over time. What was once thought to be clear cut, like Newton's laws, has become more complicated with concepts like quantum mechanics.
  3. Political philosophy can be impacted by scientific ideas. If we believe everything is contradictory, it may affect how we think about power and society, sometimes leading to a focus on who holds power rather than what is right or wrong.

Not For Sale

Bodies get in the way... • 353 implied HN points • 30 Jul 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Ethics
  1. Mothers for Mother advocates against surrogacy, highlighting that it can exploit vulnerable women and separate babies from their mothers.
  2. The bond between a mother and baby is crucial for a baby's emotional and cognitive development, with surrogacy potentially disrupting this connection.
  3. Surrogacy poses ethical and physiological risks, and laws regarding surrogacy vary widely across different countries.

Why the Good Guys Will Usually Win

Eurykosmotron • 353 implied HN points • 09 Jul 23
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. Good guys are likely to win and open-mindedness prevails over closed-mindedness across the multiverse.
  2. Prosocial communities are smarter and better at problem-solving than communities of distrustful individuals.
  3. In a diverse and open environment, good and open-minded agents are more likely to prevail and positively influence society.

Robust Cognitive Strategies for Resource-Rich Minds

Eurykosmotron • 353 implied HN points • 26 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Ethics
  1. Living in scarcity shapes our thinking and behavior, but abundance can lead to new cognitive strategies.
  2. Feasible abundance can change how we approach problem-solving and relationships, leading to more optimism for the future.
  3. With abundant cognitive resources, we could develop new strategies like sampling from possible multiverses and maintaining a history of prior versions.

If You Can’t See That Adam Rubenstein Was Treated Unfairly, You’re Being A Jerk

Singal-Minded • 1268 implied HN points • 29 Feb 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Ethics
  1. Adam Rubenstein was treated unfairly in his journalistic career due to misinformation spread by his own colleagues.
  2. The incident involving Rubenstein's sandwich preference was used as a focal point to smear him professionally, showcasing a lack of empathy and journalistic integrity in some of his peers.
  3. The response from certain journalists highlights a lack of reflection and remorse in the industry, pointing to broader issues concerning truth and fair reporting in journalism.

Immanuel Kant—What can we know?

Ralph Ammer • 314 implied HN points • 01 Nov 23
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. Immanuel Kant questioned how we can know things, diving into the roles of rationalism and empiricism.
  2. Kant believed that our mind shapes how we perceive the world, filtering and structuring our knowledge.
  3. Kant's idea is that we need both external observations and internal structuring through concepts to truly understand the world.

We're About to Watch Billions Die. Where Does "Empathy" Fit Here?

OK Doomer • 208 implied HN points • 23 Jun 25
📖 Philosophy Ethics
  1. Empathy might not be enough to make a real difference in the world. Just feeling sorry for people doesn’t change the actions of those in power.
  2. Historical examples show that people can feel compassion for fictional stories while being cruel to real victims. This shows a disconnect between emotions and actions.
  3. As global crises increase, it’s important to rethink the role of empathy. We need to consider how we respond to suffering on a larger scale in the face of potential mass deaths.