Granny Weatherwax and Discworld [Index Post]

When I first started this blog, I was casting about for a few types of post I could repeat every week in order to get on a regular schedule.  The one that felt the most natural was a feature I named “Weatherwax Wednesdays” where I used a quote from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, usually involving the character Granny Weatherwax, as a jumping off point to talk about moral philosophy.

• Introducing Weatherwax Wednesday — Who is Granny Weatherwax, and why do I love her so?

• “It’d be in me like a fever” –Much to my distress, we’ve got a really fuzzy line between religion-as-culture and religion-as-truth-claim

• “People as things, that’s where it starts.” — Probably my most foundational moral heuristic

• “Only animals can’t help what they are” –Morality can’t be rooted in evolutionary processes alone, and humans are too valuable to remain subject to arbitrary selection pressures

• “It would be like believing in the postman” –Why is most discussion of religion focused on the question of God’s existence without talking about his (or her!) essence?

• “You have to start out learning to believe the little lies” –Is the best part of the Santa Claus story that it establishes a tradition of noble lies we voluntarily perpetuate?

• “You can’t go around building a better world for people” –In which Granny afflicts the comfortable

• The Strain of Pride — Pride isn’t built on a core of strength, but on fear