59 found
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  1.  66
    Torture and the Ticking Bomb.Bob Brecher (ed.) - 2007 - Wiley-Blackwell.
    This timely and passionate book is the first to address itself to Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz’s controversial arguments for the limited use of interrogational torture and its legalisation. Argues that the respectability Dershowitz's arguments confer on the view that torture is a legitimate weapon in the war on terror needs urgently to be countered Takes on the advocates of torture on their own utilitarian grounds Timely and passionately written, in an accessible, jargon-free style Forms part of the provocative and (...)
  2. Which values? And whose? A reply to Fulford.Bob Brecher - 2011 - Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 17 (5):996-998.
    Fulford’s discussion of ‘values-based practice’ as a model for medical ethics is deeply puzzling. First, it remains unclear what exactly he takes values to be or how tyhey can be based in clinical skills. Second, his proposal does not make it clear whose values these are supposed to be. I conclude that his attempt in effect to take the morality out of ethics fails.
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  3.  20
    What is professional ethics?Bob Brecher - 2014 - Nursing Ethics 21 (2):239-244.
    The very term ‘professional ethics’ is puzzling with respect to what both ‘professional’ and ‘ethics’ might mean. I argue (1) that professionalism is ambiguous as to whether or not it is implicitly committed to ethical practice; (2) that to be ‘professionally’ ethical is at best ambiguous, if not in fact bizarre; and (3) that, taken together, these considerations suggest that professional ethics is something to be avoided rather than lauded.
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  4.  10
    The Fantasy of the Ticking Bomb Scenario.Bob Brecher - 2007 - In Torture and the Ticking Bomb. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 14–39.
    This chapter contains section titled: Dershowitz's Argument and the Ticking Bomb Who Tortures? Effectiveness and Time Knowledge and Necessity The Ticking Bomb Scenario: Conclusion.
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  5.  31
    Why Patronize Feminists? A Reply to Stove on Mill.Bob Brecher - 1993 - Philosophy 68 (265):397 - 400.
  6.  65
    Our obligation to the dead.Bob Brecher - 2002 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 19 (2):109–119.
    Can we have a real obligation to the dead, just as we do to the living, or is such a notion merely sentimental or metaphorical? Starting with the example of making a promise, I try to show that we can, since the dead, as well as the living, can have interests, not least because the notion of a person is, in part, a moral construction. ‘The dead’, then, are not merely dead, but particular dead persons, members of something like the (...)
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  7.  6
    Getting what you want?: a critique of liberal morality.Bob Brecher - 1998 - London: Routledge.
    Getting What You Want? offers a critique of liberal morality and an analysis of its understanding of the individual as a 'wanting thing'.
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  8. Rational rationing?Bob Brecher - 2008 - Clinical Ethics 3 (2):53-54.
    Triage-like procedures for solving the problems of rationing cannot work. And anyway, why should health- and medical workers carry the can for the economic and political decisions of their managers and our politicians? To foist rationing decisions onto them is a political con-trick, a deliberate attempt to deflect managerial and political responsibility elsewhere. Those on the front line should simply toss a coin; expalin to patients’ friends and relatives that that’s what they’re doing and why; and go public that that's (...)
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  9. The politics of professional ethics.Bob Brecher - 2010 - Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 16 (2):351-355.
    In order to illustrate how terms of reference themselves, such as those announced by ‘professional ethics’, delimit and distort moral consideration I start with an extended discussion of how Just War Theory operates to do this; and go on to discuss ‘the power of naming’ with reference to the British attack on Iraq. Having thus situated my approach to the politics of professional ethics in a broader political context I offer a critique of ‘professional’ ethics in terms of what is (...)
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  10. Academic freedom.Bob Brecher - 2013 - International Encyclopaedia of Ethics.
  11. The Family and Neoliberalism: Time to Revive a Critique.Bob Brecher - 2012 - Ethics and Social Welfare 6 (2):157-167.
    I argue that the family remains integral to neoliberal capitalism. First, I identify two tensions in the neoliberals' advocacy of the traditional family: that the ?family values? advocated run directly counter to the homo economicus of the ?free market?; and the fact that the increasingly strident rhetoric of the family belies its decreasing popularity. The implications of these tensions for how we might think of the family, I then propose, suggest that earlier critiques are worth revisiting for what they have (...)
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  12. Pornography: men possessing women. A reassessment.Bob Brecher - 2015 - In Brecher Bob (ed.), eds H Marway and H Widdows, Women and Violence: the Agency of Victims and Perpetrators. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 145-161.
    For a few years in the 1980s, Andrea Dworkin’s Pornography: Men Possessing Women appeared to have changed the intellectual landscape – as well as some people’s lives. Pornography, she argued, not only constitutes violence against women; it constitutes also the main conduit for such violence, of which rape is at once the prime example and the central image. In short, it is patriarchy’s most powerful weapon. Given that, feminists’ single most important task is to deal with pornography. By the early (...)
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  13. Communitarianism: the practice of postmodern liberalism.Bob Brecher - 2006 - In Van der Pijl K.-G. Giesen & K. (ed.), Global Norms for the 21st Century. Cambridge Scholars Press. pp. 212-225.
    The chapter argues that communitarianism is the ‘postmodern bourgeois liberalism’ that Rorty, probably the leading avowedly epistemological, rather than political, or merely political, communitarian, describes himself as espousing. Proceeding by way of a detailed discussion of Philip Selznick’s definitive ‘Social Justice: a Communitarian Perspective’-- in which he seeks ‘to reaffirm, and to clarify if I can, the communitarian commitment to social justice’ -- I show that rooted in the particular as communitarianism is, it cannot but reflect the values, beliefs and (...)
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  14. Why torture is wrong.Bob Brecher - 2012 - In Brecher Bob (ed.), Contemporary Debates on Terrorism. Routledge. pp. 159-165.
    Even people who think torture is justified in certain circumstances regard it - to say the least - as undesirable, however necessary they think it is. So I approach the issue by analysing the extreme case where people such as Dershowitz, Posner and Walzer think torture is justified, the so-called ticking bomb scenario. And since the justification offered is always consequentialist - no one thinks that torture is in any way “good in itself” – I confine myself to consequentialist arguments. (...)
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  15. Understanding the holocaust-The uniqueness debate.Bob Brecher - 1999 - Radical Philosophy 96:17-28.
     
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  16. Interrogation, intelligence and ill-treatment: lessons from Northern Ireland, 1971-72.Bob Brecher & B. Stuart S. Newbery, P. Sands - 2009 - Intelligence and National Security 24 (5):631-643.
    In 2008, Samantha Newbery, then a PhD student, discovered a hitherto confidential document: ‘Confidential: UK Eyes Only. Annex A: Intelligence gained from interrogations in Northern Ireland’ (DEFE 13/958, The National Archives (TNA)). It details the British Army’s notorious interrogations of IRA suspects that led to the eventual banning of the ‘five techniques’ that violated the UK’s international treaty obligation prohibiting the use of torture and ‘inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’. Having decided that the document – Intelligence gained from should (...)
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  17. Descartes' causal argument for the existence of God.Bob Brecher - 1976 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 7 (3):418 - 432.
  18. Torture: a touchstone for global social justice.Bob Brecher - 2011 - In Widdows N. Smith & H. (ed.), Global Social Justice. Routledge. pp. 90-101.
    This chapter considers the wider significance of torture, addressing the manner in which it represents a touchstone for any universalistic morality, and arguing that it offers a means of refuting any moral relativism, something that ties in closely with my long-term theoretical work in metaethics (eg Getting What You Want? A Critique of Liberal Morality (Routledge: London and New York, 1998; and ongoing work around the ultimate justification of morality). Since torture consists in the erasure of a person on the (...)
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  19.  41
    Against Professional Ethics.Bob Brecher - 2004 - Philosophy of Management 4 (2):3-8.
    I argue that the current popularity of ‘ethics’ in general, and the extension of ‘professional ethics’ in particular, masks an increasingly unethical culture. Furthermore, attempts to codify ethics encourage a rule-governed approach, thus misunderstanding the nature of ethical practice and — whether or not inadvertently — serving to protect the professions from ethical considerations rather than the opposite.
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  20.  23
    Do intellectuals have a special public responsibility?Bob Brecher - 2004 - In Haldane WAiken & J. (ed.), Philosophy and its Public Role. Imprint Academic. pp. 25-38.
  21. 'In its own image': neo-liberalism and the managerialist university.Bob Brecher - 2006 - Prospero 12 (4):6-12.
    I argue that neo-liberalism requires a managerialist view of our universities; and to the extent that managerialism cannot be ameliorated, to that extent neo-liberalism signals the end of universities as places of learning. Rather than calling for “friendlier” management practice, we need to organise opposition by articulating and rallying around some vision of what the ends should be of the university, and which managing such an institution should therefore serve. Such a vision, whatever exactly its details might consist in, would (...)
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  22. The "ticking bomb": a spurious argument for torture.Bob Brecher - 2012 - Torture: Asian and Global Perspectives 1 (1):30-38.
    The so-called ticking bomb is invoked by philosophers and lawyers trying to justify, on behalf of their political masters, the use of torture in extremis. I show that the scenario is spurious; and that the likely consequences of the use of interrogational torture in such cases are disastrous. Finally, I test the argument against a real case.
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  23.  12
    The Consequences of Normalizing Interrogational Torture.Bob Brecher - 2007 - In Torture and the Ticking Bomb. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 40–74.
    This chapter contains section titled: Some Clarifications Three Positive Claims about the Consequences of Legalizing Interrogational Torture The Institutionalization of Interrogational Torture A Torturous Society.
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  24.  22
    Against charity: Some preliminary considerations.Bob Brecher - 2017 - Ethics and Bioethics (in Central Europe) 7 (1-2).
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  25. Alternative philosophies?Bob Brecher - 1973 - Radical Philosophy 4:35-36.
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  26.  47
    Complicity and modularization: how universities were made safe for the market.Bob Brecher - 2005 - Critical Quarterly 476 (1-2):77-82.
    Education has always occupied a contradictory position in society, expected to ensure compliance and continuity and yet to encourage critique and renewal. Since the early 1980s, however, successive UK governments have directly mobilised education, and higher education in particular, as an ideological tool in the task of embedding neo-liberalism as ‘common sense’. Modularisation has been in the vanguard, first in the universities, more latterly at secondary level. The effect has been disastrous: here as elsewhere, choice has become depressingly fetishised; knowledge, (...)
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  27.  25
    Discourses and Practices of Terrorism: Interrogating Terror.Bob Brecher, Mark Devenney & Aaron Winter (eds.) - 2010 - Routledge.
    Arising out of one of the annual conferences I organise as Director of the University’s Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics (see http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/research/cappe/) -- ‘Interrogating Terror’ – and from my work on the editorial board of Critical Studies on Terrorism, this collection is published in the Routledge Critical Terrorism Studies series and brings together theoretical and empirical material to challenge the notion that ‘terrorism’ and/or ‘terror’ are transparent, given or limited to non-state agents. Instead, it seeks to expose the (...)
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  28.  69
    Democracy and Social Justice.Bob Brecher - 2011 - Studies in Social Justice 5 (2):145-147.
  29. (1 other version)Holocaust.Bob Brecher - 2013 - In Hugh LaFollette (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Ethics. Hoboken, NJ: Blackwell.
     
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  30.  41
    In Defence of Reason.Bob Brecher - 1992 - The Personalist Forum 8 (1):35-40.
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  31.  28
    Instructions for authors.Bob Brecher - 1999 - Res Publica 5 (1):109-112.
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  32.  11
    Introduction.Bob Brecher - 2007 - In Torture and the Ticking Bomb. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 1–13.
    This chapter contains section titled: What is Torture? Dershowitz on Interrogational Torture Why Write about Torture? The Agenda.
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  33. Looking for the Good Life.Bob Brecher - 1993 - Radical Philosophy 65.
     
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  34.  16
    Moral Cognitivism: ‘Motivation’ and Agency.Bob Brecher - 2020 - Kritike 14 (2):37-53.
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  35.  49
    Moral Obligation and Everyday Advice.Bob Brecher - 2005 - South African Journal of Philosophy 24 (2):109-120.
    A major obstacle in the way of any rationalistic understanding of morality is that the moral ‘ought' obliges action: and on the (neo-)Humean view, action is thought to require affect. If, however, one could show that “ordinary” practical reasons are by themselves action-guiding, then moral reasons – a particular sort of practical reasons – also have no need of desire to “move” us to act. So how does the practical ‘ought' work? To answer that, we need to ask what exactly (...)
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  36.  17
    Morality, Professions and Ideals: A Response to Paul Griseri.Bob Brecher - 2005 - Philosophy of Management 5 (3):79-81.
    Paul Griseri’s generous response to my ‘Against Professional Ethics’1 offers an interesting point of view and there is much on which we agree. But we continue to differ about the nature of the primacy of morality, the possibility of a ‘general idea of professionalism’ and — perhaps — about Kant’s Categorical Imperative.
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  37. Narratives of Power: Demagogues, Politics and Morality at the Start of the 21st Century.Bob Brecher & Vicente Ordóñez - 2019 - Araucaria 21 (42).
    One way of characterising the present political conjuncture - worldwide, not just in Europe and North America - is to point to the rise to power of politicians best described as demagogues. Trump, Duterte, Putin, Modi, as well as the leaders of Europe's neo-fascist racists have in common not just certain policies and attitudes, but, significantly, a political style: that of the demagogue. Thinking through that term, ‘demagogue', is instructive in helping us to understand this phenomenon, no less historically than (...)
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  38.  25
    Paper four: How should we think about resource allocation?Bob Brecher - 1996 - Health Care Analysis 4 (1):37-40.
    What is immediately striking about the general problem of how to allocate resources equitably is that although the task cannot be done, it nevertheless requires to be done. Imperfection is the most we can hope for. But of course some instances of imperfection are considerably worse than others: and those evidenced in all too much of the thinking of medical specialists, whether in the current discussion concerning cancer care or, for instance, by those involved in the management of kidney transplants (...)
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  39.  11
    Proslogion II and III, A Third Interpretation of Anselm’s Argument.Bob Brecher - 1974 - Philosophical Studies (Dublin) 23:314-317.
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  40.  18
    Practical Reasoning: A Guide for the Perplexed: Katrien Schaubroeck: The Normativity of What We Care About: A Love-based Theory of Practical Reasons. Leuven University Press, Leuven, 2013, 207 pp.Bob Brecher - 2014 - Res Publica 20 (3):323-326.
    Despite its title, this is an extremely useful book: the first four of its five chapters expound the standard range of theories of practical reasoning more clearly and accurately than one might have thought possible. A measure of Schaubroeck’s authoritative handling of her material is her ability to navigate the peaks, troughs and crevasses of the myriad variations of ‘internalism’ and ‘externalism’ without inducing either vertigo or fury. Thus she patiently guides the reader through the stupefying obstacles along the route (...)
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  41.  56
    Reparation, responsibility and the memory game.Bob Brecher - 2006 - Res Publica 12 (2):213-221.
  42.  55
    Rorty through the looking-glass.Bob Brecher - 1997 - Res Publica 3 (1):105-114.
  43.  15
    (1 other version)Surrogacy, Liberal Individualism and the Moral Climate.Bob Brecher - 1987 - Royal Institute of Philosophy Lecture Series 22:183-197.
    I attempt in this paper to do two things: to offer some comments about recent discussions of the suggested institutionalization of surrogacy agreements; and in doing so, to draw attention to a range of considerations which liberals tend to omit from their moral assessments. The main link between these concerns is the idea that what people want is a fundamental justification (other things being equal, of course) for their getting it. I believe that this idea is profoundly mistaken; yet it (...)
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  44.  65
    Torture and its Apologists.Bob Brecher - 2005 - In Andrew I. Cohen & Christopher Heath Wellman (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 22--260.
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  45.  11
    Torture, Death and Philosophy.Bob Brecher - 2007 - In Torture and the Ticking Bomb. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 75–88.
    This chapter contains section titled: Torture Torture, Death and Interrogation Why No Decent Society Can Torture Torture, the “War on Terror” and Intellectual Irresponsibility But What if Torture Really is the Only Possible Way to Avoid Catast rophe? Two Final Points.
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  46.  58
    The moronic inferno.Bob Brecher - 1998 - Res Publica 4 (2):241-250.
  47.  19
    The new order of war.Bob Brecher - 2010 - New York: Rodopi.
    That much goes without saying. What is controversial, however, is how we might understand and respond to these new wars. This book offers a new approach.
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  48.  33
    The politics of humanism.Bob Brecher - 2006 - In Brecher Bob (ed.), D. Cummings (ed.) Debating Humanism. pp. 108-116.
    This chapter argues against Frank Furedi’s urging of a ‘pre-political’ humanism. Having considered the possible bases of appeals to "human nature" as a starting-point for political claims, I argue that, unless we already have a pre-existent non- or anti-humanist commitment, the movement in appeals to "human nature" is from our philosophical/political commitment to our view of it. But since that is precisely what the call for a pre-political humanism opposes, it founders on two difficulties. First, in what sense might a (...)
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  49.  27
    Weaponising Freedom of Speech: Gavan Titley: Is Free Speech Racist? Cambridge: Polity Press, 2020, 155 pp.Bob Brecher - 2020 - Res Publica 27 (1):151-154.
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  50.  35
    What would a socialist health service look like?Bob Brecher - 1997 - Health Care Analysis 5 (3):217-225.
    A socialist health service cannot be a socialist island in a sea of capitalism, as the record of the British National Health Service shows. Nonetheless, since health is a basic need, it can be a key component of the advocacy of socialism. I propose two central socialist principles. On the basis of these I suggest that a socialist health system would emphasise care rather than service; insist on democratic structures and control of resources; and require the prohibition of private medicine.
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