Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Bernard Williams, St John and Jonathan Swift

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     choose another area for these philosophers

display all the ideas for this combination of philosophers


6 ideas

25. Social Practice / B. Equalities / 1. Grounds of equality
Equality seems to require that each person be acknowledged as having a significant point of view [Williams,B]
     Full Idea: Equality seems to require that each person is owed an effort at identification; they should not be seen as a surface to which a label can be applied, but one should try to see the world (including the label) from their point of view.
     From: Bernard Williams (The Idea of Equality [1962], §2)
Equality implies that people are alike in potential as well as in needs [Williams,B]
     Full Idea: Supporters of equality have asserted that people are alike in certain things they could do or achieve, as well as in the things that they need and could suffer.
     From: Bernard Williams (The Idea of Equality [1962], §2)
25. Social Practice / B. Equalities / 4. Economic equality
It is a mark of extreme exploitation that the sufferers do not realise their plight [Williams,B]
     Full Idea: It is a mark of extreme exploitation or degradation that those who suffer it do NOT see themselves differently from the way they are seen by the exploiters.
     From: Bernard Williams (The Idea of Equality [1962], §2)
25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / a. Aims of education
It is a mark of our having ethical values that we aim to reproduce them in our children [Williams,B]
     Full Idea: It is a mark of our having ethical values that we aim to reproduce them in our children.
     From: Bernard Williams (Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy [1985], Ch. 9)
     A reaction: Maybe beliefs imply education. A commitment to truth is an aspiration that others will agree, especially those over whom we have the greatest influence.
25. Social Practice / F. Life Issues / 3. Abortion
Most women see an early miscarriage and a late stillbirth as being very different in character [Williams,B]
     Full Idea: Few women see a spontaneous abortion or early miscarriage as the same thing as having a child who is stillborn or who dies very soon after birth.
     From: Bernard Williams (Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy [1985], Ch. 6)
     A reaction: This implies a theory about the nature of what is lost. Everyone sees the difference between potential and actual.
25. Social Practice / F. Life Issues / 6. Animal Rights
Speciesism isn't like racism, because the former implies a viewpoint which belongs to no one [Williams,B]
     Full Idea: Speciesism is falsely modelled on racism and sexism, which really are prejudices; ..our arguments have to be founded on the human point of view; they cannot be derived from a point of view that is no one's point of view at all.
     From: Bernard Williams (Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy [1985], Ch. 6)
     A reaction: This must be wrong. How else are we going to judge cruelty to animals as wrong? The 'point of view of the Universe' (Sidgwick) is not an empty concept.