Ethics on Philosophie-Delor

Philosophy

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 19:38:41 +0200

This section contains my contributions to philosophy. Its main focus is ethics and metaethics, especially the development of a naturalistic and evolutionary ethics.

A central subject of my work is the is-ought problem. I examine why traditional and contemporary ethical theories fail to provide a satisfactory foundation for ethics, and develop a positive reconstruction on that basis.

The section also includes foundational work, critical essays, and reviews. Some of these texts use satire. The satirical elements serve to illustrate the arguments, improve accessibility, and provide entertainment. The underlying criticism is nevertheless meant seriously.

Ethics

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This section contains my work on ethics and metaethics. Its central concerns are the foundations of a naturalistic and evolutionary ethics and the solution to the is-ought problem.

Criticism and Reviews

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0200

This section contains critical discussions of philosophical theories, arguments, and books. Its main focus is on ethical and metaethical approaches, their assumptions, and their explanatory power.

The articles examine both classical positions and contemporary theories. They include criticism of Kant, ontic ethics, speech-act theory, and more recent approaches in moral philosophy. Some texts also review philosophical books and analyze their arguments.

Satirical Criticism

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This section contains serious criticism combined with satirical elements. The texts address philosophical theories, arguments, and books, presenting their weaknesses in a deliberately exaggerated and entertaining form.

The style is partly inspired by Douglas Adams. The humorous presentation is intended to illustrate the arguments and make them more accessible. The underlying philosophical criticism remains serious.

Philosophy – Delor

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0200

This blog deals with philosophy, with a focus on ethics, critical rationalism, and metaethics.

At its center are book reviews, critiques of ethical schools, the is-ought problem, and a prescriptive evolutionary ethics based on critical rationalism.

Many texts are critical, some are satirical, and all are meant seriously.

Starting points: Publications · About me · Blog

The Misconception of Utilitarianism

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0200

The Misconception of Utilitarianism

And the solution to the is–ought problem in light of evolution

Introduction

“If one has one’s why in life, one can cope with almost any how. Man does not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, Maxims and Arrows, § 12 (translation from the German)

People endure extreme suffering when they have a compelling why. They even risk their own lives for their children. When this why is missing, a more pleasant life itself becomes the supposed ultimate goal. This confusion shapes many contemporary ethical approaches.

Hume’s Is–Ought Problem and Its Solution

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hume’s Is–Ought Problem and Its Solution

Is and Ought

David Hume (1739/1978, T 3.1.1.27) observes in the Treatise of Human Nature that moral philosophers often begin by speaking about facts. They write about what is the case, how people act, what properties they possess, or what conditions obtain in the world. Then, within the same argument, an “ought” or “ought not” appears. Hume notes that this transition often occurs without explanation. Texts begin with statements about what is and then move to statements about what ought to be, without explaining what justifies this new claim.

Professor Hanno Sauer: The Invention of Good and Evil: A World History of Morality

Sun, 10 May 2026 08:00:00 +0200

The Invention of Good and Evil: A World History of Morality – How Professor Hanno Sauer Arrives at Wishful Morality Through Fallacies

Professor Hanno Sauer (2024), in his book The Invention of Good and Evil: A World History of Morality, claims to reconstruct the emergence of morality from evolution, cooperation, and culture in a scientific manner. He promises an objective derivation of how sanctions and norms made us what we are today. The book does not redeem this claim at any point. Instead of an open-ended reconstruction, Sauer engages in extensive cherry-picking among findings and theories in order to support a specific left-progressive moral philosophy. Whatever fits his worldview is elaborated at length; whatever contradicts it is ignored or pushed into psychology.

As Free as a Turnspit

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This is the second part of a two-part critique of Kant. The first part — “The Two Dogmas of Königsberg-7” — deals with the categorical imperative and universal human dignity.

As Free as a Turnspit

The civilisation of Königsberg-7, whose demolition was documented in Part 1, has since gone extinct. Galactic archaeology has never conclusively established whether the extinction bore any relation to the Königsbergers’ philosophy. The Königsbergers themselves would have emphatically denied any connection. After all, their philosophy was not empirical, and the extinction was.

The Two Dogmas of Königsberg-7

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This is the first part of a two-part critique of Kant. The second part — As Free as a Turnspit — covers Kant’s synthetic a priori judgments, his acausal free will, and the question of why the supposed champion of Enlightenment had to suspend knowledge in order to make room for faith.

On the third planet of the binary star system Königsberg-7, there lived a civilisation that had solved a remarkable problem: it had developed an ethics that could under no circumstances fail the test of reality. Not because it was particularly good, but because it was constructed so that reality was fundamentally not competent to judge moral questions. Morality came from pure reason. Reality was empirical. And between the two ran a border that was considered logically impossible to cross.