In this paper, we consider three arguments for the irrelevance of the doctrine of double effect in end-of-life decision making. The third argument is our own and, to that extent, we seek to defend it. The first argument is that end-of-life decisions do not in fact shorten lives and that therefore there is no need for the doctrine in justification of these decisions. We reject this argument; som...

The doctrine that Christ is really present in the Eucharist appears to entail that Christ’s body is not only multiply located but present in different ways at different locations. Moreover, the doctrine poses an even more difficult metaquestion: what makes a theological explanation of the Eucharist a ‘real presence’ account? Aquinas’s defence of transubstantiation, perhaps the paradigmatic acco...

While the updating of U.S. Army counterinsurgency (COIN) doctrine is long overdue, its imminent arrival is cause for celebration. The reality, however, is that the military doctrine won’t fully address two challenges that remain critical for its ultimate success. One—altering approaches to risk–confronts an inhospitable politico-military culture and institutional history. The other key issue— t...

Basic doctrine about airpower should begin with an identification of the inherent and fundamental characteristics of air forces. Doctrine then spells out the implications of these fundamental characteristics for military strategy and operations. The fundamental characteristic of air forces is that their basic items of equipment (aircraft) operate in the medium of the air. As stated in the Air F...

At the turn of the last century, allies of industry on the Supreme Court deployed a novel constitutional doctrine to thwart government regulations aimed at improving public health and safety. During the Lochner v. New York era, the Supreme Court discovered a right to “freedom of contract” in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment that advanced the “economic liberty” of businesses to...

DOES EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY follow Karl Popper's "logic of scientific discovery", advancing through falsification and refutation?' Or does it progress through puzzle-solving within a paradigm, as Thomas Kuhn characterized the "psychology of research"?2 The case of Lotze's critique of Miller's doctrine of specific sense energies supports the Kuhn thesis. Even though Lotze's logical criteria did...

I defend the Doctrine of Doing and Allowing: the claim that doing harm is harder to justify than merely allowing harm. A thing does not genuinely belong to a person unless he has special authority over it. The Doctrine of Doing and Allowing protects us against harmful imposition – against the actions or needs of another intruding on what is ours. This protection is necessary for something to ge...

‘The Doctrine of Signatures’ started with the idea that God has marked everything he created with a sign (signature). The sign showed the purpose for the creation of the item. The ‘Doctrine of Signatures’ was promulgated by the writings of Jakob Böhme (1575–1624), a shoemaker in Görlitz, Germany, who had a profound mystical vision in which he saw a relationship between God and man that caused h...

The doctrine of double effect, together with other moral principles that appeal to the intentions of moral agents, has come under attack from many directions in recent years, as have a variety of rationales that have been given in favor of it. In this paper, our aim is to develop, defend, and provide a new theoretical rationale for a secular version of the doctrine. Following Quinn (1989), we d...