Skip to main content

If... Then...

Does anyone think this has anything to do with this? Or the curious approval some grant this:

What are the underlying assumptions of [Peter] Singer’s personism? His basic premises or assumptions consist of a dogma and a definition. The dogma: nothing in the universe has any intrinsic value except happiness and pleasure (utilitarianism). The definition: a person is a conscious thinking being. From these premises all kinds of things are inferred, for example:

  1. Human life per se has no intrinsic value;

  2. Not all human beings are persons;

  3. Only human beings who know they are persons are persons;

  4. Persons as such have rights; human beings as such have no rights;

  5. Several sorts of human beings have no right to life.

In Practical Ethics, Singer lists the kinds of human beings who have no right to life, explicitly mentioning not only disabled newborn infants but also month-old hemophiliac infants not wanted by their parents or adopters, any young infant not wanted by its parents or adopters, and all human beings who do not know they are persons.

Jenny Teichman continues, in The New Criterion, to take Singer to task. Not bad reading at all. Blimpish does a very nice job of taking on Judith Jarvis Thomson's pro abort essay, which I also did a few days ago. Tip: Conservative Philosopher.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mirror of the just man

Ecce Homo I haven't done a quote from Pope Ratzinger's Introduction to Chistianty in a while and even though I have finished the book there are still one or two passages I want to share, including - perhaps even especially - this one. When I first began to look over what Christianity teaches, to look at the gospel story and to try penetrate why it has been so compelling to so many for so long, this was one of the things that leapt out at me. I was happy to see our Pope confirm it. Expanding on the Apostles Creed where it says "... suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried," Ratzinger writes: The fact that when the perfectly just man appeared he was crucified, delivered up by justice to death, tells us pitilessly who man is: Thou art such, man, that thou canst not bear the just man - that he who simply loves becomes a fool, a scourged criminal, an outcast. Thou art such because, unjust thyself, thou dost always need the injustice of the n...
1 comment
Read more

Last minute christmas suggestions

Suggestions fror the coming Christmas season: Loreena McKennit , Songs for the Season . Even though McKennit has not released an album in something like a decade, I've only just discovered her and she's amazing. This little EP has only five songs on it and Canadians can pick it up on iTunes for about $4 and change. Amazon wants ten US bucks... Richard Proulx and the Cathedral Singers, Catholic Latin Classics . It's not a Christmas album per se, but it'll sound terrific. Magnificat . This is a really nice daily missal. Fourteen issues a year include two special editions for Holy week and Christmas. Each issue has all of the masses for each day of the month, and a couple of features about historical artworks, poems, and faith issues. These are really nice and I'm glad my wife has deemed me worthy of one.
Post a Comment
Read more

Redemptionis Sacramentum

Thank you to Rick and Kristina and others who commented on my post about our parish's liturgical meeting this past weekend, and to Tony , who sent a very supportive e-mail. Rick and Kristina pointed me towards a document called Redemptionis Sacramentum , which will be quite helpful, I think. Looking back at the Easter mime incident, for example, I can see issues with Chapter 3, sections 58 to 63. A summary of the document can be found here .
Post a Comment
Read more