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Articles 1 - 24 of 24
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Interpersonal Forgiveness Is The Recognition That Justice Is Attained, Raphael Faith Moser
Interpersonal Forgiveness Is The Recognition That Justice Is Attained, Raphael Faith Moser
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Abstract
Equality And Justice In Aristotle's Theory Of Friendship, Mark Christopher Brennan
Equality And Justice In Aristotle's Theory Of Friendship, Mark Christopher Brennan
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
In this dissertation, I offer an interpretation of Aristotle’s account of friendship thatemphasizes the importance of fairness in understanding the connection that he draws between friendship and justice. Many contemporary interpretations of Aristotle conclude either that the connection between friendship and justice is primarily relevant in the context of political friendship or is primarily a concern for friendships between virtuous individuals. Such interpretations, however, tend to diminish the importance of friendships on account of usefulness and pleasure in Aristotle’s account, as well as the importance of friendships in associations other than the political association.
From Dissenting-Voice To Democratic Bureaucracy : Three Essays On Bureaucratic Whistleblowing, Minsung Michael Kang
From Dissenting-Voice To Democratic Bureaucracy : Three Essays On Bureaucratic Whistleblowing, Minsung Michael Kang
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Public administration scholars have long believed that bureaucratic whistleblowers help make bureaucracies more democratic, effective, and accountable. With these firm convictions, the U.S. federal government has introduced a series of whistleblower protection systems to balance administrative power and external political accountability of public organizations. Building on this intellectual history of public administration scholarship on whistleblowing, this dissertation aims to: 1) understand bureaucratic whistleblowing at the theory-level, 2) examine the effects of whistleblower protection laws on bureaucrats at the individual-level, and 3) investigate how whistleblowing outcomes can reshape bureaucracies at the organizational-level.
The Role Of Empathy In Moral Inquiry, William Gray Kidder
The Role Of Empathy In Moral Inquiry, William Gray Kidder
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
In this dissertation, I defend the view that, despite empathy’s susceptibility to problematic biases, we can and should cultivate empathy to aid our understanding of our own values and the values of others. I argue that empathy allows us to critically examine and potentially revise our values by considering concrete moral problems and our own moral views from the perspective of another person. Appropriately calibrated empathy helps us achieve a critical distance from our own moral perspective and is thus tied to impartiality in moral inquiry. In defending this role for empathy in moral inquiry, I draw on empirical work …
Against Bloom: A Defense Of Smithian Fellow-Feeling, Damian Thomas Masterson
Against Bloom: A Defense Of Smithian Fellow-Feeling, Damian Thomas Masterson
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
In his 2016 book, Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion, Paul Bloom argues that “if we want to be good caring people, if we want to make the world a better place, then we are better off without empathy.” I’ve specifically chosen this formulation of Bloom’s position because it gets at the issue I will most directly challenge him on - that we would, or even could, be better off without empathy. The position I will defend is that our empathy plays an indispensable role in the development of our moral conscience, and an ongoing role in the cultivation …
The Obligation Of Promises, Toan Tran
The Obligation Of Promises, Toan Tran
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
In my dissertation I discuss the historical and philosophical significance of the commonplace moral phenomenon of promising and I lay out the essential features of a promise. I claim that promises have five features; they produce a moral obligation, they are directed toward another individual who holds the right to demand action and is the one wronged in case of failure, they are successful only if there is uptake, and finally that they are self-imposed. My discussion of the puzzle created by these features starts in David Hume and extends into David Owens. The need to resolve this puzzle in …
Artificial Intelligence And Utility : Deep Problems For A.I. Ethics, Trevor Howard Groves
Artificial Intelligence And Utility : Deep Problems For A.I. Ethics, Trevor Howard Groves
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
As technology advances further, new problems arise for us to contend with philosophically. Indeed, popular media has already begun presenting the possible issues our society must deal with. One of these is A.I., and how they will challenge old notions of subjects like identity, consciousness, and ethics. It is this third category that this paper is concerned with, namely how the existence of A.I. will affect our choice of ethical theory in regards to their treatment. It is my intention to demonstrate that one particular category of ethical theory, hedonistic consequentialist ones, will be ill equipped to handle these considerations. …
What Kind Of Is-Ought Gap Is There And What Kind Ought There Be?, P.D. Magnus, Jon Mandle
What Kind Of Is-Ought Gap Is There And What Kind Ought There Be?, P.D. Magnus, Jon Mandle
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
Some philosophers think that there is a gap between is and ought which necessarily makes normative enquiry a different kind of thing than empirical science. This position gains support from our ability to explicate our inferential practices in a way that makes it impermissible to move from descriptive premises to a normative conclusion. But we can also explicate them in a way that allows such moves. So there is no categorical answer as to whether there is or is not a gap. The question of an is-ought gap is a practical and strategic matter rather than a logical one, and …
Trust, Trustworthiness, And The Moral Consequence Of Consistency, Jason R. D'Cruz
Trust, Trustworthiness, And The Moral Consequence Of Consistency, Jason R. D'Cruz
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
Situationists such as John Doris, Gilbert Harman, and Maria Merritt suppose that appeal to reliable behavioral dispositions can be dispensed with without radical revision to morality as we know it. This paper challenges this supposition, arguing that abandoning hope in reliable dispositions rules out genuine trust and forces us to suspend core reactive attitudes of gratitude and resentment, esteem and indignation. By examining situationism through the lens of trust we learn something about situationism (in particular, the radically revisionary moral implications of its adoption) as well as something about trust (in particular, that the conditions necessary for genuine trust include …
Beyond Permissibility : Traversing The Many Moral Pitfalls Of Abortion (A Virtue Ethics Approach), John Westley Mcmichael
Beyond Permissibility : Traversing The Many Moral Pitfalls Of Abortion (A Virtue Ethics Approach), John Westley Mcmichael
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Ethical discussions about abortion, typically, focus on whether or not it is morally permissible to destroy a fetus. If it is morally impermissible to do so, that seems to answer the question of abortion outright: all things being equal, it is wrong. If it is permissible to kill a fetus, however, it doesn't follow that one cannot err morally by doing so. Using virtue ethics as my guiding normative theory, I argue that there are many potential moral errors one can make in having an abortion (or, in other cases, by not having an abortion) that do not hang on …
Gratitude And Displacement: The Political Obligations Of Refugees, Jason R. D'Cruz
Gratitude And Displacement: The Political Obligations Of Refugees, Jason R. D'Cruz
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
On what basis, and to what extent, are refugees obligated to obey the laws of their host countries? Consideration of the specific case of asylum-seekers generates, I think, two competing intuitions: (1) the refugee has a prima facie obligation to obey the laws of her host country and (2) none of the popularly canvassed substrates of political obligation—consent, tacit consent, fairness, or social role—is at all apt to explain the presence of this obligation. I contend that the unfashionable gratitude account of political obligation does the best job of accounting for the intuitions. As has been noticed by other commentators, …
No Grist For Mill On Natural Kinds, P.D. Magnus
No Grist For Mill On Natural Kinds, P.D. Magnus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
According to the standard narrative, natural kind is a technical notion that was introduced by John Stuart Mill in the 1840s and the recent craze for natural kinds, launched by Putnam and Kripke, is a continuation of that tradition. I argue that the standard narrative is mistaken. The Millian tradition of kinds was not particularly influential in the 20th century, and the Putnam-Kripke revolution did not clearly engage with even the remnants that were left of it. The presently active tradition of natural kinds is less than half a century old. Recognizing this might help us better appreciate both Mill …
Attack Of The Drones : Unmanned Aerial Vehicles And Moral Problems, Tyler B. Kirk
Attack Of The Drones : Unmanned Aerial Vehicles And Moral Problems, Tyler B. Kirk
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
The frequency of use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for combat by the United States has increased dramatically in recent years. Since this technology has comprised a significant portion of American counter-terror operations abroad and there are virtually no signs of this practice slowing or ceasing in the foreseeable future, it is necessary to closely examine the ethical implications of remote-control warfare. At first glance, arguments supporting the use of "drones" seem robust and sensible: in theory, they save American military lives. But upon further investigation, the use of drones in practice actually creates morally murky, problematic situations that could lead …
The Role Of Adaptation To Disability And Disease In Public Health, Meghan Mary Connors
The Role Of Adaptation To Disability And Disease In Public Health, Meghan Mary Connors
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Some patients with chronic disabilities and diseases are able to adapt to their health states and, as a result, rate their quality of life higher than hypothetical patients imagining themselves to be in such states. Due to this phenomenon of adaptation, there is much controversy surrounding the effect of adaptation on patient preferences and the role that these adapted preferences ought to play in health care resource allocation decisions. The process of adaptation affects public health debates about whether we ought to give priority to the worst off in allocation decisions because within traditional public health frameworks, it is unclear …
Phronesis After Situationism, Edward C. Dubois
Phronesis After Situationism, Edward C. Dubois
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Situationism, as put forward by John Doris' Lack of Character (2002) and several short articles by Gilbert Harman (2003, 2000, 1999), is the philosophical position that is skeptical of the existence of robust character traits of the kind that Aristotle described. Situationism posits that human beings lack robust character traits and are too easily made overconfident in their own behavioral abilities. Reams of social psychological data suggest that such 'thick' character traits do not exist. Doris and Harman suggest that subtle and potentially irrelevant situational cues may easily influence behavior. Moreover, situational pressures may cause people to deviate from expected …
Ethics In Action : A Study Of Ethical Decision Making In Counterinsurgencies, Marcus Schulzke
Ethics In Action : A Study Of Ethical Decision Making In Counterinsurgencies, Marcus Schulzke
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
The goal of this dissertation is to analyze the kinds of ethical challenges soldiers encounter during counterinsurgency operations, what decision making processes or values they use to resolve these challenges, and how military institutions and culture influence soldiers' ethical reasoning. The first part of the dissertation is an assessment of various theories of applied ethics and how these can be used by soldiers during counterinsurgency operations. The second part discusses the institutions and cultures of the American Army, British Army, and Israeli Ground Forces. In the third part, I take up the problem of how soldiers from each of these …
Delta Woman With Faulkner And Hitchcock, Mi-Jeong Kim
Delta Woman With Faulkner And Hitchcock, Mi-Jeong Kim
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Lacan, as a post-structuralist, combined Saussure's linguistics with Freud's psychology and linked Derrida's notion of "the other" to his notion of "objet petit a" as the impossible object of the subject's phallic desire, in order to re-think the modern consciousness of "the self." In the Lacanian account, "the other" does not exist as the 'absolute' transcendental without involvement, but ex-sists as the traumatic and 'extimate' exteriority with-in "the self." The ex-centric other is epitomized by the iconic (inverted) triangular center of Lacan's Borromean Knot. As the immanent exteriority of both the subject and the Symbolic, the feminine (w)hole, resembling vaginal …
Regarding Scientific Significance, P.D. Magnus
Regarding Scientific Significance, P.D. Magnus
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
In Science, Truth, and Democracy, Philip Kitcher introduces significance graphs (structures that illustrate how and which questions are significant) and well ordered science (a norm defined by an imagined process of ideal deliberation). Jeremy Simon has argued that these two parts of Kitcher's account are intimately connected. In this paper, I argue that the connection between significance graphs and well-ordered science is rather more complicated. I survey three objections to Kitcher's account, two from Simon and a third by analogy with similar positions in ethics. This paper aims to show that Kitcher's account relies on some questions being ones about …
Wrongful Life And Procreative Decisions, Bonnie Steinbock
Wrongful Life And Procreative Decisions, Bonnie Steinbock
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
This paper defends and refines the claim that procreation can be wrongful. Procreation is wrongful first when the "nonexistence condition" is met: the person's life will be filled with suffering that cannot be ameliorated or empty of all the things that make life worth living. Recognizing that this condition is rarely met, the paper then argues that it is wrong to create a person in less extreme circumstances: when the person is likely not to have a minimaly decent life, one in which certain important interests cannot be satisfied. Although we must be very cautious about concluding that any particular …
Moral Status, Moral Value, And Human Embryos: Implications For Stem Cell Research, Bonnie Steinbock
Moral Status, Moral Value, And Human Embryos: Implications For Stem Cell Research, Bonnie Steinbock
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
Human embryonic stem cells (ES cells) are of scientific and medical interest because of their ability to develop into different tissue types and because of their ability to be propagated for many generations in laboratory culture. Grown in a laboratory, they might one day be used in the treatment of degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. They could provide bone cells for the treatment of osteoporosis, eye cells for macular degeneration, blood cells for cancer, insulinproducing cells for diabetes, heart muscle cells for heart disease, nerve cells for spinal cord injury. The potential for benefit to so many people …
Designer Babies: Choosing Our Children's Genes, Bonnie Steinbock
Designer Babies: Choosing Our Children's Genes, Bonnie Steinbock
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
The phrase “designer babies” refers to genetic interventions into pre-implantation embryos in the attempt to influence the traits the resulting children will have. At present, this is not possible, but many people are horrified by the mere thought that parents might want to choose their children’s genes, especially for non-disease traits. I want to argue that the objections are usually not well articulated, and that even when they are, it’s far from obvious that such interventions would be wrong.
The Morality Of Killing Human Embryos, Bonnie Steinbock
The Morality Of Killing Human Embryos, Bonnie Steinbock
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
Embryonic stem cell research is morally and politically controversial because the process of deriving the embryonic stem (ES) cells kills embryos. If embryos are, as some would claim, human beings like you and me, then ES cell research is clearly impermissible. If, on the other hand, the blastocysts from which embryonic stem cells are derived are not yet human beings, but rather microscopic balls of undifferentiated cells, as others maintain, then ES cell research is probably morally permissible. Whether the research can be justified depends on such issues as its cost, chance of success, and numbers likely to benefit. But …
Payment For Egg Donation And Surrogacy, Bonnie Steinbock
Payment For Egg Donation And Surrogacy, Bonnie Steinbock
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
This article examines the ethics of egg donation. It begins by looking at objections to noncommercial gamete donation, and then takes up criticism of commercial egg donation. After discussing arguments based on concern for offspring, inequality, commodification, exploitation of donors, and threats to the family, I conclude that some payment to donors is ethically acceptable. Donors should not be paid for their eggs, but rather they should be compensated for the burdens of egg retrieval. Making the distinction between compensation for burdens and payment for a product has the advantages of limiting payment, not distinguishing between donors on the basis …
Are External Reasons Impossible?, Rachel Cohon
Are External Reasons Impossible?, Rachel Cohon
Philosophy Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.