Danny Shahar's Columns
Could We Ever Justify Restraining Someone From Doing Drugs? (Part I)
Column by Danny Shahar.
Paternalists Just Don't Understand
"But even if people did use drugs without understanding the costs and risks, or how to minimize them properly, prohibition still wouldn’t be the clear answer. We have driving schools and licensing to help people practice the dangerous activity of driving, and a strong argument could be made that drug use should not be treated any differently." Column by Danny Shahar.
"Morality is about learning to make the right decisions on one’s own, not being forced to do what others think is right. Thus the best argument against legal moralism is not that morality shouldn’t be forced upon people, but rather that it can’t." Column by Danny Shahar.
"But notice that with a pollution tax, we are only charging polluters for the damage they cause. We don’t actually compensate the victims of the damage." Column by Danny Shahar.
"But if global warming is to prove harmful to people, and if we are causing it, then it is our responsibility to deal with it somehow. We would be shirking our moral duties if we ignored the problem on account of the fact that we have bigger fish to fry." Column by Danny Shahar.
"In Pascal’s Wager, my choices affect only me. If in the future global warming turned out to be harmful, and I had chosen to ignore the risks, my actions will have affected countless others. And given the uneven distribution of risks associated with global warming, I might be putting others in much greater danger than that in which I’m putting myself." Column by Danny Shahar.
Who Dares Question the Global Warmocaust?
"...Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman announced that '...we’re at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let’s just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers....'" Column by Danny Shahar.
On the Objectivity of Self Ownership
Column by new Root Striker Danny Shahar.