Law & Humanities Blog

Doing Them In, Domestically
New Publication: The Collected Essays of John Finnis, Volumes I-V
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Posted: 06 Jul 2011 08:24 AM PDT

Agatha Christie and the rest of the cosy mystery writers were onto something, but they got some of their inspiration from life. As Deborah Blum writes in this article for Lapham's Quarterly, cooks, manufacturers, and killers (and they might have been the same folks) have for centuries accidentally and purposefully done in those around them. And the government and scientists have been trailing along behind slowly catching up.

Sometimes the culprits were food additives.

Borax came first on the list, partly because it was so widely used by meat processors. Derived from the element boron, it slowed decomposition but could also react with proteins and firm them up, giving rotting meat a more shapely appearance. Borax had thus figured in the "embalmed beef" scandal of the Spanish-American War, in which officers in the U.S. Army accused their suppliers of shipping tins of refrigerated beef that was treated with "secret chemicals" and canned beef that was no more than a "bundle of fibers." "It looked well but had an odor similar to that of a dead human body after being injected with preservatives," an Army medical officer wrote of the refrigerated meat, adding that when cooked, the product tasted rather depressingly like boric acid.

Oh. Charming.

[T]he ancients were also fully aware that foods could be dangerous without human help, hence the warnings regarding meat consumption. And they'd learned from long-time experience that even routinely safe foods carried unexpected risks. Consider the wonderfully bizarre story of "mad honey" and the Greek army commanded by Xenophon in 401 bc. Returning from an unsuccessful raid in Persia, Xenophon's men raided beehives along the eastern edge of the Black Sea, acquiring a treasure trove of local honey. By day's end, the raiding party was immobilized. They were like men "greatly intoxicated," wrote Xenophon, whose army was suffering from nausea, inability to walk straight, and lethargy. Over three centuries later, the Roman general Pompey's troops also encamped by the Black Sea and gorged themselves on the local honey. Pompey lost three squadrons to the enemy fighters who had deliberately placed honeycombs in the path of his troops.

Read on. It's great stuff. But don't read it around mealtime.

New Publication: The Collected Essays of John Finnis, Volumes I-V

Posted: 06 Jul 2011 07:29 AM PDT

New from Oxford University Press:

The Collected Essays of John Finnis, Volumes I-V

Description

For over forty years John Finnis has pioneered the development of a new classical theory of natural law, a systematic philosophical explanation of human life that offers an integrated account of personal identity, practical reason, morality, political community, and law. The core of Finnis' theory, articulated in his seminal work Natural Law and Natural Rights, has profoundly influenced later work in the philosophy of law and practical reason, while his contributions to the ethical debates surrounding nuclear deterrence, abortion, and sexual morality have been a powerful, and controversial exposition of the practical implications of his theory of natural law.

The Collected Essays of John Finnis brings together 122 papers, including over two dozen previously unpublished works. Thematically arranged, the five volumes provide ready access to his contributions across central areas of modern practical philosophy - the philosophy of practical reason; the philosophy of personal identity and intention; political philosophy; the philosophy of law; and the philosophy of revelation and the role of religion in public life. Fully cross-referenced, cross-indexed, and introduced by the author, the Collected Essays reveal the connections and coherence of the different branches of Finnis' work, showing the full picture of his philosophical contribution for the first time.

Covering topics from the nature of divine revelation, the morality of abortion, to the adoption of Bills of Rights, the work in these volumes offer a unique insight into the intellectual currents and political debates that have transformed major areas of public morality and law over the last half century.