Conventionalism and Legitimate Expectations

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
C.M. Melenovsky
Keyword(s):  
John Rawls ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Moral Claim ◽  
Natural Right ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Moral Claims ◽  
Legitimate Expectations ◽  
Specific Obligation

To be a conventionalist about a specific obligation or right is to believe that the obligation or right is dependent on the existence of a social practice. A conventionalist about property, for example, believes that a moral right to property is generated by conventional norms rather than by any natural right. One problem with dominant conventionalist theories is that they do not adequately justify conventional moral claims. They can justify why it is wrong to steal, for example, but they do not justify the claim that you have on me to not steal from you. As a remedy, this article develops and defends the Principle of Legitimate Expectations. Suggested by John Rawls, this principle grants individuals a moral claim to what the rules of morally justified practices entitle them. This article addresses common objections to the principle to show how it can ground a wide range of conventional moral claims.

Dignity and Recognition

2020 ◽  
pp. 100-128
Author(s):  
Suzy Killmister
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Personal Identity ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Moral Claim ◽  
Difficult Question ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Moral Claims ◽  
Legitimate Expectations

This chapter completes the discussion of the source and scope of individuals’ moral claims against having their dignity violated, frustrated, or destroyed, by considering status dignity. To fail to treat someone as a member of her social class ought to be treated constitutes a dignity violation; but this raises the difficult question of how individuals could have a moral claim to be treated in accordance with socially constructed norms. The answer developed in this chapter builds on the widely accepted idea of legitimate expectations: since social classes inform personal identity, we have a prima facie claim to have those identities recognized. Such claims are illegitimate, though, if granting that recognition would perpetuate the oppression of others. This will often be the case, it is argued, for claims to be recognized as members of hierarchical social classes such as race or gender.

Philanthropy and Selfishness

1987 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
John O'Connor
Keyword(s):  
Medical Research ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Fund Raising ◽  
Moral Claim ◽  
Capital Campaign ◽  
Research Institutes ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Major Significance ◽  
Moral Claims ◽  
Political Economic

The question I want to discuss is “How can I say ‘No’ to a fund-raising appeal?” Since many people apparently find it easy to say “No,” it is not clear what the problem is. Put briefly, the problem is this: I do not want to think of myself as uncaring, unfeeling, and insensitive to the needs of others. And yet, within the last year I have not responded to appeals for funds from a wide variety of causes: medical research, famine relief, freedom of speech, environmental protection. I have turned down requests for support of scholarly magazines, research institutes, and other good causes. My only moderate-sized contribution during that time has been to the capital campaign of an organization of which I am a member. I have enough to have made (very) small contributions to all of the organizations from which I received appeals, but not enough so that my contributions to any single cause would be of major significance. How can I justify not giving?The problem arises because these appeals (some of them, at least) apparently put moral claims upon me: they say that people are suffering and have needs, and you can help to meet them. Or they say that the intellectual and cultural life of our society will be enriched if you help.One traditional philosophic view holds that moral claims have a special status. They override political, economic, social, and other claims. The only thing, according to this view, that can free one from a moral claim is another moral claim.

scholarly journals Training and educational problems solving in the study of mathematics at university

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 141-147
Author(s):  
Vladimir Nicolaevich Aniskin ◽  
Elena Nicolaevna Ryabinova
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Competence Development ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Learning Activity ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Educational Standard ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Four Blocks ◽  
State Educational

The analysis of federal state educational standards for all steps of existing educational system shows that meta-subject approach in learning and bringing up activity is becoming more urgent. Orientation to the key strategic priority of continuous education such as bringing up activity and forming the ability to study are also urgent. The main types of universal studying activities are analyzed: personal, subject, meta-subject results; usage of learning activity matrix during the process of study. Federal State Educational Standard of basic common education sets the demands to personal, meta-subject and subject results of learning after basic educational program of secondary education. So, according to the succession principle we should develop the competence of the students following these three directions transforming them into educational environment of the university. Thus, meta-subject competence should include ability to use intersubject definitions and universal learning activities performing them at learning, knowledge and social practice. The achievement of meta-subject results is connected with the nature of universal activity. The basis of nature-coordinated education should lie in basic values - and the most important is morality which is formed from the human nature. That is why the standards of the second generation formulate four blocks of universal learning activities: personal, regulative, common knowledge and communicative. According to their nature meta-subject activities are functional-oriented ones and they form the psychological basis and determining condition of subject task solution success. Meta-subject competence development supposes various forms of studying process organization. One of such organization forms can be the business game which can be used as the means of diagnosis and forecast of personal behavior in various situations. Project technology is also aimed to develop wide range of competence and creative abilities and that is why it suggests the integrity of research, searching, problem solving and comparison methods. It has been shown that nowadays the role of each course in meta-subject competence development has been growing rapidly.

scholarly journals Meta-subject competence development of future bachelors and specialists

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-194
Author(s):  
Nina Alexandrovna Timoschuk
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Competence Development ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Educational Standard ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Organization Problem ◽  
Four Blocks ◽  
State Educational

Federal State Educational Standard of basic common education sets the demands to personal, meta-subject and subject results of learning after basic educational program of common education. So, according to the succession principle we should develop the competence of the students following these three directions transforming them into educational environment of the university. Thus, meta-subject competence should include ability to use intersubject definitions and universal learning activities performing them at learning, knowledge and social practice. The achievement of meta-subject results is connected with the nature of universal activity. The basis of nature-coordinated education should be basic values - and the most important is morality which is formed from the human nature. That is why the standards of the second generation formulate four blocks of universal learning activities: personal, regulative, common knowledge and communicative. According to their nature meta-subject activities are functional-oriented ones and they form the psychological basis and determine condition of the success of subject task solution. Meta-subject competence development supposes various forms of studying process organization. Problem learning implies active interrelation of the subjects of learning process allowing to form such students categories as readiness, activeness, ability to appreciate which are the key ones for the term competence. One of such organization forms can be the business game which can be used as the means of diagnosis and forecast of personal behavior in various situations. Project technology is also aimed to develop wide range of competence and creative abilities and that is why it suggests the integrity of research, searching, problem solving and comparison methods. It has been shown that nowadays the role of each discipline in meta-subject competence development has been growing rapidly.

Are Human Rights Universal?

2020 ◽  
pp. 190-218
Author(s):  
Nigel Biggar
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Moral Claim ◽  
Human Right ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Consensus ◽  
Natural Right ◽  
International Human ◽  
Moral Superiority

Broadly speaking, a human right is the same as a natural right, insofar as it is the property of anyone participating in human nature. However, ‘human rights’ usually refers to those bodies of rights that have attracted international recognition by states since 1945. Rights subscribed to by states possess a special authority that derives from national recognition, is confirmed by some international consensus, and is reinforced by international courts. This legal authority endows a natural, moral claim with the characteristic force of ‘a right’. From the early 1970s, international human rights have provoked the complaint from non-Western societies that they embody ‘neo-imperialist’ assumptions about the intellectual and moral superiority of Western culture. This chapter examines that complaint. It concludes that the human goods that rights seek to protect are universal, and it is therefore unlikely that any society has ever existed without establishing customary or legal rights that enjoy some security. Moreover, there is empirical evidence that some non-Western societies have in fact established rights, many of them familiar to Westerners. There are, however, different ways in which a good can be protected by a legal right, and the way chosen by a particular society will be shaped by its historical, cultural, and other circumstances. Therefore, while the good to be protected is universal, and while the means of protecting it by establishing a right is very probably universal, the specific form of the protective right will not be universal.

Should Have Known

2021 ◽  
pp. 137-173
Author(s):  
Sanford C. Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Epistemic Reasons ◽  
Epistemic Condition ◽  
Culpable Ignorance ◽  
Legitimate Expectations

This chapter argues that there are cases in which a subject, S, should have known that p, even though, given her state of evidence at the time, she was in no position to know it. In particular, S should have known that p when (i) another person has, or would have, legitimate expectations regarding S’s epistemic condition, (ii) the satisfaction of these expectations would require that S knows that p, and (iii) S fails to know that p. I argue that these three conditions are sometimes jointly satisfied. There are (at least) two main sources of legitimate expectations regarding another’s epistemic condition: participation in a legitimate social practice; and moral and epistemic expectations more generally. In developing my position on this score, I will have an opportunity (i) to contrast practice-generated entitlements to expect with epistemic reasons to believe; (ii) to compare the “should have known” phenomenon with the phenomenon of culpable ignorance; and finally (iii) to suggest the bearing of the “should have known” phenomenon to epistemology itself.

Visual Literacy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Serafini
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Visual Literacy ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range

Visual literacy was originally defined as a set of visual competencies or cognitive skills and strategies one needs to make sense of visual images. These visual competencies were seen as universal cognitive abilities that were used for understanding visual images regardless of the contexts of production, reception, and dissemination. More contemporary definitions suggest visual literacy is a contextualized, social practice as much as an individualized, cognitively based set of competencies. Visual literacy is more aptly defined as a process of generating meanings in transaction with multimodal ensembles that include written text, visual images, and design elements from a variety of perspectives to meet the requirements of particular social contexts. Theories of visual literacy and associated research and pedagogy draw from a wide range of disciplines including art history, semiotics, media and cultural studies, communication studies, visual ethnography and anthropology, social semiotics, new literacies studies, cognitive psychology, and critical theory. Understanding the various theories, research methodologies, and pedagogical approaches to visual literacy requires an investigation into how the various paradigm shifts that have occurred in the social sciences have affected this field of study. Cognitive, linguistic, sociocultural, multimodal, and postmodern “turns” in the social sciences each bring different theories, perspectives, and approaches to the field of visual literacy. Visual literacy now incorporates sociocultural, semiotic, critical, and multimodal perspectives to understand the meaning potential of the visual and verbal ensembles encountered in social environments.

On the Muslim Question

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Norton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
The United States ◽  
Clash Of Civilizations ◽  
The West ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Security Values ◽  
Fresh Perspective ◽  
New Vision ◽  
Democratic Life

In the post-9/11 West, there is no shortage of strident voices telling us that Islam is a threat to the security, values, way of life, and even existence of the United States and Europe. For better or worse, “the Muslim question” has become the great question of our time. It is a question bound up with others—about freedom of speech, terror, violence, human rights, women's dress, and sexuality. Above all, it is tied to the possibility of democracy. This book demolishes the notion that there is a “clash of civilizations” between the West and Islam. What is really in question, the book argues, is the West's commitment to its own ideals: to democracy and the Enlightenment trinity of liberty, equality, and fraternity. In the most fundamental sense, the Muslim question is about the values not of Islamic, but of Western, civilization. Moving between the United States and Europe, the book provides a fresh perspective on iconic controversies, from the Danish cartoon of Muhammad to the murder of Theo van Gogh. It examines the arguments of a wide range of thinkers—from John Rawls to Slavoj Žižek. It also describes vivid everyday examples of ordinary Muslims and non-Muslims who have accepted each other and built a common life together. Ultimately, the book provides a new vision of a richer and more diverse democratic life in the West, one that makes room for Muslims rather than scapegoating them for the West's own anxieties.

Tying the Knot

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Probert
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Individual Choice ◽  
Marriage Law ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Law ◽  
First Time

The Marriage Act 1836 established the foundations of modern marriage law, allowing couples to marry in register offices and non-Anglican places of worship for the first time. Rebecca Probert draws on an exceptionally wide range of primary sources to provide the first detailed examination of marriage legislation, social practice, and their mutual interplay, from 1836 through to the unanticipated demands of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. She analyses how and why the law has evolved, closely interrogating the parliamentary and societal debates behind legislation. She demonstrates how people have chosen to marry and how those choices have changed, and evaluates how far the law has been help or hindrance in enabling couples to marry in ways that reflect their beliefs, be they religious or secular. In an era of individual choice and multiculturalism, Tying the Knot sign posts possible ways in which future legislators might avoid the pitfalls of the past.

10. Judicial Review: The Grounds

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Thompson ◽  
Michael Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Judicial Review ◽  
Legal Principles ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Legitimate Expectations ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Domestic Law

Extracts have been chosen from a wide range of historical and contemporary cases to illustrate the reasoning processes of the courts and to show how legal principles are developed. This chapter introduces the nature and constitutional role of judicial review. It then examines the various grounds of review, which have been placed in three classes: illegality, procedural impropriety, and irrationality. The chapter also discusses the substantive aspect of legitimate expectations and the relationship between irrationality and proportionality in pure domestic law.

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