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  When Equality Matters

  John Thrasher

  Equality is at the heart of liberal, democratic political theory. Despite this, there is considerable disagreement about how we should understand equality in the context of liberal politics. Several different conceptions of equality (e.g., equality of opportunity, equality of welfare outcomes, and equality of basic rights) will recommend different and often conflicting policies and institutions. Further, we can expect, in democratic societies, that citizens will disagree on the correct conception of equality. This leads to the diversity problem of equality— there is no one conception of equality that will be acceptable to all citizens. This is compounded by the complexity problem of generating determinate and predictable results in the institutional application of any particular conception of equality. After identifying these problems and looking at G.A. Cohen’s defense of a thoroughly egalitarian conception of politics, I argue in favor of “democratic equality” as a political ideal.

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  Contemporary Approaches to the Social Contract

  Fred D'Agostino, John Thrasher, and Gerald Gaus

  "To explicate the idea of the social contract we analyze contractual approaches into five elements: (1) the role of the social contract (2) the parties (3) agreement (4) the object of agreement (5) what the agreement is supposed to show."

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  Social Contractarianism

  John Thrasher

  "It is a curious accident of history that libertarianism has been principally defined by its greatest enemies, rather than its friends. In academic philosophy at least, this was accomplished by G.A. Cohen in his attacks on Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), which culminated in his Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality (1995). Cohen identified the central elements of libertarianism as the self-ownership thesis, which is crucial for justifying strong private property rights and, subsequently, substantial limitations on state power to interfere with those rights. This definition was continued by the so-called “left-libertarians” who followed him (Steiner 1994; Vallentyne & Steiner 2000; Vallentyne et al. 2005; Otsuka 2005).1 These thinkers combine a commitment to self-ownership and rights with a Marxist and egalitarian views about property. On this view, libertarianism is held to be fundamentally a doctrine about property rights and selfownership. This is, I will argue, a serious mistake that has hobbled libertarianism theory and practice in important ways, specifically by entrenching two dominant antinomies in libertarian theory."

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  Rational Choice and the Original Position: The (Many) Models of Rawls and Harsanyi

  Gerald Gaus and John Thrasher

  "Rawls proclaims that 'the theory of justice is part, perhaps the nwst significant part, of the theory of rational choice' (T]R, p. 15, emphasis added; see section 2.2.3 below). Many have refused to take this claim literally (or even seriously), by, for example, interpreting the original position analysis as a heuristic for identifying independently true moral principles (see Dworkin, "Original Position," p. 19 and Barry, Theories, pp. 271-82). In this chapter we take this fundamental claim of Rawls at face value. We thus shall defend:

  The Fundamental Derivation Thesis: the justification of a principle of justice J derives from the conclusion that, under conditions C, J is the rational choice of chooser(s) P."

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  The Calculus of Consent

  John Thrasher and Gerald Gaus

  The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy is a groundbreaking work in democratic theory. This chapter argues that it is of continued relevance today, due both to its methodological innovations and its use of those innovative techniques to solve the fundamental problem of democratic justification. In Calculus, James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock fuse economic methods, political theory, and the normative project of showing how democratic institutions of a particular sort can be justified contractually, creating a unique form of democratic contractualism that came to be known as “Constitutional Political Economy” and the more general research program of “Public Choice Theory.” Although these pioneering techniques have been integrated into mainstream political theory, the interest of their normative project has not been similarly appreciated.

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  The Virtues of Justice

  John Thrasher and David Schmidtz

  "This essay considers (and endorses) three complementary conceptions of justice as virtue. To the two senses of justice just mentioned-justice as a virtue of the soul and of the polis-we add a third that bridges these two. Virtue can be a kind of outreach rather than a kind of internal harmony, because we are talking about essentially social beings. The harmony that is this virtue's object is harmony with a community. Thus, a person who is just in this sense is disposed to respect (play within the rules of) institutions that command respect by virtue of actually working-that is, actually succeeding in encouraging and enabling people to live in harmony, to peacefully flourish in mutually advantageous ways. A just person in this sense is disposed to respect just institutions even when such respect is not personally advantageous, indeed (as Hume saw) when such respect is not even good for the community in the particular case."

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  Of Mottos and Morals

  Mike W. Martin

  Whether in slogans, catchphrases, adages or proverbs, we encounter mottos every day, but we rarely take time to reflect on them. In Of Mottos and Morals: Simple Words for Complex Virtues, Martin explores the possibility that mottos themselves are worthy of serious thought, examining how they contribute to moral guidance and help us grapple with complexity.

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  Paradoxes of Happiness

  Mike W. Martin

  Should happiness be pursued directly and deliberately, keeping our eyes on the prize? Doing so is self-defeating, according to the paradox of happiness, for it undermines meaning and even enjoyment. Instead we should participate in activities and relationships that we find inherently meaningful, rather than solely because of the happiness we hope to find in them. Then, with any luck, happiness will come indirectly. I believe this paradox expresses an important truth, albeit by using a dollop of hyperbole. Indeed, it expresses a number of truths that are highlighted by dividing the paradox of happiness into a dozen more specific paradoxes concerning aims (hedonism, self-interest), success, freedom, and attitudes.

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  Social Evolution

  Gerald Gaus and John Thrasher

  "It is a mater of dispute how far back evolutionary explanations of social order should be traced. Evolutionary ideas certainly appear in the work of the ancient Greek philosophers, but it seems reasonable to identify the origins of modern evolutionary thinking in the eighteenth century natural histories of civil society such as Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men (1750, Part III), Adam Ferguson’s An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767), and Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776, Book III). In these eighteenth century works, the explanation of current social institutions as an unplanned and generally adaptive development out of earlier and simpler arrangements gained traction. Germany too had a tradition of Naturphilosophie employing general evolutionary ideas, as well as Hegelian-influenced thinking on the development of societies. In 1863, four years after Darwin’s Origins of the Species August Schleicher’s Die Darwinscbe Theorie und die Sprachwissenschaf, drew on these traditions as well as Darwin’s Origins of the Species to present an evolutionary account of the development of families of languages (Taub, 1993), an endeavor that was carried on by a number of scholars in the later part of the nineteenth century."

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  Balancing Work And Leisure

  Mike W. Martin

  What does it mean to live a balanced life, and in particular to maintain balance between work and leisure? Balance is often celebrated for its contribution to happiness. Yet happiness is also one of the main criteria for telling when lives are balanced. Other criteria include health and moral responsibility. As elsewhere, these criteria are multifaceted and sometimes conflicting in good lives.

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  Creativity: Ethics and Excellence in Science

  Mike W. Martin

  Creativity explores the moral dimensions of creativity in science in a systematic and comprehensive way. A work of applied philosophy, professional ethics, and philosophy of science, the book argues that scientific creativity often constitutes moral creativity the production of new and morally variable outcomes. At the same time, creative ambitions have a dark side that can lead to professional misconduct and harmful effects on society and the environment.

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  Adultery

  Mike W. Martin

  Sexuality has captured the imagination of thinkers since antiquity. It has inspired numerous creative works and posed myriad ethical, legal, and social challenges. Unlike other references, which discuss the biology of sex, this encyclopedia explores sexuality as the subject of philosophy. Through more than 150 alphabetically arranged entries on thinkers, topics, movements, religions, and concepts, the encyclopedia locates sexuality in its humanistic and social contexts.

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  From Morality to Mental Health: Virtue and Vice in a Therapeutic Culture

  Mike W. Martin

  In this wide-ranging, accessible book, Martin asks: are we replacing morality with therapy, in potentially confusing and dangerous ways, or are we creatively integrating morality and mental health? Martin touches on practical concerns like love, work, self-respect, self-fulfillment, guilt, depression, crime, violence, and addictions. He uses examples from popular culture as well as drawing on a line of thought that includes Plato, the Stoics, Freud, Nietzsche, and contemporary psychotherapeutic theories. In the end, Martin convincingly shows how both morality and mental health are inextricably intertwined in our pursuit of a meaningful life

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  Conflict of Interest and Physical Therapy

  Mike W. Martin and Donald L. Gabard

  'In a chapter entitled “Conflict of Interest & Physical Therapy”, authors Martin & Gabard offer a cogent definition. They write simply, “conflicts of interest are situations in which individuals have interests that significantly threaten their role responsibilities, or would do so for a typical person having their role.” Likewise, Davis describes the standard view of conflict of interest as a situation in which a person P is in a relationship requiring P to exercise some judgment on another’s behalf and P has an interest “tending to interfere with the proper exercise of that judgment”. With regard to professional conflicts of interest, both definitions suggest that the person in question is licensed to make a judgment by virtue of the individual’s professional status and that the individual is then accountable to others within and outside his/her profession for that judgment. Several authors also emphasize the importance of avoiding even the appearance of conflict of interest. In “Law’s Blindfold”, David Luban writes that the credibility of a judge’s ruling is threatened by the appearance of impropriety since “justice must not only be done but be seen to be done” lest the impartiality of the judge be questioned.'

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  Meaningful Work: Rethinking Professional Ethics

  Mike W. Martin

  As commonly understood, professional ethics consists of shared duties and episodic dilemmas--the responsibilities incumbent on all members of specific professions joined together with the dilemmas that arise when these responsibilities conflict. Martin challenges this "consensus paradigm" as he rethinks professional ethics to include personal commitments and ideals, of which many are not mandatory. Using specific examples from a wide range of professions, including medicine, law, high school teaching, journalism, engineering, and ministry, he explores how personal commitments motivate, guide, and give meaning to work.

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  Virtuous Giving: Philanthropy, Voluntary Service, and Caring

  Mike W. Martin

  Writing for the general reader, Mike Martin explores the philosophic basis of philanthropy—"virtuous giving." This book will be welcome reading for anyone who has pondered what caring and giving mean for a good society.