Valuing Life :Valuing Life ( Princeton Legacy Library )

Publication subTitle :Valuing Life

Publication series :Princeton Legacy Library

Author: Kleinig John;;;  

Publisher: Princeton University Press‎

Publication year: 2014

E-ISBN: 9781400862283

P-ISBN(Paperback): 9780691073880

Subject: Q10 The origin of life

Keyword: 伦理学(道德哲学)

Language: ENG

Access to resources Favorite

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

Description

Abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, war, genetic engineering and fetal experimentation, environmental and animal rights--these topics inspire some of today's most heated public controversies. And it is fashionable to pursue these debates in terms of the negative query "Under what conditions may life be disregarded or terminated?" John Kleinig asks a different, more positive question: What may be said in behalf of life? Looking at the full range of appeals to life's value, he considers a variety of issues. Is livingness as such to be affirmed and respected? Is there an ascending order of plant, animal, and human life? Does human life possess a distinctive claim, or must we discriminate between humans that do and humans that do not have claims on us? Kleinig shows that assertions about valuing life camouflage a complex normative vocabulary about worth, reverence, sanctity, dignity, respect, and rights. And "life," too, is subject to an assortment of understandings. Sensitive to the frameworks informing diverse appeals to life's value, this comprehensive work will interest readers concerned with the environment, animal rights, or bioethics.

Originally published in 1991.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in dur

Chapter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Valuing Life

The Value of Life

The Worth of (a) Life

Reverence for Life

Respect for Life

The Sanctity of Life

The Dignity of (a) Life

The Right to Life

Review

2. Valuing Life

What is it to Be Alive?

Levels of Life

Dimensions of Life

Lives

Group Life

3. Organismic Life

Schweitzer's "Reverence for Life" Ethic

Life as a Manifestation of Freedom

Life as a Gift of God

Life as God's Property

4. Plant Life

Individuals, Species, and Ecosystems

Nature as Sacred Theatre

The Inclusiveness of "Nature"

Gaia

Biocentrism and Species-Egalitarianism

The "Last Person" Argument

The Value of Originality

The Anthropo-Utility of Plant Life

5. Animal Life

Our "Kinship" with Animals

Possessing a Life

Equal Inherent Value and the Right to Life

Interspecific Justice and Animal Life

Review

6. Human Life

Classical Arguments: Value and Actualization

The Judeo-Christian Heritage: Imago Dei

Human Life as Self-Evidently Valuable

The Value of Human Life Given in the Activity of Valuing

Human Life as Preconditionally Valuable

The Preferential Argument for Human Life

The Socioeconomic Valuation of Human Life

Statistical vs. Identifiable Lives

Models of Socioeconomic Value

Is the Idea of Socioeconomic Life-Valuation Chimerical?

Review

7. Towards a Morality of Life

Valuing Revisited

Valuing Organismic Life

Valuing Diverse Forms of Life

The Forms of Life Revisited

Hierarchy and the Discourse of Value

8. Some Applications

Vegetarianism

Fetal Life

Capital Punishment

Comatose Life

Genetic Engineering

Review

Notes

Bibliography

Index of Names

Index of Subjects

The users who browse this book also browse


No browse record.