Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Book Review: The William Desmond Reader, Renee Köhler Ryan

Renée Köhler-Ryan

This is a book review of The William Desmond Reader, edited by Christopher Ben Simpson. The review focuses on the ethical implications of Desmond's work, but places these in the broader context of his philosophy of the between, or metaxu.

Under The Veil, William Simkulet

William Simkulet

No abstract provided.

The Deontic Cycling Problem, William Simkulet

William Simkulet

In his recent article "Deontic Cycling and the Structure of Commonsense Morality," Tim Willenken argues that commonsense ethics allows for rational agents having both ranked reasons (A > B, B > C, and A > C) and cyclical reasons (A < B, B < C, and A > C). His goal is to show that not all plausible views are variations of consequentialism, as consequentialism requires ranked reasons. I argue instances of apparent deontic cycling in commonsense morality are the byproducts of incomplete characterizations of the cases in question.

The Compensation Principle, William Simkulet

William Simkulet

In "Should Race Matter?," David Boonin proposes the compensation principle: When an agent wrongfully harms another person, she incurs a moral obligation to compensate that person for the harms she has caused. Boonin then argues that the United States government has wrongfully harmed black Americans by adopting pro-slavery laws and other discriminatory laws and practices following the end of slavery, and therefore the United States government has an obligation to pay reparations for slavery and discriminatory laws and practices to those who have been harmed by them - in particular, to contemporary black Americans. Here I argue that the compensation …

On Robust Alternate Possibilities And The Tax Evasion Case, William Simkulet

William Simkulet

In his recent article “Defending Hard Incompatibilism Again,” Pereboom (2008) presents what he calls the “Tax Evasion” case, a Frankfurt-style case designed to show the falsity of the principle of alternate possibilities (PAP). According to Pereboom, PAP requires robust alternate possibilities such that an agent could have acted in a manner in which she knew she would have lacked moral responsibility for her actions. However, according to his “Tax Evasion” case, the tax evader lacks such robust alternate possibilities, and yet is still uncontroversially morally responsible for his actions. Here I argue Pereboom’s account of robust alternate possibilities is deficient, …

Moral And Professional Accountability For Clinical Ethics Consultants, William Simkulet

William Simkulet

No abstract provided.

In Control, William Simkulet

William Simkulet

In George Sher’s recent article “Out of Control”, he discusses a series of 9 cases that he believes illustrates that some agents are uncontroversially morally responsible for actions they “cannot help” but perform (2006: 285). He argues these agents exert partial control over these actions insofar as their actions are determined from their character; but this is no control at all. Here I argue that in each of these cases the agent exerts morally relevant control over her actions and that none of these are genuine instances of moral luck, nor counterexamples to the control principle.

The Moral Life, Steven Luper, Curtis Brown

Curtis Brown

The second edition of The Moral Life covers a wide variety of applied ethical issues, from issues that confront the individual to international, intergenerational, and interspecies issues. The diverse readings cover a range of differing viewpoints chosen to stimulate class discussions.

Drugs, Morality And The Law, Steven Luper, Curtis Brown

Curtis Brown

No abstract provided.

Irigaray’S Madonna, Julie Kelso

Julie Kelso

In this essay, I argue that Luce Irigaray’s recent, seemingly esoteric readings of the Madonna, actually provide us with a constructive, perhaps even politically progressive, interpretive mode for engaging with the religious texts and figures of our tradition as women. As such, I argue that through her own specific interpretive practice Irigaray provides us with a new image of Mary, and this new Madonna figures the very interrelational interpretive practice that Irigaray believes essential when it comes to our engagements with the (religious) texts of our tradition. Irigaray’s Madonna is an ethical listener, interpreter and exchanger of ‘sacred’ discourse and …

Ethics And Issues At The Sunset Of Life, Jane Gervasio, Dick Mcgowan, Priscilla Ryder

Priscilla T. Ryder

No abstract provided.

Becoming Confucian In America Today, Pamela Herron

Pamela Herron

Is Confucianism relevant to students in America in the twenty-first century? Does a 2,500 year old philosophy have anything to offer contemporary society? This paper examines the methodology behind teaching Confucianism and Daoism to students at the University of Texas at El Paso where this course has been taught successfully for the past two years. Using translations of the Daodejing (Roger T. Ames and David Hall) and The Analects of Confucius (Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont, Jr.) students are asked to examine and analyze these ancient texts with the intention of determining their relevance to today’s people and culture. …

Human Rights Ethics, Clark Butler

Clark Butler

No abstract provided.

Enthusiasmos And Moral Monsters In Eudemian Ethics Viii.2, Julie Ponesse

Julie E Ponesse

This paper explores a much overlooked passage buried at the end of the Eudemian Ethics in which Aristotle attributes the success of those he calls ‘fortunate'--eutuchēs-- to nature, a conclusion he would seem not to be entitled to draw. Against the standard view, I argue that we can understand how Aristotle could have quite seriously (and consistently) drawn this conclusion if we distinguish between the proximate cause of the fortunate man’s eutuchia, which is his nature (in particular, his own irrational soul impulses), and its ultimate cause, which is tuchē (because his soul, which contains those impulses, is generated by …

Moral Conviction, Matthew Pianalto

Matthew Pianalto

We often praise people who stand by their convictions in the face of adversity and practice what they preach. However, strong moral convictions can also motivate atrocious acts. Two significant questions here are (1) whether conviction itself — taken as a mode of belief — has any distinctive value, or whether all the value of conviction derives from its substantive content, and (2) how conviction can be made responsible in a way that mitigates the risks of falling into dogmatism, fanaticism, and other vices. In response to the first question, I suggest that conviction has instrumental value that derives from …

Ethics And Issues At The Sunset Of Life, Jane Gervasio, Dick Mcgowan, Priscilla Ryder

Jane M. Gervasio

No abstract provided.

Moral Realism And Ways Of Life, Matthew Pianalto

Matthew Pianalto

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong claims that a person's commitment to a way of life is a relevant factor in deciding what the agent ought to do in a moral dilemma. If that is correct, then extreme universal moral realism, which claims that facts about the agent make no contribution to the truth of what an agent ought to do, is false. In this paper, I attempt to characterize a kind of moral realism that can account for the relevance of ways of life to the resolution of personal moral dilemmas.

The Philosophy Of Death, Steven Luper

Steven Luper

No abstract provided.

Moral Blindness And Moral Progress, Matthew Pianalto

Matthew Pianalto

We often speak of a person's being blind to the truth (or the obvious) and being blinded by love (and similarly by hate). The aim of this paper is to make sense of this seemingly metaphorical notion of blindness as it relates to moral judgment, and to show that there is an intelligible sense in which we can be "morally blind." The sexual harassment case depicted in the film 'North Country' provides a vivid illustration of moral blindness. Corrections of this blindness amount to true moral progress, rather than mere shifts in our moral standards.

Moral Conflict And The Indeterminacy Of Morality, Matthew Pianalto

Matthew Pianalto

Cases of moral conflict often occupy a central role in arguments against claims that moral judgments admit truth. In this paper, I argue that the employment of moral conflicts against the truth-susceptibility of moral judgments rests upon a false conception of the determinacy of morality.

A Guide To Ethics, Steven Luper

Steven Luper

No abstract provided.

Retribution, The Death Penalty, And The Limits Of Human Judgment, Tony Roark

Tony Roark

So serious a matter is capital punishment that we must consider very carefully any claim regarding its justification. Brian Calvert has offered a new version of the "argument from arbitrariness," according to which a retributivist cannot consistently hold that some, but not all, first-degree murderers may justifiably receive the death penalty, when it is conceived to be a unique form of punishment. At the heart of this argument is the line-drawing problem, and I am inclined to this that it is a genuine challenge for the retributivist. I respond on behalf of the retributivist by formulating a line-drawing method that …

Invulnerability: On Securing Happiness, Steven Luper

Steven Luper

No abstract provided.

Creation And The Common Good, A North American Perspective On Civil Culture, Harlan Stelmach

Harlan Stelmach

The Ethics Of Value-Based Organizational Consulting, Harlan Stelmach, Martin Paley

Harlan Stelmach

Ethics And Competition In Sports, Harlan Stelmach, Lou Campanelli, Keena Turner

Harlan Stelmach