New from the Witherspoon Institute

7/1/08: Ryan Anderson reviews three new works on bioethics in the Weekly Standard, criticizing the belief that "human fulfillment consists only in physical and material perfection".  Ryan is the Assistant Project Director for the Witherspoon Institute's program in Bioethics and Human Dignity. 

6/11/08: Coming from a natural-law perspective, Christopher Tollefsen and Ryan Anderson outline three main philosophical principles to guide biotechnology in the realm of biological enhancement. This particular focus differs from most previous natural-law arguments in bioethics, which focused on questions surrounding the destruction of life.

6/10/08: Jean Bethke Elshtain’s new book, Sovereignty: God, State, and Self, has just been published by Basic Books. In her book, Elshtain examines the idea of “sovereignty”, showing how in its most recent incarnation it has been used to support the theory of the autonomous self.

5/28/08: Writing at the First Things website, Fellow Christopher Tollefsen explores the moral problems behind the British Parliament’s recent vote to allow the creation of human-cow hybrids, arguing that such procedures commit a grave wrong against human dignity.

5/22/08: In his recent book Consciousness and Mental Life, Senior Fellow Daniel N. Robinson argues that cognitive neuroscience should be subordinated to folk psychology, and not vice versa. He also denies that consciousness can be fully explained by the brain sciences. Click here for a review of the book.

5/21/08: In the Financial Times, Harold James speculates that the Euro is poised to overtake the American dollar as the international currency, just as the dollar overtook the British pound after World War II. However, James notes that the U.S.’s continued superpower status and the peculiar nature and infancy of the Euro complicate that possibility.

4/30/08: Senior Fellow Kevin T. Jackson discusses the argument of his book Building Reputational Capital, saying that business ethics cannot be merely a matter of “compliance,” but rather must be based on “human rights, basic human goods, and natural reason and virtue,” in order to be meaningful.

4/29/08: Harold James is scheduled to speak on Monday, May 5 at Princeton University’s International Relations Faculty Colloquium (12–1:30p.m., Bowl 16 of Robertson Hall) on the topic of “Globalization, Empire, and Natural Law.” Click here for a copy of the paper that he will present.

4/28/08: Senior Fellow John Haldane will be giving a lecture at Princeton University on Wednesday, April 30, at 4:30pm. Entitled “The Need and Implications of Recognizing Humanity,” it will explore how mainstream political philosophers need to consider the topic of the fragility of human life more centrally in their work, particularly in areas such as disabilities, mental disorders, and “ending life” issues.

4/25/08: In The Weekly Standard, staff member Ryan T. Anderson reviews Fellow David Tubbs’s book Contemporary Liberalism and the Fate of American Children. Anderson commends the book for pointing out how the “negative liberty” established by contemporary political liberalism in current laws has had harmful effects on children across society.

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