Joshua Shaw
Biographic Data
| ID | 3873384 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Joshua Shaw |
| GIVEN NAMES | Joshua |
| FAMILY NAME | Shaw |
| SIGNATURE | SHAW J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Pennsylvania State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8687-5013 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
The Stability Problem and Moral Fictionalism
Artificial Wombs, Surplus Embryos, and Parent-Friendly IVF
Is It a Wonderful Life? Frank Capra and Objective List Theories of Worth
Aaron Smuts argues that the holiday film It's a Wonderful Life should be understood as both an illustration and a cinematic vindication of objective list theories of worth. This article argues that he is right about the first point but wrong about the second. It's a Wonderful Life is an excellent illustration of objective list theories. However, it also exposes a problem for them – their susceptibility to sceptical anxieties about whether we can …
Why I am still not convinced heartbeat bills are defensible
Thank you for inviting me to reply to this letter1. A few caveats before I address what I take to be the author's main disagreement. First, some thanks. This is a thoughtful, fair-minded letter. I am grateful to the author for reading my article2 so carefully and preparing this reply. The author is also right to point out that some of my article's claims may be moot after Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. It was written not long ago. …
Surplus Embryos and Abortion
Several states have recently adopted more restrictive abortion policies yet permit fertility clinics to create surplus IVF embryos. This essay examines this issue: Is it morally inconsistent to prohibit abortion yet permit surplus embryos to be used in fertility medicine? I consider various arguments that try to reconcile this tension. None succeed. Either one holds that embryos have full moral status, and opposes both abortion and surplus embryo…
Procreative responsibilities and the parental obligation objection
The ethical indefensibility of heartbeat bills
Recently, several states in the United States have sought to adopt more restrictive abortion policies. Most have tried to enact “heartbeat bills” that prohibit most abortions once a fetal heartbeat becomes detectable. This article explores this question: Are heartbeat bills ethically defensible? I argue that they are not. There are at least four problems with them. First, heartbeat bills rely on a problematic understanding of human death. Second,…
Must Pessimists Be Suicidal
The Republic of the Congo: The Colonial Origins of Military Rule
The Republic of Congo secured its independence from France in 1960. The French colonial apparatus bequeathed an ethnically divided society. Native southerners dominated the sprawling civil service and, owing to their demographic advantage, elected Congo’s first two presidents, themselves both southerners. Native northerners, otherwise marginalized economically and politically, dominated the military’s rank and file. This cleavage has animated Con…
Justice in Emmanuel Levinas and John Rawls
This paper draws attention to overlooked similarities between John Rawls’s and Emmanuel Levinas’s understandings of justice. Its first part provides a synopsis of each philosopher’s ideas as well trends in the secondary literature on their comparability. I then focus on an especially thoughtful attempt to open a dialogue between Levinas and Rawls—Flora Bastiani’s ‘Égalité, équité et justice.’ Bastiani identifies several points of comparison but c…
Gratitude, Self-Assessment, and Moral Community
Is Levinas’s Philosophy a Response to the Holocaust
Some commentators have claimed that Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophy should be understood as a response to the Holocaust. This study assesses that claim. It begins by clarifying what it means to call his philosophy a “response.” The bulk of the article then analyzes his essay, “Useless Suffering,” one of the few works in Levinas’s philosophic oeuvre where he discusses the Holocaust. Levinas is widely read as claiming that there can be no explanation…
Philosophy of Humor
Humor is a surprisingly understudied topic in philosophy. However, there has been a flurry of interest in the subject over the past few decades. This article outlines the major theories of humor. It argues for the need for more publications on humor by philosophers. More specifically, it suggests that humor may not be a well‐understood phenomenon by questioning a widespread consensus in recent publications – namely, that humor can be detached fro…
Annotated Bibliography of Writings in Feminism and Aesthetics
This is a selective annotated bibliography of publications in the area of feminist aes-thetics from 1990 to 2003. It is intended to compliment the bibliography presented by Linda Krumholz and Estella Lauter in the Spring 1990 issue of Hypatia
Philosophy of Humor
Humor is a surprisingly understudied topic in philosophy. However, there has been a flurry of interest in the subject over the past few decades. This article outlines the major theories of humor. It argues for the need for more publications on humor by philosophers. More specifically, it suggests that humor may not be a well‐understood phenomenon by questioning a widespread consensus in recent publications – namely, that humor can be detached fro…
Annotated Bibliography of Writings in Feminism and Aesthetics
This is a selective annotated bibliography of publications in the area of feminist aes-thetics from 1990 to 2003. It is intended to compliment the bibliography presented by Linda Krumholz and Estella Lauter in the Spring 1990 issue of Hypatia
Is Levinas’s Philosophy a Response to the Holocaust
Some commentators have claimed that Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophy should be understood as a response to the Holocaust. This study assesses that claim. It begins by clarifying what it means to call his philosophy a “response.” The bulk of the article then analyzes his essay, “Useless Suffering,” one of the few works in Levinas’s philosophic oeuvre where he discusses the Holocaust. Levinas is widely read as claiming that there can be no explanation…
Philosophy of Humor
Humor is a surprisingly understudied topic in philosophy. However, there has been a flurry of interest in the subject over the past few decades. This article outlines the major theories of humor. It argues for the need for more publications on humor by philosophers. More specifically, it suggests that humor may not be a well‐understood phenomenon by questioning a widespread consensus in recent publications – namely, that humor can be detached fro…
Gratitude, Self-Assessment, and Moral Community
Justice in Emmanuel Levinas and John Rawls
This paper draws attention to overlooked similarities between John Rawls’s and Emmanuel Levinas’s understandings of justice. Its first part provides a synopsis of each philosopher’s ideas as well trends in the secondary literature on their comparability. I then focus on an especially thoughtful attempt to open a dialogue between Levinas and Rawls—Flora Bastiani’s ‘Égalité, équité et justice.’ Bastiani identifies several points of comparison but c…
The Republic of the Congo: The Colonial Origins of Military Rule
The Republic of Congo secured its independence from France in 1960. The French colonial apparatus bequeathed an ethnically divided society. Native southerners dominated the sprawling civil service and, owing to their demographic advantage, elected Congo’s first two presidents, themselves both southerners. Native northerners, otherwise marginalized economically and politically, dominated the military’s rank and file. This cleavage has animated Con…
Procreative responsibilities and the parental obligation objection
The ethical indefensibility of heartbeat bills
Recently, several states in the United States have sought to adopt more restrictive abortion policies. Most have tried to enact “heartbeat bills” that prohibit most abortions once a fetal heartbeat becomes detectable. This article explores this question: Are heartbeat bills ethically defensible? I argue that they are not. There are at least four problems with them. First, heartbeat bills rely on a problematic understanding of human death. Second,…
Must Pessimists Be Suicidal
Is It a Wonderful Life? Frank Capra and Objective List Theories of Worth
Aaron Smuts argues that the holiday film It's a Wonderful Life should be understood as both an illustration and a cinematic vindication of objective list theories of worth. This article argues that he is right about the first point but wrong about the second. It's a Wonderful Life is an excellent illustration of objective list theories. However, it also exposes a problem for them – their susceptibility to sceptical anxieties about whether we can …
Why I am still not convinced heartbeat bills are defensible
Thank you for inviting me to reply to this letter1. A few caveats before I address what I take to be the author's main disagreement. First, some thanks. This is a thoughtful, fair-minded letter. I am grateful to the author for reading my article2 so carefully and preparing this reply. The author is also right to point out that some of my article's claims may be moot after Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. It was written not long ago. …
Surplus Embryos and Abortion
Several states have recently adopted more restrictive abortion policies yet permit fertility clinics to create surplus IVF embryos. This essay examines this issue: Is it morally inconsistent to prohibit abortion yet permit surplus embryos to be used in fertility medicine? I consider various arguments that try to reconcile this tension. None succeed. Either one holds that embryos have full moral status, and opposes both abortion and surplus embryo…
Artificial Wombs, Surplus Embryos, and Parent-Friendly IVF
The Stability Problem and Moral Fictionalism
Epistemology (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Abortion (3 works) · Aesthetics (3 works) · Art (3 works)