Shopping cartJournal of Moral Philosophy
Volumes & issues:
-
Notes on Contributors
- + Show Description - Hide Description
-
-
The Academic Journal Editor—Secrets Revealed *
- + Show Description - Hide Description
-
-
Political and Naturalistic Conceptions of Human Rights: A False Polemic?
- + Show Description - Hide Description
-
What are human rights? According to one longstanding account, the Naturalistic Conception of human rights, human rights are those that we have simply in virtue of being human. In recent years, however, a new and purportedly alternative conception of human rights has become increasingly popular. This is the so-called Political Conception of human rights, the proponents of which include John Rawls, Charles Beitz, and Joseph Raz. In this paper we argue for three claims. First, we demonstrate that Naturalistic Conceptions of human rights can accommodate two of the most salient concerns that proponents of the Political Conception have raised about them. Second, we argue that the theoretical distance between Naturalistic and Political Conceptions is not as great as it has been made out to be. Finally, we argue that a Political Conception of human rights, on its own, lacks the resources necessary to determine the substantive content of human rights. If we are right, not only should the Naturalistic Conception not be rejected, the Political Conception is in fact incomplete without the theoretical resources that a Naturalistic Conception characteristically provides. These three claims, in tandem, provide a fresh and largely conciliatory perspective on the ongoing debate between proponents of Political and Naturalistic Conceptions of human rights.
-
Have Elephant Seals Refuted Aristotle?
Nature, Function, and Moral Goodness *
- + Show Description - Hide Description
-
An influential strand of neo-Aristotelianism, represented by writers such as Philippa Foot, holds that moral virtue is a form of natural goodness in human beings, analogous to deep roots in oak trees or keen vision in hawks. Critics, however, have argued that such a view cannot get off the ground, because the neo-Aristotelian account of natural normativity is untenable in light of a Darwinian account of living things. This criticism has been developed most fully by William Fitzpatrick in his book Teleology and the Norms of Nature. In this paper, I defend the neo-Aristotelian account of natural normativity, focusing on Fitzpatrick’s arguments. I argue that a natural goodness view is not impugned by an evolutionary account. Nor can neo-Aristotelian life form judgments be replaced by an evolutionary view of living things.
-
Moral Entanglements: Ad Hoc Intimacies and Ancillary Duties of Care *
- + Show Description - Hide Description
-
This paper develops and explores the idea of moral entanglements: the ways in which, through innocent transactions with others, we can unintendedly accrue special obligations to them. More particularly, the paper explains intimacy-based moral entanglements, to which we become liable by accepting another’s waiver of privacy rights. Sometimes, having entered into others’ private affairs for innocent or even helpful reasons, one discovers needs of theirs that then become the focus of special duties of care. The general duty to warn them of their need cannot directly account for the full extent of these duties, but does indicate why a silent retreat is impermissible. The special duties of care importantly rest on a transfer of responsibilities that accompanies the privacy waivers. The result is a special obligation of beneficence that, while grounded in a voluntary transaction, was never voluntarily undertaken. Impartialist views of beneficence cannot capture the relevant phenomena well.
-
The Lockean ‘Enough-and-as-Good’ Proviso:
An Internal Critique
- + Show Description - Hide Description
-
A private property account is central to a liberal theory of justice. Much of the appeal of the Lockean theory stems from its account of the so-called ‘enough-and-as-good’ proviso, a principle which aims to specify each employable person’s fair share of the earth’s material resources. I argue that to date Lockeans have failed to show how the proviso can be applied without thereby undermining a guiding intuition in Lockean theory. This guiding intuition is that by interacting in accordance with the proviso persons interact as free and equal, or as reciprocally subject to the ‘laws of nature’ rather than as subject to one another’s arbitrary will. Because Locke’s own and contemporary Lockean conceptions of the proviso subject some persons to some other persons’ arbitrary will, the proviso so conceived cannot function as it should, namely as a principle that restricts interacting persons’ actions reciprocally and thereby enables Lockean freedom under law.
-
Willing, Wanting, Waiting *
- + Show Description - Hide Description
-
In his book Willing, Wanting, Waiting Holton defends a comprehensive view of the will.
His central claims are: (i) that we have a capacity of choice, independent of judgment
about what is best to do, (ii) that resistance to temptation requires a special kind of intentions, resolutions, and the exercise of an executive capacity, willpower, (iii) there is a distinction between weakness of will and akrasia. I argue that Holton is right about these claims, but I raise a few concerns: (a) I am unclear about the philosophical import of (i);
(b) I find that important details in the explanation of the working of willpower vis-à-vis temptation are missing and that there are inconsistencies in his account of addiction;
(c) I would have liked a more extensive discussion of other possible defects of will; (d) I am unclear about the scope of the will and the relation of willpower to other executive capacities. I conclude with a brief assessment of the contribution of psychological studies to the philosophical investigation of intentions and the will.
-
Russ Shafer-Landau, Oxford Studies in Metaethics, Volume 5
- + Show Description - Hide Description
-
-
Sonu Bedi, Rejecting Rights
- + Show Description - Hide Description
-
-
Michael L. Gross, Moral Dilemmas of Modern War: Torture, Assassination, and Blackmail in an Age of Asymmetric Conflict
- + Show Description - Hide Description
-
-
Nir Eisikovits Sympathizing with the Enemy: Reconciliation, Transitional Justice, Negotiation
- + Show Description - Hide Description
-
-
Alan Goldman. Reasons from Within: Desires and Values
- + Show Description - Hide Description
-
-
Books Received
- + Show Description - Hide Description
-
back to top