Tauriq Moosa
Writer, Ethicist
Tauriq Moosa is a tutor in ethics, bioethics and critical thinking at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is currently pursuing a Masters degree at the Centre for Applied Ethics, Stellenbosch University. He has published essays and articles on practical ethics, focusing on subjects like free expression, killing, sex, and religion in public life. He debated religion with Archbishop Desmond Tutu in the BBC documentary, the Tutu Talks, and has been featured on local radio shows. He is also an avid comic book writer and reader.
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Read more of Tauriq's essays and articles at tauriqmoosa.wordpress.com and 3quarksdaily.com
I was reading about “the nasty effect” that Internet comments have on an original article. A summary at Gawker (in case you don’t have a New York Times subscription) details […]
The famous author Orson Scott Card is involved in two massive projects, each of which already has many fans: the Superman comics and the film version of his best-selling book, […]
The facts aren’t in, but here’s what we know: The internationally renowned athlete, Oscar Pistorius, was part of a violent shooting at his home, resulting in the death of his […]
The outcome of a ménage à trois involving desperation, selfishness, and moral consideration, apology came into the world already tainted by its origin. Out of these weak beginnings, we could […]
It might not be pleasant to hear but there’s little reason to disagree with Sir David Attenborough’s pronouncement that “we are a plague on the Earth”. Of course, in terms […]
The argument over guns is a complex topic, but we ought not to dismiss arguments because they do not square with our gut feelings – regardless of whether we want more or less guns, more or less laws.
In the middle of writing and reading about gun policy and morality, I was horrified to see responses to writer Sam Harris’ essay on gun control. For example, this one […]
No doubt everyone has seen the two-part Piers Morgan interview of conspiracy-weaver, gun “enthusiast” and upcoming thespian, Alex Jones. The interview is truly bizarre: firstly, for making so many people […]
We’re told to have a positive attitude; that love conquers all; that anger is unhelpful and hate unneeded. Evangelists of optimism would drown us in their toothy smiles and keep […]
The Taboos of Alan Moore, Conclusion The topic of sexuality and children elicits justifiably strong reactions. However, as with most strong emotions, it also leads to unjustified, often irrational, responses […]
The Taboos of Alan Moore, Part 2 Regarded by many as the greatest comic book ever written, Watchmen itself broke custom: thinking it would not see reprinting – since almost […]
The Taboos of Alan Moore, Part 1 The world of V for Vendetta is both dystopia and the inevitable outcome of the Thatcher period Moore and artist David Lloyd worked […]
One important purpose of literature has always been to allow us to safely test our moral fibres against the grain of hardened anathemas: killing, adultery, incest, pornography, theft, anarchy have […]
This seems to be a week of sex-focused controversy. But then sex tends to have that effect, even when it’s just our own species. Nelson Jones wrote about a German […]
Distinctions matter in debate. When we conflate and equate, for example, controversial groups of people that are not the same, it means we are not reacting accurately. For example, just […]
If true, this would be a major revelation.
We must decide what we care more about: facing reality as it is, so we have the best solutions or forcing placation of our outrage and feelings?
Some months ago, I ended up discussing the death penalty with some friends. I uttered what I thought was a fairly uncontroversial statement – especially among this group of smarter, […]
I wrote a short piece detailing the brilliance of mature story-telling, this time in a video game. Spec Ops: The Line is a military-shooter that is aware of itself, the […]
In this two-part piece, we will examine the portrayal of villains in creative mediums, like novels and comics, and why they are severely lacking; in this part I also argue […]
In this two-part piece, we will examine the portrayal of villains in creative mediums, like novels and comics, and why they are severely lacking; I will also argue why it’s […]
The New Statesman has just published my piece concerning the creation of so-called online trolling behaviour. I argue that those who are shocked and outraged by horrible behaviour of online […]
Before reading please click ‘View Entire Story’. My apologies for the length. Over at the New Statesman, Mehdi Hasan wrote an article against abortion. It’s not entirely clear whether Hasan […]
He called her crusade an “obscenity”. “She has become a symbol of Western culture,” he said. “She was openly propagating it.” So “obscene” is her crusade he reiterated that his […]
‘Normality’ or ‘normalcy’, as a concept, is long due for the crematorium of bad ideas, alongside racism and homophobia. Indeed, it is precisely these kinds of ideas the defence of normalcy encourages and gave birth to: it is both kingmaker and mother.
Like many others, I watched a man shoot himself on “Live TV”, days after it went live. I watched Fox News anchor Shepard Smith react too late to an incident […]
"If all medicines in the world were thrown into the sea, it would be all the better for mankind and all the worse for the fishes."
I want to put an end to this argument, since I’m seeing it frequently touted and pointed to and nodded at like a mantra. Phrase it however you want: “it’s […]
I’ll be posting another actual ATNT post tomorrow. For now, I just want to indicate other posts I’ve written recently. 1. MAKING MONSTERS [link] At my friend Martin Pribble’s blog, […]
Dear Paris Hilton You probably don’t remember me. We met briefly once, years ago. It was when you bought a book on numerology and astrology from a store I worked […]