The Moral Value of Ideas
Think of one good thing you have done recently. However small the impact, reflect on that morally positive act for a second... Maybe you helped someone with a chore on your own time. Or, maybe you gave a friend or family member some emotional support. In this note, I am going to present an argument for why spreading certain types of ideas might be of at least as much, if not vastly more, moral value than some of these more conventionally good acts. More specifically, I will argue that creating, sharing, adopting and disputing new and old ideas, provided they are the right kind of ideas, is underestimated in its effect as a morally positive thing. I will also present some common roles we can take on as stewards of ideas to make us better moral actors with respect to them.