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. . . apparently not when it comes to swiping books. I ran across a fascinatingly arcane and, I suspect, whimsical study (here) with the wonderful title "Do Ethicists Steal More Books." The author found that ethics books are far more likely than any other philosophical works to be stolen from university libraries. The paper is a bit long, but the gist is in the brief abstract at the beginning. I suppose we should be glad that somebody wants ethics books, even ill-gotten ones.
"Some philosophers I’ve discussed these results with profess to be unsurprised and untroubled by the idea that ethicists’ moral behavior is no better than non-ethicists’, for ethics, they say, is an abstract discipline with little connection to everyday life. But that’s not how Aristotle, Kant, and Mill see it . . . "
If he is without tenure, I do hope this piece helped its author attain that lofty state.
"Some philosophers I’ve discussed these results with profess to be unsurprised and untroubled by the idea that ethicists’ moral behavior is no better than non-ethicists’, for ethics, they say, is an abstract discipline with little connection to everyday life. But that’s not how Aristotle, Kant, and Mill see it . . . "
If he is without tenure, I do hope this piece helped its author attain that lofty state.