Rights

By Martin, Rex

There is widespread consensus that rights are ways of acting or of being treated that are beneficial to the rightholder. Controversy begins, however, when one attempts to specify ...

Good and right

see Right and good.

Human rights

By Jones, Peter

Human rights are rights ascribed to human beings simply as human beings. While people may possess some rights only if they occupy a special position or role, such ...

Human rights

Human rights have traditionally been conceived as rights that people possess merely in virtue of being human. People may possess other rights if and because they possess a ...

Right and good

By Larmore, Charles

‘Right’ and ‘good’ are the two basic terms of moral evaluation. In general, something is ‘right’ if it is morally obligatory, whereas it is morally ‘good’ if it ...

Territorial rights

By Catala, Amandine

Inherent in the notion of territorial rights is the idea of exercising control over a geographically bounded area of land. The question of territorial rights as a philosophical, ...

Right field (of a relation)

Subjectivism and Objectivism about moral rightness/wrongness

By Graham, Peter

There is a debate in normative ethics between Objectivists and Subjectivists about moral rightness/wrongness. Subjectivists maintain that the rightness/wrongness of an action is grounded in the subjective situation ...

Metaethics

By Finlay, Stephen

A tripartite distinction is often drawn in moral philosophy between (i) applied ethics, (ii) normative ethical theory, and (iii) metaethics. Applied ethics seeks answers to moral questions about ...

Religion, philosophy of

By Stump, Eleonore

Philosophy of religion is philosophical reflection on religion. It is as old as philosophy itself and has been a standard part of Western philosophy in every period (see ...

Biology, philosophy of

By Lewens, Tim

Biologists sometimes look perplexed when they are told of the existence of a subject called ‘The Philosophy of Biology’. What, they ask, is there to philosophise about in ...

Religion, philosophy of

Philosophy of religion comprises philosophical reflection on a wide range of religious and religiously significant phenomena: religious belief, doctrine and practice in general; the phenomenology and cognitive significance ...

Political philosophy

By Miller, David

Political philosophy can be defined as philosophical reflection on how best to arrange our collective life - our political institutions and our social practices, such as our economic ...

Global Justice

By Tan, Kok-Chor

For introductions to the current debate on global justice, the obvious entries to start with are Simon Caney’s Global Justice, recent work on and Charles Beitz’s International Relations, ...

Perception

By Logue, Heather

If you want to get to grips with philosophy of perception, the best place to start is M.G.F. Martin’s entry on (you guessed it) perception! ...

Good, theories of the

By Korsgaard, Christine M.

‘Good’ is the most general term of positive evaluation, used to recommend or express approval in a wide range of contexts. It indicates that a thing is desirable ...

International relations, philosophy of

By Beitz, Charles R.

The philosophy of international relations – or more precisely its political philosophy – embraces problems about morality in diplomacy and war, the justice of international practices and ...

Inviolability

By Kamm, Frances

Inviolability is a status an entity has when it is impermissible to harm it in certain respects. Inviolability can come in degrees and vary with the characteristics of ...

Good, theories of the

‘Good’ is the most general term of positive evaluation, used to recommend or express approval in a wide range of contexts. It indicates that a thing is desirable ...

Political philosophy, Confucian

By Chan, Joseph

Confucianism is a tradition of ethical and political thought in which ethics and politics are tightly connected. Confucianism endorses a politics of virtue that can be understood in ...

Duty

By Frazier, Robert L.

To have a duty is, above all, to be subject to a binding, normative requirement. This means that unless there are exculpating reasons someone who has a duty ...

Legal realism

By Duxbury, Neil

‘Legal realism’ is the term commonly used to characterize various currents of twentieth-century legal thought which stand opposed to idealism. (Hence, ‘realism’ in this context ought to be ...

Property

By Munzer, Stephen R.

Most of the great philosophers have expressed views on property, its justification and limits, and especially on the justification of having private property; generally, one must understand these ...

Logic of ethical discourse

By Timmons, Mark

Logic, as a discipline, is largely concerned with discovering principles and methods for evaluating the evidential strength between the premises and conclusions of arguments. Because the meanings of ...

Reproduction and ethics

By Mertes, Heidi

The ethics of reproduction is concerned with outlining and critically analysing the moral pitfalls and opportunities surrounding reproductive decision-making by prospective parents, health care professionals and policy makers. ...