RG on BOONIN ON ABORTION

Thanks so much to Rick Garnett for his engaging overview of the two-day conference at the University of Portland.

Rick refers, at one point, to "Boonin’s argument that personhood is a function of 'conscious desires.'"  However, there is no such argument in Boonin's book.  (I assume Rick was basing what he said on the speaker's misinterpretation of Boonin's argument--a misinterpretation that makes me think that the speaker's critique of Boonin missed its target.)  In Boonin's argument, "desires" do play a crucial role, but not "conscious" desires.  Instead, the desires that are crucial for Boonin are (1) "ideal" (as distinct from "actual") desires and (2) desires that are "dispositional" (as distinct from "occurent").  I myself criticize and reject Boonin's argument in some recent (unpublished) work on abortion, but that's a story for another time and place.

Michael P.