The Importance of Dignity: A Reply to Steven Pinker
From its ancient Stoic origins to its modern Kantian formulations, human dignity is an important concept for sound ethical thinking. We must distinguish dignity as attributed, dignity as intrinsic worth, and dignity as flourishing.
The Same-Sex “Marriage” Proposal is Unjust Discrimination
The conjugal conception of marriage is just and coherent; the same-sex marriage proponents’ conception of marriage is unjust and incoherent.
Social Justice, Institutions, and Communities
A successful account of social justice must affirm the primacy of communities, and institutions directed by communities, over both the individual and the state in promoting human flourishing.
Eudaimonism and Moral Absolutes
A eudaimonistic ethical theory can show, without appeal to God, that certain actions are always wrong.
Keeping Mom, Dad, and Baby: Social Conservatism and the Republican Platform
In order to win, do Republicans really need to stop talking about abortion and marriage?
Disability: A Thread for Weaving Joy
While some people resent the imperfection, the inconvenience, and the expense of persons with disabilities, others see in them an invitation to learn how to love deeply without counting the cost. God will demand an accounting. Adapted from remarks delivered at the Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life.
The Unbearable Wrongness of Roe
39 years ago, the Supreme Court delivered a radical, legally untenable, immoral decision. It has forfeited its entitlement to have its decisions respected, and followed, by the other branches of government, by the states, and by the people.
Trust-Busting and Trusting in the Administrative State
The Obama administration’s efforts to regulate the cellular-phone service market through a decades-old trust-busting ideology is at odds with the courts’ more recent “new learning” approach to market competition. And there are lessons here for pro-lifers.
To Teach and Delight
Poetry establishes the polis, the ordered community, because poetry teaches men their “actual desires,” the desires that must be accommodated in any lasting and beneficial order. The second in a two-part series.
The Meaning of Modernism
Modernist poetry embodies the philosophical perspective of late liberal Western society, giving form to the conception of freedom divorced from essence, the theoretical primacy of the individual, and the broad skepticism towards any notion of a rational human nature. The first in a two-part series.
God Matters: Ethical Theory and Divine Law
The construction of an ethical theory, as a general matter, inevitably implicates philosophical theology.
MLK’s Philosophical and Theological Legacy
Martin Luther King, Jr., espoused a worldview repugnant to many of those who now claim his legacy.
Hosanna in the Highest!
In a recent decision, the Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment provides additional and independent rights to religious organizations, beyond those to which non-religious groups are entitled.
Bullying and Civil Rights
The Obama Administration’s campaign against “bullying” and “harassment” in schools is a subterfuge to exert federal control over the minutiae of daily school operations and to impose its preferred cultural attitudes.
Purpose, Palliative Care, and Respect for Human Life
Aiding the deliberate destruction of human life has no place in the doctor’s job description.
Public Opinion on Same-Sex Marriage
Senior citizens are less likely to support same-sex marriage than younger Americans, but that does not mean that they are anti-gay.
Religion and Freedom
Threats to religious freedom endanger the health of religious institutions, enfeebling rather than enlivening the moral content of our culture—a content that we all, believers and non-believers alike, rely upon to exercise our freedom.
The Great Recession: What Will You Tell Your Grandchild?
Economic, political, and ethical principles that encourage limited government must interact in our effort to secure long-term economic stability.
Gingrich, Desegregation, and Judicial Supremacy
Those who oppose judicial supremacy follow in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln himself.
A Life of Passion: Progressive Eugenics and Planned Parenthood
A new biography of Margaret Sanger fails to confront the Planned Parenthood founder’s ideological commitment to eugenics and population control.
