DOCSLIB.ORG

Ethics in Nursing: Ethical Decision-Making, and the Practice

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Ethics in Nursing: Ethical Decision-Making, and the Practice Book reviews 107 J Med Ethics: first published as 10.1136/jme.16.2.107-a on 1 June 1990. Downloaded from The text is well-referenced, and should nurses be aware of their own indications of the hazards encountered suggestions for further reading are values, they should also understand and on the way. His second chapter outlines given at the end of each chapter. respect their patients' values in order the scope ofvariations, encouragements In conclusion, this book would be a for effective care to be undertaken. An and diversions made possible by human welcome addition to medical and overview of some professional Codes is intervention, with timely corrections of nursing libraries, and, although aimed included in the book, but it is noted that popular misunderstandings of 'genetic specifically at nurses, medical staffwho these Codes are limited in their scope to engineering', gene therapy, cloning, maintain a holistic approach to care protect nurses in specific stated hybrids, chimaeras and the like. Two should also find this book both situations. chapters follow on the reasons for interesting and informative. Detailed discussion ofcertain areas of infertility and on ways ofovercoming it. ethics are put forward in the following A fifth chapter, on ethics and law, JANE WARNER chapters ofthis book, including nurses' examines some of the ethical and formerly Nurse Teacher, rights and responsibilities, patient pseudo-ethical objections brought Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, advocacy, accountability and loyalty to against infertility treatment and pre- Weluyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. peers and patients. Conflicts that may embryo research, and reflects on what arise pertaining to these areas are the law might reasonably be expected to expanded upon. contribute to the assurance of good Ethics in Nursing: Ethical decision-making, and the practice. the steps that the nurse must take in order The facts are not presented without Caring for this process to happen are described comment and interpretation, and the Relationship in depth in the final chapters of this book is the better for it. Other book. The nature ofethical dilenunas is commentators' theories on 'when life Verena Tschudin, 151 pages, London, put forward. begins' (a biological question too often £7.95, Heinemann Nursing, 1986. Overall, this book should serve to dressed up as an ethical question) are raise nurses' consciousness of the fairly stated; and this makes Austin's This book was published at a time when ethical issues that are constantly being own speculation the more interesting. the nursing process (a system of met within a framework ofthe giving of His words are so compact, and individualised care comprising individualised care. Nurses, especially exactitude so necessary, that they assessment, planning, implementation those at the 'sharp end', ie, the bedside, should be quoted: and evaluation of will care) had been be able strongly to identify with copyright. established throughout most hospitals these ethical issues. 'Almost the whole of the embryo and in the community. The concept of Ethics in Nursing may be strongly manifestly develops into the placenta nurses being in partnership with their recommended, certainly for nurses, and etc, and no one can deny that, with only patients, together with the increasing also for those interested in all aspects of a small fraction becoming (eventually) utilisation of medical technology, has medical and nursing ethics. the fetus. So the sequence can be stated therefore led nurses to focus upon rationally as follows: a very small part of ethical aspects of their work. JANE WARNER the ovary (an oocyte, in fact) becomes By writing this book, the author formerly Nurse Teacher, an embryo, and a very small part of the http://jme.bmj.com/ assists the nurse to gain insight into Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, embryo (the disc or plate) becomes the matters pertaining to nursing ethics. Weluyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. fetus. The inference is clear: the The first chapter sets the scene in terms embryo should be regarded as an organ, of the role of the nurse today. In the Human Embryos: like the ovary, and as such is not entitled second chapter, the author delves into to the respect due to something destined the specific nature of the caring The Debate on to become a person. The embryonic and relationship as it affects nursing. Her fetal parts are easily distinguished, a arguments are well supported with Assisted notable fact being that the fetal valuable references. Reproduction component grows much faster than the on September 29, 2021 by guest. Protected Chapter three is devoted to the embryo-placental component' (p18). exposition of ethical theories. The C R Austin, 183 + vii pages, author contrasts morality with ethics, Oxford, £6.95, Oxford University After rehearsing the scientific and and proceeds by describing the Press, 1989. logical difficulty in insisting on the term normative (prescriptive) and Inasmuch as any meaningful discussion 'embryo' for the early conceptus during descriptive approaches to ethics as of medical ethics must be grounded in cleavage, Austin adds: allied to health care. The ethical the science and practice of the matter theories of consequentialism and non- discussed, the first merit of C R 'By an alternative system, an embryo consequentialism are explored together Austin's book is that it provides that originates as a very small part of a pre- with their implications for decision- knowledge. (His competence in the embryo, and co-exists with the pre- making in nursing. The case of field is amply evidenced by, inter alia, embryo as the latter differentiates into prescribing oral contraceptives without the eight volumes on Reproduction in placenta, etc, prior to becoming a fetus' parental consent for girls under the age Mammals which he edited with RV (p20). of 16 is highlighted. The author Short for Cambridge University Press). completes the chapter by discussing the His first chapter gives a concise and On this basis of biological fact the five principles of ethics which are illustrated description of the chapter on ethics can discuss the applicable in many nursing situations. transmission of life from the formation attribution of 'personhood' and of The book continues by raising the of the gametes, egg and sperm, through human rights to the pre-implantation topics of values, attitudes and beliefs. fertilisation and cleavage to embryo. The understandable wish to do The author emphasises that not only embryogenesis and fetal growth, with so can rest only on an imagined and 108 Book reviews J Med Ethics: first published as 10.1136/jme.16.2.107-a on 1 June 1990. Downloaded from unreal picture of a tiny baby claiming which theology and ethics cannot be were made aware at an early stage in our protection - which the pre-embryo is separated. He writes of there being a existence of the need for a not; and the only authoritative support Christian world view and a Christian comprehensive account of nursing for such a view comes from the Church ethical system 'based on the character of ethics which would be both faithful to (he means the Roman Catholic God as revealed in Jesus Christ his Son Catholic moral tradition and accessible Church), in which the position is and on his creation of the world and of to a wider audience'. demonstrably a novelty. At this point St man' (p x). However, the discussion of The book stands on its own terms, Thomas Aquinas and the animation particular issues frequently admits a that is as a guide to Catholic nurses in tradition is properly invoked. degree of pluralism in Christianity. clinical practice. I am not so sure of its Unfortunately on p30 Austin appears to Whilst a helpful and clear methodology appeal to a 'wider audience'. The have followed Glanville Williams in his is given in the first section of the book chapter dealing with Issues in sexual interpretation ofSt Thomas's language, too much of the discussion is ethics is perhaps the most obvious to assert that he took quickening as the frustrating. No one could deal justly example of the book's specific outlook. first indication of life. Animatus in with natural morality in six pages or There are four practices which Aquinas, as in the writing of biblical ethics in twelve pages. It would Fitzpatrick points out are philosophers, moralists and canonists have been useful to have indicated more 'objectionable' from the Catholic for centuries, refers specifically to clearly the authority of the Bible. Its viewpoint. These are contraception, 'animation' in the Aristotelian sense - absolute authority seems to become sterilisation, artificial insemination and the point when the morphology of the relative as the particular is discussed in vitro fertilisation. In this chapter the organism revealed or displayed that its and the various sources of Christian Catholic beliefs are well articulated but animating or organising principle was a ethics come into conflict. little time is given to the idea that those 'rational soul', that of a man and not of A more positive appreciation of the who do not hold these views might have an animal. Inevitably animatus came in descriptive and analytical strands of their rights compromised if they are time to be identified with the subjective ethics might have helped the third nursed by someone who is primarily experience of quickening (vivificatus) section of the book. In one part of the concerned with keeping faith and and as such the concept passed into the discussion of the beginning of life the conscience intact. English common law. This minor phrase 'the termination ofpregnancy' is The position taken leads to some blemish detracts little from a very good abandoned in favour of 'abortion' and rather bizarre lines of argument. For and useful book. 'the unborn contents of the mother's instance, in an attempt to maintain the uterus' in favour of 'child'.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Infinite Ethics
    INFINITE ETHICS Nick Bostrom Faculty of Philosophy Oxford University [Published in Analysis and Metaphysics, Vol. 10 (2011): pp. 9-59] [This is the final version. Earlier versions: 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009] www.nickbostrom.com ABSTRACT Aggregative consequentialism and several other popular moral theories are threatened with paralysis: when coupled with some plausible assumptions, they seem to imply that it is always ethically indifferent what you do. Modern cosmology teaches that the world might well contain an infinite number of happy and sad people and other candidate value-bearing locations. Aggregative ethics implies that such a world contains an infinite amount of positive value and an infinite amount of negative value. You can affect only a finite amount of good or bad. In standard cardinal arithmetic, an infinite quantity is unchanged by the addition or subtraction of any finite quantity. So it appears you cannot change the value of the world. Modifications of aggregationism aimed at resolving the paralysis are only partially effective and cause severe side effects, including problems of “fanaticism”, “distortion”, and erosion of the intuitions that originally motivated the theory. Is the infinitarian challenge fatal? 1. The challenge 1.1. The threat of infinitarian paralysis When we gaze at the starry sky at night and try to think of humanity from a “cosmic point of view”, we feel small. Human history, with all its earnest strivings, triumphs, and tragedies can remind us of a colony of ants, laboring frantically to rearrange the needles of their little ephemeral stack. We brush such late-night rumination aside in our daily life and analytic 1 philosophy.
    [Show full text]
  • Other Moral Theories : Subjectivism, Relativism, Emotivism, Intuitionism, Etc
    INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS 30 Other Moral Theories: Subjectivism, Relativism, Emotivism, Intuitionism, etc. 1 Jan Franciszek Jacko Metaethics includes moral theories that contain assumptions which answer some metaphysical and epistemological questions about moral goods and values. The metaphysical questions (such as What are, and how do moral goods and values exist?) are about the nature and existence of moral goods and values. Epistemological questions (such as Can we know moral goods and values? If so, what are the sources of knowledge about them?) regard sources of knowledge about moral goods, values and criteria of moral evaluations.2 Assumptions of ethical subjectivism, relativism, decisionism, emotivism and intuitionism are exemplary answers to these questions. We call their answers “normative assumptions.” There are at least three good reasons to ask and answer such questions. First, without answering them, moral judgments remain ambiguous. For example, if I say, “Action X is wrong,” the judgement has several meanings. To specify its sense, I should clarify my normative assumptions. For example, I can assume metaphysical subjectivism (anti-realism) or realism in metaethics. According to the former assumption, my above judgment about X is not about reality; it is about my or someone’s opinion. In this case, the exact meaning of this judgement is: someone evaluates X as morally wrong. If I assume the counter-assumption of metaphysical realism (anti-subjectivism), I mean that it is true that X has the property of moral wrongness. Second, these assumptions are conductive to peculiar practices. To specify the practice, which follows from moral judgments, one has to determine some normative assumptions.
    [Show full text]
  • Moral Theories Course Leader
    PHIL 101: Conceptual Foundations of Bioethics: Moral Theories Course Leader: Stavroula Tsinorema Semester: 1st (7 ECTS) Course Type: Required Objectives: The aims of this course unit are (a) to bring students in contact with the theoretical basis of Bioethics, through training in the methodologies and analytical tools of moral reasoning, (b) to provide them with the basic categories which show the conceptual links between the frameworks of moral philosophy and normative bioethical reasoning, (c) to equip them with the appropriate theoretical frameworks in order to be able to investigate critically and, where possible, to resolve specific moral problems deriving in biomedical research, its application in clinical contexts, health care and environmental policy. The overall aim is to enable students to develop core skills for the conduct of normative analysis and reasoning in Bioethics. Content: The normative resources for moral argument and justification in Bioethics are found in moral philosophy and philosophical theories of ethics. This course unit will survey some of the principle philosophical approaches in addressing a number of bioethical controversies and bring appropriate perspectives from ethical theories to bear on case studies in Bioethics. Topics include: 1) Philosophical ethics and its relation to Bioethics. 2) Classical approaches. Ethics and metaphysics. Ontological approaches to ethics. 3) Modern classical approaches to ethics. Theories of Scottish Enlightenment. Moral sentiments and the ethics of work: David Hume and Adam Smith. 4) Immanuel Kant: The ethics of form. 5) Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Utilitarianism. 6) Contemporary moral theories: - Contractarian and constructivist theories. John Rawls, Jurgen Habermas, Onora O’ Neill Postgraduate Prospectus 17 - Virtue ethics, ethics of care, feminism, communitarianism 7) Theories of a deflatory kind and moral scepticism.
    [Show full text]
  • RICHARD HARE 07 Hare 1226 15/11/2004 10:29 Page 117
    07 Hare 1226 15/11/2004 10:29 Page 116 RICHARD HARE 07 Hare 1226 15/11/2004 10:29 Page 117 Richard Mervyn Hare 1919–2002 RICHARD HARE left behind at his death a long essay titled ‘APhilosophical Autobiography’, which has since been published.1 Its opening is striking: I had a strange dream, or half-waking vision, not long ago. I found myself at the top of a mountain in the mist, feeling very pleased with myself, not just for having climbed the mountain, but for having achieved my life’s ambition, to find a way of answering moral questions rationally. But as I was preening myself on this achievement, the mist began to clear, and I saw that I was surrounded on the mountain top by the graves of all those other philosophers, great and small, who had had the same ambition, and thought they had achieved it. And I have come to see, reflecting on my dream, that, ever since, the hard-working philo- sophical worms had been nibbling away at their systems and showing that the achievement was an illusion. Yet his imagination could also be less modest: a gaggle of moral philoso- phers is trapped beneath the earth in a smoke-filled chamber; they talk at cross purposes, and refuse to take the way out into the open air that he alone has discovered. It was his ambition to have united elements from Aristotle, Kant, and Mill in a logically cogent way that solved the funda- mental problems of ethics (though with unfinished business); and he usu- ally believed himself to have achieved this.
    [Show full text]
  • ARISTOTLE and the IMPORTANCE of VIRTUE in the CONTEXT of the POLITICS and the NICOMACHEAN ETHICS and ITS RELATION to TODAY Kyle Brandon Anthony Bucknell University
    Bucknell University Bucknell Digital Commons Honors Theses Student Theses 2010 ARISTOTLE AND THE IMPORTANCE OF VIRTUE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE POLITICS AND THE NICOMACHEAN ETHICS AND ITS RELATION TO TODAY Kyle Brandon Anthony Bucknell University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/honors_theses Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Anthony, Kyle Brandon, "ARISTOTLE AND THE IMPORTANCE OF VIRTUE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE POLITICS AND THE NICOMACHEAN ETHICS AND ITS RELATION TO TODAY" (2010). Honors Theses. 21. https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/honors_theses/21 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses at Bucknell Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Bucknell Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1 What does it mean to live a good life? 7 The virtuous life 8 Ethical virtue 13 Bravery as an ethical virtue 20 Justice 22 Chapter 2 The Politics and the ideal polis 28 Development of a polis 29 Features of an ideal polis 32 What does it mean to be a citizen of a polis? 40 Aristotle’s views on education 42 Social groups in a polis who are not recognized as citizens 45 Non-ideal political systems 51 Chapter 3 Connections between the Politics and the Ethics 57 Chapter 4 Difficulties in applying Aristotle’s theories to a modern setting 68 Conclusion Where do we go from here? 87 Bibliography 89 iv Acknowledgements First off, I have to thank God, as He helped me endure this project and gave me the courage to press on when I became frustrated, angry, and ready to quit.
    [Show full text]
  • Is, Ought, and Objectivity in Hume's Social Science Stephen G
    Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College Political Science Faculty Research and Scholarship Political Science 1980 "Cool Reflexion" and the Criticism of Values: Is, Ought, and Objectivity in Hume's Social Science Stephen G. Salkever Bryn Mawr College, [email protected] Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy . Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.brynmawr.edu/polisci_pubs Part of the Political Science Commons Custom Citation Salkever, Stephen G. "'Cool Reflexion' and the Criticism of Values: Is, Ought, and Objectivity in Hume's Social Science." American Political Science Review 74 (1980): 70-77. This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. http://repository.brynmawr.edu/polisci_pubs/17 For more information, please contact [email protected]. "Cool Reflexion"and the Criticismof Values: Is, Ought,and Objectivityin Hume's SocialScience STEPHENG. SALKEVER Bryn MawrCollege Is the fact/value distinction incompatiblewith the possibility of a social science which is both objectiveand evaluative(or normative)?Does support of the latterrequire rejection of the former and vice versa? This article presents an indirect argument against the incompatibilityof the fact/value distinction and an objectively evaluativesocial science. My procedureis to show that David Hume, whose is/ought distinction is the locus classicusof the fact/value distinction, is committed both to the view that valuescannot be derivedfrom facts and to the view that social science is not (and should not be) value-neutral.Furthermore, Hume's position is free from any logical flaws. My conclusion is that it is false to say that the fact/value distinction entails a value-neutralsocial science, and that it is thereforeutterly unnecessaryfor criticsof such a science to waste their time attemptingto "bridgethe gap" betweenfacts and values.
    [Show full text]
  • HOW to STAND up for NON-COGNITIVISTS John O'leary-Hawthorne and Huw Price Is Non-Cognitivism Compatible with Minimalism About
    Published in The Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 74(1996) 275-292. HOW TO STAND UP FOR NON-COGNITIVISTS John O’Leary-Hawthorne and Huw Price Is non-cognitivism compatible with minimalism about truth? A contemporary argument claims not, and therefore that moral realists, for example, should take heart from the popularity of semantic minimalism. The same is said to apply to cognitivism about other topics—conditionals, for example—for the argument depends only on the fact that ordinary usage applies the notions of truth and falsity to utterances of the kind in question. Given this much, minimalism about truth is said to leave no room for the view that the utterances concerned are non-cognitive in nature.1 In this paper we want to derail this fast-track route to cognitivism. We want to show that with a proper understanding of what is essential to non-cognitivism, the position turns out to be largely untouched by the adoption of any of a range of minimalist views about truth. The issue as to the nature of non-cognitivism is crucial, however, and we begin in §I below by defending a broader characterisation of the position than is common in contemporary literature. The nature of minimalism also calls for clarification, and in §II we distinguish two importantly different strands which are both prominent in contemporary debates. Against this background, we go on to explore two possible strategies for standing up for non-cognitivism in the face of minimalism. One of these strategies has been propounded in a recent paper by Frank Jackson, Graham Oppy and Michael Smith.2 It turns on the idea that minimalism about truth is quite compatible with a non-minimalism about truth-aptness, and that the latter can be used to ground non-cognitivism.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethics for A-Level for AQA Philosophy and OCR Religious Studies
    Ethics for A-Level For AQA Philosophy and OCR Religious Studies MARK DIMMOCK AND ANDREW FISHER To access digital resources including: blog posts videos online appendices and to purchase copies of this book in: hardback paperback ebook editions Go to: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/639 Open Book Publishers is a non-profit independent initiative. We rely on sales and donations to continue publishing high-quality academic works. Ethics for A-Level Mark Dimmock and Andrew Fisher https://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2017 Mark Dimmock and Andrew Fisher This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work; to adapt the work and to make commercial use of the work providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Mark Dimmock and Andrew Fisher, Ethics for A-Level. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2017, https:// doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0125 In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit https://www. openbookpublishers.com/product/639#copyright Further details about CC BY licenses are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ All external links were active at the time of publication unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web Digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at https://www.openbookpublishers. com/product/639#resources ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-388-9 ISBN Hardback: 978-1-78374-389-6 ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-78374-390-2 ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-78374-391-9 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-78374-392-6 DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0125 Cover image: Malaysia from the Sky, photo by Ishan @seefromthesky.
    [Show full text]
  • A Defence of Emotivism
    A Defence of Emotivism Leslie Allan Published online: 16 September 2015 Copyright © 2015 Leslie Allan As a non-cognitivist analysis of moral language, Charles Stevenson’s sophisticated emotivism is widely regarded by moral philosophers as a substantial improvement over its historical antecedent, radical emotivism. None the less, it has come in for its share of criticism. In this essay, Leslie Allan responds to the key philosophical objections to Stevenson’s thesis, arguing that the criticisms levelled against his meta-ethical theory rest largely on a too hasty reading of his works. To cite this essay: Allan, Leslie 2015. A Defence of Emotivism, URL = <http://www.RationalRealm.com/philosophy/ethics/defence-emotivism.html> To link to this essay: www.RationalRealm.com/philosophy/ethics/defence-emotivism.html Follow this and additional essays at: www.RationalRealm.com This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sublicensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms and conditions of access and use can be found at www.RationalRealm.com/policies/tos.html Leslie Allan A Defence of Emotivism 1. Introduction In this essay, my aim is to defend an emotive theory of ethics. The particular version that I will support is based on C. L. Stevenson’s signal work in Ethics and Language [1976], originally published in 1944, and his later revisions and refinements to this theory presented in his book, Facts and Values [1963]. I shall not, therefore, concern myself with the earlier and less sophisticated versions of the emotive theory, such as those presented by A.
    [Show full text]
  • A Further Reinterpretation of the Moral Philosophy of John Stuart Mill
    A FURTHER REINTERPRETATION OF THE MORAL PHILOSOPHY OF JOHN STUART MILL. by Derek Jo Banks M.A.9 University of Glasgow, 1970 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of Philosophy 0 DEREK JOHN BANKS 1972 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY January 1972 Name : Derek J. Banks !iiitlc of '.thesis : li ir'urther deinterpretation of the Floral I'hilosophy of John ,Stuart Mill Examining Cornrni-ttee : Chairman: Kay Jennings """ Lionel Kenner Senior Supervisor P "-" Donald G. Brown Lxt ernal Axaminer &of essor of 'hilosophy University of British Columbia I ABSTRACT Those of Mill's critics who focus their attention on Utilitarianism assume that Mill must have held that certain ethical sentences, including one expressing the principle of utility, are properly describable as true. In this thesis I set out to demonstrate the spuriousness of this assumption. I begin by showing that in several important works - works which he thought much more highly of than he did Utilitarianism - Mill denied that the truth (or falsity) of any ethical sentences can ever be established. Next I produce evidence that his reason for this denial lies in his commitment to the view that ethical sentences are really disguised imperative sentences, and hence have no truth-value. Pinally, it is argued that there is nothing in Utilitarianism that is inconsistent with the meta-ethical position which we have found him to adopt in his other works related to ethics. In a short coneluding chapter I devote as much space as I deem permissible in a thesis of this type to show that reinterpretation of Mill's ethical theory on an imperative model renders it more plausible than it is generally taken to be, since all theories which allow truth-values to ethical sentences are open to knock-down objections.
    [Show full text]
  • Emotivism and Deflationary Truth
    270 PACIFIC PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY EMOTIVISM AND DEFLATIONARY TRUTH KYLE S. SWAN Abstract: The paper investigates different ways to understand the claim that non-cognitivists theories of morality are incoherent. According to the claim, this is so because, on one theory of truth, non-cognitivists are not able to deny objective truth to moral judgments without taking a substantive normat- ive position. I argue that emotivism is not self-defeating in this way. The charge of incoherence actually only amounts to a claim that emotivism is incompatible with deflationary truth, but this claim is based upon a mistake. It relies upon a problematic understanding of both emotivism and the defla- tionary theory of truth. Philosophers concerned to resist any of the varieties of non-cognitivist moral theories have typically relied heavily upon the embeddedness prob- lem, which Peter Geach has articulated.1 According to these theories, normative claims do not express genuine propositions. However, this cannot explain, and, is at odds with, the way people talk. Moral claims, for example, display the same syntax as non-moral claims, which do express genuine propositions. So moral claims are uttered as if they are about facts, but emotivism denies that they are factual. This is a problem for non-cognitivist theories because it seems to follow that they must be committed to rejecting the validity of instances of modus ponens that include as one of the components a normative claim. An alternative to this traditional way for philosophers to resist non- cognitivism has been advanced by Paul Boghossian and, even more recently, Ronald Dworkin.
    [Show full text]
  • In History of Philosophy, Spinoza Is Well Known As Radical Determinist
    SPINOZA’S DUAL VIEW ON HUMAN FREEDOM MIROSLAV FRIDL * INTRODUCTION 1. SPINOZA’S OFFICIAL CONCEPT OF FREEDOM In order to understand what, according n history of philosophy, Spinoza is well Spinoza, consists man’s freedom in, we must first known as radical determinist. According to see the basic ontological and anthropological Ithat determinism, every thing that exists and premises which offer us an answer to question acts does it in only one possible way determined what human freedom could be anyway. Among from eternity. This doctrine provoked severe those premises there are certainly determinism, criticism addressed to Spinoza because it deanthropomorfized God and substance monism. clearly jeopardized traditional understanding of freedom as capability of choice.1 Opposition Substance monism and determinism of many critics Spinoza could not attenuate represent two basic features of Spinoza’s by offering his concept of freedom: action ontology. While substance monism determines determined by proper nature. However, didn’t ontological status of every thing, determinism Spinoza, with his philosophy, called for exactly shows in which way every thing, including man, that traditional concept of freedom officially acts. These two aspects are, of course, deeply and explicitly denied by him? intertwined and must be always taken together. According to substance monism, God is the I’ll show, in my article, that Spinoza unique substance or reality and all other things, promotes both concepts of freedom: official and including man, are solely particular expressions unofficial one. The official concept follows from or modes of that reality under different attributes. his ontological and anthropological premises; the unofficial one is required and implied by the When building his determinism, Spinoza prescriptiveness of his ethics.
    [Show full text]