Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 25, 2026

Applying Cheminformatics to Develop a Structure Searchable Database of Analytical Methods
Published on: June 6, 2025
The substance view: a critique
1College of Staten Island/City University of New York, Staten Island, NY 10314 USA. robert.lovering@csi.cuny.edu
Abstract:
According to the theory of intrinsic value and moral standing called the 'substance view,' what makes it prima facie seriously wrong to kill adult human beings, human infants, and even human fetuses is the possession of the essential property of the basic capacity for rational moral agency - a capacity for rational moral agency in root form and thereby not remotely exercisable. In this critique, I cover three distinct reductio charges directed at the substance view's conclusion that human fetuses have the same intrinsic value and moral standing as adult human beings. After giving consideration to defenders of the substance view's replies to these charges, I then critique each of them, ultimately concluding that none is successful. Of course, in order to understand all of these things - the reductio charges, defenders of the substance view's replies to them, and my criticisms of their replies - one must have a better understanding of the substance view (in particular, its understanding of rational moral agency) as well as its defense. Accordingly, I address the substance view's understanding of rational moral agency as well as present its defense.
More Related Videos
07:24Quantitative Atomic-Site Analysis of Functional Dopants/Point Defects in Crystalline Materials by Electron-Channeling-Enhanced Microanalysis
Published on: May 10, 2021
11:38High Content Screening Analysis to Evaluate the Toxicological Effects of Harmful and Potentially Harmful Constituents (HPHC)
Published on: May 10, 2016
Related Concept Videos
Principles of Drug Action
Drugs can be agonists or antagonists. Like the endogenous ligands, agonists always bind and activate the target to produce a cellular response. Agonist binding induces a conformational change which in turn...
Structuralism
Titchener's approach to structuralism was unique. He employed introspection, a method...
Criticisms of the Evolutionary Perspective
Evolutionary psychology provides one explanation for these findings, suggesting...
Quantitative Aspects of Drug-Receptor Interaction
What is Matter?
Drug Discovery: Overview