Nussbaum's 'Overlapping Consensus'

The end of World War II catalyzed the start of an age of political accord in the United States. This accord, dubbed the "liberal consensus," took shape with three core beliefs: first, that economic growth would solve all social problems; second, that Washington had an obligation to prevent the spread of communism; finally, that empowering marginalized groups would spur pluralism and maintain a healthy democracy. For almost two decades, the baby boom, the Red Scare, the early civil rights movement, and the Kennedy Presidency reinforced public support for the consensus. Yet the conflicts of the 1960s - the Vietnam War, widespread American poverty, and domestic racial tension - planted seeds of dissent.

The first essential question Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck ask is “how do they view human nature?” (Obilade 2008).

A. Recognising a person’s strengths and abilities encourages independence and gives the person confidence in themselves. Encouragement to use these strengths and abilities also gives the person a feeling of control over their own lives which in turn encourages self-belief and confidence.

The good of an “individual nonhuman organism” is realized to the extent that it is “strong and healthy” (Taylor 103). An entity is said to be “strong and healthy” to Taylor if it “possesses

The preliminary point into an inquiry of distributive justice is to disconnect the conjunction of “distributive,” and “justice”. For the purpose of this essay, I will inherit and accept John Rawls explanation of justice from A Theory of Justice. “Justice,” according to Rawls, “is the first virtue of social institutions.” Therefore, from a societal perspective, justice as the first virtue negates the utilitarian maxim that a loss of freedom for one would be acceptable if there was a greater good to be shared by others. In a truly just society, all people are treated fair. The questions of individual liberties are taken as settled. In the just society, liberty, rights, and fairness are not subject to a utilitarian calculation nor are they susceptible to political bargaining.

To clarify, the “human condition” is an ambiguous term used to describe the foundational aspects of humanity, both the instinctive traits, which all animals have, and the further-evolved or uniquely-human traits, which set us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. To illustrate my purpose, I will focus on the both aspects, since both prevent us from thinking logically and acting objectively.

| B. the ability to express viewpoints other than their own and to think critically

To examine this possibility, Garreau interviewed Nick Bostrom, co-founder of the World Transhumanist Association. Bostrom shows his agreement with human transcendence by asserting that “Technological progress makes it harder for people to ignore the fact that we might actually change the human nature” (qtd. in Garreau, 242).

Sen considers something a universal value if "people anywhere may have reason to see it as valuable" (6). Some people have argued that democracy is not a universal value because not everyone agrees that democracy is valuable and important. However, according to Sen, complete, unanimous approval by all people is not needed for something to be considered a universal value. Using this definition Sen successfully defends his claim that democracy is a universal value, despite the fact that some people may not agree on the value of democracy.

“enhancing self-awareness, recognizing values of ‘congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathic understanding’, self-responsibility, understanding one’s feelings, awareness of one’s own perspective, being open to experience, being rational, living a fuller life, positive life-direction, acceptance of one’s and other’s uniqueness, prizing one and others, and living a moral and ethical life” (pg. 343).

In his article “All Animals Are Equal,” Peter Singer discusses the widely-held belief that, generally speaking, there is no more inequality in the world, because all groups of formerly oppressed humans are now liberated. However, it often goes without notice that there are groups of nonhuman animals that continue to face unequal treatment, such as those that are consumed or used as scientific test subjects. Singer’s article criticizes the belief that because humans are generally more intelligent than nonhuman animals, then all humans are superior to all nonhuman animals. Singer argues that intelligence is an arbitrary trait to base the separation of humans and nonhumans, and declares that the only trait that one can logically base moral value is the capacity to have interests, which is determined by a creature’s ability to suffer. Singer explains that in order to stay consistent with the basic principle of equality, anything that has the capacity to suffer ought to have its needs and interests recognized, just as humans’ needs and interests are currently recognized through what he calls “equal consideration.” In this paper, I will explain Singer’s notion of equal consideration as the only relevant sense of equality and why it applies to the rights of both human and nonhuman species that are

Therefore, the restrictions on the particular knowledge in the original position are of fundamental importance (Rawls, 1971). Without the original position, the parties involved would not be able to work out any definite principles of justice (Rawls, 1971). The society who does not enact a social contract from the original position would then have to be content with a vague understanding of justice and therefore have very little substance to the agreement itself (Rawls, 1971). The veil of ignorance makes it possible to have a unanimous choice of a particular conception of justice (Rawls,

The author’s personal strengths are compassion, fairness, kindness, integrity, gratitude and open mindedness. These personal

Sen considers something a universal value if "people anywhere may have reason to see it as valuable" (6). Some people have argued that democracy is not a universal value because not everyone agrees that democracy is valuable and important. However, according to Sen, complete, unanimous approval by all people is not needed for something to be considered a universal value. Using this definition Sen successfully defends his claim that democracy is a universal value, despite the fact that some people may not agree on the value of democracy.

Abstract: Which political and juridical foundation can justify the transit from the Western, particular, to the universal? John Rawls tries to answer this question in his article, "The Law of Peoples," proposing a kind of contract or agreement. A first agreement should be attained among liberal-democratic societies on a few political and social issues such as human rights. Then this agreement can be widened to non-liberal/democratic but well organized hierarchical societies or those that satisfy the requisites of being peaceful, of having a reasonably well organized legal system, of admitting a measure of freedom-political and religious-and of admitting the right of emigration. These two