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Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Other Philosophy
Consent To Unjust Institutions, Bas Van Der Vossen
Consent To Unjust Institutions, Bas Van Der Vossen
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
John Rawls wrote that people can voluntarily acquire political obligations to institutions only on the condition that those institutions are at least reasonably just. When an institution is seriously unjust, by contrast, attempts to create political obligation are “void ab initio.” However, Rawls's own explanation for this thought was deeply problematic, as are the standard alternatives. In this paper, I offer an argument for why Rawls's intuition was right and trace its implications for theories of authority and political obligation. These, I claim, are more radical than is often thought.
Smithian Sympathy And The Emergence Of Norms, Keith Hankins
Smithian Sympathy And The Emergence Of Norms, Keith Hankins
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
Adam Smith's impartial spectator and David Hume's general point of view have much in common, as do their moral theories more generally. However, this paper argues that a distinctive feature of Smith's theory—the pleasure of mutual sympathy—allows Smith to better explain a number of important features of norms. In particular, it provides Smith with a more plausible mechanism for explaining how norms emerge, and offers him a richer set of resources for explaining both why we are attracted to norms and why norms are often characterized by local similarity and global diversity. Rather than merely being a matter of historical …
Mindful Technology, Mike W. Martin
Mindful Technology, Mike W. Martin
Philosophy Faculty Books and Book Chapters
"Mindfulness has become a popular virtue. No longer just a fancy word for attentiveness, mindfulness denotes a wide-ranging excellence that promotes stress relief, emotional control, rational decision-making, concentration at work and at school and in sports, and-my interest-skills in developing and using technology. Although Buddhists have long celebrated mindfulness, recent health psychologists sing fuller-throated paeans. One therapist declares that "mindfulness frees us to act more wisely and skillfully in our everyday decisions" and provides "the solution' to countless daily difficulties (Siegel 2010, 34). Another prominent psychologist traces most problems to an absence of mindfulness: "Virtually all of our problems-personal, interpersonal, …
Asymmetry And Symmetry Of Acts And Omissions In Punishment, Norms, And Judged Causality, Toby Handfield, John Thrasher, Andrew Corcoran, Shaun Nichols
Asymmetry And Symmetry Of Acts And Omissions In Punishment, Norms, And Judged Causality, Toby Handfield, John Thrasher, Andrew Corcoran, Shaun Nichols
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
Harmful acts are punished more often and more harshly than harmful omissions. This asymmetry has variously been ascribed to differences in how individuals perceive the causal responsibility of acts versus omissions and to social norms that tend to proscribe acts more frequently than omissions. This paper examines both of these hypotheses, in conjunction with a new hypothesis: that acts are punished more than omissions because it is usually more efficient to do so. In typical settings, harms occur as a result of relatively few harmful actions, but many individuals may have had the opportunity to prevent or rectify the harm. …