Human Capacities and Moral Status

• Main Author: DiSilvestro, Russell (Author)
• Corporate Author: SpringerLink (Online service)
• Format: Electronic eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands : Imprint: Springer, 2010.
• Series: Philosophy and Medicine, 108
• Subjects: Philosophy.; Ethics.; Philosophy of mind.; Medicine > Philosophy.; Public health.; Medical ethics.; Life sciences.; Theory of Medicine/Bioethics.; Life Sciences, general.; Philosophy of Medicine.; Philosophy of Mind.; Public Health.

Many debates about the moral status of things—for example, debates about the natural rights of human fetuses or nonhuman animals—eventually migrate towards a discussion of the capacities of the things in question—for example, their capacities to feel pain, think, or love. Yet the move towards capaci...

Table of Contents:

• You Are Not What You Think: Capacities, Human Organisms, and Persons
• Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Also: Humans, Our Capacities, and the Powers We Share
• The Only Game in Town: Why Capacities Must Matter Morally
• Little People: Higher-Order Capacities and the Argument from Potential
• Not Just Damaged Goods: Higher-Order Capacities and the Argument from Marginal Cases
• Old Objections and New Directions: Capacities and Moral Status at the Very Borders of Human Life.