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260Getting It Right: Aristotle's "Golden Mean" as Theory DeteriorationJournal of Mass Media Ethics 14 (1): 5-15. 1999.Journalism and media ethics texts commonly invoke Aristotle's Golden Mean as a principal ethical theory that models such journalistic values as balance, fairness, and proportion. Working from Aristotle's text, this article argues that the Golden Mean model, as widely understood and applied to media ethics, seriously belies Aristotle's intent. It also shortchanges the reality of our moral agency and epistemic responsibility. A more authentic rendering of Aristotle's theory of acting rightly, more…Read more
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100Responding To Propaganda: An Ethical EnterpriseJournal of Mass Media Ethics 16 (2-3): 138-147. 2001.By virtue of its epistemic deficits, propaganda is very much an unethical phenomenon. Coping effectively with propaganda requires a communicative response that confronts its inherent unethicality with ethically grounded resistance. In this article, I propose two congruent plans of communicative action, each of which rests on an apparent ethical connection: J. Michael Sproule's (1994) reclaiming of classical eloquence, and Jonathan Rauch's (1993) provocative program of "liberal science.".
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71Does "Does Moral Philosophy Rest Upon a Mistake?" Make an Even Greater Mistake?The Monist 54 (1): 86-99. 1970.Time was, notably in the theories of classical and medieval moralists, when virtue figured as the central feature in the conception of moral worth. Today, the notion of virtue has slid into conspicuous disuse. Among a few writers today, one can still detect scattered indications of a return to varieties of this conception of goodness; but in most of the contemporary literature it is safe to say that the deontic and usually co-relative notions of ‘right’, ‘ought’, ‘duty’ and ‘obligation’ now comm…Read more
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53An asterisk denotes a publication by a member of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. The Editors welcome suggestions for reviews. Auxier, Randall E., and Doug Anderson, eds. Bruce Springsteen and Philosophy: Dark-ness on the Edge of Truth. Chicago: Open Court Publishing, 2008. Pp. xv+ 302. Paper $18.95, ISBN: 978-0-8126-9647-9 (review)American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 83 (1). 2009.
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50Reclaiming Moral Agency: The Moral Philosophy of Albert the GreatCatholic University of America Press. 2008.Albert and the career of virtue theory -- Modern virtue theory as foreground to Albert's moral philosophy -- Albert's ethical treatises -- The significance of Albert's moral treatises in early-thirteenth-century moral philosophy -- Approaching the moral order -- Meta-ethical reflections on "moral science" and its procedures -- The metaphysics of the good -- The architecture of moral goodness -- The genesis of virtue : intrinsic causes -- The genesis of virtue : extrinsic causes -- The concept of…Read more
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41The Status of the Propaganda Theorist: A RejoinderInformal Logic 16 (2). 1994.The concept of an 'assumption' is discussed, and it is suggested that the psychological model implied by normal usage is misleading. A new model is proposed which distinguishes between 'assumptions', as constraints upon the thinking process, and 'postulates', as corresponding potential or actual propositional vocalizations. Some evidence for this model is provided, and its implications, particularly for the process of assumption identification, are discussed. It is suggested that assumption iden…Read more
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37Max Scheler. A Concise Introduction into the World of a Great Thinker. By Manfred S. Frings. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press. 1965. Pp. 223. $6.50 (review)Dialogue 5 (3): 450-452. 1966.
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31Aquinas on the Natural Inclination of Man to Offer Sacrifice to GodProceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 86 185-200. 2012.Aquinas says that offering sacrifice to God is “of the natural law” because man has a “natural inclination that he should tender submission and honor” to God. Aquinas’s characterization of sacrifice as natural undermines two common mischaracterizations of Aquinas’s natural law theory: that “natural inclinations” means pre-rational “urges” generally and that natural law pertains exclusively to secular matters. For Aquinas, inclinatio naturalis in the sense proper to natural law means those inclin…Read more
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26A place in the sun: Making room for media ethicsJournal of Mass Media Ethics 8 (3). 1993.A recent issue of Report from the Institute for Philosophy and Public Affairs identifies four ethical issues for the 21st century. By not including media ethics, the Report overlooks a crucial logical priority. That oversight is reflected in greater academe where media ethics (unlike, say, biomedical ethics) is scarcely acknowledged. This article argues that communication ethics, as an integral part of the wider enterprise of media literacy, deserves greater prominence in our town-and-gown commu…Read more
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20Comments On Russow's "Merleau-Ponty and the Myth Of Bodily Intentionality"Noûs 22 (1): 49-50. 1988.
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11Rhetor Redux: A Rejoinder to the Cherwitz/Hikins Definition of RhetoricPhilosophy and Rhetoric 21 (4). 1988.
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Ludwig Wittgenstein, "vermischte bemerkungen", edited by G. H. Von Wright (review)Dialogue 21 (1): 133. 1982.