Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons^™

Rhyme Or Reason:That Is The Question?, Jim Roche

Articles

Noting that “the aesthetic should not be limited merely to the way things look” the organisers of this conference sought “in part to address the discursive limitation in architecture and related subjects by broadening the aesthetic discourse beyond questions relating to purely visual phenomena in order to include those derived from all facets of human experience”.

So where does etchics come in? Well, the introductory brochure noted that most philosophical trained aestheticians will say that “the aesthetic is everything” hinting perhaps of the necessity for a more haptic experience of architecture. It also drew on Wittgenstein’s quote that “ethics and …

Check One And The Accountability Is Done: The Harmful Impact Of Straight-Ticket Voting On Judicial Elections, Meryl Chertoff, Dustin F. Robinson

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

States that elect judges are heir to a populist tradition dating back to the Jacksonian era. In the spectrum between independence and accountability, these states emphasize accountability. Systems vary from state to state, and even within states there may be geographic diversity or different selection systems for different levels of courts. Elections can be partisan or non-partisan, contested, or, as in merit-selection states, retention. Some states have dabbled in public financing of judicial elections. Reformers are most critical of contested partisan elections. Those are the elections where the most money is spent, the nastiest ads aired, and the dignity of …

What (If Anything) Do We Owe Wild Animals?, Clare A. Palmer

Between the Species

It’s widely agreed that animal pain matters morally – that we shouldn’t, for instance, starve our animal companions, and that we should provide medical care to sick or injured agricultural animals, and not only because it benefits us to do so. But do we have the same moral responsibilities towards wild animals? Should we feed them if they are starving, and intervene to prevent them from undergoing other forms of suffering, for instance from predation? Using an example that includes both wild and domesticated animals, I outline two contrasting ways of thinking about our moral responsibilities with respect to assisting …

Review Of The Psychology And Character Of Virtue, Ed. Craig Steven Titus, Rebecca Konyndyk Deyoung

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

What's A Just War Theorist?, Aleksandar Jokić

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article provides an account of the unlikely revival of the medieval Just War Theory, due in large part to the efforts of Michael Walzer. Its purpose is to address the question: What is a just war theorist? By exploring contrasts between scholarly activity and forms of international activism, the paper argues that just war theorists appear to be just war criminals, both on the count of aiding and abetting aggression and on the count of inciting troops to commit war crimes.

Review Of The Book "Globalizing Justice: The Ethics Of Poverty And Power," By Richard W. Miller, Joel P. Dittmer

Arts, Languages and Philosophy Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Complexity Theory And Political Change: Talcott Parsons Occupies Wall Street, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Complexity theory can assist our understanding of social systems and social phenomena. This paper illustrates this assertion by linking Talcott Parsons' model of societal structure to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Parsons' model is used to organize ideas about the underlying causes of the recession that currently afflicts the US. While being too abstract to depict the immediate factors that precipitated this crisis, the model is employed to articulate the argument that vulnerability to this type of event results from flaws in societal structure. This implies that such crises can be avoided only if, in Parsons' terms, structural change occurs …

Complexity Theory And Political Change: Talcott Parsons Occupies Wall Street [Presentation], Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Complexity theory can assist our understanding of social systems and social phenomena. This paper illustrates this assertion by linking Talcott Parsons' model of societal structure to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Parsons' model is used to organize ideas about the underlying causes of the recession that currently afflicts the US. While being too abstract to depict the immediate factors that precipitated this crisis, the model is employed to articulate the argument that vulnerability to this type of event results from flaws in societal structure. This implies that such crises can be avoided only if, in Parsons' terms, structural change occurs …

Scapegoats And Redemption On Shutter Island, Cari Myers

Journal of Religion & Film

The themes of redemptive violence, scapegoating, and ritual in the films of Martin Scorsese have provided much grist for critical scholarship. While it is going too far to claim that Scorsese is intentionally interpreting Girardian themes (which are themselves borrowed from a rich mythological tradition), the comparisons between the theorist and the director are compelling. My goal here is to establish the primary themes of scapegoating, mimesis, the cycle of violence, and feuding identities that occur in both Girard’s works and Scorsese’s films and pull them forward into a more recent work of Scorsese, Shutter Island.

In The Shadow Of Du Bois: Afro-Modern Political Thought In America. By Robert Gooding- Williams. (Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press, 2009)., Ronald Sundstrom

Philosophy

Robert Gooding-Williams’s In The Shadow of Du Bois: Afro Modern Political Thought In America offers several contributions to political theory and African American philosophy and politics.1 His conception of “Afro-Modern Politics” sharpens our understanding of the history and tradition of African American political thought, and his analyses of W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Blacks Folks and Frederick Douglass’s My Bondage and My Freedom adds to and challenges various debates about their politics and legacies.2 Gooding-Williams applies the insights from his comparative analysis of Du Bois and Douglass to distinguish a conception of politics as rule from a conception of …

Natural Selection And Moral Sentiment: Evolutionary Biology's Challenge To Moral Philosophy, Charles W. Wright

Headwaters

No abstract provided.

25 Years Of Care Ethics: A Personal Retrospective, Jean Keller

Headwaters

No abstract provided.

Breaking Free Of Managed Democracy In The United States, Sean Cunningham

Senior Honors Projects

Breaking Free of Managed Democracy in the United States Sean Cunningham Sponsor: Eske Møllgaard, Philosophy

In the last four years I have had a number of opportunities to write about democracy in the United States and around the world. In this four year period there have been major democratic movements in North Africa, the Middle East, the United States, and elsewhere. Whether or not these democratic growths can remain is an important political and philosophical question that needs addressing. So it is only fitting that I dedicate my Honors Project to collecting my previous work on democracy in my philosophy …

Steadfastness And The Epistemology Of Disagreement, Chad Andrew Bogosian

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Suppose that you and an intellectual peer disagree about some proposition P in a field like philosophy, ethics, science, religion, politics, etc. As intellectual peers, they are roughly of equal intelligence and equally virtuous with respect to evaluating the evidence E in support of P. What is the epistemic significance of you and an intellectual `peer' disagreeing about whether some body of evidence E supports a given proposition P? Can two epistemic peers reasonably disagree? In Chapter 1, I consider the Equal Weight View according to which rationality requires you to give equal weight to you peer's response to the …

Autonomy And Paternalism, Ilona K. Phipps-Morgan

Scripps Senior Theses

I wish to determine when one is justified in paternalistic interferences that override a subject’s autonomy. In order to lay the groundwork for discussing paternalistic interferences with autonomous decisions, I first consider different conceptions of autonomy, welfare, and paternalism, and determine which I mean to use. In particular, I proceed with Dworkin’s characterization of autonomy as a combination of authenticity and self-determination; Nussbaum’s capabilities theory in order to determine welfare; and a definition of paternalism as being an interference with a subject’s liberty or autonomy that is motivated exclusively by consideration for that subject’s own good or welfare.

Once I …

Une Éthique De La Modestie Dans Les Essais De Montaigne (Towards A Modest Ethics In Montaigne's Essays), Catherine Parker Sweatt

Scripps Senior Theses

La plupart des lectures contemporaines des Essais ignore la pensée morale de Montaigne. Ici, je maintiens que Montaigne épouse ‘une éthique de la modestie’ en même temps qu’il rejette toute éthique normative. En particulier, je cherche à aborder comment Montaigne suggère que nous connaissons la vertu et agissons si deux individus ne partagent pas le même perspective et on ne peut pas être le même sujet éthique deux fois. Je vais commencer par discuter la position épistémique de Montaigne par rapport aux universels pour illustrer comment Montaigne met en question l’universalité des lois éthiques et un bien connu a priori …

Discovering The Literary Relevancy Of Watchmen: A Review Of The Graphic Novel's Philosophical Themes, Tyler Flynn

Senior Honors Theses

The American comic book, specifically those of the superhero genre, is a medium that has been associated with stagnant, morally upright characters and formulaic plots. However, author Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons changed said stigma with their groundbreaking series Watchmen. An analysis of the work’s storyline, as well as some of the main characters, will reveal the deep philosophical and psychological underpinnings of the graphic novel, and, more importantly, its literary merit. A Christian interpretation of the work will also be presented.

Review: Christopher Ives, Imperial-Way Zen: Ichikawa Hakugen’S Critique And Lingering Questions For Buddhist Ethics (Uhp, 2009), James Mark Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

Review of Christopher Ives, Imperial-Way Zen: Ichikawa Hakugen’s Critique and Lingering Questions for Buddhist Ethics (UHP, 2009)

Sacrée Et Inviolable: The Hiv+ Mother In Ivoirian Health Policy, Amber Alaniz

Annual Undergraduate Conference on Health and Society

« La personne humaine est sacrée (2)… Le domicile est inviolable. Les atteintes ou restrictions ne peuvent y être apportées que par la loi. (4) La famille constitue la cellule de base de la société. L'État assure sa protection. (5)» Constitution of La Côte d’Ivoire, Articles 2,4,5[1]

The Ivoirian national constitution, authored and enacted in July of 2000, while expressing a devotion to democratic thought (Preamble) and to the sovereignty of the individual (Article 2), also acknowledges the primacy of the Ivoirian family and collective identity as the basis of society and advances a moral duty on the part …

The Purpose Of Personal Value, Erica Stonestreet

Philosophy Faculty Publications

It seems as if there are things that have what we might call personal value—special objects, artwork by our children, etc. This term is meant to mark a difference between things whose value seems tied to a particular person, as opposed to things (like the Mona Lisa) that are valuable, period. The concept of personal value hasn’t received much focused attention, but I believe that it is of not only theoretical, but practical importance. In this paper, I explore the practical angle, arguing that personal value is important to our ability to make sense of ourselves. I give …