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News Flash! The Joshua Letter Inaugurates New Web Site! The Joshua Letter's web site has changed! With the help of webmaster Darin Mohr, The Joshua Letter for the first time now offers a venue for members of the community to engage each other in matters of theology, philosophy, science, and religion -- and pretty much anything else anyone wants to talk about -- through news, chat, a blog, and more, But be patient! The technology is all here but we really have a steep learning curve, so the site may develop very slowly at first. Welcome to The Joshua Letter! While you're here, why not check out the very first entry in our blog? |
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Is Human Dignity Real? Is there any rationally apprehensible basis for supposing that we owe each other duties of respect and care? The Joshua Letter is offered upon the premise that these questions may be answered in the affirmative, and that among the most productive inquiries will be those addressed to one peculiar and very common human experience: that irrespective of our political commitments, in seeking to justify our programmes, we all appeal to what we contend to be necessary in the interests of justice. Whether liberal, conservative, pro-life, pro-choice, gay, straight, what have you, when we seek to justify our policy positions, it is justice to which we appeal.
But what is justice, and is there anything which explains our entitlement to it? Is it not true that we regard ourselves as entitled to justice because we possess an attribute to which we refer as "dignity" and which we consider to be essential to our humanness? I believe most will agree that it is.
But is this dignity real? What does it consist of, and where does it come from?
We do not claim to have answered these questions in any final way. Our more humble hope is that we are beginning to ask some of the right questions, questions which may prove to be fruitful, for ourselves and for those who desire to join us. Collected here are a number of essays which we hope will be useful. Please read on. To begin, click on the link above on the top left, "Documents Library."
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