CLASSICAL LIBERAL ARGUMENT AGAINST PARENTAL RIGHTS

The autonomy argument for liberal nationalism

The article examines a recent nonnative argument for ‘liberal nationalism’ that can be found in the work of a range of influential contemporary writers. That argument seeks to defend the view that the state has a responsibility to preserve and promote national cultures. It does so by arguing that the liberal ideal of an autonomous individual chooser presupposes a rich and healthy national cultu...

Human Rights in the Neo-liberal Imagination

Globalisation, Poverty and Income Distribution: Does the Liberal Argument Hold?

‘Globalisation’ is a rag-bag, but the ‘anti-globalisation’ movement – a combination of trade union protectionists, passionate environmentalists, Third-World sympathisers, and antinomian activists who substitute ‘globalisation’ for the earlier ‘capitalism’ and ‘multinational corporations’ – is proving to be a force not lightly dismissed. Organisations like the World Bank, the UK’s Department for...

Coping with parental loss because of termination of parental rights.

This article addresses the process by which children and adolescents cope with severe acute stress of parental loss from causes other than divorce or death. Participants were 60 children and adolescents from a residential treatment facility. Most had experienced neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse, and their parents had their parential rights terminated. Measures of symptomatology indicat...

Against the Vagueness Argument

In this paper I offer a counterexample to the so called vagueness argument against restricted composition. This will be done in the lines of a recent suggestion by Trenton Merricks, namely by challenging the claim that there cannot be a sharp cut-off point in a composition sequence. It will be suggested that causal powers which emerge when composition occurs can serve as an indicator of such sh...