Academic Papers by Joshua W Schulz
Integral Human Development: Catholic Social Teaching and the Capability Approach, eds. Deneulin and Sedmack, 2023
In this chapter I compare Martha Nussbaum's "intuitive" account
of dignity with Catholic Social T... more In this chapter I compare Martha Nussbaum's "intuitive" account
of dignity with Catholic Social Teaching's" participative" account,
highlighting their implications for thinking about the nature of
practical reason, community, and the demands of social justice.
Catholic Social Teaching articulates a metaphysical and theological
account in which human dignity flows from our participation in
three pre-political, "Leonine" societies. In this model, the family and
civil society are natural developments of human sociality, implying
pre-political norms for practical reason. In contrast, consistent
with the anti-metaphysical methodological constraints of political
liberalism, Nussbaum expresses a political account of dignity rooted
in the vulnerabilities and needs of the human species. Using this
model, she articulates a "liberal-egalitarian" model of community that regards families and states as political artifacts designed to lift
individuals out of the dangers and injustices of a Rawlsian state of
nature. Throughout the chapter, I explore convergences and divergences
regarding who counts as a primary subject of justice and the
role of communities in supporting several central human capabilities,
especially practical reason and affiliation.
Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, 2018
In 1947, Jacques Maritain argued before the UN that “men mutually opposed in their theoretical co... more In 1947, Jacques Maritain argued before the UN that “men mutually opposed in their theoretical conceptions can come to a merely practical agreement regarding a list of human rights.” Maritain justified this thesis using a progressive theory of the natural law which rests on a distinction between the natural law as operative in human nature and the natural law as known and articulated. Drawing on Maritain’s 1951 Man and the State, this essay defends a MacIntyrian reading of Maritain’s thesis and its plausibility against four objections from Ralph McInerny, Charles Taylor, and Alasdair MacIntyre himself.
Health Care Ethics USA, 2020
This paper argues that principle-based approaches to clinical bioethics are ill-prepared to deal ... more This paper argues that principle-based approaches to clinical bioethics are ill-prepared to deal with the kinds of problems posed by AI-driven predictive medicine. We begin with a distinction between analog and digital medicine, arguing that developments in the nature and scope of data-gathering in the digital age entail a difference in ends. While analog medicine focused on the diagnosis and treatment of disease states, digital medicine will focus on disease prediction, risk-management, and behavioral optimization. This will allow for major breakthroughs in the treatment of short and long-tail risks, as well as changes in how we think about medical management, as evidenced by the growth of interventional microtransactions in insurance markets. We will argue that the ethical issues raised by these changes mirror recent debates about statins, since an emphasis on the medical management of risk factors for asymptomatic, primary-prevention targets raises worries both about the medicalization of daily life and about which ethical models are best equipped to think about these concerns. We argue that such worries are not best addressed by principle-based approaches to ethics, which focus on discrete acts and events, because the questions raised by predictive analytics are more holistic and teleological, such as, “Given my particular set of environmental, genomic, and lifestyle risk factors, what habits and lifestyle choices are most conducive to living a long, satisfying, and flourishing life?” Questions such as these are traditionally articulated within virtue ethics. However, we also suggest that current disputes in virtue ethics point to radically different ways of asking and answering the questions posed by the rise of predictive medicine.
On January 3, 2019, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the body responsible fo... more On January 3, 2019, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the body responsible for issuing official interpretations of Catholic doctrine, issued a statement addressing whether a woman could morally undergo a hysterectomy to avoid serial miscarriages if her uterus were incapable of sustaining a child until viability. Call this the Deborah Case. While the Catholic Church has long taught that deliberate sterilizations are immoral, here the CDF stated that Deborah’s hysterectomy is permissible because it does not constitute sterilization. We believe the CDF’s conclusion and line of argumentation are both mistaken. According to the Principle of Totality (TPot)—a central principle of Catholic bioethics—Deborah’s hysterectomy must be classified as therapeutic, enhancing, mutilatory, or manipulation, depending on its effect on her fertility. While the CDF argues the procedure is a mere manipulation, and therefore permissible, we argue that a standard application of TPot should classify it as mutilatory, and therefore impermissible. Furthermore, we show how the CDF’s mistake follows from several logical errors in their argument. For instance, even if it is true, ex hypothesi, that one cannot sterilize an already sterile uterus, it does not follow that the removal of the uterus does not sterilize the woman. Deborah is capable of conceiving a child regardless of whether her uterus is fully functional, partially functional (able to carry a pregnancy for some time, but not to viability), or even totally non-functional (unable to carry a pregnancy to viability). Since the proposed hysterectomy seeks to make impossible what is presently possible—conceiving a child—it must therefore constitute a direct sterilization. Ultimately, the CDF’s argument commits the fallacy of composition. Finally, we offer and defend a more straightforward interpretation of Deborah’s case, arguing that while Deborah’s case certainly constitutes a tragic, chronic condition, spiritual counseling and training in natural family planning are recommended (as the CDF indicated under the guidance of Cardinal Ratzinger), as a hysterectomy is not medically indicated in this case.
This paper investigates the influence of Jacques Maritain on the political theory of Martha Nussb... more This paper investigates the influence of Jacques Maritain on the political theory of Martha Nussbaum and Alasdair MacIntyre. For Nussbaum, Maritain's minimal account of natural law and his articulation of a 'democratic charter' of political rights is especially important, while MacIntyre seems to be influenced by Maritain's account of the priority of social practice over philosophical theorizing and by the way in which Maritain's gnosiological account of natural law grounds his historically-sensitive, dialectical account of moral progress within the natural law tradition.
A hypocrite is a habitual liar who intentionally deceives others by means of his behavior. In add... more A hypocrite is a habitual liar who intentionally deceives others by means of his behavior. In addition to being intrinsically evil, hypocrisy often leads to scandal, causing others to lose their faith—perhaps justifiably—for two reasons. The first forms the basis of Arguments to Absurdity, which contend, on the basis of the principle that ought-implies-can, that hypocrisy is defeasible evidence of the irrationality of a doctrine or practice. The second generates Arguments from Betrayal. On the basis of an “extended” or communitarian view of the self, these arguments contend that religious hypocrisy confronts believers with a tragic dilemma: that because religious loyalty is justified by the goodness of its object, hypocrisy requires us to sacrifice either our humanity (to remain loyal) or our character and identity (by abandoning our loyalty or faith). After articulating these arguments, this paper evaluates their cogency on both philosophical and theological grounds.
This essay articulates and defends Aristotle’s argument in Politics 7.4 that there is a rational ... more This essay articulates and defends Aristotle’s argument in Politics 7.4 that there is a rational limit to the size of the political community. Aristotle argues that size can negatively affect the ability of an organized being to attain its proper end. After examining the metaphysical grounds for this principle in both natural beings and artifacts, we defend Aristotle’s extension of the principle to the polis. He argues that the state is in the relevant sense an organism, one whose primary end is to make good reasons available to individuals and promote them as choiceworthy. The size of a polis can affect its ability to perform this function, since growth promotes anonymity among citizens, which in turn frustrates the familiarity between citizens required for the exercise of distributive and restorative justice as well as political prudence. This paper suggests several ways in which Aristotle’s argument, if sound, is important for contemporary issues in moral psychology, Ralwsian political philosophy, and big data analytics.
This essay brings Martha Nussbaum's politically liberal version of the Capabilities Approach (CA)... more This essay brings Martha Nussbaum's politically liberal version of the Capabilities Approach (CA) to human development into critical dialogue with the Catholic Social Tradition (CST). Like CST, Nussbaum's focus on embodiment, dependence and dignity entails a social use of property which privileges marginalized people, and both theories explain the underdevelopment of central human capabilities in social rather than exclusively material terms. Whereas CST is metaphysically and theologically " thick, " however, CA is " thin " : its proponents positively eschew metaphysical commitments, believing a commitment to quasi-Rawlsian " overlapping consensus " is more consistent with political liberalism. This creates two tensions between CA and CST. The first is that CST understands the internal virtues of essentially social practices to be inseparable from their concrete instantiation in actual communities, while CA sometimes describes these virtues as political entitlements which can be supported independently of the comprehensive doctrines of particular communities. We argue, therefore, that CA's commitment to political liberalism tends to 'crowd out' particular conceptions of the good, such as those found in CST. Second, because CST recognizes a plurality of spiritual purposes of property that CA does not, including promotion of what Pope Benedict XVI calls the " logic of gift, " from the perspective of CST, CA will tend to be motivationally deficient in ways that negatively impact human development.
This essay explores the degree to which the "Principle of Totality" (TPoT) non-univocally guides ... more This essay explores the degree to which the "Principle of Totality" (TPoT) non-univocally guides our use of both artifacts and bodies. We argue that a careful analysis of these distinct kinds of totalities suggests the application of TPoT to artifacts and bodies is strongly isomorphic, which is what tempts advocates of the Principle of Autonomy to invalidly infer the absolute dominium of the individual over her body. The inference is invalid because this isomorphism also includes a principle of intrinsic value whose function is sometimes to resist the instrumentalization of both artifacts and bodies. Thus, we are not even related to artifacts as advocates of absolute autonomy believe we are, let alone to our bodies. We argue the limits of human dominium are determined by the nature and finalities, inherent or acquired, of the objects in question, and it will be argued that articulating these limits raises important and understudied questions about the permissibility of various kinds of human enhancement.
Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association
Howard Curzer argues that Aristotle's virtue of wit is a social virtue, a form of philia: convers... more Howard Curzer argues that Aristotle's virtue of wit is a social virtue, a form of philia: conversation with a witty person is pleasing rather than offensive or hateful. On the basis of an analogy between wit and temperance, Curzer holds that the witty person is good at detecting (and avoiding) hateful humor but is not necessarily an expert in judging the funniness of jokes. Curzer thus defends a moderate position in contemporary philosophy of humor-a Detraction Account of hateful humor-arguing that the humorousness of a joke is an aggregate pleasure resulting from several factors in addition to funniness. While sympathetic to Curzer's overall approach to wit, this essay criticizes the Detraction Account as inconsistent with Aristotle's text and implausible in its own right, and suggests a friendly amendment based on those criticisms.
is essay examines a dialogue between Kierkegaard and the Aristotelian tradition on the topic of l... more is essay examines a dialogue between Kierkegaard and the Aristotelian tradition on the topic of love and friendship. At stake in the dispute is whether philia or agape is the highest form of love and how we should understand the relation between the two loves. e essay contributes to the conversation by analyzing two kinds of deceptive love identi ed in Kierkegaard's Works of Love, viewing each through the lens of a Shakespearian persona. Against the Aristotelian tradition, Kierkegaard defends the idiosyncratic view that Hamlet's Ophelia is a villain and King Lear's Cordelia is happy. Central to Kierkegaard's argument is the contention that agape requires an epistemic attitude of charitable presumption towards one's neighbor despite the possibility of error, an attitude found in Cordelia but not in Ophelia. e essay contrasts this omistic attitude with its Cartesian counterpart as well as their consequences for moral and religious life.
Kant's discussion of radical evil and moral regeneration in Religion Within the Bounds of Reason ... more Kant's discussion of radical evil and moral regeneration in Religion Within the Bounds of Reason Alone raises numerous moral and metaphysical problems. If the ground of one's disposition does not lie in time, as Kant argues, how can it be reformed, as the moral law commands? If divine aid is necessary for this impossible reformation, how does this not destroy a person's moral personality by bypassing her freedom? Th is paper argues that these problems can be resolved by showing how Kant can conceive the moral law itself as kind of grace which, willed properly, makes moral regeneration possible without destroying the autonomy of the individual.
Immanuel Kant offers definitions of "sexual desire" and "sexual use" in the Metaphysics of Morals... more Immanuel Kant offers definitions of "sexual desire" and "sexual use" in the Metaphysics of Morals that occasion an inconsistency within his moral system, for they entail that sexual desire, as a natural inclination that is conditionally good, is also categorically objectifying, and thus per se immoral according to the second formulation of the Categorical Imperative. Following Alan Soble, various attempts to resolve the inconsistency are here criticized before more suitable, and suitably Kantian, definitions of these terms are offered. It is argued that these new definitions resolve the inconsistency.
Popular Publications by Joshua W Schulz
Contrary to arguments by Justice Kennedy, this essay argues that while marriage is ennobling, thi... more Contrary to arguments by Justice Kennedy, this essay argues that while marriage is ennobling, this is not the “whole purpose of marriage,” nor is the bestowal of dignity on marriage arbitrary, as if it ennobled an otherwise neutral institution. Rather, the bestowal of dignity is predicated on vows that both capacitate and ground the dignity of married life, and which therefore govern the just distribution of marriage.
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Academic Papers by Joshua W Schulz
of dignity with Catholic Social Teaching's" participative" account,
highlighting their implications for thinking about the nature of
practical reason, community, and the demands of social justice.
Catholic Social Teaching articulates a metaphysical and theological
account in which human dignity flows from our participation in
three pre-political, "Leonine" societies. In this model, the family and
civil society are natural developments of human sociality, implying
pre-political norms for practical reason. In contrast, consistent
with the anti-metaphysical methodological constraints of political
liberalism, Nussbaum expresses a political account of dignity rooted
in the vulnerabilities and needs of the human species. Using this
model, she articulates a "liberal-egalitarian" model of community that regards families and states as political artifacts designed to lift
individuals out of the dangers and injustices of a Rawlsian state of
nature. Throughout the chapter, I explore convergences and divergences
regarding who counts as a primary subject of justice and the
role of communities in supporting several central human capabilities,
especially practical reason and affiliation.
Popular Publications by Joshua W Schulz
of dignity with Catholic Social Teaching's" participative" account,
highlighting their implications for thinking about the nature of
practical reason, community, and the demands of social justice.
Catholic Social Teaching articulates a metaphysical and theological
account in which human dignity flows from our participation in
three pre-political, "Leonine" societies. In this model, the family and
civil society are natural developments of human sociality, implying
pre-political norms for practical reason. In contrast, consistent
with the anti-metaphysical methodological constraints of political
liberalism, Nussbaum expresses a political account of dignity rooted
in the vulnerabilities and needs of the human species. Using this
model, she articulates a "liberal-egalitarian" model of community that regards families and states as political artifacts designed to lift
individuals out of the dangers and injustices of a Rawlsian state of
nature. Throughout the chapter, I explore convergences and divergences
regarding who counts as a primary subject of justice and the
role of communities in supporting several central human capabilities,
especially practical reason and affiliation.