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245Licensing Parents RevisitedJournal of Applied Philosophy 27 (4): 327-343. 2010.Although systems for licensing professionals are far from perfect, and their problems and costs should not be ignored, they are justified as a necessary means of protecting innocent people's vital interests. Licensing defends patients from inept doctors, pharmacists, and physical therapists; it protects clients from unqualified lawyers. We should protect people who are highly vulnerable to those who are supposed to serve them, those with whom they have a special relationship. Requiring professio…Read more
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432The truth in ethical relativismJournal of Social Philosophy 22 (1): 146-154. 1991.Ethical relativism is the thesis that ethical principles or judgments are relative to the individual or culture. When stated so vaguely relativism is embraced by numerous lay persons and a sizeable contingent of philosophers. Other philosophers, however, find the thesis patently false, even wonder how anyone could seriously entertain it. Both factions are on to something, yet both miss something significant as well. Those who whole-heartedly embrace relativism note salient respects in which ethi…Read more
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158Freedom of religion and childrenPublic Affairs Quarterly (1): 75-87. 1989.In a number of recent federal court cases parents have sought to have their children exempted from certain school activities on the grounds that the children's participation in those activities violates their (the parents') right to freedom of religion. In Mozert v. Hawkin's County Public Schools (827 F. 2nd 1058) fundamentalist parents of several Tennessee public school children brought civil action against the school board for violating their constitutional right of freedom of religion. These …Read more
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163Two models of models in biomedical researchPhilosophical Quarterly 45 (179): 141-160. 1995.Biomedical researchers claim there is significant biomedical information about humans which can be discovered only through experiments on intact animal systems (AMA p. 2). Although epidemiological studies, computer simulations, clinical investigation, and cell and tissue cultures have become important weapons in the biomedical scientists' arsenal, these are primarily "adjuncts to the use of animals in research" (Sigma Xi p. 76). Controlled laboratory experiments are the core of the scientific en…Read more
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18Brute Science: Dilemmas of Animal ExperimentationEthics and the Environment 4 (1): 115-121. 1996.
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94Suffer the Little ChildrenIn William Aiken & Hugh LaFollette (eds.), World Hunger and Morality, Prentice-hall. 1995.Children are the real victims of world hunger: at least 70% of the malnourished people of the world are children. By best estimates forty thousand children a day die of starvation (FAO 1989: 5). Children do not have the ability to forage for themselves, and their nutritional needs are exceptionally high. Hence, they are unable to survive for long on their own, especially in lean times. Moreover, they are especially susceptible to diseases and conditions which are the staple of undernourished peo…Read more
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77Animal Rights and Human WrongsIn Nigel Dower (ed.), Ethics and the Environment, . 1989.Are there limits on how human beings can legitimately treat non-human animals? Or can we treat them just any way we please? If there are limits, what are they? Are they sufficiently strong, as some people supp ose, to lead us to be vegetarians and to seriously curtail, if not eliminate, our use of non-human animals in `scientific' experiments designed to benefit us? To fully appreciate this question let me contrast it with two different ones: Are there limits on how we can legitimately treat roc…Read more
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14William H. ("Will") Aiken, Jr., 1947-2006Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 80 (2). 2006.
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239The Practice of EthicsWiley-Blackwell. 2006._The Practice of Ethics_ is an outstanding guide to the burgeoning field of applied ethics, and offers a coherent narrative that is both theoretically and pragmatically grounded for framing practical issues. Discusses a broad range of contemporary issues such as racism, euthanasia, animal rights, and gun control. Argues that ethics must be put into practice in order to be effective. Draws upon relevant insights from history, psychology, sociology, law and biology, as well as philosophy. An excel…Read more
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14Chaos TheoryIdealistic Studies 24 (3): 241-254. 1994.In this article we discuss two divergent accounts of non-human animals as analog models of human biomedical phenomena. Using a classical account of analogical reasoning, toxicologists and teratologists claim that if the model and subject modeled are substantially similar, then test results in non-human animals are likely applicable to humans. However, the same toxicologists report that different species often react very differently to the same chemical stimuli. The best way to understand their f…Read more
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40Animal models in biomedical research: Some epistemological worriesPublic Affairs Quarterly 7 (2): 113-130. 1993.
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2Michael Allaby and Peter Bunyard, The Politics of Self-Sufficiency Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 2 (2/3): 47-48. 1982.
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102Mandatory Drug TestingIn S. Luper-Foy C. Brown (ed.), Drugs, Morality, and the Law, Garland. 1994.By some estimates one-third of American corporations now require their employees to be tested for drug u se. The se requ iremen ts are com patible with general employment law while prom oting the public's in terest in figh ting drug use. Mo reover , the Unite d State s Supreme Court has ruled that drug tes ting prog rams a re cons titutionally p ermiss ible within both the public and the private sectors. It appears m andatory drug tes ting is a permanent fixture of American corporate life. (Baka…Read more
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151The truth in psychological egosimIn Joel Feinberg (ed.), Reason and responsibility, Dickenson Pub. Co.. 1971.Mother Teresa spends her life caring for the poor and the infirm; J. Paul Getty, Jr., spends his life making investments and directing corporations. Although we might be unhappy doing what they do, we assume they are satisfied. Mother Teresa enjoys her work and would be miserable if she had to mastermind corporate takeovers. Getty would be wretched if he had to care for lepers or become a lawn chair salesman.
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363Gun controlEthics 110 (2): 263-281. 2000.Many of us assume we must either oppose or support gun control. Not so. We have a range of alternatives. Even this way of speaking oversimplifies our choices since there are two distinct scales on which to place alternatives. One scale concerns the degree (if at all) to which guns should be abolished. This scale moves from those who want no abolition (NA) of any guns, through those who want moderate abolition (MA) - to forbid access to some subclasses of guns - to those who want absolute aboliti…Read more
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132The Oxford handbook of practical ethics (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2003.The Oxford Handbook of Practical Ethics is a lively and authoritative guide to current thought about ethical issues in all areas of human activity--personal, medical, sexual, social, political, judicial, and international, from the natural world to the world of business. Twenty-eight topics are covered in specially written surveys by leading figures in their fields: each gives an authoritative map of the ethical terrain, explaining how the debate has developed in recent years, engaging criticall…Read more
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160Circumscribed autonomy: Children, care, and custodyIn Uma Narayan & Julia Bartkowiak (eds.), Having and Raising Children, Pennsylvania State University Press. 1998.For many people the idea that children are autonomous agents whose autonomy the parents should respect and the state should protect is laughable. For them, such an idea is the offspring of idle academics who never had, or at least never seriously interacted with, children. Autonomy is the province of full fledged rational adults, not immature children. It is easy to see why many people embrace this view. Very young children do not have the experience or knowledge to make informed decisions about…Read more
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118The Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 2000.Building on the strengths of the highly successful first edition, the extensively updated _Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory_ presents a complete state-of-the-art survey, written by an international team of leading moral philosophers. __ A new edition of this successful and highly regarded _Guide_, now reorganized and updated with the addition of significant new material Includes 21 essays written by an international team of leading philosophers Extensive, substantive essays develop the main arg…Read more
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Making Moral Children , "Bringing Up a Moral Child") (review)Behavior and Philosophy 14 (1): 65. 1986.
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103Why libertarianism is mistakenIn John Arthur & William Shaw (eds.), Justice and Economic Distribution (2nd), Prentice-hall. 1979.Taxing the income of some people to provide goods or services to others, even those with urgent needs, is unjust. It is a violation of the wage earner's rights, a restriction of his freedom. At least that is what the libertarian tells us. I disagree. Not all redistribution of income is unjust; or so I shall argue.
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145Living on a Slippery SlopeThe Journal of Ethics 9 (3-4): 475-499. 2005.Our actions, individually and collectively, inevitably affect others, ourselves, and our institutions. They shape the people we become and the kind of world we inhabit. Sometimes those consequences are positive, a giant leap for moral humankind. Other times they are morally regressive. This propensity of current actions to shape the future is morally important. But slippery slope arguments are a poor way to capture it. That is not to say we can never develop cogent slippery slope arguments. None…Read more
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University of South FloridaEmeritus Professor of Philosophy and Emeritus Cole Chair In Ethics
Knoxville, TN, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Philosophy of Law |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Philosophy of Law |