Fellow Creatures

Author(s):  
Christine M. Korsgaard

This book argues that we are obligated to treat all sentient animals as “ends in themselves.” Drawing on a theory of the good derived from Aristotle, it offers an explanation of why animals are the sorts of beings who have a good. Drawing on a revised version of Kant’s argument for the value of humanity, it argues that rationality commits us to claiming the standing of ends in ourselves in two senses. As autonomous beings, we claim to be ends in ourselves when we claim the standing to make laws for ourselves and each other. As beings who have a good, we also claim to be ends in ourselves when we take the things that are good for us to be good absolutely and so worthy of pursuit. The first claim commits us to joining with other autonomous beings in relations of reciprocal moral lawmaking. The second claim commits us to treating the good of every sentient animal as something of absolute importance. The book also argues that human beings are not more important than, superior to, or better off than the other animals. It criticizes the “marginal cases” argument and advances a view of moral standing as attaching to the atemporal subjects of lives. It offers a non-utilitarian account of the relationship between the good and pleasure, and addresses questions about the badness of extinction and about whether we have the right to eat animals, experiment on them, make them work for us, and keep them as pets.

Author(s):  
Christine M. Korsgaard

According to the marginal cases argument, there is no property that might justify making a moral difference between human beings and the other animals that is both uniquely and universally human. It is therefore “speciesist” to treat human beings differently just because we are human beings. While not challenging the conclusion, this chapter argues that the marginal cases argument is metaphysically misguided. It ignores the differences between a life stage and a kind, and between lacking a property and having it in a defective form. The chapter then argues for a view of moral standing that attributes it to the subject of a life conceived as an atemporal being, and shows how this view can resolve some familiar puzzles such as how death can be a loss to the person who has died, how we can wrong the dead, the “procreation asymmetry,” and the “non-identity problem.”


1992 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-208
Author(s):  
Frank I. Michelman

Prescriptive political and moral theories contain ideas about what human beings are like and about what, correspondingly, is good for them. Conceptions of human “nature” and corresponding human good enter into normative argument by way of support and justification. Of course, it is logically open for the ratiocinative traffic to run the other way. Strongly held convictions about the rightness or wrongness, goodness or badness, of certain social institutions or practices may help condition and shape one's responses to one or another set of propositions about what people are like and what, in consequence, they have reason to value.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Edi Gunawan

This paper examines religious and state relations of Islamic thought perspective. This study aims to describe how the relationship between religion and state in the view of Islam. The method used in obtaining data is descriptive method through literature study. The results of the study show that among Muslim figures or thinkers such as Nurcholish Madjid and Abdur Rahman Wahid agree that there is a constructive relationship between state and religion which by revivalists separates it. Some of the indicators are: (1) Islam gives the principles of the formation of a state with the concept of khalīfah ,dawlah, or hukūmah, (2) Islam emphasizes the democratic values of truth and justice, and (3) Islam upholds Human Rights by stating that the basic rights that human beings bring ever since they are born are the right of religious freedom. Therefore, Islam essentially emphasizes the importance of human rights to be upheld in a state, because human rights are rights that should not be disturbed and deprived from the person who has the right.


2020 ◽  
pp. 259-264
Author(s):  
В. В. Дутка

The relevance of the article is that society’s attitude to the bankruptcy procedure is ambiguous: ordinary citizens who have never been involved in bankruptcy proceedings often perceive it as a certain negative phenomenon that should be avoided and avoided. On the other hand, for many debtors, bankruptcy becomes the “lifeline” with which they can repay their claims to creditors and start financial life “from scratch”. At the same time, it should be noted that many debtors and creditors use the bankruptcy procedure not for the purposes provided by the legislator in the relevant legal norms, but to satisfy only their own interests, to the detriment of the interests of other parties to the case. In this regard, the study of the abuse of the right to initiate bankruptcy proceedings becomes relevant. The article is devoted to the study of abuse of the right to initiate bankruptcy proceedings. The purpose of the article is to study the abuse of the right to initiate bankruptcy proceedings and highlight the author’s vision of this issue. According to the results of the study, the author concludes that the application to the debtor of bankruptcy procedures can be both good for the debtor and to the detriment of the interests of his creditors. Entities that could potentially abuse the right to initiate bankruptcy proceedings are: creditors of the debtor – a legal entity, as well as debtors – legal entities, individuals and individuals – entrepreneurs. The fact of exemption of debtors from the court fee for filing an application to initiate bankruptcy proceedings is not only an unjustified luxury for our state, but also only contributes to the abuse of the right to initiate bankruptcy proceedings by unscrupulous debtors. In order to reduce the number of cases of abuse of the right to initiate bankruptcy proceedings, the author justifies the need to complicate the conditions for opening bankruptcy proceedings, for example, by returning the conditions provided by the Law of Ukraine “On Restoration of Debtor’s Solvency or Recognition of Debtor’s Bankruptcy”.


Numen ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 56 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 366-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarald Rasmussen

In Late Medieval Christianity, the concept of hell was closely connected to the sacrament of penance. Hell could be avoided through the right use of penance. And the cleansing sufferings in purgatory could to a certain extent replace the eternal sufferings in hell. The Protestant Reformation rejected purgatory, and returned to a traditional dualistic view of the relationship between heaven and hell. At the same time, hell seems to lose some of its religious importance in early Protestant spirituality. This change is illustrated through a comparison of two central texts belonging more or less to the same genre: on the one hand the famous Late Medieval illustrated Ars moriendi and on the other Luther's Sermon von der Bereitung zum Sterben from 1519.


2021 ◽  
pp. 35-36
Author(s):  
Chetna Thakur ◽  
Bhawani Shankar Modi ◽  
Tejendra Singh

Introduction: Human beings are considered to be bilaterally symmetrical. However, there is no symmetry in the length of the feet irrespective of sex or handedness. The hand length could predict bodyweight and body surface area independent of the sex of the individual. But there was no so much data available in the literature showing the relationship between hand length and foot length. Aim and objective: The present study was conducted to derive the correlation between hand length and foot length and the results demonstrate that there was highly signicant correlation between them. Material and Methods:Across sectional study was carried out on 200 healthy and normal adult professional students of either sex (100 Male and 100 Female), age between 18-25 years. Result:the hand length and foot length were compared between the right and left sides, the data showed that the signicant difference between males and females on both sides was highly signicant for all the parameters measured with p value < 0.01 Conclusion:The results of current study indicate that if the hand length is known, foot length can be predicted and if the foot length is known, hand length can be predicted and vice versa.


Author(s):  
Michael Naas

This chapter analyzes a large swath of Plato’s Statesman (287b–311c) in order to ask, with “Plato’s Pharmacy” in the background, about the Stranger’s claim that law—and especially written law, since writing is the essence of law—is at once inferior to rule without law and yet, in a world without divine rulers, absolutely necessary for human governance. This chapter returns to many of the insights from Chapter 2 on the myth of the two ages, since what that myth demonstrated was the desirability and yet impossibility of an age in which a truly divine being rules over human beings and the concomitant necessity of trying to imitate that age through laws. Once again, we see that what is at issue in the relationship between the two ages, as well as in the relationship between a regime without law and a regime with it, are two different valences or valuations of life—the values of pure life, fecundity, spontaneity, and memory, on the one hand, and the values of death in life, forgetting in memory, and sterility in fecundity, on the other.


Author(s):  
Stannard John E ◽  
Capper David

This chapter discusses the nature of termination for breach. Termination for breach can be seen both as a process and as a remedy. Traditionally, the topic has been dealt with under the broader umbrella of ‘discharge’, alongside such topics as performance, frustration, and agreement. Problems arise, however, when the notion of discharge is pressed too far; in particular, the idea of the contract ‘coming to an end’ can be a misleading one, and has given rise to various errors and misconceptions. For this and other reasons, more emphasis is now given to termination in the context of remedies. Termination can be one of the most useful weapons in the armoury for the victim of a breach of contract, not least because, unlike many other remedies, it does not require recourse to the courts. However, this notion of termination as a remedy should not obscure the close relationship between termination and the other modes of discharge, most notably frustration. The chapter then looks at the problems in this area of the law, including problems of terminology, the different ways in which common law and equity have approached the question, and the relationship between discharge and damages. It also considers the most important aspects of the right to terminate, including the right to refuse performance.


Author(s):  
Stannard John E ◽  
Capper David

This chapter discusses express rights of termination. It is not always easy for a party to know for certain whether they are entitled to terminate or not. This is particularly so where the right in question depends on proof of fundamental breach or repudiation. For this reason, parties to a contract frequently, in the interests of certainty, make express provision for this by agreeing in advance that one or both of them may terminate if certain conditions are met. Such express rights of termination can depend on a wide variety of contingencies, but very frequently these will include a breach by the other party. Where this is the case, it is often difficult to distinguish termination under the express right from termination under the general law, particularly where the latter involves termination for breach of condition. The chapter then assesses four key issues with regard to express rights of this sort, most notably: (1) the relationship between express rights of termination and conditions at common law; (2) the requirements for the exercise of such rights; (3) the effect of termination under such a right; and (4) the problem of concurrent rights of termination.


Author(s):  
Bothe Michael

This chapter focuses on rules of the law of neutrality concerning the protection of the victims of armed conflicts, which must be considered as part of international humanitarian law. ‘Neutrality’ describes the particular status, as defined by international law, of a state not party to an armed conflict. This status entails specific rights and duties in the relationship between the neutral and the belligerent states. On one hand, there is the right of the neutral state to remain apart from, and not to be adversely affected by, the conflict. On the other hand, there is the duty of non-participation and impartiality. The right not to be adversely affected means that the relationship between the neutral and belligerent States is governed by the law of peace, which is modified only in certain respects by the law of neutrality. In particular, the neutral State must tolerate certain controls in the area of maritime commerce. The duty of non-participation means, above all, that the state must abstain from supporting a party to the conflict. This duty not to support also means that the neutral state is under a duty not to allow one party to the conflict to use the resources of the neutral state against the will of the opponent.


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