This paper distills arguments by Indigenous public intellectual Noel Pearson in support of an “up... more This paper distills arguments by Indigenous public intellectual Noel Pearson in support of an “uplift” agenda for remote Australian Aboriginal communities suffering corrosive disadvantage and intergenerational dysfunction. Pearson draws on Amartya Sen while prioritizing personal responsibility, and attempts a synthesis of liberalism, social democracy, and capabilities building. The present paper also draws on Martha Nussbaum’s and Rutger Claassen’s capabilities approaches, with points of resonance and/or agreement with Pearson’s arguments highlighted. Under a charitable reading, Pearson’s position is defensible against prevailing criticisms, including the criticism that his responsibility emphasis leads him to misunderstand and misapply Sen’s capabilities theory, and that his policies are illiberally perfectionist and paternalistic, ultimately assimilationist, and in breach of Kant’s humanity principle.
"potentialism." Potentialism has been repeatedly stymied on logical, moral, and scienti... more "potentialism." Potentialism has been repeatedly stymied on logical, moral, and scientific grounds. Arguments like Jim Stone's in "Why Potentiality Matters"1 and "Why Potentiality Still Matters"2 go some way toward achieving a scien-tifically defensible potentialism. I will ...
Ethics as core curriculum in Science? Jeff F Trahair* & Denise Gamble# Discipline of Anatomy & Pa... more Ethics as core curriculum in Science? Jeff F Trahair* & Denise Gamble# Discipline of Anatomy & Pathology*, Philosophy#, University of Adelaide, SA *jeff.trahair@adelaide.edu.au Scientific reasoning, while valuable for its own sake in reliably extending knowledge, is also valued as it often leads to applications which alleviate human problems and enhance human lives. Yet at the same time it requires us to engage in complex decision-making about who and what we want to be. The ethical and moral dimensions of science go well beyond the scope of the laboratory bench. To be engaged as both agents, and empathetic and sympathetic participants in making decisions, scientists need to be educated in ethics. For 12 years we have been successfully teaching an ethics subject: Ethics, Science & Society, enrolling mainly Science and Health Science students. Over the years we have identified key features in successfully teaching ethics in a science curriculum: a cross-faculty/disciplinary design, m...
person arguing for moral status for an embryo based on its potentiality will be referred to here ... more person arguing for moral status for an embryo based on its potentiality will be referred to here as a "potentialist," and the position argued for as "potentialism." Potentialism has been repeatedly stymied on logical, moral, and scientific grounds. Arguments like Jim Stone's in "Why Potentiality Matters"1 and "Why Potentiality Still Matters"2 go some way toward achieving a scientifically defensible potentialism. I will consider whether scientific objections to Stone's potentialism, questioning the postulation of an identifiable individual who continues from the beginning, present necessarily insurmountable problems, and conclude that they do not. Potentiality could be predicated of an instance of human life-form, where that type's (natural kind's) purpose is to instantiate the complex developmental property of capacity to actualize individual consciousness of a certain sort (supporting personhood). Type potentialism need not id...
"potentialism." Potentialism has been repeatedly stymied on logical, moral, and scienti... more "potentialism." Potentialism has been repeatedly stymied on logical, moral, and scientific grounds. Arguments like Jim Stone's in "Why Potentiality Matters"1 and "Why Potentiality Still Matters"2 go some way toward achieving a scien-tifically defensible potentialism. I will ...
"potentialism." Potentialism has been repeatedly stymied on logical, moral, and scienti... more "potentialism." Potentialism has been repeatedly stymied on logical, moral, and scientific grounds. Arguments like Jim Stone's in "Why Potentiality Matters"1 and "Why Potentiality Still Matters"2 go some way toward achieving a scien-tifically defensible potentialism. I will ...
The underlying question is how much and in what way speaker's understanding should be a dete... more The underlying question is how much and in what way speaker's understanding should be a determinant in theories explaining meaning. It is argued that semantic realism is best defined and defended within a metaphysical realism most naturally associated with externalist, ...
P-Consciousness (P) is to be understood in terms of an immediate fluctuating continuum that is a ... more P-Consciousness (P) is to be understood in terms of an immediate fluctuating continuum that is a presentation of raw experiential matter against which A-consciousness (A) acts to objectify, impose form or make determinate “thinkable” contents. A representationalises P but P is not itself representational, at least in terms of some concepts of “representation.” Block's arguments fall short of establishing that P is representational and, given the sort of cognitive science assumptions he is working with, he is unable to account for the aspect of phenomenal content that he thinks goes beyond “representational” content. BBS discussion reveals the need for greater analysis and justification for a representationalist thesis of P.
This paper distills arguments by Indigenous public intellectual Noel Pearson in support of an “up... more This paper distills arguments by Indigenous public intellectual Noel Pearson in support of an “uplift” agenda for remote Australian Aboriginal communities suffering corrosive disadvantage and intergenerational dysfunction. Pearson draws on Amartya Sen while prioritizing personal responsibility, and attempts a synthesis of liberalism, social democracy, and capabilities building. The present paper also draws on Martha Nussbaum’s and Rutger Claassen’s capabilities approaches, with points of resonance and/or agreement with Pearson’s arguments highlighted. Under a charitable reading, Pearson’s position is defensible against prevailing criticisms, including the criticism that his responsibility emphasis leads him to misunderstand and misapply Sen’s capabilities theory, and that his policies are illiberally perfectionist and paternalistic, ultimately assimilationist, and in breach of Kant’s humanity principle.
"potentialism." Potentialism has been repeatedly stymied on logical, moral, and scienti... more "potentialism." Potentialism has been repeatedly stymied on logical, moral, and scientific grounds. Arguments like Jim Stone's in "Why Potentiality Matters"1 and "Why Potentiality Still Matters"2 go some way toward achieving a scien-tifically defensible potentialism. I will ...
Ethics as core curriculum in Science? Jeff F Trahair* & Denise Gamble# Discipline of Anatomy & Pa... more Ethics as core curriculum in Science? Jeff F Trahair* & Denise Gamble# Discipline of Anatomy & Pathology*, Philosophy#, University of Adelaide, SA *jeff.trahair@adelaide.edu.au Scientific reasoning, while valuable for its own sake in reliably extending knowledge, is also valued as it often leads to applications which alleviate human problems and enhance human lives. Yet at the same time it requires us to engage in complex decision-making about who and what we want to be. The ethical and moral dimensions of science go well beyond the scope of the laboratory bench. To be engaged as both agents, and empathetic and sympathetic participants in making decisions, scientists need to be educated in ethics. For 12 years we have been successfully teaching an ethics subject: Ethics, Science & Society, enrolling mainly Science and Health Science students. Over the years we have identified key features in successfully teaching ethics in a science curriculum: a cross-faculty/disciplinary design, m...
person arguing for moral status for an embryo based on its potentiality will be referred to here ... more person arguing for moral status for an embryo based on its potentiality will be referred to here as a "potentialist," and the position argued for as "potentialism." Potentialism has been repeatedly stymied on logical, moral, and scientific grounds. Arguments like Jim Stone's in "Why Potentiality Matters"1 and "Why Potentiality Still Matters"2 go some way toward achieving a scientifically defensible potentialism. I will consider whether scientific objections to Stone's potentialism, questioning the postulation of an identifiable individual who continues from the beginning, present necessarily insurmountable problems, and conclude that they do not. Potentiality could be predicated of an instance of human life-form, where that type's (natural kind's) purpose is to instantiate the complex developmental property of capacity to actualize individual consciousness of a certain sort (supporting personhood). Type potentialism need not id...
"potentialism." Potentialism has been repeatedly stymied on logical, moral, and scienti... more "potentialism." Potentialism has been repeatedly stymied on logical, moral, and scientific grounds. Arguments like Jim Stone's in "Why Potentiality Matters"1 and "Why Potentiality Still Matters"2 go some way toward achieving a scien-tifically defensible potentialism. I will ...
"potentialism." Potentialism has been repeatedly stymied on logical, moral, and scienti... more "potentialism." Potentialism has been repeatedly stymied on logical, moral, and scientific grounds. Arguments like Jim Stone's in "Why Potentiality Matters"1 and "Why Potentiality Still Matters"2 go some way toward achieving a scien-tifically defensible potentialism. I will ...
The underlying question is how much and in what way speaker's understanding should be a dete... more The underlying question is how much and in what way speaker's understanding should be a determinant in theories explaining meaning. It is argued that semantic realism is best defined and defended within a metaphysical realism most naturally associated with externalist, ...
P-Consciousness (P) is to be understood in terms of an immediate fluctuating continuum that is a ... more P-Consciousness (P) is to be understood in terms of an immediate fluctuating continuum that is a presentation of raw experiential matter against which A-consciousness (A) acts to objectify, impose form or make determinate “thinkable” contents. A representationalises P but P is not itself representational, at least in terms of some concepts of “representation.” Block's arguments fall short of establishing that P is representational and, given the sort of cognitive science assumptions he is working with, he is unable to account for the aspect of phenomenal content that he thinks goes beyond “representational” content. BBS discussion reveals the need for greater analysis and justification for a representationalist thesis of P.
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Papers by Denise Gamble