Aristotle’s and Plato’s doctrine has been used by Christian thinkers in the defense of and explanation of the faith. The end of the 20th century and the beginnings of this century have been marked by an unprecedented attack on the family as a natural institution, that is, it has an unchanging essence that does not change with time. The family as a natural institution is based on a monogamous relationship of a man and a woman with a clear (...) function to serve the individual members of this institution and the society. Proponents of other family forms rally on the contrary, could the Stagirite corpus doctrinae specifically those he enunciated in his work The Politics and Nicomachean Ethics shed light on contemporary issues and provide satisfactory ammunition for Christians? The paper will develop in three parts: first, an exposition of the Stagirite doctrine; second, an overview of the problems and threats to the traditional family and finally an evaluation of the doctrine. (shrink)

This book is the first extensive study of the role of the family in the work of Seneca. It offers a new way of reading philosophy that combines philosophical analysis with social, cultural and historical factors to bring out the ways in which Stoicism presents itself as in tune with the universe. The family serves a central role in an individual's moral development - both the family as conventionally understood, and the wider conceptual family which (...) Stoicism constructs. Innovative readings of Seneca's work bring out the importance of the family to his thought and how it interacts with other Stoic doctrines. We learn how to be virtuous from observing and imitating our family, who can be biological relatives or people we choose as our intellectual ancestors. The Ethics of the Family in Seneca will be of particular interest to researchers in Roman Stoicism, imperial culture and the history of the family. (shrink)

This dissertation investigates the complex phenomenon of familial intimacy as a distinctive and essential basis of self-identity and ethical obligation. The account of the family is developed in accordance with the social categories that Hegel articulates in the context of his two most developed studies of human institutions, the Philosophy of Right and the Phenomenology of Spirit, to demonstrate that Hegel's systematic approach to social and political issues provides us with indispensable insights into the inescapably intersubjective nature of (...) all dimensions of human experience and action. Familial sociality is shown to be distinguished from other forms of intersubjective relation by the fact that it has its basis in a primarily unconscious and affective experience of intimacy---an experience that implicates a person's identity and a person's actions in the identities and actions of others in ways that ultimately resist rational reflection and autonomous self-articulation. This analysis of the inner workings of familial self-identification is used as a lens through which to gain new perspectives on the manner in which social forces shape the very texture of human perceptual life. The unconscious nature of family intimacy is shown to complicate our understanding of collective responsibility for, and complicity in, social acts. This analysis also affords us with insights into the essentially communal basis of property holding, for, it is argued, within the familial sphere, property is best understood as the expression of an intimacy and ongoing communication with other selves, rather than as something that fences one off from others. (shrink)

The chapter starts with an exploration of what the family is in order then to move on to look at its parts. The family has been defined in terms of its form (e.g. a mother, a father, and their biological offspring) or its function (e.g. adults taking and/or sharing custodial responsibility for children). In both of these cases, children are a necessary ingredient for a unit to be called a family – but the chapter also briefly reviews (...) proposals to extend the accolade of “family” to beyond child-rearing. From a perspective concerned primarily with family form, biological and more specifically genetic parents have been seen as those to whom children should be born, and by whom they should be raised. From a perspective concerned with family function, this is not necessarily the case. Lastly, the chapter looks at the relation between parents and the requirements that co-parenting may generate in this regard. (shrink)

Our families are our first and most important ethical training grounds. But what is the family? And what are our ethical commitments to our family members and to the broader moral community? After a brief introductory chapter on basic ethical concepts and theories, the essays in this volume provide readers with ethical analyses of issues ranging from same-sex marriage to a controversial proposal to "license" parents. The chapters cover love, sex, marriage, parents and children, the relationship between the (...) family and the larger moral community, and the influence of emerging technologies on the ethical issues inherent in family life. The volume is intended to open up this exciting territory in applied ethics to those interested in philosophy, family studies, social work, and to anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the ethical forces at work in this most basic social institution. (shrink)

Human development requires the education of autonomous citizens, capable of critically approaching their opportunities. However, if this is left to the school alone, the children’s most important educational environment—the family—is neglected. The Community of Inquiry, developed by Matthew Lipman into an educational methodology, aims at educating students to be critical citizens by developing habits of mind through collaborative philosophical inquiry. The research reported here was targeted at introducing the COI into the family, particularly addressing the intersubjective relationships among (...) participants. In Uruguay, ‘Community Teachers’ visit disadvantaged homes to follow children’s progress and to increase the retention rates. Two Participatory Action Research activities were implemented in 2012 and 2016, in which sixty Community Teachers were trained in the COI methodology and applied it to their work with families. The observations made suggest the COI can support the promotion of human development from the very heart of the family. (shrink)

Parents frequently attempt to shield their children from distressing prognostic information. Pediatric oncology providers sometimes follow parental request for non-disclosure of prognostic information to children, invoking what we call the stability of the family argument. They believe that if they inform the child about terminal prognosis despite parental wishes, cohesion and family structure will be severely hampered. In this paper, we argue against parental request for non-disclosure. Firstly, we present the stability of the family argument in more (...) detail. We, then, set out the (conceptual, legal, systemic) entitativity of the family and the kind of value the stability of the family argument assumes, before we set on to critically evaluate the argument. Our analysis shows that disclosure of prognostic information to children does not necessarily destabilize the family to a greater extent than non-disclosure. In fact, a systemic perspective suggests that mediated disclosure is more likely to result in a (long-term) stability of the family than non-disclosure. It is in the interest of the family to resist the initial aversive reaction to delivering bad news. In the final part, we draw a set of recommendations on how to facilitate decision-making in face of parental request for non-disclosure. (shrink)

현대 사회에서 많은 가정은 위기를 경험한다. 여러 가지 복합적인 원인이 그 위기를 촉발하고 악화시키는 것이며, 그에 따른 해결책도 다양할 것이다. 요한 바오로 2세는 현대 가정에서 맞이하는위기는 혼인의 목적으로서 사랑의 가치를 상실하면서 비롯한 것이라는 고찰과 함께 그 문제를 접근한다. 왜냐하면 가정의 시작은 바로 혼인에서 출발하기 때문이다. 이러한 차원에서 그는 혼인에 담긴 부부 사랑의 가치에 대한 성찰을 통해 가정의 의미를 고찰한다. 본 논문은 요한 바오로 2세의 가정의 의미를 살펴본다. 먼저 본 논문은 가정과 혼인의 실질적인 기반이 되는 부부사랑과 생명 전달의 의미를 살펴본다. 또한 (...) 인격체들의 공동체로서 친교를 기반으로 하는 가정의 의미를 살펴본다. 더불어 그 의미들과 생명윤리와의 관련성을 “부부사랑과 출산”이라는 부분을 통해 살펴본다. 한편본 연구는 가정교회로서의 가정의 의미는 고찰하지 못한다. 따라서 본 연구는 요한 바오로 2세의 가정 이해에 근본적인 한계를 가진다. 왜냐하면 그의 가정 이해는 인간학적 그리고 신학적 차원을종합하는 이 세 가지 측면을 고찰될 때 비로소 파악될 수 있기 때문이다. 그럼에도 불구하고 본 논문은 현대 사회에서 직면하는 가정의 위기(부부 사이에서, 부모와 자녀 사이에서 등)는 부부 사랑에 대한 깊은 통찰을 시도한다. 이를 통해 그 해결책을 모색할 수있는 단초를 제공한다. 부부 사랑에는 부부의 일치의 의의와 출산의 의의가 불가분의 연관성으로 내재한다. 따라서 부부 사랑은 새로운 생명을 인격으로서 받아들이는 이 불가분의 연관성을 통해서그리고 그 안에서 온전히 실존하며 보존될 수 있다. 요한 바오로 2 세에 따르면, 가정은 각 인격이 그의 혹은 그녀의 대체 불가능한유일한 존재를 드러내는 장소이다. 가정은 그 인격의 가치 위에서구성되고, 그 가치에 온전히 집중된 인격들의 공동체이다. 그 공동체는 상호 인격적 친교의 사랑을 기반으로 한다. 사랑이 바로 가정의 본질이며, 생명은 그 사랑의 열매이자 징표이며, 가정 공동체는 이러한 사랑이 실현되는 장소이다. (shrink)

This paper challenges the foundational claim that the human family is no more than a social construction. It advances the position that the family is a central category of experience, being, and knowledge. Throughout, the analysis argues for the centrality of the family for human flourishing and, consequently, for the importance of sustaining family-oriented practices within social policy, such as more family-oriented approaches to consent to medical treatment. Where individually oriented approaches to medical decision-making accent (...) an ethos of isolated personal autonomy family-oriented approaches acknowledge the central social and moral reality of the family. I argue that the family ought to be appreciated as more than a mere network of personal relations and individual undertakings; the family possesses a being that is social and moral such that it realizes a particular structure of human good and sustains the necessary conditions for core areas of human flourishing. Moreover, since the family exists as a nexus of face-to-face relationships, the consent of persons, including adults, to be members of a particular family, subject to its own respective account of family sovereignty, is significantly more amply demonstrated than the consent of citizens to be under the authority of a particular state. As a result, in the face of a general Western bioethical affirmation of the autonomy of individuals, as if adults and children were morally and socially isolated agents, this paper argues that social space must nevertheless be made for families to choose on behalf of their own members. (shrink)

While visiting a friend's family in Cornwall during the traditional May Day celebrations, eighteen-year-old Laura becomes involved in an old family mystery concerning the disappearance of ancient heirlooms.

Although the philosophical literature on both poverty and childhood is certainly increasing, the status of children living in poverty has been largely ignored as a philosophical subject. The condition of children and the justice-related issues that derive from it compel us to look more deeply into the sources and responsibilities of and towards poverty during childhood. We highlight four challenges raised by studying child poverty, and the mechanisms through which philosophical analysis may aid in addressing them. Philosophy can work (...) as an important tool to conceptualise what child poverty is, assess the limitations of current research on the subject, normatively evaluate how to address this condition, and offer guidelines for how society, law and the polity ought to act in response to it. Child poverty must be looked at from what it is in itself, and how it intersects with other features of the child’s life which may exacerbate it. The role of the family is fundamental in any evaluation of what child poverty is, and how to tackle it. Understanding child poverty in the vacuum omits fundamental sources of it, and solutions to it. Other intersecting conditions such as the social and cultural ethos, citizenship status, gender or disability may play a fundamental role also. The second section provides an overview of the volume. (shrink)

This essay argues that the Chinese Mental Health Act of 2013 is overly individualistic and fails to give proper moral weight to the role of Chinese families in directing the process of decision-making for hospitalizing and treating the mentally ill patients. We present three types of reactions within the medical community to the Act, each illustrated with a case and discussion. In the first two types of cases, we argue that these reactions are problematic either because they comply with the (...) law but undermine the patient’s interests by refusing the family’s request to have the patient hospitalized, or violate the law by hospitalizing patients in response to the real concerns of their families. In the third type of situation, psychiatrists inappropriately encourage families to produce evidence of the patient’s behavior that is harmful to self or others in order legally to commit the patient. Each of these problems, we conclude, should be tackled by supplementing Article 30 of the Act with the stipulation that a psychiatrist may authorize the involuntary hospitalization of a patient, who is not at risk of causing physical harm to self or others, with the consent of all major family members. Drawing on the deeply culturally embedded moral traditions of Confucian medical familism, this proposal would facilitate the proper treatment of a significant number of Chinese mentally ill patients under the care of their families. (shrink)

Editors' note: In this issue, we launch "From the IJFAB Blog," an occasional section featuring reprints of blog posts of interest. "At the Intersection of 'the Family' and Health Care: Bioethics, Family, and Summer School" is a six-part series in which Benjamin Kenofer, PhD candidate in philosophy at Michigan State University, responds to What about the Family?, an interdisciplinary course on the role of the family in the delivery and consumption of health care he attended (...) during summer 2017 at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. To preserve the liveblog nature of "At the Intersection of 'the Family' and Health Care," tenses have not been changed, and editing has been kept to a minimum. The IJFAB Blog can... (shrink)

Experimental philosophy (or “x-phi”) is a way of doing philosophy. It is “traditional” philosophy, but with a little something extra: In addition to the expected philosophical arguments and engagement, x-phi involves the use of empirical methods to test the empirical claims that arise. This extra bit strikes some as a new, perhaps radical, addition to philosophical practice. We don’t think so. As this chapter will show, empirical claims have been common across the history of Western philosophy, (...) as have appeals to empirical observation in attempting to support or subvert these claims. While conceptions of philosophy have changed over time, across these changes we find philosophers employing empirical methods in pursuing their philosophical questions. Our primary aim in this chapter is to illustrate this fact. We begin by discussing the relevance of history to experimental philosophy (Section 2), then offer a necessarily condensed and highly selective history of empirical work in Western philosophy, ranging from the ancients (Section 3), to the early moderns (Section 4), to the late moderns (Section 5), and on to the present (Section 6). (shrink)

The world of insects is at once beneath our feet and unfathomably alien. Small and innumerable, insects surround and disrupt us even as we scarcely pay them any mind. Insects confront us with the limits of what is imaginable, while at the same time being essential to the everyday functioning of all terrestrial ecosystems. In this book, the philosopher and historian of science Jean-Marc Drouin contends that insects pose a fundamental challenge to philosophy. Exploring the questions of what insects (...) are and what scientific, aesthetic, ethical, and historical relationships they have with humanity, he argues that they force us to reconsider our ideas of the animal and the social. He traces the role that insects have played in language, mythology, literature, entomology, sociobiology, and taxonomy over the centuries. Drouin emphasizes the links between humanistic and scientific approaches—how we have projected human roles onto insects and seen ourselves in insect form. Caught between the animal and plant kingdoms, insects force us to confront and reevaluate our notions of gender, family, society, struggle, the division of labor, social organization, and individual and collective intelligence. A remarkably original and thought-provoking work, A Philosophy of the Insect is an important book for animal studies, environmental ethics, and the history and philosophy of science. (shrink)

In a time when conservatives believe that the traditional family is under increasing fire, some think an appeal to Darwinian science may be the answer. I argue that these conservatives are wrong to maintain that Darwinian theory can serve as the intellectual foundation for the traditional conception of the family. Contra Larry Arnhart and James Q. Wilson, a Darwinian philosophy of nature simply lacks the stability the traditional family requires; it cannot support the traditional conception of (...) human nature and the normativity it was thought to contain. If conservatives are to maintain these traditional ideas, the theoretical foundation must lie elsewhere. (shrink)

This paper explores the integral relationship between philosophy and nursing practice. The discussion begins by suggesting that philosophy is more than a set of abstract ideas or an intellectual activity; that it is a way of living and being in practice. The author contends that philosophical inquiry can improve the adequacy and relevance of family and nursing theories by promoting the examination and expansion of those theories in light of the experiences and intuitions of nurses. Offering a (...) personal example the author exemplifies how philosophical activity can directly and experientially enhance everyday nursing practice. (shrink)

This book about philosophy of medicine bestows a bottom-up and not a top-down approach. It starts from clinical medicine and epidemiology, analyzing their interrelations with philosophical instruments. The book criticizes the constant search for generalities and the essentialism that too often characterizes this discipline, which results in philosophers of medicine dialoguing with each other without direct contact with medical science. In the light of Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy, this book proposes an approach to the philosophy of medicine based (...) on the quorum of language, what Wittgenstein calls family resemblances. In this way the author establishes a philosophy of medicine that is closely related to the medical clinic and to public health and as such avoids armchair philosophy. “Don’t think, but look", wrote Wittgenstein. (shrink)

This book is a unique introduction to the philosophy of law that repairs an enormous gap in the philosophy of law -- a lack of philosophical attention to family law. (In fact, PhilPapers does not recognize the philosophy of family law as a category.) This book uses only cases drawn from family law to illustrate the traditional problems of legal philosophy. This is why I wrote this book as a textbook rather than as (...) a monograph. My hope is that students will learn more about the problems of legal philosophy by using cases with which they might be more familiar than from criminal law cases. Questions for thought and discussion follow each chapter. (shrink)

The quality of doctoral-level biochemistry (N=139), botany (N=83), cellular/molecular biology (N=89), microbiology (N=134), physiology (N=101), and zoology (N=70) programs at United States universities was assessed, using 16 measures. These measures focused on variables related to: (1) program size; (2) characteristics of graduates; (3) reputational factors (scholarly quality of faculty, effectiveness of programs in educating research scholars/scientists, improvement in program quality during the last 5 years); (4) university library size; (5) research support; and (6) publication records. Chapter I discusses prior attempts (...) to assess quality in graduate education, development of the study plans, and the selection of disciplines and programs to be evaluated. Chapter II discusses the methodology used, focusing on each of the assessment measures. Chapters III to VIII present, respectively, findings from the analyses of the biochemistry, botany, cellular/molecular biology, microbiology, physiology, and zoology programs. Chapter IX includes a summary of results, correlations among measures, several additional analyses, and suggestions for future studies. Among the findings reported are those indicating that cellular/molecular biology programs had, on the average, the largest number of faculty and that students in cellular/molecular biology, biology, biochemistry, microbiology, and physiology received a relatively high fraction of financial support. (Survey instruments and supporting documentation are included in appendices.) (JN). (shrink)

The quality of doctoral-level chemistry (N=145), computer science (N=58), geoscience (N=91), mathematics (N=115), physics (N=123), and statistics/biostatistics (N=64) programs at United States universities was assessed, using 16 measures. These measures focused on variables related to: program size; characteristics of graduates; reputational factors (scholarly quality of faculty, effectiveness of programs in educating research scholars/scientists, improvement in program quality during the last 5 years); university library size; research support; and publication records. Chapter I discusses prior attempts to assess quality in graduate education, (...) development of the study plans, and the selection of disciplines and programs to be evaluated. Chapter II discusses the methodology used, focusing on each of the assessment measures. Chapters III to VIII present, respectively, findings from the analyses of the chemistry, computer science, geoscience, mathematics, physics, and statistics/biostatistics programs. Chapter IX includes a summary of results, correlations among measures, several additional analyses, and suggestions for future studies. Among the findings reported are those indicating that mathematics programs had, on the average, the largest number of faculty (N=33) in December 1980 followed closely by physics (N=28) and chemistry (N=23), and that 80 percent of computer science students had job commitments by graduation. (Survey instruments and supporting documentation are included in appendices.) (JN). (shrink)

This is a review of Laurence Houlgate's "Family and State: the Philosophy of Family Law. It takes a look at the moral theory from which Houlgate begins and raises questions about is correctness and appropriateness, but it finds more to agree with with respect to his middle-level principles. It considers his definition of "family" in the context of contemporary political controversy over such definitions. It looks at his consequentialist justification for the family, agrees with it, (...) and suggests additional supplementary arguments, primarily from Brigitte and Peter Berger, to give additional support for Houlgate's argument. It looks at his justification for family law and agrees with his principle of optimum communal benefit. It seeks to place Houlgate's views within the context of contemporary political debate about being "pro-family" or "anti-family". It then goes on to look briefly at some of the specific issues of family law that Houlgate considers, taking time to raise a few questions about some of them, and concludes by dealing in a more extensive way with the question of what the extent and limits of state interference in the family should be, agreeing with Houlgate's basic position, but considering further its application to specific issues. (shrink)

Most donated organs in the United States come from brain dead donors, while a small percentage come from patients who die in “controlled,” or expected, circumstances, typically after the family or surrogate makes a decision to withdraw life support. The number of organs available for transplant could be substantially if donations were permitted in “uncontrolled” circumstances–that is, from people who die unexpectedly, often outside the hospital. According to projections from the Institute of Medicine, establishing programs permitting “uncontrolled donation after (...) circulatory determination of death,” or uDCDD, throughout the United States has the potential to provide 22,000 more donation opportunities annually. In contrast, U.S. controlled donation after circulatory determination of death, or cDCDD, cases have increased progressively over the past decade from 87 to 848 donors, but currently account for only 10.6 percent of all deceased donors. Following the IOM recommendations, several projects exploring the feasibility of uDCDD were funded by the federal government, including a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration that supported a pilot project in New York City in which the authors of this article participated.A key feature of our protocol, and indeed of many uDCDD protocols, is the initiation of preservation methods such as chest compressions and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation shortly after death in order to perfuse and preserve the donor's organs. Critics of uDCDD argue that the means of determining death deviates from generally ascribed principles. They assert that reinstituting circulation in order to preserve organs has the effect of “undoing” the prior determination of death. The result is that cDCDD is widely accepted and practiced routinely even though it only marginally increases the number of organs available for transplantation, and uDCDD is widely considered unacceptable despite being ethically embraced and proven to significantly increase organ donation opportunities in other countries. This article explores the evolution of this counterintuitive state of affairs and calls for a policy that, in line with the IOM report, allows for both cDCDD and uDCDD protocols. (shrink)

This paper presents four different understandings of the family and their concomitant views of the authority of the family in pediatric medical decision making. These different views are grounded in robustly developed, and conflicting, worldviews supported by disparate basic premises about the nature of morality. The traditional worldviews are often found within religious communities that embrace foundational metaphysical premises at odds with the commitments of the liberal account of the family dominant in the secular culture of the (...) West. These disputes are substantial and ultimately irresolvable by sound rational argument because of the failure to share common foundational premises and rules of evidence. It is in light of these fundamental disagreements that there is a need to evaluate critically the claims and agenda advanced by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. (shrink)

Ferdinand Schoeman criticizes the liberal view of the family which holds that parental rights are based in and limited by parental duties to the child. Instead he proposes the construction of principles based on the value of familial intimacy. Schoeman claims that only by recognizing the value of intimacy can we account for the degree of autonomy we legitimately grant parents in their relations with their children. In opposition, I argue that he misinterprets the liberal view. A correct interpretation (...) allows an appropriate degree of parental autonomy and familial intimacy but without sacrificing the child’s developmental needs. (shrink)

Ferdinand Schoeman criticizes the liberal view of the family which holds that parental rights are based in and limited by parental duties to the child. Instead he proposes the construction of principles based on the value of familial intimacy. Schoeman claims that only by recognizing the value of intimacy can we account for the degree of autonomy we legitimately grant parents in their relations with their children. In opposition, I argue that he misinterprets the liberal view. A correct interpretation (...) allows an appropriate degree of parental autonomy and familial intimacy but without sacrificing the child’s developmental needs. (shrink)

This paper explores the integral relationship between philosophy and nursing practice. The discussion begins by suggesting that philosophy is more than a set of abstract ideas or an intellectual activity; that it is a way of living and being in practice. The author contends that philosophical inquiry can improve the adequacy and relevance of family and nursing theories by promoting the examination and expansion of those theories in light of the experiences and intuitions of nurses. Offering a (...) personal example the author exemplifies how philosophical activity can directly and experientially enhance everyday nursing practice. (shrink)

So-called family values and their part in education are considered. ‘Traditional’‘modern’ and ‘deviant’ patterns of family relationships are discussed and the moral superiority of the first is questioned. The single life without family involvement is also proposed as a possibly fulfilling mode of existence in its own right.

During the past decade, Si Xiao, Xianglong Zhang, Xiangcheng Sun and others have proposed a Confucian Philosophy of Family movement as a response to issues in contemporary China. These issues...