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Objections
Kinds of Objections Selected AbstractsMORAL PERCEPTION AND THE CAUSAL OBJECTIONRATIO, Issue 3 2010Justin P. McBrayer One of the primary motivations behind moral anti-realism is a deep-rooted scepticism about moral knowledge. Moral realists attempt counter this worry by sketching a plausible moral epistemology. One of the most radical proposals in the recent literature is that we know moral facts by perception , we can literally see that an action is wrong, etc. A serious objection to moral perception is the causal objection. It is widely conceded that perception requires a causal connection between the perceived and the perceiver. But, the objection continues, we are not in appropriate causal contact with moral properties. Therefore, we cannot perceive moral properties. This papers demonstrates that the causal objection is unsound whether moral properties turn out to be secondary, natural properties; non-secondary, natural properties; or non-natural properties.1 [source] REVISITING CHILD-BASED OBJECTIONS TO COMMERCIAL SURROGACYBIOETHICS, Issue 7 2010JASON K.M. HANNA ABSTRACT Many critics of commercial surrogate motherhood argue that it violates the rights of children. In this paper, I respond to several versions of this objection. The most common version claims that surrogacy involves child-selling. I argue that while proponents of surrogacy have generally failed to provide an adequate response to this objection, it can be overcome. After showing that the two most prominent arguments for the child-selling objection fail, I explain how the commissioning couple can acquire parental rights by paying the surrogate only for her reproductive labor. My explanation appeals to the idea that parental rights are acquired by those who have claims over the reproductive labor that produces the child, not necessarily by those who actually perform the labor. This account clarifies how commercial surrogacy differs from commercial adoption. In the final section of the paper, I consider and reject three further child-based objections to commercial surrogacy: that it establishes a market in children's attributes, that it requires courts to stray from the best interests standard in determining custodial rights, and that it requires the surrogate to neglect her parental responsibilities. Since each of these objections fails, children's rights probably do not pose an obstacle to the acceptability of commercial surrogacy arrangements. [source] Wittgenstein's Builders and Perry's Objection to Sentence PriorityDIALECTICA, Issue 1 2002Eli Dresner In the first section of this paper I present a view of linguistic meaning that I label 'Sentence Priority'(SP): the position that semantically primitive language-world contact is made at the level of complete sentences (rather than the level of sentence parts). Then, in the main part of the paper, I consider and reject an objection against Sentence Priority raised by John Perry, an objection that appeals to Wittgenstein's builders parable. Perry argues that the builder's utterances (,Slab',,Pillar', etc.) are utterances of self-standing nouns, and that therefore they constitute a counter-example to SP. A sound assessment of Perry's argument, however, depends on a clear distinction between two cases: one in which the four expressions mentioned in Wittgenstein's example exhaust the builders'expressive powers, and one in which they do not. Once these cases are distinguished it can be seen that in neither does Perry's argument go through. [source] Referral in the Wake of Conscientious Objection to AbortionHYPATIA, Issue 4 2008CAROLYN McLEOD Currently, the preferred accommodation for conscientious objection to abortion in medicine is to allow the objector to refuse to accede to the patient's request so long as the objector refers the patient to a physician who performs abortions. The referral part of this arrangement is controversial, however. Pro-life advocates claim that referrals make objectors complicit in the performance of acts that they, the objectors, find morally offensive. McLeod argues that the referral requirement is justifiable, although not in the way that people usually assume. [source] The Model Theoretic Argument, Indirect Realism, and the Causal Theory of Reference ObjectionPACIFIC PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2003Steven L. Reynolds This new argument is reviewed and defended. Putnam's new focus on philosophical theories of perception (instead of metaphysical realism) makes better sense of his previous responses to the objection from the causal theory of reference. It is argued that the model-theoretic argument can also be construed as an argument that holders of a causal theory of reference should adopt direct realism in the philosophy of perception. [source] Dupré's Anti,Essentialist Objection to ReductionismTHE PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 211 2003D. Gene Witmer In his ,The Disorder of Things' John Dupré presents an objection to reductionism which I call the ,anti,essentialist objection': it is that reductionism requires essentialism, and essentialism is false. I unpack the objection and assess its cogency. Once the objection is clearly in view, it is likely to appeal to those who think conceptual analysis a bankrupt project. I offer on behalf of the reductionist two strategies for responding, one which seeks to rehabilitate conceptual analysis and one (more concessive) which avoids commitment to any such analysis. [source] Putting One Objection to HLA Matching on IceAMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 4 2002J. Michael Cecka No abstract is available for this article. [source] Conscientious Objection in MedicineBIOETHICS, Issue 3 2000Mark R. Wicclair Recognition of conscientious objection seems reasonable in relation to controversial and contentious issues, such as physician assisted suicide and abortion. However, physicians also advance conscience-based objections to actions and practices that are sanctioned by established norms of medical ethics, and an account of their moral force can be more elusive in such contexts. Several possible ethical justifications for recognizing appeals to conscience in medicine are examined, and it is argued that the most promising one is respect for moral integrity. It is also argued that an appeal to conscience has significant moral weight only if the core ethical values on which it is based correspond to one or more core values in medicine. Finally, several guidelines pertaining to appeals to conscience and their ethical evaluation are presented. [source] Three Objections to Constitutional PatriotismCONSTELLATIONS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CRITICAL AND DEMOCRATIC THEORY, Issue 2 2007Jan-Werner Müller First page of article [source] CELLULAR TOWER PROLIFERATION IN THE UNITED STATESGEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Issue 1 2002THOMAS A. WIKLE ABSTRACT. Since the early 1980s the growing popularity of cellular communication has wrought dramatic landscape changes on the American scene through an invasion of thousands of cellular telephone towers. Objections raised to new tower construction by local residents, interest groups, and regulatory boards range from visual impacts to perceived health risks. This essay traces the origins of wireless telephony, its proliferation across the United States, and the visual impacts associated with tower construction. Three stages in the geographical expansion of wireless networks are identified. [source] The Infinity of God in the Biblical Theology of Denys the AreopagiteINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Issue 3 2008DENNIS HOU His writings are controversial and frequently misinterpreted because of an underestimation of his commitment to the Christian scriptures. Objections are treated, and are followed by some guidelines for reading Divine Names and a comparison of Denys with Colin Gunton on the relationship between revelation and salvation history. Denys's work is not mired with inconsistency, but is a genuinely biblical reflection on and of the multifaceted glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. [source] Richard Joyce's New Objections to the Divine Command TheoryJOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS ETHICS, Issue 1 2010Scott Hill First page of article [source] Radical Geography and its Critical Standpoints: Embracing the NormativeANTIPODE, Issue 1 2009Elizabeth Olson Abstract:, This paper throws down a challenge to radical geography and invites a selection of leading geographers to respond. It proposes that radical or critical geography cannot escape normative foundations in terms of some conception of the human good or flourishing, and that this is not necessarily at odds with the descriptive and explanatory aims of social science. Various attempts to define and justify critical thought without such a conception are shown to be deficient, and incapable of distinguishing oppression from well-being. Objections that such a project will be subjective, ethnocentric, essentialist and implicitly authoritarian are discussed and rejected. Normative thinking needs to go beyond liberal concern with freedom, to address what Sen and Nussbaum term "capabilities",the range of things people need to be able to have and do to flourish. The power of this kind of normative thinking is illustrated by reference to examples from development studies. The paper concludes with some basic questions for radical geographers. [source] Brain abnormalities in antisocial individuals: implications for the lawBEHAVIORAL SCIENCES & THE LAW, Issue 1 2008Yaling Yang B.S. With the increasing popularity in the use of brain imaging on antisocial individuals, an increasing number of brain imaging studies have revealed structural and functional impairments in antisocial, psychopathic, and violent individuals. This review summarizes key findings from brain imaging studies on antisocial/aggressive behavior. Key regions commonly found to be impaired in antisocial populations include the prefrontal cortex (particularly orbitofrontal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), superior temporal gyrus, amygdala,hippocampal complex, and anterior cingulate cortex. Key functions of these regions are reviewed to provide a better understanding on how deficits in these regions may predispose to antisocial behavior. Objections to the use of imaging findings in a legal context are outlined, and alternative perspectives raised. It is argued that brain dysfunction is a risk factor for antisocial behavior and that it is likely that imaging will play an increasing (albeit limited) role in legal decision-making. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Against Universal Mereological CompositionDIALECTICA, Issue 4 2008Crawford Elder This paper opposes universal mereological composition (UMC). Sider defends it: unless UMC were true, he says, it could be indeterminate how many objects there are in the world. I argue that there is no general connection between how widely composition occurs and how many objects there are in the world. Sider fails to support UMC. I further argue that we should disbelieve in UMC objects. Existing objections against them say that they are radically unlike Aristotelian substances. True, but there is a stronger objection. This is that they are characterized by no properties, and so fail to be like anything , even themselves. [source] Think about the Consequences!DIALECTICA, Issue 2 2006Nominalism, the Argument from the Philosophy of Logic Nominalism (the thesis that there are no abstract objects) faces the task of explaining away the ontological commitments of applied mathematical statements. This paper reviews an argument from the philosophy of logic that focuses on this task and which has been used as an objection to certain specific formulations of nominalism. The argument as it is developed in this paper aims to show that nominalism in general does not have the epistemological advantages its defendants claim it has. I distinguish between two strategies that are available to the nominalist: The Evaluation Programme, which tries to preserve the common truth-values of mathematical statements even if there are no mathematical objects, and Fictionalism, which denies that mathematical sentences have significant truth-values. It is argued that the tenability of both strategies depends on the nominalist's ability to account for the notion of consequence. This is a problem because the usual meta-logical explications of consequence do themselves quantify over mathematical entities. While nominalists of both varieties may try to appeal to a primitive notion of consequence, or, alternatively, to primitive notions of logical or structural possibilities, such measures are objectionable. Even if we are equipped with a notion of either consequence or possibility that is primitive in the relevant sense, it will not be strong enough to account for the consequence relation required in classical mathematics. These examinations are also useful in assessing the possible counter-intuitive appeal of the argument from the philosophy of logic. [source] Deflating the Correspondence IntuitionDIALECTICA, Issue 3 2005Igor Douven A common objection against deflationist theories of truth is that they cannot do justice to the correspondence intuition, i.e. the intuition that there is an explanatory relationship between, for instance, the truth of ,Snow is white' and snow's being white. We scrutinize two attempts to meet this objection and argue that both fail. We then propose a new response to the objection which, first, sheds doubt on the correctness of the correspondence intuition and, second, seeks to explain how we may nonetheless have come to have that intuition. [source] Wittgenstein's Builders and Perry's Objection to Sentence PriorityDIALECTICA, Issue 1 2002Eli Dresner In the first section of this paper I present a view of linguistic meaning that I label 'Sentence Priority'(SP): the position that semantically primitive language-world contact is made at the level of complete sentences (rather than the level of sentence parts). Then, in the main part of the paper, I consider and reject an objection against Sentence Priority raised by John Perry, an objection that appeals to Wittgenstein's builders parable. Perry argues that the builder's utterances (,Slab',,Pillar', etc.) are utterances of self-standing nouns, and that therefore they constitute a counter-example to SP. A sound assessment of Perry's argument, however, depends on a clear distinction between two cases: one in which the four expressions mentioned in Wittgenstein's example exhaust the builders'expressive powers, and one in which they do not. Once these cases are distinguished it can be seen that in neither does Perry's argument go through. [source] The Causal Exclusion PuzzleEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY, Issue 1 2002David Pineda The article is divided into two parts. The first part offers a careful reconstruction and detailed discussion of the argument of causal exclusion, as well as of the implications it has for physicalism. In its second part the article examines two important objections to the causal exclusion argument: the generalization objection, which holds that the argument is unacceptable since it confers causal efficacy only to ultimate basic properties, which arguably might not exist; and Yablo's objection, according to which underlying the argument of causal exclusion there is a principle of causal parsimony which leads to strong counterintuitive results and should therefore be abandoned. The article offers grounds for rejecting both objections as well as a new diagnosis of the problem for mental causation generated by the causal exclusion argument. [source] The human skin/chick chorioallantoic membrane model accurately predicts the potency of cosmetic allergensEXPERIMENTAL DERMATOLOGY, Issue 4 2009Dan Slodownik Abstract:, The current standard method for predicting contact allergenicity is the murine local lymph node assay (LLNA). Public objection to the use of animals in testing of cosmetics makes the development of a system that does not use sentient animals highly desirable. The chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) of the chick egg has been extensively used for the growth of normal and transformed mammalian tissues. The CAM is not innervated, and embryos are sacrificed before the development of pain perception. The aim of this study was to determine whether the sensitization phase of contact dermatitis to known cosmetic allergens can be quantified using CAM-engrafted human skin and how these results compare with published EC3 data obtained with the LLNA. We studied six common molecules used in allergen testing and quantified migration of epidermal Langerhans cells (LC) as a measure of their allergic potency. All agents with known allergic potential induced statistically significant migration of LC. The data obtained correlated well with published data for these allergens generated using the LLNA test. The human-skin CAM model therefore has great potential as an inexpensive, non-radioactive, in vivo alternative to the LLNA, which does not require the use of sentient animals. In addition, this system has the advantage of testing the allergic response of human, rather than animal skin. [source] Does Germany Collect Revenue from Taxing the Normal Return to Capital?,FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 4 2005Johannes Becker Abstract A widespread objection to the introduction of consumption tax systems claims that this would lead to high tax revenue losses. This paper investigates the revenue effects of a consumption tax reform in Germany. Our results suggest that the revenue losses would be surprisingly low. We find a maximum revenue loss of 1.6 per cent of annual GDP. In some years, we even find tax revenue gains. This implies that the current tax system collects little revenue from taxing the normal return to capital. Based on these results, we calculate a macroeconomic measure of the effective tax rate on capital income. [source] Referral in the Wake of Conscientious Objection to AbortionHYPATIA, Issue 4 2008CAROLYN McLEOD Currently, the preferred accommodation for conscientious objection to abortion in medicine is to allow the objector to refuse to accede to the patient's request so long as the objector refers the patient to a physician who performs abortions. The referral part of this arrangement is controversial, however. Pro-life advocates claim that referrals make objectors complicit in the performance of acts that they, the objectors, find morally offensive. McLeod argues that the referral requirement is justifiable, although not in the way that people usually assume. [source] TLM models of waves in moving media: refinements and dispersion analysisINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NUMERICAL MODELLING: ELECTRONIC NETWORKS, DEVICES AND FIELDS, Issue 5 2003William J O'Connor Abstract Two recent papers about transmission line matrix (TLM) models of waves in moving media used notional diodes to achieve the appropriate direction-dependent wave speeds. Despite the algorithm's demonstrated success, the operation of the diodes might be criticized for being non-physical from a circuit theory perspective. Alternative circuit models are here developed that avoid this objection, being based on wave two-ports and standard circuit theory components. Their operation obeys the same numerical algorithm derived using the diodes, thereby confirming the validity of the original computational scheme. Furthermore these circuits lead more easily to the direction-dependent wave speed expressions and provide exact analytic results for dispersion and attenuation effects, which are here presented and discussed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Mind Reading, Deception and the Evolution of Kantian Moral AgentsJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 2 2004ALEJANDRO ROSAS Classical evolutionary explanations of social behavior classify behaviors from their effects, not from their underlying mechanisms. Here lies a potential objection against the view that morality can be explained by such models, e.g. Trivers'reciprocal altruism. However, evolutionary theory reveals a growing interest in the evolution of psychological mechanisms and factors them in as selective forces. This opens up perspectives for evolutionary approaches to problems that have traditionally worried moral philosophers. Once the ability to mind-read is factored-in among the relevant variables in the evolution of moral abilities and counted among the selection pressures that have plausibly shaped our nature as moral agents, an evolutionary approach can contribute, so I will argue, to the solution of a long-standing debate in moral philosophy and psychology concerning the basic motivation for moral behavior. [source] Basic Income, Self-Respect and ReciprocityJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHILOSOPHY, Issue 2 2003Catriona Mckinnon Why should I let the toad work Squat on my life? Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork And drive the brute off? Six days of the week it soils With its sickening poison , Just for paying a few bills! That's out of proportion. From Philip Larkin, ,Toads'. ABSTRACT This paper mounts a Rawlsian argument for unconditional basic income on the grounds that it maximins the distribution of income and wealth understood as a social basis of self-respect. The most important objection to this argument available to Rawlsians is that basic income violates the demands of reciprocity, where reciprocity in any scheme of distribution is a requirement of justice. The second half of the paper addresses this objection. It is argued there that even if the objection can be made successfully by Rawlsians (and this is not clear), it is not sufficient to divest them of a commitment to basic income, given some practical considerations about the implementation of alternatives to basic income. [source] ,An important obligation of citizenship': language, citizenship and jury serviceLEGAL STUDIES, Issue 2 2007R Gwynedd Parry This paper considers whether there should be the power to summon bilingual juries in criminal trials in Ireland and Wales. It will examine the relationship between jury service as an obligation and privilege of citizenship, and the eligibility for jury service of Irish and Welsh speakers as a linguistic group. It will also demonstrate the relationship between the citizenship argument in its collective context and the rights and interests of individual speakers of these languages within the criminal jury trial process. In doing so, it seeks to emphasise that this is a multidimensional issue which requires an evaluation from a combination of perspectives, both collective and individual. It is this combination of perspectives, taken conjunctively, that supports the case for bilingual juries. Moreover, this particular debate has a particular relevance to the wider debate on European citizenship and how Europe views the concept of multilingual citizenship within its constitutional framework. Indeed, it raises fundamental questions about how Europe manages its diverse cultural and linguistic heritage and how speakers of minority languages are integrated on a basis of equality and respect towards their cultural and linguistic autonomy. The paper also addresses the objections to bilingual juries and will explore how the advent of bilingual juries could continue to preserve the random selection principle (the primary objection to bilingual juries) sufficiently to bring about fair, impartial and competent tribunals. [source] KILLING EMBRYOS FOR STEM CELL RESEARCHMETAPHILOSOPHY, Issue 2-3 2007JEFF MCMAHAN Abstract: The main objection to human embryonic stem cell research is that it involves killing human embryos, which are essentially beings of the same sort that you and I are. This objection presupposes that we once existed as early embryos and that we had the same moral status then that we have now. This essay challenges both those presuppositions, but focuses primarily on the first. I argue first that these presuppositions are incompatible with widely accepted beliefs about both assisted conception and monozygotic twinning. I then argue that we never existed as embryos. If this last claim is right, killing an embryo does not kill someone like you or me but merely prevents one of us from existing. [source] HAS PSYCHOLOGY DEBUNKED CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS?METAPHILOSOPHY, Issue 1 2006PER SANDIN Abstract: The philosophical method of conceptual analysis has been criticised on the grounds that empirical psychological research has cast severe doubt on whether concepts exist in the form traditionally assumed, and that conceptual analysis therefore is doomed. This objection may be termed the Charge from Psychology. After a brief characterisation of conceptual analysis, I discuss the Charge from Psychology and argue that it is misdirected. [source] CAPITALISTS, WORKERS AND SOCIAL SECURITYMETROECONOMICA, Issue 2 2007Thomas R. Michl ABSTRACT This paper elaborates an exogenous growth model that nests overlapping generations of workers who save for life cycle reasons with dynastic agents who save for bequest reasons (,capitalists'). The model overcomes Marglin's objection that the overlapping generations framework requires special assumptions about technology, and it also provides a natural environment to revisit Samuelson's analysis of lump-sum transfers between generations. The ability of a benevolent planner to improve workers' welfare is severely restricted by the control capitalists exercise over the accumulation process. Prefunding social security assumes renewed significance because it overcomes this restriction. [source] A Note on Scripture in the,Summa theologiaeNEW BLACKFRIARS, Issue 1030 2009Matthew Levering Abstract Beginning with the question of whether Aquinas's,Summa theologiae,inevitably distorts the meaning of biblical texts by removing them from their narrative context, this essay suggests that one way to think about Aquinas's use of Scripture in the,Summa theologiae,is to read together, as an ensemble, the biblical texts that he cites when treating a particular theme. Focusing on his first four questions on the virtue of faith (ST,II-II, qq. 1,4), I argue that Aquinas's selection of biblical texts from across the canonical Scriptures enables him to provide a nuanced biblical perspective on a particular theme even without finding it necessary to quote Scripture in every article. I seek to bring to light the way that the various biblical texts in the question,whose functions within the articles are widely diverse, from providing the hinge for a,responsio,to framing a minor objection,complement and echo one another. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||