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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Comparing Suffering Across Species, John Nolt
Comparing Suffering Across Species, John Nolt
John Nolt
Moral life often presents us with trade-offs between the sufferings of some individuals and the sufferings of others. Researchers may need to consider, for example, whether the suffering imposed on animals by a certain line of medical experimentation justifies the relief that the resulting discoveries may bring to (human or non-human) others. Often in such cases, the suffering of some individuals is incomparable with—that is neither greater than nor less than nor equal to— the suffering of others. While this complicates moral decision-making across species, it does not undermine it.
The Individual's Obligation To Relinquish Unnecessary Greenhouse Gas-Emitting Devices, John Nolt
The Individual's Obligation To Relinquish Unnecessary Greenhouse Gas-Emitting Devices, John Nolt
John Nolt
The use of many common devices requires the emission of greenhouse gases. Examples include internal combustion engines, most heating and cooling devices, and anything that uses electrical power some of which is generated by the burning of fossil fuels. Most current schemes for reducing greenhouse gas emissions take it for granted that individuals will continue using such devices. These schemes aim, for example, to sequester the emissions or switch the energy source to wind, solar or nuclear power. But this paper contends that the potential harm of global climate change is so great and the need for emissions reduction so …
Letter To The Editor: Adderall Abuse Sets Add Patients Back, Andrew Blitman
Letter To The Editor: Adderall Abuse Sets Add Patients Back, Andrew Blitman
Andrew Blitman
No abstract provided.
Meriting Concern And Meriting Respect, Jon Garthoff
Meriting Concern And Meriting Respect, Jon Garthoff
Jon Garthoff
Recently there has been a somewhat surprising interest among Kantian theorists in the moral standing of animals, coupled with a no less surprising optimism among these theorists about the prospect of incorporating animal moral standing into Kantian theory without contorting its other attractive features. These theorists contend in particular that animal standing can be incorporated into Kantian moral theory without abandoning its logocentrism: the claim that everything that is valuable depends for its value on its relation to rationality. In this essay I raise doubts about the prospects for accommodating animal moral standing within a logocentric Kantianism. I argue instead …
Love, Sex Shouldn't Be Free, Andrew Blitman
Decolonisation As Peacemaking: Applying Just War Theory To The Canadian Context, Sam Grey
Decolonisation As Peacemaking: Applying Just War Theory To The Canadian Context, Sam Grey
Sam Grey
For decades now, Canada has been seen as a global exemplar of peacemaking and peacekeeping, yet the troubled relationship between its state and the Indigenous peoples within its borders does little to support this image. There is, in fact, a strong case to be made that the ongoing crisis of Indigenous–settler state relations in Canada is best understood as a protracted war; or more succinctly, as a failure to achieve peace following the initial violence of conquest and colonisation. Accordingly, it makes sense to apply just war theory — a doctrine of military ethics — to the issue. Grounded in …
Scripture As Word Of God: Evangelical Assumption Or Evangelical Question?, John D. Morrison
Scripture As Word Of God: Evangelical Assumption Or Evangelical Question?, John D. Morrison
John D. Morrison
Examines the views of D. Bloesch, G. Fackre, and C. Pinnock. Indicates their disjunctive positions introduce ontological and epistemological dualism into the doctrine of revelation. Takes Packer's view of the Bible as the Word of God written, affirming that the human languages used to reflect God's person and work are competent to do so. Finds Wolterstorff's answer to Barth and John Baillie insightful, but we must move past his views to the full-orbed acceptance of the Word of God as written to avoid negating propositional revelation.
In The Form Of A Longhouse: Haudenosaunee Political Philosophy And Social Contract Theory, Sam Grey
In The Form Of A Longhouse: Haudenosaunee Political Philosophy And Social Contract Theory, Sam Grey
Sam Grey
This essay presents the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (sometimes referred to as the Iroquois League or Five Nations) as part of an alternative social contract theory, contrasting the social and political institutions and norms of the Five Nations with those proposed by Enlightenment-era philosophers. Although the oral history of the Haudenosaunee describes a Hobbesian ‘state of nature’ prior to the founding of the Confederacy, the Five Nations entered into, and constantly renewed, a substantially different ‘social contract’ than that theorized by Hobbes, Rousseau, or Locke. Because these differences reveal a unique understanding of human nature and potential, undergirded by distinctly Haudenosaunee political …
Afflicting The Comfortable: An Assessment Of The Stasis In International Bioethical Discourse, Sam Grey
Afflicting The Comfortable: An Assessment Of The Stasis In International Bioethical Discourse, Sam Grey
Sam Grey
Despite decades of clinical research being carried out in the 'developing' world, neither the socio-political and economic context of the global South, nor the nature and historical trajectory of global inequality have played a substantive role in determining the nature and extent of North-to-South bioethical obligations. Instead, context has been used to vacate obligation, shut out theories of justice, and collapse the “four principles' of bioethics” – sacrosanct in the 'developed’ world - into a singular, non-negotiable focus on autonomy as a procedurally-defined right. Proponents of a minimum-standards system of international clinical research conflate scientific, statistical, economic, and ethical issues, …
In Harm's Way: Justification, Excuse, And Civilian Safety In Just War Theory, Sam Grey
In Harm's Way: Justification, Excuse, And Civilian Safety In Just War Theory, Sam Grey
Sam Grey
Just War Theory asserts that armed conflict can be fought in a way that safeguards moral and legal norms while responding to pragmatic/military imperatives. One of the ways in which it seeks to safeguard justice is through specific provisions for the immunity of, and due care for, the vulnerable and innocent. Unfortunately, two doctrines within Just War Theory – the Doctrine of Double Effect and the Doctrine of Supreme Emergency – suspend or vacate these provisions. The net effect is to render justifications inaccessible, leaving only excuses, the use of which establishes that no one is truly accountable, no meaningful …
Tradition, Tech, And Transformation: Information Technologies And The Intellectual Property Of Indigenous Peoples, Sam Grey
Sam Grey
Changes brought about by the globalization of laws and markets, and the geometric expansion of technological innovation, make intellectual property issues nebulous and mercurial, to the point that keeping pace with changes in the field is a full-time pursuit requiring a high degree of skill and dedication. For nations-within-nations, as is the status of most Native groups worldwide, intellectual property presents a particularly difficult legal and political problem, as indeed intellectual property rights (IPR) regimes challenge the sovereignty of even the strongest and most 'modern' of nation-states. Authorities on the protection of traditional knowledge (TK), resources, and cultural expressions assert …
Tattoos On Our Digital Skin: Anonymity, Privacy, And Accountability In Cyberspace, Sam Grey
Tattoos On Our Digital Skin: Anonymity, Privacy, And Accountability In Cyberspace, Sam Grey
Sam Grey
While it may be oddly flattering that Chapters, Amazon or HMV knew you would like the new Johnny Cash compilation album, you may be less than thrilled to discover that they also knew about your prescription drug addiction, your crabs, your bankruptcy, or your having skipped out on the rent one month back in 1993. When you add the possibility of your favourite e-retailer sharing your personal information- for a profit- to the frank probability of their having known it in the first place, what you initially found flattering may begin to appear more offensive and ominous. Simply put, there …
Decolonising Feminism: Aboriginal Women And The Global ‘Sisterhood’, Sam Grey
Decolonising Feminism: Aboriginal Women And The Global ‘Sisterhood’, Sam Grey
Sam Grey
For several decades the caution that “[w]omen should not position themselves ‘on the same side’ without any regard for the differences in power and privilege among women” (Grande, 2003:342) has circulated; yet feminism continues to espouse a ubiquitous ‘sisterhood’ based on common female experiences, perceptions, values and goals. Unfortunately, feminists have neither sufficiently examined differences between and among women, nor adequately considered the historical and material specificity of Native identity. In light of this, the claim that ‘feminism is for everybody’ seems more politically useful, or optimistic, than accurate.