摘要:

ABSTRACTViolence is a central idea for political theory but there is very little agreement about how it should be understood. This paper examines some fashionable approaches to the concept and argues against ‘wide’ definitions, particularly those of the ‘structuralist’ variety of which that offered by the sociologist, Johan Galtung, is taken as typical. A critique is also given of ‘legitimist’ definitions which incorporate some strong notion of illegitimacy into the very meaning of violence. Structuralist definitions are much favoured by the political left whereas legitimist accounts are more common on the right but these connections, though psychologically understandable, are not logically tight. Both structuralist and legitimist analyses are criticised on conceptual and practical grounds and a defence of a more restricted definition is presented. The paper concludes with some remarks about the point of having a concept of violence of the type

ISSN:0264-3758    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-5930.1986.tb00045.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

ABSTRACTWelfare states are often urged to secure a social minimum for citizens—a level of material well‐being beneath which no‐one should be permitted to fall. This paper examines the justification for such a claim. It begins by criticising John Rawls's rejection of the social minimum approach to justice inA Theory of Justice: the argument Rawls uses to justify the Difference Principle, based on what he calls ‘the strains of commitment’ in the ‘original position’, actually provides a better justification for a social minimum principle. The paper then examines the substance of that argument outside the context of Rawls's contractarianism, showing that there is a general case for seeing to it that desperate need does not go unmet in a li

ISSN:0264-3758    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-5930.1986.tb00046.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

ABSTRACTThe myth that there is no politics of science is dangerous as it prevents the important and urgently needed institution of some democratic control of the existing system of politics within the commonwealth of learning. Feyerabend's attack on science makes sense only when understood in this way.

ISSN:0264-3758    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-5930.1986.tb00047.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

ABSTRACTThis paper argues that the sort of liberty associated with a capitalist economic system is of particular value because it ensures moral self‐responsibility. Two conceptions of freedom are considered but only one is invoked. It is contended that one, namely, positive freedom, is actually a kind of ability or power. One's positive freedom may be lost as a result of events not initiated by other human beings. Negative freedom, by contrast, is a distinctively normative notion. It is a social condition that members of a community ought to maintain out of respect for human dignity, that is, each person's responsibility to choose to live rightly.It is argued that since ‘ought’ implies ‘can’, persons can only be morally responsible for what they can choose to do. If they lack negative freedom, then in addition to natural limitations, they will also be limited by the voluntary conduct of others. Yet this limitation could be prevented by the choices of others, including governments, to secure for all persons their negative freedom. Because of the universality of the requirement that each person be left free, such negative freedom is the quintessential public good.Finally, the concrete expression of negative freedom is the right to private property— one's sphere of moral authority. This makes the capitalist economic system an essential aspect of the society that secures negat

ISSN:0264-3758    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-5930.1986.tb00048.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

ABSTRACTThis essay explores the question of what sorts of relations morality permits, requires, or forbids nations, businesses, and individuals to have with South Africa and South Africans. After reflecting on the immorality of apartheid and rebutting several defences of it, the essay turns its attention to several questions that bear on the assessment of foreign policy toward South Africa. The final sections discuss how individuals ought to respond to South African apartheid, focusing on collective boycotts and personal abstentions. The essay critically assesses various proposed boycotts and weighs the significance of symbolic protests of apartheid.

ISSN:0264-3758    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-5930.1986.tb00049.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

ABSTRACTThe Irish Republican Army (IRA) sometimes claim that their violent actions are sanctioned by traditional just war doctrine. To what extent is this true? To answer this question it is necessary to have a clear grasp of the principles of just war and of the situation in Northern Ireland to which they are to be applied. This is done in the first sections, and it is then argued that just war sanctions some kinds of violence in Northern Ireland but only those of direct self‐defence. Violence outside the borders of Northern Ireland or for the sake of Irish Unity is not justifiable. Consequently the IRA must be viewed, in terms of just war theory at any rate, as in principle illegitimate, even though some of their actions are defensible. Finally it is suggested that non‐violence, after the pattern of Gandhi, while not required by justice might nevertheless be prefera

ISSN:0264-3758    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-5930.1986.tb00050.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

ABSTRACT‘Ulysses contracts’ are an instrument through which a psychiatric patient may prearrange involuntary commitments to be put into effect if the patient satisfies certain diagnostic criteria in the future. Proposals for Ulysses contracts typically impose numerous safeguards. This paper argues against the intuitively plausible safeguard which permits only presently remitted patients to contract. Instead of requiring a patient's remission, it is argued that the appropriate safeguard is the patient's ability, whether remitted or not, to offer good reasons for wishing to contract. In short, what matters is not an executive's character, but an executive's reasons, and a bad executive may have good reasons. Attempts to deny the accessibility of good reasons in unremitted patients are rejected on the ground that psychiatric diagnosis requires psychiatrists to be able to distinguish between good and bad reasons in both remitted and unremitted patients. If psychiatrists cannot do that, psychiatric diagnosis is impossi

ISSN:0264-3758    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-5930.1986.tb00051.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

ABSTRACTThis article deals with a cluster of moral problems raised by the new techniques of human fertilisation. It is concerned primarily with the putative rights of embryos brought into being as a by‐product of the practice of in vitro fertilisation. In this connection it investigates the basis for the ascription of rights to entities and asserts the view that consciousness is a pre‐requisite for the possession of rights. It draws attention to the speciesism implicit in attitudes of some of those who have contributed to the debate. It also examines other issues briefly, raising, for example, the question whether children by AID (or by in vitro fertilisation by donor) must be denied access to information about their genetic fathers; and looking at objections to the new techniques based on the so‐called unnaturalness of the procedures inv

ISSN:0264-3758    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-5930.1986.tb00052.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

ABSTRACTIn this paper I attempt to show that our commonly shared ideas of justice, which include principles of fair distribution and of compensation for past injustices, tend to come into conflict in practice, and generate serious dilemmas for persons in certain positions of authority, such as managers. I identify the source and nature of such dilemmas, and sketch a rough pattern for analysing and partially resolving conflicts between the duty not to discriminate unfairly and the duty to compensate for past unfair discrimination. After stating what I regard as widely shared ideas of justice, I emphasise their application to actual policy decisions of the small‐scale sort, using general precepts for avoiding or minimising conflicts. The precepts include a commitment to the priority of compensatory justice. The paper includes theoretical portions, principally defences of my position against other views on the relationship between compensation and fair distribution. I end with an examination of the virtues and limitations of money as a tool for compensatory social policie

ISSN:0264-3758    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-5930.1986.tb00053.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0264-3758    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-5930.1986.tb00054.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY