Applied Ethics Commons^™

Guantánamo Bodies: Law, Media, And Biopower, Cary H. Federman, Dave Holmes

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The idea of the Guantánamo detainee as a Muselmann, the lowest order of concentration camp inmates, contains within it important implications for the new understanding of sovereignty in the era of Guantánamo, in an age of exception. The purpose of this article is to explain the status of those who are detained at Guantánamo Bay. Stated broadly, in assessing that status, we will emphasize the connection between the altered meaning of sovereignty that has accompanied the placing of prisoners in an American penal colony in Cuba and the biopolitical status of the prisoners who reside there. More particularly, we …

Evolving Machine Morality Strategies Through Multiagent Simulations, David Burke

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

There is a general consensus among robotics researchers that the world of the future will be filled with autonomous and semi-autonomous machines. There is less of a consensus, though, on the best approach to instilling a sense of 'machine morality' in these systems so that they will be able to have effective interactions with humans in an increasingly complex world. In my talk, we take a brief look at some existing approaches to computational ethics, and then describe work we've undertaken creating multiagent simulations involving moral decision-making during strategic interactions. In these simulations, agents make choices about whether to cooperate …

The Beauty Of The Ethical: An Everyday Ethics That Brings Grace To Life, Ross W. Mccullough

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Excerpt: "Malcolm Muggeridge entitled his reflection on Mother Teresa Something Beautiful for God. Perhaps the force of that expression does not immediately strike us, but consider how curious a statement it is: that here was something—an act, a project, a life—beautiful for God. By far the most curious aspect, and the hardest to see afresh and not as mere formula, is that it was for God; but I leave that to a subsequent essay, with only the saints, here Teresa and Irenaeus, to point toward my sequel. For now note instead that it was something beautiful."

Attitudes Of Counselors Regarding Ethical Situations Encountered By In-Home Counselors, Justin Douglas Lauka

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

This survey study explored the attitudes of in-home and outpatient counselors in Virginia regarding ethical situations encountered by in-home counselors. Differences in responses were examined across several variables to identify any relationships among those constructs that are salient to in-home counseling and ethics. Of 108 participants, no significant differences were found between the two groups. One variable was found to predict counselors' responses: the percent counselors provide counseling services compared to case management. The item seen as most ethical involved telling a client to apply for needed services, surprising, given its directive nature that runs counter to the counseling profession. …

Does Distributive Justice Pay? Sternberg’S Compensation Ethics, Jeffrey Moriarty

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Compensation has received a great deal of attention from social scientists. Characteristically, they have been concerned with the causes and effects of various compensation schemes. By contrast, few theorists have addressed the normative aspects of compensation. An exception is Elaine Sternberg, who offers in Just Business a comprehensive theory of compensation ethics. This paper critically examines her theory, and argues that the justification she gives for it fails. Its failure is instructive, however. The main argument Sternberg gives for her theory points in the direction of a different one. This, in turns, helps us to see what a justification of …

Propositional Quantification, Ryan Christensen

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Ramsey deWned truth in the following way: xz is true if and only if 'pzz(xz = [zpz] & pz). This deWnition is ill-formed in standard Wrst-order logic, so it is normally interpreted using substitutional or some kind of higher-order quanti-Wer. I argue that these quantiWers fail to provide an adequate reading of the deWnition, but that, given certain adjustments, standard objectual quantiWcation does provide an adequate reading.

Aquinas On The Vice Of Sloth: Three Interpretive Issues, Rebecca Konyndyk Deyoung

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Defining the capital vice of sloth (acedia) is a difficult business in Thomas Aquinas and in the Christian tradition of thought from which he draws his account. In this article, I will raise three problems for interpreting Aquinas's account of sloth. They are all related, as are the resolutions to them I will offer. The three problems can be framed as questions: How, on Aquinas's account, can sloth consistently be categorized as, first, a capital vice and, second, a spiritual vice? These two questions lead to a third, namely, how is the condition of sloth possible, given Aquinas's moral psychology …

The Role Of Nature In John Muir's Conception Of The Good Life, Randy R. Larsen

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Aristotle says our best moral guidance comes from considering the lives of exemplary individuals. I explore John Muir, as an exemplar of environmental virtue, and consider the role of Nature in his conception of the good life. I argue his conception consists of a web of virtue including various goods, values, and virtues. I suggest three virtues are cardinal: attentiveness, gratitude and reverence. I explore how Muir cultivated these virtues in Nature.

I argue Muir sought freedom from a popular conception of the good life, grounded in the gilded age values of money and materialism, and was sensitive to the …