'I' in 'Robot': Robots & Utilitarianism Christopher Grau
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The Normativity of Human Rights Is Self-Evident
HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY The Normativity of Human Rights Is Self-Evident Amitai Etzioni* ABSTRACT Attempts to justify human rights in terms of other sources of normativity unwittingly weaken the case of human rights. Instead these rights should be treated as moral causes that speak to us directly, as one of those rare precepts that are self-evident. All will hear self-evident moral claims un- less they have been severely distracted, and even these persons will hear these claims once they are engaged in open moral dialogue. Oddly, the strongest support for treating human rights as self-evident may well be a consequentialist argument. I. INTRODUCTION Numerous attempts have been made to justify human rights in terms of other sources of normativity, or values that can be used to justify these rights. This article suggests that such attempts unwittingly weaken the case of human rights and that instead these rights should be treated as moral causes that speak to us directly, as one of those rare precepts that is self-evident.1 Sug- gesting that human rights should be treated as self-evident does not deny * Amitai Etzioni is University Professor at The George Washington University where he is also director of the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies. He has served as a Senior Advisor to the White House and as President of the American Sociological Association, and has also taught at Columbia University, Harvard University, and University of California-Berkeley. He was listed as one of the top 100 American intellectuals in Richard Posner’s Public Intellectuals. He is the author of numerous books, including Security First: For A Moral, Muscular Foreign Policy and The New Golden Rule: Community and Morality in a Democratic Society. -
Augustine and Rousseau on the Politics of Confession
Augustine and Rousseau on the Politics of Confession by Taylor Putnam A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Political Science Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2014, Taylor Putnam Abstract This thesis looks at the widely acknowledged but largely unexplored relationship between Augustine’s Confessions and Rousseau’s Confessions. In particular, it argues that Rousseau’s text demonstrates an indebtedness to both Augustine’s treatment of time within eternity and the political figure of the Christian preacher. By first comparing their competing interpretations of original sin as told in Genesis and then tracing those interpretations through the autobiographical narratives of each text, it is argued that Augustine and Rousseau both offer their lives as examples of their respective understandings of human nature. Further still, Rousseau’s attempt to supplant Augustine’s autobiography with his own sees the Augustinian preacher reformulated into the figure of the solitary walker. As a result, what was a politics of the will restrained by the temporal horizon of man becomes unleashed as the imposition of the timeless imagination. i Acknowledgments I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Newell for his willingness to have me as a graduate student and for supervising my thesis. He generously provided me with the opportunity to pursue this education and I will be forever thankful for it. I would also like to thank Professor Darby for being my second reader and, more importantly, for his unwavering support throughout my degree. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents who in their wisdom gave me the freedom to fail and demystified what is required to learn. -
Johann Frick
JOHANN FRICK Department of Philosophy (609) 258-9494 (office) 212 1879 Hall (609) 258-1502 (fax) Princeton University [email protected] Princeton, New Jersey 08544- http://scholar.princeton.edu/jfrick 1006 AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION Normative Ethics; Practical Ethics (including Bioethics); Political Philosophy. AREAS OF COMPETENCE Metaethics; Causation; Philosophy of Action; Wittgenstein. EMPLOYMENT 2020- Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and the Present Center for Human Values, Princeton University. 2015 – Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and the 2020 Center for Human Values, Princeton University. Feb 2014 – Instructor in the Department of Philosophy and the Center for 2015 Human Values, Princeton University. EDUCATION 2008 - 2014 Ph.D. in Philosophy, Harvard University. • Dissertation: “Making People Happy, Not Making Happy People: A Defense of the Asymmetry Intuition in Population Ethics”; Committee: T.M. Scanlon, Frances Kamm, Derek Parfit. 2005 - 2008 BPhil degree in Philosophy, Merton College, Oxford University. • Distinction in both the written examinations and the BPhil thesis. • BPhil thesis: “Morality and the Problem of Foreseeable Non- Compliance”; advisor: Derek Parfit. • Specialization in Moral Philosophy (tutor: Ralph Wedgwood); Political Philosophy (tutors: Joseph Raz and John Tasioulas); Wittgenstein (tutor: Stephen Mulhall). 2006 - 2007 Visiting student at the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris. • Courses and seminars at the ENS, the Institut Jean Nicod, and the Collège de France; tutor: François Recanati. 2002 - 2005 BA (Hons.) degree in Philosophy, Politics & Economics, St. John’s College, Oxford University. • First Class Honours in the Final Examinations (June 2005). • Distinction in the Preliminary Examination (June 2003). FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS, AND HONORS Richard Stockton Bicentennial Preceptorship, Princeton University (2018-2021), awarded annually to one or two assistant professors from all the humanities and social sciences. -
Setting Aside Naturalism in Favor of Personhood in Extreme Cases
Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2011 Restoring the Balance: Setting Aside Naturalism in Favor of Personhood in Extreme Cases Brian Joseph Buckley Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Buckley, Brian Joseph, "Restoring the Balance: Setting Aside Naturalism in Favor of Personhood in Extreme Cases" (2011). Dissertations. 216. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/216 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 2011 Brian Joseph Buckley LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO RESTORING THE BALANCE: SETTING ASIDE NATURALISM IN FAVOR OF PERSONHOOD IN EXTREME CASES A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM IN PHILOSOPHY BY BRIAN JOSEPH BUCKLEY CHICAGO, ILLINOIS MAY 2011 Copyright by Brian J. Buckley, 2011 All rights reserved. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER TWO: TAYLOR AND HABERMAS ON NATURALISM AND THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HUMAN SCIENCES 11 Introduction 11 Charles Taylor and Naturalism 14 Scenarios 40 Habermas and the Concerns for The Future of -
A Kantian Defense of Self-Ownership*
The Journal of Political Philosophy: Volume 12, Number 1, 2004, pp. 65–78 A Kantian Defense of Self-Ownership* Robert S. Taylor Political Science, Stanford University I. INTRODUCTION HE name of Immanuel Kant has been repeatedly invoked in the Tcontemporary debate over the concept of self-ownership. Robert Nozick, in Anarchy, State, and Utopia, argued that the rights of self-ownership “reflect the underlying Kantian principle that individuals are ends and not merely means; they may not be sacrificed or used for the achieving of other ends without their consent. Individuals are inviolable.”1 G. A. Cohen, on the other hand, has strongly criticized Nozick’s use of Kant and has suggested that Kantian moral principles, properly understood, may be inconsistent with self-ownership.2 Daniel Attas and George Brenkert have also taken Nozick to task, arguing that to treat ourselves as property is inconsistent with our duty to respect humanity in ourselves.3 Nozick’s use of Kant in Anarchy, State, and Utopia is rather impressionistic: he makes only a few scattered references to Kant and the 2nd (End-in-Itself) Formulation of the Categorical Imperative, and nowhere does he offer a full, detailed Kantian defense of either self-ownership or any other part of his theory.4 This observation, when considered in light of the strong and often persuasive criticisms that have been leveled against his position by Cohen and others, prompts the following question: is a Kantian defense of self-ownership even possible? This paper will attempt to show that such a defense is possible, not only by investigating Kant’s views on self-ownership as found in two of his major works on ethics and political theory, the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of *I am grateful to Chris Kutz, Shannon Stimson, Eric Schickler, Carla Yumatle, James Harney, Sharon Stanley, Robert Adcock, Jimmy Klausen, and three anonymous referees for their helpful comments and suggestions. -
Frick, Johann David
'Making People Happy, Not Making Happy People': A Defense of the Asymmetry Intuition in Population Ethics The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Frick, Johann David. 2014. 'Making People Happy, Not Making Happy People': A Defense of the Asymmetry Intuition in Population Ethics. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:13064981 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA ʹMaking People Happy, Not Making Happy Peopleʹ: A Defense of the Asymmetry Intuition in Population Ethics A dissertation presented by Johann David Anand Frick to The Department of Philosophy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Philosophy Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts September 2014 © 2014 Johann Frick All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisors: Professor T.M. Scanlon Author: Johann Frick Professor Frances Kamm ʹMaking People Happy, Not Making Happy Peopleʹ: A Defense of the Asymmetry Intuition in Population Ethics Abstract This dissertation provides a defense of the normative intuition known as the Procreation Asymmetry, according to which there is a strong moral reason not to create a life that will foreseeably not be worth living, but there is no moral reason to create a life just because it would foreseeably be worth living. Chapter 1 investigates how to reconcile the Procreation Asymmetry with our intuitions about another recalcitrant problem case in population ethics: Derek Parfit’s Non‑Identity Problem. -
Charles Taylor and the Modern Moral Sources of the Self
Charles Taylor and the Modern Moral Sources of the Self Ateneo de Manila University Mark Joseph T. Calano, Ph.D. I. Introduction: 1 Charles Taylor and the Modern. the and Taylor Charles uman persons are self-interpreting animals, but the materials and resources with which they interpret themselves change. The self is a self only within a particular framework. This framework, however, is fleeting and changing through time. In discussing the modern self, I draw greatly from the SourcesH of the Self where Charles Taylor discusses thoroughly his ideas on self and identity. Other terms in the title alone like sources of the self and the making of modern identity imply that ... Charles Taylor is offering a causal explanation of the development of modern self by2 aiming to “articulate and write a history of modernThe identity.” book is genealogical. He writes: I start from the present situation, from formative ideas, from our conflicting forms of self-understanding, and I try to unearth certain earlier forms from which they arise… it is not a complete historical reconstruction, it is a very selective step backwards to rediscover certain sources. 3 Charles Taylor, then, initiates a historical narrative of the development of the modern identity in its relation to moral goods and their sources. It is surprising that he never suggests adopting a culture less contaminated by Western individualism and science as the answer to the loss of spiritual and moral grounds. He looks for the solutions within the Western civilization, describing his work as an attempt to ‘retrieve’ the spiritual and moral grounds to “bring the air back again into the half-collapsed lungs of the 1 Charles Taylor, Human Agency and Language: Philosophical Papers I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 4. -
St. Augustine's Concept of Disordered Love and Its Contemporary Application
St. Augustine's Concept of Disordered Love and its Contemporary Application David K. Naugle, Th.D., Ph.D. Southwest Commission on Religious Studies Theology and Philosophy of Religion Group March 12, 1993 Introduction Toward the conclusion of Augustine's De Civitate Dei, a work which he himself described as a "magnum opus et arduum"1 (Brown 1967: 303), the esteemed Doctor of the Church penned one of the most profound and poetic descriptions of the mystery and genius of man (The City of God, XII. 24). Though the humble saint would never suggest it, there is little doubt that the author himself belongs to this category of human greatness which he so eloquently described. The virtues of Augustine (354-430) have been recognized by "an astonishing variety of people—mystical seekers after God and rationalist philosophers, Protestants and Catholics of many theological persuasions, political scientists and educators, statesmen in search of social justice" (Williams 1979: 3). Superlatives lauding Augustine can be garnered with ease from figures past and present. Antoninus (d. 1459), the saintly bishop of Renaissance Florence, in his day could unabashedly compose this rhetorical flourish about the Bishop of Hippo. What the sun is to the sky, St. Augustine is to the Doctors and Fathers of the Church. The sun in it brilliance excels all other luminaries; it is the lord of the planets, the father of light. A delight to the eyes, its rays shine like a jewel. His words are like music. The light of his mind penetrated the deepest problems. No wonder St. Jerome said of him that he was like an eagle soaring above the mountain tops, too lofty for lowly trifles, but with a vision embracing heaven and earth (quoted by Schopp 1948: 6). -
APA Newsletters NEWSLETTER on PHILOSOPHY and MEDICINE
APA Newsletters NEWSLETTER ON PHILOSOPHY AND MEDICINE Volume 09, Number 2 Spring 2010 FROM THE EDITORS, MARY RORTY & MARK SHELDON FROM THE CHAIR, JOHN P. LIZZA ARTICLES NORMAN DANIELS “U.S. Health Reform: Getting More Justice” DANIEL CALLAHAN “Health Care Reform: Have We Made a Difference?” LEONARD M. FLECK “Sustainable Health Reform: Are Individual Mandates Needed and/or Justified?” JEFF MCMAHAN “Genetic Therapy, Cognitive Disability, and Abortion” FRANCES M. KAMM “Affecting Definite Future People” CARTER DILLARD “Procreation, Harm, and the Constitution” DAVID WASSERMAN “Rights, Interests, and the Permissibility of Abortion and Prenatal Injury” © 2010 by The American Philosophical Association ISSN 2155-9708 MELINDA ROBERTS “APA/CPL Session on Procreation, Abortion, and Harm Comments” FELICIA NIMUE ACKERMAN “Strawberry Ice Cream for Breakfast” DANA HOWARD “Paternalism as Non-domination: A Republican Argument” MAX CHEREM “Response to Dana Howard on Paternalism” LISA CAMPO-ENGELSTEIN “Contraceptive Responsibility and Autonomy: The Dearth of and Need for Long-Acting, Reversible Male Contraception” BOOK REVIEWS “The Significance for Bioethics of Marya Schechtman’s The Constitution of Selves and its ‘Narrative Self-Constitution’ View of Personal Identity” PAUL T. MENZEL David DeGrazia: Human Identity and Bioethics REVIEWED BY MARYA SCHECHTMAN ANNOUNCEMENTS APA NEWSLETTER ON Philosophy and Medicine Mary Rorty & Mark Sheldon, Co-Editors Spring 2010 Volume 09, Number 2 health care in this country. I agree with these observations and ROM THE DITORS hope for movement on this front. Just as civil rights legislation F E has helped to create change in racist beliefs and attitudes in the country, perhaps the legislative reform in health care may precipitate a change in how we, as a people, look at health Do you suppose the passage of 2,000 plus pages of a health care care. -
Ecclesiology in a Secular Age
Ecclesiology in A Secular Age: Ecclesiological Implications of the Work of Charles Taylor and Bernard Lonergan Thesis Submitted to The College of Arts and Sciences of the UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Theological Studies by Robert J. Brodrick UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON Dayton, Ohio December, 2010 ECCLESIOLOGY IN A SECULAR AGE: ECCLESIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE WORK OF CHARLES TAYLOR AND BERNARD LONERGAN NAME: Brodrick, Robert APPROVED BY: _________________________________________ Dennis Doyle, Ph.D. Faculty Advisor _________________________________________ Anthony Godzieba, Ph.D. Faculty Reader _________________________________________ Cyril Orji, Ph.D. Faculty Reader _________________________________________ Sandra A. Yocum, Ph.D. Chairperson ii ABSTRACT ECCLESIOLOGY IN A SECULAR AGE: ECCLESIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE WORK OF CHARLES TAYLOR AND BERNARD LONERGAN Name: Brodrick, Robert J. University of Dayton Advisor: Dr. Dennis Doyle The contemporary condition of secularity poses a unique environment in which the Church becomes incarnate in the world. The subject of secularity itself has been the focus of serious academic study, and two broad sources of this phenomenon can be drawn from the lifetime work of Charles Taylor: the rise of foundational epistemology and particular changes within the modern social imaginary. These two paradigm shifts have created a latent moral and religious skepticism within contemporary secular society in which it is generally accepted that complex moral and religious issues cannot be arbitrated by reason and must ultimately be decided on the basis of an individual’s personal feeling. In this thesis, the author draws on an integration of studies by Charles Taylor and Bernard Lonergan to establish that intellectual, moral, and religious conversion form the basis for the act of knowing and therefore provide an adequate theological response to the problem of skepticism. -
Philosophy Overview
THE PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT MAJOR BOOKLET Revised 3/23/2020 Updated 03/23/2020 1 UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM CONTACTS Elisabeth Camp Undergraduate Director ROOM 514, 106 SOMERSET ST., 5TH FLOOR, COLLEGE AVENUE CAMPUS OFFICE PHONE: (848) 932-0404 EMAIL: [email protected] Alexander Skiles Assistant Undergraduate Director ROOM 546, 106 SOMERSET ST., 5TH FLOOR, COLLEGE AVENUE CAMPUS OFFICE PHONE: N/A EMAIL: [email protected] Jessica Koza Undergraduate Program Coordinator ROOM 518, 106 SOMERSET ST., 5TH FLOOR, COLLEGE AVENUE CAMPUS OFFICE PHONE: (848) 932-6800 EMAIL: [email protected] Mercedes Diaz Advisor for the RU Philosophy Club and Phi Sigma Tau Honor Society ROOM 519, 106 SOMERSET ST., 5TH FLOOR, COLLEGE AVENUE CAMPUS OFFICE PHONE: (848) 932-9862 EMAIL: [email protected] Justin Kalef Director of Teaching Innovation ROOM 547, 106 SOMERSET ST., 5TH FLOOR, COLLEGE AVENUE CAMPUS OFFICE PHONE: (848) 932-0439 EMAIL: [email protected] Edward “Trip” McCrossin Director of Areté, the RU undergraduate journal in philosophy ROOM 107, MILLER HALL, COLLEGE AVENUE CAMPUS OFFICE PHONE: (848) 932-9861 EMAIL: [email protected] Lauren Richardson and Julius Solatorio Undergraduate Advisors EMAIL: [email protected] and [email protected] OFFICE HOURS: By appointment Updated 03/23/2020 2 FACULTY DIRECTORY FACULTY MEMBER SPECIALTY Karen Bennett Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mind Professor [email protected] Martha Brandt Bolton Early Modern Philosophy Professor [email protected] Robert Bolton -
Contemporary Moral Theories: Introduction to Contemporary Consequentialism Syllabus [Kian Mintz-Woo]
Contemporary Moral Theories: Introduction to Contemporary Consequentialism Syllabus [Kian Mintz-Woo] Course Information In this course, I will introduce you to some of the ways that consequentialist thinking leads to surprising or counterintuitive moral conclusions. This means that I will focus on issues which are controversial such as vegetarianism, charity, climate change and health-care. I have tried to select readings that are both contemporary and engaging. Hopefully, these readings will make you think a little differently or give you new ideas to consider or discuss. This course will take place in SR09.53 from 15.15-16.45. I have placed all of the readings for the term (although there might be slight changes), along with questions in green to help guide your reading. Some weeks have a recommended reading as well, which I think will help you to see how people have responded to the kinds of arguments in the required text. Please look over the descriptions and see which readings you are most interested in presenting for class for our first session on 10.03.2016. (Please tell me if you ever find a link that does not work or have any problems accessing content on this Moodle page.) I have a policy that cellphones are off in class; we will have a 5-10 minute break in the course and you can check messages only during the break. As a bonus, I have included at least one fun thing each week which relates to the theme of that week. Marking The course has three marked components: 1.