Philosophy of biology, e.g., scientific method in biology, the structure of evolutionary theory, teleology, ethics, and evolution. Course work includes one 4,word and four 1,word papers. Prerequisite: Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing requirement. Same as LPS W, BIO SCI EW. Restriction: Juniors only. (Ib) Jan 26, · Recent debate in ethics and political philosophy has focused on the following questions: , Benatar notes that the moral costs of forced abortion or sterilization are “immense,” but thinks that the moral costs of moderate coercion or directive counseling should be weighed against the moral costs of harm to future children (Benatar Mar 25, · John Rawls (b. , d. ) was an American political philosopher in the liberal tradition. His theory of justice as fairness describes a society of free citizens holding equal basic rights and cooperating within an egalitarian economic system. His theory of political liberalism explores the legitimate use of political power in a democracy, and envisions how civic unity might endure despite
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John Rawls b. His theory of justice as fairness describes a society of free citizens holding equal basic rights and cooperating within an egalitarian economic system. His theory of political liberalism explores the legitimate use of political power in a democracy, and envisions how civic unity might endure despite the diversity of worldviews that free institutions allow. Philosophy papers on abortion writings on the law of peoples set out a liberal foreign policy that aims to create a permanently peaceful and tolerant international order.
Rawls was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. His father was a prominent lawyer, philosophy papers on abortion, his mother was a chapter president philosophy papers on abortion the League of Women Voters. Hart, Isaiah Berlin, and Stuart Hampshire. His first professorial appointments were at Cornell and MIT. In Rawls joined the faculty at Harvard, where he taught for more than thirty years. The exceptions were two wars.
As a college student, Rawls wrote an intensely religious senior thesis BI and had considered studying for the priesthood. Yet Rawls lost his Christian faith as an infantryman in World War II on seeing the capriciousness of death in combat and learning of the horrors of the Holocaust. Then in the s, Rawls spoke out against the draft for the Vietnam war because it discriminated against black and poor Americans.
Rawls first set out justice as fairness in systematic detail in his book, A Theory of Justice. Rawls continued to rework justice as fairness throughout his life, restating the theory in Political LiberalismThe Law of Peoplesand Justice as Fairness The first role is practical: philosophy can propose grounds for reasoned agreement when sharp political divisions threaten to lead to violent conflict. A second role of political philosophy is to help citizens to orient themselves within their own social world.
Philosophy can meditate on what it is to be a member of a certain society—in a democracy, an equal citizen—and offer a unifying framework for answering divisive philosophy papers on abortion about how people with that political status should relate to each other.
A third role is to probe the limits of political possibility. Political philosophy must describe workable political arrangements that can gain support from real people. Yet within these limits, philosophy can be utopian: it can depict a social order that is the best that we can hope for. Given humans as they are, philosophy imagines laws as they might be. Philosophy can show that human life is not simply domination and philosophy papers on abortion, prejudice, folly and corruption; but that, at least in some ways, it is better that it has become as it is.
Rawls views his own work as a practical contribution to resolving the long-standing tension in democratic thought between liberty and equality, and to limning the limits of civic and of international toleration. He offers the members of democratic countries a way of understanding themselves as free and equal citizens of a society that is fair to all, and he describes a hopeful vision of a stably just constitutional democracy doing its part within a peaceful international community.
To individuals who are frustrated that their fellow citizens and fellow humans do not see the whole truth as they do, Rawls offers the reconciling thought that this diversity of worldviews results from, philosophy papers on abortion, and can support, a social order with greater freedom for all.
In contrast to the utilitarian, for Rawls political philosophy is not simply applied moral philosophy. Rawls confines his theorizing to the political domain, and within this domain he holds that the correct principles for each sub-domain depend on its particular agents and constraints.
Rawls covers the domain of the political by philosophy papers on abortion its sub-domains in sequence. The first sub-domain that he addresses is a self-contained democratic society reproducing itself across generations. Once principles are in place for such a society, Rawls moves to a second sub-domain: a society of nations, of which this democratic society is a member. Rawls suggests though he does not show that his sequence of theories could extend to cover further sub-domains, philosophy papers on abortion, such as human interactions with animals.
Universal coverage will have been achieved once this sequence is complete, each sub-domain having received the principles appropriate to it. Within each sub-domain of the political Rawls also follows a sequence: ideal theory before non-ideal theory, philosophy papers on abortion.
Ideal theory makes two types of idealizing assumptions about its subject matter. First, ideal theory assumes that all actors citizens or societies are generally willing to comply with whatever principles are chosen. Ideal theory thus idealizes away the possibility of law-breaking, either by individuals crime or societies aggressive war.
Second, philosophy papers on abortion, ideal theory assumes reasonably favorable social conditions, wherein citizens and societies are able to abide by principles of political cooperation. Citizens are not so driven by hunger, for example, that their capacity for moral reasoning is overwhelmed; nor are nations struggling to overcome famine or the failure of their states.
Completing ideal theory first, philosophy papers on abortion, Rawls says, yields a systematic understanding of how to reform our non-ideal world, and fixes a vision mentioned above of what is the best that can be hoped for.
Once ideal theory is completed for a political sub-domain, non-ideal theory can be set out by reference to the ideal. For instance, philosophy papers on abortion, once we find ideal principles for citizens who can be productive members of society over a complete life, we will be better able to frame non-ideal principles for providing health care to citizens with serious illnesses or disabilities.
Similarly, once we understand the ideal principles of international relations, we will better see how the international community should act toward failed states, as well as toward aggressive states that threaten the peace. The aim of political philosophy is to reach justified conclusions about how political life should proceed. Were one to attain reflective equilibrium, the justification of each belief would follow from all beliefs relating in these networks of mutual support and explanation.
Doing this inevitably brings out conflicts where, for example, a specific judgment clashes with a more general conviction, or where an abstract principle cannot accommodate a particular kind of case. One proceeds by revising these beliefs as necessary, striving always to increase the coherence of the whole. Because of its emphasis on coherence, reflective equilibrium is often contrasted with foundationalism as an account of justified belief.
Within foundationalist approaches, philosophy papers on abortion, some subset of beliefs is considered to be unrevisable, thereby serving as a foundation on which all other beliefs are to be based. Metaphysical beliefs about free will or personal identity might be relevant, as could epistemological beliefs about how we come to know what moral facts there are.
However, while this is correct in principle, Rawls holds that in practice productive moral and political theorizing will proceed to a large extent independent of metaphysics and epistemology. Indeed, as a methodological presumption Rawls reverses the traditional order of priority. Progress in metaethics will derive from progress in substantive moral and political theorizing, instead of as often assumed vice versa CP— In a free society, citizens will have disparate worldviews.
They will believe in different religions or none at all; they will have differing conceptions of right and wrong; they will disagree on how to live and on what relationships to value. Citizens will have contrary commitments, yet within any country there can only be one law, philosophy papers on abortion.
The law must either establish a national church, or not; women must either have equal rights, philosophy papers on abortion, or not; abortion and gay marriage must either be permissible, or not; the economy must be set up in one way or another. Rawls holds that the need to impose a unified law on a diverse citizenry raises two fundamental challenges. The first is the challenge of legitimacy : the legitimate use of coercive political power.
How can it be legitimate to coerce all citizens to follow just one law, given that citizens will inevitably hold divergent worldviews? The second challenge is the challenge of stabilitywhich looks at political power from the receiving end. Why would a citizen willingly obey a law that is imposed on her by a collective body whose members have beliefs and values so different to her own?
Yet unless most citizens willingly obey the law, no social order can be stable for long. Rawls answers these challenges of legitimacy and stability with his theory of political liberalism.
Political liberalism answers the conceptually prior questions of legitimacy and stability, so fixing the context and starting points for justice as fairness.
In a democracy, political power is always the power of the people as a collective body. In light of the diversity within a democracy, what would it mean for citizens legitimately to exercise coercive political power over one another?
According to this principle, philosophy papers on abortion, political power may only be used in ways that all citizens can reasonably be expected to endorse. The use of political power must fulfill a criterion of reciprocity : citizens must reasonably believe that all citizens can reasonably accept the enforcement of a particular set of basic laws. The liberal principle of legitimacy intensifies the challenge of legitimacy: how can any particular set of basic laws legitimately be imposed upon a pluralistic citizenry?
What constitution could all citizens reasonably be expected to endorse? Reasonable philosophy papers on abortion want to philosophy papers on abortion in a society in which they can cooperate with their fellow citizens on terms that are acceptable to all.
They are willing to propose and abide by mutually acceptable rules, given the assurance that others will also do so. They will also honor these rules, even when this means sacrificing their own particular interests. Reasonable citizens want, in short, philosophy papers on abortion, to belong to a society where political philosophy papers on abortion is legitimately used. Each reasonable citizen has her own view about God and life, right and wrong, good and bad. Each has, that is, what Rawls calls her own comprehensive doctrine.
Yet because reasonable citizens are reasonable, they are unwilling to impose their own comprehensive doctrines on others who are also willing to search for mutually agreeable rules, philosophy papers on abortion. Though each citizen may believe that she knows the truth about the best way to live, none is willing to force other reasonable citizens to live according to her beliefs, even if she belongs to a majority that has the power to enforce those beliefs on everyone.
After all, Rawls says mentioning the Inquisition, oppressive use of state power will be necessary to unite a society around any comprehensive doctrine, including the comprehensive liberalism of Kant or Mill PL One reason that reasonable citizens are so tolerant, Rawls says, is that they accept a certain explanation for the diversity of worldviews in their society.
Reasonable citizens accept the burdens of judgment. The deepest questions of religion, philosophy, and morality are very difficult to think through. Even conscientious people will answer these questions in different ways, because of their particular life experiences their upbringing, class, occupation, and so on. Reasonable citizens understand that these deep issues are ones on which people of good will can disagree, and so will be unwilling to impose their own worldviews on those who have reached conclusions different than their own.
Humans have at least the capacity for genuine toleration and mutual respect. This human capacity raises the hope that the diversity of worldviews in a democratic society may represent not merely pluralism, but reasonable pluralism. Rawls hopes, that is, that philosophy papers on abortion religious, moral, and philosophical doctrines that citizens accept will themselves endorse toleration and accept the essentials of a democratic regime.
In the religious sphere, for example, a reasonable pluralism might contain a reasonable Catholicism, a reasonable interpretation of Islam, a reasonable atheism, and so on.
Being reasonable, none of these doctrines will advocate the use of coercive political power to impose religious conformity on citizens with different beliefs. The possibility of reasonable pluralism softens but does not solve the challenge of legitimacy: how one law can legitimately be imposed on diverse citizens, philosophy papers on abortion.
For even in a society of reasonable pluralism, it would be unreasonable to expect everyone to endorse, say, a reasonable Catholicism as the basis for a constitutional settlement. Reasonable Muslims or atheists cannot be expected to endorse Catholicism as setting the basic terms for social life. Nor, of course, can Catholics be expected to accept Islam or atheism as the fundamental basis of law, philosophy papers on abortion. No comprehensive doctrine can be accepted by all reasonable citizens, and so no philosophy papers on abortion doctrine can serve as the basis for the legitimate use philosophy papers on abortion coercive political power.
For Rawls, there is only one source of philosophy papers on abortion ideas that can serve as a focal point for all reasonable citizens of a liberal society.
These fundamental ideas from the public political culture can be crafted into a shared political conception of justice. A political conception is not derived from any particular comprehensive doctrine, nor is it a compromise among the worldviews that happen to exist in society at the moment. Rather, a political conception is freestanding: its content is set out independently of the comprehensive doctrines that citizens affirm.
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Jan 26, · Recent debate in ethics and political philosophy has focused on the following questions: , Benatar notes that the moral costs of forced abortion or sterilization are “immense,” but thinks that the moral costs of moderate coercion or directive counseling should be weighed against the moral costs of harm to future children (Benatar Philosophy of biology, e.g., scientific method in biology, the structure of evolutionary theory, teleology, ethics, and evolution. Course work includes one 4,word and four 1,word papers. Prerequisite: Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing requirement. Same as LPS W, BIO SCI EW. Restriction: Juniors only. (Ib) American philosophy is the activity, corpus, and tradition of philosophers affiliated with the United blogger.com Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that while it lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can nevertheless be seen as both reflecting and shaping collective American identity over the history of the nation."
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