Chapter 5: Is Justice for All Possible?

1. Chapter 5: Is Justice for All Possible?

2. Introduction • Is a just society possible? • What are human rights? • Common problems: • Racism • Sexism • Homophobia • Terrorism • Environmental issues

3. Universal Human Rights • Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by UN on Dec. 10, 1948, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt

4. Human Rights in the “Age of Discovery”René Trujillo • Moral reflection occurred as Spanish conquered the indigenous peoples of the “New World” • Human rights and human dignity were major subjects of thought for the philosophers of the day • While the “Age of Discovery” was marked by brutality, it forced people to think about human rights issues

5. United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights • Attempts to define universal human rights and promote observance of them • Focuses on equality and fair treatment • Affirms rights to property, nationality, marriage and family, religion and thought, peaceable assembly, participation in government, social security, work, rest, healthy standard of living, education, cultural expression • Everyone is subject to limitations of law in order to respect rights and freedoms of others

6. Racism, Sexism, and Homophobia • Distinction between individual and institutional racism, sexism, and homophobia • The institutional form refers to injustice on the part of an official agency or various organizations

7. Ain’t I a Womanbell hooks • Author bell hooks is an African American woman and influential social critic • Writes her name in all lowercase to symbolize her skepticism about the importance of fame • Asserts that women have been socialized to think of racism solely in terms of racial hatred without regard to racial imperialism • Refutes the idea that all women in America have the same social status

8. Race MattersCornel West • “The fundamental crisis in black America is twofold: too much poverty and too little self-love.” • Redistributive measures have helped, but have not been sufficient for those with greatest need • The search for black identity is crucial in order to achieve racial equality

9. Homophobia as a Weapon of SexismSuzanne Pharr • Patriarchy is the ideology and sexism is the system that promotes homophobia • The weapons of sexism are economics, violence, and homophobia • Homophobia is a weapon of sexism because homosexuals threaten a male dominated society

10. Homophobia as a Weapon of SexismSuzanne Pharr • Those who are vulnerable to homophobia suffer losses in: • Employment • Family • Children • Heterosexual privilege and protection • Safety • Mental health • Community • Credibility

11. Globalization and Justice • Two forces of global events: • Disintegration of people due to aganda of self-determination • Integration through telecommunication and globalization which the world more interconnected and interdependent than ever • Is a global ethic of justice possible? • Should there be a one world system of government?

12. One World: Ethics of GlobalizationPeter Singer • National leaders must examine how their actions affect the rest of the world • Globalization has occurred through technology, the economy, and threat of terrorism • How should we respond ethically to the idea that we live in one world?

13. Terrorism and Morality • Terrorists often justify the use of violence for what they believe is a “just cause” • There are differing definitions of what is just

14. Why Terrorism Is Morally ProblematicBat-Ami Bar On • Terrorism produces psychologically and morally diminished people • Argues that terrorism is morally wrong because of its cruelty, not because its cause is unjust

15. Justice and the Land • Humans are a part of an ecologically interdependent system that places moral obligations on them with respect to the land and animals

16. The Land EthicAldo Leopold • The land and everything it sustains are a part of a community of interdependent parts that must cooperate • The “land ethic” sees man as a plain member and citizen of this community • Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land

17. The Land EthicAldo Leopold • Land as an energy circuit • Land is not merely soil • Native plants and animals kept the energy circuit open; others may or may not • Man-made changes are of a different order than evolutionary changes and have greater effects than are intended or foreseen

18. Animal Rights • Do humans have an obligation or duty to animals? Why? • Is it only wrong to harm animals when it is against the interest of humans? • Do animals have any intrinsic or inherent rights?

19. The Case for Animal RightsTom Regan • Goals of Animal Rights movement • Total abolition of the use of animals in science • Total dissolution of commercial animal agriculture • Total elimination of commercial and sport hunting and trapping

20. The Case for Animal RightsTom Regan • The “rights view” – denies the moral tolerability of any and all forms of racial, sexual, or social discrimination and denies that we can justify good results by evil means that violate individual rights • The rights view should not be limited to humans • Animals have inherent value because they are also “experiencing subjects of a life”