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Search Results for: natural law – Page 65

Public Discourse

Constitutional Disorder in the Era of Judicial Supremacy: The Founders’ Understanding of the Court

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Judicial supremacy is inimical to the separation of powers, to republicanism, and even to constitutionalism and the rule of law. The upcoming confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor should force citizens to reconsider the place of the Court in our political life. The first in a two-part series.
Public Discourse

Robert P. George on the Struggle Over Marriage

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Recently, the editor of Public Discourse sat down with Robert P. George to discuss the state of the marriage debate. While supporters of same-sex “marriage” claim that history is on their side, it turns out that supporters of traditional marriage have more reasons for hope than they may realize.
Public Discourse

Hypocrisy and Public Life

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Revelations about the infidelities of prominent social conservatives like South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and Nevada Senator John Ensign have led many to mock advocates of public virtue who nonetheless succumb to personal vice. But what’s so bad about hypocrisy?
Public Discourse

Why We Should Oppose Same-Sex Marriage

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Same-sex marriage fundamentally alters the idea of marriage, expands government control of marriage, and ignores a child’s right to a mother and father.
Public Discourse

Whither Central Banking?

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At a moment of increased government involvement in the economy, the solution we need might be a more independent central bank.
Public Discourse

Is There Value in Religious Pluralism?

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If religious traditions, belief systems, and moral frameworks are the result of a genuine commitment to and search for the truth, then disagreement of truth claims among adherents must be taken as a sign that some, or even all, of the searches have failed. How can this be a good state of affairs?
Public Discourse

Higher Education and the Political Regime

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All education is moral education, because it carries an understanding of the things worth knowing—and a hierarchy of the things more or less worthy of being known. Moral education must also point to a certain end: an understanding of the ways of life that are better or worse for human beings. It must point to a certain kind of political regime in providing the cast of our lives: the laws that protect the integrity of families and the professions, and the terms of principle on which a decent people deserve to live. The following article is adapted from the Commencement Address Arkes delivered at Hillsdale College on May 10, 2009.
Public Discourse

Torture: What it is, and Why it is Wrong

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The recent publication of the Torture Memos and of the International Red Cross report on the treatment of high-level detainees in the aftermath of 9/11 has returned to national prominence the discussion of the morality of torture and “enhanced interrogation” techniques. It is important to be clear, as a moral matter, on what boundaries should be accepted in interrogation of human beings; a responsible and non-politicized discussion is essential on this difficult issue.
Public Discourse

The Institution Formerly Known As Marriage

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The Iowa court’s recent decision does not simply broaden marriage, it radically changes its nature. While marriage previously served public purposes of attaching mothers and fathers to their children and one another, now marriage merely serves as affirmation of adult feelings.
Public Discourse

The Welfare State and the Meaning of Life

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Faced with Charles Murray’s argument that the welfare state makes everything too easy, a socialist could ask: Should everything therefore be made more difficult? How can Murray say the welfare state is bad for making life easier while praising other state functions that make life easier, like the police? Only a moral perspective can oppose socialism while affirming legitimate state functions.
Public Discourse

Why Conservatives Should Care About Transit

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Public transit and walkable neighborhoods are necessary for the creation of a country where families and communities can flourish.
Public Discourse

What Makes Higher Education “Higher?”

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Higher education exposes ingratiating talk as the counterfeit of teaching; rote learning as the counterfeit of thought; mere opinion as the counterfeit of judgment; enthusiasm as the counterfeit of principle.
Public Discourse

Cognitive Enhancing Drugs

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Recent calls for the widespread use of cognitive enhancements are based on a narrow, mechanistic view of what it means to be human.
Public Discourse

Should the Obama Conscience Rules Seek to Protect Persons or Provide Benefits?

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The state is required to protect persons not just from physical harm but from being forced to violate their limited but definite freedom of conscience.
Public Discourse

Politics and Science

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The “rightful place” of science is not as obvious as the President thinks.
Public Discourse

Dividing the Child: The Problems with the Saletan Abortion Compromise

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William Saletan’s proposals for abortion compromise would do little to relieve the plight of women or save the unborn.
Public Discourse

Liberty, Authority, and the Good of Religion

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Religious liberty and religious authority are frequently seen in tension, but they need not conflict. In fact, a proper understanding of both shows that they are equally necessary for full human flourishing.
Public Discourse

A Real Compromise on the Same-Sex Marriage Debate: An Invitation to Rauch and Blankenhorn

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A recent compromise on the same-sex ‘marriage’ debate granted too much to revisionists and too little to traditionalists. A better compromise will respect the societal importance of marriage while also providing for the real needs of domestic partners.
Public Discourse

What Obama Will Give the Left

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With political realities preventing Obama from satisfying his left-wing base on economic and foreign policy questions, look for Obama to give the left the barn on social issues. And expect him to do so in significant measure through the courts.
Public Discourse

Collegiate Sex-Ed

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Every fall, kids arrive on college campuses and learn that their basic moral intuitions on sexual matters don’t square with the reigning ideas. Thanks to debased campus culture and overreaching on the part of administrators and professors, students are beginning to respond systematically—and they’re having an impact. Here’s how.
Public Discourse

Positive Secularism and the American Model of Religious Liberty

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At its fullest, the American model of religious liberty is not a freedom from religion or a freedom of religion; it is a freedom for religion.
Public Discourse

An Absolute Liberty of Conscience?

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Freedom of conscience is an important, though limited, right. In some cases a state may prevent someone from acting on her conscientious judgments. But in other cases—such as those in which a pro-life doctor is required to perform an abortion—the violation of conscience is intrinsically unjust.
Public Discourse

“Does Economic Liberty Merit a Public Defense?”

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Despite the financial crisis, markets deserve a spirited public defense that acknowledges both their virtues and limits.
Public Discourse

Why Marriage is Inherently Heterosexual

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A recent story in Newsweek claimed that the only reasons for opposing same-sex “marriage” are religious. But there are powerful arguments for marriage rooted not in faith but in reason.