Human Rights: Evolution and Core Principles
The Relationship of Morality to the Law
Respect for human dignity can be secured only if it becomes a duty required of everyone, not just morally, but also legally.
- A moral imperative: It depends on the conscience of the individual.
- A legal requirement: It enforces the individual from outside.
Life cannot be organized only with the moral conscience of the people; it needs an external force that compels us to act.
Human Rights and Guaranteeing Respect for Human Dignity
Human rights are fundamental rights
Read MoreScholastic Philosophers: Aquinas, Augustine, Anselm, Averroes, Plato, and Aristotle
Thomas Aquinas and Augustine
Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Augustine are part of both the scholastic and the patristic traditions. In the conflict between faith and reason, faith prevails in Saint Augustine, but two alternatives are presented. One is the *credo ut intelligam*: “I believe in order to understand.” First, I believe to understand later if I can demonstrate it with reason. The other is *credo ut intelligam*: reason to understand the truth given to us by faith.
Anselm and Aquinas
Both belong
Read MoreHuman Action: Freedom, Responsibility, and Choice
Human Action: Freedom and Responsibility
Human Action
Approach to the Human Being
Operations are conscious and voluntary for the agent.
Specificity of Human Action
- Animal Behavior: The actions of animals are conditioned by their instincts.
- Behavior of a Computer: Their actions are defined by software.
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Behavior: It is a voluntary agent because their behavior is spontaneous and not inherited. Therefore, the term “action” will address the human.
Individual Action and Collective Action
- Individual: Produced
Marxism vs. Idealism: Understanding the Core Conflict
According to Marx’s theory, the basic problem of philosophy is the conflict between materialism and idealism. A simplified analysis allows us to separate objects and phenomena into material and ideal. For materialists, matter is primary, and awareness is a product of its complex development. Thus, reality can be explained in terms of matter in motion. Materialism asserts that the natural world can be explained without recourse to God or the Absolute, thus defending atheism. It believes that the
Read MoreFahrenheit 451: Montag’s Transformation and Rebirth
Montag’s Transformation in *Fahrenheit 451*
While floating in the river, Montag suddenly realizes the change that has taken place: “He felt as if he had left a stage behind him and many actors. . . He was moving from an unreality that was frightening into a reality that was unreal because it was new.” Montag recognizes that many people, including himself and Beatty, were forced to play an assigned role in their lives. The stage imagery implies that Montag actually realized that he was merely acting
Read MoreEthics, Human Rights, and Genetic Engineering: A Philosophical View
According to Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, when someone dies or suffers a catastrophic loss, we go through five different stages of grief. We experience denial because the loss is unacceptable. We cannot imagine it’s true, we get angry with everyone, with the survivors, and with ourselves. Then, we pray, offer all we have, even our soul, in trade for another day. When negotiation fails, and anger is too much to contain, we fall into depression, until finally, we accept that we did what we could, let