If you think countries should have open borders, then Joseph Carens, a prominent political theorist, is on your side. But, why?
In the state of nature before society began setting boundaries for humanity into separate countries, everybody has equal moral worth and value.
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In fact, isn’t restrictive citizenship almost the same as feudal birthright privileges? As such, Carens even goes as far as saying that political borders (i.e. countries, nations) are incompatible with the equal status of individuals!
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The most fool-proof way to defend your argument is against people of all different perspectives and theories. This is exactly what Carens does. He shows that a utilitarian, Nozickian, and Rawlsian ALL lead to the same conclusion: countries should all have largely open borders!
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Mental Health + Illness
Definitions, History, Approaches
By Gillian Hilscher (5 minutes)
What does it mean to be mentally healthy? Is mental health simply the opposite of mental illness? How can you know if you're floundering, struggling, languishing, or flourishing? Corey L. M. Keyes and Shane J. Lopez address these questions and the nuances of mental health and illness in the Handbook of Positive Psychology, which we'll explore here.
By Gillian Hilscher (5 minutes)
Explore a timeline of the most prominent treatments for mental illness in the United States, and take a deeper look at two of the most controversial treatments in the history of mental illness: electroconvulsive therapy and the lobotomy.
By Gillian Hilscher (5 minutes)
For years, mental illness was thought to be the result of a chemical imbalance in the brain, but Jeffrey R. Lacasse and Jonathan Leo explain why we still have a long way to go in fully understanding it.
By Gillian Hilscher (5 minutes)
We may not know everything about mental illness, but that doesn't mean we can't start addressing it! Kristian Wahlbeck explains the concept of public mental health and how society-wide measures can help us tackle this problem head-on.