The Morality of Everyday Things: An Everyday Philosophy Podcast Ant and Jake

Old description:
Is the Santa myth just harmless fun, or should we be honest to our kids about Saint Nick?
In this very festive episode, Jake and Ant discuss the morality of lying to children about Santa Claus. They start with a brief history of the character's origins, including Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas and even Odin. Then they go over the origins of the tradition of teaching children of Santa's literal existence and the reasons for doing it.
After that, they discuss the potential benefits of the fiction, as well as the potential harms, before bringing up several philosophical frameworks and what they have to say about lying to children in addition to lying in general. They end the discussion by talking about the lessons that the Santa myth may inadvertently teach children, as well as alternatives to lying to children that don't deprive kids of the fun of the Santa story.
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Old description:
In this episode, Jake and Ant look at the ethics of having children in the context of climate change. Is it ok to birth a child into a doomed circumstance...is this circumstance quite so doomed...even if it wasn't, is it maybe wrong to birth someone without their permission anyway?
This discussion begins by exploring moral considerations around having children with 2 key perspectives, particularly: the way that you may be wronging a baby itself by birthing it, either by dooming it to a struggle with the woes of life (if that's how you view life) or the struggles of climate change, or the way you may be wronging society more widely. After an exploration in this regard we focus more on the practicalities of climate change: is human life actually doomed and is that question relevant? Can we weigh human happiness against humans having a place to live? Can we realistically ask people to not have children and what might a policy look like?
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Please leave us a review! Spotify even now let's you do it - see that little star icon - go on, give it a click. Reviews are a great way to help others find the show, and it makes us feel all warm inside.
Know anyone who likes to think about or debate the kind of topics we cover? Spread the word - and you’ll have our gratitude.
Here's the link to our new community whatsapp, where we'll discuss episodes and ask our most engaged listeners what sort of topics/formats they most enjoy.
If you’re a fan of the show, please consider signing up to our Patreon. A small subscription goes a long way towards supporting the show - and it makes us feel all warm inside too.
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Old Description:
In this episode, Jake and Ant look at the ethics of pet care. Is it ok to keep any sentient living being as property, free to be made infertile if their incessant humping annoys us and even to be put down if they become an inconvenience or minor danger.
Part of this discussion will feel familiar from our vegan/vegetarianism episode (how do we compare animal vs human rights?), but the fundamental question is how do we square the very common stance of being anti-livestock/vegan but pro-pets? We do care about our pets, but we also violate what may very reasonably be their rights as sentient creatures in the interest of our enjoyment - and their being happy with the arrangement may not necessarily get us off the hook, just as it doesn't solve the 'benevolent slave owner' argument. Also, to what extent does keeping pets enable negligient or non-benevolent pet owners to cause suffering, and can we even agree what counts as negligient - by some accounts keeping a dog in an inner city apartment is not fair, for example.
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Please leave us a review! Spotify even now let's you do it - see that little star icon - go on, give it a click. Reviews are a great way to help others find the show, and it makes us feel all warm inside.
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Here's the link to our new community whatsapp, where we'll discuss episodes and ask our most engaged listeners what sort of topics/formats they most enjoy.
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Old description:
In this episode, Jake and Ant look at the ethics of art. Well, a very small sub-section, enjoying the works of artists who are themselves immoral. In considering this, we consider the difference between art and things that are simply visually/audibly pleasing and how the context of art can (or should) affect how we appreciate it.
Key considerations include whether the 'problematic' context of the artist is literally part of their work, a heavy influence or driver of the work, or totally separate. We also consider whether the issue is consequential, i.e. we should withold our attention to financially harm such artists, or diminish their reputation, or whether it's more to satisfy a personal moral qualm.
Support the show:
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Know anyone who likes to think about or debate the kind of topics we cover? Spread the word - and you’ll have our gratitude.
Here's the link to our new community whatsapp, where we'll discuss episodes and ask our most engaged listeners what sort of topics/formats they most enjoy.
If you’re a fan of the show, please consider signing up to our Patreon. A small subscription goes a long way towards supporting the show - and it makes us feel all warm inside too.
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Old episode description:
In this episode, Jake and Ant look at the ethics of private education. Education is so important - and so formative - that it's important to ask whether it is fair for some people to access a higher quality education on the basis of wealth. What happens when what is best for society does not line up with what is best for us individually? 
Support the show:
Please leave us a review! Spotify even now let's you do it - see that little star icon - go on, give it a click. Reviews are a great way to help others find the show, and it makes us feel all warm inside.
Know anyone who likes to think about or debate the kind of topics we cover? Spread the word - and you’ll have our gratitude.
Here's the link to our new community whatsapp, where we'll discuss episodes and ask our most engaged listeners what sort of topics/formats they most enjoy.
If you’re a fan of the show, please consider signing up to our Patreon. A small subscription goes a long way towards supporting the show - and it makes us feel all warm inside too.
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Old episdoe description:
In this episode, Jake and Ant explore what it means to be a bad person, briefly revisit the distinction between good/bad and right/wrong and discuss in some more depth why they specifically chose Facebook for this question (rather than BP or Goldman Sachs or Google) and some of the harms and goods it facilitates.
Support the show:
Please leave us a review! Spotify even now let's you do it - see that little star icon - go on, give it a click. Reviews are a great way to help others find the show, and it makes us feel all warm inside.
Know anyone who likes to think about or debate the kind of topics we cover? Spread the word - and you’ll have our gratitude.
Here's the link to our new community whatsapp, where we'll discuss episodes and ask our most engaged listeners what sort of topics/formats they most enjoy.
If you’re a fan of the show, please consider signing up to our Patreon. A small subscription goes a long way towards supporting the show - and it makes us feel all warm inside too.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices