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Mathew Lu [13]Mathew T. Lu [1]
  1. Explaining the Wrongness of Cannibalism.Mathew Lu - 2013 - American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 87 (3):433-458.
    In this paper I take up the claims of a number of recent commentators who have argued that there is no rational basis for a moral judgment against cannibalism because no successful argument against it can be articulated within the dominant consequentialist or neo-Kantian deontological approaches in normative ethics. While I think cannibalism is clearly morally repugnant, it is surprisingly difficult to explain why. I argue not only that a rational justification of the moral wrongness of cannibalism can be given (...)
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  2. Aristotle on Abortion and Infanticide.Mathew Lu - 2013 - International Philosophical Quarterly 53 (1):47-62.
    Some recent commentators have thought that, if updated with the findings of modern embryology, Aristotle’s views on abortion would yield a pro-life conclusion. On the basis of a careful reading of the relevant passage from Politics VII, I argue that the matter is more complicated than simply replacing his defective empirical embryological claims with our more accurate ones. Since Aristotle’s view on abortion was shaped not only by a defective embryology but also by an acceptance of the classical Greek practice (...)
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  3. The Ontogenesis of the Human Person: A Neo-Aristotelian View.Mathew Lu - 2013 - University of St. Thomas Journal of Law and Public Policy 8 (1):96-116.
    In this paper I examine the question of when human life begins from a neo-Aristotelian perspective. In my view, the basic principles of Aristotle’s metaphysics inform an account of human life (and the human person) that offers the best available explanation of the available phenomena. This account – the substance account of the human person – can fully incorporate the contemporary findings of empirical embryology, while also recognizing the essential uniqueness of rational human nature.
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  4. Defusing Thomson's Violinist Analogy.Mathew Lu - 2013 - Human Life Review 39 (1):46-62.
    In this paper I take a critical look at Judith Jarvis Thomson famous violinist analogy for abortion. I argue that while the violinist example does show that a right to life does not entail a right to be given the means of life, the violinist cast is relevantly different from the pregnancy case. I also argue that Thomson's positive argument in favor of the permissibility of abortion fails because it is based on a false conception of bodily self-ownsership. Finally, I (...)
     
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  5. Abortion and Virtue Ethics.Mathew Lu - 2011 - In Stephen Napier (ed.), Persons, Moral Worth, and Embryos: A Critical Analysis of Pro-Choice Arguments. Springer.
    In this paper I discuss what contemporary virtue ethics can say about abortion by considering both what has been said and what we may further argue from a virtue-focused perspective. I begin by comparing virtue ethics to the two other dominant approaches in normative ethics and then consider what some important virtue ethicists have said about abortion, especially Rosalind Hursthouse. After recognizing the many contributions her analysis offers, I also note some of the deficiencies in her approach, particularly in her (...)
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  6.  52
    Contraception, Abortion, and the Corruption of Medicine.Mathew Lu - 2013 - The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 13 (4):625-633.
    The Obama administration’s HHS mandate to force Catholic and other religious organizations to provide insurance coverage for morally objectionable practices has been the source of a great deal of controversy. While the religious liberty question has received the most attention, the mandate reveals a yet deeper problem in the mainstream acceptance of contraception and even abortion as a normal part of medical practice. The author argues that these practices constitute a deep corruption of medicine itself, away from its original meaning (...)
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  7. Embryology: Medieval and Modern.Mathew Lu - 2014 - Human Life Review 40 (2):35-48.
    Over the last several decades many abortion advocates have attempted to spread confusion and doubt concerning the beginnings of human life. A particularly cynical strategy has involved invoking the authority historical thinkers, especially Doctors of the Church, to support the claim that (at least) early abortion does not constitute homicide because the early embryo is not yet fully human. Anyone familiar with context of these historical thinkers should realize that their specific judgments regarding abortion are now obsolete in virtue of (...)
     
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  8.  15
    Getting Serious about Seriousness: On the Meaning of Spoudaios in Aristotle’s Ethics.Mathew Lu - 2013 - Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 87:285-293.
    In the following paper I discuss the under-appreciated role that the concept of the morally serious person plays in Aristotle’s moral philosophy. I argue that the conventional English rendering of spoudaios as “good” has a tendency to cut us off from important nuances in Aristotle’s consideration of the virtuous person. After discussing aspects of his use of the concept in the Nicomachean Ethics and the Politics I dismiss a misunderstanding of seriousness as a kind of morally indifferent personality trait. I (...)
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  9.  65
    Hexis within Aristotelian Virtue Ethics.Mathew T. Lu - 2014 - Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 88:197-206.
    In Book II, Chapter 5 of the Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle famously identifies the virtues as hexeis. Like so many Greek philosophical terms of art, hexis admits of many translations; recent scholarly choices have included “habit,” “disposition,” “state,” “active condition.” In this paper, I argue that some of these translations have tended to obscure the active and causal role that hexeis play in Aristotle’s theory of moral action. This, in turn, has led at least some critics to misunderstand the Aristotelian virtue (...)
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  10.  49
    Universalism, Particularism, and Subjectivity—Dietrich von Hildebrand’s Concept of Eigenleben and Modern Moral Philosophy.Mathew Lu - 2013 - Quaestiones Disputatae 3 (2):181-190.
    Modern philosophers tends to regard morality as intrinsically universalist, embracing universal norms that apply formally to each moral agent qua moral agent, independent of particularities such as familial relationships or membership in a specific community. At the same time, however, most of us think (and certainly act as if) those particularist properties play a significant and legitimate role in our moral lives. Accordingly, determining the proper relationship of these two spheres of the moral life is of great importance, but a (...)
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  11.  29
    Action and Character According to Aristotle: The Logic of the Moral Life. By Kevin L. Flannery, SJ. [REVIEW]Mathew Lu - 2015 - American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 89 (4):727-729.
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  12.  24
    Review of Aquinas on the Beginning and Ending of Human Life. By Fabrizio Amerini. Translated by Mark Henninger. [REVIEW]Mathew Lu - 2014 - American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 88 (3):595-598.
  13.  47
    God, Philosophy, Universities. [REVIEW]Mathew Lu - 2010 - American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 84 (3):638-640.
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  14.  33
    The Nature of Love. By Dietrich von Hildebrand. Translated by John F. Crosby with John Henry Crosby. [REVIEW]Mathew Lu & Rachel Lu - 2012 - American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 86 (4):744-746.
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