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H. Eugene Cline
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I'm presently most interested in social
and political philosophy, particularly recent work on people's
preferences and the nature of status quo thinking.
My recent professional work, to be published this winter, focuses on
whether Americans should continue to subsidize discriminatory religious
institutions. I argue that we should not, since we thus legitimize
discrimination against citizens who have a fully normal range of
abilities. To paraphrase Mill, it is foolish for our society to deny
itself the full benefit of their contributions.
I am interested in various reasons why preferences, particularly
discriminatory ones, ought to be discounted, once certain inadequacies
are made manifest. My list of (related) reasons, so far, includes:
1. Some preferences are based on habituation to traditional
discriminatory practices.
2. Some are based on predictably bad estimations of risks.
3. Some are based on "objective illusions"-- culturally generated
misperceptions.
4. Some are naked external preferences, that others simply not have
things.
5. Some are formed in the absence of due consideration concerning
opportunity costs.
6. Some rank trivial choices too highly.
7. Some are connected with extinguishable wants to the exclusion of
basic needs.
8. Some unnecessarily exacerbate problems with scarce resources.
9. Some run perversely counter to facts about conversion efficiency and
equality of opportunity.
10. Some are narrowly focused on short-term first-person satisfaction,
to the detriment of the actor and others.
11. Some are based on a distorted view of the character and importance
of selfhood.
12. Some mistake law for morality.
Besides Social Philosophy and the Philosophy of Law, I sometimes
teach courses in the Philosophy of Mind, with an emphasis on
biology-based functionalist approaches like Fred Dretske's. In
Philosophy-of-Mind-related-news, the College is currently developing an
undergraduate neuroscience program and my departmental colleague, Ned
Garvin, is one of its central designers. To see some of the special
activities and interests of my departmental colleagues, see the special
interest section of these pages.
I'd appreciate e-mail concerning our department, the above topics, or
undergraduate philosophy in general.
Cheers,
Gene Cline
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