Occasional musings on software development, tech, the Middle East, and anything else.
As a Middle Eastern expat, I'm in the position of observing a more diverse spectrum of reactions and attitudes to advancements in civil rights. The United States Supreme Court ruling on Orbergefell v. Hodges generated a lot of such reactions. As I think of the long arc of the moral universe, I feel it is more and more important to bring to light a few issues that the many social conservatives…
For liberal laypersons, our justification of progressive social policies, as well as our defense for social justice issues in general is often recursive . I discussed this previously, in “I am right, therefore…” —a common pattern of imposing our beliefs on others is often to presuppose that they are right ; an unconvincing argument to the other party, but often difficult to detect because the…
It is very easy to presuppose — implicitly and subconsciously — that one is right, unknowingly using that assumption to justify later claims. Oftentimes we therefore fall into a fallacy of ethical reasoning where we assume, because we have the right position, that we are licensed to do actions that someone else — coming from the morally wrong position — is not permitted to do. We can therefore…
Consequentialist theories are often exciting and tempting as they give us a real chance at having a universalizable theory of morality and justice. As a moral theory, one can look at the different flavors of consequentialism and evaluate them against a range of features of plausible moral theories, noting if each of those features is accounted for by each theory. In this paper, I propose a number…
It is difficult to overcome the shock generated by the brutal assassination of Lt. Moath Kasasbeh . Indeed in many ways, I—and many like me—have yet to do so. Throughout the ordeal which was brought some closure by the awful news Tuesday, Jordanians, Arabs, and Muslims alike were of many minds. From anger towards ISIS to self-questioning of the country's role in in the anti-ISIS coalition; from a…
