Suchergebnisse

In this chapter, Professor Dworkin compares judges to writers who are collaborating on the production of a collective work. Each of them, one after the other, contributes a chapter to the growing whole. At each stage the author has to take account of preceding chapters, doing his best to add to the work so that its best qualities are brought out. In the same way judges, in interpreting the body of legal rules and institutions, must place this corpus in its best light while adding to it.

Les juristes énoncent des propositions de droit. Quel en est le sens et quelles en sont les conditions de vérité ? Après avoir critiqué les réponses positivistes à ces questions, R.D. soutient que les propositions de droit sont des interprétations, dont l'objet est de justifier une pratique juridique existante. Elles sont vraies si elles présentent une bonne justification.

R.D. critique le positivisme juridique, spécialement dans la version de Hart. Selon cette théorie, le droit est un système de règles. Or, il comporte en réalité d'autres standards, notamment des principes. D'autre part, selon les positivistes, les juges doivent, en l'absence d'une règle applicable, trancher les litiges en usant de leur pouvoir discrétionnaire. En réalité, ils sont liés par les principes. R.D. examine alors de quelle manière les principes peuvent être et sont en fait appliqués.

Professor Narveson's comments about my papers on equality are both penetrating and comprehensive. I cannot hope to discuss all the issues he raises in any detail. But there is a special problem: his main question is about what I have not said. He asks how I might defend equality of resources other than simply by describing a version of it, and of course this question will require some extended discussion. But he is right to say that this is his most important question, and I should hate to lose the opportunity of encouraging discussion of it. So I shall begin with some general remarks about the defence of the idea of equality and then take up, in a very hasty and summary way, the other problems he discusses or raises. Please allow me, however, this apology and caution. I know that what I shall say about the defense of equality is at many points dogmatic and at others unmindful of very natural objections and replies. I want to answer Narveson only by showing in a rough and general way how far I think a defense of equality is possible, what kind of defense this can be, and what form it should take.

Two root concepts of equality are distinguished: equality of welfare & equality of resources. It is argued that once the various conceptions of welfare that might be adopted by the ideal of equality of welfare are distinguished, none furnishes an acceptable ideal. Modified AA.

A battle now rages in the U.S. between crony capitalism and capitalism, with the future of liberal democracy at stake. This book argues that capitalism can-and should-prevail, but to do so lawmakers must change direction and address core areas of instability in people's private lives that Karl Marx's ideas expose.

The medical profession now estimates that 116 million Americans suffer from chronic pain and merit some kind of treatment -- more than a third of the entire population. This number doesn't even include sufferers of acute pain, or children. Already eight million Americans use drugs to manage this pain, representing a tenfold increase in the last fifteen years. Pain that a generation ago would have been overlooked as a natural part of everyday life now has the attention of physicians, leading to an enormous increase in both narcotic and nonnarcotic prescriptions, with narcotics now representing the most widely prescribed class of medications in the U.S. Indeed, $600 billion is spent annually on the chronic pain problem. Adapted from the source document.

Once unheard of, the goal of early retirement is now ubiquitous across the income range. Indeed, the public employees pension system makes news not just because it risks insolvency, but because people working in the private sector are shocked to discover that public employees have a better chance at early retirement than they do. The numbers confirm the trend. From 1960 to 1990, the percentage of 62-year-old men in the U.S. labor force dropped from 75 to 55; among 58-year-old men from 83 to 72; and among 55-year-old men from 86 to 80. A similar trend has occurred among women. More telling is the change in people's goals. In 1941, three percent of American men preferred leisure to work; by 1982, that number had shot up to 48 percent. Europeans show a similar trend. True, the American experience may be reversing now because of the economic downturn. People will have to work longer. But this fact makes news precisely because it goes against people's expectations. Indeed, a story is unfolding in the West about the future of capitalism, one with two main characters, Karl Marx and medical science. Marx believed capitalism's days were numbered. He might have been right, had medical science not been there to rescue it. Adapted from the source document.

It is argued that the close relationship between religion & medicine will undermine religion. Drugs are being used to promote mental well-being & alternative medicine uses elements of medicine and religion. In a new phenomenon, doctors are suggesting that religion or spirituality is beneficial to people's physical health. Some people in organized religion are embracing this new alliance between religion & medicine. It is argued that when religion is connected to science, religion is less able to meet people's need to understand life's mysteries. In addition, people who become religious in order to promote their health do not fully internalize their religion or experience its full meaning. It is argued that science will undermine religion by looking at religion in a rational way, & by treating the existence of God as conjecture. Medical science will turn religion into an "altered perception," or a kind of trance or sensation. Science can also undermine religion by allowing people to look at their delusions, such as a belief in angels, as natural. Medicine also eliminates the communal elements of religion. An alliance between medicine & religion will eliminate religion's role as a guardian of bioethics. It is argued that an alliance with medicine will weaken religion's view of all life as innately valuable. H. Ramer

Religion ist eine von Gott unabhängige spezifische Weltsicht. Unendlichkeit, Schönheit und Erhabenheit des Universums sind "göttliche" Erfahrungen. Hinter dem Fragen nach dem richtigen Leben steckt ein dem Kosmos innewohnendes moralisches Wertesystem. Religionsfreiheit als rechtliches Problem. (Dieter Altmeyer)