Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Philosophy Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 30 of 59

Full-Text Articles in Philosophy

The Goods Of Childhood, Children’S Rights, And The Role Of Parents As Advocates And Interpreters, Samantha Brennan Dec 2013

The Goods Of Childhood, Children’S Rights, And The Role Of Parents As Advocates And Interpreters, Samantha Brennan

Samantha Brennan

No abstract provided.


Rethinking The Moral Significance Of Micro-Inequities: The Case Of Women In Philosophy, Samantha Brennan Dec 2012

Rethinking The Moral Significance Of Micro-Inequities: The Case Of Women In Philosophy, Samantha Brennan

Samantha Brennan

No abstract provided.


How Many Parents Can A Child Have? Philosophical Reflections On The "Three Parent Case", Samantha Brennan, Bill Cameron Dec 2012

How Many Parents Can A Child Have? Philosophical Reflections On The "Three Parent Case", Samantha Brennan, Bill Cameron

Samantha Brennan

This paper explores the question of how many parents a child can have in light of the creation of alternative models of family.


The Common Structure Of Thresholds For Rights And Thresholds For Options, Samantha Brennan Dec 2012

The Common Structure Of Thresholds For Rights And Thresholds For Options, Samantha Brennan

Samantha Brennan

This paper will assume that both rights and options have thresholds. That is to say, I assume rights and options are not absolute. The threshold of a right or an option is the point at which it can be justifiably overridden. If we think that the moral theory which best captures commonsense morality is a version of deontological ethics, the moral theory to which this paper stands to make a contribution is moderate deontology in that the rights and options it contains are moderate versions of rights and options. The question on which it will focus is whether thresholds for …


The Broadview Anthology Of Social And Political Thought: Essential Readings, Andrew Bailey, Samantha Brennan, Will Kymlicka, Jacob Levy, Alex Sager, Clark Wolf Jan 2012

The Broadview Anthology Of Social And Political Thought: Essential Readings, Andrew Bailey, Samantha Brennan, Will Kymlicka, Jacob Levy, Alex Sager, Clark Wolf

Samantha Brennan

"This volume features a careful selection of major works in political and social philosophy from ancient times through to the present. Every reading has been painstakingly annotated, and each figure is given a substantial introduction highlighting his or her major contribution to the tradition. The anthology offers both depth and breadth in its selection of material by central figures, while also representing other currents of political thought. Thirty-two authors are represented, including fourteen from the 20th century. The editors have made every effort to include translations that are both readable and reliable." (From online book description)


Rethinking The Moral Significance Of Micro-Inequities: The Case Of Women In Philosophy, Samantha Brennan Dec 2011

Rethinking The Moral Significance Of Micro-Inequities: The Case Of Women In Philosophy, Samantha Brennan

Samantha Brennan

No abstract provided.


Punishment As Contract, Claire Oakes Finkelstein Jan 2011

Punishment As Contract, Claire Oakes Finkelstein

All Faculty Scholarship

This paper provides a sketch of a contractarian approach to punishment, according to a version of contractarianism one might call “rational contractarianism,” by contrast with the normative contractarianism of John Rawls. Rational contractarianism suggests a model according to which rational agents, with maximal, rather than minimal, knowledge of their life circumstances, would agree to the outlines of a particular social institution or set of social institutions because they view themselves as faring best in such a society governed by such institutions, as compared with a society governed by different institutional schemes available for adoption. Applied to the institution of punishment, …


Fashion And Sexual Identity, Or Why Recognition Matters, Samantha Brennan Dec 2010

Fashion And Sexual Identity, Or Why Recognition Matters, Samantha Brennan

Samantha Brennan

No abstract provided.


Moderate Deontology And Moral Gaps, Samantha Brennan Nov 2009

Moderate Deontology And Moral Gaps, Samantha Brennan

Samantha Brennan

No abstract provided.


The Broadview Anthology Of Social And Political Thought, Volume 2: The Twentieth Century And Beyond, Andrew Bailey, Samantha Brennan, Will Kymlicka, Jacob Levy, Alex Sager, Clark Wolf Sep 2008

The Broadview Anthology Of Social And Political Thought, Volume 2: The Twentieth Century And Beyond, Andrew Bailey, Samantha Brennan, Will Kymlicka, Jacob Levy, Alex Sager, Clark Wolf

Samantha Brennan

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 …


The Economics Of International Labor Migration And The Case For Global Distributive Justice In Liberal Political Theory, Howard F. Chang Jan 2008

The Economics Of International Labor Migration And The Case For Global Distributive Justice In Liberal Political Theory, Howard F. Chang

All Faculty Scholarship

Estimates of the magnitude of the gains that the world could enjoy by liberalizing international migration indicate that even partial liberalization would not only produce substantial increases in the world’s real income but also improve its distribution. Although the economic effects of immigration on native workers and distributive justice among natives are often advanced as reasons to reduce immigration, these concerns do not provide a sound justification for our restrictive immigration laws. Instead, the appropriate response to concerns about the distribution of income among natives is to increase the progressivity of our tax system. Protectionist immigration policies are not only …


The Disadvantages Of Immigration Restriction As A Policy To Improve Income Distribution, Howard F. Chang Jan 2008

The Disadvantages Of Immigration Restriction As A Policy To Improve Income Distribution, Howard F. Chang

All Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, I argue that tax and transfer policies are more efficient than immigration restrictions as instruments for raising the after tax incomes of the least skilled native workers. Policies to protect these native workers frol1'l immigrant competition in the labor market do no better at promoting distributive justice and are likely to impose a greater economic burden on natives in the country of immigration than the tax alternative. These immigration restrictions are especially costly given the disproportionate burden that they place on households with working women, which discourages fel1'wle participation in the labor force. This burden runs contrary …


Taking Responsibility For Children, Samantha Brennan, Robert Noggle Dec 2007

Taking Responsibility For Children, Samantha Brennan, Robert Noggle

Samantha Brennan

No abstract provided.


Responsibility And Children’S Rights: The Case For Restricting Parental Smoking, Samantha Brennan, Angela White Dec 2007

Responsibility And Children’S Rights: The Case For Restricting Parental Smoking, Samantha Brennan, Angela White

Samantha Brennan

No abstract provided.


A Contractarian Argument Against The Death Penalty, Claire Oakes Finkelstein Oct 2006

A Contractarian Argument Against The Death Penalty, Claire Oakes Finkelstein

All Faculty Scholarship

Opponents of the death penalty typically base their opposition on contingent features of its administration, arguing that the death penalty is applied discriminatory, that the innocent are sometimes executed, or that there is insufficient evidence of the death penalty’s deterrent efficacy. Implicit in these arguments is the suggestion that if these contingencies did not obtain, serious moral objections to the death penalty would be misplaced. In this Article, Professor Finkelstein argues that there are grounds for opposing the death penalty even in the absence of such contingent factors. She proceeds by arguing that neither of the two prevailing theories of …


Moral Lumps, Samantha Brennan May 2006

Moral Lumps, Samantha Brennan

Samantha Brennan

Can all goods or bads be broken down into smaller and smaller pieces? Can all goods or bads be added together with some other good or bad to get a larger amount? Further, how does moral significance track the disaggregation and the aggregation of moral goods and bads? In Part 1, I examine the limits placed on aggregation by moderate deontological moral theories. This paper focuses in particular on the work of Judith Thomson and T.M. Scanlon as well as on some of my own past work on the question of aggregation in the context of overriding rights. In Part …


Hobbes And The Internal Point Of View, Claire Oakes Finkelstein Jan 2006

Hobbes And The Internal Point Of View, Claire Oakes Finkelstein

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Moralizing In Public, Anita L. Allen Jan 2006

Moralizing In Public, Anita L. Allen

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Pornography, The Theory: What Utilitarianism Did To Action, By Frances Ferguson, Samantha Brennan Dec 2005

Pornography, The Theory: What Utilitarianism Did To Action, By Frances Ferguson, Samantha Brennan

Samantha Brennan

No abstract provided.


Setting The Moral Compass: Essays By Women Moral Philosophers, Edited By Cheshire Calhoun, Samantha Brennan Sep 2005

Setting The Moral Compass: Essays By Women Moral Philosophers, Edited By Cheshire Calhoun, Samantha Brennan

Samantha Brennan

No abstract provided.


Torture Lite, Full-Bodied Torture, And The Insulation Of Legal Conscience, Seth F. Kreimer Jan 2005

Torture Lite, Full-Bodied Torture, And The Insulation Of Legal Conscience, Seth F. Kreimer

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Truth Machines And Consequences: The Light And Dark Sides Of 'Accuracy' In Criminal Justice, Seth F. Kreimer Jan 2005

Truth Machines And Consequences: The Light And Dark Sides Of 'Accuracy' In Criminal Justice, Seth F. Kreimer

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Diagnosi Sociale E Eudaimonia. Platone E Honneth, In "Annali Del Dipartimento Di Filosofia Di Firenze", Ix-X (2004), Pp. 1-15., Marco Solinas Dec 2003

Diagnosi Sociale E Eudaimonia. Platone E Honneth, In "Annali Del Dipartimento Di Filosofia Di Firenze", Ix-X (2004), Pp. 1-15., Marco Solinas

Marco Solinas

The paper is devoted to develop a connection between the Sozialphilosophie of Axel Honneth and Plato’s Republic. The main point is that Honneth’s research of a non formal theory of justice, connected with the idea of good life or eudaimonia, which permits a diagnosis of social pathologies, finds fecund confluences in the Plato’s doctrine.


Feminist Moral Philosophy, Samantha Brennan May 2003

Feminist Moral Philosophy, Samantha Brennan

Samantha Brennan

No abstract provided.


Altruism, Impartiality And Moral Demands, Jurgen De Wispelaere Dec 2002

Altruism, Impartiality And Moral Demands, Jurgen De Wispelaere

Jurgen De Wispelaere

Advocates of altruism maintain that altruism is an inherently beneficial and, therefore, morally desirable motivational disposition towards furthering other people’s good. In this paper I dispute this claim by showing various ways in which altruism might come into conflict with plausible moral demands. The underlying problem is always one of moral myopia, an altruistic blind spot that interferes with altruism’s capacity to track moral demands. To resolve the moral dilemmas associated with altruism, I argue, we need to embed altruistic dispositions in a more comprehensive moral framework. I propose that a theory of impartiality might succeed in embedding altruism in …


Human Rights, Civil Wrongs And Foreign Relations: A "Sinical" Look At The Use Of U.S. Litigation To Address Human Rights Abuses Abroad, Jacques Delisle Jan 2002

Human Rights, Civil Wrongs And Foreign Relations: A "Sinical" Look At The Use Of U.S. Litigation To Address Human Rights Abuses Abroad, Jacques Delisle

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Excuses And Dispositions In Criminal Law, Claire Oakes Finkelstein Jan 2002

Excuses And Dispositions In Criminal Law, Claire Oakes Finkelstein

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Relational Selves And Thresholds For Rights, Samantha Brennan Dec 2001

Relational Selves And Thresholds For Rights, Samantha Brennan

Samantha Brennan

No abstract provided.


Children's Choices Or Children's Interests: Which Do Their Rights Protect?, Samantha Brennan Dec 2001

Children's Choices Or Children's Interests: Which Do Their Rights Protect?, Samantha Brennan

Samantha Brennan

DOI:10.1093/0199242682.003.0004 The often‐posed dichotomy between the interest and choice theory of rights can obfuscate a proper understanding of children's rights. We need a gradualist model in which the grounds for attributing rights to a being change in response to the development of autonomy. Rights for children initially function to protect their interests but, as they develop into full‐fledged autonomous choosers, rights function to ensure that their choices, even those that do not serve their welfare, are respected. Keywords: autonomy, choice theory, development, interest theory, rights, welfare