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Entries Tagged as 'David Boonin'

Erik Wielenberg and the Autonomy Thesis: Part Three Standard Objections to the Autonomy Thesis, Human Rights and Dignity without God

March 25th, 2017 1 Comment

In my last post I looked at Erik Wielenberg’s response to the objection that, in the absence of God, people lack compelling reasons to comply with morality’s demands.  A second objection Wielenberg briefly addresses is that without certain theological doctrines, one cannot provide a plausible basis for human rights and dignity.  Wielenberg, here again, takes Craig […]

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Matt to speak at the 2013 Evangelical Theological Society in Baltimore on Feticide

September 19th, 2013 3 Comments

This blog’s Matthew Flannagan has had his paper “Boonin’s Defense of the Sentience Criterion: A Critique” accepted for the 65th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (“ETS”). The abstract for Matt’s paper is as follows: Abstract “Defenders of the permissibility of feticide commonly argue that killing an organism is not homicide unless the organism’s brain has […]

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Marquis and Ideal Desires

July 25th, 2013 1 Comment

In response to my post Peter Singer Human Dignity and Infanticide, Ben Jury offers some astute comments: “I agree with you, that Peter Singer does not motivate his account of ideal desires. However, I think there is a way to motivate it as follows: Marquis objects to Singer’s account because he thinks there is an alternative […]

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Peter Singer on Human Dignity and Infanticide: Part One

December 5th, 2012 14 Comments

This is the first section of the paper I presented to the the Evangelical Philosophical Society Annual Meeting in Milwaukee two weeks ago. Several people have asked me to post it on MandM. It will appear as a two-part post series. Christian theism has traditionally taught that human beings have equal dignity and worth, a moral […]

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Abortion and the Morality of Feticide: Part II

February 16th, 2011 155 Comments

In my last post, Abortion and the Morality of Feticide: Part I, I briefly sketched an argument against feticide, [1] It is wrong to kill a human being without justification; [2] A fetus is a human being; [3] In the case of feticide (at least in the majority of cases) insufficient or no justification is forthcoming. […]

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Abraham, Isaac, Virginity, Rape and Child Killing (Another Old Testament Ethics Post)

January 23rd, 2011 89 Comments

Randal Rauser has published a blog post touching on Old Testament ethics called “An update in the wake of Atlanta (plus a bit on rape and child killing)“. His post gives an update on his thoughts following his interaction with Paul Copan, Richard Hess and myself in the Evangelical Philosophical Society’s break-out panel discussion “Is Yahweh […]

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Contra Mundum: Confessions of an Anti-Choice Fanatic

January 5th, 2010 76 Comments

If current media is to be believed opposition to legal abortion comes from misogynist fundamentalist fanatics who want to impose their religious mores onto others. This string of pejorative terms is amusing; however, it does not actually address the more crucial question of whether laws against feticide (the killing of a fetus) are just. I […]

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