Mary Briody Mahowald
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195176179
- eISBN:
- 9780199786558
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195176170.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
Terms crucial to bioethical debate are examined: these include life, death, human, person, moral status, and moral agency. The moral relevance of the gestational tie between a woman and her fetus as ...
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Terms crucial to bioethical debate are examined: these include life, death, human, person, moral status, and moral agency. The moral relevance of the gestational tie between a woman and her fetus as well as other relationships is discussed. In light of their relevance to ethical decisions after birth as well as prior to birth, different positions on moral status or personhood are considered. These range from the view that full moral status occurs through union of human egg and sperm to the view that it requires the ability to make moral decisions, a capacity lacking in infants and adults who are comatose.Less
Terms crucial to bioethical debate are examined: these include life, death, human, person, moral status, and moral agency. The moral relevance of the gestational tie between a woman and her fetus as well as other relationships is discussed. In light of their relevance to ethical decisions after birth as well as prior to birth, different positions on moral status or personhood are considered. These range from the view that full moral status occurs through union of human egg and sperm to the view that it requires the ability to make moral decisions, a capacity lacking in infants and adults who are comatose.
Philip Lutgendorf
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195309225
- eISBN:
- 9780199785391
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195309225.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter provides annotations for each of the forty tales recounted in the previous chapter. These notes trace, when possible, the literary history of each story, examine significant ...
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This chapter provides annotations for each of the forty tales recounted in the previous chapter. These notes trace, when possible, the literary history of each story, examine significant interpretations and variants on it, and provide relevant contextual information, e.g., on the Hindu time scheme of cyclically recurring epochs or yugas. A final section proposes that the complete “biographical” corpus of Hanuman tales may be understood, in part, as an idealized human life-narrative.Less
This chapter provides annotations for each of the forty tales recounted in the previous chapter. These notes trace, when possible, the literary history of each story, examine significant interpretations and variants on it, and provide relevant contextual information, e.g., on the Hindu time scheme of cyclically recurring epochs or yugas. A final section proposes that the complete “biographical” corpus of Hanuman tales may be understood, in part, as an idealized human life-narrative.
John M. Cooper
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691138602
- eISBN:
- 9781400842322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691138602.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter discusses the Aristotelian way of life. For Aristotle, philosophy is not a way of life, as it was for Socrates. It is two distinct ones. Aristotle's contemplatives are, of course, ...
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This chapter discusses the Aristotelian way of life. For Aristotle, philosophy is not a way of life, as it was for Socrates. It is two distinct ones. Aristotle's contemplatives are, of course, complete philosophers. They lead lives of practical virtue in just the way other private citizens who possess those virtues in full measure do. The contemplative is both a philosopher of human affairs and a theoretical philosopher. Contemplatives live their philosophy in a double way. Still, the life they lead is correctly called a contemplative one, not one of practical virtue. It is one of the two ways that for Aristotle philosophy is a way of life. But for those “philosophers of human affairs”—virtuous political leaders, fully virtuous ordinary citizens—who are not also accomplished theoretical philosophers, philosophy is nonetheless just as much their way of life. The thinking and analysis and systematic argument, and systematically organized understanding, that belong to philosophy as a whole, both practical and theoretical, as its defining and distinctive characteristic, are engaged and expressed in all the thoughts that give rise to and direct all the choices, actions, and activities constituting the whole of their lives.Less
This chapter discusses the Aristotelian way of life. For Aristotle, philosophy is not a way of life, as it was for Socrates. It is two distinct ones. Aristotle's contemplatives are, of course, complete philosophers. They lead lives of practical virtue in just the way other private citizens who possess those virtues in full measure do. The contemplative is both a philosopher of human affairs and a theoretical philosopher. Contemplatives live their philosophy in a double way. Still, the life they lead is correctly called a contemplative one, not one of practical virtue. It is one of the two ways that for Aristotle philosophy is a way of life. But for those “philosophers of human affairs”—virtuous political leaders, fully virtuous ordinary citizens—who are not also accomplished theoretical philosophers, philosophy is nonetheless just as much their way of life. The thinking and analysis and systematic argument, and systematically organized understanding, that belong to philosophy as a whole, both practical and theoretical, as its defining and distinctive characteristic, are engaged and expressed in all the thoughts that give rise to and direct all the choices, actions, and activities constituting the whole of their lives.
John M. Cooper
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691138602
- eISBN:
- 9781400842322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691138602.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter discusses the Stoic way of life. As a necessary preparation, the Stoic way of life requires extensive study of and practice in philosophical argument and analysis. It also requires ...
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This chapter discusses the Stoic way of life. As a necessary preparation, the Stoic way of life requires extensive study of and practice in philosophical argument and analysis. It also requires constant and conscious reference, as one leads one's life, to philosophical principles and to specific philosophical conclusions, together with the reasoning on which they rest. If true Stoics are to maintain their complete and active grasp of all the complicated philosophical grounds on which their way of life rests, then they must keep up their studies and their practices of discussion, if not in anything like the full-time endeavor that Socrates himself made it, or as an Aristotelian contemplative might do—but still, as a regular part of their lives.Less
This chapter discusses the Stoic way of life. As a necessary preparation, the Stoic way of life requires extensive study of and practice in philosophical argument and analysis. It also requires constant and conscious reference, as one leads one's life, to philosophical principles and to specific philosophical conclusions, together with the reasoning on which they rest. If true Stoics are to maintain their complete and active grasp of all the complicated philosophical grounds on which their way of life rests, then they must keep up their studies and their practices of discussion, if not in anything like the full-time endeavor that Socrates himself made it, or as an Aristotelian contemplative might do—but still, as a regular part of their lives.
John M. Cooper
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691138602
- eISBN:
- 9781400842322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691138602.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter examines the philosophy of Plotinus. It argues that philosophy, and only philosophy, can prepare us adequately for our true life, a life consisting of contemplation of Forms, in ...
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This chapter examines the philosophy of Plotinus. It argues that philosophy, and only philosophy, can prepare us adequately for our true life, a life consisting of contemplation of Forms, in self-absorption into Intellect and into Intellect's own origin, the One. Furthermore, this very contemplation, which constitutes both our natural good and our true life, is an exercise of completely achieved philosophical understanding. For Plotinus, and the late ancient Platonists in general, philosophy is the sole road to happiness, and also its very essence. Thus, the Platonist way of life is doubly a philosophical life. The practice of philosophy is the sole necessary means to happiness. Moreover, the highest level of active philosophical understanding is happiness. It is the very essence of happiness.Less
This chapter examines the philosophy of Plotinus. It argues that philosophy, and only philosophy, can prepare us adequately for our true life, a life consisting of contemplation of Forms, in self-absorption into Intellect and into Intellect's own origin, the One. Furthermore, this very contemplation, which constitutes both our natural good and our true life, is an exercise of completely achieved philosophical understanding. For Plotinus, and the late ancient Platonists in general, philosophy is the sole road to happiness, and also its very essence. Thus, the Platonist way of life is doubly a philosophical life. The practice of philosophy is the sole necessary means to happiness. Moreover, the highest level of active philosophical understanding is happiness. It is the very essence of happiness.
Joseph Raz
R. Jay Wallace (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199278466
- eISBN:
- 9780191699986
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199278466.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, which honor the American scholar, industrialist, and philanthropist Obert Clark Tanner, are presented annually at each of nine universities in the United States ...
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The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, which honor the American scholar, industrialist, and philanthropist Obert Clark Tanner, are presented annually at each of nine universities in the United States and Great Britain. They were established at the University of California, Berkeley, beginning in the 2000/1 academic year. This book is an exploration of a pervasive but puzzling aspect of our world: value. At the core of the book are the Tanner Lectures delivered at Berkeley in 2001 by the author, who has been one of the leading figures in moral and legal philosophy since the 1970s. His aim is to make sense of the dependence of value on social practice, without falling back on cultural relativism. In response, three philosophers, Christine Korsgaard, Robert Pippin, and Bernard Williams, offer different approaches to the subject. The book begins with an introduction by Jay Wallace, setting the scene for what follows, and ends with a response from the author to his commentators. The result is a debate about the relations between human values and human life.Less
The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, which honor the American scholar, industrialist, and philanthropist Obert Clark Tanner, are presented annually at each of nine universities in the United States and Great Britain. They were established at the University of California, Berkeley, beginning in the 2000/1 academic year. This book is an exploration of a pervasive but puzzling aspect of our world: value. At the core of the book are the Tanner Lectures delivered at Berkeley in 2001 by the author, who has been one of the leading figures in moral and legal philosophy since the 1970s. His aim is to make sense of the dependence of value on social practice, without falling back on cultural relativism. In response, three philosophers, Christine Korsgaard, Robert Pippin, and Bernard Williams, offer different approaches to the subject. The book begins with an introduction by Jay Wallace, setting the scene for what follows, and ends with a response from the author to his commentators. The result is a debate about the relations between human values and human life.
George Anastaplo
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813125336
- eISBN:
- 9780813135243
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813125336.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter examines resurrection and death in Everyman, considered as the greatest of English morality plays. It observes that death, ordained by God Himself, is exhibited as an inevitable limit on ...
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This chapter examines resurrection and death in Everyman, considered as the greatest of English morality plays. It observes that death, ordained by God Himself, is exhibited as an inevitable limit on human life. It opines that although one may “know” of this limit from early on in one's life, death can still appear unexpectedly. It theorizes that if a series of reincarnations on Earth is not posited, death is always substantially unexpected in that the human being has never had that experience personally and hence cannot truly know what is coming. Moreover, expectations with respect to death can be complicated because of the variety of prevailing opinions about what happens to the soul after death. It opines that the teaching of Everyman, which is massively Christian in its presuppositions, can make death appear far more ominous than it may naturally seem to be.Less
This chapter examines resurrection and death in Everyman, considered as the greatest of English morality plays. It observes that death, ordained by God Himself, is exhibited as an inevitable limit on human life. It opines that although one may “know” of this limit from early on in one's life, death can still appear unexpectedly. It theorizes that if a series of reincarnations on Earth is not posited, death is always substantially unexpected in that the human being has never had that experience personally and hence cannot truly know what is coming. Moreover, expectations with respect to death can be complicated because of the variety of prevailing opinions about what happens to the soul after death. It opines that the teaching of Everyman, which is massively Christian in its presuppositions, can make death appear far more ominous than it may naturally seem to be.
Ernest Hartmann
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199751778
- eISBN:
- 9780199863419
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199751778.003.0012
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Clinical Psychology
This chapter argues that although the sixth and last point of the contemporary theory—that the entire continuum has a function—is very difficult to prove or even to approach experimentally, it ...
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This chapter argues that although the sixth and last point of the contemporary theory—that the entire continuum has a function—is very difficult to prove or even to approach experimentally, it appears to need no proof. It seems self-evident. As we think of human beings living normal human lives (now or in ancestral times), focused-waking-thought is obviously useful. It is clearly important and functional for us to be able to think directly and clearly, to accomplish a task, to make and to carry out plans for the future.Less
This chapter argues that although the sixth and last point of the contemporary theory—that the entire continuum has a function—is very difficult to prove or even to approach experimentally, it appears to need no proof. It seems self-evident. As we think of human beings living normal human lives (now or in ancestral times), focused-waking-thought is obviously useful. It is clearly important and functional for us to be able to think directly and clearly, to accomplish a task, to make and to carry out plans for the future.
Tibor Ganti
Eors Szathmary and James Griesemer (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- April 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198507260
- eISBN:
- 9780191584886
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198507260.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
What is life? What are the essential differences between the living and non-living systems? The exact scientific answers to these ancient questions are indispensable preconditions for the ...
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What is life? What are the essential differences between the living and non-living systems? The exact scientific answers to these ancient questions are indispensable preconditions for the understanding of the origins of life, for the artificial synthesis of living systems, but also for some important social problems, such as the beginning and the end of the human life. Based on the author's theory of fluid (chemical) automata, this book proves that all living systems are basically program-controlled, self-reproducing fluid automata, and that such automata behave as living systems. The simplest such construction — the chemoton — behaves as living, and all living systems have chemoton-type organization. This means that the chemoton model is the minimum model of life. The technical details have been published elsewhere: in this volume the logical train of thought is presented in a clear and easily understandable manner. The first part gives a general view of the idea; the second shows its application to the biogenesis; and the third gives the background of the theory in the natural philosophy of sciences. The author's chemical perspective captures the fundamentally cyclic organization of the living state, offers a fresh approach to the ancient problem of life criteria, and articulates a philosophy of the units of life applicable to genetics, chemistry, evolutionary biology, and exact theoretical biology. New notes throughout the text bring this legacy into dialogue with current thought in biology and philosophy.Less
What is life? What are the essential differences between the living and non-living systems? The exact scientific answers to these ancient questions are indispensable preconditions for the understanding of the origins of life, for the artificial synthesis of living systems, but also for some important social problems, such as the beginning and the end of the human life. Based on the author's theory of fluid (chemical) automata, this book proves that all living systems are basically program-controlled, self-reproducing fluid automata, and that such automata behave as living systems. The simplest such construction — the chemoton — behaves as living, and all living systems have chemoton-type organization. This means that the chemoton model is the minimum model of life. The technical details have been published elsewhere: in this volume the logical train of thought is presented in a clear and easily understandable manner. The first part gives a general view of the idea; the second shows its application to the biogenesis; and the third gives the background of the theory in the natural philosophy of sciences. The author's chemical perspective captures the fundamentally cyclic organization of the living state, offers a fresh approach to the ancient problem of life criteria, and articulates a philosophy of the units of life applicable to genetics, chemistry, evolutionary biology, and exact theoretical biology. New notes throughout the text bring this legacy into dialogue with current thought in biology and philosophy.
John M. Cooper
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691138602
- eISBN:
- 9781400842322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691138602.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter discusses the Epicurean and Pyrrhonian skeptic ways of life. It argues that the Epicurean life, however much grounded in the results of philosophical analysis and argument, and however ...
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This chapter discusses the Epicurean and Pyrrhonian skeptic ways of life. It argues that the Epicurean life, however much grounded in the results of philosophical analysis and argument, and however much the psychological motivation provided by firm belief in these results steers Epicureans in living their life, that life cannot be said to involve, in any essential way, the practice of philosophy, that is, of philosophical reflection, analysis, discussion, and argument. The skeptic life, however, beyond its conformism so far as issues of daily life, morality, religion, politics, and so on, may go, also includes a devotion to philosophical discussion and investigation. Skeptics appear to live their lives in a very delicate balance between living as Sextus describes, following his fourfold direction (and also devoting lots of attention to philosophy), and worrying about what would happen to their lives if ever their skill of counterbalancing arguments should fail to undermine an argument of philosophy.Less
This chapter discusses the Epicurean and Pyrrhonian skeptic ways of life. It argues that the Epicurean life, however much grounded in the results of philosophical analysis and argument, and however much the psychological motivation provided by firm belief in these results steers Epicureans in living their life, that life cannot be said to involve, in any essential way, the practice of philosophy, that is, of philosophical reflection, analysis, discussion, and argument. The skeptic life, however, beyond its conformism so far as issues of daily life, morality, religion, politics, and so on, may go, also includes a devotion to philosophical discussion and investigation. Skeptics appear to live their lives in a very delicate balance between living as Sextus describes, following his fourfold direction (and also devoting lots of attention to philosophy), and worrying about what would happen to their lives if ever their skill of counterbalancing arguments should fail to undermine an argument of philosophy.
Krzysztof Michalski
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691143460
- eISBN:
- 9781400840212
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691143460.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter examines what links the seemingly conflicting, or even mutually exclusive, concepts of eternity and passing, and Paradise and its loss. To life as a cup running over, to life as divinity ...
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This chapter examines what links the seemingly conflicting, or even mutually exclusive, concepts of eternity and passing, and Paradise and its loss. To life as a cup running over, to life as divinity humanized, to human life marked by the effort to move out beyond everything human, to life flooded in a sunlight that is not human—to this irreducible aspect of human life Nietzsche applies the term overman, and the chapter once again returns to the character of Zarathustra in examining this concept. The chapter then turns to next concept that Nietzsche uses to characterize life—the will to power: “Where I found the living, there I found will to power.”Less
This chapter examines what links the seemingly conflicting, or even mutually exclusive, concepts of eternity and passing, and Paradise and its loss. To life as a cup running over, to life as divinity humanized, to human life marked by the effort to move out beyond everything human, to life flooded in a sunlight that is not human—to this irreducible aspect of human life Nietzsche applies the term overman, and the chapter once again returns to the character of Zarathustra in examining this concept. The chapter then turns to next concept that Nietzsche uses to characterize life—the will to power: “Where I found the living, there I found will to power.”
Robert B. Louden
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195072921
- eISBN:
- 9780199852925
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195072921.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Contemporary philosophers have grown increasingly sceptical toward both morality and moral theory. Some argue that moral theory is a radically misguided enterprise which does not illuminate moral ...
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Contemporary philosophers have grown increasingly sceptical toward both morality and moral theory. Some argue that moral theory is a radically misguided enterprise which does not illuminate moral practice, while others simply deny the value of morality in human life. This book attempts to respond to the arguments of both “anti-morality” and “anti-theory” sceptics. Part One develops and defends an alternative conception of morality. On this book's model, morality is primarily a matter of what one does to oneself, rather than what one does or does not do to others. This model eliminates the gulf that many anti-morality critics say exists between morality's demands and the personal point of view. The book further argues that morality's primary focus should be on agents and their lives, rather than on right actions, and that it is always better to be morally better—i.e. it is impossible to be “too moral.” Part Two presents an alternative conception of moral theory. It reaffirms the necessity and importance of moral theory in human life, and shows that moral theories fulfill a variety of genuine and indispensable human needs.Less
Contemporary philosophers have grown increasingly sceptical toward both morality and moral theory. Some argue that moral theory is a radically misguided enterprise which does not illuminate moral practice, while others simply deny the value of morality in human life. This book attempts to respond to the arguments of both “anti-morality” and “anti-theory” sceptics. Part One develops and defends an alternative conception of morality. On this book's model, morality is primarily a matter of what one does to oneself, rather than what one does or does not do to others. This model eliminates the gulf that many anti-morality critics say exists between morality's demands and the personal point of view. The book further argues that morality's primary focus should be on agents and their lives, rather than on right actions, and that it is always better to be morally better—i.e. it is impossible to be “too moral.” Part Two presents an alternative conception of moral theory. It reaffirms the necessity and importance of moral theory in human life, and shows that moral theories fulfill a variety of genuine and indispensable human needs.
John M. Cooper
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691138602
- eISBN:
- 9781400842322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691138602.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter discusses the Socratic way of life. For Socrates, philosophical reflection and analysis concerning the human good, as well as concerning human deficiencies, dictate a particular way of ...
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This chapter discusses the Socratic way of life. For Socrates, philosophical reflection and analysis concerning the human good, as well as concerning human deficiencies, dictate a particular way of life. This way of life is, practically speaking, the best for a human being. It is a life in which the practice of philosophical discussion is itself the central activity. Although in principle the best life is one in which we possess and live on the basis of wisdom, in practice the best human life—the best life any actual human being is ever going to live—is the one in which, like Socrates, we constantly and ceaselessly pursue wisdom through philosophical inquiry and discussion. The practically best human life is a life, not of wisdom (sophia), but of philosophy (philosophia), wisdom's love and pursuit.Less
This chapter discusses the Socratic way of life. For Socrates, philosophical reflection and analysis concerning the human good, as well as concerning human deficiencies, dictate a particular way of life. This way of life is, practically speaking, the best for a human being. It is a life in which the practice of philosophical discussion is itself the central activity. Although in principle the best life is one in which we possess and live on the basis of wisdom, in practice the best human life—the best life any actual human being is ever going to live—is the one in which, like Socrates, we constantly and ceaselessly pursue wisdom through philosophical inquiry and discussion. The practically best human life is a life, not of wisdom (sophia), but of philosophy (philosophia), wisdom's love and pursuit.
Thomas L. Brodie
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195138368
- eISBN:
- 9780199834037
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195138368.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Genesis has two levels or focal points – history of Israel (the patriarchs) and human life (or human existence). Both are important and indispensable, but for Genesis, human life is the more ...
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Genesis has two levels or focal points – history of Israel (the patriarchs) and human life (or human existence). Both are important and indispensable, but for Genesis, human life is the more fundamental of the two, and so the book is structured not according to the diversity of patriarchs but according to diverse aspects of human life, including space, time (the flow of generations), and stages of life and perception. As Israel's history is accompanied by a further level of meaning (namely human life), so also is Israel's land; “land” in Genesis means more than specific territory.Less
Genesis has two levels or focal points – history of Israel (the patriarchs) and human life (or human existence). Both are important and indispensable, but for Genesis, human life is the more fundamental of the two, and so the book is structured not according to the diversity of patriarchs but according to diverse aspects of human life, including space, time (the flow of generations), and stages of life and perception. As Israel's history is accompanied by a further level of meaning (namely human life), so also is Israel's land; “land” in Genesis means more than specific territory.
Hugo Adam Bedau
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195108774
- eISBN:
- 9780199852888
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195108774.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This book demonstrates the usefulness of “casuistry”, or “the method of cases” in arriving at moral decisions. It examines well-known cases that compel us to consider questions about who ought to ...
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This book demonstrates the usefulness of “casuistry”, or “the method of cases” in arriving at moral decisions. It examines well-known cases that compel us to consider questions about who ought to survive when not all can. By doing so, we learn something about how we actually reason concerning such life and death situations, as well as about how we ought to reason if we wish both to be consistent and properly respect human life.Less
This book demonstrates the usefulness of “casuistry”, or “the method of cases” in arriving at moral decisions. It examines well-known cases that compel us to consider questions about who ought to survive when not all can. By doing so, we learn something about how we actually reason concerning such life and death situations, as well as about how we ought to reason if we wish both to be consistent and properly respect human life.
Jonathan Glover
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199290925
- eISBN:
- 9780191710452
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199290925.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter focuses on genetic enhancement, or ‘designer babies’, where genes are chosen not on medical grounds but with the aim of giving other kinds of benefit. It argues that crossing the ...
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This chapter focuses on genetic enhancement, or ‘designer babies’, where genes are chosen not on medical grounds but with the aim of giving other kinds of benefit. It argues that crossing the boundary between medical intervention and enhancement is hard to rule out in principle. But genetic enhancement raises huge problems about its impact on society. There are problems about justice and about genetic competitiveness. Perhaps the deepest issue is whether there are parts of human nature that should be protected from the consequences of genetic choices. This is linked to the ancient philosophical question of what a good human life is.Less
This chapter focuses on genetic enhancement, or ‘designer babies’, where genes are chosen not on medical grounds but with the aim of giving other kinds of benefit. It argues that crossing the boundary between medical intervention and enhancement is hard to rule out in principle. But genetic enhancement raises huge problems about its impact on society. There are problems about justice and about genetic competitiveness. Perhaps the deepest issue is whether there are parts of human nature that should be protected from the consequences of genetic choices. This is linked to the ancient philosophical question of what a good human life is.
Richard Kraut
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199844463
- eISBN:
- 9780199919550
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199844463.003.0026
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
The intrinsic value of human life was cited in a 1990 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court (Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health) as one legitimate basis on which a state can forbid ...
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The intrinsic value of human life was cited in a 1990 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court (Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health) as one legitimate basis on which a state can forbid medical personnel from withdrawing life-sustaining support from a patient who has fallen into a persistent vegetative state. According to Justices Rehnquist and Scalia, even when it is contrary to the interests of those who are in this condition to continue to live, a state can legitimately prevent others from letting them die or killing them, because human lives have intrinsic value. As Ronald Dworkin reports their opinions, they held that “it is intrinsically a bad thing when anyone dies deliberately and prematurely.” The lives of human beings “have intrinsic value, even if it is not in their own interests to continue living.” The concept of intrinsic value being employed here is what has been referred to as absolute goodness. To assess the cogency of the reasoning of the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the permissibility of euthanasia, we must decide whether absolute goodness is a reason-giving property.Less
The intrinsic value of human life was cited in a 1990 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court (Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health) as one legitimate basis on which a state can forbid medical personnel from withdrawing life-sustaining support from a patient who has fallen into a persistent vegetative state. According to Justices Rehnquist and Scalia, even when it is contrary to the interests of those who are in this condition to continue to live, a state can legitimately prevent others from letting them die or killing them, because human lives have intrinsic value. As Ronald Dworkin reports their opinions, they held that “it is intrinsically a bad thing when anyone dies deliberately and prematurely.” The lives of human beings “have intrinsic value, even if it is not in their own interests to continue living.” The concept of intrinsic value being employed here is what has been referred to as absolute goodness. To assess the cogency of the reasoning of the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the permissibility of euthanasia, we must decide whether absolute goodness is a reason-giving property.
J. C. B. Gosling and C. C. W. Taylor
- Published in print:
- 1982
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198246664
- eISBN:
- 9780191681035
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198246664.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This book aims to provide a critical and analytical history of ancient Greek theories of the nature of pleasure and of its value and role in human life, from the earliest times down to the period of ...
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This book aims to provide a critical and analytical history of ancient Greek theories of the nature of pleasure and of its value and role in human life, from the earliest times down to the period of Epicurus and the early Stoics. While there have been many valuable studies of particular aspects of the topic, and several surveys of the treatment of pleasure by individual ancient writers (notably the monographs of Tenkku and Voigthinder on Plato, and Lieberg and Rieken on Aristotle), this is the first attempt at a comprehensive review of the contribution of the ancient Greeks to the theoretical understanding of pleasure. In view both of the central position which the major thinkers of the period accorded to the topic and of the inter-connectedness of many of their theories, the authors believe that the lack of such a study was a lacuna in the literature which they should attempt to fill.Less
This book aims to provide a critical and analytical history of ancient Greek theories of the nature of pleasure and of its value and role in human life, from the earliest times down to the period of Epicurus and the early Stoics. While there have been many valuable studies of particular aspects of the topic, and several surveys of the treatment of pleasure by individual ancient writers (notably the monographs of Tenkku and Voigthinder on Plato, and Lieberg and Rieken on Aristotle), this is the first attempt at a comprehensive review of the contribution of the ancient Greeks to the theoretical understanding of pleasure. In view both of the central position which the major thinkers of the period accorded to the topic and of the inter-connectedness of many of their theories, the authors believe that the lack of such a study was a lacuna in the literature which they should attempt to fill.
John M. Cooper
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691138602
- eISBN:
- 9781400842322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691138602.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter discusses ancient philosophy as a way of life. It first considers the ties linking popular ideas about philosophy to the subject of study that is pursued and taught in philosophy ...
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This chapter discusses ancient philosophy as a way of life. It first considers the ties linking popular ideas about philosophy to the subject of study that is pursued and taught in philosophy departments by professional philosophers. One aspect of ancient philosophy as a way of life has survived intact in philosophy until today is the prominence among philosophy's varied subfields of ethics or moral philosophy. It argues that the ancient philosophers propose that we live our lives from some set of argued through, rationally worked out, rationally grasped, and rationally defended, reasoned ideas about the world and one's own place within it. To live a life of philosophy is to live committed to following philosophical reason wherever it may lead. The promise is that by doing so—but only by doing so—one will achieve the best possible human life.Less
This chapter discusses ancient philosophy as a way of life. It first considers the ties linking popular ideas about philosophy to the subject of study that is pursued and taught in philosophy departments by professional philosophers. One aspect of ancient philosophy as a way of life has survived intact in philosophy until today is the prominence among philosophy's varied subfields of ethics or moral philosophy. It argues that the ancient philosophers propose that we live our lives from some set of argued through, rationally worked out, rationally grasped, and rationally defended, reasoned ideas about the world and one's own place within it. To live a life of philosophy is to live committed to following philosophical reason wherever it may lead. The promise is that by doing so—but only by doing so—one will achieve the best possible human life.
Ian Duncan
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691175072
- eISBN:
- 9780691194189
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691175072.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This introductory chapter discusses how the novel, the ascendant imaginative form in nineteenth-century Europe, did more than broadcast the anthropological turn of secular knowledge: it helped steer ...
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This introductory chapter discusses how the novel, the ascendant imaginative form in nineteenth-century Europe, did more than broadcast the anthropological turn of secular knowledge: it helped steer it and—under the license of fiction—it pressed it to its limits. As the history of man broke up among competing disciplinary claims on scientific authority after 1800, the novel took over as its universal discourse, modeling the new developmental conception of human nature as a relation between the history of individual persons and the history of the species. The novel's supposed aesthetic disability, its lack of form, now marked its fitness to model the changing form of man. Novels could offer a comprehensive representation of human life—a Human Comedy—in a general writing accessible to all readers, mediated not by specialist knowledge or technical language but by the shared sensibilities that constitute “our common nature.” Thus, novels became active instruments in the ongoing scientific revolution, advancing its experimental postulates that human nature may not be one but many, that humans share their nature with other creatures, that humans have no nature, that the human form is variable, fluid, fleeting—as well as developing a technical practice, realism, to defend humanity's place at the center of nature and at the end of history.Less
This introductory chapter discusses how the novel, the ascendant imaginative form in nineteenth-century Europe, did more than broadcast the anthropological turn of secular knowledge: it helped steer it and—under the license of fiction—it pressed it to its limits. As the history of man broke up among competing disciplinary claims on scientific authority after 1800, the novel took over as its universal discourse, modeling the new developmental conception of human nature as a relation between the history of individual persons and the history of the species. The novel's supposed aesthetic disability, its lack of form, now marked its fitness to model the changing form of man. Novels could offer a comprehensive representation of human life—a Human Comedy—in a general writing accessible to all readers, mediated not by specialist knowledge or technical language but by the shared sensibilities that constitute “our common nature.” Thus, novels became active instruments in the ongoing scientific revolution, advancing its experimental postulates that human nature may not be one but many, that humans share their nature with other creatures, that humans have no nature, that the human form is variable, fluid, fleeting—as well as developing a technical practice, realism, to defend humanity's place at the center of nature and at the end of history.
