The Big Hustle Theranos was a privately held health corporation that was touted as a breakthrough technology company. It claimed to having devised blood tests that required only exceedingly small amounts of blood and could be performed very rapidly using small automated devices the company had developed. However, the claims... Read more →

Analyzing Motives for Behavior What motivates a parent to bribe key people to get their kid admitted to a prestigious university? That is the ethical question of “Operation Varsity Blues.” In March 2019, the story broke of an alarming fraudulent scheme by parents to pay off middleman, William “Rick” Singer,... Read more →

Empathy and Compassion is Not His Thing If there is one conclusion we can draw from our experience with the COVID-19 pandemic it is that in President Trump has little empathy or compassion for others unless they support his position and his words 100%. He does not act in the... Read more →

Venting on Social Media The right to free speech is guaranteed in our Constitution. However, social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and others can limit, control, and censor speech. Federal law does not offer much recourse for social media users who object to whether and how these companies present... Read more →

Is it right to do? How can we value diversity in society and in the workplace but not in thought? It would seem counter-intuitive. It does, however, demonstrate the divide in American society. It does illustrate the inability to discuss differences of opinion in a civil manner. It does show... Read more →

Self-Interested or Self-Destructive Behavior Social Contract Theory The guest blog below on the "mask debate" by AJ Fudge explains her perspective on the idea that we have responsibilities to each other during the COVID-19 pandemic. It emphasizes the social contract theory expressed in its modern form by Thomas Hobbes and... Read more →

Wellness and the Coronavirus If we’ve learned anything about ourselves these past few months it is that the U.S. is teetering on become an uncivil society. The discriminatory police actions against black Americans, violence in our streets in response to uneven social justice, looters, monument defacers, and those who would... Read more →

Kindness Breeds Civility We’ve heard it many times before. This person is kind. But, what do we mean by kindness and how can we tell if someone is kind? What are the characteristic traits of behavior? Kindness is generally thought of as the quality of being friendly, considerate and generous.... Read more →

The Ethics of Mask Wearing Now that several states with hot spots for the spread of COVID-19 have decided to undo the openings of restaurants, bars, and other gathering places, it’s a good time to examine the moral responsibilities of individual citizens and the general public in combating the spread... Read more →

Has He Made Ethical Choices? The ethical issues that surround Trump’s handling of COVID-19 are many. In this blog, I just touch upon the key points of two philosophical reasoning methods -- Kantian Rights Theory and Utilitarianism -- and leave it to the reader to learn more, if they so... Read more →