Who Count As Persons? / Edition 1

by John F. Kavanaugh

Overview

Just what is a human being? Who counts? The answers to these questions are crucial when one is faced with the ethical issue of taking human life. In this affirmation of the intrinsic personal dignity and inviolability of every human individual, John Kavanaugh, S. J., denies that it can ever be moral to intentionally kill another.

Today in every corner of the world men and women are willing to kill others in the name of "realism" and under the guise of race, class, quality of life, sex, property, nationalism, security, or religion. We justify these killings by either excluding certain humans from our definition of personhood or by invoking a greater good or more pressing value.

Kavanaugh contends that neither alternative is acceptable. He formulates an ethics that opposes the intentional killing not only of medically "marginal" humans but also of depersonalized or criminalized enemies. Offering a philosophy of the person that embraces the undeveloped, the wounded, and the dying, he proposes ways to recover a personal ethical stance in a global society that increasingly devalues the individual.

Kavanaugh discusses the work of a range of philosophers, artists, and activists from Richard Rorty and Søren Kierkegaard to Albert Camus and Woody Allen, from Mother Teresa to Jack Kevorkian. His approach is in stark contrast to that of writer Peter Singer and others who believe that not all human life has intrinsic moral worth. It will challenge philosophers, students of ethics, and anyone concerned about the depersonalization of contemporary life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780878408375
Publisher:	Georgetown University Press
Publication date:	05/23/2001
Series:	Moral Traditions and Moral Arguments Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 9.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John F. Kavanaugh, SJ, a professor of philosophy at Saint Louis University, is author of Following Christ in a Consumer Society and The Word Embodied. He writes the "Ethics Notebook" column for the publication America.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Introduction

2. Personal Losses Traces of Lost PersonsThe Fear and Call of Personal RealitySocial and Political DepersonalizationImpersonal Theory, De-Personed Philosophythe Texture of Personal Reality and Ethical Experience

3. Personal Bodies On the Matter and Spirit of MapsOn the Matter and Spirit of PersonsPersonal EmbodimentBody as Object, Body as SubjectAmbiguities of EmbodimentThe "My-ness" and "Me-Ness" of a Personal BodyPersonal ConsciousnessPersonalized World

4. Endowments of Embodied Persons Personal FoundationsAwareness of Awaress, Selves, and PersonsThe Endowment of FreedomThe Endowment of Love in Self-Conscious AffirmationEndowed Human PersonPersonal Nature

5. Personal Entries into EthicsInescapable Perspectives of PersonsAchieving the Moral good and Doing the Right ThingKant and the Pull to the InteriorMill and the Pull OutwardThe Personal CenterThe Intrinsic TurnKilling, Autonomy, and Intrinsic Values

6. Before Good and Evil The Field of Moral ExperienceThe Dynamics of Personal Moral JudgmentThe Subjective Internal DimensionContext, Culture, and Personal ChallengeNegation of Truth and the Beginning of EvilFalls and Crimes

7. Killing Persons and Ethics The Logic of TerrorThe Moral Inviolability of PersonsDefending Life by Intending DeathKilling Incomplete PersonsKilling Defective or Dying Persons

8. Reviving Personal Life The Choice of RealitiesThe "Reality" of Consumer CapitalismReviving Personal SolitudeRecovering Personal RelationshipsRevealing Human Vulnerability

Notes

Bibliography

Index

What People are Saying About This

Daniel Callahan

John Kavanaugh has taken on an old and ancient and difficult issue and he brings to it verve, breadth, and an uncommon thoughtfulness. This is a valuable book, one that needs to be read by anyone concerned with the future of ethics.

From the Publisher

"Fr. Kavanaugh remembers what too many philosophers forget -- that philosophy begins with the human person....His book is challenging, moving, and provocative." -- Jean Bethke Elshtain, University of Chicago

"John Kavanaugh has taken on an old and ancient and difficult issue and he brings to it verve, breadth, and an uncommon thoughtfulness. This is a valuable book, one that needs to be read by anyone concerned with the future of ethics." -- Daniel Callahan, The Hastings Center

"A thoughtful, passionate, and contemporary defense of the human person." -- Charles J. Dougherty, Creighton University, Creighton University

Jean Bethke Elshtain

Fr. Kavanaugh remembers what too many philosophers forget—that philosophy begins with the human person. . . . His book is challenging, moving, and provocative.

Charles J. Dougherty

A thoughtful, passionate, and contemporary defense of the human person.

Editorial Reviews

A richly insightful and provocative exploration of the diverse ideologies invented to justify degrading or taking human life.

Choice

This book offers a powerful, challenging view of the human person for the modern world as a basis for ethical decision making, especially on life-and-death issues. . . . We have much to learn from Father John Kavanaugh. He is insightful and learned, and his passionate concern for the dignity of human beings flows from every page.

National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly

[Offers] a compelling critique of contemporary society.

Theological Studies

All college and seminary libraries need this prophetic book in their collections.

Ethics

Fr. Kavanaugh remembers what too many philosophers forget—that philosophy begins with the human person. . . . His book is challenging, moving, and provocative.

Jean Bethke Elshtain

John Kavanaugh has taken on an old and ancient and difficult issue and he brings to it verve, breadth, and an uncommon thoughtfulness. This is a valuable book, one that needs to be read by anyone concerned with the future of ethics.

Daniel Callahan

A thoughtful, passionate, and contemporary defense of the human person.

Charles J. Dougherty

"This book offers a powerful, challenging view of the human person for the modern world as a basis for ethical decision making, especially on life-and-death issues.... We have much to learn from Father John Kavanaugh. He is insightful and learned, and his passionate concern for the dignity of human beings flows from every page."—National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly

"[Offers] a compelling critique of contemporary society."—Theological Studies

"A richly insightful and provocative exploration of the diverse ideologies invented to justify degrading or taking human life."—Choice

"All college and seminary libraries need this prophetic book in their collections."—Ethics

From the Publisher