Craig Paterson | Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi Christian University (original) (raw)
Papers by Craig Paterson
Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, 2017
EUTHANASIA IN INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE, Marc Groenhuijsen, Floris van Laanen, eds, Mar 28, 2007
Abstract: The authors have regarded euthanasia in the broader framework of Dutch penal policies. ... more Abstract: The authors have regarded euthanasia in the broader framework of Dutch penal policies. They present euthanasia as a typical example of the pragmatic-rather than dogmatic-way the Dutch try to tackle difficult moral problems in connection with the criminal justice system. Definitions, statutory law, procedural issues, borderline cases, professional supervision, and empirical findings are provided, analyzed, and discussed. Finally, the authors point at various advantages and drawbacks of the Dutch approach. Thus, the ...
Introduction Philosophy, as a discipline, often tends to view its subject matter in abstract and ... more Introduction Philosophy, as a discipline, often tends to view its subject matter in abstract and ahistorical terms. Concepts are often assumed to be ‘fixed’ in meaning across many centuries of thought, and their historical change is often neglected. The transmission and reception of ideas is commonly conceived of in terms of a chain of connected dialogue that revolves around an established canon of great intellectual thinkers discussing great philosophical works, divorced from contextualhistorical influences. While there has been, in the wider academy, a movement for the ‘history of ideas’ as an approach to intellectual history, this movement has tended to function as a separate discipline and has failed to make much of an impression in the interpretative methodology typically pursued by philosophers in analytical philosophy departments. Attention to historical inquiry, it is often thought, tends to ‘dilute’ or ‘corrupt’ the genuine spirit of philosophical inquiry by corrosively att...
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2005
not theology. This question of scope is not to discount the importance of such lines of inquiry c... more not theology. This question of scope is not to discount the importance of such lines of inquiry concerning the relationship between faith and reason. 4 Rather, it is merely to state that the scope necessarily has to be limited to questions of what can and cannot be justified by natural reason in the light of our attempt to pose publicly accessible reasons that can, in principle, inform 'secular' morality and law in this area. 5 The history of suicide and euthanasia practices may, at first glance, seem to have only a distant influence upon the contemporary debate. Yet, the historical development of thinking on the subject is vital if we are to adequately contextualise the contemporary arguments made against traditional negative prohibitions; prohibitions that have hitherto formed the status quo in the West. 6 Being able to claim historical support lends credence to claims, especially when those figures or sources appealed to have had a significant impact on contemporary patterns of thought. 7 It is to the task of reviewing and analysing those historically rooted ideas, that I now turn. 4 Tensions with my own position concerning the relationship between faith and reason exist on two fronts: firstly, certain authors such as Ronald Dworkin blur the line between the kinds of truth that can be know by reason and kinds of truth that can be known only by an appeal to faith based considerations; secondly, there is the problem of thinkers and politicians who support the state sanctioning of religion, at least in the 'broad sense' of the Judaeo-Christian heritage. For a stimulating account of the general relationship between faith and reason, somewhat sympathetic to my own perspective, see
Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, 2017
Questions concerning the moral and legal justifications for the practices of suicide, assisted su... more Questions concerning the moral and legal justifications for the practices of suicide, assisted suicide, and voluntary euthanasia are undergoing renewed debate in contemporary Western society. In the United States, the activities of Jack Kevorkian, and pressure groups such as Exit and Compassion in Dying, ensure that the question will continue to be the object of intense debate. Of course, such pressure groups would be marginalised if there were uniform rejection of the legitimacy of such practices. There is not. There are historical ...
As medical technology advances and severely injured or ill people can be kept alive and functioni... more As medical technology advances and severely injured or ill people can be kept alive and functioning long beyond what was previously medically possible, the debate surrounding the ethics of end-of-life care and quality-of-life issues has grown more urgent. In this lucid and vigorous book, Craig Paterson discusses assisted suicide and euthanasia from a fully fledged but non-dogmatic secular natural law perspective. He rehabilitates and revitalises the natural law approach to moral reasoning by developing a pluralistic account of just why we (...) are required by practical rationality to respect and not violate key demands generated by the primary goods of persons, especially human life. Important issues that shape the moral quality of an action are explained and analysed: intention/foresight; action/omission; action/consequences; killing/letting die; innocence/non-innocence; person/non-person. Paterson defends the central normative proposition that ‘it is always a serious moral wrong ...
The first question that might occur to someone picking up the present volume for the first time i... more The first question that might occur to someone picking up the present volume for the first time is, what is Analytical Thomism? This is a very good question but one that is not easy to answer. The second part of the phrase is perhaps somewhat easier to respond to than the first, for "Thomism" can more readily be identified as referring to a particular corpus of thought, namely, the thought of Thomas Aquinas and the subsequent interpretation of his ideas. Analytic philosophers, on the other hand, are still relatively unclear about what "analytical" as in "analytic philosophy" is or what its possible connections to Thomism might be. Does analytic philosophy, for example, embrace a particular set of doctrines or beliefs? Most analytic philosophers would answer no. They would insist that whatever analytic philosophy is, and whatever its historical origins, analytic philosophy is today used by philosophers to argue for positions running the length of the philosophical spectrum-from various kinds of realism and idealism in metaphysics, to empiricism and rationalism in epistemology, and to non-cognitivism and utilitarianism in ethics. Is analytic philosophy, then, primarily a philosophical method, a particular way of doing philosophy? Again, most analytic philosophers would say that there is no particular method of doing analytic philosophy apart from giving high priority to rigorous argumentation and clarity of expression. But many philosophers (indeed, one would hope most philosophers) who would not normally be called analytic philosophers have given priority to sound argumentation and clarity of expression. What, then, could analytical philosophy's appeal be to Thomists, who certainly, in Aquinas, have a first rate example of a rigorous and disciplined philosophical and theological thinker? Do Analytical Thomists turn to analytic philosophy simply in order to "pick up" helpful techniques for assisting them in the interpretative clarification of specific aspects of Aquinas's thought or are they more deeply drawn to the wellsprings of analytical philosophy because they hold that an analytical approach to philosophy, can, more effectively than traditional neo-Thomism, illuminate our critical understanding of the deepest conceptual foundations of his thought? The nature of the relationship between analytic philosophy and Thomism raises, in the minds of many, the following line of questioning: must Analytical Thomists be committed to any of the traditionally framed doctrines of Thomistic thought? Must Analytical Thomists, for example, hold a philosophic commitment to some way(s) of rationally demonstrating (or at least defending the possibility of) the existence of God, specifically the God of Christianity? Or, must an Analytic Thomist, at least, be committed to supporting some form of hylomorphism? xiii
Catholic Social Science Review, 2000
Studies in Christian ethics, Aug 1, 2003
The work of Dan Brock and Helga Kuhse is typical of the current stream of thought rejecting the v... more The work of Dan Brock and Helga Kuhse is typical of the current stream of thought rejecting the validity of sanctity of life appeals to instill objective inviolable worth in human life regardless of the quality of life of the patient. The context of a person's life is supremely important. In their systems life can have high value, yet the value of life can be outweighed by the force of other disvalues. The notion of quality of life has increasingly come to signify the measurement of the worth of a person's life itself. Having a life equals personal life. ...
International philosophical quarterly, Sep 1, 2003
Abstract: All too often in applied ethics debates, there is a danger that a lack of analytical cl... more Abstract: All too often in applied ethics debates, there is a danger that a lack of analytical clarity and precision in the use of key terms serves to cloud and confuse the real nature of the debate being undertaken. A particular area of concern in my analysis of the bioethics literature has been the uses to which the key terms" suicide,"" assisted suicide," and" euthanasia" are put. The modest aim of this article is to render a contribution to the applied ethics debate on these topics by seeking to delimit the scope and meaning of these terms. ...
King's Law Journal, Oct 1, 2009
As medical technology advances and severely injured or ill people can be kept alive and functioni... more As medical technology advances and severely injured or ill people can be kept alive and functioning long beyond what was previously medically possible, the debate surrounding the ethics of end-of-life care and quality-of-life issues has grown more urgent. In this lucid and vigorous book, Craig Paterson revitalises the natural law approach to moral reasoning and defends the central normative proposition that'it is always a serious moral wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human person, whether self or another, notwithstanding any ...
This book expands the discourse in contemporary debate on Analytical Thomism. It explores crucial... more This book expands the discourse in contemporary debate on Analytical Thomism. It explores crucial philosophical, theological and ethical issues such as: metaphysics and epistemology, the nature of God, personhood, action and meta-ethics. All those interested in the thought of St Thomas Aquinas, and more generally contemporary Catholic scholarship, problems in philosophy of religion, and contemporary metaphysics, will find this collection an invaluable resource.
Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, 2017
EUTHANASIA IN INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE, Marc Groenhuijsen, Floris van Laanen, eds, Mar 28, 2007
Abstract: The authors have regarded euthanasia in the broader framework of Dutch penal policies. ... more Abstract: The authors have regarded euthanasia in the broader framework of Dutch penal policies. They present euthanasia as a typical example of the pragmatic-rather than dogmatic-way the Dutch try to tackle difficult moral problems in connection with the criminal justice system. Definitions, statutory law, procedural issues, borderline cases, professional supervision, and empirical findings are provided, analyzed, and discussed. Finally, the authors point at various advantages and drawbacks of the Dutch approach. Thus, the ...
Introduction Philosophy, as a discipline, often tends to view its subject matter in abstract and ... more Introduction Philosophy, as a discipline, often tends to view its subject matter in abstract and ahistorical terms. Concepts are often assumed to be ‘fixed’ in meaning across many centuries of thought, and their historical change is often neglected. The transmission and reception of ideas is commonly conceived of in terms of a chain of connected dialogue that revolves around an established canon of great intellectual thinkers discussing great philosophical works, divorced from contextualhistorical influences. While there has been, in the wider academy, a movement for the ‘history of ideas’ as an approach to intellectual history, this movement has tended to function as a separate discipline and has failed to make much of an impression in the interpretative methodology typically pursued by philosophers in analytical philosophy departments. Attention to historical inquiry, it is often thought, tends to ‘dilute’ or ‘corrupt’ the genuine spirit of philosophical inquiry by corrosively att...
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2005
not theology. This question of scope is not to discount the importance of such lines of inquiry c... more not theology. This question of scope is not to discount the importance of such lines of inquiry concerning the relationship between faith and reason. 4 Rather, it is merely to state that the scope necessarily has to be limited to questions of what can and cannot be justified by natural reason in the light of our attempt to pose publicly accessible reasons that can, in principle, inform 'secular' morality and law in this area. 5 The history of suicide and euthanasia practices may, at first glance, seem to have only a distant influence upon the contemporary debate. Yet, the historical development of thinking on the subject is vital if we are to adequately contextualise the contemporary arguments made against traditional negative prohibitions; prohibitions that have hitherto formed the status quo in the West. 6 Being able to claim historical support lends credence to claims, especially when those figures or sources appealed to have had a significant impact on contemporary patterns of thought. 7 It is to the task of reviewing and analysing those historically rooted ideas, that I now turn. 4 Tensions with my own position concerning the relationship between faith and reason exist on two fronts: firstly, certain authors such as Ronald Dworkin blur the line between the kinds of truth that can be know by reason and kinds of truth that can be known only by an appeal to faith based considerations; secondly, there is the problem of thinkers and politicians who support the state sanctioning of religion, at least in the 'broad sense' of the Judaeo-Christian heritage. For a stimulating account of the general relationship between faith and reason, somewhat sympathetic to my own perspective, see
Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, 2017
Questions concerning the moral and legal justifications for the practices of suicide, assisted su... more Questions concerning the moral and legal justifications for the practices of suicide, assisted suicide, and voluntary euthanasia are undergoing renewed debate in contemporary Western society. In the United States, the activities of Jack Kevorkian, and pressure groups such as Exit and Compassion in Dying, ensure that the question will continue to be the object of intense debate. Of course, such pressure groups would be marginalised if there were uniform rejection of the legitimacy of such practices. There is not. There are historical ...
As medical technology advances and severely injured or ill people can be kept alive and functioni... more As medical technology advances and severely injured or ill people can be kept alive and functioning long beyond what was previously medically possible, the debate surrounding the ethics of end-of-life care and quality-of-life issues has grown more urgent. In this lucid and vigorous book, Craig Paterson discusses assisted suicide and euthanasia from a fully fledged but non-dogmatic secular natural law perspective. He rehabilitates and revitalises the natural law approach to moral reasoning by developing a pluralistic account of just why we (...) are required by practical rationality to respect and not violate key demands generated by the primary goods of persons, especially human life. Important issues that shape the moral quality of an action are explained and analysed: intention/foresight; action/omission; action/consequences; killing/letting die; innocence/non-innocence; person/non-person. Paterson defends the central normative proposition that ‘it is always a serious moral wrong ...
The first question that might occur to someone picking up the present volume for the first time i... more The first question that might occur to someone picking up the present volume for the first time is, what is Analytical Thomism? This is a very good question but one that is not easy to answer. The second part of the phrase is perhaps somewhat easier to respond to than the first, for "Thomism" can more readily be identified as referring to a particular corpus of thought, namely, the thought of Thomas Aquinas and the subsequent interpretation of his ideas. Analytic philosophers, on the other hand, are still relatively unclear about what "analytical" as in "analytic philosophy" is or what its possible connections to Thomism might be. Does analytic philosophy, for example, embrace a particular set of doctrines or beliefs? Most analytic philosophers would answer no. They would insist that whatever analytic philosophy is, and whatever its historical origins, analytic philosophy is today used by philosophers to argue for positions running the length of the philosophical spectrum-from various kinds of realism and idealism in metaphysics, to empiricism and rationalism in epistemology, and to non-cognitivism and utilitarianism in ethics. Is analytic philosophy, then, primarily a philosophical method, a particular way of doing philosophy? Again, most analytic philosophers would say that there is no particular method of doing analytic philosophy apart from giving high priority to rigorous argumentation and clarity of expression. But many philosophers (indeed, one would hope most philosophers) who would not normally be called analytic philosophers have given priority to sound argumentation and clarity of expression. What, then, could analytical philosophy's appeal be to Thomists, who certainly, in Aquinas, have a first rate example of a rigorous and disciplined philosophical and theological thinker? Do Analytical Thomists turn to analytic philosophy simply in order to "pick up" helpful techniques for assisting them in the interpretative clarification of specific aspects of Aquinas's thought or are they more deeply drawn to the wellsprings of analytical philosophy because they hold that an analytical approach to philosophy, can, more effectively than traditional neo-Thomism, illuminate our critical understanding of the deepest conceptual foundations of his thought? The nature of the relationship between analytic philosophy and Thomism raises, in the minds of many, the following line of questioning: must Analytical Thomists be committed to any of the traditionally framed doctrines of Thomistic thought? Must Analytical Thomists, for example, hold a philosophic commitment to some way(s) of rationally demonstrating (or at least defending the possibility of) the existence of God, specifically the God of Christianity? Or, must an Analytic Thomist, at least, be committed to supporting some form of hylomorphism? xiii
Catholic Social Science Review, 2000
Studies in Christian ethics, Aug 1, 2003
The work of Dan Brock and Helga Kuhse is typical of the current stream of thought rejecting the v... more The work of Dan Brock and Helga Kuhse is typical of the current stream of thought rejecting the validity of sanctity of life appeals to instill objective inviolable worth in human life regardless of the quality of life of the patient. The context of a person's life is supremely important. In their systems life can have high value, yet the value of life can be outweighed by the force of other disvalues. The notion of quality of life has increasingly come to signify the measurement of the worth of a person's life itself. Having a life equals personal life. ...
International philosophical quarterly, Sep 1, 2003
Abstract: All too often in applied ethics debates, there is a danger that a lack of analytical cl... more Abstract: All too often in applied ethics debates, there is a danger that a lack of analytical clarity and precision in the use of key terms serves to cloud and confuse the real nature of the debate being undertaken. A particular area of concern in my analysis of the bioethics literature has been the uses to which the key terms" suicide,"" assisted suicide," and" euthanasia" are put. The modest aim of this article is to render a contribution to the applied ethics debate on these topics by seeking to delimit the scope and meaning of these terms. ...
King's Law Journal, Oct 1, 2009
As medical technology advances and severely injured or ill people can be kept alive and functioni... more As medical technology advances and severely injured or ill people can be kept alive and functioning long beyond what was previously medically possible, the debate surrounding the ethics of end-of-life care and quality-of-life issues has grown more urgent. In this lucid and vigorous book, Craig Paterson revitalises the natural law approach to moral reasoning and defends the central normative proposition that'it is always a serious moral wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human person, whether self or another, notwithstanding any ...
This book expands the discourse in contemporary debate on Analytical Thomism. It explores crucial... more This book expands the discourse in contemporary debate on Analytical Thomism. It explores crucial philosophical, theological and ethical issues such as: metaphysics and epistemology, the nature of God, personhood, action and meta-ethics. All those interested in the thought of St Thomas Aquinas, and more generally contemporary Catholic scholarship, problems in philosophy of religion, and contemporary metaphysics, will find this collection an invaluable resource.