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Ethics and Political Philosophy

2008

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Articles 1 - 30 of 91

Full-Text Articles in Philosophy

Eucharist And Dragon Fighting As Resistance: Against Commodity Fetishism And Scientism, Jeffery Nicholas Jul 2015

Eucharist And Dragon Fighting As Resistance: Against Commodity Fetishism And Scientism, Jeffery Nicholas

Jeffery Nicholas

This paper examines two practices – the Roman Catholic Practice of Eucharist and the game Dungeons and Dragons – to show how social critique can be mounted from within a practice. It begins by relating Alasdair MacIntyre’s notion of tradition to his earlier analysis of ideology and to the notion of ideology in general. The paper then tackles two dominant forms of ideology – Commodity Fetishism and Scientism – and shows how both Eucharist and Dungeons and Dragons promote critical thinking to resist those ideologies. In the process, it denies the Althusserian-Foucauldian analysis of ideology as mere materiality and defends …


Historical Dictionary Of Ethics, Harry Gensler, S.J., Earl Spurgin Apr 2013

Historical Dictionary Of Ethics, Harry Gensler, S.J., Earl Spurgin

Earl W. Spurgin

The Historical Dictionary of Ethics covers a very broad range of ethical topics, including ethical theories, historical periods, historical figures, applied ethics, ethical issues, ethical concepts, non-Western approaches, and related disciplines. Harry J. Gensler and Earl W. Spurgin tackle such issues as abortion, capital punishment, stemcell research, and terrorism while also explaining key theories like utilitarianism, natural law, social contract, and virtue ethics. This reference provides a complete overview of ethics through a detailed chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 200 cross-referenced dictionary entries, including bioethics, business ethics, Aristotle, Hobbes, autonomy, confidentiality, Confucius, and psychology.


The Moral Justification For Journalism, Sandra L. Borden Dec 2008

The Moral Justification For Journalism, Sandra L. Borden

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Papers presented for the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University


On The Concept Of A Morally Relevant Harm, David Lefkowitz Dec 2008

On The Concept Of A Morally Relevant Harm, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In this paper I explicate and defend the concept of a morally relevant harm. This concept figures prominently in common-sense and contractualist moral reasoning concerning cases where an agent can prevent harm to members of a large group or a small one, but not both. When the two harms to which members of these groups are exposed are morally relevant to one another, an agent is permitted (or perhaps required) to take into account the number of people he can save. When the harms are irrelevant, an agent should not even consider preventing the lesser harm, regardless of how many …


Exacerbating Injustice, Stephanos Bibas Nov 2008

Exacerbating Injustice, Stephanos Bibas

All Faculty Scholarship

This brief essay responds to Josh Bowers' argument that criminal procedure should openly allow innocent defendants to plead guilty as a legal fiction. Though most scholars emphasize the few but salient serious felony cases, Bowers is right to refocus attention on misdemeanors and violations, which are far more numerous. And though the phrase wrongful convictions conjures up images of punishing upstanding citizens, Bowers is also right to emphasize that recidivists are far more likely to suffer wrongful suspicion and conviction. Bowers' mistake is to treat the criminal justice system as simply a means of satisfying defendants' preferences and choices. This …


Compassion And Sympathy As Moral Motivation, Steven Sverdlik Oct 2008

Compassion And Sympathy As Moral Motivation, Steven Sverdlik

Occasional Papers

No abstract provided.


On The Ethics Of Capitalism, Stanislaw Cichocki, Boguslawa Lewandowska Sep 2008

On The Ethics Of Capitalism, Stanislaw Cichocki, Boguslawa Lewandowska

Bogusława Lewandowska

The aim of the paper is to present some reflections on the ethics of capitalism – the economic, social and political system which dominates today’s world and is seen by many as the only proper system. However there existed many critics (Saint-Simon, Simonde de Sismondi, Marks) of this system who called it inhuman, unjust, exploitive etc. and who proposed alternatives for capitalism. These were then challenged by advocates of capitalism (Hayek, Mises, Berger). They criticized alternatives of capitalism and tried to prove that freedom, individualism, initiative, economic growth and wealth can be best achieved in capitalism. They admitted that capitalism …


Politics, Culture Wars,And The Good Book: Recent Controversies Over The Bible And Public Education, Mark A. Chancey Aug 2008

Politics, Culture Wars,And The Good Book: Recent Controversies Over The Bible And Public Education, Mark A. Chancey

Occasional Papers

No abstract provided.


Nietzsche/Pentheus: The Last Disciple Of Dionysus And Queer Fear Of The Feminine, C. Heike Schotten Aug 2008

Nietzsche/Pentheus: The Last Disciple Of Dionysus And Queer Fear Of The Feminine, C. Heike Schotten

Political Science Faculty Publication Series

This article examines the scholarly preoccupation with the hypothesis that Nietzsche was gay by offering a reading of Nietzsche's texts as autobiographical that puts them in conversation with Euripides's drama The Bacchae. Drawing a number of parallels between Nietzsche, self-avowed disciple of Dionysus, and Pentheus, the main character of The Bacchae and demonstrated antidisciple of Dionysus, I argue that both men experience their sexual attraction to women as somehow intolerable, and they negotiate this discomfort—which is simultaneously an unjustified paranoia and fear of the feminine—through the appropriation of feminine capacities and qualities for themselves. This appropriation ultimately expresses these men's …


"Of All Professions Begging Is The Best" - Some Problems In The Study Of Professions, Michael Davis Aug 2008

"Of All Professions Begging Is The Best" - Some Problems In The Study Of Professions, Michael Davis

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Michael Davis' original paper was presented to the Center of the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University on October 4, 2007.


Reply To Joseph Ellin's Of All Professions, Prostitution Is The Oldest (Except Possibly For Teaching), Michael Davis Aug 2008

Reply To Joseph Ellin's Of All Professions, Prostitution Is The Oldest (Except Possibly For Teaching), Michael Davis

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

No abstract provided.


Of All Professions, Prostitution Is The Oldest (Except Possibly For Teaching), Joseph Ellin Aug 2008

Of All Professions, Prostitution Is The Oldest (Except Possibly For Teaching), Joseph Ellin

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Response by Joseph Ellin to a paper by Michael Davis Professions "Of All Professions, Begging is the Best"


Professions "Of All Professions, Begging Is The Best" A Paper By Michael Davis. Response By Joseph Ellin. Professor Davis' Reply, Center For The Study Of Ethics In Society Aug 2008

Professions "Of All Professions, Begging Is The Best" A Paper By Michael Davis. Response By Joseph Ellin. Professor Davis' Reply, Center For The Study Of Ethics In Society

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Michael Davis' original paper was presented to the Center of the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University on October 4, 2007.


Nietzsche/Pentheus: The Last Disciple Of Dionysus And Queer Fear Of The Feminine, C. Heike Schotten Jul 2008

Nietzsche/Pentheus: The Last Disciple Of Dionysus And Queer Fear Of The Feminine, C. Heike Schotten

C. Heike Schotten

No abstract provided.


The Immigration Paradox: Alien Workers And Distributive Justice, Howard F. Chang Jul 2008

The Immigration Paradox: Alien Workers And Distributive Justice, Howard F. Chang

All Faculty Scholarship

The immigration of relatively unskilled workers poses a fundamental problem for liberals. While from the perspective of the economic welfare of natives, the optimal policy would be to admit these aliens as guest workers, this policy would violate liberal ideals. These ideals would treat these workers as equals, entitled to access to citizenship and to the full set of public benefits provided to citizens. If the welfare of incumbent residents determines admissions policies, however, and we anticipate the fiscal burden that the immigration of the poor would impose, then our welfare criterion would preclude the admission of relatively unskilled workers …


Hannah Arendt E A Política Excêntrica, Andre De Macedo Duarte Jul 2008

Hannah Arendt E A Política Excêntrica, Andre De Macedo Duarte

Andre de Macedo Duarte

No abstract provided.


Concrete Containment In Late Capitalism, Mysticism, The Marquis De Sade, And Phenomenological Anthropology, Apple Igrek Jun 2008

Concrete Containment In Late Capitalism, Mysticism, The Marquis De Sade, And Phenomenological Anthropology, Apple Igrek

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Arts and Humanities

Georges Bataille is known for being complex and multifaceted: influenced by Christian mystics as well as Hegelians and Marxists, his work is also linked with that of the surrealists and existentialists of his own mid-20th century France as well as the post-structuralists - in particular the Tel Quel collaboraters - who followed in his wake. It would be astonishing, then, if Bataille's thinking were not conflated with precisely those movements and those ideas with which he has so much in common, despite the fact that we should refuse to expect this. Much of Bataille's work was devoted to the ambivalent …


A Primary Human Challenge, Carroy U. Ferguson Apr 2008

A Primary Human Challenge, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

We may ask why, at both the individual and collective levels, it has seemed so difficult for us to choose to evolve our human games with Joy. There is no one answer for such a question, for each of us has the gift of free will. I will suggest, however, that built into our human games is what I call a primary human challenge. That primary human challenge is a dynamic tension, flowing from our creative urge for the freedom “to be” who we really are in our current physical form, and simultaneously to embrace our responsibility for our Being-ness.


The Responsibility Of Thinking In Dark Times: Hannah Arendt Versus Hans Jonas, Lawrence A. Vogel Apr 2008

The Responsibility Of Thinking In Dark Times: Hannah Arendt Versus Hans Jonas, Lawrence A. Vogel

Philosophy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Avoiding Certain Frustration, Reflection, And The Cable Guy Paradox, Brian Kierland, Bradley Monton, Samuel Ruhmkorff Mar 2008

Avoiding Certain Frustration, Reflection, And The Cable Guy Paradox, Brian Kierland, Bradley Monton, Samuel Ruhmkorff

Brian Kierland

We discuss the cable guy paradox, both as an object of interest in its own right and as something which can be used to illuminate certain issues in the theories of rational choice and belief. We argue that a crucial principle—The Avoid Certain Frustration (ACF) principle—which is used in stating the paradox is false, thus resolving the paradox. We also explain how the paradox gives us new insight into issues related to the Reflection principle. Our general thesis is that principles that base your current opinions on your current opinions about your future opinions need not make reference to the …


Competing Conceptions Of Modern Desert: Vengeful, Deontological, And Empirical, Paul H. Robinson Mar 2008

Competing Conceptions Of Modern Desert: Vengeful, Deontological, And Empirical, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

The dispute over the role desert should play, if any, in assessing criminal liability and punishment has a long and turbulent history. There is some indication that deserved punishment -- referred to variously as desert, just punishment, retributive punishment, or simply doing justice -- may be in ascendance, both in academic debate and in real world institutions. A number of modern sentencing guidelines have adopted it as their distributive principle. Desert is increasingly given deference in the purposes section of state criminal codes, where it can be the guiding principle in the interpretation and application of the code's provisions. Indeed, …


Trapped In The Creation Museum, Stephen Asma Jan 2008

Trapped In The Creation Museum, Stephen Asma

Stephen T Asma

Into the swampy debate over evolution has waded the new Creation Museum, in Petersburg, Ky. In an America divided between those who accept Darwin's theories and those who believe God created the world in six days, it seeks to win moderates and compromisers over to its side. Shortly after the museum opened last spring, I made a pilgrimage to witness this quirky new spectacle of Americana...


Emmanuel Levinas And The Judaism Of The Good Samaritan, Lawrence A. Vogel Jan 2008

Emmanuel Levinas And The Judaism Of The Good Samaritan, Lawrence A. Vogel

Philosophy Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Hobbes On Magnanimity And Statesmanship: Replacing Virtue With Science, Geoffrey M. Vaughan Jan 2008

Hobbes On Magnanimity And Statesmanship: Replacing Virtue With Science, Geoffrey M. Vaughan

Political Science Department Faculty Works

No abstract provided.


Racism And The Political Romance Of The Browning Of America, Ronald Sundstrom Jan 2008

Racism And The Political Romance Of The Browning Of America, Ronald Sundstrom

Philosophy

The browning of America promises the bodily, social, and political transfor- mation of the United States, and as with all ethno-racial threats—or promises of deliverance—browning operates through the private, intimate arenas of love, sexuality, gender, family, and friendship. As a demographic idea, the “browning of America” gathers together Native Americans, African Ameri- cans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Americans with a multiracial identity, as well as non-white immigrants. In popular culture, however, it primarily con- notes the expanding population of Latinos, and Mexican and Latin American immigrants. Secondarily, it includes the growing social and political presence of multiracial Americans, those who …


Foucault, Marxism And The Cuban Revolution: Historical And Contemporary Reflections, Sam Binkley, Jorge Capetillo-Ponce Jan 2008

Foucault, Marxism And The Cuban Revolution: Historical And Contemporary Reflections, Sam Binkley, Jorge Capetillo-Ponce

Sociology Faculty Publication Series

This article relates central themes of Marxist and Foucauldian thought to the intellectual and political legacy of the Cuban Revolution. Against the backdrop of a reading of Foucault’s relationship to the revolutionary left, it is argued that Marxist theoretical discourse on guerrilla struggle (as articulated by Mao, Guevara and others) provide an intriguing case for bio-political struggle. In the case of the Cuban revolution, an ethics of self-transformation appears in which new ways of living and practicing life are cultivated in opposition to sedimentations of state power. Moreover, in addition to this historical case, a discussion is offered of the …


Droits De L'Homme, Droits Du Citoyen: Les Présupposés De La Jurisprudence Américaine Et Européenne, Gregory Lewkowicz Jan 2008

Droits De L'Homme, Droits Du Citoyen: Les Présupposés De La Jurisprudence Américaine Et Européenne, Gregory Lewkowicz

Gregory Lewkowicz

This paper proposes a comparative analysis of some rulings of the US Supreme Court and of the European Court of Human Rights. Reviewing cases related to international legal problems or using comparative legal reasoning, the paper suggests that the difference of attitudes between the two courts in human rights cases is embedded in the classical opposition between men and citizen.


Heidegger E O Caráter Historial-Político Da Obra De Arte, Andre De Macedo Duarte Jan 2008

Heidegger E O Caráter Historial-Político Da Obra De Arte, Andre De Macedo Duarte

Andre de Macedo Duarte

The text discusses the historial-political character attributed by Heidegger to the artwork in his 1936 essay “The origin of the work of art”. The main argument is that Heidegger’s analysis of the artwork is simultaneously an inquiry into the possibility of a new beginning in history by means of a genuine appropriation of history, a subject-matter that was altogether absent during the project of fundamental ontology. The essay on the artwork is considered as a first step in Heidegger’s formulation of his later thesis concerning Western history as the history of Being. Incidentally, this shift in Heidegger’s understanding of history …


O Acolhimento Silencioso: Ética E Alteridade Em Ser E Tempo, Andre De Macedo Duarte Jan 2008

O Acolhimento Silencioso: Ética E Alteridade Em Ser E Tempo, Andre De Macedo Duarte

Andre de Macedo Duarte

Criticizing current interpretations that stress the existential solipsism of the resolute Dasein, the present investigation emphasizes Heidegger’s contribution to the question of the acknowledgment of otherness in Being and Time. The key to uncover the post-metaphysical ethical dimension of the existential analytic is to be found in the theoretical articulation between the phenomenological analysis of anguish and that of the call of conscience. The main argument is that by responsibly hearing to the strange appeal of conscience, resolute Dasein is simultaneously opened to the acknowledgment and welcoming of the other as other.


De Michel Foucault A Giorgio Agamben: A Trajetória Do Conceito De Biopolítica, Andre De Macedo Duarte Jan 2008

De Michel Foucault A Giorgio Agamben: A Trajetória Do Conceito De Biopolítica, Andre De Macedo Duarte

Andre de Macedo Duarte

No abstract provided.