welcome to the forum, you certainly have jumped right in! day one and posting...

Welcome CMJL!

Those are some very interesting questions you are examining and I hope you are able to examine and discuss them on the forum. Compassion and its implications have a very distinct part of modern ethics. Believe it or not, Rene Descartes has a very good text on that called The Passions of the Soul which I think is a very interesting mix of Aristotelian concepts. A exceptional text though is Feelings that Matter by Anette Baier. That particular article may help you out a lot as well.

Medical science and embryonic stemcell research wise, there are a ton of definitive articles you can find on the internet. Bio-Ethics was a favorite subject of mine in school. The best that I can think of is Stem Cells, Cloning, and Abortion: Making Careful Distinctions by Dena S. Davis. That is a very good introductory text with beginners conepts and a very good overview of the issue. A more advanced text is Embryonic Stem Cell Retrieval and a Possible Ethical Bypass by Mary and Anthony Mahowald (if you are interested in the almost-devils advocate approach to the issue).

But anywho, have a blast and hope to see you round the forum!

This is a great series of reading suggestions. wonderful. Right on the mark.

Nice to meet you!!

---------- Post added 07-31-2009 at 11:53 PM ----------

Hey VideCorSpoon,

Are most people on this site studying philosophy in formal settings? The lingo certainly seems that way. I am a complete amateur from that point of view.

CMJL

---------- Post added 08-01-2009 at 12:12 AM ----------

I looked up Anette Baier as a point of interest. One title captured me The Need for More than Justice. From my quick peek at Wikipedia, I am led to believe that Baier posits morality based on justice is a masculine perspective. I am not sure I agree with that part, but I do like the title. I don't just want 'a judicially fair' action but 'a compassionate response' to life. Has anyone read this text? Can it help to examine the difference between these two outcomes?

No not everyone here is studying philosophy academically and it's certainly not a requirement. Thank you and nice to meet you. Welcome.

I don't think that the majority of people on philosophy forum are or have studied philosophy on an academic level. But that does not mean anything bad though, because as long as you have a desire to learn philosophy you have some definite merit. One thing I have noticed though is that there is a great deal of resistance to academic philosophy here aside from the occasional mention of some 'ism or name drop. But I think that is very refreshing and very exciting about the forum, where people are just starting out and this is all new information to them.

On Annette Baier, I honestly never thought to look her up on Wikipedia. I knew she was big into David Hume, but apparently that's her prima forte as far as the entry is concerned. I never read the article that you mention, but I would imagine it pertains not as much to the general conception of justice but to justice within the feminist framework. There is a drastically different conception there. I wouldn't call Baier a radical feminist though, but I have understood Baier to be a very insightful feminist very close to other second wave feminists (active 1960's-1980's) like Betty Friedan and Simone de Beauvoir.

Also, if you are interested in her or for anything else philosophy, go onto JSTOR. JSTOR is a online collection of articles, books, etc. for a wide degree of disciplines from Philosophy and History to economics and Science. However, the subscription is not cheap for individuals. If you are in college, you probably have a subscription through the school and you can log on very easily. If you are not in college, I believe you can use your local public library to access the database. If they don't have it, ask for the subscription and I think they will get it. Going through school, I used this database extensively and if you are just getting into philosophy, there is no better place to start than this database because you not only get access to primary philosophy journals and major articles (which independently cost a lot of money to subscribe to), but also book reviews and so on that give you a very good cliff-notes version of major works.

I appreciate your reassuring notes. Thanks for everything ... references and the considerate response. Sweet!

CMJL