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Full-Text Articles in Ethics and Political Philosophy

Interpersonal Forgiveness Is The Recognition That Justice Is Attained, Raphael Faith Moser Dec 2022

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 Jan 2022

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 Jan 2022

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 Jan 2021

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 Jan 2020

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 Jan 2020

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 Jan 2019

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. …


Beyond Permissibility : Traversing The Many Moral Pitfalls Of Abortion (A Virtue Ethics Approach), John Westley Mcmichael Jan 2015

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 …


Attack Of The Drones : Unmanned Aerial Vehicles And Moral Problems, Tyler B. Kirk Jan 2014

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 Jan 2013

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 Jan 2013

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 Jan 2012

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 Jan 2011

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 …