Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- Social and Behavioral Sciences (976)
- Medicine and Health Sciences (654)
- Life Sciences (473)
- Psychology (466)
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (431)
-
- Philosophy of Mind (395)
- Evolution (393)
- Cognition and Perception (381)
- Animal Sciences (379)
- Zoology (369)
- Political Science (357)
- Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology (357)
- Neuroscience and Neurobiology (332)
- Cognitive Neuroscience (329)
- International Relations (271)
- Political Theory (266)
- International and Area Studies (256)
- Communication (242)
- International and Intercultural Communication (225)
- Law (152)
- History (118)
- Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration (107)
- Sociology (104)
- Comparative Philosophy (75)
- Religion (75)
- Other Political Science (73)
- Defense and Security Studies (66)
- Institution
-
- Marquette University (616)
- WellBeing International (513)
- University of Nebraska at Omaha (228)
- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (90)
- San Jose State University (71)
-
- Technological University Dublin (58)
- St. John's University School of Law (43)
- University of San Diego (40)
- US Army War College (26)
- Mississippi State University (23)
- California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (21)
- Liberty University (19)
- Old Dominion University (15)
- Purdue University (13)
- Western Michigan University (11)
- Claremont Colleges (10)
- College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University (9)
- Kennesaw State University (9)
- The University of Southern Mississippi (9)
- Lewis and Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling (8)
- University of Rhode Island (7)
- Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan (6)
- Pepperdine University (6)
- St. John Fisher University (6)
- University of South Florida (6)
- Wilfrid Laurier University (6)
- Association of American Law Schools (5)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (5)
- Cleveland State University (5)
- University of New Hampshire (5)
- Keyword
-
- Ethics (63)
- Sentience (59)
- Consciousness (38)
- Animal welfare (30)
- Pain (28)
-
- Fish (24)
- Welfare (23)
- Morality (20)
- Philosophy (20)
- Cognition (18)
- Animal rights (16)
- Animal ethics (15)
- Evolution (15)
- Capitalism (14)
- Justice (14)
- Invertebrates (13)
- Book review (12)
- Liberalism (12)
- Animal cognition (11)
- Animal sentience (11)
- Animal suffering (11)
- China (11)
- Emotions (11)
- Terrorism (11)
- Emotion (10)
- Nociception (10)
- Precautionary principle (10)
- Utilitarianism (10)
- Democracy (9)
- Dogs (9)
- Publication Year
- Publication
-
- The Linacre Quarterly (616)
- Animal Sentience (508)
- International Dialogue (222)
- International Bulletin of Political Psychology (90)
- Comparative Philosophy (71)
-
- European Journal of Food Drink and Society (57)
- The Catholic Lawyer (43)
- San Diego Law Review (40)
- The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters (26)
- Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis (23)
- Between the Species (21)
- CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture (11)
- Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy (10)
- Journal of Health Ethics (9)
- Democracy & Education (8)
- The Hilltop Review (8)
- Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal (7)
- Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal (6)
- Global Tides (6)
- Journal of Religion & Film (6)
- The Light of Islam (6)
- Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version) (5)
- Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings (5)
- International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems (5)
- Journal of Legal Education (5)
- RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002) (5)
- Siegel Institute Ethics Research Scholars (5)
- The Journal of Social Encounters (5)
- The Journal of Sociotechnical Critique (5)
- Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence (4)
- File Type
Articles 1 - 30 of 1976
Full-Text Articles in Ethics and Political Philosophy
Birch On Fetal Sentience, Claudia Passos-Ferreira
Birch On Fetal Sentience, Claudia Passos-Ferreira
Animal Sentience
Birch proposes that human fetuses be recognized as sentience candidates from 12 weeks, on the grounds that midbrain-centered theories fall within the zone of reasonable disagreement among theories of consciousness. I raise a methodological and a policy problem for his view. Methodologically, whether the midbrain-centered view belongs within the zone is disputed, so there is no consensus about the consensus. Furthermore, the evidence Birch discusses for 12 weeks does not actually estimate the onset of sentience; the proposed threshold tracks anatomical rather than functional onset. On policy, the US Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling shows that fetal sentience is difficult to …
Navigating The Edge Of Sentience Without A Scientific Meta-Consensus, Daniel West
Navigating The Edge Of Sentience Without A Scientific Meta-Consensus, Daniel West
Animal Sentience
In The Edge of Sentience (2024, 2025), Birch develops a precautionary framework for crafting public policies about potentially sentient systems. Underlying this framework is a commitment to the democratic principle that the public should authorize all significant moral judgments that arise during the policymaking process. In this commentary, I suggest that Birch’s framework fails to live up to this commitment by requiring scientists without public accountability to make consequential moral judgments. I suggest a friendly amendment to Birch’s framework by replacing the idea of a scientific meta-consensus with the method of formal expert elicitation, a well-tested method of gathering expert …
The Thousand Mysteries That Bind Us: The Multiverse As Spiritualverse And The Holism Of Mystery, Giovanni Rossini
The Thousand Mysteries That Bind Us: The Multiverse As Spiritualverse And The Holism Of Mystery, Giovanni Rossini
Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education
While we exist historically within evolving worldviews, we live amid the paradoxical necessity of mystery; one shared by scientists and non-scientists, theologians and atheists, and artists and philosophers alike. A thousand mysteries bind us with their imperative presence. While pre modern astronomers pondered the mysterious randomness of the night sky, today our sense of cosmological awe is fuelled not only by its randomness, but by a new scientific theory that says multiple skies inhabit the creation. The multiverse — a thesis emerging from cosmological science, wherein parallel worlds are posited to coexist — augments mystery. In this paper, I explore …
From Insect Cognition To Sentience: Exploring The Edge, Catherine Macri, Martin Giurfa
From Insect Cognition To Sentience: Exploring The Edge, Catherine Macri, Martin Giurfa
Animal Sentience
What does The Edge of Sentience tell us about insect sentience and consciousness? In this commentary, we reflect on Jonathan Birch’s framework for defining and scientifically investigating sentience in animals. We discuss the methodological challenges of studying subjective experience in evolutionary distant species, and consider trace conditioning, affective states, and neural architectures as potential windows into consciousness in insects. We argue that uncertainty, whether concerning definitions or methodology, should not prevent experimental investigation; rather it should motivate new approaches and experimental designs for exploring the diversity of conscious experience.
The Varieties Of Precaution: Which Risks, Whose Attitudes?, Tomasz Żuradzki
The Varieties Of Precaution: Which Risks, Whose Attitudes?, Tomasz Żuradzki
Animal Sentience
The Edge of Sentience offers an ambitious and timely institutional framework for proportionate precaution under uncertainty about sentience. Its systematic treatment of empirical and theoretical uncertainty across diverse cases is a major contribution. Focusing on the problem of identifying and weighing different risks when designing proportionate precautions, this commentary suggests three areas in which Birch’s framework could be developed further: a more domain-sensitive justification of the priority given to avoiding under-attribution; a clearer distinction among competing forms of risk aversion and their divergent policy implications; and a fuller explanation of how the framework generates different recommendations across cases.
Beyond Better Conditions: Seaweed Farming And The Number Of Sentient Animals In Aquaculture, Shrilaxmi Patil, Matthew Unerman, Wasseem Emam
Beyond Better Conditions: Seaweed Farming And The Number Of Sentient Animals In Aquaculture, Shrilaxmi Patil, Matthew Unerman, Wasseem Emam
Animal Sentience
Oldfield & Bonano (2024) (O&B) document how far fish welfare research lags behind welfare research in other animals. We share O&B’s feelings-based concept of welfare and agree that aquaculture seeded this field; but research volume has not scaled with animal numbers: Welfare attention per farmed fish or decapod remains negligible. Along the lines of preceding commentaries (Maia 2024, Mather 2024), we treat farmed aquatic animals as individuals rather than tonnage. We then raise a point so far absent from the commentary on O&B so far: reducing the number of sentient animals entering intensive systems. Coastal seaweed farming, which cultivates non-sentient …
Why Do We Need To Prove That Pigs Feel?, Aranza Vera-Espinoza, Nancy Harlet Esquivel-Marín
Why Do We Need To Prove That Pigs Feel?, Aranza Vera-Espinoza, Nancy Harlet Esquivel-Marín
Animal Sentience
Birch's framework manages uncertainty but overlooks the likelihood that citizen panels have speciesist biases that reduce precaution to mere harm-management even in species that undoubtedly feel.
Jing (敬) And Respect, Wenyang Gao
Jing (敬) And Respect, Wenyang Gao
Comparative Philosophy
Jing (敬) is often translated as “respect”. Some scholars argue for a “perception of worth” reading, conceiving jing as a deontic normative attitude akin to “respect” in the Western tradition. Others propose a “directing attention” reading, holding that jing is a virtue. This article clarifies the meaning and normative structure of jing, arguing that it has three dimensions: (1) a state of mind characterized by seriousness, (2) an intentional, respectful feeling, and (3) respectful conduct aligned with ritual propriety (Li禮). While the “directing attention” reading correctly identifies jing as a virtue, insisting that jing does …
A Constructive Engagement With Confucian Gender Ethics: Reinterpreting The Three Obediences And Four Virtues In Contemporary Vietnam, Vo Van Dung
Comparative Philosophy
This paper examines the influence of the doctrines of the Three Obediences and Four Virtues on the moral thought of Vietnamese women in contemporary society. The study addresses the central question of whether and how these doctrines remain relevant within current social and cultural contexts. It traces the historical introduction and transformation of these doctrines in Vietnam. It analyses their dual impact on women’s moral values, highlighting both their enduring ethical contributions and their role in sustaining gendered constraints. The findings suggest that while certain elements of the Four Virtues have been reinterpreted and selectively integrated into modern ethical frameworks, …
The Calculation Debate In A New Century: A Conversation Between An Austrian School Economist And A Socialist Philosopher, Tegan L. Truitt, Larry Alan Busk
The Calculation Debate In A New Century: A Conversation Between An Austrian School Economist And A Socialist Philosopher, Tegan L. Truitt, Larry Alan Busk
Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis
No abstract provided.
Ai Is Not The Kind Of Thing That Can Ever Be Sentient, Lori Marino
Ai Is Not The Kind Of Thing That Can Ever Be Sentient, Lori Marino
Animal Sentience
Sentience evolved to allow organisms to move through their environment avoiding harms and achieving benefits. Sentience did not evolve from computation. It evolved from valenced feelings. AI (even robots) are not embodied and are not the kind of thing that needs to be sentient. There is no way to get from computations to feelings. They are qualitatively different things. We should avoid being lulled into thinking that an inanimate object designed to engage our propensity for anthropomorphism, like AI, is actually a mind.
Dimensional Welfare Beyond Pain: Extending The Precautionary Principle In Birch’S “The Edge Of Sentience”, Willa M. Lane, Nicola S. Clayton
Dimensional Welfare Beyond Pain: Extending The Precautionary Principle In Birch’S “The Edge Of Sentience”, Willa M. Lane, Nicola S. Clayton
Animal Sentience
Birch's (2024) The Edge of Sentience identifies sentience candidates primarily through the pain-focused LSE Criteria. Yet, as Birch himself notes in Proposal 17, sentience is not pain. We argue that statutory welfare protections must therefore reach beyond pain, and that the right tool for doing so is Birch et al.’s (2020) dimensionality framework, which characterises conscious experience across five domains. Used together, the LSE Criteria establish that welfare is at stake, while the dimensionality framework maps what is at stake beyond pain to provide a taxon-specific profile of where captivity impoverishes experience. We apply this approach to invertebrate welfare and …
Animal Ethics And The Lowest Common Denominator, John O. Adenitire
Animal Ethics And The Lowest Common Denominator, John O. Adenitire
Animal Sentience
This commentary assesses the pragmatic framework proposed in Jonathan Birch’s The Edge of Sentience (2024). Celebrating the book's exceptional clarity, scientific rigor, and profound real-world impact on UK legislation, I nevertheless have some questions about the method by which Birch arrives at his policy recommendations for animal protection. In seeking an overlapping consensus between deeply divergent ethical and credal viewpoints, the framework risks defaulting to a minimalist, lowest-common-denominator standard of protection for animals. Birch also risks drawing the standard even lower by including serious academic positions in animal ethics that deny moral status for animals altogether. A rights-based approach offers …
On The Edge Of Science?, Mark Briffa, Lynne U. Sneddon
On The Edge Of Science?, Mark Briffa, Lynne U. Sneddon
Animal Sentience
In The Edge of Sentience, Jonathan Birch (2024) provides a thought-provoking synthesis of current perspectives on animal (and artificial) sentience. He addresses the question from conceptual, ethical, regulatory and empirical viewpoints. Here we focus on some of the scientific issues raised, including defining and operationalising the concept of sentience and the implications for policy and regulation. Despite unresolved conceptual challenges, the book makes a compelling case for the continued scientific investigation of animal sentience.
From The Edge To The Grounds Of “Sentientism”, David Degrazia
From The Edge To The Grounds Of “Sentientism”, David Degrazia
Animal Sentience
Birch’s book is a remarkable exploration of the nature of sentience, its moral salience, evidence for its presence, and how to arrive at humane policies regarding our treatment of human beings, animals, brain organoids, and AI systems of uncertain sentience. Although Birch endorses the view that sentience is of fundamental moral importance, he endeavors to remain neutral among reasonable moral views and work out how to navigate through uncertainty—both ethical and epistemological—to arrive at defensible policies. While making common cause with Birch’s project, my own recent book advances a developed case in favor of the “sentientism” Birch endorses.
Natural Behavior Vs. Subjective Experience In Fish Welfare Assessments, Ronald G. Oldfield
Natural Behavior Vs. Subjective Experience In Fish Welfare Assessments, Ronald G. Oldfield
Animal Sentience
Several commentaries on the Oldfield & Bonano (2024) target article proposed that natural behavior should play a larger role in assessing the welfare of fishes in zoos and aquariums. However, the natural-behavior concept of animal welfare has been widely criticized because natural behaviors do not necessarily improve welfare, and unnatural behaviors do not necessarily reduce it. I review the three major concepts of animal welfare — physical health, natural behavior, and affect/feelings — and argue that behavior patterns, whether natural or otherwise, should be evaluated according to their effects on health and subjective experience. Using the affect/feelings concept and the …
Human Wisdom And Artificial Intelligence: Role Of Liberal Arts Education In A Neoliberal World, Purna Chandra Bhusal
Human Wisdom And Artificial Intelligence: Role Of Liberal Arts Education In A Neoliberal World, Purna Chandra Bhusal
Critical Humanities
Neoliberalism is an economic and political ideology that originated in the 1930s and 40s, gained momentum in the late 70s and 80s, and peaked in the 90s and 2000s. Since its inception, neoliberalism has promoted a free-market economy with minimal state intervention, granting individuals the freedom to compete and succeed. Since the last quarter of the twentieth century, the neoliberal system has invested in, incorporated, and promoted Artificial Intelligence (AI), valuing an AI-enhanced corporate ethos. As a result, the success of higher education is generally measured by the quantity of technologically sound, market-ready, AI-trained human capital it produces for industry. …
America's Founding Theology, Michael Payne
America's Founding Theology, Michael Payne
Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History
Building off of Mark David Hall's thesis that America had a Christian founding, this paper seeks to explore the theology of this Christian founding. While acknowledging that Enlightenment and English Common Law also influenced American founding thought, the paper seeks to look specifically at America's theological outlook. It concludes that American founding theology was overwhelmingly Reformed but with some key influences from the Baptist, Quaker, and even Catholic traditions. These influences can be found in the writings of the founders as well as in America's founding documents such as the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The point of the …
Toward A Corporeal Materialism. Response To Reviewers, Banu Bargu
Toward A Corporeal Materialism. Response To Reviewers, Banu Bargu
Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis
No abstract provided.
Embodying The Masses. Review Of Banu Bargu's Disembodiment: Corporeal Politics Of Radical Refusal (Oxford University Press, 2024), James Martel
Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis
No abstract provided.
Worldmaking Against Disposability: Review Of Banu Bargu’S Disembodiment: Corporeal Politics Of Radical Refusal (Oxford University Press, 2024), Daniel Loick
Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis
No abstract provided.
Toward A Non- Or Post-Historical Materialism. Review Of Banu Bargu'sdisembodiment: Corporeal Politics Of Radical Refusal (Oxford University Press, 2024), Amy Allen
Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis
No abstract provided.
The Politics Of Literature In Dider Eribon’S Returning To Reims: An Emancipatory Review, Noa De Kievit
The Politics Of Literature In Dider Eribon’S Returning To Reims: An Emancipatory Review, Noa De Kievit
Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis
This paper examines Didier Eribon’s Returning to Reims (2009) as a model for understanding how literary and autobiographical writing can enact ''the politics of literature.'' While Eribon is widely recognized as a sociologist, his “autosociobiography”—tracing his trajectory from a working-class upbringing to an academic career alongside his coming out—blends personal narrative and sociological insight to illuminate structural inequalities and social marginalization. Reading the text through Jacques Rancière’s concept of the politics of literature, I argue that Eribon simultaneously expands the scope of what is visible, sayable, and thinkable, while reflecting critically on the interpretive authority he exercises. Building on Caroline …
The Proper Role Of Religion In Hegel's Philosophy Of Statecraft, Hunter Coates
The Proper Role Of Religion In Hegel's Philosophy Of Statecraft, Hunter Coates
The Corinthian
In section three of Elements of the Philosophy of Right, Hegel lays out a theory of statecraft that comprises what he deems to be the ethical state. The ethical state is the political state that has secured the rights of its citizens through the union of state power, civil society, and absolute spirit. This paper will investigate the relationship that religion has to the ethical state in Hegel’s philosophy. First, it will be important to explain what Hegel deems absolute spirit in the Science of Logic and Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences, Volume 3. Next, we will briefly apply …
Beyond Tacit Consent: Rethinking Immigrant Membership In Locke’S Social Contract, Claire A. Orfield
Beyond Tacit Consent: Rethinking Immigrant Membership In Locke’S Social Contract, Claire A. Orfield
Bates College Undergraduate Law Review
This thesis considers the tension in Locke’s writings between universal natural-rights obligations required of a state and the exclusion of foreigners from the potential to become express consenters, thereby becoming permanent members of a state and receiving more than just baseline legal protection. Although other scholars certainly acknowledge this tension, most of them utilize it to support the abandonment of Locke’s framework of tacit and express consent altogether. This thesis, on the other hand, conducts an immanent critique of John Locke’s theory of consent by demonstrating that his own conceptual framework contains the resources for a more expansive understanding of …
Aggression And Fish Welfare: Challenges And Opportunities, Christine M. Soper, Peter D. Dijkstra
Aggression And Fish Welfare: Challenges And Opportunities, Christine M. Soper, Peter D. Dijkstra
Animal Sentience
Oldfield & Bonano’s (2024) [O&B] target article discusses the wellbeing and sociality of bony fishes. Many fish species, such as cichlids, are not only social but territorial. Aggression is normal, but territorial aggression in a captive environment can have a negative impact on welfare. Aggression-related injuries and deaths are prevalent in pet stores as well as research settings. We discuss the need to develop effective methods to minimize the negative consequences of aggression.
In The Shadow Of Justice: How The Mythos Of The Batman Balances Major Ethical Theories In His Pursuit Of Ideal Justice, Camille Bewley
In The Shadow Of Justice: How The Mythos Of The Batman Balances Major Ethical Theories In His Pursuit Of Ideal Justice, Camille Bewley
Ex Sapientia Loqui
For more than eighty years, the Batman character has exhibited a unique synthesis of major theories of Justice, and through his experiences as a vigilante, exemplified the pursuit of the ideal virtue of Justice. Because virtue requires a lived example to be understood, Batman is one of the foundational stories fulfilling this need for one of collective society’s prominent pillars. Within the horror of Gotham City–a hyperbolic, fictional representation of urban corruption–Batman’s actions as a vigilante, walking a tightrope to maintain morality even above the law might not only be justified, but necessary. The Batman’s nature, balancing ethical theories and …
Social Murder, Marissa Jackson Sow
Social Murder, Marissa Jackson Sow
Washington and Lee Law Review
In recent years, variations on Engels’s concept of social murder have been adopted into British legal and sociological lexicons to conceptualize the state’s reckless sacrifices of its most vulnerable populations—people deemed socially undesirable, legally undeserving, and economically redundant. The state allows these populations to die a multitude of deaths by failing to protect them; notably, victims of social murder are relegated to society’s underclasses, if not completely excluded from the body politic, before they are physically eliminated. Social murder is neither genocide nor ethnic cleansing; instead, social murder captures the elimination of groups of people via atrocious events for which …
An Integration Of Care Ethics Into Design Thinking, Ellie Bruner
An Integration Of Care Ethics Into Design Thinking, Ellie Bruner
The Cardinal Edge
In An Ethic of Caring, Nell Noddings establishes a humanistic ethical ideal—ethics should be based upon our natural sentiment of caring, not abstract moral law. She differentiates ethical caring from natural caring; ethical caring requires stirring past sentiments and a call to care for others that natural caring may not provoke. Noddings places the ethical ideal above the moral principle because the latter is too general; the ethical ideal applies to specific situations with the universal aim of “maintenance of the caring relation” (Noddings 702). Limits to our ethical responsibilities are relational: there must be “existence of or potential …
Artificial Sentience: The Other Side Of The Story, Amanda Sharkey
Artificial Sentience: The Other Side Of The Story, Amanda Sharkey
Animal Sentience
There is another side to the story of the account of artificial sentience — one that makes the possibility of artificial sentience unlikely: the fundamental difference between living bodies and artificial systems. Sentience occurs in strongly embodied, living entities, and not in disembodied artificial systems, nor in robots. The appearance of sentience is exacerbated by deceptive behaviour and anthropomorphism. The risks of keeping an open mind about the required underlying substrate are in wasted efforts to protect systems that cannot suffer, and in placing inappropriate trust in their abilities.