Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons^™

(Dis)Solving The Chronological Paradox In Customary International Law: A Hartian Approach, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

As traditionally conceived, the creation of a new rule of customary international law requires that states believe the law to already require the conduct specified in the rule. Distinguishing the process whereby a customary rule comes to exist from the process whereby that customary rule becomes law dissolves this chronological paradox. Creation of a customary rule requires only that states come to believe that there exists a normative standard to which they ought to adhere, not that this standard is law. What makes the customary rule law is adherence by officials in the international legal system to a rule of …

On The Foundation Of Rights To Political Self-Determination: Secession, Non-Intervention, And Democratic Governance, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

From a justificatory standpoint, perhaps the most basic question with respect to secession is what, if anything, provides the moral foundation for a group’s right to secede. My aim here is to make a start to answering this question. I do so, however, by considering a different, albeit closely related, question, namely what is the nature of the wrong done to members of a qualified group denied secession by the state that currently rules them? A compelling answer to this latter question, I suggest, will contribute significantly to a satisfactory answer of the former one.

Stephen James On The Challenge Of Human Rights: Origin, Development And Significance By Jack Mahoney. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007. 215pp., Stephen James

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Challenge of Human Rights: Origin, Development and Significance by Jack Mahoney. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007. 215pp.

Ethics In Experimentation, Donelson R. Forsyth

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Experimentation in the social sciences, by its very nature, requires researchers to manipulate and control key aspects of the social setting so as to determine what effect, if any, these manipulations have on the people in that setting. Such studies, although unmatched in terms of their scientific yield, nonetheless raise questions of ethics: Do researchers have the moral right to conduct experiments on their fellow human beings? What practices are unacceptable and what procedures are allowable? Can standards be established to safeguard the rights of participants?

An Examination Of Variables Influencing Undergraduate Hospitality Management Majors' Moral Reasoning, Tamantha L. Brooks

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifying factors that facilitate moral reasoning among hospitality management majors are important since it provides insight into their capacity for ethical decision making. This study examines if the variables of age, education level, gender, ethics coursework, or supervisory experience influence hospitality majors' moral reasoning. Participants (n=449) included students taking required hospitality management courses from five Midwestern universities in the United States. The Defining Issues Test II (DIT2) instrument and a demographic supplement were used to collect data. Results showed that there was no correlation between age and moral reasoning; the level of education did not influence moral reasoning; moral reasoning …

The New Bureaucracies Of Virtue: Introduction, Marie-Andree Jacob, Annelise Riles

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Simmons’ Critique Of Natural Duty Approaches To The Duty To Obey The Law, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In his most recent book on the moral duty to obey the law, A. John Simmons considers and rejects a number of natural duty approaches to justifying political authority. Among the targets of Simmons’ criticism is the account defended by the book’s co-author, Christopher Heath Wellman. In this essay, I evaluate the force of Simmons’ objections to Wellman’s account of political obligation. As will become clear below, I think Wellman’s defense of the duty to obey the law defective in certain ways—but not in all of the ways that Simmons argues it is. By rebutting some of Simmons’ criticisms and …

What Are America’S Obligations To Iraq After An Unjust War?, Brian Stiltner

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Since the goal of a just war is to restore a political condition of peace and justice, and since allowing a just war is always a mournful concession to the reality of injustice, a country that wins a war has post-bellum obligations to advance the common good within the losing nation and among the community of nations. It has the moral duty to make up for the damage it has caused, even if it was justified in causing that damage. (Note that the idea of a "just" war is not that war is a good in itself, but that it …

A Theory Of Political Obligation: Membership, Commitment, And The Bonds Of Society By Margaret Gilbert (Book Review), David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Does membership in a political society, in and of itself, involve obligations to uphold that society’s political institutions? Margaret Gilbert offers a novel argument in defense of an affirmative answer to this question, which she labels the membership problem. Given a plausible construal of the concepts obligation, political society, and membership in a political society, Gilbert argues that it follows analytically that to be a member of a political society just is to have an obligation to uphold and support that society’s political institutions. The key to Gilbert’s argument is the idea of a joint commitment; those …

Leaving A Leadership Legacy, Christine G. Springer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

The author reflects on the concept of leaving a leadership legacy on public administration. She states that it is all about making a difference and that means taking stands on things that matter in the field. It also means acting courageously where there is no money-back guarantee. Furthermore, she stresses that legacies are not just wishful thinking where public managers choose to leave will be based upon the life they lead.

Ethics In Business And Government, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Ethics

Bibliography and photographs of a display of government documents from Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Democracy And Capitalism: Oil And Water?, Nick Smith

The University Dialogue

No abstract provided.

Benjamin In Paris: Weak Messianism And Memories Of The Oppressed, Jules Simon

Selected Works Temporary Series

No abstract provided.

[Introduction To] Teaching The Ethical Foundations Of Economics, Jonathan B. Wight, John S. Morton

Bookshelf

Teaching the Ethical Foundations of Economics contains 10 lessons that reintroduce an ethical dimension to economics in the tradition of Adam Smith, who believed ethical considerations were central to life. Utilizing these innovative instructional materials your students will learn about the important role ethics and character play in a market economy and how, in turn, markets influence ethical behavior.

The lessons do more than illustrate how ethical conduct improves an economy. They actively involve the students through simulations, group decision making, problem solving, classroom demonstrations and role playing. The lessons encourage students to think critically about ethical dilemmas.

The New York Police Officer: Democratic And Moral Accountability In Conflict, Sarah Ryan, Dan Williams

Publications and Research

The following case draws upon two views of accountability. One is democratic accountability the other is accountability to one's own moral conscience. As the story unfolds, other facts may get in the way but these central views should not be forgotten. The focus of this case is on the individual. However, the material also covers institutional decisions and policies that deserve considering. The institutional story is the background, not the foreground, of this case. Yet, when the institutional features are considered, they may give new insight to the individuals' decisions.

What Is Democracy, And Is It The One?, Scott Smith

The University Dialogue

No abstract provided.

The Duty To Obey The Law, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Under what conditions, if any, do those the law addresses have a moral duty or obligation to obey it simply because it is the law? In this essay, I identify five general approaches to carrying out this task, and offer a somewhat detailed discussion of one or two examples of each approach. The approaches studied are: relational-role approaches that appeal to the fact that an agent occupies the role of member in the political community; attempts to ground the duty to obey the law in individual consent or fair play; natural duty approaches; instrumental approaches; and philosophical anarchism, an approach …

Addams's Internationalist Pacifism And The Rhetoric Of Maternalism, Marilyn Fischer

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Addams's pacifism grew out of her experiences working for social justice in Chicago's multi-national immigrant community. It rested on her well-tested conviction that justice and international comity could only be achieved through nonviolent means. While Addams at times used maternalist rhetoric, her pacifism was not based on a belief in woman's essential, pacifist nature. Instead, it was grounded on her understanding of democracy, social justice, and international peace as mutually defining concepts. For Addams, progress toward democracy, social justice, and peace involved both institutional reform and changes in moral, intellectual, and affective sensibilities.

A person's sensibilities grow out of his …

Richard Rorty And Moral Progress In Global Relations, Eduard Jordaan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Richard Rorty's navigation of the pitfalls of the cosmopolitan-communitarian debate, concern with human suffering, recognition of the contingency of communal identities and relationships, and his endorsement of liberal societies, by definition inclusive and always in search of a greater justice, make it appear as though his thought can guide us towards greater concern for the world's poor. However, this article questions the progressive potential of Rorty's thought. Obstacles to such (global) moral progress include Rorty's unquestioned statism and his focus on internal outsiders who are suffering and/or oppressed, instead of external outsiders beyond national borders; his insistence on a public-private …

Can We Talk? Feminist Economists In Dialogue With Social Theorists, Julie A. Nelson

Economics Faculty Publication Series

The article focuses on the issues regarding the social and political theory of feminism. It has been mentioned that political action will be dynamized rather than compromised by a more alive observation of economic organizations and activities. The author has suggested that feminist social theorists across the disciplines must join the several feminist economists who are dropping the negative one-size-fits-all prescription of protection from markets. It is essential to have more positive results in the complex contemporary economies.

Hannah Arendt, Boris Diop Et Le Rwanda : Correspondances Et Commencements, Isabelle Favre

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

While the social and political sciences account for a relatively large number of books on the 1994 Rwandan genocide, there are still very few literary texts on the subject. Taking Hannah Arendt’s concept of beginning as its point of departure, this article begins with an analysis of the “act of writing” before going on to examine the dynamic interplay between philosophy and literature via Boris Boubacar Diop’s novel Murambi, le livre des ossements (2000).

Development Of An Instrument To Identify The Virtues Of Expert Nursing Practice: ‘Byrd’S Nurses Ethical Sensitivity Test’ (Byrd’S Nest), Lisa Marie Byrd

Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to develop and analyze the psychometric properties of Byrd’s Nurse’s Ethical Sensitivity Test (Byrd’s NEST). An instrument to evaluate nurses’ ethical sensitivity in practice by examining choices of action in ethical dilemmas based on nursing virtues: compassion, fidelity to trust, moral courage, justice, self-confidence, resilience, practical reasoning, and integrity (Benner, Tanner, & Chelsa, 1996; Volbrecht, 2002). Benner’s theory of skill acquisition-novice to expert was the theoretical framework for this research which surveyed for correlations between a nurse’s ethical sensitivity and educational level, years of experience, certification, and work setting. Until now, there have been …

There's No "I" In Team: Individualism, Private Property, And Propriety In Cicero's De Officiis, Alex C. Parrish

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

On Moral Arguments Against A Legal Right To Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

As the international response to recent events in Darfur demonstrates, the restriction of authority to intervene to the United Nations poses the greater legal barrier to intervention. From a practical perspective, then, the more pressing question may be whether international law ought to be modified to permit states, or multi-state organizations, to carry out unilateral humanitarian interventions; that is, interventions that are not authorized by the United Nations. The issue here is essentially a moral one: would the incorporation of a right to unilateral humanitarian intervention entail a moral improvement to international law – for example, a decrease in the …

Rethinking The Iraq War, Brian Stiltner

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

The reasonable possibility of the situation getting worse [in Iraq] rather than better should have given humanitarian advocates for war, like myself, greater pause. For me at that time, this humanitarian motive bolstered what was weak in the weapons argument, and vice versa. But now I realize that a partial case for war because of the weapons risk and a partial case for war under humanitarian reasons don't add up to an air-tight case for just war. Each of the causes proffered has to be reasonable with little doubt-something like 90 to 95 percent certain-and they can't be undermined by …

Historical Perspectives On Attitudes Concerning Death And Dying, David San Filippo Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Beliefs and practices concerning death have changed throughout human history. In pre-modern times, death at a young age was common due to living conditions and medical practices. As medical science has advanced and helped humans live longer, attitudes and responses to death also have changed. In modern Western societies, death is often ignored or feared. Changes in lifestyles and improved medical science have depersonalized death and made it an encroachment on life instead of part of life. This has left many people ill equipped to deal with death when it touches their lives.

Perspectives On The Fears Of Death & Dying, David San Filippo Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This E-Book will examine some perspectives on fear, the fears of death, and constructs used to overcome or deal with the fears of death. By examining the literature on fear in general, a framework can be developed to understand how individuals become fearful. In the section, “Fears of Death,” what people fear about death and why they fear it will be discussed.

Questioning Our Principles: Anthropological Contributions To Ethical Dilemmas In Clinical Practice, Carolyn Sargent, Carolyn Smith-Morris

Anthropology Research

No abstract provided.

Torture And Legitimacy, Ronald Sundstrom

Philosophy

George W. Bush’s administration has undermined the legitimacy of the United States of America as a member of the international community through an astonishing array of unilateral policies that do not respect the interests and concerns of that community. On matters of serious concern to the peoples of the world, such as the global environment, human rights, nuclear weapons proliferation, terrorism, and, of course, war, the United States has pursued its foreign policy interests guided by “political realism” and a stubborn commitment to its narrowly interpreted national interests. It is not enough, however, to merely identify and condemn the legitimacy …

Dilthey And Simmel: A Reading From/Toward Buber's Philosophy Of History, Jules Simon

Selected Works Temporary Series

No abstract provided.