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Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons

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Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Ethics and Political Philosophy

Why Aim Law Toward Human Survival, John William Draper Feb 2022

Why Aim Law Toward Human Survival, John William Draper

Librarian Scholarship at Penn Law

Our legal system is contributing to humanity’s demise by failing to take account of our species’ situation. For example, in some cases law works against life and supports interests such as liberty or profit maximization.

If we do not act, science tells us that humanity bears a significant (and growing) risk of catastrophic failure. The significant risk inherent in the status quo is unacceptable and requires a response. We must act. It is getting hotter. When we decide to act, we need to make the right choice.

There is no better choice. You and all your relatives have rights. The …


The Morality Of Human Rights, Michael J. Perry Dec 2013

The Morality Of Human Rights, Michael J. Perry

San Diego Law Review

My discussion of the morality of human rights in this Article presupposes that the reader is familiar with the internationalization of human rights: the growing international recognition and protection, in the period since the end of the Second World War, of certain rights as human rights. The Appendix to this Article is for readers not familiar with the internationalization of human rights. I begin, in the first Part of the Article, by explaining what the term human right means in the context of the internationalization of human rights. I also explain both the sense in which some human rights are, …


Social Contracts, Fair Play, And The Justification Of Punishment, Richard Dagger Jan 2011

Social Contracts, Fair Play, And The Justification Of Punishment, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

In recent years, the counterintuitive claim that criminals consent to their own punishment has been revived by philosophers who attempt to ground the justification of punishment in some version of the social contract. In this paper, I examine three such attempts—“contractarian” essays by Christopher Morris and Claire Finkelstein and an essay by Corey Brettschneider from the rival “contractualist” camp—and I find all three unconvincing. Each attempt is plausible, I argue, but its plausibility derives not from the appeal to a social contract but from considerations of fair play. Rather than look to the social contract for a justification of punishment, …


Marx And Morality: An Impossible Synthesis?, Harry Van Der Linden Mar 2010

Marx And Morality: An Impossible Synthesis?, Harry Van Der Linden

Harry van der Linden

A discussion of Allen E. Buchanan, Marx and Justice (Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield, 1982); Marshall Cohen, Thomas Nagel, and Thomas Scanlon, eds., Marx. Justice. and History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980); and Kai Nielsen and Steven C. Patten, eds., Marx and Morality, Supplementary Volume VII of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy (Guelph: Canadian Association for Publishing in Philosophy, 1981).


Republicanism And Crime, Richard Dagger Jan 2009

Republicanism And Crime, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

These are but two of the difficult questions that arise when one examines the claim that crime is a public wrong. I take it, though, that their difficulty is an indication of the importance of thinking through the presuppositions and implications of this conception of crime, not a reason to abandon it. A thorough 'thinking through' is too large and complex a task for this chapter, but it is possible to make a case here for the right way to proceed with such an undertaking. That right way, in my view, is to look to the republican tradition of political …


The Political Psychology Of Collateral Damage, Ibpp Editor Mar 2003

The Political Psychology Of Collateral Damage, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article provides commentary on how a government purporting to be representative democracy might best approach the construct of collateral damage.


Trends. Implications Of War And Peace For The Morality, Ethics, And Legality Of Killing And Incarceration, Ibpp Editor Nov 2002

Trends. Implications Of War And Peace For The Morality, Ethics, And Legality Of Killing And Incarceration, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article provides a perspective for the controversy surrounding the appropriateness of killing and incarceration during a war on terrorism with global reach.


Trends. Correct Political Incorrectness: Can Germans Be Right About Jews?, Ibpp Editor Jul 2000

Trends. Correct Political Incorrectness: Can Germans Be Right About Jews?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses former Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl's analogy, which compared boycotts of his fundraising campaign to pay for fines incurred on his political party because of his illegal and illicit fund-raising initiatives to Nazi-era boycotts of Jewish shops.


Trends. Human Rights And Mental Health: What Happens When The Right Are Wrong?, Ibpp Editor Nov 1997

Trends. Human Rights And Mental Health: What Happens When The Right Are Wrong?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

In this analysis the author discusses the moral and ethical criteria of those who seek to prevent human rights violations.