Introduction

Many people think it is wrong for athletes to take steroids to enhance their performance. This month, our question will lead to an analysis of what, if anything, makes steroid use bad. Is steroid use bad simply because steroids are banned from sports, and those who use steroids are cheating? Or, is there more to the story? Should steroids be banned from sports because there is something inherently wrong with using them? Are they too dangerous? Do the harms outweigh the benefits? Should individual athletes decide whether to take the risks of using steroids? (Boxing, playing football, and motorcycle racing are dangerous, yet we allow individual athletes to decide for them selves whether they wish to take the risk of participating in these sports.) Or, should steroids be flat-out banned from sports?

“How should WVU define ‘student-centered’? WVU prides itself on being student-centered, but what does that really mean? Are there ways that WVU could be even better at being student-centered? If so, how? If being student-centered is a good thing, why is being student-centered a good thing? What responsibilities do students have in a student-centered university?

Four WVU undergraduate students will get this discussion started. Please share your own ideas in the blog section.

Is death bad? Is your own death bad for you? How could being dead be bad for you if you won’t be there to experience it? Does a person have to exist in order to be harmed? Can a dead person be harmed? If death is not bad for you, is it rational to fear death?

Read some provocative thoughts from our guests, think hard, and share your own ideas in the blog!

Why go to college?

Is a high-quality education good merely as a means to an end, or is a high-quality education intrinsically valuable? What constitutes a high-quality education? What are the main goals of education? What is the purpose of a University? Does a public University have any obligations to society?

We asked a few experts to get the discussion started. Please share your own thoughts in the blog!

Human beings are equipped with rationality and the ability to make morally good and morally bad choices. Is it OK to alter nature, or should we leave well enough alone? Sometimes we hear the criticism, “human beings should not play God.” What does that mean? Is it true? Is it ok to use technology to get pregnant? How should we die? Do we have to simply allow nature to take its course? Is plastic surgery ok? Is it ok to use technology to enhance our bodies and our abilities? How should we treat the environment? Should scientists ever restrict their research, or the applications of their research, on ethical grounds? We’ve asked a few experts to weigh in on these questions and more. Read on and send in your own thoughtful comments on this question.

Is winning everything? The only thing? The main thing? All that matters?

What do you think?

Football is a sport. Monopoly is a game. What about chess? What about NASCAR? What about Dance Dance Revolution? What, if anything, distinguishes a game from a sport? Here?s one answer from a young philosopher.

Is a team identical to its members? Does a team persist despite the loss of some members and the addition of new members? Does a team persist despite a radical replacement of members such what happened in the tragic loss in the 1970 Marshall University Football team?

Are you proud to be a Mountaineer? Are you proud of what you have accomplished in your life? Is pride ever a vice or is it always a virtue. Can it be both?

Throughout history philosophers have made valiant attempts to come up with good ?philosophies of life.? Can you?