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Defensive Relativism describes how governments around the world use cultural relativism in legal argument to oppose international human rights law. Defensive relativist arguments appear in international courts, at the committees established by human rights treaties, and at the United Nations Human Rights Council. The aim of defensive relativist arguments is to exempt a state from having to apply international human rights law, or to stop international human rights law evolving, because it would interfere with cultural traditions the state deems important. It is an everyday occurrence in international human rights law and defensive relativist arguments can be used by various types of states. The end goal of defensive relativism is to allow a state to appear human rights compliant while at the same time not implementing international human rights law. Drawing on a range of materials, such as state reports on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and cases from the European Court of Human Rights involving freedom of religion, this book provides a definitive survey of defensive relativism. Crucially, Frederick Cowell argues, defensive relativism is not about alternative practices of human rights law, or debates about the origins or legitimacy of human rights as a concept. Defensive relativism is instead a variety of tactical argument used by states to justify ignoring international human rights law. Yet, as Cowell concludes, defensive relativism can’t be removed from the law, as it is a reflection of unresolved tensions about the nature of what it means for rights to be universal.
David B. Wong proposes that there can be a plurality of true moralities, moralities that exist across different traditions and cultures, all of which address facets of the same problem: how we are to live well together. Wong examines a wide array of positions and texts within the Western canon as well as in Chinese philosophy, and draws on philosophy, psychology, evolutionary theory, history, and literature, to make a case for the importance of pluralism in moral life, and to establish the virtues of acceptance and accommodation. Wong's point is that there is no single value or principle or ordering of values and principles that offers a uniquely true path for human living, but variations according to different contexts that carry within them a common core of human values. We should thus be modest about our own morality, learn from other approaches, and accommodate different practices in our pluralistic society.
Do norms of justice, human rights and democracy enable disenfranchised communities? Or do they simply reinforce relations of domination between those who are constituted as dispensers of justice, rights and aid, and those who are coded as receivers? Critical race theorists, feminists and queer and postcolonial theorists confront these questions and offer critical perspectives.
Protagoras was an important Greek thinker of the fifth century BC, the most famous of the so called Sophists, though most of what we know of him and his thought comes to us mainly through the dialogues of his strenuous opponent Plato. In this book, Ugo Zilioli offers a sustained and philosophically sophisticated examination of what is, in philosophical terms, the most interesting feature of Protagoras' thought for modern readers: his role as the first Western thinker to argue for relativism. Zilioli relates Protagoras' relativism with modern forms of relativism, in particular the 'robust relativism' of Joseph Margolis, gives an integrated account both of the perceptual relativism examined in Plato's Theaetetus and the ethical or social relativism presented in the first part of Plato's Protagoras and offers an integrated and positive analysis of Protagoras' thought, rather than focusing on ancient criticisms and responses to his thought. This is a deeply scholarly work which brings much argument to bear to the claim that Protagoras was and remains Plato's subtlest philosophical enemy.
Anemones and fish, ants and acacia trees, fungus and trees, buffaloes and oxpeckers--each of these unlikely duos is an inimitable partnership in which the species' coexistence is mutually beneficial. More specifically, they represent examples of defensive mutualism, when one species receives protection against predators or parasites in exchange for
Hadley Arkes, groundbreaking legal philosopher and acolyte of legendary political thinker Leo Strauss, takes a sledgehammer to both legal relativism and originalism, arguing that the principles the Founders embodied in the U.S. Constitution are built in to the general human condition, and that the path away from national dysfunction and ruin lies in reinvigorating our understanding of these innate moral principles and reapplying them to modern life. Mere Natural Law seeks to recover, for a new generation, the understanding of natural law that has never been learned by the lawyers and judges of our day. And it does that in part by returning to the American Founders, in their understanding of those axioms, or necessary truths, that form the moral ground of our law.
Offering a comprehensive overview and introduction to the concept of relativism and relativistic arguments this book surveys important relativist philosophers, both classical and modern.
This book shows how Hobbes, Mill, Kant, Aristotle, and Nietzsche all did ethical philosophy? It introduces students to ethics from a distinctively philosophical perspective, one that weaves together central ethical questions.
Today, the Catholic Church is dealing with many complex problems that often leave the faithful confused about the authentic interpretation of Catholic teaching. In Calming the Storm: Navigating the Crises Facing the Catholic Church and Society, experienced Vatican journalist Diane Montagna conducts a wide-ranging and trenchant interview with Fr. Gerald E. Murray that examines the root causes of and potential solutions to the many challenges the Church faces today. Fr. Murray’s insights provide sure guidance in understanding the Church’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage, homosexuality and gender ideology, the worthy reception of Holy Communion, the value of the Traditional Latin Mass, the horror of the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, the responsibility of bishops to uphold—not contradict—the Catholic Faith, and the duty of all Catholics to remain faithful to the teachings handed down from the apostles. Fr. Murray’s analysis highlights that while Christianity is under siege in the modern world, our Faith teaches us to have confidence in God’s never-failing providence. Renewing our minds and hearts in the truths that Christ and His Church teaches us brings true peace of soul. Amidst the maelstrom of doctrinal confusion and worldliness in the Church, Christ alone calms the storm when, like the Apostles, we turn to him in confidence and faith.
This book offers a philosophical analysis of the moral and legal justifications for the use of force. While the book focuses on the ethics self-defense, it also explores its relation to lesser evil justifications, public authority, the justification of punishment, and the ethics of war. Steinhoff’s account of the moral use of force covers a wide range of topics, including the nature of justification in general, the precise elements of different justifications, the logic of claim- and liberty-rights and of rights forfeiture, the value of human life and its limits, and the principles of reciprocity and precaution. While the author’s analysis is primarily philosophical, it is informed by a metaethical stance that also places heavy emphasis on existing law and legal scholarship. In doing so, the book appeals to widely shared moral intuitions, precepts, and concepts grounded in criminal law. Self-Defense, Necessity, and Punishment offers the most comprehensive and systematic account of the ethics of self-defense. It will be of interest to scholars and graduate students working in applied ethics and moral philosophy, philosophy of law, and political philosophy.