Hegel’s many remarks that seem to imply that philosophy should proceed completely a priori pose a problem for his philosophy of nature since, on this reading, Hegel offers an a priori derivation of...

This essay explores how it might be possible to recover a more pluralistic and therefore participatory understanding and exercise of the teaching office in the Christian Church by, first, briefly reflecting upon the historical backdrop to the emergence and development of the role of authoritative ecclesial teacher. Second, I identify some of the ecclesial fault lines and tensions that emerged in the modern and contemporary periods pertaining to teaching authority. Third, I raise the issue of the impact of such developments (...) upon the manner in which Christian churches have sought to offer teachings on ethical issues in recent times. Fourth, I explore, via an ecclesiological analysis that is both a comparative and ecumenical in nature, three visions for retrieving a more participatory and life-giving understanding of the teaching office and practice of the teaching function for our times. The visions explored come from a Reformed, Roman Catholic, and ecumenical standpoint: respectively, those of Richard Robert Osmer, Richard R. Gaillardetz, and Willem Visser 't Hooft. The final section offers some brief conclusions about the potential for truly ecumenical collaboration in moral discernment in the light of such considerations. (shrink)

SummaryIn this paper Russell's discovery of external relations and his refutation of the doctrine of internal relations is traced to Hume's view on “philosophical” relations. Next the concepts of internal and external relation are applied to the analysis of knowledge. The most widely received analysis, the Justified True Belief‐conception, is investigated for its resources in answering the question whether knowledge is an internal or an external relation between a person and a believed proposition. There are difficulties in each answer which (...) can be partially resolved by analysing knowledge in terms of betting. (shrink)

In ‘An argument against causal decision theory’, Jack Spencer shows that standard formulations of causal decision theory run afoul of his Guaranteed Principle. In the sequential choice problem he employs to make this case, the transgression stems from an awkward discrepancy between how causalists typically value present vs future acts. This note suggests a version of causal decision theory that avoids this incongruity and so respects the Guaranteed Principle in Spencer’s problem. However, this formulation, and hence symmetric appraisal of present (...) and future acts, is also shown to be insufficient to secure causalist satisfaction of the Guaranteed Principle in general. (shrink)

El texto que Massignon creyera ser la muestra del más antiguo "Padre nuestro" en árabe, tal como se nos ha conservado no es sino una adaptación musulmana que queda lejos de poder representar una versión directa de la Oratio Dominica, lo cual obliga a rastrear las antiguas versiones árabes del "Padre nuestro" entre la producción literaria cristiana. En ésta, tanto las versiones orientales como las occidentales ofrecen lecturas distintas en función de su procedencia doctrinal: las orientales atienden, a grandes rasgos, (...) a una doble clasificación, muestras ortodoxas y monofisitas, en tanto que las occidentales, además de evidencias una compleja tradición textual de los textos bíblicos neotestamentarios, parecen reflejar, cuando menos y a simple vista, interferencias orientales de procedencia monofisita, que llevan a reconsiderar la naturaleza, las fuentes y las familias textuales de las traducciones que circularon por al-Andalus . (shrink)

In 1971, Judith Jarvis Thomson published what was then and still often is regarded as a trailblazing philosophical defense of a woman’s right to have a lawful abortion. It is time to revisit Thomson’s paper. The aim here is not to engage Thomson’s pro-choice conclusions, which are indeed mistaken, but to show that her question—to what extent can abortion be morally justified, assuming that it is the deliberate killing of one person by his or her mother—is the question today in (...) American law concerning abortion. Pro-life people and groups argue among themselves about the prudence of political efforts to roll back Roe v. Wade by personhood initiatives, that is, by seeking to enact laws expressly recognizing that a human being with an equal right not to killed comes to be at fertilization, thereafter to pursue abortion restrictions as a matter of equal protection for all against unjustified uses of lethal force. Many if not most pro-life activists and bodies oppose such efforts as precipitous and almost certainly politically counterproductive. This article argues that, on the contrary, the unborn are already recognized as persons with a right not to be killed, and that the constitutional question of equal protection of unborn persons is already in the courts. Thomson’s question is, in other words, ripe and urgent, and it has been brought to the fore not by direct attack upon abortion rights, but indirectly by and through the many feticide laws enacted across the country since around the year 2000. (shrink)

The Catholic tradition can help to guide patients and practitioners through the complex issues that arise due to the medicalization of death because of contemporary medical technology. The purpose is to illustrate how this religious denomination makes moral decisions in practice. The Catholic tradition moors its moral teachings in the constructive interplay between faith and reason, each of which opens itself to the other for insight and enlightenment. The analysis begins with the theoretical realm to discuss the theological foundations and (...) the meaning of Natural Law that guide the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. This stance is then applied to several practical concerns that ethically engage issues surrounding the medicalization of death, including maternal-fetal conflicts, patients approaching the end of life, and after death dilemmas. The flexibility and range of Catholic morality can offer astute guidance not only to those who follow this tradition but also to those with different faith perspectives when they encounter the heart-wrenching dilemmas that medical technology presents around death and dying. (shrink)

At times decisions are made in the field of genetics that are presented as if the ethical debates have been adequately treated and so all moral considerations have been addressed, when the truth is very different. Nor is it always easy or desirable to separate the ethical, legal and social questions posed by new developments. The impact of developments in genetic science upon communities is one field of enquiry that envelops each of these areas.This paper explores the impact of genetics (...) upon communities through focusing, in particular, upon certain developments in reproductive science. After introducing core issues and technologies, it discusses particular ethical concerns in relation to the ‘shadow’ of eugenics over such developments, before exploring the role of legislative debates and procedures in transforming social attitudes, values and hence norms. It then turns to consider debates concerning the ‘quality of life ethic’ now prevalent in healthcare, and moves on to discuss the issue of genetic discrimination – focusing, in particular, upon discrimination against disabled persons as a representative instance of the actual ethical and social/communitarian implications of the foregoing. It ends by highlighting the need to discern the ways in which the ethics of genetics is presently shaped and practised in order to discern better the particular social and communitarian implications of certain technological advances. (shrink)

An introduction to one aspect of the work of a major contemporary theologian whose full contribution will perhaps only be recognized in a more irenic age.

On a charge of murder or manslaughter it must be shown that the person killed was one who was in being. It is neither murder nor manslaughter to kill an unborn child while still in its mother’s womb although it may be the statutory offences of child destruction or abortion. If however the child is born alive and afterwards dies by reason of an unlawful act done to it in the mother’s womb or in the process of birth, the person (...) who committed that act is guilty of murder or manslaughter according to the intent with which the act is done. [Halsbury’s LAWS OF ENGLAND, 4th ed. reissue, Vol. 11 (1). London: Butterworths, 1990.]. (shrink)

For Dōgen, the Buddhist doctrine of “no self” ultimately presents the self as contextualized. The self is for him not an independent entity, but is intricately related to its environment, determined through the many beings around it. In a quite different philosophical setting, Spinoza developed similar ideas. While Dōgen challenged the specifics of a tradition that explicitly argues against the idea of an absolute self, Spinoza faced a more radical challenge: questioning an absolute, unchanging, and free self that the Western (...) tradition has mostly taken for granted. After an analysis of the ideas of the two thinkers, the essay presents some important implications for contemporary times. Our domination of the earth and one another is arguably rooted in the individualism Dōgen and Spinoza seek to overcome. The insight that we are contextualized is a first step toward re-determining ourselves as placed within a larger whole. (shrink)

I criticise Pippin’s understanding of the relation between Hegel, Kant, and pre-Kantian metaphysics. Contrary to Pippin’s view, I contend that Hegel did not see the pre-Kantian investigation of being qua being as essentially hopeless. On the contrary, through an analysis of Hegel’s criticisms of Kant and of Hegel’s notion of thought, I contend that Hegel is much closer to pre-Kantian metaphysics than to Kant.