Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality

Published Date: August 19, 1993 | Topics: Civil Rights and Liberties, Natural Law, Philosophy

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Contemporary liberal thinkers commonly suppose that there is something in principle unjust about the legal prohibition of putatively victimless crimes. Here Robert P. George defends the traditional justification of morals legislation against criticisms advanced by leading liberal theorists. He argues that such legislation can play a legitimate role in maintaining a moral environment conducive to virtue and inhospitable to at least some forms of vice. Among the liberal critics of morals legislation whose views George considers are Ronald Dworkin, Jeremy Waldron, David A.J. Richards, and Joseph Raz. He also considers the influential modern justification for morals legislation offered by Patrick Devlin as an alternative to the traditional approach. George closes with a sketch of a “pluralistic perfectionist” theory of civil liberties and public morality, showing that it is fully compatible with a defense of morals legislation. Making Men Moral will interest legal scholars and political theorists as well as theologians and philosophers focusing on questions of social justice and political morality.

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Mind, Heart, and Soul: Intellectuals and the Path to Rome

Published Date: October 31, 2018 | Co Authors: R.J. Snell | Topics: Philosophy, Religion

In a series of fascinating interviews, a cradle Catholic (Robert P. George) and an adult convert (R. J. Snell), offer the stories of sixteen converts, each a public intellectual or leading voice in their respective fields, and each making a significant contribution to the life of the Church. Mind, Heart, and Soul is a Surprised […]

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Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics

Published Date: November 5, 2007 | Co Authors: Patrick Lee | Topics: Philosophy, Politics and Current Affairs

Profoundly important ethical and political controversies turn on the question of whether biological life is an essential aspect of a human person, or only an extrinsic instrument. Lee and George argue that human beings are physical, animal organisms – albeit essentially rational and free – and examine the implications of this understanding of human beings […]

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