JOHANNINE DUALISM AND CONTEMPORARY PLURALISM

The main thrust of this essay is an argument that (1) John's Gospel is not “dualistic” in the technical sense of the term but that it does operate with “oppositional dualities”; (2) far from being negating of pluralism as both a social fact and a political project, John's kind of oppositional dualities may in fact be the best way to preserve social pluralism and make it flourish; (3) two notable features of John's oppositional dualities are that (i) they are soft enough to allow surprisingly blurry boundaries between “inside” and “outside” and that (ii) they mandate a willingness to sacrifice one's own life on behalf of one's deadly enemies.     

Surrogate Motherhood

ABSTRACT In the first part of this article I discuss some objections which assert that surrogacy is primarily—but not exclusively—harmful in a moral sense. After examination of mainly but not exclusively morality-dependent harms (objections from similarity with prostitution, exploitation, etc.) and after the discussion of possible non-morality-dependent harms (baby, couple, surrogate mother, agency, etc.), I argue, in the second part, that no one reason supports the possible prohibition of surrogacy. In the last part I try to show why moral reasons alone could not be sufficient to criminalize any kind of activity—including surrogacy—in a liberal order.