We provide a justification for political liberalism’s Reciprocity Principle, which states that political decisions must be justified exclusively on the basis of considerations that all reasonable citizens can reasonably be expected to accept. The standard argument for the Reciprocity Principle grounds it in a requirement of respect for persons. We argue for a different, but compatible, justification: the Reciprocity Principle is justified because it makes possible a desirable kind of political community. The general endorsement of the Reciprocity Principle, we will (...) argue, helps realize joint political rule and relationships of civic friendship. The main obstacle to the realization of these values is the presence of reasonable disagreement about religious, moral, and philosophical issues characteristic of liberal societies. We show the Reciprocity Principle helps to overcome this obstacle. (shrink)

Sonja Plischke’s Die Seleukiden und Iran is an attempt to study Seleucid empire building in Iran. In view of the fact that indigenous written sources from Iran are practically absent, Plischke decided to include Babylonia in this work, since the written cuneiform evidence from that region is fairly abundant. She detects some general tendencies—such as religious policy and the general wish to connect the different parts of the empire—supported by a personal conception of Seleucid kingship, beside more specific treatment of (...) different regions. In my view, the Seleucids probably did not pay sufficient attention to the East, so that their control weakened. I take the opportunity to discuss the Babylonian sources, correct errors in Plischke’s use of them, and adduce some new publications. (shrink)

In our pursuit of a good life (eubios), both individuals and societies, need to educate themselves on the pursuit of love of life in all domains, self-love, love of others, loving good and love of life. In this paper I reflect on my own journey through growing up in Christchurch, and experiences around the world, that are the basis for that conclusion. In our efforts to pursuit bioethics education we can enhance peaceful and harmonius coexistence in our world, through nurturing (...) good decisions that we should all make. (shrink)

Vier opstellen over rechtssociologie en criminologie, vanuit fenomenologische invalshoek bezien.

Please note that this article belongs to the Special Issue on the Legacy of David Lewis but was included in issue 195:5 by mistake. It should be regarded as part of this selection of articles.

Background: Doctor–patient sexual relationship is considered to be unfair because the first party would be abusing the second party’s vulnerability. The prohibition of this relationship is noted in the Hippocratic oath. Currently, a reprise of the use of oaths in medical schools can be observed.Aim: To determine whether the prohibition has been maintained and how its expression has varied in the oaths during different periods.Methods: 50 oaths were studied: 13 ancient–medieval and 37 modern–contemporary. Of the 50 texts, 19 were versions (...) of the original oaths. The oaths that pointed out the prohibited doctor–patient relationship referred to any sexual aspect or included paragraphs that began as the Hippocratic oath does were noted.Results: Of the 24 texts that expressed the prohibition, 8 were ancient–medieval and 16 were modern–contemporary. Some expressly call it Hippocratic oath, many use general terminology and others describe it in association with other commitments .Conclusions: The clause on the prohibition of the doctor–patient sexual relationship in Hippocratic oath was included to be for legal, economic and social reasons at the time. That the clause is found mostly in the ancient–medieval oaths can be attributed to the influence of the original. This commitment is generalised and associated with others by contemporary formulas. Currently, sexual relationships are the subject of legal and ethical analysis and their inclusion in the oaths is being debated. (shrink)

Examples of terror generated by an aircraft disaster, of human courtship behaviour, and of the application of laboratory techniques to the commercial training of animals suggest (1) that emotion is simply the subjective counterpart of (objective) motivation (so that separate brain mechanisms would be an embarrassment) and (2) the apparent involvement of reward and punishment is a consequence of the excessively narrow range of experimental procedures used and has no foundation in the design of the brain.

In der folgenden Übersicht wird versucht, die wissenschaftstheoretischen Tätigkeiten in den Niederlanden, insbesondere auf den Gebieten der Logik und Grundlagenforschung, Philosophie der Naturwissenschaften, Philosophie der Geschichtswissenschaft und der Sozialwissenschaften zu skizzieren. In einer Schlußbetrachtung werden die allgemeinen methodologischen Fragestellungen und die daraus sich ergebenden neuen Möglichkeiten einer Wissenschaftstheorie erörtert.

Nozick's genetic supermarket has arrived on the wings of angels brought to us by Ron Harris, the founder of ronsangels.com. How should we respond to this and other options that will soon be beckoning? To assist us in answering these questions, I shall begin by considering a technique that has been with us for some time, but has the effect of changing the nature of children. Understanding the basis on which this technique can be supported may help us to grapple (...) with the more difficult question of what we should do about newer options that also change the nature of our children. It is not, however, my aim here to deal with all the objections that could be urged against these options. My purpose is the narrower one of developing a clear understanding of the central values at stake. (shrink)

It has recently been argued that God’s causation of human free choices is best understood in light of Aquinas’s teaching on creation. Such a position is attractive because it provides a way of avoiding the compatibilism of classical interpretations of Aquinas. However, this position may be subject to other flaws. In fact, Francisco Suárez explicitly rejects the view that God’s creative causality can be understood either as the divine essence or as a predicamental relation of the created effect to God. (...) The purpose of this essay is to investigate, first, whether Suárez’s view of efficient causality rules out conceptualizing God’s motion of the will in terms of creation, and second, whether it provides a more plausible alternative. I argue on both points that it does not, and that an error common to both Suárez and his sixteenth-century opponents is one reason to conceptualize divine motion as a kind of creation. (shrink)

During the past few years a number of stimulating and philosophically tough papers dealing with God and the problem of other minds have been published by Plantinga. Now one can clearly grasp the full outlines of his argument. He carefully examines natural theology, especially the proofs for the existence of God, and finds these "proofs" unsatisfactory. He then considers a number of the recent versions of arguments designed to show us that it is impossible or unlikely that God exists and (...) finds these unsatisfactory. A final section explores the analogies between natural theology and the "problem of other minds." And Plantinga's provocative conclusion is "that belief in other minds and belief in God are in the same epistemological boat; hence if either is rational, so is the other. But obviously the former is rational; so, therefore, is the latter." What distinguishes this book from similar investigations, and sets it apart, is the thoroughness and analytical rigor of Plantinga's argument. It is a model of the application of analytical tools to traditional philosophic problems. Anyone seriously interested in the problems treated will surely benefit from an encounter with Plantinga.--R. J. B. (shrink)

This is the first complete translation of the second part of Hegel's Encyclopaedia. It is based on the recent German text edited by Nicolin and Pöggeler and contains the Zusätze from Michelet's text. Findlay is to be congratulated for encouraging the publication of this book which is part of a project of completing the translation of the three parts of Hegel's Encyclopaedia together with their Zusätze. A. V. Miller who has already provided a new translation of Hegel's Science of Logic (...) has again undertaken the difficult task of translating this work. Among Anglo-Saxon philosophers there has been the grossest ignorance and the wildest prejudices concerning Hegel's views of the natural sciences and the philosophy of nature. For the first time, we now have a helpful text to understand exactly what Hegel did say and why. The most impressive fact about this volume is the seriousness with which Hegel reflected on the current state of the natural sciences of his own time. Indeed it is difficult to grasp many of his points without understand the specific developments that he has in mind. While much of what Hegel says is obscure and outdated, Hegel is not attempting to legislate for natural science, but to provide us with a philosophic understanding of the significance of our understanding of nature. In this respect, the spirit of Hegel's endeavor is not so foreign from that of contemporary philosophy of science. The publication of this part of Hegel's system will enable us to come to a more balanced understanding of Hegel's philosophy. Findlay's forward is helpful both in explaining and justifying the sources for this translation and for singling out the major themes of Hegel's philosophy of nature.--R. J. B. (shrink)

During the past decade a great deal of excitement and interest has been generated by the work of Noam Chomsky and his followers in linguistics and related fields such as psychology. Typically when there is a breakthrough in a science, there are prophets who follow who make exaggerated claims and counterclaims. But while there has been much talk about generative grammars, depth and surface structure, transformations, etc., there has also been a great deal of ignorance about what these concepts precisely (...) mean. This short book based on three lectures delivered at Berkeley is now perhaps the best introduction to Chomsky's work. It combines and reflects a variety of his interests and is written with a lucidity that marks the ease of a master. The first lecture develops Chomsky's thesis that it is rationalist models of the mind and language that provide a much more fruitful orientation for the study of language and the mind than empiricist models. In this respect he continues his attack on what he takes to be the misguided dogmatic narrowness of prevailing empiricist and behaviorist presuppositions. The second lecture deals explicitly with some of the basic issues and techniques in the "new" linguistics showing us what it does and does not contribute to our understanding of language. The third lecture looks to the future and suggests possible directions that may be taken in psychology, linguistics, and other social sciences in light of the new orientation being developed in linguistics. But the present succinct volume is much more than an introduction to Chomsky's work and the new linguistics. It is also an evaluation of what has and has not been achieved in the past decade of intensive work. It reflects both Chomsky's modesty about what has really been accomplished and his optimism about what probably will be accomplished in the future. There appears to be a striking disparity between some of Chomsky's more exciting and provocative claims about innate capacities, universal grammar, the modified Cartesian-Kantian orientation, and the actual achievements of linguistics and psycholinguistics concerning our understanding of language and mind.--R. J. B. (shrink)

A lively introduction to metaphysical problems, including the relation of mind and body, freedom and determinism, time and becoming, and God. Starting with common sense beliefs, Taylor uses a natural dialectic to show how metaphysical problems arise. The clarity and forcefulness of his discussions and arguments invite the reader to join issue.--R. J. B.

This book fills the need for a first rate anthology of readings in the philosophy of mathematics. The subject is interpreted broadly and several familiar and easily accessible papers, such as Nagel's "Logic Without Ontology," Carnap's "Empiricism, Semantics and Ontology," and Quine's "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" take up valuable space. An entire section consists of papers dealing with Wittgenstein's views on mathematics. The introduction is succinct and helpful. But a more careful selection of inaccessible papers, the addition of introductions to (...) the individual parts, and a more extensive bibliography would have made this a much more useful anthology.—R. J. B. (shrink)

It is good to have this fine English translation of the second German edition of Kelsen's Reine Rechtslehre, which has heavily influenced so much contemporary thought on jurisprudence and the philosophy of law. Reading Kelsen now one is struck by the stilted and naïve positivism that pervades his thought. At the same time, one is also impressed by the clarity that he brings to what is normally a very muddled area. There is a bold statement of the "pure" theory, a (...) sharp distinction between the legal and the moral orders, a reiteration of the "dualism" of the is and the ought, and a defense of legal norms as the object of the science of law. While Kelsen's quasi-dogmatic pronouncements can provoke disagreements at almost every stage of his argument, the book is certainly one which must be directly encountered by any serious student of the philosophy and theory of law.—R. J. B. (shrink)

The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 12, Issue 5, Page 44-45, May 2012.