Many subscribe to an Ethic of Life, an ethical perspective on which all living things are deserving of some level of moral concern. Within philosophy, the Ethic of Life has been clarified, developed, and rigorously defended; it has also found its strongest critics. Currently, the debate is at a standstill. This book ends this stalemate by proving that the Ethic of Life must be abandoned.

In order to determine whether current (or future) machines have a welfare that we as agents ought to take into account in our moral deliberations, we must determine which capacities give rise to interests and whether current machines have those capacities. After developing an account of moral patiency, I argue that current machines should be treated as mere machines. That is, current machines should be treated as if they lack those capacities that would give rise to psychological interests. Therefore, they (...) are moral patients only if they have non-psychological interests. I then provide an account of what I call teleo interests that constitute the most plausible type of non-psychological interest that a being might have. I then argue that even if current machines have teleo interests, they are such that agents need not concern themselves with these interests. Therefore, for all intents and purposes, current machines are not moral patients. (shrink)

Synthetic organisms are at the same time organisms and artifacts. In this paper we aim to determine whether such entities have a good of their own, and so are candidates for being directly morally considerable. We argue that the good of non-sentient organisms is grounded in an etiological account of teleology, on which non-sentient organisms can come to be teleologically organized on the basis of their natural selection etiology. After defending this account of teleology, we argue that there are no (...) grounds for excluding synthetic organisms from having a good also grounded in their teleological organization. However, this comes at a cost; traditional artifacts will also be seen as having a good of their own. We defend this as the best solution to the puzzle about what to say about the good of synthetic organisms. (shrink)

This paper addresses the foundations of Teleological Individualism, the view that organisms, even non-sentient organisms, are goal-oriented systems while biological collectives, such as ecosystems or conspecific groups, are mere assemblages of organisms. Typical defenses of Teleological Individualism ground the teleological organization of organisms in the workings of natural selection. This paper shows that grounding teleological organization in natural selection is antithetical to Teleological Individualism because such views assume a view about the units of selection on which it is only individual (...) organisms that are units of selection. However, none of the Conventionalist, Reductionist, or Multi-Level Realist theories serve to justify such an assumption. Thus, Teleological Individualism cannot be grounded in natural selection. (shrink)

Robust technological enhancement of core cognitive capacities is now a realistic possibility. From the perspective of neutralism, the view that justifications for public policy should be neutral between reasonable conceptions of the good, only members of a subset of the ethical concerns serve as legitimate justifications for public policy regarding robust technological enhancement. This paper provides a framework for the legitimate use of ethical concerns in justifying public policy decisions regarding these enhancement technologies by evaluating the ethical concerns that arise (...) in the context of testing such technologies on nonhuman animals. Traditional issues in bioethics, as well as novel concerns such as the possibility of moral status enhancement, are evaluated from the perspective of neutralism. (shrink)

Our environmental wrongdoings result in a moral debt that requires restitution. One component of restitution is reparative and another is remediative. The remediative component requires that we remediate our characters in ways that alter or eliminate the character traits that tend to lead, in their expression, to environmental wrongdoing. Restitutive restoration is a way of engaging in ecological restoration that helps to meet the remediative requirement that accompanies environmental wrongdoing. This account of restoration provides a new motivation and justification for (...) engaging in restorative practices in addition to the standard pragmatist justification and motivations. (shrink)

Climate negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have so far failed to achieve a robust international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Game theory has been used to investigate possible climate negotiation solutions and strategies for accomplishing them. Negotiations have been primarily modelled as public goods games such as the Prisoner’s Dilemma, though coordination games or games of conflict have also been used. Many of these models have solutions, in the form of equilibria, corresponding to possible (...) positive outcomes—that is, agreements with the requisite emissions reduction commitments. Other work on large-scale social dilemmas suggests that it should be possible to resolve the climate problem. It therefore seems that equilibrium selection may be a barrier to successful negotiations. Here we use an N-player bargaining game in an agent-based model with learning dynamics to examine the past failures of and future prospects for a robust international climate agreement. The model suggests reasons why the desirable solutions identified in previous game-theoretic models have not yet been accomplished in practice and what mechanisms might be used to achieve these solutions. (shrink)

This chapter evaluates whether AI systems are or will be rights-holders, explaining the conditions under which people should recognize AI systems as rights-holders. It develops a skeptical stance toward the idea that current forms of artificial intelligence are holders of moral rights, beginning with an articulation of one of the most prominent and most plausible theories of moral rights: the Interest Theory of rights. On the Interest Theory, AI systems will be rights-holders only if they have interests or a well-being. (...) Current AI systems are not bearers of well-being, and so fail to meet the necessary condition for being rights-holders. This argument is robust against a range of different objections. However, the chapter also shows why difficulties in assessing whether future AI systems might have interests or be bearers of well-being—and so be rights-holders—raise difficult ethical challenges for certain developments in AI. (shrink)

Those who wish to abolish or restrict the use of non-human animals in so-called factory farming and/or experimentation often argue that these animal use practices are incommensurate with animals’ moral status. If sound, these arguments would establish that, as a matter of ethics or justice, we should voluntarily abstain from the immoral animal use practices in question. But these arguments can’t and shouldn’t be taken to establish a related conclusion: that the moral status of animals justifies political intervention to disallow (...) or significantly diminish factory farming and animal experimentation. In this paper, we set out to do two things: First, we argue that while the arguments mentioned above may establish the moral impermissibility or injustice of the practices they condemn, they are not sufficient to justify political interventions or social policies to abolish or restrict such practices. It is one thing to argue that some moral imperative or imperative of justice exists, and quite another thing to call for the use of political power to induce compliance with that imperative. Our second task is to assess the prospects for developing an argument that is sufficient to justify political interventions to restrict or abolish the use of non-human animals in factory farming or experimentation. Beyond establishing the immorality or injustice of animal consumption or experimentation, one must show that the interventions in question constitute legitimate use of political power. Would prohibiting or discouraging animal use be legitimate? We attempt to answer this question within the context of fundamental liberal constraints on the legitimate use of coercive political power. (shrink)

This book consists of thirteen chapters that address the ethical issues raised by technological intervention and design across a broad range of biological and ecological systems. Among the technologies addressed are geoengineering, human enhancement, sex selection, genetic modification, and synthetic biology.

The ongoing explosion of interest in artificial intelligence is fueled in part by recently developed techniques in machine learning. Those techniques allow automated systems to process huge amounts of data, utilizing mathematical methods that depart from traditional statistical approaches, and resulting in impressive advancements in our ability to make predictions and uncover correlations across a host of interesting domains. But as is now widely discussed, the way that those systems arrive at their outputs is often opaque, even to the experts (...) who design and deploy them. Is it morally problematic to make use of opaque automated methods when making high-stakes decisions, like whether to issue a loan to an applicant, or whether to approve a parole request? Many scholars answer in the affirmative. However, there is no widely accepted explanation for why transparent systems are morally preferable to opaque systems. We argue that the use of automated decision-making systems sometimes violates duties of consideration that are owed by decision-makers to decision-subjects, duties that are both epistemic and practical in character. Violations of that kind generate a weighty consideration against the use of opaque decision systems. In the course of defending our approach, we show that it is able to address three major challenges sometimes leveled against attempts to defend the moral import of transparency in automated decision-making. (shrink)

Embedding ethics modules within computer science courses has become a popular response to the growing recognition that CS programs need to better equip their students to navigate the ethical dimensions of computing technologies like AI, machine learning, and big data analytics. However, the popularity of this approach has outpaced the evidence of its positive outcomes. To help close that gap, this empirical study reports positive results from Northeastern’s program that embeds values analysis modules into CS courses. The resulting data suggest (...) that such modules have a positive effect on students’ moral attitudes and that students leave the modules believing they are more prepared to navigate the ethical dimensions they’ll likely face in their eventual careers. Importantly, these gains were accomplished at an institution without a philosophy doctoral program, suggesting this strategy can be effectively employed by a wider range of institutions than many have thought. (shrink)

Bilişsel Psikoloji başlığıyla bu yazıda değerlendirmeye konu olan eser, alanın önde gelen isimlerinden biri olan John Best tarafından kaleme alınmıştır. Bilişsel psikoloji, ikinci dünya savaşından sonra bilgisayar teknolojisi ve bilgi işlem teorileri alanında yaşanan gelişmelere paralel olarak gelişmiş bir alandır. Bu alanın temel hedefi, zihinsel süreçleri, davranışların altta yatan nedenlerinden yola çıkarak incelemektir. Değerlendirmeye konu olan eser, bu bağlamda, bilişsel psikoloji ile akademik düzeyde ilgilenenlere yönelik alternatif bir kaynak sunmak üzere telif edilmiştir. Değerlendirmemizde eserin konu ve amacı, dil ve (...) üslubu, yöntem ve içeriği gibi alt başlıklar üzerinden sistematik bir inceleme yapılacaktır. Eserde müellifin takip ettiği tasnif, üslup ve yöntem dikkate alındığında söz konusu eserin özellikle ders kitabı olarak öğrencilere ve bilişsel psikoloji ile akademik düzeyde ilgilenen kişilere hitap ettiği anlaşılmaktadır. (shrink)

İnsanın inanç oluştururken geçtiği safhaların epistemik yönden doğrulanabilirliği konusundaki tartışmalar düşünce tarihinin ilk zamanlarından bu yana devam ede gelmiştir. İnanç elde ederken deliller ve iradenin ne kadar rolün olduğu veya olması gerektiği konuları “İnanç Ahlakı” başlığı altında tartışılmaktadır. Delilcilik konusundaki tartışmalara John Locke’un eserlerinde de rastlanmaktadır. Epistemolojisini ve dolayısıyla da inanç anlayışını olabildiğince sağlam bir temele oturtmak isteyen Locke, yetersiz delile binaen bir şeye inanmayı veya inancımızı elimizdeki delillerin gücüne göre orantılı tutmamayı bize verilen yetilere karşı bir hakaret olduğunu (...) söylemiştir. Akıl ve inanç arasından kesin bir ayrım yapan Locke, aklın doğal bir vahiy, vahyin de ilahi bir akıl olduğunu ve inanç konusunda aklın rehberliğinin şart olduğunu söylemiştir. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:274 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY poisoning, spying, etc., which would render postwar mutual confidence impossible, shall not be countenanced. It is mainly with an eye to these preliminary articles that Professor Wilhelm Miiller argues for Kant's relevance to contemporary political problems. Miiller begins by drawing an analogy between the Peace of Basle (1795) and the Treaty of Versailles: in both instances, it is claimed, secret reservations at the treaty table, (...) the identification of defeated nation with "guilty" nation, and the deprivation of an entire "guiltless" people of "the most primitive right to live" helped lay the foundations for future wars. Miiller sees in the willful dispersion, through motives of revenge and greed, of the possessions of conquered nations after both World Wars a "reversion to the wildest barbarism." He defends Kant's stricture against standing armies as being "simply and logically irrefutable" in spite of Kant's toleration--understandable in 1795--of limited and voluntary militias adequate for national defense. He infers from Kant's warning against national economic dependency the urgent need to exclude international capitalism from world politics. He suggests that Kant's principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of nations has been violated in the splitting of East from West Germany. And he insinuates that the present form of government in the U.S. is democratic and republican only in name, being in actuality a capitalist oligarchy whose two-party system tends to degenerate into a one-party system. Professor Miiller is entitled to his views. The reader, however, is entitled to a more objective exposition of Kant's essay and perhaps even to hope for a more critical and searching appraisal of Kant's doctrines. One opportunity for the latter surely offers itself in regard to Kant's analogy between personal and international morality. The analogy might conceivably break down over the difficulty of assigning collective moral and legal responsibility. If, as Kant maintains, a state is a moral person, it should follow that it and not merely its constituent members taken singly has moral responsibility for what it undertakes. Leaving aside the question of whether or not Kant thought through the implications of his premise, it is clear that Professor Miiller has not done so. Whereas he considers atrocious the branding of the German people as guilty of international crime in either World War, he allows himself the judgment that the "Christian" people of Europe and America were guilty of mass-murder on both occasions. The inconsistency is evident. Left unexamined and even unmentioned are the following: Kant's well-known ethical principles--the concept of practical reason, the phenomenal-noumenal duality, the notion of design in nature, the doctrine of the Categorical Imperative binding on any rational will--upon which he explicitly grounds Perpetual Peace; his efforts to refute the notion of theoretical conflict between morality and politics; his misleading use of the language of the social contract theorists throughout the essay; his proposal, anticipatory of later British philosophers, that the principle of publicity is a necessary if not sufficient condition of morally proper legislation. Perpetual Peace deserves more than Professor Mfiller has given it. PETER FUSS University of California, Riverside The Earlier Letters of John Stuart Mill 1812-1848. Edited by Francis E. Mineka, with an Introduction by F. A. Hayek. Two vols. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, Routledge g: Kegan Paul. Pp. xxvii + 784. $20.00.) These two volumes of early correspondence are the first volumes to appear of a projected new edition of Mill's collected works. If the subsequent volumes maintain the high level of competence achieved here, the new edition will prove a valuable assistance to nineteenth- BOOK REVIEWS 275 century scholars. Of the 537 letters published, 238 have never before been in print, and 72 others have hitherto appeared only in part. Most of the work of assembling the letters was done by F. A. Hayek, but the extremely useful annotation was prepared by Francis E. Mineka. We are told that he and Dwight N. Lindley are planning an edition of the later letters (1849-1873). The earliest letter extant (printed in facsimile and hitherto unpublished) was written, at the age of 6, to Bentham. It... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:274 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY poisoning, spying, etc., which would render postwar mutual confidence impossible, shall not be countenanced. It is mainly with an eye to these preliminary articles that Professor Wilhelm Miiller argues for Kant's relevance to contemporary political problems. Miiller begins by drawing an analogy between the Peace of Basle (1795) and the Treaty of Versailles: in both instances, it is claimed, secret reservations at the treaty table, (...) the identification of defeated nation with "guilty" nation, and the deprivation of an entire "guiltless" people of "the most primitive right to live" helped lay the foundations for future wars. Miiller sees in the willful dispersion, through motives of revenge and greed, of the possessions of conquered nations after both World Wars a "reversion to the wildest barbarism." He defends Kant's stricture against standing armies as being "simply and logically irrefutable" in spite of Kant's toleration--understandable in 1795--of limited and voluntary militias adequate for national defense. He infers from Kant's warning against national economic dependency the urgent need to exclude international capitalism from world politics. He suggests that Kant's principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of nations has been violated in the splitting of East from West Germany. And he insinuates that the present form of government in the U.S. is democratic and republican only in name, being in actuality a capitalist oligarchy whose two-party system tends to degenerate into a one-party system. Professor Miiller is entitled to his views. The reader, however, is entitled to a more objective exposition of Kant's essay and perhaps even to hope for a more critical and searching appraisal of Kant's doctrines. One opportunity for the latter surely offers itself in regard to Kant's analogy between personal and international morality. The analogy might conceivably break down over the difficulty of assigning collective moral and legal responsibility. If, as Kant maintains, a state is a moral person, it should follow that it and not merely its constituent members taken singly has moral responsibility for what it undertakes. Leaving aside the question of whether or not Kant thought through the implications of his premise, it is clear that Professor Miiller has not done so. Whereas he considers atrocious the branding of the German people as guilty of international crime in either World War, he allows himself the judgment that the "Christian" people of Europe and America were guilty of mass-murder on both occasions. The inconsistency is evident. Left unexamined and even unmentioned are the following: Kant's well-known ethical principles--the concept of practical reason, the phenomenal-noumenal duality, the notion of design in nature, the doctrine of the Categorical Imperative binding on any rational will--upon which he explicitly grounds Perpetual Peace; his efforts to refute the notion of theoretical conflict between morality and politics; his misleading use of the language of the social contract theorists throughout the essay; his proposal, anticipatory of later British philosophers, that the principle of publicity is a necessary if not sufficient condition of morally proper legislation. Perpetual Peace deserves more than Professor Mfiller has given it. PETER FUSS University of California, Riverside The Earlier Letters of John Stuart Mill 1812-1848. Edited by Francis E. Mineka, with an Introduction by F. A. Hayek. Two vols. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, Routledge g: Kegan Paul. Pp. xxvii + 784. $20.00.) These two volumes of early correspondence are the first volumes to appear of a projected new edition of Mill's collected works. If the subsequent volumes maintain the high level of competence achieved here, the new edition will prove a valuable assistance to nineteenth- BOOK REVIEWS 275 century scholars. Of the 537 letters published, 238 have never before been in print, and 72 others have hitherto appeared only in part. Most of the work of assembling the letters was done by F. A. Hayek, but the extremely useful annotation was prepared by Francis E. Mineka. We are told that he and Dwight N. Lindley are planning an edition of the later letters (1849-1873). The earliest letter extant (printed in facsimile and hitherto unpublished) was written, at the age of 6, to Bentham. It... (shrink)

Robust human enhancement technologies (R-HETs) pose challenging sets of ethical questions to researchers and legislators alike. John Basl's provocative article (2010) starts from the familiar assum...

Kur’an tefsirleri muhteva, metot, yararlandığı malzeme, odaklandığı meseleler, hitap ettiği okur kitlesi ve dil kullanımı gibi çeşitli açılardan benzerlik ve farklılık göstermektedir. Tefsirler bu kesişim ve ayrışım noktaları göz önünde bulundurularak sınıflandırılmıştır. Tefsirleri tasnif etme işinde kronolojik seyre tabi olmak diğerlerine nispetle daha az riskli bir çaba olarak görülebilir. Zira tefsirleri tematik başlıklar halinde kategorize etmek yahut tefsirlerin metodunu merkeze alarak sınıflandırmak öznel değerlendirmelerden hareket eden yapısı hasebiyle tenkitleri ve spekülatif yorumları da beraberinde getirebilir. Tasnif, basit bir kategorize işinden ziyade (...) zihinsel öncüllerin devreye girdiği bir süreçtir. Bu makalede John Wansbrough’un (öl. 2002) Kur’an tefsirlerine yönelik tasnifi incelenmektedir. İslam tefsir geleneğinde üretilen kavramları kullanmaktan ısrarla kaçınan yazarın, Kutsal Kitap tefsir literatüründen adlandırmalara yer vermesi tenkide açık bir meseledir. Rivâyet ve dirâyet kavramlarının yerine haggadic ve halakhic terimlerinin kullanımı, tefsir türlerinin tasnifinde etkileşim yahut intihal olgusunu ihsas ettirmesi bakımından araştırılmaya değer bir konudur. Her iki gelenekte tefsirin teşekkülüne dair tarihsel verilerin ortaya konması ve kültürel alışverişlerde hâkim unsurun tespiti sayesinde, İslam tefsir türlerinin tasnifinde orijinallik iddiası yahut intihal söylemi açığa çıkacaktır. Bu yazı, iki kültür arasında etkileşimin yaşandığı çeşitli sahalardan veriler sunmak suretiyle Wansbrough’un İslam tefsir geleneğine dair iddiasındaki çelişkileri ortaya koymayı hedeflemektedir. (shrink)

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was a British philosopher, political economist, civil servant, and Member of Parliament.

We will next speak of Liberality. Now this is thought to be the mean state, having for its object-matter Wealth: I mean, the Liberal man is praised not in the circumstances of war, nor in those which constitute the character of perfected self-mastery, nor again in judicial decisions, but in respect of giving and receiving Wealth, chiefly the former. By the term Wealth I mean all those things whose worth is measured by money.

Loneliness in medicine is a serious problem not just for patients, for whom illness is intrinsically isolating, but also for physicians in the contemporary condition of medicine. We explore this problem by investigating the ideal physician-patient relationship, whose analogy with friendship has held enduring normative appeal. Drawing from Talbot Brewer and Nir Ben-Moshe, we argue that this appeal lies in a dynamic form of companionship incompatible with static models of friendship-like physician-patient relationships: a mutual refinement of embodied virtue that draws (...) both persons together. The ideal physician-patient relationship has a dialectical character that fosters each member's improvement of phenomenologically recognizing and embodying moral virtues. A key component of this dynamic is a commitment to the common goal of the patient's health, realized through joint interactivities and conversations over time. The physician's presence to the patient's suffering—understood best as an alienating phenomenological condition for the patient—orients and discloses possibilities for virtuous caregiving by structuring the meanings of the goals, conversations, and joint narrative constitutive of their relationship. Presence to suffering, paradoxically, is perhaps an important prerequisite for this dynamic partnership. These activities dialectically build an interpretive horizon of understanding through which moral goods and character refinement—in and for the other—may become revealed for both persons in their shared being-in-the-world. This analysis of suffering, mood, and revealing of (possible) moral goods has implications for addressing the modern problem of loneliness for patients and physicians, who are increasingly inhibited from building flourishing relationships with each other. (shrink)

Many real-world agents recognise that they impose harms by choosing to emit carbon, e.g., by flying. Yet many do so anyway, and then attempt to make things right by offsetting those harms. Such offsetters typically believe that, by offsetting, they change the deontic status of their behaviour, making an otherwise impermissible action permissible. Do they succeed in practice? Some philosophers have argued that they do, since their offsets appear to reverse the adverse effects of their emissions. But we show that (...) they do not. In practice, standard carbon offsetting does not reverse the harms of the original action, nor does it even benefit the same group as was harmed. Standard moral theories hence deny that such offsetting succeeds. Indeed, we show that any moral theory that allows offsetting in this setting faces a dilemma between allowing any wrong to be offset, no matter how grievous, and recognising an implausibly sharp discontinuity between offsettable actions and non-offsettable actions. The most plausible response is to accept that carbon offsetting fails to right our climate wrongs. (shrink)

My critics in this symposium illustrate one principle and three fallacies of disability studies. The principle, which we all share, is that all persons are equal and none are less equal than others. No disability, however slight, nor however severe, implies lesser moral, political or ethical status, worth or value. This is a version of the principle of equality. The three fallacies exhibited by some or all of my critics are the following: Choosing to repair damage or dysfunction or to (...) enhance function, implies either that the previous state is intolerable or that the person in that state is of lesser value or indicates that the individual in that state has a life that is not worthwhile or not thoroughly worth living. None of these implications hold. Exercising choice in reproduction with the aim of producing children who will be either less damaged or diseased, or more healthy, or who will have enhanced capacities, violates the principle or equality. It does not. Disability or impairment must be defined relative either to normalcy, “normal species functioning”, or “species typical functioning”. It is not necessarily so defined. (shrink)

This paper discusses the role of consent in decision making generally and its role in end of life decisions in particular. It outlines a conception of autonomy which explains and justifies the role of consent in decision making and criticises some misapplications of the idea of consent, particular the role of fictitious or “proxy” consents.Where the inevitable outcome of a decision must be that a human individual will die and where that individual is a person who can consent, then that (...) decision is ethical if and only if the individual consents. In very rare and extreme cases such a decision will be ethical in the absence of consent where it would be massively cruel not to end life in order to prevent suffering which is in no other way preventable.Where, however, the human individual is not a person, as is the case with abortion, the death of infants like Mary , or in the very rare and extreme cases of those who have ceased to be persons like Tony Bland, such decisions are governed by the ethics of ending the lives of non-persons. (shrink)

There are already many excellent books on existentialism. Some of them deal with particular problem or particular existentialist writers. Most of those that deal with existentialism as a whole divide their subject-matter according to authors, presenting chapters on Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre, and the rest. Thus I think that there is room for the present book, which attempts a comprehensive examination and evaluation of existentialism, but does so by thematic treatment. That is to say, each chapter deals with a major theme (...) of existentialist philosophy, and these themes are arranged in the order of the existential dialect. Of course, each chapter is illustrated with material from the writings of existentialists, from Kierkegaard to Camus. (shrink)

Cadaver organs should be automatically availableThe shortage of donor organs and tissue for transplantation constitutes an acute emergency which demands radical rethinking of our policies and radical measures. While estimates vary and are difficult to arrive at there is no doubt that the donor organ shortage costs literally hundreds of thousands of lives every year. “In the world as a whole there are an estimated 700 000 patients on dialysis . . .. In India alone 100 000 new patients present (...) with kidney failure each year” . Almost “three million Americans suffer from congestive heart failure . . . deaths related to this condition are estimated at 250 000 each year . . . 27 000 patients die annually from liver disease . . .. In Western Europe as a whole 40 000 patients await a kidney but only . . . 10 000 kidneys”1 become available. Nobody knows how many people fail to make it onto the waiting lists and fail to register in the statistics. “As of 24th November 2002 in the United Kingdom 667 people have donated organs, 2055 people have received transplants, and 5615 people are still awaiting transplants.”2Conscious of the terrible and unnecessary tragedy that figures like these represent I have been advocating for more than 20 years now some radical measures to stem this appalling waste of human life. The measure which is the subject of Hamer and Rivlin’s paper 3 concerns the automatic availability of all cadaver organs—a measure, which I first advocated publicly in 1983.4THE AUTOMATIC AVAILABILITY OF DONOR ORGANSWe need to begin by being clear about just what it is I propose and why. At the moment in the United Kingdom we …. (shrink)

Moderate scientism is the view that empirical science can help answer questions in nonscientific disciplines. In this paper, we evaluate moderate scientism in philosophy. We review several ways that science has contributed to research in epistemology, action theory, ethics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind. We also review several ways that science has contributed to our understanding of how philosophers make judgments and decisions. Based on this research, we conclude that the case for moderate philosophical scientism is strong: scientific (...) practice has promoted significant progress in philosophy and its further development should be welcomed and encouraged. (shrink)

Analysing film. Distinguishing the filmic contribution to meaning -- Examples of filmic "textual organisation" -- Redrawing boundaries -- Organisation of the book -- Semiotics and documents. Semiotics and its relations to film -- The nature of discourse semantics -- The film as cinematographic document -- A combined view: filmic documents for filmic discourse -- Constructing the semiotic mode of film. Semiotic multimodality -- The internal organisation of semiotic strata -- Composing and combining semiotic modes -- Materiality and "epistemological commitment" -- (...) Christian Metz and the grande syntagmatique of the image track. The original model -- Two examples of analysis with the grande syntagmatique -- Revisions and rebuttals -- Foundations for analysis: filmic units. The basic units of film: preliminaries -- Audiovisual iconic representations -- Perception, perceptual realism and reliable measurement -- Multiplicity: from perception to discourse -- Filmic units revisited: discourse-motivated definitions -- The paradigmatic organisation of film. Beyond Metz: towards a grande paradigmatique -- Capturing discourse dependency structures in film -- The paradigmatic dimensions of projection, taxis and plane -- Two examples of paradigmatic analysis -- Summary and conclusions. (shrink)

The reviews of this book which greeted its appearance in America, where it won a Catholic Press Association Religious Book Award, speak for themselves. 'The real core of the book is the question that is raised - the demanding bone-crushing question we all face - alone - at one time - the question of death/life and immortality. In these few pages we set out on a journey - one that winds its way among ancient stories and myths ... one's constant (...) disturbing companion is death - a reality that keeps breaking in upon our imes, our friends, our dreams and hopes and even our changing and becoming. The richness of the book lies in the questioning and some of the answers other men's times have given in attempt to live with this probing. We meet Kazantzakis, Homer, Melville, Hegel, Dante in their humanness in the face of death and in their timeless answers' (National Catholic Reporter). From the Protestant side, Martin Marty commented how John Dunne, 'perhaps the most intuitive and natively talented Catholic around, has cast a new spell', and The Critic remarked: 'As a meditation ought to be, it is simple and profound at once. And it is beautifully done, in some ways the richest of John Dunne's works.' All of which amounts to an invitation to join the author as he poses the timeless dilemma of the human condition and seeks to resolve it through stories of adventures, journeys and voyages inspired by man's encounter with death; stories of childhood, youth, manhood and age; and finally stories of God and of man wrestling with God and the unknown. (shrink)

Kelâm âlimleri “mûcize” kavramını iki farklı şekilde tarif etmişlerdir. Bunlardan ilkinde mûcize “Peygamber olduğunu ileri süren kimsenin elinde, onun doğruluğunu kanıtlamak için meydana gelen hârikulâde olay” şeklinde tanımlanmıştır. İkinci tarife göre ise mûcize: “Peygamberlik iddia eden bir zâtın elinde, inkârcılara meydan okuduğu bir sırada, kendisini doğrular mâhiyette, başkalarının benzerini yapamadıkları, Allah tarafından yaratılan, olağanüstü olay”lara verilen addır. Tanımlardan da anlaşılacağı üzere “mûcize” kelimesiyle genel olarak “hissî mûcize”lere işaret edilmektedir. Zaten “mûcize” teriminin kelâmî metinlerde yer almaya başladığı IV. yy. dan itibaren (...) genelde Hz. Peygamber’in (s) hissî mucizelerinin bulunup bulunmağı temelinde tartışmalar yaşanmıştır. Hatta Kur’ân’da yer verilen geçmiş peygamberlere ait hissî mucize örneklerinden hareketle mesele zaman zaman peygamberlerin hissî mucizelerinin birbiriyle yarıştırılması boyutuna kadar taşınmıştır. Tüm bu tartışma safahatında geçmişte ve günümüzde ihmal edilen, gözden kaçırılan ya da yeteri kadar değer verilmeyen -bizce en önemli ve bugün de gözle görülür, dost, düşman, insaf sahibi herkesin takdirle karşıladığı- mûcize örneği ise Hz. Peygamber’in topyekûn dinî ve siyasî alanda sergilediği insanları dönüştürme kabiliyetidir. Kaldı ki Hz. Peygamber’in bu türden sergilediği mûcize örnekleri geçmişte bir noktada yaşanmış ve misyonunu tamamlayarak tarihin dehlizlerinde kaybolmuş da değildir. Aksine bu dönüştürme ameliyesi nebevî prensiplerin ikâmesi ile asr-ı saadette ve sonrasında olduğu gibi günümüzde ve kıyamete kadar devam edecek olan zaman dilimlerinde de örnekliğini sürdürmeye ve fonksiyonunu icra etmeye devam edecektir. Hz. Peygamber’in başta Bedir Savaşı ve Hudeybiye Antlaşması olmak üzere birçok siyasî alanda yine bireysel ve toplumsal olarak içinde yaşadığı toplumun yüceltilip yükseltilmesinde olağanüstü bir başarı sağladığı yadsınamaz bir gerçektir. Elde ettiği başarıların kendisini hiçbir şekilde asıl hedefinden, tevhid merkezli yaşantısından uzaklaştırmaması, günün sonunda yine “rabbine şükreden bir kul” vasfını koruması onun şahsî kemâlinin ve vahye muhatap oluşunun en büyük göstergelerindendir. John William Draper (ö. 1882) gibi Batılı bilim insanlarına şu türden cümleleri kurduran en mühim sâik de kuşkusuz Hz. Peygamber’in sözünü ettiğimiz o eşsiz dönüştürme kabiliyetidir: “Tüm insanlar arasında, insan ırkına en fazla tesir eden kişi, Justinianus'un ölümünden dört yıl sonra Mekke’de, Arabistan'da doğan kişidir. Pek çok imparatorluğun manevî ve dinî lideri olmak, insan ırkının üçte birinin günlük hayatını yönlendirmek, belki de ‘Allah'ın Elçisi’ unvanının gerçek olduğunun delilidir.” İşte “Bir Mûcize Örneği Olarak Hz. Peygamber’in İnsanları Dönüştürme Kabiliyeti” başlığını taşıyan bu makale, müslüman toplumun kendi ekseninde yükselmesi ve yücelmesi adına hayatî önemi hâiz, günümüz insanının hayat felsefesine yön vermesi açısından da son derece kıymetli ve yol gösterici olan Son Elçi’nin bireyi, toplumu ve insanlığı dönüştürme kabiliyetini onun vahye muhatap kimliği ve tevhid eksenli hayatı çerçevesinde ortaya koymayı hedeflemektedir. (shrink)

Kalam Research & Media tarafından John Templeton Foundation işbirliğiyle organize edilen "Understanding Matüridi Kalam - Legacy, Present & Future Challanges" başlıklı sempozyum 28-29 Ekim 2017 tarihlerinde Ürdün'ün başkenti Amman'da Olive Tree Hotel'de gerçekleştirildi. İki gün süren sempozyumda ABD, İngiltere, Avustralya, Filistin, Ürdün ve Türkiye'den bir araya gelen araştırmacılar Mâtüridî mezhebinde öne çıkan çeşitli konularda Arapça ve İngilizce tebliğler sundu. Açılış, kapanış ve beş oturum şeklinde düzenlenen sempozyum toplam on üç tebliğden oluşmaktaydı. Paralel oturumların olmaması katılımcıların bütün sunumları dinleyip müzakere (...) edebilmesine imkân sağladı. (shrink)

John Dillon presents an English translation of Alcinous' Handbook of Platonism, accompanied by an introduction and a philosophical commentary which explain the ideas in the work and show their intellectual and historical context. The Handbook purports to be an introduction to the doctrines of Plato, but in fact gives us an excellent survey of Platonist thought in the second century AD.

This brief paper shows that the idea of benefits to the subject compensating for the harms of disability is at best self defeating and at worst sinister. Equally benefits to third parties while real are dubious as compensating factors. This shows that disabilities are just that, a net loss and not a net gain.

Sahip olduğu akademik imkânların ve başta İngilizce olmak üzere birçok dilde uluslararası yayınların çokluğu nedeniyle Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’ndeki İslam çalışmaları yoğun, üretken ve dünya genelinde ilgiyle takip edilen bir alandır. Ancak Batı’daki üniversitelerin genelinde olduğu gibi Amerikan üniversitelerinde de İslam felsefesi/tarihi çalışmaları oldukça zayıftır. Bu makalede öncelikle geçmişten günümüze İslam çalışmalarının ABD’deki durumu tasviri bir metotla ortaya konulmakta ve İslam Felsefesinin ABD’deki İslam çalışmaları içerisindeki zayıf konumu sorgulanmaktadır. İkinci olarak Post-Oryantalist süreçte İslam Felsefesi çalışmalarında öne çıkan isimler ve çalışmaları değerlendirilmektedir. (...) Sonuç olarak ABD üniversite sisteminin genel yapısının gereği olarak İslam Felsefesi çalışmaları nicelik bakımından Avrupa ve İslam coğrafyasından daha zayıf olduğu görülmektedir. Bu durumu iki şekilde açıklamak mümkündür. Birincisi alanın Amerikan devlet felsefesinin temel ilkesi olan bilgi-güç hedefi ve alanın politik çıkarlarıyla ilişkisinin zayıflığıdır. Bu durum Post-Oryantalist eğilimin arka planını da oluşturmaktadır. İkincisi ise fenomenolojist yönteme olan ilginin artması ve Amerikan yükseköğretim sisteminde hâkim olan kozmopolitanizm ve interdisiplinerci yaklaşımlardır.Özet: Dünyanın önde gelen üniversitelerinde İslam çalışmaları ve bu çalışmalar içerisinde yer alan İslam felsefesi çalışmalarının önemli bir akademik ilgi alanı olduğu görülmektedir. Bu ilgi ABD’de de yaklaşık 150 yıllık bir geçmişe sahiptir. Son yıllarda Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nde İslam çalışmalarında sadece ciddi bir artış değil aynı zamanda çeşitlenme de söz konusu olmuştur. ABD’deki İslam çalışmaları ve özelde İslam felsefesi çalışmalarının durumunu birlikte ele alan akademik araştırmalar ise henüz bulunmamaktadır. Son gelişmeleri de dikkate alarak alanla ilgili araştırmaların sürdürülmesi ve İslam felsefesi çalışmalarının da noksan bırakılan izinin sürülmesi gerekmektedir. Bu noktadan hareketle bu makale çalışması, üniversite müfredatlarıyla ilgili araştırmalar, web taramaları ve yazılı materyaller üzerinden gerçekleştirilecek ve ilgili kitaplar, makaleler ve diğer kaynaklar taranarak konu hakkında deskriptif bilgiler sunulacaktır. Bu yöntemin tercih edilme nedeni derinlemesine bir araştırmadan daha çok genel resmi ortaya koymak ve mevcut durum hakkında bilgi vermektir. Sahanın genişliği ve kaynakların çeşitliliği ve konunun daha özel ve yoğun bir çalışma gerektiren yapısı nedeniyle diğer yöntemler tercih edilmemiştir Çalışma iki ana başlıktan oluşmaktadır. Birincisi ABD’deki İslam çalışmalarının konumu ile ilgilidir. Bu başlık altında 18. yüzyıldan itibaren İslam çalışmalarının ABD’deki seyri hakkında bilgi verilmekte ve İslam çalışmalarının günümüzdeki konumu detaylandırılmaktadır. İkinci başlık İslam Felsefesi çalışmalarının İslam çalışmaları içerisindeki ve ABD akademilerindeki konumuyla ilgilidir. Bu başlık altında İslam Felsefesi çalışmalarının geçmişten günümüze kadar gelinen süreçte geçirdiği evreler tasvir edilmekte ve bazı isimlerin ve eserlerinin değerlendirmesi yapılmaktır. İncelemeler sonucunda ABD’deki İslam çalışmalarının geçmişinin yaklaşık 150 yıla tekabül etmesine rağmen yeterli seviyeye ulaşmadığı görüldü. Hâlbuki sahip olduğu Müslüman nüfus, akademik imkânlar ve başta İngilizce olmak üzere birçok dilde uluslararası yayınların çokluğu nedeniyle ABD’deki İslam çalışmalarının beklenenden daha yoğun, üretken olması beklenirdi. Ancak buna rağmen Daha çok Fenomenolojist ve İnterdisipliner yaklaşımın tercih edildiği Amerikan üniversitelerinin akademik kadro çeşitliliği ve başta İngilizce olmak üzere farklı dillerdeki yayın yelpazesinin genişliği ve son yıllarda yeni bir durum olan sosyal medyaya açık akademik faaliyetler ABD’nin İslam çalışmaları alanındaki etkinliğini giderek arttırmaktadır. Geçmişte İslam çalışmalarında öncü rolü oynayan İngiltere, Fransa, Almanya ve Hollanda gibi ülkelerde öteden beri oryantalist eğilimi temsil eden bu tür çalışmalar günümüz ABD üniversitelerinde interdisipliner ve multidisipliner bir format kazarak devam etmektedir. ABD’deki İslam çalışmaları üzerinde yoğunlaşan akademik çalışmalara göre İslam çalışmalarına yön veren en önemli etken oryantalist eğilimlerdir. Bunun yanında 11 Eylül olaylarının sonucunda da artan bir ilgiden söz etmek gerekmektedir. Bu ilgi sadece alanda yeni istihdam imkânlarının oluşmasına değil aynı zamanda araştırmacı sayısının da artmasına neden olmuştur. Çalışmamın ikinci kısmını oluşturan ABD üniversitelerindeki İslam felsefesi çalışmalarının genel durumuna bakılacak olursa bu çalışmaların sosyoloji, antropoloji ve kültür çalışmaları gibi alanlarda görülen çeşitliliğe de sahip olduğunu söylemek oldukça zordur. ABD üniversitelerindeki İslam felsefesi çalışmaları İslam çalışmaları genel çatısı altında sürdürülmektedir. Bu alandaki çalışmalar başlarda daha çok oryantalist eğilimi temsil eden Philip Hittî, Leo Strauss, Muhsin Mehdî, Fazlurrahmân, İsmâil Râci Fârukî, Mâcid Haddûrî, Moshe Pearlmann, gibi önemli isimler tarafından sürdürülmekteydi. Günümüzde Charles Butterworth, Seyyid Hüseyin Nasr, Oliver Leaman, Dimitri Gutas, Robert Wisnovsky, Frank Griffel, John Walbridge ve daha birçok isim yeni eğilimin temsilcileri olarak alanla ilgili çalışmalarını sürdürmektedir. Bu araştırmacılar, Amerikan akademik siteminin bir sonucu olarak sadece İslam felsefesi değil aynı zamanda İslam bilim tarihi, İslam tarihi ve medeniyeti, İslam ve Batı vb. alanlarda da yayınlar yapmakta ve İslam çalışmalarının sürdürüldüğü çeşitli üniversitelerde dersler vermekte ve lisansüstü seviyede öğrenciler yetiştirmektedir. Bu noktadan hareketle diyebiliriz ki İslam felsefesi çalışmaları ise diğer İslam çalışmalarına kıyasla daha da zayıftır. Bu durumun sebeplerini şu şekilde açıklamak mümkündür:1-Amerikan devlet felsefesinin temel ilkesi olan bilgi-güç hedefi ve alanın politik çıkarlarıyla ilişkisinin zayıflığı. Bilimlerle kurulan bu politik çıkar ilişkisi Post-Oryantalist eğilimin arka planını da oluşturmaktadır. 2-Amerikan Üniversitelerinde fenomenolojist yönteme olan ilginin artması ve Amerikan yükseköğretim sisteminde hâkim olan kozmopolitanizm ve interdisiplinerci yaklaşımlar.3-Amerikan üniversitelerindeki Yakın Doğu, Ortadoğu ve İslam Çalışmalarında İslam felsefesi dersleri felsefenin ya da felsefe tarihinin bir parçası olarak müfredatta yer alması. Amerikan üniversitelerinde standart müfredat sistemi yaygın olmadığından İslam felsefesi ile ilgili dersler bölümden daha çok ders veren hocanın ilgisine ve isteğine bağlı olarak verilmektedir.4-Kıta Avrupası’nda görülen katı oryantalist eğilimlerin nisbeten azlığı ve ABD devlet politikalarının gereği olarak şekillenen havuz usulü müfredat.5-Bazı İslam felsefesi uzmanlarının alanı terk ederek daha çok aktüel tartışmalara yönelmesi ve daha çok Müslümanların geri kalmışlığı sorunundan hareketle üretilen problemlere odaklanması. Son olarak İslam felsefesi çalışmaları Müslümanların genelinin ilgilendiği bir disiplin olmadığı için üniversite dışında İslam felsefesi çalışmalarının yürütüldüğü kurumsal yapılar ABD’de de henüz teşekkül etmemiştir. Bazı bölümlerde İslam Felsefesi İslam düşüncesi tarihinin bir alt dalı olarak varlığını sürdürmektedir. Ancak İslam felsefesi müstakil bir alan olarak kendisine henüz ABD üniversitelerinde yer bulamamıştır. USA’da artan İslam çalışmalarının yeterli düzeyde olmasa da dünyadaki islam çalışmalarına yön verebilecek noktaya ulaştığını söylemek mümkündür. (shrink)

Bu yazı rüyasız uykuyu bilincin çeperinde kalan bir fenomen, Edmund Husserl’in deyimiyle deneyimin bir sınır-durumu (Limesfall) olarak ele almaktadır. Fenomenolojik açıdan, rüyasız uyku bize gündelik hayatımıza şekil veren olağan deneyimlere özgü uyanık bilinçliliğin ardına geçmeyi dayatır. Uyurken bilinç asla ortadan kalkmaz. Dolayısıyla ölümden farksız ve bilinçten tamamen yoksun mutlak bir uyku teorik bir kurgudan ibarettir. Yazının birinci bölümünde felsefe tarihi boyunca rüyasız uyku hakkında görüş ileri süren filozoflar üzerinde durulmaktadır. Immanuel Kant’ın tam aksine John Locke rüyasız bir uykuya imkân (...) tanır. Fakat rüyasız uykuyu bilinçsiz bir zihin hali olarak kabul eden Locke’dan farklı olarak felsefede uyuyan zihne bir duyarlık atfeden René Descartes, G.W. Leibniz ve (başlı başına üçüncü bölümü kendisine ayırdığımız) Husserl gibi filozoflar bilincin uykuda hiçbir zaman tamamen ortadan kalkmayacağı tezini destekler. Ne var ki uykudaki zayıf bilinçliliği göz önünde bulundurmayı önleyen engellerin başında bilinci refleksiyonun bir başarısı olarak görmek gelir. Bilinci refleksiyona eşitleyen her yaklaşım uyurken tamamen bilinçsiz olduğumuz inancını destekleyecektir. Bunun sebebi uykuda refleksiyonun mevcut olmamasıdır. Oysa sadece uyanıkken mümkün olan refleksiyon faaliyeti ortadan kalktığında bile bulanık, edilgin ve cılız bir arka plan bilinci varlığına devam eder. Dahası, uyurken uyanabilmenin yegâne koşulu böylesi bir bulanık bilince zaten sahip olmamızdır. Uyanabilmek için bizi dışarıdan etkileyenin öne çıkıp bir fark yaratacak biçimde bilincinde olmak gerekir. (shrink)

This paperback edition reproduces the complete text of the Essay as prepared by professor Nidditch for The Clarendon Edition of the Works of John Locke. The Register of Formal Variants and the Glossary are omitted and Professor Nidditch has written a new foreword.

Moral Absolutes sets forth a vigorous but careful critique of much recent work in moral theology. It is illustrated with examples from the most controversial aspects of Christian moral doctrine, and a frank account is given of the roots of the upheaval in Roman Catholic moral theology in and after the 1960s.

Utilizing a contractualist framework for understanding the basis and limits for the use of force by police, this article offers five limiting principles—respect for status as moral agents, proportionality, minimum force necessary, ends likely to be accomplished, and appropriate motivation—and then discusses uses of force that violate or risk violating those principles. These include, but are not limited to, unseemly invasions, strip searches, perp walks, handcuffing practices, post-chase apprehensions, contempt-of-cop arrests, overuse of intermediate force measures, coerced confessions, profiling, stop and (...) frisk practices, and the administration of street justice. (shrink)