Comments on: The Oracle of Eighth Avenue

By: Ethics by Pronouncement at Steven Landsburg | The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:04:57 +0000

[...] I said the last time I blogged about this bozo, it’s not his conclusions I’m objecting to. It’s his [...]

By: RL

RL — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:49:40 +0000

Prof Landsberg,

I am SO happy to have read this column of yours. Years ago, when RC was slopping up columns for Slate, I could NEVER understand why people took him seriously. How gratifying to find they don’t.

By: Jon Shea

Jon Shea — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:05:07 +0000

The thing that bothers me most about Cohen is that I’ve never seen him cite _any_ prominent ethicist. He seems completely oblivious to the fact that other very smart people (Kant, Mill, Aquinas, Plato…) have thought about ethical issues and come up with some very interesting ideas. It would be nice he would occasionally acknowledge these philosopher’s work and explain how one might apply it to answer the question he’s been asked.

Contrast Cohen’s “The Ethicist” with Tom Harford’s “Dear Economist” in the Financial Times (http://blogs.ft.com/undercover/). Harford frequently sources both classic and new research papers. He also uses named economic theories to help explain his answer. As a result “Dear Economist” doesn’t feel like just an Anne Lander’s style advice column. When I read Hardford I don’t feel like I’m getting a stranger’s opinion, but instead I feel like a trained economist is applying his skills and knowledge in a way I might not think to. (Full disclosure, Harford does such a good job applying theory that I strongly suspect his questions are fabricated.)

Frankly, at the risk of sounding like a credentialist, I think the reason Cohen doesn’t apply theory from prominent philosophers to his questions is because he doesn’t actually know any of it.

By: Stewart Ulm

Stewart Ulm — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:41:01 +0000

Cohen is no ethicist; he’s just a trumped up version of Anne Landers, telling people what he thinks is the socially acceptable thing to do in a given situation. And for that purpose, I don’t think he needs to have a reason. There are no “first principles” for being polite.

By: Ron

Ron — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:59:54 +0000

Please don’t use the Nova example. It’s an urban legend.
http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

By: Patrick R. Sullivan

Patrick R. Sullivan — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:43:36 +0000

The existence of the Randy Cohens in the world explains a lot of the popularity of Sarah Palin. As Thomas Sowell said, the standards for being able to say ‘I know how to…’ are much higher for commonplace activity than for ‘intellectual’ activity. The ethical question ought to be how to maximize shareholder value by selling stuff.

Presumably Cohen would have been one of those GM executives in the 1960s who couldn’t understand why a car that sold well in the USA–the Chevrolet Nova–didn’t in South America.