The Not-So-Prolife Leviathan
In an article that appeared in American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Kody Cooper argued that "to be a Hobbesian is to be prolife." In this essay, I will provide an argument that rebuts Cooper's prolife interpretation of Hobbes. First, I will argue that Cooper has, without argumen...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Philosophy Documentation Center
[2020]
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| In: |
American catholic philosophical quarterly
Year: 2020, Volume: 94, Issue: 4, Pages: 597-610 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | In an article that appeared in American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Kody Cooper argued that "to be a Hobbesian is to be prolife." In this essay, I will provide an argument that rebuts Cooper's prolife interpretation of Hobbes. First, I will argue that Cooper has, without argument, committed an equivocation between a person's personal identity and his or her organism. Resolving this ambiguity would allow for an interpretation of Hobbes that can consistently reject the notion that the life of a person "begins at conception." Second, I will show that Cooper fails to take into account the significant costs that are placed upon prospective mothers and is therefore not able to judge whether or not aborting a fetus is within a mother's enlightened self-interest. Third, I will, contrary to Cooper, show why it may be acceptable for a Hobbesian sovereign to construct a legal regime that is permissive of abortion. |
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| ISSN: | 2153-8441 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American catholic philosophical quarterly
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.5840/acpq202098207 |