Ridling Zaine. Philosophy: Then and Now. A look back at 26 centuries of thought

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Ridling, Philosophy Then and Now: A Look Back at 26 Centuries of Thought

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Abortion, Euthanasia, and the Value of Human Life

A number of ethical questions cluster around both ends of the human life

span. Whether abortion is morally justifiable has popularly been seen as

depending on our answer to the question “When does a human life begin?”

Many philosophers believe this to be the wrong question to ask because it

suggests that there might be a factual answer that we can somehow discover

through advances in science. Instead, these philosophers think we need to ask

what it is that makes killing a human being wrong and then consider whether

these characteristics, whatever they might be, apply to the fetus in an abortion.

There is no generally agreed upon answer, yet some philosophers have

presented surprisingly strong arguments to the effect that not only the fetus

but even the newborn infant has no right to life. This position has been

defended by Jonathan Glover in Causing Death and Saving Lives (1977) and

in more detail by Michael Tooley in Abortion and Infanticide (1984).

Such views have been hotly contested, especially by those who claim

that all human life, irrespective of its characteristics, must be regarded as

sacrosanct. The task for those who defend the sanctity of human life is to

explain why human life, no matter what its characteristics, is specially worthy

of protection. Explanation could no doubt be provided in terms of such

traditional Christian doctrines as that all humans are made in the image of

God or that all humans have an immortal soul. In the current debate, however,

the opponents of abortion have eschewed religious arguments of this kind

without finding a convincing secular alternative.

Somewhat similar issues are raised by euthanasia when it is

nonvoluntary, as, for example, in the case of severely disabled newborn

infants. Euthanasia, however, can be voluntary, and this has brought it support

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from some who hold that the state should not interfere with the free, informed

choices of its citizens in matters that do not cause others harm. (The same

argument is often invoked in defense of the pro-choice position in the abortion

controversy; but it is on much weaker ground in this case because it

presupposes what it needs to prove – namely, that the fetus does not count as

an “other.”) Opposition to voluntary euthanasia has centred on practical

matters such as the difficulty of adequate safeguards and on the argument that

it would lead to a “slippery slope” that would take us to nonvoluntary

euthanasia and eventually to the compulsory involuntary killing of those the

state considers to be socially undesirable.

Philosophers have also canvassed the moral significance of the

distinction between killing and allowing to die, which is reflected in the fact

that many physicians will allow a patient with an incurable condition to die

when life could still be prolonged, but they will not take active steps to end

the patient’s life. Consequentialist philosophers, among them both Glover and

Tooley, have denied that this distinction possesses any intrinsic moral

significance. For those who uphold a system of absolute rules, on the other

hand, a distinction between acts and omissions is essential if they are to render

plausible the claim that we must never breach a valid moral rule.

Bioethics

The issues of abortion and euthanasia are included in one of the fastest

growing areas of applied ethics, that dealing with ethical issues raised by new

developments in medicine and the biological sciences. This subject, known as

bioethics, often involves interdisciplinary work, with physicians, lawyers,

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scientists, and theologians all taking part. Centres for research in bioethics

have been established in Australia, Britain, Canada, and the United States.

Many medical schools have added the discussion of ethical issues in medicine

to their curricula. Governments have sought to deal with the most

controversial issues by appointing special committees to provide ethical

advice.

Several key themes run through the subjects covered by bioethics. One,

related to abortion and euthanasia, is whether the quality of a human life can

be a reason for ending it or for deciding not to take steps to prolong it. Since

medical science can now keep alive severely disabled infants who a few years

ago would have died soon after birth, pediatricians are regularly faced with

this question. The issue received national publicity in Britain in 1981 when a

respected pediatrician was charged with murder, following the death of an

infant with Down’s syndrome. Evidence at the trial indicated that the parents

had not wanted the child to live and that the pediatrician had consequently

prescribed a narcotic painkiller. The doctor was acquitted. The following year,

in the United States, an even greater furor was caused by a doctor’s decision

to follow the wishes of the parents of a Down’s syndrome infant and not carry

out surgery without which the baby would die. The doctor’s decision was

upheld by the Supreme Court of Indiana, and the baby died before an appeal

could be made to the U.S. Supreme Court. In spite of the controversy and

efforts by government officials to ensure that handicapped infants are given

all necessary lifesaving treatment, in neither Britain nor the United States is

there any consensus about the decisions that should be made when severely

disabled infants are born or by whom these decisions should be made.

Medical advances have raised other related questions. Even those who

defend the doctrine of the sanctity of all human life do not believe that doctors

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have to use extraordinary means to prolong life, but the distinction between

ordinary and extraordinary means, like that between acts and omissions, is

itself under attack. Critics assert that the wishes of the patient or, if these

cannot be ascertained, the quality of the patient’s life provides a more relevant

basis for a decision than the nature of the means to be used.

Another central theme is that of patient autonomy. This arises not only

in the case of voluntary euthanasia but also in the area of human

experimentation, which has come under close scrutiny following reported

abuses. It is generally agreed that patients must give informed consent to any

experimental procedures. But how much and how detailed information is the

patient to be given? The problem is particularly acute in the case of randomly

controlled trials, which scientists consider the most desirable way of testing

the efficacy of a new procedure but which require that the patient agree to

being administered randomly one of two or more forms of treatment.

The allocation of medical resources became a life-and-death issue when

hospitals obtained dialysis machines and had to choose which of their patients

suffering from kidney disease would be able to use the scarce machines. Some

argued for “first come, first served,” whereas others thought it obvious that

younger patients or patients with dependents should have preference. Kidney

machines are no longer as scarce, but the availability of various other exotic,

expensive lifesaving techniques is limited; hence, the search for rational

principles of distribution continues.

New issues arise as further advances are made in biology and medicine.

In 1978 the birth of the first human being to be conceived outside the human

body initiated a debate about the ethics of in vitro fertilization. This soon led

to questions about the freezing of human embryos and what should be done

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with them if, as happened in 1984 with two embryos frozen by an Australian

medical team, the parents should die. The next controversy in this area arose

over commercial agencies offering infertile married couples a surrogate

mother who would for a fee be impregnated with the sperm of the husband

and then surrender the resulting baby to the couple. Several questions

emerged: Should we allow women to rent their wombs to the highest bidder?

If a woman who has agreed to act as a surrogate changes her mind and decides

to keep the baby, should she be allowed to do so?

The culmination of such advances in human reproduction will be the

mastery of genetic engineering. Then we will all face the question posed by

the title of Jonathan Glover’s probing book What Sort of People Should There

Be? (1984). Perhaps this will be the most challenging issue for 21st-century

ethics.

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Bibliography

Aesthetics

Two of the most useful anthologies of contemporary aesthetics are

ELISEO VIVAS and MURRAY KRIEGER (eds.), The Problems of

Aesthetics (1953); and JOSEPH MARGOLIS (ed.), Philosophy Looks at the

Arts, 3rd ed. (1987). Others are JOHN HOSPERS, Introductory Readings in

Aesthetics (1969); and HAROLD OSBORNE (ed.), Aesthetics (1972), which

contains a particularly useful bibliography. More recent collections include

RICHARD SHUSTERMAN (ed.), Analytic Aesthetics (1989); and PHILIP

ALPERSON (ed.), The Philosophy of the Visual Arts (1992). MONROE C.

BEARDSLEY, Aesthetics: Problems in the Philosophy of Criticism, 2nd ed.

(1981), provides a broad, scholarly overview of the subject; while RICHARD

WOLLHEIM, Art and Its Objects, 2nd ed. (1980, reissued 1992), is more

narrow. A comprehensive survey is also attempted in DAVID E. COOPER

(ed.), A Companion to Aesthetics (1992). For the definition of aesthetics, the

above texts are relevant, as are ROGER SCRUTON, The Aesthetics of

Architecture (1979); PAUL ZIFF, “The Task of Defining a Work of Art,” The

Philosophical Review, 62:58-78 (1953); GEORGE DICKIE, Aesthetics: An

Introduction (1971); JERROLD LEVINSON, Music, Art, and Metaphysics

(1990); and NICHOLAS WOLTERSTORFF, Works and Worlds of Art

(1980).

The first approach to the subject as addressed in the article is

exemplified in JOHN CASEY, The Language of Criticism (1966); the second

in ROGER SCRUTON, Art and Imagination (1974, reissued 1982); and the

third in Wollheim’s book (above). The classical study of the aesthetic

recipient remains that of IMMANUEL KANT, Kritik der Urteilskraft (1790);

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to which one may add BERNARD BOSANQUET, Three Lectures on

Aesthetic (1915, reissued 1968). The aesthetic object is dealt with in

considerable detail by ROMAN INGARDEN, The Literary Work of Art

(1973; originally published in German, 1931); and MIKEL DUFRENNE, The

Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experience (1973; originally published in

French, 1953). The differences between the various art forms are explored in

JOHN DEWEY, Art As Experience (1934, reissued 1980); and SUSANNE K.

LANGER, Feeling and Form (1953, reissued 1973). In addition to the works

already cited, the following are particularly important discussions of

paradoxes: LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN, Lectures & Conversations on

Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief, ed. by CYRIL BARRETT

(1966); and F.N. SIBLEY and MICHAEL TANNER, “Objectivity and

Aesthetics,” in ARISTOTELIAN SOCIETY (GREAT BRITAIN),

Supplementary Volume, no. 42 (1968), proceedings. Some philosophical

approaches to imagination are summarized in MARY WARNOCK,

Imagination (1976). The most important 20th-century texts are JEAN-PAUL

SARTRE, The Psychology of Imagination (1948, reissued 1991; originally

published in French, 1940); and LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN, Philosophical

Investigations, 3rd ed. (1968, reprinted 1986; originally published in German,

1953), part 2. Later attempts to describe the place of imagination in aesthetic

experience as a whole are found in Scruton’s Art and Imagination (above);

and KENDALL L. WALTON, Mimesis as Make-Believe (1990). The matters

of emotion, response, and enjoyment are considered in some depth in

BERNARD BOSANQUET, “On the Nature of Aesthetic Emotion,” in

BERNARD BOSANQUET (ed.), Science and Philosophy and Other Essays

(1927, reissued 1967); and in the study by Casey (above). A detailed

bibliography on the understanding of art can be found in the section

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Philosophy of art in the bibliography to the article PHILOSOPHIES OF THE

BRANCHES OF KNOWLEDGE.

Many of the individual problems are discussed in the book by Wollheim

(above); ROGER SCRUTON, The Aesthetic Understanding (1983);

SUSANNE K. LANGER, Philosophy in a New Key, 3rd ed. (1979);

ROLAND BARTHES, Elements of Semiology (1967; originally published in

French, 1965); BENEDETTO CROCE, Aesthetic as Science of Expression

and General Linguistic, 2nd ed. (1922, reissued 1978; originally published in

Italian, 1902); R.G. COLLINGWOOD, The Principles of Art (1938, reissued

1975); NELSON GOODMAN, Languages of Art, 2nd ed. (1976); P.F.

STRAWSON, “Aesthetic Appraisal and Works of Art,” in his Freedom and

Resentment (1974); and OSCAR WILDE, The Critic As Artist (1925).

Discussions of the logic of music include RUDOLF ARNHEIM, Art and

Visual Perception, expanded and rev. ed. (1974); HEINRICH SCHENKER,

Harmony (1954, reissued 1980; originally published in German, 1906);

ROGER SCRUTON, “Understanding Music,” in his The Aesthetic

Understanding (above); the work by Levinson (above); and PETER KIVY,

Music Alone (1990).

Criticism and aesthetic judgment are dealt with in F.N. SIBLEY,

“Aesthetic Concepts,” The Philosophical Review, 68:421-450 (1959), and

“Aesthetic and Non Aesthetic,” The Philosophical Review, 74:135-159

(1965); WILLIAM K. WIMSATT, JR., and MONROE C. BEARDSLEY,

“The Intentional Fallacy,” in WILLIAM K. WIMSATT, JR., The Verbal Icon

(1954, reissued 1989); and F.R. LEAVIS, “Literary Criticism and

Philosophy,” in his The Common Pursuit (1952, reissued 1984). ANTHONY

SAVILE, The Test of Time (1982), is a discussion of some contemporary

problems. Philosophical discussions of particular art forms include

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MALCOLM BUDD, Music and the Emotions (1985, reissued 1992); and

RICHARD WOLLHEIM, Painting as an Art (1987).

An idiosyncratic but useful historical summary is provided in MONROE

C. BEARDSLEY, Aesthetics from Classical Greece to the Present (1966,

reprinted 1975). A full summary, although in an outmoded idiom, is given by

WLADISLAW TATARKIEWICZ, History of Aesthetics, 3 vol. (1970-74;

originally published in Polish, 1960). More recent Marxist writings have

tended toward scepticism concerning the concept of the aesthetic, notably

TERRY EAGLETON, The Ideology of the Aesthetic (1990). THOMAS

MUNRO, Oriental Aesthetics (1965), includes a comparison of Eastern and

Western attitudes and beliefs (with many bibliographic notes). Other

informative studies are Indian Aesthetics and Art Activity (1968); MAI-MAI

SZE, The Tao of Painting, 2nd ed. with corrections, 2 vol. (1963); and

MAKOTO UEDA, Literary and Art Theories in Japan (1967, reissued 1991).

Epistemology

BIBLIOGRAPHY. The texts of the classics mentioned below for which

specific editions have not been noted are available in many English-language

translations; two notable collections are The Loeb Classical Library and

Oxford Classical Text series.

The history of epistemology:

(Ancient): An excellent collection on scepticism is MILES BURNYEAT

(ed.), The sceptical Tradition (1983). For Greek Scepticism in particular, see

CHARLOTTE L. STOUGH, Greek Scepticism: A Study in Epistemology

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(1969). The chief epistemological works of PLATO are his Meno, Theaetetus,

and Republic, especially Books V-VII. The views of ARISTOTLE can be

found in On the Soul, Metaphysics, Book IV, ch. 5 and 6, and Posterior

Analytics, Book I, ch. 3. The locus classicus for ancient scepticism is R.G.

BURY (trans.), Sextus Empiricus, 4 vol. (1933-49), in The Loeb Classical

Library series. From among the voluminous writings of AUGUSTINE, see

Against the Academicians, trans. by MARY PATRICIA GARVEY (1942,

reissued 1978).

(Medieval): For the period as a whole, see appropriate articles in The

Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy, ed. by

A.H. ARMSTRONG (1967); and The Cambridge History of Later Medieval

Philosophy: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Disintegration of

Scholasticism, 1100-1600, ed. by NORMAN KRETZMANN, ANTHONY

KENNY, and JAN PINBORG (1982). For the thoughts of ANSELM OF

CANTERBURY, see his Proslogium, ch. 1, and On Truth. THOMAS

AQUINAS, Summa Theologiae, discusses the soul in general in part I,

question 77, and the intellectual powers of the soul in part I, question 79. The

views of JOHN DUNS SCOTUS can be found in the relevant sections of his

Philosophical Writings, trans. by ALLAN WOLTER (1962, reprinted 1987);

and in A.P. MARTINICH, “Duns Scotus on the Possibility of an Infinite

Being,” Philosophical Topics, supplementary vol. 80, pp. 23-29 (1982). The

ideas of WILLIAM OF OCKHAM can be found in the relevant sections of his

Philosophical Writings, trans. by PHILOTHEUS BOEHNER (1957, reissued

1967).

(Modern): Two excellent and now classic histories of early modern

philosophy from different perspectives are EDWIN ARTHUR BURTT, The

Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science, rev. ed. (1972), which