WHY LEGAL THEORY IS POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

Ethics : An International Journal of Social , Political , and Legal Philosophy

Many believe that we ought to save a large number from being permanently bedridden rather than save one from death. Many also believe that we ought to save one from death rather than a multitude from a very minor harm, no matter how large this multitude. I argue that a principle I call "Aggregate Relevant Claims" satisfactorily explains these judgments. I offer a rationale for this principle an...

Unification of Political and Legal Theory

Bioethics: why philosophy is essential for progress.

It is the JME's 40th anniversary and my 20th anniversary working in the field. I reflect on the nature of bioethics and medical ethics. I argue that both bioethics and medical ethics together have, in many ways, failed as fields. My diagnosis is that better philosophy is needed. I give some examples of the importance of philosophy to bioethics. I focus mostly on the failure of ethics in researc...

Why philosophy is important to medical ethics.

Derek Parfit in his landmark Reasons and Persons asks us to imagine the following hypothetical case. You must have a very painful operation for which there is no anaesthesia. You will experience excruciating pain for several hours. But then you will be given a drug to induce amnesia. You will not remember any of the pain. You wake up in bed in hospital. Doctors come and say there has been a mis...

Why Is Legal Reasoning Defeasible ? ∗ Juan

This paper analyses the claim that legal reasoning is defeasible, which is indeed a hallmark of some major contributions to the theory of legal reasoning in recent times. Before addressing the question of what kind of logical tools are needed to formalize defeasible reasoning, it must be explained why legal reasoning is supposed to be defeasible in the first place. Some arguments to this effect...