School boosters are tax-exempt organizations that engage in fundraising efforts to provide public schools with supplementary resources. This paper argues that prevailing forms of school boosting are defeasibly unjust. Section 1 shows that inequalities in public education funding in the United States violate John Rawls’s two principles of domestic justice. Section 2 argues that prevailing forms of school boosting exacerbate and plausibly perpetuate these injustices. Section 3 then contends that boosting thereby defeasibly violates Rawlsian principles of nonideal theory for rectifying (...) injustice. Thus, boosting should be presumptively either made illegal or substantially reformed. Finally, Section 4 responds to potential objections. (shrink)

The contributors examine the distinctive aspects of American philosophy, cultural and historical experience.

Chapter 1 of this book argued that moral philosophy should be based on seven principles of theory selection adapted from the sciences. Chapter 2 argued that these principles support basing normative moral philosophy on a particular problem of diachronic instrumental rationality: the ‘problem of possible future selves.’ Chapter 3 argued that a new moral principle, the Categorical-Instrumental Imperative, is the rational solution to this problem. Chapter 4 argued that the Categorical-Instrumental Imperative has three equivalent formulations akin to but superior to (...) Kant’s formulations of the Categorical Imperative. Chapter 5 argued that my principle’s three formulations make it rational to adopt a Moral Original Position to derive moral principles. The present chapter derives Four Principles of Fairness from the Moral Original Position--principles of coercion minimization, mutual assistance, fair negotiation, and virtue—and unifies them into a single principle of rightness: Rightness as Fairness. Finally, this chapter argues that Rightness as Fairness entails a novel approach to applied ethics called ‘principled fair negotiation’, illustrating how the theory provides a plausible new framework for addressing applied cases including lying, suicide, trolleys, torture, distribution of scarce resources, poverty, and the ethical treatment of animals. (shrink)

Cuauhtémoc HERNÁNDEZ MARTÍNEZ Editorial Universidad de Guanajuato, 2019, 213 pp. Guanajuato, ISBN : 978-607-441-688-6 ISBN : 978-607-441-689-3.

Kant says that it was "the objection of David Hume that first...interrupted my dogmatic slumber"; he also says that "it was the fourfold Antinomy...that first woke me from dogmatic slumber." These statements raise a serious problem: how can the Critique of Pure Reason be at once a response to Hume's skepticism and the result of the Antinomy, which attacks dogmatic metaphysics? Hume's Attack on Theology and the Origin of Kant's Antinomy resolves this problem by showing that the Antinomy is the (...) product of Hume's skepticism, whose primary target is metaphysics and theology. Hume in the Enquiry hints that Clarke's Demonstration issues in an antithetic. Both the dogmatic theism of Clarke and the dogmatic materialism of his opponents, Hume indicates, were underwritten by the principle that nothing comes from nothing. This hint inspired Kant's conception of the Antinomy as a conflict between rival applications of the rationalist principle of sufficient reason (psr). Hume's Dialogues led Kant in the Critique to embrace Hume's conception of Clarke's Demonstration as an antithetic, to interpret that antithetic as an antinomy, and to resolve that antinomy by denying that we are entitled to the psr. Like Hume's Enquiry and Dialogues and Rousseau's Émile, the Critique is part of the battle for Enlightenment, the struggle against the 'despotic' reign of theological dogmatism. The victory of philosophy in this battle has made this hard to see; Hume and the Origin of Kant's Antinomy aims to bring it back into view. (shrink)

During the first half of the 18th century, court-orientated scholarship helped shape a concept of,,ceremony“ that had a great impact on religious practices in a number of ways: First, this scholarship itself fostered a,,politicization“ of church services by subjugating them to the criteria of decorum and political utility. Second, in analogy to courtly ceremonies, church service was understood as a sign of reverence aiming to win grace. A critical religious philosophy, blaming this understanding for superstitious cult practices, foreclosed the full (...) development of an ethical understanding of ceremony that was already recognizable in the philosophical foundations of the older ceremonial sciences. At the end of the century such an understanding continued to be pursued only within the context of justifying Jewish ceremonial law. (shrink)

In this chapter, we explore how to manage student errors in non-traditional philosophy classrooms—where student learning and autonomy are prioritized. We examine the benefits and drawbacks of two models for managing student errors: (1) the philosophical expertise model, whereby instructors are responsible for maximizing the number of true or reasonable claims made in a classroom, including correcting student errors; and (2) the student empowerment model, whereby instructors should be wary of any kind of correction, since more importance is accorded to (...) student autonomy. (shrink)

Originally published in 1905, this book presents a discussion regarding the nature of the subject-predicate relationship, or more specifically 'the Existential Import of Predication'. Textual notes are incorporated throughout. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in logic and the development of philosophy.

Late in his exceedingly protracted life, Ernst Jünger introduced the term “anarch” to refine his notion of resistance amid political decay. Hermann Amborn’s argument would have benefitted by taking...

This book undertakes a multifaceted and integrated examination of biometric identification, including the current state of the technology, how it is being used, the key ethical issues, and the implications for law and regulation. The five chapters examine the main forms of contemporary biometrics–fingerprint recognition, facial recognition and DNA identification– as well the integration of biometric data with other forms of personal data, analyses key ethical concepts in play, including privacy, individual autonomy, collective responsibility, and joint ownership rights, and proposes (...) a raft of principles to guide the regulation of biometrics in liberal democracies. Biometric identification technology is developing rapidly and being implemented more widely, along with other forms of information technology. As products, services and communication moves online, digital identity and security is becoming more important. Biometric identification facilitates this transition. Citizens now use biometrics to access a smartphone or obtain a passport; law enforcement agencies use biometrics in association with CCTV to identify a terrorist in a crowd, or identify a suspect via their fingerprints or DNA; and companies use biometrics to identify their customers and employees. In some cases the use of biometrics is governed by law, in others the technology has developed and been implemented so quickly that, perhaps because it has been viewed as a valuable security enhancement, laws regulating its use have often not been updated to reflect new applications. However, the technology associated with biometrics raises significant ethical problems, including in relation to individual privacy, ownership of biometric data, dual use and, more generally, as is illustrated by the increasing use of biometrics in authoritarian states such as China, the potential for unregulated biometrics to undermine fundamental principles of liberal democracy. Resolving these ethical problems is a vital step towards more effective regulation. (shrink)