‘Bah! Humbug!’ It's the most famous line in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol , but is it the most important? Surely not, for this Christmas classic is not centrally about Christmas, but about a man, the holiday being the convenient setting for his transformation. What kind of transformation? Why a moral transformation of course, because the man, Ebenezer Scrooge, through multiple encounters with the spirit world, becomes a good man by the end of the story. But where does this story (...) begin, what are we to think of Scrooge at the outset and how is his transformation accomplished? These are the questions I take up here, for while Scrooge is tightfisted, covetous and hard-hearted, he is still a man of principle. Judged by the standards of some views on ethics, Scrooge isn't actually all that bad. How can that be? Let's start with a quick overview of two centuries of ethical theory. (shrink)

From Santa, elves and Ebenezer Scrooge, to the culture wars and virgin birth, _Christmas - Philosophy for Everyone_ explores a host of philosophical issues raised by the practices and beliefs surrounding Christmas. Offers thoughtful and humorous philosophical insights into the most widely celebrated holiday in the Western world Contributions come from a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, theology, religious studies, English literature, cognitive science and moral psychology The essays cover a wide range of Christmas themes, from a defence of (...) the miracle of the virgin birth to the relevance of Christmas to atheists and pagans. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to argue against a certain view of what terrorism is. In particular, I wish to dispute the definition of terrorism used by philosophers Andrew Vails and Angelo Corlett who separately put forward arguments defending the possibility of morally legitimate acts of terrorism. In support of this conclusion, they each employ a broad definition of terrorism that makes room for highly discriminate, i.e., precisely targeted, acts of political violence to count as terrorism. Defending a broad (...) definition of terrorism requires the inclusion of such cases. I argue in defense of a more narrow definition of terrorism, one that associates terrorism with more indiscriminate acts of violence. I believe that this definition better accords with common usage and commonsense. (shrink)

The author recommends the incorporation of communitarian theories and critics of dominant political theory as a foundation for an advanced political philosophy course. The course is structured for students who are already familiar with the Western political philosophical tradition. Structuring the course around the liberal-communitarian debate allows students to be introduced to dominant liberal political theory and contemporary critiques of liberalism around issues of gender, race and class. Students are exposed to a wide range of views in readings that are (...) accessible to undergraduates. The author provides recommendations of current literature and anthologies that accommodate the structure of the course. (shrink)

Offense to Others, the second in Joel Feinberg's four volume series The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law, provides the most extensive discussion to date of the problem of offensive conduct. Much that is here has been presented before in various places, which is not surprising as Feinberg has written as much, if not more on this subject than anyone else. But much that is here is new, and goes beyond just the discussion of whether the so called offense principle (...) is a legitimate basis for legislation. (shrink)

One of the first things that one notices about Lawrence Becker's book Reciprocity is its unique layout. Becker weaves together several different writing styles to produce a book of great force and clarity. Most notably, Becker makes frequent use of "extended epigraphs." In these engaging stories, some of them several pages long, he manages not merely to illustrate a particular point, but also to bring out the richness and complexity of our human relationships. In this way Becker brings home the (...) importance of his central topic, reciprocity, in our moral and social lives. (shrink)