Beyond Immutability: Sexuality and Constitutive Choice

2014 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily R. Gill
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Moral Agency ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Harm To Others ◽  
The Individual

AbstractAdvocates for the equality and dignity of LGBT persons often suggest that the immutability of sexual orientation is their strongest argument. I believe that it is a weak one. First, the individual freedom that liberalism accords to people, absent harm to others, as necessary for human flourishing applies to sexuality as well as to other areas of existence. Second, the distinction often made between status and conduct is a false one, and the argument from immutability effectively protects neither. Third, I examine the notion of constitutive choice, arguing that the line between immutability and choice is more complex than many realize. Finally, greater attention to the notion of constitutive choice may broaden liberalism's hospitality to conceptions of the good in ways that better respect human moral agency and autonomy.

The Emergence of Subjectivity in the Ancient and Medieval World

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Philosophical Anthropology ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Western Civilization ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Different Cultures

This work represents a combination of different genres: cultural history, philosophical anthropology, and textbook. It follows a handful of different but interrelated themes through more than a dozen texts that were written over a period of several millennia. By means of an analysis of these texts, this work presents a theory about the development of Western Civilization from antiquity to the Middle Ages. The main line of argument traces the various self-conceptions of the different cultures as they developed historically. These self-conceptions reflect different views of what it is to be human. The thesis is that in these we can discern the gradual emergence of what we today call inwardness, subjectivity and individual freedom. As human civilization took its first tenuous steps, it had a very limited conception of the individual. Instead, the dominant principle was that of the wider group: the family, clan or people. Only in the course of history did the idea of what we know as individuality begin to emerge. It took millennia for this idea to be fully recognized and developed. The conception of human beings as having a sphere of inwardness and subjectivity subsequently had a sweeping impact on all aspects of culture, such as philosophy, religion, law, and art. Indeed, this conception largely constitutes what is today referred to as modernity. It is easy to lose sight of the fact that this modern conception of human subjectivity was not simply something given but rather the result of a long process of historical and cultural development.

scholarly journals An Existential Crisis? Freedom, Tolerance, Solidarity, Peace; Or, Why Europe is Valuable

2018 ◽  
pp. 115-137
Author(s):  
Joxerramon Bengoetxea
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Practical Reason ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Constitutional Treaty ◽  
Existential Crisis ◽  
Normative Systems ◽  
The Individual

This paper addresses Europe’s existential crisis. It does so by suggesting that, notwithstanding the relevance of the institutional design, the essence of the project of European integration is persons and peoples rather than states. It then discusses two speeches of important personalities speaking about Europe’s existential crisis. Next, it deals with the question of diversity since the motto of the failed constitutional treaty was precisely “united in diversity”. But this requires explaining the centrality of the individual in practical reason, and the importance of normative systems. The centrality of the individual, related to the value of freedom, is then placed in the context of plurality and diversity, directly addressing the theme of backlash forces in Europe through a map of such plurality in Europe; the socalled multiculturalism or ethno-religious pluralism. The paper concludes by suggesting a version of cosmopolitanism, hermeneutic pluralism, as the normative position to address the balance between individual freedom and solidarity or between “persons” and “peoples”.Received: 15 January 2018 Accepted: 9 May 2018 Published online: 31 October 2018

Emotion, Executive Dysfunction, and Agency

2021 ◽  
pp. 51-79
Author(s):  
Kevin Timpe
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Moral Agency ◽  
Executive Dysfunction ◽  
Virtue Theory ◽  
Emotional Control ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Emotional Disability ◽  
Contemporary Research ◽  
Human Emotions

Virtue theory has addressed the role of human emotions in moral agency since its earliest proponents. Timpe’s goal in this chapter is to see how far this connection can be pushed by looking at certain kinds of emotional disability (or impairments with regard to emotional control). More specifically, he explores what implications contemporary research in psychology about executive dysfunction and emotion has for thinking about virtues that take emotions as their objects (e.g., fortitude). Timpe argues that certain kinds of disabilities significantly impact an agent’s ability to develop the proper dispositions regarding emotions that are typically associated with virtue and human flourishing because of how those disabilities impact the agent’s emotions. Some disabilities will impair an agent’s ability to exercise the kind of executive function needed to regulate the emotions and develop virtue. Timpe ends by considering how the sort of disabilities considered relate to Christian flourishing and community.

Genre, conversion personnelle et individualisme en pentecôtisme: les Assemblées de Dieu de Polynésie française

2013 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwendoline Malogne-Fer
Keyword(s):  
Assemblies Of God ◽  
French Polynesia ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Gender Perspective ◽  
Gendered Roles ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Personal Decision

While the Assemblies of God (AoG) in French Polynesia insist on the dimension of choice in their definition of Pentecostal belonging, in contrast with the ‘historical’ Protestant identity inherited from parents, the conditions under which Pentecostal conversions take place lead us to qualify this simplistic opposition. The institutional recognition of personal conversion (through immersion baptism) by AoG ministers depends, in fact, on the regularisation of the conjugal situation. In so doing, they alter the process of conversion by transforming a supposedly personal decision into a conjugal and family negotiation. Adopting a gender perspective, the author first shows how the modalities of conversion to Pentecostalism and responsibility for such conversion vary significantly according to the gender and conjugal situation of the individual concerned. She goes on to question the signification of the ‘autonomy’ and ‘individual freedom’ promoted by Pentecostalism in so far as these are associated with a traditional division of gendered roles focused on the upholding of ‘familial values’.

Part 1 Freedom of Religion or Belief, 1.3.1 Freedom to Worship

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bielefeldt Heiner, Prof ◽  
Ghanea Nazila, Dr ◽  
Wiener Michael, Dr
Keyword(s):  
Public Debate ◽  
The Other ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Dietary Practices ◽  
Education Services ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

This chapter addresses issues concerning the individual freedom to worship. Given the crucial significance of worship for the understanding and practice of religion, the texts of some national constitutions reduce the right to freedom of religion or belief to the element of worship by replacing it with the term ‘freedom to worship’. However, this narrow or even exclusive emphasis on worship can become an excuse for marginalizing or simply ignoring other important aspects of freedom of religion or belief, such as running charity institutions, offering education services or participating in public debate. It is therefore advisable not to isolate the element of worship, but to see it in conjunction with the other elements of the right to manifest one’s religion or belief through observance, practice, and teaching. The chapter also discusses issues of interpretation such as the ceremonial use of plants and drugs, as well as ritual slaughter and observance of dietary practices.

scholarly journals Facial expressions, their communicatory functions and neuro–cognitive substrates

2003 ◽  
Vol 358 (1431) ◽  
pp. 561-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. R. Blair
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Emotional Expressions ◽  
Impaired Ability ◽  
Rapid Transmission ◽  
Harm To Others ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Made In

Human emotional expressions serve a crucial communicatory role allowing the rapid transmission of valence information from one individual to another. This paper will review the literature on the neural mechanisms necessary for this communication: both the mechanisms involved in the production of emotional expressions and those involved in the interpretation of the emotional expressions of others. Finally, reference to the neuro–psychiatric disorders of autism, psychopathy and acquired sociopathy will be made. In these conditions, the appropriate processing of emotional expressions is impaired. In autism, it is argued that the basic response to emotional expressions remains intact but that there is impaired ability to represent the referent of the individual displaying the emotion. In psychopathy, the response to fearful and sad expressions is attenuated and this interferes with socialization resulting in an individual who fails to learn to avoid actions that result in harm to others. In acquired sociopathy, the response to angry expressions in particular is attenuated resulting in reduced regulation of social behaviour.

Ethics Education of Medical Staff and Associates

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Erica Laethem ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Medical Staff ◽  
Moral Agency ◽  
Ethics Education ◽  
Care Ethics ◽  
Health Care Ethics ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Faith And Reason ◽  
Catholic Health Care

Ethics education is an essential obligation of a robust health care ethics service. Although there is no one-size-fits all approach, all ethics education should be proactive and therefore should avoid portraying ethics as mere compliance with moral norms or as an esoteric activity that applies only in cases of moral conflict. Such a negative approach can lead to an ethics of minimums and to the disempowerment of moral agency. In addition, ethics education should promote ethics competency and virtue for the sake of human flourishing through instruction and habituation. To serve the individuals from diverse backgrounds who work in Catholic health care, ethics education should reflect the Catholic teaching that faith and reason are compatible, and that ethics need not be bound to an exclusively theological approach. This will foster a flourishing moral community where medical staff and associates are united by a common mission and ethical commitments.

Individual and Collective Flourishing in Kant's Philosophy

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Denis
Keyword(s):  
Kantian Ethics ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Moral Good ◽  
Explicit Reference ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Kant's Ethics

In ‘Happiness and Human Flourishing’, Thomas E. Hill, Jr, contrasts Kant's notion of happiness with that of human flourishing, explains the role of happiness in Kant's ethics, and suggests some reasons why Kant portrays happiness rather than flourishing as the non-moral good of the individual. While there is much I agree with in Hill's essay, I disagree with Hill on how best to conceive of human flourishing in Kant's philosophy, and on the importance of human flourishing in Kant's ethics. Comparing my views with Hill's is not what chiefly interests me, however. After section 1, I make little explicit reference to ‘Happiness and Human Flourishing’. Instead, I seek to expand the discussion begun there by Hill of ‘how happiness and human flourishing are (or are not) relevant to [Kantian] ethics’ (HHF 164).

British Lord, American Movie Idol and Soviet Counterculture Figure

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick H. White
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Personal Freedom ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
American Individualism ◽  
The Individual ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Previous Scholarship

For an entire generation of Soviet youth, Tarzan was a provocative symbol of individualism and personal freedom. Previous scholarship has included Tarzan within the larger counterculture movement of the thaw period (1953–64), but has not specifically examined how this occurred. Joseph S. Nye has coined the term soft power to describe the ability to attract and to co-opt rather than to force another nation into accepting your ideals. Within this rubric, Tarzan’s presence in the Soviet Union was simultaneously entertaining and provocative. As literary fare in the 1920s, Tarzan represented an escape from war and revolution and was sanctioned as acceptable reading for Soviet youths. The celluloid Tarzan also represented an escape, but this time from the repressive Stalinist regime and the hardships of post-WWII Soviet society. Raised on both the books and films, a new generation of Soviet youth longed for the individual freedom that Tarzan came to represent. Tarzan’s impact in the Soviet Union is one example of western cultural infiltration that contributed to the idealization of American individualism over the Soviet collective within the Soviet Union.

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