Bryan Caplan's Blog, page 10

The Big Deal About Masks

What’s the big deal about masks?  In exchange for slight inconvenience and discomfort, we save lives.  Basic human selfishness explains why many would fail to comply.  Anti-authoritarian scruples might lead some to oppose government mask mandates.  But how could anyone sincerely disagree with the principle that wearing masks is a good thing?

The obvious place to start is: Almost no one thought that wearing masks was a good thing before Covid-19.  Yet contagious respiratory diseases that kill hav...

Why Not Rectify Past Injustices?

I just got back from a month in the UK, working for the John Locke Institute‘s two summer schools.  The morning before I left, I delivered my talk on “The Economics of Antipathy and Stereotyping.” In the subsequent Q&A, one of the students asked (roughly), “But shouldn’t we try to rectify past injustices that caused present-day differences in worker productivity?”  Since I wasn’t satisfied with my answer at the time, here are the three key points I wish I’d made.  Hopefully my John Locke student...

Huemer’s Two Taxes

In my Knowledge, Reality, and Value Book Club, I focus on my disagreements with Huemer, even though I agree with the vast majority of what the book says.  Recently, however, he wrote a separate piece that I disagree with almost entirely, entitled “Two Taxes that Aren’t Theft.”  Using Huemer’s common-sense approach to ethics, I say that he’s deeply mistaken on both counts.

He starts by making reasonable points about pollution taxes:

Pollution. Whenever you drive your car, you release a little bit...

Hanania the Wise

Richard Hanania once again cuts through the absurdity of popular thinking about American politics.  Few modern thinkers are as wise and forthright.  Read the whole thing, but here are the highlights.

First, talk of Critical Race Theory “bans” are silly hyperbole.  The debate is about public school curricula, not censorship.

You may think high schoolers should learn such things, or not. But the fact is that if you have government schools, it is government that makes the rules. How could it be oth...

Knowledge, Reality, and Value Book Club Replies, Part 5

Here’s my last round of response to reader comments.  I’m on vacation now, but in early September I’ll post one last reply to Huemer’s replies to me, then give the author the last word.

Parrhesia:

Even if we assign very low probability that insects feel pain and they feel significantly less pain, there are something like 10^18 insects so insect suffering is a massive problem. Nematodes have nociceptors and there are 4*10^19, which is 57 billion for every human. I do not know exactly how but I i...

Knowledge, Reality, and Value: Huemer’s Response, Part 5

Thanks to everyone, again, for the excellent discussion. Some selected replies to “Book Club, Part 5”:

Bryan’s Comments(1) Abstract Principles vs. Concrete Judgments

In earlier work, I said philosophers have often mistakenly started from general, abstract principles and deduced implausible conclusions about particular cases, when they should instead have started from the apparent facts about particular cases and generalized from there.

Bryan thinks that I just made the mistake that I’ve critici...

When It’s Alright to Steal from Bill Gates: A Reply to David

David is shocked by my claim that it is alright to steal from Bill Gates to save your child’s life:

If Bryan thinks it’s right to steal from Bill Gates to finance expensive cancer surgery with “a reasonably high chance of saving her life,” then that principle must apply to tens of millions of people who could have their lives saved even more cheaply by being able to get food.

Think of, say, 100 million of the poorest people in India. They could ward off starvation for a year or even two with an ...

Knowledge, Reality, and Value Book Club, Part 5

Now it’s time to finish up my tour and critique of Huemer’s new book.  This week: animal ethics.

My Preamble

Five years ago, I had an extended debate on animal ethics with Huemer on EconLog.  Here are segments 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

As expected, Huemer and I failed to convince each other.  Unexpectedly, at least two people I personally know told me that Huemer changed their minds.  No one has ever told me that I changed their minds on this issue.  If my favorite philosopher says I’m wrong, and...

Knowledge, Reality, and Value: Huemer’s Response, Part 4

The latest from Huemer:

Thanks, everyone, for the discussion! Here are my responses to the comments about part 4:

Bryan’s Comments

“BC” indicates Bryan’s comments; “MH” is me, from the book.

(1)

BC:      When defending moral realism, Huemer places a fair amount of weight on linguistic evidence … I find this evidence less probative than he does. Why? Because human beings often frame non-assertions as assertions for rhetorical effect. “Yay for the Dodgers!” is almost equivalent in meaning to “Dod...

First-Hand Experience is Less Biased Than News

One of the first lessons you learn in statistics is to discount first-hand experience.  “But I knew a guy who…” is weak evidence, for a long list of reasons:

1. Random error.  When you only sample one person – yourself – there’s immense random error.  The noise can easily drowns the signal.

2. Selection bias.  Are you an exactly average human?  Probably not.  In fact, exactly average humans probably simply don’t exist.  As a result, your first-hand experience systematically misrepresents reality...