Set up a debate

We owe as much to distant strangers as to our neighbors

Whether physical and social distance reduce our moral obligations, or whether every person's needs weigh equally regardless of relationship.

Democracy is the best form of government

Whether rule by the people is superior to rule by the wise, the strong, or the expert, and on what grounds.

Every citizen should receive an unconditional basic income

Whether guaranteeing everyone an income without conditions is a matter of justice and freedom, or a costly policy that undermines work and reciprocity.

Free speech should protect even hateful expression

Whether the case for free expression extends to speech that demeans groups, or whether such speech may be restricted to protect the dignity and safety of its targets.

The state may restrict choices to protect people from themselves

Whether governments may override individual choices for the individual's own good, or whether adults have a right to make their own mistakes.

A world without work would be a better world

Whether human beings would flourish if machines freed them from labor, or whether work is essential to meaning, dignity, and social order.

We should defer to experts even when we disagree with them

Whether intellectual humility requires laypeople to adopt expert consensus over their own judgment, or whether such deference is a form of abdication.

Tradition deserves more respect than progress

Whether inherited practices carry accumulated wisdom that reformers should defer to, or whether attachment to the past is a barrier to improvement.

Adult children have a duty to care for their aging parents

Whether the relationship between parents and children generates binding obligations, or whether care must be freely given to be genuine.

Public shaming is a legitimate form of accountability

Whether collective condemnation of wrongdoers is a proper way for communities to enforce norms, or a form of mob punishment without limits or due process.

A good life requires solitude

Whether time alone is essential to self-knowledge, creativity, and depth, or whether the good life is fundamentally lived with others.

The death penalty is justified for the worst crimes

Whether the state may deliberately kill a person as punishment, or whether the practice is incompatible with justice and human dignity.

Punishment should aim to rehabilitate, not to give offenders what they deserve

Whether the justification of punishment lies in transforming the offender and protecting society, or in the moral demand that wrongdoing be answered.

Acts that harm no one but the actor should never be crimes

Whether the state may criminalise self-regarding conduct for the actor's own good or for public morality, or whether harm to others is the only legitimate ground for prohibition.

Lying is never morally justified

Whether truthfulness is an exceptionless duty or one value that must sometimes give way to kindness, safety, or justice.

Breaking an unjust law is a moral duty

Whether citizens are obligated to disobey laws they judge unjust, or whether the value of legal order requires obedience even to bad laws.

Privacy should yield to security when the two conflict

Whether the state may monitor citizens to prevent crime and terrorism, and how much liberty a society should trade for safety.

Emotions are a better guide to action than reason

Whether we should trust our feelings or our calculations when deciding how to act, and whether the two can even be separated.

The purpose of education is to produce good citizens, not successful individuals

Whether schools exist to form people who can sustain a shared public life or to equip individuals to pursue their own advancement.

Large inequalities of wealth are unjust even when acquired fairly

Whether the fairness of the process that produces a distribution is enough to justify it, or whether outcomes matter independently.

One should obey the law even when it is unjust

Whether the duty to obey law holds independently of its content, or whether unjust laws release citizens from obligation and may demand resistance.

Forgiveness matters more than justice

Whether releasing wrongdoers from resentment and penalty is a higher value than ensuring they receive what they deserve.