Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons^™

Immigration - A Legal And Moral Problem, Joseph T. Tinnelly, C.M.

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

A Dickensian Utilitarianism, Zachary Allentuck

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This paper argues that Charles Dickens' political and world views were in sympathy with Utilitarianism, as defined by Jeremy Bentham. The Utilitarianism Dickens attacked in A Christmas Carol, Hard Times, and Little Dorrit was not real utilitarianism; it was utilitarianism appropriated by England's middle-class.

Stop Factory Farming For The Sake Of Humanity!, Alexander V. Dimauro

ENV 434 Environmental Justice

Abstract: The world is being destroyed. We do not care about the mistreatment of animals in factory farms because of our consumeristic taste buds, but this gluttony is even more problematic than we think. It is blinding us from an even larger factor at stake. Our factory farming methods are a leading contributor in the causes of global warming. What this means for us is that our consumption has a direct impact on our destruction. We need to think big, and act. The only way to combat this issue is through taking courses of action that will force people to …

Contract Ethics And The Problem Of Collective Action, Tyler W. Stolt

Philosophy Undergraduate Honors Theses

Collective action problems are a unique family of puzzles in ethics about what people do together. These puzzles pervade our modern and globalized world. In collective harms, individual actions lead to a serious moral wrong; yet, the individual actions themselves do not seem to be moral wrongs. In collective benefits, individuals fail to bring about serious moral good; yet, individual actions do not seem to be morally wrong. In this paper, I will explore three different ways of grounding reasons why we ought not participate in the production of collective harms (or, refrain from producing a collective benefit). I argue …

Detaching Democratic Representation From State And National Borders, Avery C. Shell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Maintaining the essential features of local democracy, representation and contestation, my theory allows for the representation of the interest of subpopulations in the global community by actors such as nongovernmental organization and intergovernmental organizations. I will begin by outlining what features are necessary for a theory’s consideration as democratic in nature. Then, relying upon democracy in a broad sense, it will be my aim to demonstrate that the right to democracy is universal human right. The following stage will provide the backing, by way of the moral progress of human rights, that the right to democracy is expressible by “importantly …

Deontological Ethical System For Google's Self-Driving Car, Edgard Alejandro Arroliga Jr.

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Google's Self-Driving Car is a revolutionary product that is riddled with ethical conundrums. It is able to accurately scan and drive through densely populated roads without much difficulty. However, there are some situations where the car will likely have to make decisions that affect, maybe even take, the lives of those on the road. Issues such as the Trolley Problem and the Rear-End Dilemma describe situations where there seems to be no single ethical answer as to how the car should act. In order to solve these issues, I propose that a Deontological Ethical System should be implemented because it …

Authenticity As Compassionate Being In The World, Rosemary Season

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

This paper will present a thesis on what it means to be authentic in the world and how a person can cultivate an authentic being. I will argue that being authentic leads to a healthier self that lives her life to its fullest potential and how being authentic will result in a more compassionate and ethical self.

A Machiavellian Christian: Analyzing The Political Theology Of 'The Prince', John G. Addison

History Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper attempts to reconsider the role that Christian religion played in the political philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli, focusing specifically on The Prince. Despite regnant popular and scholastic opinion, this paper posits that Machiavelli's ideological foundation falls squarely into the theological and moral traditions and scripture of Christianity, and is thus an inseparable element of the political theory of Machiavelli. Further, this work seeks to illustrate the presence of orthodox political and religious beliefs contained within The Prince and throughout the Machiavellian corpus, focusing on the socio-political milieu of Renaissance Florence and the broader traditions of humanist thought. In …

Uncertain Rights Against Defense, Bas Van Der Vossen

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

In this essay, I defend a theory of liability to defensive force. The theory contains two elements. The first is a dual Lockean-inspired condition. The second aims to make this first condition consistent with problems arising from uncertainty. Drawing on recent work by Michael Zimmerman, I argue that the rights-based condition should be made sensitive to the evidence available to defenders.

Plato's Ethics: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Emmanuelle M. Mckinney

Young Historians Conference

Plato is undeniably one of the most influential men in the history of Western philosophy, and he deeply examined a remarkable number of diverse fields. However, in the attempt to understand his various writings, scholars too often over-categorize Plato’s work without recognizing that there are no partitioning lines between subjects: they are all blended together to form a complex body of thought. This paper summarizes Plato’s philosophy of ethics, with a focus on its inclusion of many contrasting disciplines.

The Prisoner's Right To Hear Mass; Sunday Laws; Religious Provision In Corporate Charter; Religious Requirements For Tax Exemption; Professional Disciplining Of Attorneys

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Justice Denied - The Ellis Case, Henry M. Leen

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court - An Operational Survey, John T. Fey

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Some General Criteria Of Morality, William F. Cahill, B.A., Ll.B., J.C.D.

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Natural Law Jurisprudence In Legal Practice, William F. Cahill, B.A., Ll.B., J.C.D.

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Solution Of The Problem Cases, William F. Cahill, B.A., Ll.B., J.C.D.

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

The Problem Cases

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Morality In Legal Practice, Joseph T. Tinnelly, C.M.

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Statute Of Limitations

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Censorship - A Moral Good, Joseph T. Tinnelly, C.M.

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Procedural Delaying Maneuvers

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Effort And Ethics, Edward J. Lee

Philosophy Honors Papers

In this paper, I start by describing two categories into which effort can be divided. The first category I call objective effort, which refers to the external factors associated with an action; the second I call subjective effort, which deals with the internal psychological or mental effort required to bring oneself to perform an action. I then track my intuitions about how objective effort and subjective effort are relevant to the moral evaluations of actions and agents, and further develop this descriptive account by explaining these intuitions normatively through the lenses of contractualism and virtue ethics. Having given my account …

Redefining Medicine: The Epistemology, Political Theory, And Phenomenology Of Health And Disease, Jacqline J. Murillo

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

This thesis argues that health needs to be redefined in a more comprehensive fashion, namely as a physiological/biological state, with social, environmental, and individual determinants always related to one’s personal needs to achieve one’s life plan. The benefits of this new definition include more emphasis on the distribution of health as a social good.

Additionally, redefining health puts the value of the individual’s life rather than the strict monetary value of their needed treatment as a focal point. It also draws more attention to medicine as a practice of care, rather than viewing it simply as a technology or science, …

Sexual Morality And Owning Our Own Bodies, Sarah E. Foreman

Augustana Center for the Study of Ethics Essay Contest

In our current age of “hook-up cultures” and premarital sex, the issue of sexual morality in our society is one that must be addressed. As the younger generations become sexually active at earlier times in their lives, we need to discuss appropriate views of sexual activity and the moral limitations of sexual acts. Conventional sexual morality will tell us that sex outside of marriage is immoral. Another sexual ethic might claim that sex without love is not morally permissible. However, in today’s changing and ever more liberal society, it is important for us to come to terms with a new …

Opium Eaters: Buddhism As Revolutionary Politics, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

There is no one, single answer to the question: What is or are ‘Buddhist politics’? Rather than seek general historical trends or broad tendencies, in this chapter I explore the meaning and implications of the modern, Western conception of ‘politics’ as understood in relation to key features of Buddhist doctrine. In particular, I pose the question of whether we might fruitfully conceive at least certain interpretations of Buddhism—or perhaps, of Dharma—as politics, rather than ‘religion’ or ‘philosophy.’ I argue that twentieth century progressive Buddhists Seno’o Girō (1889–1961) and B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) were not so much in conflict with …

Centralization And Its Discontents: Exploring The Relationship Between Measures Of Moral Development, Happiness And Technology Driven, Centralized Ways Of Being, Kirsti Svendsen

Ph.D. Dissertations (Open Access)

This interdisciplinary, qualitative dissertation offers an exploration into possible intimate relationships between recently expanding, technology driven forms of centralization of our social institutions and a supposed decline in moral development and happiness among Americans today.

According to Jacques Ellul, technology in itself is not the problem. Instead, he believes the tragedy is that the new idea or spirit of technique , technical efficiency and economic progress, which may have started with the Industrial revolution, and has become the western world s new "religion", the new salvation for humanity. Ellul and other thinkers suggest that the single-minded focus on material progress …

Indefinite Life Extensions, Jackson L. Slechta

UCARE: Research Products

The Simple Argument 1. It Is good to save someone’s life, if and only if it is a life worth living. 2. When we save someone’s life we are merely extending their life. 3. If saving a life is good, and saving a life is identical in all relevant characteristics to extending a life, then extending a life must be good. 4. Surely, if extending a life by a limited period is good, then extending a life for an indefinite period would create a vast amount of good. 5. Therefore, extending a life worth living indefinitely is good.

The Life …

Kant's Just War Theory, Steven Charles Starke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main thesis of my dissertation is that Kant has a just war theory, and it is universal just war theory, not a traditional just war theory.

This is supported by first establishing the history of secular just war theory, specifically through a consideration of the work of Hugo Grotius, Rights of War and Peace. I take his approach, from a natural law perspective, as indicative of the just war theory tradition. I also offer a brief critique of this tradition, suggesting some issues that are endemic to these kinds of theories.

From this general understanding, the version of …

Developing Ethical Leadership: An Analysis Of Business Ethics Education In National Liberal Arts Colleges In The United States, James Stewart Welch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to survey and compare current undergraduate business ethics curricular strategies and preferences among national liberal arts colleges in the United States. There are 180 national liberal arts colleges as classified by the U.S. News and World Report Rankings with a significant percentage of these liberal arts colleges offering economics and/or business administration majors. The primary purpose of the study was to examine the survey responses of business school administrators (and/or professors) who work with undergraduate business education in national liberal arts colleges regarding undergraduate business ethics education.

The three research questions address curriculum approaches for undergraduate …

Self-Determination And Moral Variation, Bas Van Der Vossen

Philosophy Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"Self-determination plays a central role in debates about international morality and law. One important argument invokes the value of self-determination in order to show that rules of international morality and law should be modest or limited in content. The basic idea is clear enough. Self-determination seems to involve a kind of social process by which different groups, including political states, can develop their own distinctive shared moral codes. And so there can be legitimate moral variation between political societies. Because self-determination is valuable, the argument goes, acceptable international norms should allow for this variation, at least within certain limits. Self-determination …