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Articles 1 - 21 of 21
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Plato’S Market Optimism, Brennan Mcdavid
Plato’S Market Optimism, Brennan Mcdavid
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
Despite the extensiveness of top-down control in his ideal city, Plato takes seriously the idea that the market does not require total regulation via legislation and that participants in the market may be capable of self-regulation. This paper examines the discussion of market regulation in the Republic and argues that the philosopher rulers play a very limited role in regulating market activities. Indeed, they are concerned only with averting excesses of wealth and poverty. The rules and regulations that are foundational to the daily functioning of the market – enforcement of contracts, resolution of disputes, etc. – are endogenous to …
Hume’S Politics And Four Dimensions Of Realism, Keith Hankins, John Thrasher
Hume’S Politics And Four Dimensions Of Realism, Keith Hankins, John Thrasher
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
Debates between realists and idealists in contemporary political theory have been confused by a tendency to conflate several distinct methodological theses. This article distinguishes between four dimensions of realism and shows how a novel reading of Hume’s politics can help us make sense of the importance of these theses and the relationships between them. More specifically, we argue that a theory we call normative conventionalism can be distilled from two of Hume’s more surprising and controversial essays, “The Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth” and “That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science.” This theory views norms and institutions as conventional …
Agreeing To Disagree: Diversity, Political Contractualism, And The Open Society, John Thrasher
Agreeing To Disagree: Diversity, Political Contractualism, And The Open Society, John Thrasher
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
Political contractualism is important in societies characterized by substantial moral and political disagreement and diversity. The very disagreement that makes the social contract necessary, however, also makes agreement difficult. Call this the paradox of diversity, which is the result of a tension between two necessary conditions of political contractualism: existence and stability. The first involves showing the possibility of some agreement, while the second involves showing that the agreement can persist. To solve both of these problems, I develop a multilevel contract theory that I call the “open society” model of political contractualism that incorporates diversity into the contractual model …
Democracy Unchained: Contractualism, Individualism, And Independence In Buchanan’S Democratic Theory, John Thrasher
Democracy Unchained: Contractualism, Individualism, And Independence In Buchanan’S Democratic Theory, John Thrasher
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
Contrary to the claims of some of his critics, James Buchanan was an ardent democrat. I argue that Buchanan’s conception of democratic governance organized by a contractually justified constitution is highly distinctive because of his commitment to a strong conception of individualism. For Buchanan, democracy is neither justified instrumentally—by the goods it generates—nor by reference to some antecedent conception of justice. Instead, democracy is the only political option for a society that takes individualism seriously. One implication of this view is that democracies can only be limited by the rules they collectively give themselves in the form of constitutions. I …
Two Of A Kind: Are Norms Of Honor A Species Of Morality?, Toby Handfield, John Thrasher
Two Of A Kind: Are Norms Of Honor A Species Of Morality?, Toby Handfield, John Thrasher
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
Should the norms of honor cultures be classified as a variety of morality? In this paper, we address this question by considering various empirical bases on which norms can be taxonomically organised. This question is of interest both as an exercise in philosophy of social science, and for its potential implications in meta-ethical debates. Using recent data from anthropology and evolutionary game theory, we argue that the most productive classification emphasizes the strategic role that moral norms play in generating assurance and stabilizing cooperation. Because honor norms have a similar functional role, this account entails honor norms are indeed a …
Evaluating Bad Norms, John Thrasher
Evaluating Bad Norms, John Thrasher
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
Some norms are bad. Norms of revenge, female genital mutilation, honor killings, and other norms strike us as destructive, cruel, and wasteful. The puzzle is why so many people see these norms as authoritative and why these norms often resist change. To answer these questions, we need to look at what “bad” norms are and how we can evaluate them. Here I develop an integrative analysis of norms that aims to avoid parochialism in norm evaluation. After examining and rejecting several evaluative standards, I propose what I call a comparative-functional analysis of norms that is both operationalizable/testable and nonparochial, and …
Honor And Violence: An Account Of Feuds, Duels, And Honor Killings, John Thrasher, Toby Handfield
Honor And Violence: An Account Of Feuds, Duels, And Honor Killings, John Thrasher, Toby Handfield
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
We present a theory of honor violence as a form of costly signaling. Two types of honor violence are identified: revenge and purification. Both types are amenable to a signaling analysis whereby the violent behavior is a signal that can be used by out-groups to draw inferences about the nature of the signaling group, thereby helping to solve perennial problems of social cooperation: deterrence and assurance. The analysis shows that apparently gratuitous acts of violence can be part of a system of norms that are Pareto superior to alternatives without such signals. For societies that lack mechanisms of governance to …
The Price Of Sociality, John Thrasher
The Price Of Sociality, John Thrasher
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
A review of Jonathan Birch's The Philosophy of Social Evolution, published by Oxford University Press.
Political Stability In The Open Society, John Thrasher, Kevin Vallier
Political Stability In The Open Society, John Thrasher, Kevin Vallier
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
We argue that the Rawlsian description of a just liberal society, the well‐ordered society, fails to accommodate deep disagreement and is insufficiently dynamic. In response, we formulate an alternative model that we call the open society, organized around a new account of dynamic stability. In the open society, constitutional rules must be stable enough to preserve social conditions that foster experimentation, while leaving room in legal and institutional rules for innovation and change. Systemic robustness and dynamic stability become important for the open society in a way that they are not in the well‐ordered society. This model of the open …
Peer Punishment Promotes Enforcement Of Bad Social Norms, Klaus Abbink, Lata Gangadharan, Toby Handfield, John Thrasher
Peer Punishment Promotes Enforcement Of Bad Social Norms, Klaus Abbink, Lata Gangadharan, Toby Handfield, John Thrasher
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
Social norms are an important element in explaining how humans achieve very high levels of cooperative activity. It is widely observed that, when norms can be enforced by peer punishment, groups are able to resolve social dilemmas in prosocial, cooperative ways. Here we show that punishment can also encourage participation in destructive behaviours that are harmful to group welfare, and that this phenomenon is mediated by a social norm. In a variation of a public goods game, in which the return to investment is negative for both group and individual, we find that the opportunity to punish led to higher …
The Ethics Of Legislative Vote Trading, John Thrasher
The Ethics Of Legislative Vote Trading, John Thrasher
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
It is argued in this article that legislative vote trading by representatives is both ethically permissible and may be ethically required in many cases. This conclusion is an implication of a thin, general account of representation that requires representatives to vote on the basis of the perceived preferences or interests of their constituents. These special duties arise from a thin account of representation and create a weak, defeasible duty for representatives to engage in what they believe will be beneficial vote trades. After establishing this claim, the article considers two objections to this duty. One is based on equating legislative …
When Justice Demands Inequality, John Thrasher, Keith Hankins
When Justice Demands Inequality, John Thrasher, Keith Hankins
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
In Rescuing Justice and Equality G.A. Cohen argues that justice requires an uncompromising commitment to equality. Cohen also argues, however, that justice must be sensitive to other values, including a robust commitment to individual freedom and to the welfare of the community. We ask whether a commitment to these other values means that, despite Cohen’s commitment to equality, his view requires that we make room for inequality in the name of justice? We argue that even on Cohen’s version of egalitarianism equality, freedom, and welfare are not always compatible. Justice will require trade-offs between these values. Sometimes, equality will need …
Ordering Anarchy, John Thrasher
Ordering Anarchy, John Thrasher
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
Ordered social life requires rules of conduct that help generate and preserve peaceful and cooperative interactions among individuals. The problem is that these social rules impose costs. They prohibit us from doing some things we might see as important and they require us to do other things that we might otherwise not do. The question for the contractarian is whether the costs of these social rules can be rationally justified. I argue that traditional contract theories have tended to underestimate the importance of evaluating the cost of enforcement and compliance in the contract procedure. In addition, the social contract has …
The Fragility Of Consensus: Public Reason, Diversity And Stability, John Thrasher, Kevin Vallier
The Fragility Of Consensus: Public Reason, Diversity And Stability, John Thrasher, Kevin Vallier
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
John Rawls's transition from A Theory of Justice to Political Liberalism was driven by his rejection of Theory's account of stability. The key to his later account of stability is the idea of public reason. We see Rawls's account of stability as an attempt to solve a mutual assurance problem. We maintain that Rawls's solution fails because his primary assurance mechanism, in the form of public reason, is fragile. His conception of public reason relies on a condition of consensus that we argue is unrealistic in modern, pluralistic democracies. After rejecting Rawls's conception of public reason, we offer an ‘indirect …
Uniqueness And Symmetry In Bargaining Theories Of Justice, John Thrasher
Uniqueness And Symmetry In Bargaining Theories Of Justice, John Thrasher
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
For contractarians, justice is the result of a rational bargain. The goal is to show that the rules of justice are consistent with rationality. The two most important bargaining theories of justice are David Gauthier’s and those that use the Nash’s bargaining solution. I argue that both of these approaches are fatally undermined by their reliance on a symmetry condition. Symmetry is a substantive constraint, not an implication of rationality. I argue that using symmetry to generate uniqueness undermines the goal of bargaining theories of justice.
Personality Disorders And Moral Responsibility, Mike W. Martin
Personality Disorders And Moral Responsibility, Mike W. Martin
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
In “Personality Disorders: Moral or Medical Kinds—or Both?” Peter Zachar and Nancy Nyquist Potter (2010) reject any general dichotomy between morality and mental health, and specifically between character vices and personality disorders. In doing so, they provide a nuanced and illuminating discussion that connects Aristotelian virtue ethics to a multidimensional understanding of personality disorders. I share their conviction that dissolving morality–health dichotomies is the starting point for any plausible understanding of human beings (Martin 2006), but I register some qualms about their discussion of responsibility.
Truth And Healing A Veteran's Depression, Mike W. Martin
Truth And Healing A Veteran's Depression, Mike W. Martin
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
Comments on an article by Christopher Bailey (see record 2009-24345-002). Dr. Christopher Bailey portrays an American veteran, Colin, who slips into a "serious but not severe" depression upon returning from the Iraq War, After ruling out post-traumatic stress disorder, the psychiatrist comes to believe that Colin's depression is tied to his feelings of being a wimp, of not having "done his part or proven his manhood," and of losing his chance to become a hero because he had been assigned non-combat duty—feelings that the psychiatrist glosses (misleadingly?) as a "painful lack of wounds." (I speak of the "the psychiatrist," rather …
On The Evolution Of Depression, Mike W. Martin
On The Evolution Of Depression, Mike W. Martin
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
In "Depression as a Mind-Body Problem," Walter Glannon outlines a psychosocial-physiological explanation of depression as a psychological response to chronic stress—today, especially social stress—in which cortisol imbalances disrupt neurotransmitters. Accordingly, treatment for depression should combine psychopharmacology and psychotherapy—a valuable reminder in light of the current restrictions on funding for health care (Hobson and Leonard 2001). My comments focus, however, on Glannon's objections to evolutionary theorists who explain our capacity for depression as adaptive to the natural and social environment. His objections are implausible because he fails to distinguish depression as a mood and a disorder.
Ethics As Therapy: Philosophical Counseling And Psychological Health, Mike W. Martin
Ethics As Therapy: Philosophical Counseling And Psychological Health, Mike W. Martin
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
From the inception of philosophical counseling an attempt was made to distinguish it from (psychological) therapy by insisting that therapy could not be more misleading. It is true that philosophical counselors should not pretend to be able to heal major mental illness; nevertheless they do contribute to positive health—health understood as something more than the absence of mental disease. This thesis is developed by critiquing Lou Marinoff’s book, Plato not Prozac!, but also by ranging more widely in the literature on philosophical counseling. I also interpret philosophical counseling as a form of philosophical ethics.
Depression And Moral Health: A Response To The Commentary, Mike W. Martin
Depression And Moral Health: A Response To The Commentary, Mike W. Martin
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
S. Nassir Ghaemi tells us that whereas "neurologists are sometimes accused of admiring disease rather than treating it," psychiatrists seek to cure disease even when they do not understand it. At the same time, he notes that Freud had both theoretical and practical interests that occasionally point in different directions, and psychiatrists have learned that theoretical understanding of the sources of suffering does not always translate directly into useful clinical practice. For their part, philosophers are often criticized for indulging in armchair speculation that yields neither empirical understanding nor practical efficacy. Writing as a philosopher in "Depression: Illness, Insight, and …
Love's Constancy, Mike W. Martin
Love's Constancy, Mike W. Martin
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
This article focuses on commitments between married couples.