When at the hospital for the birth of our son, I remember being unsettled by the fact that much of the medical staff kept referring to me as my wife’s “birthing partner.” This label struck me as deflating the stakes and investment I had (and have) in both my wife and child, and I likelyContinue reading “Two Anecdotes About Family”
Tag Archives: ethics
Thinking Through Atomization
Two moral and political philosophers, Charles Taylor and Alasdair MacIntyre, have provided profound reflections on the nature of contemporary moral life, and—though their methods and projects differ—they come to intriguingly similar conclusions about the ills of modern ethics. The most notable, though described in different ways, is that of “individualism.” We might briefly understand thisContinue reading “Thinking Through Atomization”
Abortion & Analogy
In 1971, Judith Jarvis Thomson published an essay entitled, “A Defense of Abortion.” Therein, she attempts an argument that assumes human life begins at conception (despite her personal rejection of this claim) so as to take on the most ‘extreme’ position that is used by many ‘pro-life’ advocates. This ‘extreme’ view argues that murdering aContinue reading “Abortion & Analogy”
Character, Virtues, and Actions
The language of ‘Virtue,’ by historical standards, has lost its currency. Why this is the case is a complicated matter, though perhaps the simplest reason is that we have lost a sense of ‘formal’ causation in the modern era. That history has, however, already been unpacked – far better than I ever could – byContinue reading “Character, Virtues, and Actions”
A Note on Subjectivity
A colleague of mine often playfully chides me for being too analytical about what words mean – assuming that one can ever ascertain this. What my friend is also commenting on is the manner in which I am liable to presume that I do not understand what a given word means when speaking to variousContinue reading “A Note on Subjectivity”
R. G. Collingwood on ‘Duty’
A peculiar detail about me, that is of an unknown origin to myself, is that I have a seemingly innate disposition to act out of a sense of duty. In some ways, this may come from my family; my parents and extended relatives tend toward a fierce (almost tribal) sense of familial loyalty – evenContinue reading “R. G. Collingwood on ‘Duty’”
Hoping for Clarity 