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297How Ecology Can Edify Ethics: The Scope of MoralityJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 31 (4): 443-454. 2018.Over the past several decades environmental ethics has grown markedly, normative ethics having provided essential grounding in assessing human treatment of the environment. Even a systematic approach, such as Paul Taylor’s, in a sense tells the environment how it is to be treated, whether that be Earth’s ecosystem or the universe itself. Can the environment, especially the ecosystem, as understood through the study of ecology, in turn offer normative and applied ethics any edification? The study…Read more
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63Filling the gaps in the risks vs. benefits of mammalian adult-cell cloning: Taking Bernard Rollin's philosophy its next stepJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 11 (1): 1-16. 1998.A critique is made of Bernard Rollin''s examination of the ethics of cloning adult mammalian cells. The primary concern is less to propound an anticloning or procloning position than to call for full exploration of the ethical complexities before a rush to judgment is made. Indeed, the ethical examination in question rushes toward an ethical position in such a way that does not appear consistent with Rollin''s usual methodology. By extending this methodology – which entails full weighing of bene…Read more
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40Bernard Rollin, an introduction to veterinary medical ethics: Theory and cases. Ames, iowa: Iowa state university press, 1999, 417 pp. index. Paperback: $39.95 (review)Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 13 (3-4): 349-352. 2000.
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318The composite redesign of humanity’s nature: a work in processTheoretical Medicine and Bioethics 39 (2): 157-164. 2018.One of the most salient contemporary concerns in academic debates and pop culture alike is the extent to which new technologies may re-cast Homo sapiens. Species members may find themselves encased in a type of existence they deem to be wanting in comparison with their present form, even if the promised form was assured to be better. Plausibly, the concern is not merely fear of change or of the unknown, but rather it arises out of individuals’ general identification with what they are and what t…Read more
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33Three Pervasive Presuppositions about Human Life and Ethics Strongly Warrant AnalysisMetaphilosophy 48 (4): 484-503. 2017.Common philosophical discussions concerning the ethics of human interaction with the biosphere and universe have been significantly informed by certain presuppositions: nature is conquerable; human cultural and social progress is somewhat like a thing, beyond human control, and is inevitable and benevolent; and Homo sapiens is the superior life-form. Although arguments, such as whether humans should conquer nature, founded upon these presuppositions have sometimes been challenged, each of these …Read more
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361Relentless Assimilationist Indigenous Policy: From Invasion of Group Rights to Genocide in Mercy’s ClothingIndigenous Policy Journal (3). 2016.Despite the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, assimilationist policies continue, whether official or effective. Such policies affect more than the right to group choice. The concern is whether indeed genocide or “only” ethnocide (or culturecide)—the elimination of a traditional culture—is at work. Discussions of the distinction between the two terms have been inconsistent enough that at least one commentator has declared that they cannot be used in analytical contex…Read more
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17Review of Jan Baars, Aging and the Art of Living (review)American Journal of Bioethics 14 (4): 62-63. 2014.No abstract
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76Is Species Integrity a Human Right? A Rights Issue Emerging from Individual Liberties with New TechnologiesHuman Rights Review 15 (2): 177-199. 2014.Currently, some philosophers and technicians propose to change the fundamental constitution of Homo sapiens, as by significantly altering the genome, implanting microchips in the brain, and pursuing related techniques. Among these proposals are aspirations to guide humanity’s evolution into new species. Some philosophers have countered that such species alteration is unethical and have proposed international policies to protect species integrity; yet, it remains unclear on what basis such right …Read more
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36Martha Nussbaum: Review of Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for Justice: Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 978-0-674-72465-6. 457 pp. Hardback. Index. $35 (review)Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 17 (5): 1009-1010. 2014.After much of the 20th Century, when morals were widely considered little more than mere emotional responses, a range of writers, such as Haidt, Prinz, and Patricia Churchland, have been restoring the emotions’ respectable roles in human cognition and morality. Nussbaum in her Upheavals of Thought showed how important emotions are for human cognitive life, so there is no clear distinction between their “irrationality” and the cerebral cortex’s supposed “rationality.” In Political Emotions, Nussb…Read more
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65Fine-tuning the ontology of patriarchy: A new approach to explaining and responding to a persisting social injusticePhilosophy and Social Criticism 41 (9): 885-906. 2015.After years of activism and scholarship concerning patriarchal social structures, many contemporary societies have made substantial progress in women’s rights. The shortfall, and the work ahead, is well known. Even in societies where the most progress has been achieved, males continue to dominate at key levels of power. Yet, essentialism appears to be widely, although not yet entirely, discounted. In helping to illuminate the social ontology of patriarchy and thereby helping to defuse its injust…Read more
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62Rights of Self-delimiting Peoples: Protecting Those Who Want No Part of UsHuman Rights Review 14 (1): 31-51. 2013.While in recent years new charters and government actions have boosted the collective and individual rights enjoyed by “Fourth-World” indigenous peoples such as the Inuit, another set of indigenous peoples has not experienced such protection: “self-delimiting” peoples. Their rights go largely unprotected because of deliberate ambiguities in the word “indigenous”; because these peoples generally avoid all contact with the larger society, and so are unknown by it and have no voice in it; and becau…Read more
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47If We Have a Music Instinct, for Which Music? Book Review Essay of Philip Ball, The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We Can't Do Without It (review)Philosophy of Music Education Review 20 (2): 177-190. 2012.Philip Ball brings a cognitive-scientific perspective to the breadth of music theory in his work The Music Instinct. Whether or not music is a universal language, it is a cultural phenomenon found universally in the human population. In the debate as to whether humans evolved this tendency to make music as an essential adaptation or as non-adaptive “spandrel,” Ball maintains that music is crucial to what it means to be human. Without definitively explaining just how humans developed music, delim…Read more
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40Allen Buchanan: Beyond Humanity?: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-10-958781-0. $27.95 (review)Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 16 (4): 899-900. 2013.
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52No Longer as Free as the Wind: Human Reproduction and Parenting Enter the Scope of Morality; Review EssayEthical Theory and Moral Practice 20 (3): 657-664. 2017.Camus considered the most crucial philosophical problem to be that of suicide—whether to discontinue your existence by endingit. Alternatively, a most crucial philosophical problem may be procreation—whether to continue human existence by making new humans. The topic has spurred an increasing amount of debate over the past decade, with marked diversion with Anscomb’s comment that it makes no moral sense to inquire whether one should reproduce. One might as well ask why digest food or why should …Read more
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487Granting Automata Human Rights: Challenge to a Basis of Full-Rights PrivilegeHuman Rights Review 16 (4): 369-391. 2015.As engineers propose constructing humanlike automata, the question arises as to whether such machines merit human rights. The issue warrants serious and rigorous examination, although it has not yet cohered into a conversation. To put it into a sure direction, this paper proposes phrasing it in terms of whether humans are morally obligated to extend to maximally humanlike automata full human rights, or those set forth in common international rights documents. This paper’s approach is to consider…Read more
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32King Car and the Ethics of Automobile Proponents’ Strategies in China and India, by Martin Calkins. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2011. 164 pp. Index. ISBN: 978-1617612718 (review)Business Ethics Quarterly 23 (4): 617-619. 2013.The increasing proliferation of the automobile is one of the hardest practical and ethical problems contemporary societies face, in terms of technology production and use. Nuclear weaponry may be our number one threat, but it is in the hands of a very few, almost inaccessible people. Nanotechology may tum the planet into a "gray goo," in Bill Joy's famous terms; and "superintelligent" machines and "uploaded minds" may engender megalomaniacal power-seekers; but such technologies remain highly spe…Read more
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40Bernard E. Rollin: Putting the Horse Before Descartes: My Life’s Work on Behalf of Animals: Temple University Press, Philadelphia, PA, 2011, 304 pp. Index. Cloth, $35.00 (review)Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 25 (2): 243-248. 2012.Bernard E. Rollin: Putting the Horse Before Descartes: My Life’s Work on Behalf of Animals Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-6 DOI 10.1007/s10806-011-9316-4 Authors Lantz Miller, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA Journal Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics Online ISSN 1573-322X Print ISSN 1187-7863
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50Persisting pan-institutional racismPhilosophy and Social Criticism 43 (7): 748-774. 2017.Which types of group-typing amounts to racism? The answer seemingly has to do with deeper physical or cultural traits over which an agent has no deliberate control but which are formative of the agent. In this article, I look to the cultural or ethnic bases of division of humans into races, albeit of a specific type: a basis that sees humanity climbing in a certain, presumably improving, direction. Those ethnicities that appear not to opt for this climb are commonly presumed – if tacitly – infer…Read more
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21Humanity’s End: Why We Should Reject Radical Enhancement by Nicholas Agar: Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010 (review)Human Rights Review 13 (3): 413-415. 2012.
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55The Moral Philosophy of AutomobilesJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 25 (5): 637-655. 2012.Abstract The ethics of technology use has tended to arise from the theory of the role of technology in human life and society and thus introduces a bias into moral assessment of such use. I propose a dialectical method of morally assessing a technology use without such a preset notion. Instead the assumption is that the moral agent is as responsible for use of a technology as for any other moral action of the agent, that is, the individual’s use of a technology is a moral action that can be mo…Read more
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64Michael Hauskeller: Sex and the Posthuman Condition: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2014, 98 ppScience and Engineering Ethics 22 (5): 1569-1574. 2016.This new book from Michael Hauskeller explores the currently marketed or projected sex/love products that exhibit some trait of so-called “posthumanistic” theory or design. These products are so designated because of their intention to fuse high technologies, including robotics and computing, with the human user. The author offers several arguments for why the theory behind these products leads to inconsistencies. The book uses a unique approach to philosophical argument by enmeshing the argumen…Read more
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222Beyond Human Nature by Jesse J. Prinz (review)Philosophy Now 108 47-49. 2015.The nature-nurture debate rages so, one cannot help but wonder why the sides are so vehemently partitioned. What's at stake? It is simply not clear why a great amount of people embrace either one side or the other, but dare not even blow a kiss to the opposite opinion. Prinz does an excellent job of arguing for the nurture position, zeroing in on some of the most preciously held nature arguments including the basis of knowledge, thought, and feelings in experience and cultural values, increasing…Read more
Enschede, Overijssel, Netherlands
Areas of Specialization
Value Theory |
Areas of Interest
Metaphilosophy |
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Value Theory |