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Russell DiSilvestro

Courses | Recent Publications | Research Interests | Recent Papers Presented

Contact Information

Title: Assistant Professor
Office
Hours:
Fall 2008: Tuesdays, Thursdays 12-1:30, and by appointment
E-mail: rdisilv@csus.edu
Office
Phone:
(916) 278-6766

Mailing
Address:

Mendocino Hall 3016
Sacramento State
6000 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95819-6033

Courses

  • Bioethics
  • Business and Computer Ethics
  • Ethics
  • Ethics and Social Issues
  • History of Ethics
  • Metaphysics
  • Political Philosophy

Recent Publications

  • “Reproductive Autonomy, the Non-Identity Problem, and the Non-Person Problem.” Bioethics (forthcoming).
  • “Precisely Which Claim Makes Spontaneous Abortion a Scourge?” American Journal of Bioethics (forthcoming).
  • “A Qualified Endorsement of Embryonic Stem-Cell Research, Based on Two Widely Shared Beliefs about the Brain-Diseased Patients Such Research Might Benefit.”  Journal of Medical Ethics (forthcoming).
  • “What’s Wrong with Deliberately Proselytizing Patients?”  American Journal of Bioethics 7:7 (July 2007), pp. 22-24.
  • “Not Every Cell is Sacred: A Reply to Charo.”  Bioethics 20:3 (June 2006), pp. 146-157.
  •  “Human Embryos in the Original Position?” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 30:3 (June 2005), pp. 285-304.
  • “A Neglected Solution to the Problem of the Metaphysical and Moral Status of the Human-Animal Chimera.”  Ethics & Medicine 20:2 (Summer 2004), pp. 5-23.

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Research Interests

  • I work on the intersection between metaphysics and ethics, especially as it relates to contemporary bioethical issues involving the nature and moral status of human beings.

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Recent Papers Presented

  • “Sacrificing Our (Grand) Children to Benefit Our (Grand) Parents,” for the 2008 Nammour Symposium, California State University-Sacramento, Sacramento, California, April 22, 2008.
  • “Secular Disagreement, Religious Disagreement, and Public Policy Debates in a Pluralistic Democracy,” for the 2007 Nammour Symposium, California State University-Sacramento, Sacramento, California, April 25, 2007.
  • “Liberalism and Women’s Adaptive Preferences: A Reply to Lisa Schwartzmann,” for the 2007 Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, San Francisco, California, April 7, 2007.
  • “Ronald Reagan’s Brain and the Politics of Personal Identity,” for the 2006 Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity Conference, “Neuroethics: the New Frontier,” Deerfield, Illinois, July 13-15, 2006.
  • “Capacities, Hierarchies, and the Strong Moral Presumption Against Killing Normal Human Infants,” for the Center for Practical and Professional Ethics and the Department of Philosophy at California State University-Sacramento, Sacramento, California, February 23, 2006.

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Last updated: 09/01/2008