Personhood in Classical and Process-Oriented Metaphysics

Horizons ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Bracken
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Life Support ◽  
Process Philosophy ◽  
Sexual Ethics ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Process Oriented ◽  
Compare And Contrast ◽  
Pro Life ◽  
Pro Choice

One major source of conflict in contemporary sexual ethics (e.g., artificial contraception and abortion) is the implicit difference in the worldviews represented by the terms “pro-life” and “pro-choice.” Those who are pro-life support the notion of human personhood as a fixed and unchanging reality from conception to death; those who are pro-choice, in contrast, support the notion of human personhood as developmental, never fully realized. The pro-life position basically reflects the worldview of classical metaphysics; the pro-choice position is logically grounded in process philosophy and theology. The aim of the present article is to compare and contrast these two worldviews so as to see whether or not there is unexpected common ground between the two that could logically justify a consensus position on the more specific moral issues.

Process Philosophy and Political Liberalism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel A. Dombrowski
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Reflective Equilibrium ◽  
Process Philosophy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Static View ◽  
Process Oriented ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Right

In this work two key theses are defended: political liberalism is a processual (rather than a static) view and process thinkers should be political liberals. Three major figures are considered (Rawls, Whitehead, Hartshorne) in the effort to show the superiority of political liberalism to its illiberal alternatives on the political right and left. Further, a politically liberal stance regarding nonhuman animals and the environment is articulated. It is typical for debates in political philosophy to be adrift regarding the concept of method, but from start to finish this book relies on the processual method of reflective equilibrium or dialectic at its best. This is the first extended effort to argue for both political liberalism as a process-oriented view and process philosophy/theology as a politically liberal view. It is also a timely defense of political liberalism against illiberal tendencies on both the right and the left.

Before Reagan: The Development of Abortion’s Partisan Divide

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 1031-1047
Author(s):  
Neil A. O’Brian
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Vote Choice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
Pro Life ◽  
Pro Choice

What explains the alignment of antiabortion positions within the Republican party? I explore this development among voters, activists, and elites before 1980. By 1970, antiabortion attitudes among ordinary voters correlated with conservative views on a range of noneconomic issues including civil rights, Vietnam, feminism and, by 1972, with Republican presidential vote choice. These attitudes predated the parties taking divergent abortion positions. I argue that because racial conservatives and military hawks entered the Republican coalition before abortion became politically activated, issue overlap among ordinary voters incentivized Republicans to oppose abortion rights once the issue gained salience. Likewise, because proabortion voters generally supported civil rights, once the GOP adopted a Southern strategy, this predisposed pro-choice groups to align with the Democratic party. A core argument is that preexisting public opinion enabled activist leaders to embed the anti (pro) abortion movement in a web of conservative (liberal) causes. A key finding is that the white evangelical laity’s support for conservative abortion policies preceded the political mobilization of evangelical leaders into the pro-life movement. I contend the pro-life movement’s alignment with conservatism and the Republican party was less contingent on elite bargaining, and more rooted in the mass public, than existing scholarship suggests.

Pro-Life or Pro-Choice? Humanistic Buddhists’ Voices Surrounding Abortion in Contemporary Taiwan

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-80
Author(s):  
Grace Cheng-Ying Lin
Keyword(s):  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Buddhist Philosophy ◽  
Reproductive Politics ◽  
Discursive Analysis ◽  
The People ◽  
The Law ◽  
Humanistic Buddhism ◽  
Pro Life ◽  
Pro Choice

In Taiwan, abortion was legalized in 1984. This paper examines the voices surrounding abortion expressed by monasteries in Humanistic Buddhism, a prominent Buddhist philosophy practiced in modern Taiwan. Humanistic Buddhism emphasizes that it is a “religion of the people.” However, in addition to the law of karma and causality, the value of all life forms is prioritized based on the ethics of “non-harming (ahimsā).” When some monasteries insist that abortion is killing, resulting in karmic retribution, some express sympathy with a woman’s decision to abort. When some monasteries promote a newly popularized ritual to appease aborted fetuses, some are keenly critical of the exploitation of women and manipulation of scriptures. Through a discursive analysis, this paper demonstrates the wide spectrum of Buddhist narratives in response to reproductive politics embedded in the conflicts between modernity and tradition, as well as locality and globality.

scholarly journals Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Contentions in Joyce Carol Oates’s: A Book of American Martyrs

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-34
Author(s):  
Weini Wang
Keyword(s):  
Karl Marx ◽  
Culture Industry ◽  
Religious Culture ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Dominant Group ◽  
Religious Ideology ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Pro Life ◽  
Pro Choice ◽  
Name Of God

This thesis probes into the issue on pro-life and pro-choice contentions in Joyce Carol Oates’s: A Book of American Martyrs. Karl Marx explains how capitalists maneuver the deferred redemption intrinsic of religion per se to exploit and oppress workers and re-enforce capitalism proper. In the novel, the transformation of Luther and Gus provides a convincible account for Luther’s frenzy and Gus’s irreligion. This thesis discusses argues that the workers are unconsciously subjected to the governance of the dominant group via the conceptualization of religious ideology and religious culture industry. It should be condemned to impose one’s belief on the others, or even to commit murder ruthlessly in the name of God.

The Ethics of Medical Tourism

2015 ◽  
pp. 79-88
Author(s):  
Nader Ghotbi
Keyword(s):  
Cosmetic Surgery ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Medical Tourism ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Therapeutic Massage ◽  
Life Saving ◽  
Almost All

Medical tourism is rapidly growing. There are various reasons for this form of travel; from having life-saving surgery, receiving organ transplants and other vital operations, to therapeutic massage, using hot spas, and cosmetic surgery, and from receiving assistance with infertility to assisted suicide services at particular destinations. Some forms of medical tourism have strong ethical issues attached to them, but there are also ethical issues that may apply to almost all cases, and these can be discussed in a general way. This chapter discusses fundamental definitions of the concepts and general ethical issues in medical tourism, and then explains in more detail some of the moral issues in medical tourism that need to be examined from an ethical standpoint. The chapter establishes common ground for discussion based on broadly accepted principles that can be used almost universally as general guidelines for ethical decision-making in medical tourism activities.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Fran Amery
Keyword(s):  
Sex Selection ◽  
Reproductive Decisions ◽  
Abortion Law ◽  
Abortion Debate ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Abortion Politics ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Pro Life ◽  
Pro Choice

This chapter gives a brief overview of the current terrain of abortion debate in the UK, covering calls for decriminalisation as well as debates on sex-selection, disability and pre-abortion counselling. It argues that the classic image of abortion politics as a war between ‘pro-life’ and ‘pro-choice’ actors cannot adequately accommodate these recent developments – nor does it fit with how abortion debates have actually unfolded in Britain historically. Instead, it offers an interpretation of abortion law as resting on a coalition between government and medical actors formed to govern women’s reproductive decisions. The chapter closes with an overview of the book.

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