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2010 Winner: Michael Anthony


Michael Anthony is the winner of the inaugural Keenan Prize. He is from the University of Victoria and was one of the many reasons why we instituted a word count maximum for subsequent prize years. Download his (15,000+ word) paper Imminent Humanity and comment on it below.

Imminent Humanity: Re-evaluating individual responsibility, liability, and immunity in times of war from a liberal perspective.

Abstract: What do we owe each other in times of war? Although we may claim to understand our obligations in personal contexts, war presents extraordinary moral problems which are not easily solved by the application of familiar principles. This fact often tempts theorists and philosophers to assume either (a) wars, and the killing done in them, are in principle unethical or (b) wars are outside the realm of moral consideration. This paper takes a broadly liberal approach to examining the principles governing the forfeiture of human rights. Specifically, this paper looks at Igor Primoratz’s claim that liberalism is committed to terroristic implications; this paper also provides a number of key revisions to Michael Walzer’s just war paradigm on issues of the moral equality of soldiers, noncombatant immunity, and the doctrine of double effect. This paper was written in part to demonstrate the importance of philosophical reflection on issues that have been increasingly considered matters of state policy or strict legality.

2010 Short List

Congratulations to the the following applicants whose papers were short listed for the Keenan Prize for 2010!

  • Pani Sarkis-Michael – Inclusive Legal Positivism vs Exclusive Legal Positivism
  • Shawn Bartlett – Robert Nozick, Rights, and What We Owe Others
  • Kajia Eidse-Rempel – Lyotard and Foucault: Condemning Us to the Computerized and Disciplinized Society
  • Rebecca Vasluianu – Democracy and the Problem of Epistemic Adequacy

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