Value pluralism Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

2025, Physical Culture and Sport. Studies and Research

The so-called “weak thought”, theorized by the Italian postmodernist philosopher Gianni Vattimo (born in 1936), considered one of the most important Italian philosophers, has dismantled the main concepts on which Western philosophy was based (that is, the notion of Truth, God, Reason, an absolute foundation to thought, etc.). This philosophy, which is inspired by Nietzsche’s nihilism, by Heidegger, and by the philosophy of hermeneutics and deconstruction, offers a critical starting point not only to rethink, in a less rigid way, our Western culture, its philosophy, and its problems, but also the ethical principles and educational values that guide human life. Sport - as a human phenomenon and philosophical problem characterized by the presence of values, norms, behaviors, and rules that involves the action of human beings who interact and communicate “in” and “by” the game - can also be read in the light of this emerging philosophical theory. The aim of this study is to demonstrate ...

2025, Journal of Legal Philosophy

In this symposium contribution on Alexandre Lefebvre’s Liberalism as a Way of Life, I explore the insight that many individuals in liberal democracies derive their personal values—such as equality, fairness, and autonomy—not from religious or philosophical doctrines, but from the liberal political order itself. Drawing on liberalism’s nonteleological and pluralistic orientation, I argue that liberalism, as compared with comprehensive doctrines, is less deep insofar as it does not offer an ordered vision of final ends, leaving to each individual to select those ends. There are, I claim, many good liberal ways of life. I next explore liberalism’s “social thesis”, emphasizing the need for a supportive social and cultural environment to cultivate autonomy before reflecting on the challenge of liberalism’s self-preservation in a pluralistic society. The essay concludes by raising questions whether public institutions should promote liberal values as enabling conditions for self-direction rather than as final ends.

2025, Ecological Economics

The objective of this paper is to recognize and categorize the various ways that ecosystem services researchers perceive the concept and purpose of ecosystem services (ES). To do so, we employed the discourse analysis approach of Q methodology, where 33 researchers ranked 39 statements on ES derived from the literature. Factor analysis of the Q sorts allowed for the interpretation of five main perspectives on ES: a pragmatic view on nature conservation, seeing ES as useful tool ("Non-Economic Utilitarian"), a strongly value-focused perspective with a skeptical view on ES ("Critical Idealist"), an opposition to a utilitarian approach to nature conservation but seeing ES as more encompassing approach ("Anti-Utilitarian"), a focus on a methodological rather than a critical approach to ES ("Methodologist"), and a rather economic approach to environmental decision-making, in which ES is a useful tool ("Moderate Economist"). We see this plurality as illustrating both the potential of the ES concept to serve as a boundary object for collaboration, but also the threat of ineffective collaboration due to the lack of a common conceptual ground. However, as pluralism can be fruitful if handled transparently, we suggest the need for open dialogue about underlying assumptions when using a value-laden concept like ES.

2025

A cosmopolitan perspective includes both a reflective openness to the world and a loyalty to inherited traditions and practices. Sustaining this perspective includes important educational challenges surrounding the development of a sense of belonging and a balanced stance toward the old and the new. Perhaps this is most explicit with the difficulties of moving to a foreign country, where one attempts to adapt to unfamiliar cultural practices, while still preserving aspects of one's own cultural background and identity. This presentation examines the difficulties found in creating this cosmopolitan stance by focusing on the possible conflicts and tensions between the familiar and the foreign. Using John Dewey's ideas concerning growth, education and personhood as a conceptual platform, it proceeds to map out possible responses to such difficulties. A proper understanding of his notions of self, interest and moral growth can help alleviate the conflicts inherent in the cosmopolitan stance. Examples drawn from the personal experiences of those living in other cultures are introduced to help illustrate the value of this Deweyan approach to cosmopolitanism.

2025, Modern Intellectual History

The conventional approach to Isaiah Berlin's writings has been to treat them discursively, as philosophical texts. While such approaches are insightful, there is more to Berlin's writings than his arguments. Among his literary strategies is a comparative approach that involves the use of metaphors, similes, and analogies. As I will argue, Berlin's use of metaphor constitutes a core component of his work, where his meaning is often suggestive more than precise. Berlin's intention seems to be to exhibit those aspects of experience reflective of uncertainty, where our choices are not determined by necessity. Such an intention ostensibly exhibits his value pluralism, as well as an oft-neglected sensitivity to the forms of language. By resorting to metaphors Berlin accomplishes several things: he shows how the intelligibility of experience is partially imagistic, he illustrates how meaning can be structured comparatively but nondiscursively, and he exemplifies the importance of these things for decision making.

2025

Abstract At the heart of this papers, we passionately delve into the central ideas proposed by the eminent and brilliant philosopher, John Finnis, within the realm of human rights. His voice resonates as an intellectual beacon, guiding... more

2025, The San Diego law review

Thanks to David Brink for helpful verbal comments on a first draft of this essay and to Andrew Koppelman for instructive written comments published in this Symposium. 1. Thomas C. Schelling, MICROMOTIVES AND MACROBEHAVIOR 135-66 (1978).

2025, Philosophical Psychology.

Does harm or disrespect make discrimination wrong? An experimental approach.

2025, Philosophy and Technology

A key assumption fuelling optimism about the progress of large language models (LLMs) in accurately and comprehensively modelling the world is that the truth is systematic: true statements about the world form a whole that is not just consistent, in that it contains no contradictions, but coherent, in that the truths are inferentially interlinked. This holds out the prospect that LLMs might in principle rely on that systematicity to fill in gaps and correct inaccuracies in the training data: consistency and coherence promise to facilitate progress towards comprehensiveness in an LLM's representation of the world. However, philosophers have identified compelling reasons to doubt that the truth is systematic across all domains of thought, arguing that in normative domains, in particular, the truth is largely asystematic. I argue that insofar as the truth in normative domains is asystematic, this renders it correspondingly harder for LLMs to make progress, because they cannot then leverage the systematicity of truth. And the less LLMs can rely on the systematicity of truth, the less we can rely on them to do our practical deliberation for us, because the very asystematicity of normative domains requires human agency to play a greater role in practical thought.

2025

Over the past two decades the academic literature on global distributive justice has generated a proliferation of positions regarding the question of how to conceive a globally just distribution of goods. One important development within this global justice debate is the emergence and increasing influence of several Pluralist theorists of global justice-including, perhaps most prominently, Fraser, R. Miller, and Risse. This article argues that Pluralists have not yet sufficiently engaged with the difficulty of how their conceptions of global justice could satisfy the publicity condition. This condition requires that the demands of justice must be publicly known to be recognized and fulfilled. This article explains why meeting this condition is especially difficult for the Pluralists. Then, it outlines an Integrated Pluralist position which, by placing special emphasis on global background justice, can meet the publicity condition. This position "integrates" concerns of justice emerging from a plurality of sites of justice. Thereby it follows "Integrationist" approaches to global justice-like those of Caney and Walton-which claim that the contents of justice of a given site of justice must not be determined in isolation from the grounds and contents of other sites of justice.

2025, Liberal Current

My reply to Matt Sleat's review of Freedom from Fear

2025

The purpose of this note is to establish a theorem akin to Mazur's theorem concerning separating hyperplanes within convex metric spaces.

2025

This essay contends that the elements of well-being are plural, partly objective, and separable. The essay argues that these elements are pleasure, friendship, significant achievement, important knowledge, and autonomy, but not either the appreciation of beauty or the living of a morally good life. The essay goes on to attack the view that the plural elements of well-being must be combined in order for well-being to be enhanced. The final section argues against the view that, because anything important to say about well-being could be reduced to assertions about these separable elements, the concept of well-being or personal good is ultimately unimportant.

2025, Die Welt des Islams

2025

Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) - Verdades Contraditórias, Liberdade e Pluralismo, para o blog Horizontes Democráticos

2025, Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny

I. Każde teoretyczne ujęcie wykładni prawa (w szczególności -każda normatywna koncepcja wykładni), jak również każda dostatecznie wykształcona praktyka interpretacyjna przyjmuje, często jedynie implicite, czy też nawet w sposób nieuświadomiony, określone filozoficzne założenia dotyczące tego, czym jest język, a także pewne aksjologiczne założenia dotyczące dobrego państwa i społeczeństwa, określające m.in. stosunek do faktu pluralizmu wartości. Mogłoby się wydawać, że ze względu na inny przedmiot założenia te nie są ze sobą powiązane (dotyczą one czegoś innego). Celem niniejszego artykułu jest jednak wskazanie, że chociaż założenia te nie są ze sobą bezpośrednio powiązane (dotyczą przecież innych sfer rzeczywistości), to jednak występują między nimi pewne relacje, które powodują, że przy rozstrzyganiu teoretycznych zagadnień związanych z wykładnią prawa przyjęcie określonych założeń dotyczących języka łatwiej pogodzić można z określonymi założeniami dotyczącymi pozytywnego bądź negatywnego stosunku do faktu pluralizmu wartości. Ze względu na cel opracowania należy w pierwszej kolejności ogólnie scharakteryzować dwie alternatywne ogólne teorie komunikacji za pośrednictwem języka, a także związki między nimi a sposobem rozstrzygania teoretycznych zagadnień z zakresu wykładni prawa. Poniżej zostaną scharakteryzowane dwie modelowe teorie przedstawiające określone wizje języka i komunikacji za jego pomocą, na które składać się będą określone założenia z zakresu filozofii języka. Pierwszą z nich będzie wizja strukturalistyczna (model strukturalistyczny), drugą zaś -nominalistyczna (model nominalistyczny). Rozróżnienie tych dwóch wizji będzie miało charakter pewnego uproszczenia i typologii, można bowiem wskazać wiele rozwiązań pośrednich (polegających na akceptacji niektórych założeń składających się na pierwszą z tych wizji, niektórych zaś innych należących do drugiej z nich). Na potrzeby niniejszego opracowania użyteczne jest jednak wskazanie pewnych wzorcowych i przeciwstawnych względem siebie rozwiązań (typów poglądów), aby lepiej widoczne były podstawowe kontrowersje. Ze względu na ograniczoną objętość opracowania odpowiednie dwie wizje (modele) języka zostaną scharakteryzowane skrótowo (można powiedzieć "hasłowo") za pomocą wyszczególnienia podstawowych składających się na

2025, DISEÑO DE UNA CARRETILLA CON ELEVACIÓN MANUAL A TRAVÉS DE UN PISTÓN HIDRÁULICO DE SIMPLE EFECTO CON CAPACIDAD DE CARGA DE 500 KILOGRAMOS

En el presente proyecto de grado titulado “Diseño de una carretilla con elevación manual a través de un pistón hidráulico de simple efecto con capacidad de carga de 500 kilogramos”, se desarrolló bajo la modalidad de proyecto factible apoyado en una investigación descriptiva de campo. A través de este, se busca evitar que los trabajadores de todas las industrias, especialmente aquellos que se encargan de transportar y/o elevar cargas de mercancía, tales como despachadores de equipaje, trabajadores de fabrica, trabajadores de construcción, entre otros se incline, ya que este tipo de labor puede producir enfermedades profesionales en la columna vertebral dejando consecuencias como: Lumbalgia, Ciática y Hernia discales. Para realizar la fase diagnostica se aplicaron las técnicas de la observación directa, entrevista no estructurada y información documental. En cuanto a la factibilidad técnica y económica se realizó un estudio de los materiales y los elementos mecánicos que va a tener dicha carretilla indicando una tabla de costo de materiales y mano de obra para la construcción de la misma. Por otra parte en la fase de diseño se consideraron los parámetros idóneos desde el punto de vista de ingeniería que cumpliera con la capacidad máxima de elevación de 500 kg, obteniendo como conclusión un proyecto adaptados a las necesidades musculo-esquelética que eviten enfermedades profesionales en los trabajadores que realizan esta labor.

2025, Archives de philosophie du droit

2024, PRESENTE Y FUTURO DE LA FILOSOFIA. Alejandro Cassini y Laura Skerk (editores)

La filosofía, a comienzos del siglo XXI, lejos de haber desaparecido, como tantas veces se pronosticó, parece gozar de plena vitalidad. Uno de los rasgos que la caracterizan es, sin duda, la diversidad de enfoques, escuelas y posiciones, así como la aparición de nuevas disciplinas y subdisciplinas, cada vez más especializadas. La filosofía no ha escapado a la fragmentación del conocimiento en especialidades cada vez más restringidas que afecta a todas las ciencias. La era de los grandes sistemas filosóficos parece haber quedado atrás para siempre. En esta situación, es imposible ofrecer en un volumen un esquema siquiera somero y sumamente general de los contenidos de la filosofía actual. En vez de ello, solo es posible brindar una muestra que, si es representativa, podrá dar al lector una idea verosímil de cómo es la práctica filosófica de nuestros tiempos. Eso es lo que hemos intentado
en esta obra, compuesta por una secuencia cuidadosamente
seleccionada de trabajos producidos por miembros del Departamento de Filosofía de la Universidad de Buenos Aires.
Todos los capítulos que la integran han sido escritos teniendo en vista al lector que no es especialista en el respectivo tema y desea tener un panorama del estado de la cuestión y de las perspectivas de una determinada área de la filosofía.
Por esa razón hemos evitado los trabajos de carácter técnico o puramente histórico. También nos hemos preocupado especialmente porque la muestra ofrecida fuera lo suficientemente amplia y balanceada: ante todo, que incluyera temas de filosofía teórica y de filosofía práctica y, además, que estuvieran representadas tanto las tradiciones analíticas como las continentales, para usar dos etiquetas que todavía están en vigencia, pero que rápidamente van perdiendo su relevancia en un mundo caracterizado por la interacción mutua de las tradiciones, el eclecticismo y la desaparición del espíritu de escuela o de secta.
Queremos agradecer especialmente a Claudia D’Amico, quien siendo directora del Departamento de Filosofía comenzó la preparación de esta obra a comienzos de 2008.
También colaboraron en ese momento Marcelo Mendoza Hurtado y Fermín Álvarez Ruiz, secretario Académico y secretario Administrativo del Departamento, respectivamente.
Pudimos concluir la tarea gracias al trabajo inicial de todos ellos. Finalmente, agradecemos a las autoridades de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la Universidad de Buenos Aires por haber originado la idea de la colección “Libros de Filo” y por haber aceptado incluir esta obra en la misma.

2024, mediastudies.press eBooks

Process and Personality, originally deposited in 1964 at brandeis university, is in the public domain. Published by mediastudies.press in the public domain series Original formatting, spelling, and citation styles retained throughout, with occasional [sic] to indicate an uncorrected error. mediastudies.press | 414 W. Broad St., Bethlehem, PA 18018, USA New materials are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 (cc by-nc 4.0

2024, Cahiers de Philosophie de Caen

A sketch of Popper's theory of subjectivity, including his theory of the Self, but going further in his views on manhood and language, or problems and expectations.

2024, Estudios De Filosofia

Resumen: El propósito de este texto es aclarar la dirección, los alcances y los límites del análisis filosófico según lo concibe Peter Strawson en Análisis y metafísica. Para el autor el análisis filosófico asume la forma de una metafísica descriptiva, esto es, de una teoría que exhibe cuáles son, y cómo se relacionan, los distintos elementos que componen nuestro esquema conceptual ordinario. Para lograr tal teoría descriptiva se debe adoptar un estilo de análisis que el autor denomina conectivo, cuya meta es identificar cuáles conceptos, al interior de nuestro esquema son básicos o fundamentales. A este fin deberán aplicarse tres criterios: generalidad, irreductibilidad y no contingencia.

2024, Political Research Quarterly

2024, Philosophy & Social Criticism

This article makes three main claims: (1) that the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, properly understood, has no normative or political implications whatsoever; (2) that scholars with otherwise dramatically conflicting interpretations of Wittgenstein should nonetheless all agree with this conclusion; and (3) that understanding the (non-) implications of Wittgenstein's philosophy helps to answer the two motivating questions of the literature on value pluralismwhether values are (or can be) plural (yes), and whether value pluralism leads to, requires, or reveals some particular normative or political response (no). I have nothing to add to this debate, and that I have no pretensions to resolving it. In this article, I will discuss Wittgenstein's work as if it were intended to convey a theory (or two) about language, for two reasons: first, that is how the work presents itself to me, even after seriously considering the arguments of the therapeutic school; second, the focus of this article is the literature on the normative/political significance of Wittgenstein's work, and most of that literature (though not all, as I discuss below) takes the theory approach to interpretation. However, one main contention of this article is that the theoretical and therapeutic schools ought to converge in their assessments of the normative and political significance of Wittgenstein's writings, so that while my approach is theoretical, my conclusions are also therapeutic. On the view argued below, both schools ought to conclude that Wittgenstein's work has no normative or political consequences whatsoever. A second main contention of this article is that coming to a correct understanding about the normative and political implications of Wittgenstein's philosophy will shed some much-needed light on the problem of value pluralism. Since the publication of Isaiah Berlin's celebrated essay 'Two Concepts of Liberty' in 1958, political theorists and philosophers have been grappling with the idea that moral values can irreconcilably conflict with one another, not only between competing value systems, but also within the conscience of an individual. 10 This idea has led to an enormous volume of writing trying to assess and extend Berlin's insight. 11 Two great questions have motivated this research. (1) Are values plural in the way that Berlin suggests? (2) Does value plurality lead to, reveal, or require as a response some substantive normative duty (for example, Berlin's suggestion that plurality reveals an obligation to respect negative liberty), or does it lead to moral relativism (a situation in which we lack a principled reason to judge any value or system of values as morally better or worse than any other)?

2024, VENTURA

Reflexión sobre la naturaleza de la realidad desde un punto de vista sociológico.

2024, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

In his essay, “Of the Nature of that Imitation which takes place in what are called The Imitative Arts,” Adam Smith discusses two examples, topiary and false jewels, apparently coming to opposed conclusions: that aesthetic value is, and that it is not, independent of market value. I unpack the reasoning behind these conclusions, arguing that Smith’s position is consistent: he recognizes that aesthetic value can be occluded by market prices, as when one dismisses the beauty of something cheap out of snobbery – or heightened by them, as in the case of the aesthetic value of magnificence. Because aesthetic value can thus be heightened or corrupted by market value on Smith’s analysis, I suggest, speculatively, that for Smith the bad influence of economic considerations in aesthetic matters (faulty snobbery or an economically derived corruption of taste) is identified by reference to moral, not purely aesthetic criteria.

2024, Prismas Revista De Historia Intelectual

2024

Quito, Febrero del 2011 CERTIFICACIÓN Certifico que el presente trabajo fue desarrollado por el señor JUAN CARLOS ARELLANO BELTRAN bajo mi supervisión, el trabajo practico se encuentra desarrollado en su totalidad, operativo y sin... more

2024, Fordham International Law Journal

There is now a worldwide consensus on the firm existence of a human right to freedom from slavery. This consensus gives rise to what was thought to be an irrefutable argument that the right to be free from slavery is a jurisprudential universal, with no competent legal system or government able to deny its existence or permit derogation from its tenets. This argument is now being tested by the ideologies, policies and actions of Muslim insurgencies in Iraq, Syria and Nigeria, each claiming that the enslavement of non-believing combatants and war captives and slave trading in such persons is permitted under Islamic law. This article considers the implications of these claims for the future of Islamic law and for its relationship with the world’s legal systems, particularly international humanitarian law. It posits that the claims of these insurgencies, while glaringly out of step with modern views of chattel slavery, should be taken seriously and actually have a great deal of support...

2024, Buffalo Law Review

Pluralism in Contract Law LEON TRAKIVANt INTRODUCTION Theoretical debate over the formation of contracts is legendary.' Is the foundation of contracts tied to the subjective wills of parties who make promises to each other, or is it about reasonable inferences arising from promisebearing conduct that courts impute to the parties? Are promises giving rise to contracts grounded in morality? Is the formation of contacts about regulating contractual t-B.Com., LL.B. (Cape Town) LL.M., S.J.D. (Harvard).

2024, DergiPark (Istanbul University)

Bu makalede Isaiah Berlin'in "The Crooked Timber of Humanity: Chapters in the History of Ideas" adlı kitabı incelenecektir. Berlin bu kitapta temel olarak faşizm, çoğulculuk, ütopya ve kültür tartışmalarına yer vermiştir. Berlin bu tartışmalar merkezinde ütopyaların neden uygulanamaz olduğunu ileri sürmüştür. Berlin için ütopyalar çeşitliliğin olmadığı durağan toplumlardır. Ütopyalar gelecek toplum idealleri için şimdiyi görmezden gelir. Ütopyalarda yeniliğe ve değişikliğe yer yoktur. Berlin bu nedenle kitabında ütopyalardan ziyade neden kültürel çeşitliliğe hizmet eden liberal öğretilere sarılmamız gerektiği üzerinde durur. Geçmişte faşizm ve komünizm gibi ideolojiler gelecekte iyi bir toplum önerisi sunmuştu. Ancak bu idealler daha çok kan ve şiddet olarak geri döndü. Berlin'in bu kitabı hem bu ideolojileri hem de mükemmel toplum ideallerini sorgulamamız açısından farklı bir bakış açısı sunmaktadır.

2024

Showing that a proclaimed perfectionist like Raz - whose rationale is often contested as illiberal - consistently follows a reasoning resembling greatly that of a celebrated liberal like Mill, could considerably strengthen the case to use perfectionism as part of a compelling liberal strand. The analysis of their distinctive theoretical features elucidates the holistic manner with which their conception of human flourishing informs all the constituent parts of their liberalism as well as its crux, personal autonomy. Against their contemporary interpretations, it is argued that a comprehensive conception of the good dominates Mill's perception of liberalism and that Raz's robust perfectionist arguments follow a logical sequence permeating not only his overall liberal stance but also his position on value-pluralism. By situating the mutual comprehensive understanding of their key liberal concepts and highlighting its advantages compared to the prevalent 'neutralist strand&...

2024, Problema. Anuario de Filosofía y Teoría del Derecho

Te compartimos el índice de nuestra revista Problema. Anuario de Filosofía y Teoría del Derecho. Número 13 (2019). La discusión del número es: el Juicio del Derecho

2024

, and participants of the Australasian Political Studies Association, and the Department of Political Science seminar at ANU for comments on an earlier draft. I would particularly like to thank the Social Philosophy and Policy Center, Bowling Green State University. Finally, I would like to thank an anonymous referee for some particularly useful comments and criticism.

2024

Indagaciones sobre modos de conocimiento y existencia social Claros, Luis (coord.) Pluralismos: Indagaciones sobre modos de conocimiento y existencia social-La Paz: Postgrado en Ciencias del Desarrollo (cides-umsa) Bolivia, 2024. 324 p. gráf.; 23 cm-(cides-umsa) isbn 978-9917-34-027-0 (edición impresa) 1. Ciencias sociales-Bolivia; 2. Filosofía, 2024; Pluralismo antropológico, jurídico, económico, multiespecie; Diversidad sexual; Pluralismo y epistemología-Bolivia; 3. Ensayos, i. Claros, Luis (coord.), ii.

2024

Questions about cybersecurity and civil rights live in a space of antiquated and inadequate law, disparate, sometimes overlapping, sometimes conflicting jurisdictions, weak enforcement mechanisms, and weak incentives for international collaboration. Even were notions of civil rights that fit earlier forms of political life capable of adaptation to new technologies of commerce, expression, conflict, and exploration, the means to secure such rights are lacking. This chapter argues that, under these circumstances, the efforts of ethicists, legal scholars, and policy makers are helped by reframing central questions about issues including personal privacy, freedom of expression, internet access, the intellectual property claims of individual and corporate persons, and political action in the language of civic virtues as better fitting life in the cyberworld.

2024, Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

2024, Teoría General del Derecho - William Twining

La presente ponencia expone una visión de una Teoría General del Derecho necesaria para dar fuerza a la disciplina institucionalizada del derecho en un contexto cada vez más cosmopolita como es el de la “globalización”, y tratará sus posibles implicaciones.
La parte primera replantea la posición de la disciplina del derecho en torno a sus objetivos y a su naturaleza, así como el papel de la teoría del derecho, como parte teórica, a la hora de contribuir a la buena salud de ésta. La parte segunda aclara algunas cuestiones que se han venido planteando sobre esta concepción de la Teoría General del Derecho: (i) las implicaciones de la “globalización”; (ii) el significado de “Teoría General del Derecho” en ese contexto; (iii) la relación entre Teoría del Derecho, Filosofía Jurídica y los enfoques sociológicos del derecho; finalmente, (iv) la importancia del concepto de “derecho no estatal”. La parte tercera ilustra con ejemplos concretos algunas de las implicaciones de los posibles temas y aspectos propuestos por este modelo dentro las áreas de la teoría del derecho que se pueden caracterizar como analíticas, normativas, empíricas y críticas, así como un análisis crítico de los presupuestos y postulados que generalmente fundamentan los trabajos en campos dominantes como el derecho comparado, el derecho internacional público, el derecho religioso y los estudios socio-jurídicos.

2024

The question is no longer as Dostoevski put it ''can civilized man believe?'' Rather: can unbelieving man be civilized?

2024, Anuario Filosófico, 57(1), 182-185.

2024, Trames

We frequently find ourselves in intractable disagreements about the morality of abortion, euthanasia, restrictions to freedom, or eating meat for fun. An adequate reaction to a disagreement requires knowing which type of disagreements we are confronted with. The main aim of my paper is to explain the source of moral disagreements and clarify their nature. I will argue that some moral disagreements are deep conceptual disagreements that similarly to disagreements in logic or ontology, are not resolvable, as the resolution of the disagreement requires the disputants to adopt perspectives that are conceptually unavailable to them. I will suggest four possible sources of moral disagreements: incommensurable fundamental values, different concepts of the good life, different motivating reasons and different concepts of morality.

2024, Trames

2024, Medicine Health Care and Philosophy

If we want to take firm the importance of universal principles in Bioethics, but at the same time we want to take seriously the importance of cultural diversity and pluralism, it is necessary to adopt a multifaceted approach. In the article I argue that a possible way out is a sort of hermeneutic approach, in order to reduce the ambivalence that stems from the dual recognition of cultural diversity and universal value of human rights. Through this approach conflicting principles and traditions can be harmonized within a common framework, at least to some extent. Such an approach, in my perspective, can be implemented as a strategy of interpretation, which can hold together different conceptions and common principles.

2024

In 1994, George Crowder published an article in Political Studies in which he argued that there was no convincing case for justifying liberalism on the basis of value pluralism (Crowder, 1994). The article attracted a forceful rejoinder from Isaiah Berlin and Bernard Williams, to which Crowder himself later responded (Berlin and Williams, 1994; Crowder, 1996). Changing tack, Crowder now believes only that Berlin and others have not argued successfully from pluralism to liberalism, and this new book length treatment is his effort to make the case. The result is a busy, stimulating, readable book that makes some interesting suggestions, but leaves the most difficult questions untouched. Plural values, Crowder maintains, are universal, incommensurable and conflicting F a characterization that is not controversial. More interesting is his attempt to draw substantive conclusions from the truth of pluralism: in particular, the possibility of rational choice between values. There are two ways this works. On a particularist view, attention to one's background conception of the good helps provide normative standards for decision. So (to use Crowder's example), as an academic I have more reason to go to the library than the beach even though both of these are worthwhile things to do. There is something to this contextualist approach, but it works more easily for individual choice than it does for states that have to enforce a common policy in the face of rival conceptions of the good. Hence we need a universal argument from pluralism to liberal norms too. One such argument is famously offered by Berlin. Value pluralism, he maintained, gives us reason to champion choice over other values, and this in turn privileges liberalism. Crowder criticizes this on the grounds that choice itself is only one value among many in a pluralist universe. But, he claims, Berlin also has a second, implicit, argument: that pluralism implies an anti-Utopian attitude to politics in which trade-offs and compromises have to be made, and that a liberal outlook best answers to this ineradicable feature of our political experience. This argument is more successful, but does not necessarily support liberalism since there are other outlooks also compatible with anti-Utopianism. This leads Crowder to discuss John Gray's pragmatist and John Kekes's conservative philosophies. Kekes maintains that since pluralism rules out any compelling case for privileging any values over any others, we have no

2024, Political Studies

Meta-ethical pluralism, as developed in the work of writers like Isaiah Berlin, is the idea that ethical values cannot be reduced to a single hierarchy or system but are irreducibly multiple. It has often been argued that simply to recognize this fact is to have a reason to favour liberal institutions. On the contrary, the plurality of values in itself gives us no reason to support liberalism, indeed no reason to prefer any particular political arrangement to any other. If pluralism is true, the liberal's best defence may lie in appealing, in the manner of writers like Walzer and Rorty, to the de facro limitations on moral commitments imposed by the existing political culture. The word 'pluralism' has several different meanings in moral and political theory. It may stand for the empirical claim that different people hold different beliefs and values, or for the normative view that such diversity is desirable. Again, 'pluralism' sometimes denotes the idea that political power is, or ought to be, distributed among a number of competing groups or institutions rather than concentrated in a single source. In this paper I shall be solely concerned with pluralism in a further sense. What may be called 'meta-ethical pluralism' is a thesis about the nature of value, the idea that values cannot be reduced to any single hierarchy or frictionless system, but are on the contrary irreducibly multiple and permanently liable to come into conflict with one another. (I shall henceforth use the term 'pluralism' or 'value pluralism' with this meaning.) The view is widespread that between meta-ethical pluralism on the one hand and liberalism on the other there is a close link. The common view, found for example in Isaiah Berlin's 'Two concepts of liberty', is that to accept the truth of meta-ethical pluralism is to have a reason to embrace liberalism.' I shall argue that this common view is mistaken. The mere fact of the ultimate plurality of values, supposing it to be a fact, has no tendency to advance the normative claims of liberalism or, incidentally, of any other political doctrine. My argument is not intended to undermine either pluralism or liberalism, with both of which I am sympathetic, but merely to clarify the relation between the two. I shall not inquire into the truth or falsity of pluralism. Rather, my question is, supposing pluralism to be true, what are its implications for liberalism? However, it will emerge that not only does pluralism provide no positive assistance to the liberal case, it also sets certain obstacles in the way of that case. My analysis raises the question of whether pluralism is even compatible with liberalism or with traditional, reason-giving political philosophy as a whole. I *My thanks are due to Henry Hardy, Maria Menitt, Samuel Scheffler and Leo van Munching for their helpful comments.

2024, The Review of Politics

Gina Gustavsson argues that Isaiah Berlin's case against positive liberty in "Two Concepts of Liberty" is best explained and justified by a psychological connection that has hitherto been neglected in the critical literature. 1 Criticisms of Berlin's view as logically flawed are beside the point, and attempts to justify it by reference to historical context (the Cold War) tend to undermine its current relevance. Rather, Berlin is best understood as pointing to an underlying pattern of human psychology according to which positive conceptions of liberty-that is, liberty as self-mastery by contrast with the "negative" liberty of noninterference-tend in fact (although not in logic) to draw people towards authoritarian political conclusions. Gustavsson illustrates this process by reference to the French ban, in 2010, on the wearing of full-face Muslim veils in public. The ban on veils is an example, she argues, of the very problem that Berlin warns us of in positive liberty, the presentation of coercion as liberation. Gustavsson's position, although stimulating throughout, should also be questioned in some of its key aspects. Most fundamentally, it invites us to return to a critique of positive liberty according to which all versions are equally impugned, thus abandoning the more recent tendency to accept that Berlin's warning applies more convincingly to some versions rather than to others. The latter, more nuanced picture remains preferable. Berlin is right to suspect certain kinds of positive liberty as potentially complicit with tyranny. But a blanket condemnation of positive liberty is also a mistake, since in at least one version, personal autonomy, the psychological danger described by Gustavsson is absent. Indeed, positive liberty understood as personal autonomy makes an important contribution to the ideals and norms of liberal democracy, and this can be illustrated from the debate on Muslim veils.

2024

is an excellent writer who has not only mastered but arguably redefined the topic of value pluralism. Those who suspect that pluralism is an old hat-a relic of the history of ideas in the mid-to late-twentieth century-will be given pause by the refreshing analysis offered in this book. Crowder argues that pluralism is relevant to almost all the main strands of contemporary political theory, including distributive justice, toleration, multiculturalism, agonistic politics, deliberative democracy, and constitutionalism, among others. He also aims to show that the dilemmas of pluralism ignite and fuel the theoretical engines of several prominent schools of political thought today. Crowder traces the importance of value pluralism to Isaiah Berlin, who, he argues, succeeded in launching it as the paradigm within which most of contemporary political theory delivers its insights. Nowadays, academics in the social sciences and humanities tend to show greater allegiance to pluralism than to liberty. The post-Cold War triumph of liberalism seems to have run its course, and liberty is regarded as implicated in a controversial western-centric system of values. Pluralism, by contrast, promises to embrace meanings and ways of life that transcend European modernity. But Crowder's book shows that the link between liberalism and pluralism is hard to break. In continuity with his previous works, he argues that 'personal autonomy has a special connection with value pluralism' (p. 155). This link between liberty and pluralism is embedded in Berlin's political theory, and it persists in Crowder's. But it is worth noting that Crowder defends a different type of liberalism-one that is hospitable to positive freedom. Unlike Crowder, most scholars who embrace Berlin's pluralism, like John Gray, Bernard Williams, or Chantal Mouffe, distance themselves from liberalism to varying degrees, arguing that this is the inevitable consequence of taking value diversity seriously. They also turn to realist philosophy in trying to free politics from the moral baggage of ideologies and monist doctrines. But although Crowder engages with realist themes of trade-off and compromise, he is