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Justice
War

I've been reading about the attempts of the US and other western nations to dissuade Iran from its nuclear program. On what grounds might a country that maintains nuclear arms insist that other countries not acquire such arms themselves?

I suppose the argument would be that Iran is an aggressive country that frequently threatens to destroy its enemies, while the United States is not. Whether the argument is valid depends of course on one's political point of view, but that is the general approach, it seems to me.
Education
Ethics

It is said that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is stupid and or insane - but is it? My teenage son occasionally truants from school and when does he is punished by suspension - which suits him as he does not like school. However, missing school sets him further back with his studies, which makes him like school less, so he truants more frequently, then he is given more suspension and the cycle continues. When I discuss the matter with the school Principal and Vice Principal their attitude is that these are the rules and cannot be changed to suit a particular student as, among other things, that would be unfair to the other students. I said that treating all the students the same is not necessarily fair; that students should be treated according to their needs. I asked the school to use a different form of punishment (detention, extra homework, not allowed on school trips, etc. for a while - but to no avail (there is no point getting on to the School Board as both...

I am afraid your argument is a bit too subtle for the school, and one can see why. They are working on the principle perhaps that eventually something will click in the young man's mind and he will benefit from the "punishment". There is in fact some evidence that young offenders who constantly get into trouble often just stop offending, and it could be the punishment that does it. I understand that right now he does not see it as punishment, but hopefully the school is working on the assumption that one day he will, and perhaps they are right. Frankly, why should they care, if they can exclude an awkward student they will. If you could make his exclusion less pleasant this would back them up and make him less ready to go for that option.
Beauty

The phrase "inner beauty" is often used in popular writing. Is there a philosophical line of thought about what inner beauty is. In other words, do some philosophers maintain that there is a sort of beauty inside a thing that is distinct from whatever beauty that might exist in the exterior structure and symmetry and proportions of the thing?

I don't think they do, although colleagues may know of someone who does. In fact, one might go further in challenging this popular notion of inner beauty and suggest that there is something very impressive about a beautiful person who is in fact rather evil. One is compelled to admire the outward appearance of the individual while at the same time deploring his or her character, involving appreciation of the formal qualities of beauty while understanding the vileness of the character. In some ways the gossip columns play on that, the fact that many of our most admired personalities are deeply flawed and yet breathtaking to look at.
Ethics

Is there any moral obligation to attempt to correct people who have an incorrect belief, even if their incorrect belief wasn't causing any harm? On the other hand, is it wrong to attempt to correct an incorrect belief if it does not cause harm and makes the incorrect belief holders happy? Thank you.

It is difficult to think of an incorrect belief that is not harmful. On the other hand, if it were the case that there are such beliefs, and we do sometimes use them to motivate us, there still remains the problem that although on some occasions an incorrect belief may be harmless, it sets up within ourselves the disposition not to take seriously the difference between truth and falsity, and this is surely likely to be harmful on the whole.
Gender

Although I don't doubt the pain of transsexual people who feel that their bodies do not match their gender, I find myself skeptical of their claims. I am female, I don't doubt that I am female, yet I do not have any idea what it means to "feel like a woman." It also happens that I have no interest in hairdos, high heels, or the notion of "femininity." Although I am undoubtedly a woman, I would guess that a person who feels like a man trapped in a woman's body does not feel like I do, or aspire to being a woman such as me. When a MTF transsexual person insists that they are genuinely women and must change their male bodies to match their internal state, how can their conviction be based on anything but imagination, speculation and stereotypes? How can they possibly know what it feels like to be a woman if I, a woman, do not know that feeling? (Please note that I do not mean any disrespect to transsexuals; I'm genuinely trying to understand.)

What is wrong with speculation, imagination and stereotypes? If someone feels that he or she is in the wrong body, I think we have to treat their feelings with respect and if they are prepared for the long and difficult process of changing their gender, then even more so. Sometimes a child is enthusiastic about a sporting activity in which he or she is clearly entirely lacking in skill, yet they see themselves very differently, perhaps, and this motivates them to carry on. It is just speculation, imagination and stereotypes, yet it represents who, at that stage, they are. We may be dubious, but who are we to say what someone should do, or become, provided of course that it does not harm others in the process of realization?
Ethics
Love

I've been in a long distance relationship for about a year now and my girlfriend has just moved to London for work. She recently told me a stranger on a train asked her for her number after they've chatted for 5 minutes. Without hesitation or telling him that she's in a relationship, she gave it to him. Her explanation was she needed friends in a new and unfamiliar place. While I am very understanding about her feelings of been lonely I still felt very angry about her giving her number away to a complete stranger who's intention was to ask her out on a date. I feel it is wrong for her to be going out on dates with random people while she's in a committed relationship as I would never do the something thing to her. She says I'm just jealous. Am I wrong to feel like this?

I don't think you are wrong to feel as you do, but then she is a free agent and perhaps regards the relationship as more longdistance than a real relationship. The fact that you would not behave like that is not that relevant, you after all do not live in London and perhaps have little opportunity. What is wrong in any case with a bit of jealousy? Are you sure that she did not tell you this to make you jealous and perhaps the event never really happened. If you care for her you are bound to feel hurt when you contemplate someone else usurping or sharing your relationship with her, unless you regard her as merely one among many who go in and out of your life. At this stage she is really calling on you to define precisely what relationship in fact you have with her and take it from there.
Ethics

Is one obligated to keep a promise made under a threat? If a robber threatens to assault me unless I promise not to report his theft to the police, am I obligated to keep my word?

No, you are not. Promises made under coercion do not morally oblige one to behave in any sort of way at all.
Gender
Identity

I am transitioning from male to female, along with physical changes I notice changes in my thinking and emotions. Am I the same person or am I becoming some one else? How do we know who we are and do we become different people over time?

You are a good guide here since you are undergoing the changes. Presumably you have initiated this process because you feel that you are really not the gender you started off as, and so your notion of personal identity was quite complex even before the process got underway. Clearly we change all the time, and sometimes so radically we come to believe that we are quite different from how we were in the past. You are in the interesting position of perhaps feeling that you are finally approaching becoming the sort of person you "really" were all the time, and you are thus in the best position to report on how your feelings make up this changing self-perception. Self-identity is clearly far from a simple notion and nothing evidences that so much as your course of action.
Ethics

I am an extremely lonely and isolated person due to a developmental disability. Nobody (absolutely nobody) has ever expressed compassion toward me with regard to my isolation despite the fact that people in our modern society are educated enough to know how traumatic and damaging isolation can be. Why is indifference toward people who are socially isolated a near universal social norm in modern western society (at least in America) Does this norm have any ethical underpinning? How could it possibly have an ethical underpinning when you consider that in general we believe that a person who undergoes distress warrants our compassion?

You are certainly right in thinking that anyone who is in distress deserves support and compassion, unless perhaps they have done something to deserve being ignored. It is just true that we tend to notice certain sorts of people and their issues and ignore others, and rather than decrying that situation it might be more helpful to work out why your problems, as you perceive them to be, have not attracted attention. We cannot expect everyone to be saintlike and spread compassion around evenly like jam.
Business
Sex

According to Nicholas D. Smith in response to a question about sexual harassment legislation, "The minute someone in that place begins to give sexual attention to someone else in that workplace, the environment is changed--and changed in a way that makes the workplace no longer an entirely comfortable place to work." However the fact of the matter is that a great many people marry their coworkers and that studies show only a small percentage of those relationship were started by people who accidentally met up outside of work. If the purpose of sexual harassment legislation is to ban all interaction of a sexual nature between coworkers (since all sexual attention makes the workplace an uncomfortable place to work) then those marriages could not have occurred if sexual harassment law was 100% effective in achieving its supposed purpose. Since marriage is a highly regarded social institution isn't it highly unlikely that the purpose of sexual harassment legislation is to ban all sexual interaction between...

I think you are right, work is a major site of important relationships, and one cannot legislate that only professional relationships will be acceptable there. On the other hand, one can see why it is wrong to pervert a workplace in the name of a personal relationship, so I think the relevant issue is whether any such perversion takes place. Does the workplace become an uncomfortable environment for anyone as a result of personal relationships? This might be inevitable if someone has broken off an affair with a colleague and perhaps commenced another one with someone else in the same workplace. On the other hand, it might be argued that one has to get used to the idea that there may be people at work who are annoying, perhaps just because of who they are, how they dress, how far they have been promoted, and as professionals we need to cope with that and not allow it to distract us from our duties. We also ought not to allow a personal relationship to bias us in favour of particular colleagues as opposed...

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