An AI narration of the article 'Three Questions Philosophers Do Not Want To Answer About Parenting' by Jake Desyllas.

Why are books on the ethics of parenting so consistently dull? In this episode, Jake Desyllas argues that the blandness is no accident — it is the product of strategic omission. Philosophers of the family routinely skirt around questioning the practices that most urgently deserve scrutiny: corporal punishment, circumcision, and abortion. These are widely accepted parental practices that are also ethically indefensible, and they constitute acts of aggression by parents that violate the rights of their children. Drawing on Patrick Lenta, Walter Block and Patrick Testa, and Brad Stetson, Jake explains how this silence functions as conformity to intellectual taboo — and why refusing to address such questions is an abdication of the basic responsibility of a philosopher.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction 2:35 Corporal Punishment 3:38 Circumcision 4:24 Abortion 6:06 Recent Practices to Add to the List

First published at https://www.jakedesyllas.com/blog/2025/2/5/three-questions-philosophers-do-not-want-to-answer-about-parenting on 5 February 2025.