Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons^™

Moral Issues In Business, Andre Dobronic Parola

Open Educational Resources

In this course students will initially be introduced to different ethical theories as well as two different theories of justice. Subsequently—following an introduction to basic economical ideas concerning the place of businesses and corporations in modern capitalistic society—various questions specific to business ethics will be taken up. Topics will include: arguments for and against the stakeholder theory of business ethics; corporate social responsibility; the problem of sex-based discrimination in the workplace-setting; business and the environment; globalisation; and lying in business negotiations.

The Varieties Of Precaution: Which Risks, Whose Attitudes?, Tomasz Żuradzki

Animal Sentience

The Edge of Sentience offers an ambitious and timely institutional framework for proportionate precaution under uncertainty about sentience. Its systematic treatment of empirical and theoretical uncertainty across diverse cases is a major contribution. Focusing on the problem of identifying and weighing different risks when designing proportionate precautions, this commentary suggests three areas in which Birch’s framework could be developed further: a more domain-sensitive justification of the priority given to avoiding under-attribution; a clearer distinction among competing forms of risk aversion and their divergent policy implications; and a fuller explanation of how the framework generates different recommendations across cases.

Operational Responsibility In Ai Governance: A User-Centric Liability Framework, Zhengyang Chen

Faculty Publications

Who bears responsibility when artificial intelligence systems cause harm? This question has become central to AI ethics and governance. Most existing approaches focus on developers, yet this faces serious practical and theoretical problems. Drawing on tort law, agency law, and philosophy of technology, this paper argues that AI should be understood as an instrument whose outputs remain the responsibility of human operators rather than developers. We call this 'user-centric governance.' Placing accountability with deployers promotes public trust by creating clear lines of responsibility, a concern that governance approaches have often overlooked. It preserves democratic accountability by keeping human actors answerable …

War Photography & The Limits Of Empathy, Andrea Shi

Student Theses and Dissertations

The proliferation of photography, particularly war and poverty photography, has had massive implications for the level of vividness with which Americans are able to picture suffering beyond their doors. The mass atrocities that have occurred since the advent of photography – that is to say, the last 200 years – are so relentlessly circulated that they feel, sometimes, as an inevitable byproduct of human nature. It’s not surprising, then, that a lot of media theory and analysis reduce the dilemma of atrocity photographs to a psychological level. Do they numb us, or do they incite empathy? Are they a call …

A Kantian Guide To Understanding Agentic Ai And Its Ethical Consequences, Amelia Wang

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

The rapid emergence of Agentic AI, which are systems capable of autonomous, multi-step decision-making with minimal human oversight, has prompted growing discourse and concern regarding whether such systems possess a form of agency comparable to that of human beings, and subsequently, what ethical responsibilities ensue if they do. This thesis argues that many of the ethical risks surrounding Agentic AI stem from a fundamental misconception, which is the tendency to describe these systems using the language of agency ("deciding," "acting," "choosing") without examining whether they satisfy the philosophical conditions for genuine rational agency. Drawing on Immanuel Kant's Groundwork of the …

Is Health Deserved? Personal Autonomy, Framing, Ethical Intimidation, And The Politicization Of Healthcare In The United States V. Japan, Ava C. Azucenas

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Is health deserved? Is your health owed to you? What does this mean, and whose responsibility is it? I argue that American culture’s use of  personal autonomy, “framing”, and ethical intimidation has stunted the improvement of both political and legal structures. This is evident in the politicization of the ‘for-profit’ healthcare system in the United States. American policymakers frequently weaponize moral foundations in order to coerce voters into supporting or opposing certain healthcare policies derived from the principle that some people are more "deserving" of health than others. This calculated “framing” of health concepts has deeply politicized such an ethical …

What Do We Owe A Drowning Coast? Examining Louisiana's Coastal Crisis Through The Lens Of Environmental Justice, Owen M. Plaisance

Honors Theses

This thesis argues that human contributions to Louisiana’s coastal land loss constitute a form of environmental injustice that cannot be adequately addressed through frameworks focused solely on aggregate welfare or distributive fairness. While utilitarian and Rawlsian approaches offer important insights, both are limited in capturing the full scope of harm caused by environmental degradation. In coastal Louisiana, land loss undermines not only economic resources and physical security but also the substantive freedoms required for individuals and communities to live meaningful and culturally rooted lives, while disrupting ecological systems and non-human flourishing. To address these limitations, the thesis develops the Capabilities …

Just War Theory And Coercive Non-Proliferation: Ethically Evaluating Nuclear Prevention Efforts, P. Walker Jacklin

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the ethics of coercively addressing non-nuclear states who are attempting to acquire nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons pose a serious danger on a global scale, so ethical analysis should balance these consequences with the coerciveness of state intervention. Just War Theory provides a useful framework that balances these considerations.  Using the criteria of Just War Theory, this thesis examines two 21st century non-proliferation operations: Operation Orchard and Operation Midnight Hammer. I find that Operation Orchard fails the criteria of Just War Theory, while Operation Midnight Hammer satisfies the criteria. Making this determination is ethically risky, however, because our …

The Story Game: Dissuading The Abolition Of Man With Narrative Intellectual Virtue & The Hunger Games, Camille Bewley

Harding Undergraduate Research Conference

Relativism in modern America is leading society toward the fruition of C.S. Lewis’ warning of the abolition of man. This nation once founded on freedom inches closer to the dystopia which Suzanne Collins depicts in her Hunger Games series. This paper recognizes the growing need for humanity to realign with truth and universal values, first by reorienting itself to narratives. Through intellectual virtues of understanding and prudence as defined by Aristotle, society can translate stories into their inherent purpose; seeing truth and reality within the bottle of imagination. Stories contain the answers, narratives are the way humanity subscribes to reality. …

Inequality And Well-Being, Sarah E. Boslaugh

Theses

Human well-being has been a topic of interest to philosophers at least since the time of Aristotle, and well-being has also been a core concern of social scientists since the birth of the discipline in the late 18^th century. Some theories of well-being include economic inequality as a factor, and multiple ways to measure this factor have been developed; as with well-being, there is no single best measure of economic inequality and the choice of which measure to use may be based on both theoretical and practical reasons. I argue that income inequality should always be included as a …

Patriotism, Philia, And Stereotyping During World War Ii: Correspondence Between Black Composers, Selise Phillips, Joi Carr

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

The 20th century was a monumental time for Black composers, especially for those in the UK. Rudolph Dunbar was the first black musician to perform at Royal Albert Hall in London, England. During this time, correspondence between him and William Grant Still, a famous black composer based in America, exists. Still’s rhetorical choices in these letters demonstrate the attitudes of these composers, specifically Still, and how these choices reflect the success of Dunbar’s career. Still, whose compositions started gaining traction in the 1930s, often praised Dunbar for his achievements. These letters all take place during World War II and during …

Deportation And Death: Examining The Second Trump Administration’S Immigration Policy Through The Lens Of Just War Theory, Finley W. Snyder

Augustana Center for the Study of Ethics Essay Contest

From day one of the second Trump administration, the White House has treated illegal immigration as an invasion, both rhetorically and, to a lesser extent, legally. The administration has not shied away from the use of force in this campaign, leading to the notable killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti along with countless acts of violence across the nation. This essay seeks to evaluate the ethics of the second Trump administration's immigration policy from within this "war" framing through the lens of just war theory. While there has been considerable attention to just war theory in the context of …

Duties To The Self (Body And Mind), Rasha Essam

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis contends that self-duties are of vital significance, representing the obligations we owe to ourselves, and examines them through different life phenomena. Chapter One defends the existence of self-duties against a challenge raised by an (alleged) paradox. Chapters Two and Three then explore two particular self-duties related to the body and the mind, analyzed through the philosophical notions of self-objectification and moral testimony. Each chapter elaborates on these concepts with detailed real-life examples that illustrate how such experiences can undermine one’s humanity—as preserving one’s humanity is a core duty toward oneself. The purpose of this thesis is not only …

Beyond The Veil: Critical Black Kantianism And The Ethics Of Structural (In)Visibility, Paradise A. Stanford

Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy

This dissertation develops what I call Critical Black Kantianism, a reconstructive approach to Kantian moral philosophy that centers race, recognition, and the structural conditions under which moral agency is formed. While Kantian ethics typically presumes idealized agents operating within just social contexts, this project argues that such abstraction obscures how racial domination actively shapes autonomy, dignity, and self-consciousness. Drawing on W.E.B. Du Bois’ account of double consciousness, Black feminist thought, and contemporary theories of recognition, I show that moral agency is not merely exercised within social environments but is constituted through them—often under conditions of misrecognition that fracture autonomy.

Against …

Reconciling Discretion With The Rule Of Law: A Rawlsian Analysis Of Civil Disobedience By State Actors In Liberal-Democratic Schemes, Reid Devoge

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation starts from the position that the stability of liberal-democratic political schemes relies on its citizens mutually accepting a basic conception of political justice. While these conceptions of justice may vary, most incorporate the inter-connected concepts of autonomy, liberty, liberalism, and the rule of law. Within this conception of a liberal democracy, a potentially destabilizing issue arises when a legislatively passed law is put into effect, but a portion of the citizens perceive it as unjust. If legitimate (i.e., lawful) actions do not sufficiently resolve the concern, civil disobedience (i.e., disobeying the law) is a potential recourse, but this …

Reimagining Democratic Education With Care Ethics—Toward Care-Full Democratic Education, Selja Koponen, Tuija Kasa

Democracy & Education

In an era of democratic crises, democratic education in basic education is considered crucial. However, recent studies show that young people perceive their influence both at school and in society as limited, which decreases their civic activity later in life. The aim of this theoretical study is to reevaluate democratic education through feminist care ethics, which is an under-researched topic in the current theoretical debate. In our article, we outline a novel approach to caring democratic education (i.e., care-full democratic education), which presents a complementary stance toward current democratic education, which relies heavily on the theories of liberal democracy and …

Utilitarianism, Dune, And The Moral Problem Of Genetic Engineering, Mathias W. Alling

Quest

Moral Philosophy Essay

Research in progress for PHIL 2306: Introduction to Ethics (Honors)

Faculty Mentor: John Macready, PhD

This article began as a research essay during the Fall 2024 semester for my honors- level course, Introduction to Ethics (PHIL 2306). In this course, students are asked to research a moral issue and offer an argument for whether the issue is morally required, morally permitted, morally permissible, or morally impermissible. Mathias Alling’s philosophically ambitious article “Utilitarianism, Dune, and the Moral Problem of Genetic Engineering” examines the moral permissibility of genetic engineering through the fictional universe of Frank Herbert’s novel Dune …

The Morality Of The Civil War: Just War Theory And Union Policy And Conduct, Michael Payne

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

This article shall argue that the Union army, which was composed primarily of Christian soldiers and officers, prosecuted the Civil War in as moral a fashion as possible. It shall examine the different ways in which one can judge the morality of war, concluding that the tenets of Just War Theory are the best standard by which to judge a belligerent’s actions. It shall then examine Union war policy to determine if it is consistent with Just War Theory. This shall be done through a side-by-side comparison of Just War Theory’s tenets and Union policy. It shall then explore whether …

Tradition, Critque, And The Modern Moral Lingua Franca: A Lutheran Articulation Of Human Rights Language, Christian B. Dollar

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

The language of subjective, individual rights has become the primary way of speaking about the rights and wrongs of human life together. Since the end of World War II, one subset of this language—that of human rights—has achieved a global influence. The various Christian traditions of the west have, in large part, adopted this language of human rights to articulate and supplement their assorted social teachings. Yet, the adoption of human rights language has been contested by a dedicated cadre of Roman Catholic and Protestant theologians concerned about the potentially anti-Christian implications inherent in the grammar of rights. Christian rights …

The Substance Of Reality: Moral Perfectionism In Shakespeare's Hamlet., David Wright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through a selection of and close reading of key passages, I offer an interpretation of Hamlet that seeks to illuminate the play as an important work of moral philosophy, and to situate the play within a strand of moral philosophy named moral perfectionism by Stanley Cavell. Indeed, Hamlet is a masterpiece of Renaissance drama, but when read with attention to moral perfectionism, the play yields additional layers of meaning. Hamlet is a “philosophical drama” that navigates the “moral calling of philosophy”—a text that seems to, almost uncannily, elicit the audience to think reflectively, to ask fundamental human questions along …

Arts & Literature: A Personal Reckoning: Taking Responsibility As A Perpetrator, Henry C. Theriault

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This autobiographical essay identifies three forces that shaped the author’s participation in the scholarly and political struggle against genocide and other mass violence and oppression. These include his status as the grandson of Armenian Genocide survivors, the fact that his father was killed in action in the US War of Aggression against Vietnam, and the bullying he experienced as a child and adolescent. It then pushes back against any sense of victimhood that has resulted from the combination of these forces, to recognize the author’s implication in perpetration of the US War of Aggression against Vietnam, which the author has …

Hospital Organizations’ Obligation To Promote Spiritual Well-Being Among Nurses: Development Of A Normative Ethical Argument, Michael Jordan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents an innovative strategy to promote the support of nurses' spirituality within hospital organizations. By focusing on the spiritual well-being of nurses by hospital organizations, with a natural extension into nursing schools, the approach aims to enhance nurse’s ability to protect their own spirituality, provide comprehensive spiritual care to patients, and increase nurse moral resilience. By investing in nurses' spirituality and spiritual growth, hospitals can potentially increase job satisfaction among nursing staff, improve patient care outcomes, and create a more holistic healing environment for both nurses and patients. As the nursing shortage continues and the number of nurses …

Love Drugs: Exploring The Ethical Implications Of Relationship Targeting Biochemical Supplements, Hallie Young

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

"Love drugs" can be defined as chemical interventions that affect desire, attraction, and affection. Contemporary advancements in neurochemical interventions have increased interest in love drugs and highlighted the need for accessible love drug analyses. This project explores how love drugs will affect contemporary relationships through realistic literary scenarios informed by current philosophical literature. These scenarios consist of three vignettes compiled into a novella-length creative work. It was initially anticipated that these vignettes would reveal that introducing a meta-biological or chemical intervention into social situations where authenticity is normatively highly valued would prompt participant introspection. In practice, this work finds that …

Pedro Aceves Mfa Thesis, Pedro M. Aceves

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

My Work is about looking at Cruising through a queer decolonial lens. Using multiple mediums such as photo, glass, Augmented reality, and film, I explore these queer histories and aesthetics through not just an anthropological approach but also an artistic epistemological approach weaving together narratives of prehispanic and modern queer Latinidad.

From Civic Duties To Democratic Mandates: The Theoretical Framework Of Mill And Tocqueville On Compulsory Voting In The U.S., Olivia Claire Luttrell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the treatment of jury duty and voting in the United States through the philosophical framework of John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville. While jury duty is legally mandated, voting remains optional, despite both civic responsibilities being foundational to democratic participation. This research explores the historical, theoretical, and practical implications of voting becoming compulsory in the United States, as it is in other democratic nations. The analysis includes a comparative case study of the impact of Australia’s mandatory voting to evaluate whether it could become compulsory in the U.S. Both philosophers offer insightful knowledge on the role …

Application Of Philosophy In Substantive Due Process Analysis Focusing On Washington V. Glucksberg, Amelia Schwensen

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Substantive due process is widely regarded as the most convoluted and controversial legal concept. For years, the court has struggled to interpret and apply value-based terms in the Fourteenth Amendment, as these terms contain deeper significance beyond the words. Additionally, the court must balance expanding the law to enshrine the abstract values of substantive due process and limiting its interpretation so that it is not “creating law” or imposing its personal beliefs on its decision. This push and pull of defending values and maintaining legitimacy has created significant issues in substantive due process analysis and is the background and basis …

What's The Art In Artificial Intelligence?, Emily Verla Bovino

Open Educational Resources

This workbook learns from Black and Indigenous artists working with Artificial Intelligence to confront issues of ethics and aesthetics in its technologies. It features guided learning activities with links to publicly available video lectures and online articles, and includes options for experiential learning through both a tutorial in Midjourney and a visit to the public art collection at York College in Jamaica, Queens. Featured artists include: American Artist, Rizvana Bradley, Beth Coleman, Denise Ferreira da Silva, Suzanne Kite, Sondra Perry, Mimi Onuoha and Alisha B. Wormsley. Works by Martin Puryear and Maren Hassinger are explored in the Midjourney exercise.

About …

Walking Through The Aristotelian Lane: Amartya Sen On Rational Choice, Barada Laxmi Panda

Comparative Philosophy

The term ‘rational choice’ has great impact on the life of a rational agent. Rational choice helps the agent to understand her capability of making choice and the intentional involvement for working on a particular aspect considering certain circumstances. At the same time, this creates a lot of dilemmas in terms of understanding the freewill of the agent while being committed for a work. Following this, Amartya Sen’s discussion on this subject seems relevant where Sen very prominently reflects on the point that rational choice involves freedom, rationality, and normativity. These three features are coherent with each other and with …

Engaging Ethics In Technology And Artificial Intelligence, Elizabeth Edenberg

Open Educational Resources

This project seeks to help students apply philosophical questions about the ethics of technology and artificial intelligence to contemporary debates about AI’s impact on society and students’ own lives. It includes a set of in-class active learning exercises and reflection assignments, along with instructions for moderating class discussion of these topics. This is designed to pair with three units in a course on the ethics of technology: privacy, consent, and algorithmic fairness. Each exercise aims to help students connect the philosophical theories studied in class to their own lived experiences with technology.

Eros And The Sublime: Tools For Reaching Toward An Altered Ecological Consciousness, Aineka Carlson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis explores connections between the Kantian sublime and Anne Carson’s ideas regarding “eros.” Since Kant’s Critique of Judgement was published in 1790, the Kantian sublime has grown in popularity and been utilized by theorists and creative writers alike. While the Kantian sublime is often associated with nature in popular culture, there are certain egocentric and phallocentric elements of this mode of thinking that might inhibit a biocentric mindset. Through a character study of Oryx from Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake, this thesis draws relations between the subjugation of women, nature, and the ways in which the popularized …