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Assessing Rawls\u27 Difference Principle as Practical Guidance for our Duties to Animals
Get PDFIt is a commonly held view that Contractarian ethics cannot produce a substantial moral system that includes animals. However, since Mark Rowlands introduced his interpretation of Rawlsian Contractarianism we have been provided with, as it were, a ready-made system to which we can now insert animals. However, such a result is far from the final hurdle in providing a substantial account of human duties to animals. The extension of justice to animals may well be possible, but it produces a great many intricate problems as to how the dynamics of human-animal relationships should be borne out. It would seem now that the animal-friendly Contractarian owes an account of how our relationships to animals be governed. In this essay I will argue that the Rawlsian Difference Principle lends itself to just such a task. The Difference Principle’s focus on equal consideration without a need for identical treatment lends itself to producing comprehensive and flexible guidelines for our duties to animals - providing pragmatic answers to how we should engage with them. The conclusion of this paper will not be by way of an entire theory governing human-animal relations (as I’m without time or space to do justice to such a project), but an argument for establishing the viability of the Difference Principle as the guiding notion behind such a theory
Isolating Dissent, Punishing the Masses: Siege Warfare as Counter-Insurgency
Get PDFIn Isolating Dissent, Punishing the Masses: Siege Warfare as Counter-Insurgency, Will Todman analyses the intricate relationship between the nature of the Syrian regime and the military tactics it opted to use to supress those opposed to it, both during the insurgency phase, and the subsequent civil war. Sieges were effective because they allowed the regime to make optimal use of its military advantage. Once you have a segment of the population in a restricted area, you not only control food and medical supplies, but you can also unleash an indiscriminate bombardment campaign, as the regime indeed did. Todman provides a historic context to the use of these tactics by the Syrian regime (i.e. Hama), and addresses the important question of whether or not siege warfare helped the regime surive
From the freedom struggle to a fight for economic survival - Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA)
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Rationality and Salience
No full textOne would hope that you know when your father\u27s birthday is. What was the status of this knowledge five minutes ago, when presumably your father\u27s birthday was not at the forefront of your mind? Five minutes ago your belief of the form "My father\u27s birthday is on the _ of the month" was insalient. This paper explores the ways in which rationality is affected by the fact that our beliefs can be more or less salient at any given time. I will advance two main theses- the first, which I will call the \u27weak\u27 thesis, says that two scenarios can remain constant with respect to the beliefs that an agent has, vary with respect to which beliefs are salient, and vary with respect to what is rational. Roughly speaking, the weak thesis says that salience matters to rationality. I then argue for a particular conception of how salience matters to rationality, which I will call the \u27strong\u27 thesis. The strong thesis says that given facts about which beliefs are salient, one is irrational only insofar as one has inconsistencies in one\u27s salient beliefs. I intend the strong thesis to be useful for someone attempting to give a formalisation of rationality which takes salience into account
Does Rousseau\u27s discussion of sovereignity and government suggest a preference for elite domination?
Get PDFThe aim of this essay is to defend the thesis that Rousseau favoured popular sovereignty. Rousseau defines popular sovereignty as the “exercise of the general will” of the people, where the general will is those interests shared by the whole citizenry (Rousseau 2011, 170) . Before reaching this conclusion, I initially draw a distinction between the two ways in which Rousseau describes the function of government. On the one hand, it is described as the executive agent of the citizenry (which I call description A). On the other hand, he describes government as an independent body that may choose to prioritise its own interests (description B). Through the essay I argue that these two descriptions are incompatible, and that Rousseau’s conflation of these two descriptions has engendered confusion as to whether he did in fact support popular sovereignty. The purpose of this essay is to defend the view that Rousseau did favour popular sovereignty, despite the extensive power that he describes the government as having
“A Time to Keep: Theology, Mortality, and the Shape of a Human Life” by Ephraim Radner
No full textReview of Ephraim Radner, A Time to Keep: Theology, Mortality, and the Shape of a Human Life (Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press, 2016