The Naturalistic Fallacy and Natural Law Methodology

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Ethics of the (Un)Natural

Ethics of the (un)natural Start date 22nd January 2017 Time 10:00am – 16:45pm Venue Madingley Hall Madingley Cambridge Tutor Anna Smajdor Course code 1617NDX055 Director of Programmes Emma Jennings Public Programme Coordinator, Clare Kerr For further information on this course, please contact [email protected] or 01223 746237 To book See: www.ice.cam.ac.uk or telephone 01223 746262 Tutor biography Anna is Associate Professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of Oslo. Prior to that, she was Ethics Lecturer at Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia. She has been offering philosophy courses at ICE for several years on themes related to her research interests, such as 'Ethics of the (Un)natural' in 2016/17. When not teaching at ICE, Anna spends her time at the University of Oslo and collaborating with colleagues at the University of Umeå in Sweden, where she is part of a research project- 'Close personal relationships-children and the family'. University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, Madingley Hall, Cambridge, CB23 8AQ www.ice.cam.ac.uk Course programme 09:30 Terrace bar open for pre-course tea/coffee 10:00 – 11:15 Session 1 – Unnatural practices 11:15 Coffee 11:45 – 13:00 Session 2 – “Our niggardly stepmother” 13:00 Lunch 14:00 – 15:15 Session 3 – The naturalistic fallacy 15:15 Tea 15:30 – 16:45 Session 4 – Reasoning with nature 16:45 Day-school ends University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, Madingley Hall, Cambridge, CB23 8AQ www.ice.cam.ac.uk Course syllabus Aims: To engage students in a critical analysis of the ways in which concepts of nature are used in moral reasoning To explore the degree to which the ‘natural fallacy’ sweeps aside the possibility of reasoning from nature To analyse several key bioethical questions (animal research, conservation, human/animal chimaeras) on which concepts of nature have a bearing Content: This course will analyse the relationship between morality and nature in the context of key bioethical concerns, e.g.
Thomist Natural Law

The Catholic Lawyer Volume 8 Number 1 Volume 8, Winter 1962, Number 1 Article 5 Thomist Natural Law Joaquin F. Garcia, C.M. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/tcl Part of the Catholic Studies Commons This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Catholic Lawyer by an authorized editor of St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THOMIST NATURAL LAW JOAQUIN F. GARCIA, C.M.* N THE Summer 1960 edition of The Catholic Lawyer, Dr. R. D. Lumb, a Lecturer in Law at the University of Queensland, had an article entitled "Natural Law - An Unchanging Standard?", in which he con- sidered the doctrines of two thinkers, St. Thomas and Suarez. It is the opinion of this writer that as far as Thomist Natural Law is concerned, Dr. Lumb could have omitted the question mark. It is an unchanging standard. Dr. Lumb set himself the task of ascertaining whether the traditional Thomist system takes into account the variables to be found in any system of rules or institutions. The Thomist system of law does take account of the variables but through positive law, through the application of the universal Natural Law principles to particular changing conditions. By no means does it replace positive law. Unlike 18th century rationalis- tic Natural Law which often ignored experience, which often contained personal, social and political programs, and which often was not Natural Law at all but positive law under a Natural Law label, Thomist Natural Law offers the widest scope for positive law and stresses the importance of experience.
Cicero and St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences on a Christian Idea Berit Van Neste University of South Florida

University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 4-12-2006 Cicero and St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences on a Christian Idea Berit Van Neste University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons, and the Religion Commons Scholar Commons Citation Neste, Berit Van, "Cicero and St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences on a Christian Idea" (2006). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3782 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Cicero and St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences on a Christian Idea by Berit Van Neste A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Religious Studies College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: James F. Strange, Ph.D. Paul G. Schneider, Ph.D. Michael J. Decker, Ph.D. Date of Approval: April 12, 2006 Keywords: theology, philosophy, politics, patristic, medieval © Copyright 2006 , Berit Van Neste For Elizabeth and Calista Table of Contents Abstract ii Chapter 1 1 Introduction 1 Cicero’s Influence on Augustine 7 Chapter 2 13 Justice 13 Natural and Temporal Law 19 Commonwealth 34 Chapter 3 49 Just War 49 Chapter 4 60 Conclusion 60 References 64 i Cicero and St.
The Utilitarian Foundations of Natural Law

University of Chicago Law School Chicago Unbound Journal Articles Faculty Scholarship 1989 The Utilitarian Foundations of Natural Law Richard A. Epstein Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/journal_articles Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Richard A. Epstein, "The Utilitarian Foundations of Natural Law," 12 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 711 (1989). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 10 SYMPOSIUM ON THE COMPATIBILITY OF RIGHTS AND CONSEQUENTIALIST ANALYSES HeinOnline -- 12 Harv. J. L. & Pub. Pol'y 711 1989 0Q HeinOnline -- 12 Harv. J. L. & Pub. Pol'y 712 1989 THE UTILITARIAN FOUNDATIONS OF NATURAL LAW RICHARD A. EPSTEIN* Contemporary thinking about rights draws a sharp line be- tween deontological and consequentialist ethical theories. De- ontological theories are associated with the natural law tradition as it has developed in this century, while consequen- tialist theories may be conveniently, if inexactly, grouped as utilitarian. The points of opposition between these approaches have been so often rehearsed that it is only necessary to sum- marize them briefly here. Natural rights theories regard them- selves as theories of individual entitlement, not as theories of social good. Their emphasis on the justice of the individual case, the intimate connection between the doer and the sufferer of harm, makes them overtly anti-instrumental in orientation.' They disavow the idea that the consequences of any legal rule could justify its adoption or rejection.
Retrieving a Catholic Tradition of Subjective Natural Rights from the Late Scholastic Francisco Suárez, S.J

Copyright © 2012 Ave Maria Law Review RETRIEVING A CATHOLIC TRADITION OF SUBJECTIVE NATURAL RIGHTS FROM THE LATE SCHOLASTIC FRANCISCO SUÁREZ, S.J. Steven J. Brust, Ph.D. g INTRODUCTION There is good reason to inquire into the Catholic contributions to the foundation of human rights.1 There is a global proliferation of natural rights in nation-states, international treaties, charters and conventions, as well as in political rhetoric, court decisions, law, and even in personal conversation. Furthermore, the Catholic Church herself has emerged as one of the leading advocates of natural rights in its moral and social teachings as well as in its charitable practices. As a result of these omnipresent rights claims, debates have arisen with respect to the origin and nature of, and justification for, natural rights. These debates are not only between Catholics and those outside the Church (e.g., with contemporary secular liberals), but also between Catholics themselves. At the heart of these debates are a number of questions: Do natural rights even exist? If so, what is a right? Are natural rights compatible with or contradictory to natural law understood as an objective order of justice? Are natural rights derived from natural law or is natural law derived from natural rights? Which is given a priority? Do natural rights entail a rejection or diminution of virtue and the common good? For some Catholics, a very important aspect of this overall debate is the supposed break between pre-modern views on natural right/law and modern views on natural rights. They offer a narrative which includes the claim that rights are more of an invention of the modern political philosophers such as Hobbes and Locke, and/or have their g Steven J.
Natural Law by Gordon Babst

Natural Law by Gordon Babst Encyclopedia Copyright © 2015, glbtq, Inc. Entry Copyright © 2004, glbtq, inc. Reprinted from http://www.glbtq.com Natural Law refers to the tradition of reading into nature laws that are not merely descriptive, but prescriptive. For adherents of natural law, nature does not merely state natural facts, but also offers a moral code, or reveals a moral order, usually anchored in a god whose intentions can be read in nature. In Christian theology, natural law is that part of God's teaching that can be discerned through nature (as opposed to revelation or grace or scripture). As developed by medieval scholasticism, it became the basis of both sacred and secular law, including laws regulating sexual practices. Top: A Roman copy of a From the perspective of natural law, nature is viewed as the basis for morality and the Greek sculpture of the civil law. Significantly, however, natural law does not refer to the regularities found in head of Aristotle. Above: An altarpiece the natural world as discovered by natural scientists, who, qua scientists, are not depicting Thomas engaged in ethical evaluations of the natural world. Acquinas created by Carlo Crivelli in 1476. Origins in the Ancient World The image of the sculpture of Aristotle appears under the The natural law tradition began with the Stoics of ancient Greece, who viewed reason Creative Commons as mankind's common tool, one connecting human beings to the natural reality of the Attribution ShareAlike cosmos that revealed itself and its objective principles through the natural light of 2.5 License.
Naturalness and Unnaturalness in Contemporary Bioethics Anna Smajdor 57 Artikkel Samtale & Kritikk Spalter Brev

ARTIKKEL SAMTALE & KRITIKK SPALTER BREV Meta-ethical and methodological considerations The is/ought distinction and the naturalistic fallacy FRA FORSKNINGSFRONTEN Nature appears in bioethics in a number of guises and con- There is no great invention, from fire to flying, which has texts. At the most basic level, people may feel that it is mo- not been hailed as an insult to some god. But if every rally wrong to alter, distort or subvert natural processes. physical and chemical invention is a blasphemy, every NATURALNESS AND Leon Kass, for example, argues that an intuitive recoiling biological invention is a perversion. There is hardly one from interventions such as cloning that distort or frag- which, on first being brought to the notice of an observer ment the natural processes of reproduction, is a powerful from any nation which had not previously heard of their UNNATURALNESS IN indicator that such interventions are unethical (1998:3– existence, would not appear to him as indecent and un- 61). These are perhaps the most obvious occasions when natural. (Haldane 1924) nature plays an explicit role in informing moral reaso- CONTEMPORARY ning in bioethics. However, there are many other ways in Peter Singer and Deane Wells state categorically that “… which nature colours the concepts and themes employed there is no valid argument from ‘unnatural’ to ‘wrong’ in bioethical deliberation. For example, bioethicists may (2006:9-26). Similar views can be found in the work of BIOETHICS be concerned with the natural world, or nature, especially many bioethicists. A report on the ethics of grafting hu- in terms of our moral responsibility to the environment.
Evolutionary Ethics? Substantiators, Skeptics, and Moral Realism

University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2013-04-30 Evolutionary Ethics? Substantiators, Skeptics, and Moral Realism Jimenez, Kieran Chad Jimenez, K. C. (2013). Evolutionary Ethics? Substantiators, Skeptics, and Moral Realism (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26002 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/662 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Evolutionary Ethics? Substantiators, Skeptics, and Moral Realism by Kieran Jimenez A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE CALGARY, ALBERTA APRIL, 2013 © Kieran Jimenez 2013 Abstract Hardly a week passes without new findings emerging from evolutionary psychology regarding how our view of morality has been influenced by our biological evolution. Evolutionary ethics is a normative project built upon these scientific insights. Evolutionary ethicists fall into two groups: substantiators or skeptics. Substantiators believe moral ideas can now be scientifically proven. Skeptics believe there are no moral truths because morality is just a biological adaptation. I believe the project of evolutionary ethics is misconceived. I argue that both the substantiators and the skeptics fail to show the direct relevance of biology to ethics.
Natural Law in the Renaissance Period, We Must Look Elsewhere

THE NATURAL LAW IN THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD* Heinrich A. Rommen I T HE Renaissance period is usually associated with the Arts and with Literature; it is considered as a new birth of the Greek and Roman classics but also as the discovery of a new sense of life, as a period in which the autonomous individual, as the person in a pronounced meaning, escapes from the pre-eminence of the clergy and a morality determined by the Church. Nourished by the rediscovered philosophy of life of the classics, an emancipation takes place of the man of the world, of the man of secular learning, and of the artist and the poet, who set themselves up as of their own right beside, not against, the secular clergy and the learned monk. In politics this means the dissolution of the medieval union of Church and Empire in favor of the now fully devel- oped nation-states and city-republics which stress their autonomy against the Church as against the Empire. While the Renaissance, thus conceived, was of tremen- dous significance, it is nevertheless true that as such it con- tributed little for the development of the theory of Nat- ural Law. The reason for this is that the Humanists were admirers of the stoic philosophy and of the great orator, Cicero, the elegant popularizer of the stoic philosophy and of the philosophical ideas of the Roman Law, which, * Also printed in the Summer, 1949, issue of the Notre Dame Lawyer. 89 NATURAtL LAW INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS at that time, freed from the Canon Law, conquered the world again.
PHI 1100: Ethics & Critical Thinking

PHI 1100: Ethics & Critical Thinking Sessions 23 & 24 May 5th & 7th, 2020 Evaluating Arguments: Sufficient Evidence, Reasonable Inferences, Respectful Argumentation 1 A good argument persuades readers/listeners by giving us adequate reason to believe that its conclusion is true. Ø Here are four basic criteria which will all be satisfied by a good argument: I. The premises are true. II. The premises provide sufficient evidence to believe that the conclusion is true. III. The conclusion follows logically from the truth of the premises. IV. It demonstrates the author’s respect for their readers/listeners. So far, we have discussed fallacies that involve: • the use of language to present false or misleading evidence • the use of statistics to present false or misleading evidence, insufficient evidence, or to make faulty inferences – This week we’ll go into more detail about fallacies involving the use of language to present 2 insufficient evidence or to make faulty inferences. A good argument persuades readers/listeners by giving us adequate reason to believe that its conclusion is true. III. The conclusion follows logically from the truth of the premises. • Fallacies that fail to satisfy this criterion of a good argument make faulty inferences: – they draw a conclusion that isn’t guaranteed (or extremely likely) to be true even if the premises are true. Ønon sequitur (Latin for ‘it doesn’t follow’) = when an argument draws a conclusion that just isn’t supported by the reasoning they have provided. ]P1] Dorothy is wearing red shoes today. [C] Obviously, red is Dorothy’s favorite color. » Many of the fallacies we’ll consider this week can be classified as subtypes of non sequiturs, • which draw particular types of conclusions from particular types of inadequate evidence.
Human Cloning and Moral Status Christopher Alexander Pynes

Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2003 Human Cloning and Moral Status Christopher Alexander Pynes Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES HUMAN CLONING AND MORAL STATUS By CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER PYNES A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Philosophy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2003 Copyright © 2003 Christopher Alexander Pynes All Rights Reserved The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of Christopher Alexander Pynes defended on 19 June 2003. Michael Ruse Professor Directing Dissertation Michael Meredith Outside Committee Member Peter Dalton Committee Member The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. To my mother, and for all mothers: past, present, and future. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the guidance of Professors Michael Ruse and Peter Dalton. Michael showed me that getting something written is more important than writing something perfectly; the former is necessary for the latter. Peter Dalton is an exceptional philosopher, and thanks to his guidance I made it through my first few years of graduate school at Florida State. This dissertation has been improved greatly thanks to his thorough comments; I cannot thank him enough, however, the mistakes that remain are all mine. Many people sacrificed so that I could write and finish this dissertation, none more than Darlene Deas. Her loving support throughout the entire dissertation writing process has been nothing less than heroic.
A Law Professor's Guide to Natural Law and Natural Rights

Georgetown University Law Center Scholarship @ GEORGETOWN LAW 1997 A Law Professor’s Guide to Natural Law and Natural Rights Randy E. Barnett Georgetown University Law Center, [email protected] This paper can be downloaded free of charge from: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/1235 20 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 655-681 (1997) This open-access article is brought to you by the Georgetown Law Library. Posted with permission of the author. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, Jurisprudence Commons, and the Legal Education Commons A LAW PROFESSOR'S GUIDE TO NATURAL LAW AND NATURAL RIGHTS RANDYE. BARNETT* Law professors nowadays mention natural law and natural rights on a regular basis, and not just in jurisprudence. Given that the founding generation universally subscribed to the idea of natural rights, this concept regularly makes a prominent appearance in discussions of constitutional law. One simply cannot avoid the concept if one is to explain Justice Samuel Chase's well-known claim in Calder v. Bull that "[t]here are certain vital principles in our free Republican governments, which will determine and over-rule an apparent and flagrant abuse of legislative power .... An ACf of the Legislature (for I cannot call it a law) contrary to the great first principles of the social compact, cannot be considered a rightful exercise of legislative authority."2 Nor can law professors explain to their students the reference in the Ninth Amendment to the "other" rights "retained by the people"3 without mentioning "the pre existent rights of nature." 4 Yet in my experience, when law professors discuss natural rights, they typically run this concept together with that of natural law.