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4Analytical Thomism: Traditions in DialogueRoutledge. 2006.Analytical Thomism is a recent label for a newer kind of approach to the philosophical and natural theology of St Thomas Aquinas. It illuminates the meaning of Aquinas's work for contemporary problems by drawing on the resources of contemporary Anglo-Saxon analytical philosophy, the work of Frege, Wittgenstein, and Kripke proving particularly significant. This book expands the discourse in contemporary debate, exploring crucial philosophical, theological and ethical issues such as: metaphysics a…Read more
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112In this essay, I first set out the principles of change, paying particular attention to the need for a support for all changes and to the need for prime matter. I then discuss the nature of time, arguing that time is not actually composed of durationless instants but that instants can be understood as limits to an infinite process of potential division. I then give a definition of instants in terms of intervals and propose a way of modeling them. In the next section I bring together the two previou…Read more
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4Law, Ethics and Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (edited book)JHPU Press. 2019.This collection reflects the result of interactive academic work initiated by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi University Inc., Miami, Florida, during the academic year 2018, and also the scholarly work of academics supporting our University. The authors include international academics from the United States of America, Great Britain, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Switzerland, Austria, Serbia and Macedonia. Table of Contents: About the Authors; Craig Paterson--Contextualism & the History of Philosophy;…Read more
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234Contextualism and the History of PhilosophyIn Craig Paterson & Stephan Breu (eds.), Law, Ethics and Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, Jhpu Press. pp. 1-24. 2019.In this paper, I seek to advance the thesis that if we are to come to a better appreciation of the historical rootedness of philosophical thinking, we must strive to encourage the contextualization of philosophical texts and support this goal by developing methods and tools for research that are facilitative of this contextualist goal.
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73Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: A Natural Law Ethics ApproachRoutledge. 2008.As medical technology advances and severely injured or ill people can be kept alive and functioning long beyond what was previously medically possible, the debate surrounding the ethics of end-of-life care and quality-of-life issues has grown more urgent. In this lucid and vigorous book, Craig Paterson discusses assisted suicide and euthanasia from a fully fledged but non-dogmatic secular natural law perspective. He rehabilitates and revitalises the natural law approach to moral reasoning by dev…Read more
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167Chapter one argues for the important contribution that a natural law based framework can make towards an analysis and assessment of key controversies surrounding the practices of suicide, assisted suicide, and voluntary euthanasia. The second chapter considers a number of historical contributions to the debate. The third chapter takes up the modern context of ideas that have increasingly come to the fore in shaping the 'push' for reform. Particular areas focused upon include the value of human l…Read more
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21Canon Law, Civil Law, and the Health Care ApostolateCatholic Social Science Review 5 267-281. 2000.This paper provides an overview of the application of canon law to the administration of Catholic heahh care in the United States. It is divided into four sections. The first section provides a context for the role of canon law in the life of the Church. The second section considers the fundamental question of juridic personality in the Church. The third section delineates the predominant forms of organization that have hitherto been the main Church related institutions providing health care. Th…Read more
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20On Clarifying Terms in Applied Ethics DiscourseInternational Philosophical Quarterly 43 (3): 351-358. 2003.All too often in applied ethics debates, there is a danger that a lack of analytical clarity and precision in the use of key terms serves to cloud and confuse the real nature of the debate being undertaken. A particular area of concern in my analysis of the bioethics literature has been the uses to which the key terms “suicide,” “assisted suicide,” and “euthanasia” are put. The modest aim of this article is to render a contribution to the applied ethics debate on these topics by seeking to delim…Read more
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183A life not worth living?Studies in Christian Ethics 16 (2): 1-20. 2003.The work of Dan Brock and Helga Kuhse is typical of the current stream of thought rejecting the validity of sanctity of life appeals to instill objective inviolable worth in human life regardless of the quality of life of the patient. The context of a person's life is supremely important. In their systems life can have high value, yet the value of life can be outweighed by the force of other disvalues. The notion of quality of life has increasingly come to signify the measurement of the worth of…Read more
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97This paper is essentially concerned with defending the idea of a universal right to adequate health care coverage. It will argue for the existence of a human right grounded in Catholic social thought. At the outset, a statement of clarification is needed. This paper does not pretend to offer the panacea for all ills relating to health care provision. Rather, it is an inquiry into the kinds of value that should inform decision making relating to health policy. A universal right to adequate health…Read more
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5855Aquinas, Finnis and Non-naturalismIn Craig Paterson & Matthew Pugh (eds.), Analytical Thomism: Traditions in Dialogue, Ashgate. 2006.In this chapter I seek to examine the credibility of Finnis’s basic stance on Aquinas that while many neo-Thomists are meta-ethically naturalistic in their understanding of natural law theory (for example, Heinrich Rommen, Henry Veatch, Ralph McInerny, Russell Hittinger, Benedict Ashley and Anthony Lisska), Aquinas’s own meta-ethical framework avoids the “pitfall” of naturalism. On examination, the short of it is that I find Finnis’s account (while adroit) wanting in the interpretation stakes vi…Read more
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101On "Killing" Versus "Letting Die" in Clinical Practice: Mere Sophistry With Words?Journal of Nursing Law 6 (4): 25-44. 2000.
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5619Review of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: A Natural Law Ethics Approach (review)Ethics and Medicine 26 (1): 23-4. 2010.As medical technology advances and severely injured or ill people can be kept alive and functioning long beyond what was previously medically possible, the debate surrounding the ethics of end-of-life care and quality-of-life issues has grown more urgent. In this lucid and vigorous book, Craig Paterson discusses assisted suicide and euthanasia from a fully fledged but non-dogmatic secular natural law perspective. He rehabilitates and revitalises the natural law approach to moral reasoning by dev…Read more
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1370Introduction to Analytical ThomismIn Craig Paterson & Matthew Pugh (eds.), Analytical Thomism: Traditions in Dialogue, Ashgate. 2006.This overview proceeds by outlining, albeit very briefly, something of the historical growth of Thomism, turning then to a brief account of how analytic philosophy in the twentieth century can be viewed in relation to that history, before finally turning to a further consideration of what the phrase “Analytical Thomism,” can be taken to mean in light of this brief historical account.
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2111The article examines from an historical perspective some of the key ideas used in contemporary bioethics debates both for and against the practices of assisted suicide and euthanasia. Key thinkers examined--spanning the Ancient, Medieval and Modern periods--include Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Hume, Kant, and Mill. The article concludes with a synthesizing summary of key ideas that oppose or defend assisted suicide and euthanasia.
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808Renewing the Moral Life: Some Recent Work in Virtue TheoryNew Blackfriars 81 (952): 238-44. 2000.
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125Analytical Thomism: Traditions in Dialogue (edited book)Ashgate. 2006.All those interested in the thought of St Thomas Aquinas, and more generally contemporary Catholic scholarship, problems in philosophy of religion, and ...
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97On Clarifying Terms in Applied Ethics DiscourseInternational Philosophical Quarterly 43 (3): 351-358. 2003.All too often in applied ethics debates, there is a danger that a lack of analytical clarity and precision in the use of key terms serves to cloud and confuse the real nature of the debate being undertaken. A particular area of concern in my analysis of the bioethics literature has been the uses to which the key terms “suicide,” “assisted suicide,” and “euthanasia” are put. The modest aim of this article is to render a contribution to the applied ethics debate on these topics by seeking to delim…Read more
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800A History of Ideas Concerning the Morality of Suicide, Assisted Suicide and Voluntary EuthanasiaIn Rajitha Tadikonda (ed.), Physician Assisted Euthanasia, Icfai University Press. 2009.In the chapter “A History of Ideas Concerning the Morality of Suicide, Assisted Suicide and Voluntary Euthanasia ” author Craig Paterson explores questions concerning the legitimacy of the practices of suicide, assisted suicide, and voluntary euthanasia. The aim of this article is of identifying some of the main historical protagonists, and delineating some of the key arguments that have been used for the acceptance or rejection of these practices
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Philosophy of Law |
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
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Death and Dying |
Assisted Suicide |
Brain Death |
Cryonics |
Defining Death |
Infanticide |
Life Support |
Suicide |
The Badness of Death |
Death and Dying, Misc |