: Many people have lamented the proliferation of human rights claims. The cure for this problem, it may be thought, would be to develop a theory that can distinguish ‘real’ from ‘supposed’ human rights. I argue, however, that the proliferation of human rights mirrors a deep problem in human rights theory itself. Contemporary theories of natural rights to welfare are historical descendants from a theory of rights to subsistence which was developed in twelfth-century Europe. According to this theory, each human (...) being has a special role to fulfil in God's plan and therefore has inalienable rights to subsist. Later theories have secularized this idea by claiming that human beings are purposive agents. Secularization, however, comes at a price. In the case of these theories, the price is a failure to provide satisfactory answers to the most basic questions we would expect of a theory of natural rights to answer. They have failed to provide a basis for ascribing these rights to all and only to human beings. They have not been able to generate a clear and viable criterion for ascribing duties correlative to these rights. And they cannot limit rights-claims in a non-arbitrary way. Hence we should abandon these theories. (shrink)

Running like a leitmotif through Peter Roberts’ recently published philosophico-educational writings there is a humanistic thread, which this article picks out. In order to ascertain the quality of this humanism, Roberts is positioned in relation to a pair of extant humanisms: radical and integral. Points of comparability and contrast are identified in several of the writer’s genre-crossing essays. These texts, it is argued, rectify deficiencies in how the two humanisms envision alternatives to capitalism. Roberts skilfully teases out the non-obvious futurological (...) implications of the work of a diverse array of authors, spanning the boundaries of philosophy, social criticism, and literature. In so doing, he underscores the intimate connection between personal self-transformation and ideal-driven social transformation. Further, Roberts challenges humanists of both radical and integral stripes to reconsider the moral grounds of their critique of capitalism. (shrink)

Constellations, Volume 28, Issue 4, Page 570-587, December 2021.

New Blackfriars, Volume 103, Issue 1107, Page 640-661, September 2022.

“Reimagining a global ethic” is a project worthy of Andrew Carnegie and of the Carnegie Council's upcoming commemoration of his founding gift in 1914. As a collaborative research project stretching forward over the next three years, it ought to be integrative and reconciliatory: that is, it must try to understand the globalization of ethics that has accompanied the globalization of commerce and communications and to figure out what ethical values human beings share across all our differences of race, religion, ethnicity, (...) national identity, and material wealth. When human beings do disagree morally, the search for a global ethic becomes an attempt to elucidate by analysis what exactly people are disagreeing about, so that, after arguing out our differences, we can either agree to disagree or work together to find common ground. Finding common ground on large ethical matters and understanding more deeply why, in some instances, we remain at odds with each other is worthwhile in itself, but it might also further Andrew Carnegie's original goal in founding the Council, which was to reduce the amount of conflict and violence in the world. (shrink)

The marketplace of ideas theoy has been utilized as one means to justify,from a societal perspective, contempora y public relations practice. Proponents confend that practitioners serve society in true Miltonian fashion by helping clients inject their views into that marketplace. One must question, however, whether afunctional marketplace of ideas exists relative to the public relations process. Further, by focusing ethical questions on individualistic practitioner behavior relative to that marketplace, practitioners may not be paying sulyicient attention to the demands of distributive (...) and social justice. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to investigate the tyrannical similarity between Antigone and Creon through Hannah Arendt’s political philosophy. As Arendt claimed, tyranny firstly signals the end of the political through which men can share their natality. The very meaning of tyranny is the domination by absoluteness that ends deliberation among mortal beings. Antigone only focuses on the divine law, which is seen as absolute righteousness that precedes the law of the city, and so, she tends to ignore any (...) other option on rightfulness. This article aims to show that not only Creon but also Antigone can be regarded as a tyrant, since Antigone tends to sublime her dedication to an infallible justice, causing her to deny any other claim on justice. (shrink)

Концепція інтегрального гуманізму французького мислителя Жака Марітена є одним із найбільш вагомих інтелектуальних здобутків в царині католицького соціально-політичного філософування у ХХст. Базове цілепокладання автора цієї розвідки полягало у прагненні висвітлити соціально-орієнтовану філософію Ж.Марітена на ширшому тлі його відданості томістично-арістотеліанській думці, але як живій та відкритій традиції, що містить неабиякий евристичний потенціал і нереалізовану здатність для самоактуалізації в новому ідейному контексті. У статті проаналізовано ставлення Ж.Марітена до спроб ідентифікувати та надати чітку дефініцію тому філософському напряму, до якого належав мислитель. З’ясовано, що (...) креативна томістська філософія Ж.Марітена являла собою виважену серединну позицію між закапсульованим, аісторичним традиціоналізмом та нестримним, знекоріненим модернізмом. До того ж сукупність політичних ідей філософа тією ж мірою являє собою збалансовану концепцію, що пролягає між двома екстремумами, а саме, індивідуалізмом Дж.Локка та колективізмом К.Маркса. Стаття також містить стислий огляд історії формування політичної думки Ж.Марітена під впливом Шарля Морраса та антидемократичного реваншистсько-роялістського руху Action française, розгорнутий аналіз ідей французького філософа щодо незадовільного вплетення євангельських істин у тканину суспільного життя західної цивілізації, а також зображення Марітенової критики тоталітаризму, індивідуалізму та секуляризованої форми натуралістично-антропоцентричного гуманізму. У статті використано першоджерела, а також напрацювання таких дослідників філософії Марітена як Д.Ґалахер, Дж.Маккул, Ф.Коплстон, Б.Дуерінг, Ю.Лонг, Л.Ібарра, Р.Макінерні, В.Шульц і українських знавців Марітенової спадщини – А.Дахнія та С.Шевченка. (shrink)

The ability of nurses to act as moral agents in accordance with their conscience is both an essential human freedom and an important part of professional ethics. Recent developments in Canada related to Medical Assistance in Dying have revealed new and important challenges related to conscientious objection – challenges that may require rethinking of how nurses do professional ethics. Notably, the inclusion of a personalist bioethical approach is needed to introduce and explicate what conscience is for nurses to be able (...) to apply it to nursing practice. In this article, we explore the importance of conscience and conscientious objection as ethical concepts to support nurses in addressing issues of conscience amid ethically challenging situations. We discuss how a personalist basis for conscience can support nurses to inclusively engage with one another across diverse moral perspectives. (shrink)