Philosophy Commons^™

Of Sweatshops And Human Subsistence: Habermas On Human Rights, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this paper I argue that the discourse theoretic account of human rights defended by Jürgen Habermas contains a fruitful tension that is obscured by its dominant tendency to identify rights with legal claims. This weakness in Habermas’s account becomes manifest when we examine how sweatshops diminish the secure enjoyment of subsistence, which Habermas himself (in recognition of the UDHR) recognizes as a human right. Discourse theories of human rights are unique in tying the legitimacy of human rights to democratic deliberation and consensus. So construed, their specific meaning and force is the outcome of historical political struggle. However, unlike …

Reasons: Practical And Adaptive, Joseph Raz

Faculty Scholarship

I will consider some of the differences between epistemic reasons and reasons for action, and use these differences to illuminate a major division between types of normative reasons, which I will call ‘adaptive’ and ‘practical’ reasons. A few clarifications of some aspects of the concept of epistemic reasons will lead to a distinction between standard and non-standard reasons (section 1). Some differences between epistemic and practical reasons will be described and explained in section 2, paving the way to generalising the contrast and explaining the difference between adaptive and practical reasons (section 3). sections 4 and 5 further explain and …

When Does Might Make Right? Using Force For Regime Change, John Linarelli

Scholarly Works

Should states use force to bring about regime change? International law recognizes no such grounds. This paper seeks to provide guidance from moral theory. The aim of this paper is to identify the moral grounds for the use of armed force by one state or a group of states, against another state, when the intention of the intervening states is to achieve a fundamental change in the character of the political and legal institutions of the other state. Lawyers tend to place the argument for regime change intervention within putative humanitarian intervention doctrines. The moral justification for humanitarian intervention is …

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

Draft For Harmless Use: Gleaning From Fields Of Copyrighted Works - 2008, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

My inquiry is into whether harmless uses of property should give the property owner a right to sue. Under current law, harmless trespasses to land and to copyrights and patents do indeed give rise to liability. Should they? Neither moral philosophy, political science nor economics deals well with the harmless free-rider. The possibility I'm exploring-- just exploring at this stage-- is the following: that where inexhaustible products like information become a primary source of value, our institutions might serve us better if instead of mandating payment for harmless use via legal compulsion, payment for harmless use be left to the …

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.

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.

"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.

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"

Heuristics, Biases, And Philosophy, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Commenting on Professor Cass Sunstein's work is a daunting task. There is simply so much of it. Professor Sunstein produces scholarship at a rate that is faster than I can consume it. Scarcely an area of law has failed to feel his impact. One cannot today write an article on administrative law, free speech, punitive damages, Internet law, law and economics, separation of powers, or animal rights law without addressing one or more of Sunstein's papers. And his work is typically not a mere footnote. Sunstein has changed how scholars think about each of these areas of law. More broadly, …

Back To Fundamentals: The Worsening Results Of Ignoring The Social Contract In Baltimore City, John Stinson

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

The New Bureaucracies Of Virtue: Introduction, Marie-Andree Jacob, Annelise Riles

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Summary Of Resisting Novels By Lennard Davis - 2007, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

No abstract provided.

Darwinism And The Meaning Of Life, Arthur Falk

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

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

Caring Globally: Jane Addams, World War One, And International Hunger, Marilyn Fischer

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Several feminist philosophers, including Virginia Held, Joan Tronto, and Fiona Robinson, see the need for, and the potential of, care ethics for achieving far-reaching political and even global transformation. Tronto recommends that care be used as "a basis for political change" and a "strategy for organizing" (Tronto 1993, 175). Held advocates that "the ethics of care should transform international politics and relations between states as well as within them" (Held 2006, 161).

During and immediately after World War One, Jane Addams attempted to do just that. She sought to bring perspectives and moral sensibilities that have since been theorized in …

Ennobling Direct Democracy, Sherman J. Clark

Articles

In this essay, Professor Clark argues that we should be attentive to the effect that direct democracy might have on our public character. Building upon earlier work, Clark suggests that the initiative in particular threatens to debase us by undercutting a crucial character trait which might best be called "responsibility-taking." The bulk of this essay is devoted to explaining what this means, and why it matters. Why should we care about the effect of political processes on public character? Why is this particular trait important and worth preserving? How is it threatened by direct democracy? In conclusion, and by way …

Globalization And Genocidalism: Fictional Discourse Without Borders (For Fun And Profit), Aleksandar Jokić, Tiphaine Dickson

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this essay we explore the relationship between globalization and genocidalism. “Globalization” is understood as “freedom and ability of individuals and firms to initiate voluntary economic transactions with residents of other countries,” while “genocidalism” is defined as “(i) the purposeful neglect to attribute responsibility for genocide in cases when overwhelming evidence exists, and as (ii) the energetic attributions of “genocide” in less then clear cases without considering available and convincing opposing evidence and argumentation.”

The hypothesis that we defend here as explanatory of globalization’s “surprising” failure to live up to its often repeated theoretical promise that it is not a …

The Commodification Of International Education, Howard Dooley

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Published by the Center of the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University.

Universities And Corporations: A Selection Of Papers Presented At Tire Western Michigan University Emeriti Council Forum, Center Of The Study Of Ethics In Society

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

A selection of papers presented at the WMU Emeriti Council Forum.

The College Of Engineering And Applied Sciences & The Btr-A Partnership With Purpose, Michael B. Atkins, Kurt Hayden

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Published by the Center of the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University.

Applying A Business Model To The University, John Neill

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Published by the Center of the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University.

Recent Developments In International Education At Wmu, Ronald Davis

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Published by the Center of the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University.

Media Ethics: The Powerful And The Powerless, Elaine E. Englehardt

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

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

Epilogue: Universities And Corporations, Robert Kauffman

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Published by the Center of the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University.

Introduction: The Entrepreneurial University, Joseph Ellin

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Published by the Center of the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University.

Cultural Contradictions And Ethical Dilemmas In The Corporate-Styled University, Eric Gould

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Published by the Center of the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University

The Entrepreneurial University: Rewards & Risks, Samuel M. Hines Jr.

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Published by the Center of the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University.

Can Corporations Be Morally Responsible? Aristotle, Stakeholders And The Non-Sale Of Hershey, Steven Gimbel

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Stakeholder theory is a significant development in the drive to provide a foundation for intuitions concerning the moral responsibility connected to corporate decision making. The move to include the interests of workers, consumers, the communities and biological environment in which the corporations instantiations are located run counter to the view in which stakeholders' interests are paramount. The non-sale of the Hershey Foods company to Wrigley was the ultimate result of a massive call by stakeholders to put other interests before stakeholder financial stakes, yet the discussion was notably not held in terms of stakeholder theory. Rather, the discussion was explicitly …

Natural Justice, Lawrence B. Solum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Justice is a natural virtue. Well-functioning humans are just, as are well-ordered human societies. Roughly, this means that in a well-ordered society, just humans internalize the laws and social norms (the nomoi)--they internalize lawfulness as a disposition that guides the way they relate to other humans. In societies that are mostly well-ordered, with isolated zones of substantial dysfunction, the nomoi are limited to those norms that are not clearly inconsistent with the function of law--to create the conditions for human flourishing. In a radically dysfunctional society, humans are thrown back on their own resources--doing the best they can in …

Public Humiliation As A Mitigator In Criminal Sentencing, Barbara Benoliel

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study examined the relationship between the public humiliation and shaming of offenders in the sentencing portion of a criminal trial and the subsequent severity of the sentence the offender receives. Judicial moral shaming of offenders is returning to popularity in the courts, influencing the final sentence outcome as an under-identified mitigator, that substitutes for judges’ other punitive sanctions. Support for this shaming is found in Heider’s attribution theory and in Homans’ theory of social exchange; however Braithwaite found this form of shaming is overly punitive and ineffective. This four phase study used a sequential, mixed method, exploratory research design. …