Human Capacities and Moral Status

By Russell DiSilvestro

Book Overview

INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE: YOU ARE NOT WHAT YOU THINK: CAPACITIES, HUMAN ORGANISMS, AND PERSONS 1. The Adventure of Ronald Reagan's Brain 2. What Are Humans? 3. What Is Serious Moral Status? 4. What Are Typical Human Capacities? 5. What Are Persons? 6. What Are We? CHAPTER TWO: ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, I CAN DO ALSO: HUMANS, OUR CAPACITIES, AND THE POWERS WE SHARE 1. How to Compare Capacities Between Individuals 2. A Temporary Change Argument About What We Are 3. The Capacities of Undeveloped Human Organisms 4. The Capacities of Damaged and Disabled Human Organisms CHAPTER THREE: THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN: WHY CAPACITIES MUST MATTER MORALLY 1. A Temporary Change Argument About What Matters Morally 2. Moral Status and the Past 3. Moral Status and the Future 4. Why Not Stop at the First-Order Capacity? 5. Actual, Continuing Subjects of Experience 6. Capacities and the Original Position 7. Capacities and the Capabilities Approach CHAPTER FOUR: LITTLE PEOPLE: HIGHER-ORDER CAPACITIES AND THE ARGUMENT FROM POTENTIAL 1. The Dreaded Argument from Potential 2. Not Every Cell is Sacred 3. Potential Presidents and Potential Persons CHAPTER FIVE: NOT JUST DAMAGED GOODS: HIGHER-ORDER CAPACITIES AND THE ARGUMENT FROM MARGINAL CASES 1. The Dreaded Argument from Marginal Cases 2. Tooley's Cat, Boonin's Spider, McMahan's Dog, and Balaam's Ass 3. How Not to Be a Speciesist CHAPTER SIX: OLD OBJECTIONS AND NEW DIRECTIONS: CAPACITIES AND MORAL STATUS AT THE VERY BORDERS OF HUMAN LIFE 1. Does the Temporary Change Argument Prove Too Much? 2. The Corpse Problem 3. Solving the Corpse Problem 4. Are Active Capacities Preferable to Passive? 5. Drawing Lines Near Altered Nuclear Transfer and Anencephaly BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9400732538
• ISBN13: 9789400732537
• Release Date: September 2012
• Publisher: Springer
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.1" x 9.2"