Philosophy Commons^™

Ethical Issues In Data Journalism, Bastiaan Vanacker

School of Communication: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This chapter starts out by situating data journalism in relation to computer-assisted reporting and computational journalism and argues that data journalism has ballooned in recent decades as a result of the great availability of databases, increased training, and lower costs of computers. It then analyzes the main issues that can spring up at each phase of the data journalism process. During the collection process, journalists can be manipulated by flawed data or ethically compromised by using illegally obtained data. When they obtain data through surreptitiously scraping the web or paying for datasets, they might be violating notions of transparency and …

Environmental Reforestation And Social Justice In Cameroon: A Test Case For Pope Francis' Concept Of 'Integral Ecology' In Laudato Sí, Augustin Vondou

Dissertations

The following quotation from Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Sí is one of the most quoted parts of his well-known encyclical: We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature (139).

This is a very challenging statement. Not everyone accepts this idea of an ‘integral ecology’; that is, the notion that the condition of human society is directly linked to the …

When Microcredit Doesn’T Empower Poor Women: Recognition Theory’S Contribution To The Debate Over Adaptive Preferences, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay proposes recognition theory as a preferred approach to explaining poor women’s puzzling preference for patriarchal subordination even after they have accessed an ostensibly empowering asset: microfinance. Neither the standard account of adaptive preference offered by Martha Nussbaum nor the competing account of constrained rational choice offered by Harriet Baber satisfactorily explains an important variation of what Serene Khader, in discussing microfinance, dubs the self-subordination social recognition paradox. The variation in question involves women who, refusing to reject the combined socio-economic benefits of patriarchal recognition and empowering microfinance, dissemble their subordination to men. In this situation, women experience …

Retrieving And Reimagining Sanctuary And Solidarity: Racial Disparities In Infant Mortality, Alyson Capp

Dissertations

In Milwaukee, Black babies die before their first birthday nearly three times as often as White and Hispanic babies. Prematurity is the major cause of infant mortality, and social determinants of health play a large role. Commitments from within Christian bioethical traditions can critique ethical frameworks commonly in use in US bioethics by calling for the incorporation of analysis of social power dynamics that is necessary for addressing this issue. Original ethnographic fieldwork that listens closely to Black mothers and health professionals uncovers key themes related to women's and infant health at the intersection of race, class, and gender. By …

Collective Responsibility By Agreement, David Atenasio

Dissertations

It is often challenging to fairly distribute responsibility for harms that result from collective wrongdoing. Few object to blaming an agent for making a contribution to wrongdoing, but it is far more controversial to attribute fault to one agent for the contributions made by other participants in collective wrongdoing. I argue that we ought to distribute co-responsibility for collective wrongdoing only to those who authorize the offending actions, whether expressly or tacitly. By authorizing another to carry out wrongdoing on one's behalf, one becomes to blame for the unjustified harm caused by one's agent or agents. In this dissertation, I …

An Uber Ethical Dilemma: Examining The Social Issues At Stake, Florence Chee

School of Communication: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Purpose

This paper aims to engage with the social issues emerging from the increasing reliance upon app-driven services, as they pertain to precarious labor and ethical standpoints in a digital era. Popular ride services such as Uber have been lauded for bringing much needed transportation services that are superior to expensive taxis or unpleasant or inaccessible public transit.

Design/methodology/approach

As a result of over three years of ongoing research and analysis, this paper is a comprehensive assessment of a number of social issues facing the integration of practices both signified and enacted in an economy driven by apps such as …

Narrative Medicine And Health Care Ethics: Religious And Literary Approaches To Patient Identity And Clinical Practice, Tara Flanagan Tracy

Dissertations

This dissertation examines practices of narrative medicine and moral identity for end-of-life patients, with special attention given to Aristotle's Poetics and the work of Paul Ricoeur. While noting the genuine value of narrative medicine for clinicians, I examine the limits of self-narration for patients who are unable to offer a linear, coherent narrative of their lives due to cognitive deficits such as Alzheimer's disease. Nevertheless, the premise of narrative medicine, that being a close reader of texts can develop the ability to attend closely to patients, remains useful. When the sources used in narrative medicine are expanded to include those …

Aging Well In 21st Century America: Towards A Theological Ethics Of Aging, Chrisitan Cintron

Dissertations

As Third Agers transition into life after work they are faced with a renewed challenge, living the good life. The normative images emanating from the social and cultural landscape allow Third Agers to either envision and live their new life, or adopt a course set out for them. These new lives require a re-discovery and re-defining of the self, a reinterpretation of one's role in society, and relationship to others. As with other phases of life, individuals need guidance when confronted with images of living well that are contradictory or perhaps antithetical to what they imagined for themselves. Various social …