Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons^™

What’S The Common Sense Of Just Some Improvement Of Some Welfare For Some Animals?, Liv Baker

Animal Sentience

The goal of Animal Welfare Science to reduce animal suffering is commendable but too modest: Suffering animals need and deserve far more.

Animal Suffering Calls For More Than A Bigger Cage, Simon R. B. Leadbeater

Animal Sentience

Ng (2016) argues for incremental welfare biology partly because it would be impossible to demonstrate conclusively that animals are sentient. He argues that low cost changes in industrial practices and working collaboratively may be more effective in advancing animal welfare than more adversarial approaches. There is merit in some of Ng’s recommendations but a number of his arguments are, in my view, misdirected. The fact that nonhuman animals feel has already been adequately demonstrated. Cruelty to animals is intrinsic to some industries, so the only way to oppose it is to oppose the industry.

Why Animal Welfarism Continues To Fail, Lori Marino

Animal Sentience

Welfarism prioritizes human interests over the needs of nonhuman animals. Despite decades of welfare efforts other animals are mostly worse off than ever before, being subjected to increasingly invasive and harmful treatments, especially in the factory farming and biomedical research areas. A legal rights-based approach is essential in order for other animals to be protected from the varying ethical whims of our species.

End-State Welfarism, Joel Marks

Animal Sentience

Yew-Kwang Ng’s research is the work of an obviously sincere, intelligent, and conscientious animal advocate. But I am unable to accept his starting assumption that animal welfare is an appropriate basis for animal ethics. More specifically I argue that animal welfare as a means to animal liberation is an issue that can be debated, but animal welfare as the ultimate end or goal of animal advocacy is misguided.

Animal Mourning: Précis Of How Animals Grieve (King 2013), Barbara J. King

Animal Sentience

Abstract: When an animal dies, that individual’s mate, relatives, or friends may express grief. Changes in the survivor’s patterns of social behavior, eating, sleeping, and/or of expression of affect are the key criteria for defining grief. Based on this understanding of grief, it is not only big-brained mammals like elephants, apes, and cetaceans who can be said to mourn, but also a wide variety of other animals, including domestic companions like cats, dogs, and rabbits; horses and farm animals; and some birds. With keen attention placed on seeking where grief is found to occur and where it is absent …

Death In The Family, Maria Botero

Animal Sentience

Barbara King presents grief as the result of the capacity of human and non-human animals for social and affectionate bonds. This is a novel approach that provides a context for interpreting behavioral evidence of grief. The book also offers thought-provoking insights into the relationship between emotion and the expression of emotion. The most surprising element of King’s approach is that, throughout the book, her account of non-human animal grief forces us to reassess the way we treat them.

The Object Of Grief, Clark Glymour

Animal Sentience

King’s new book is a wonderful collection of diverse anecdotes illustrating the variety of animal practices that are convincing illustrations of grief. Those who want scientific arguments for that conclusion should, however, read elsewhere.

Understanding Emotional Suffering, Barbara J. King

Animal Sentience

In responding to insightful commentaries from 7 scholars, for which I am grateful, I offer new thoughts on whether animals can conceptualize and express signs of grief. I also discuss why I included both weak and strong examples of animal mourning, and how this work may help us think about enhanced welfare for animals, including freedom from emotional suffering.

Perceptions Of Business School Students About Character Development And Ethical Reasoning, Larkey Mays Iii

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Character development in higher education is essential for enhancing ethical awareness and moral reasoning. However, inconsistent perspectives exist concerning the impact of ethics education on students' ethical awareness and moral reasoning. This phenomenological study examined the perceptions of senior-level undergraduate business students on their own ethical belief systems and changes in ethical awareness. Astin's student development theory on the environmental effects on learning formed the conceptual framework. The research questions explored how the 4-year undergraduate business school experience changed the students' ability to recognize and evaluate ethical concerns in relation to the ethical aspects of coursework. Thirteen undergraduate seniors pursuing …

Habermas And Public Reason In The Digital Age: Technology And Deliberative Democracy, Asaf Bar-Tura

Dissertations

Scholars defending the deliberative model of democracy have focused much of their attention on argumentation and criteria for offering public reasons in deliberative processes, but have paid little attention to the ways in which digital technologies mediate such deliberations. Conversely, critical theorists of technology have emphasized the socially determined nature of technology, but have lacked a theory of democracy through which to normatively assess technologies that mediate public discourse. Through a reworking of Jürgen Habermas’s discourse-based theory of democracy, my research provides a new understanding of the flows of political communication and power in the democratic public sphere and the …

Nigerian Banking Governance, Leadership Style, And Performance During The 2008-2009 Financial Crisis, Adeola Oluwayemi Agbato

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The 2008-2009 global financial crisis of financial systems negatively affected about 30% of Nigerian banks, leading to profitability issues. The profitability issues led to operational challenges, downsizing, and liquidation of some banks. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between corporate governance structure, perception of leadership style, and bank performance. This study was grounded in agency theory and used survey and archival data. Survey data were collected from 11 participants employed by commercial banks located in Nigeria, using the Multifaceted Leadership Questionnaire. Corporate governance and bank performance data were collected from annual bank reports. The model …

Distributive Justice And Climate Change: The What, How, And Who Of Climate Change Policy, Jason F. Moeller

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The goal of this paper is to examine climate change through the lens of distributive justice. In doing so, it will attempt to answer how three important questions of distributive justice apply to climate change policy. These questions, what is the object of distribution, how should this object be distributed, and among whom should this distribution take place, will be the topics of the topics of the first, second, and third sections respectively. Through this examination, it is the hope of this paper that certain policy recommendations and climate change strategies can be developed which adequately take into account both …

A Theory Of Animal Oppression, Sharon Stephania Murillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

American society is characterized by indifference toward the notion of animal rights. Americans are unaware or often ignore the fact that “more than 9,000,000 farm animals die each year in the U.S. and exceeds 70 billion globally.” More than 6,000,000 animals die every hour, and die every second in slaughterhouses around the world. These numbers reflect the reality of American meat consumption. In this thesis, I will argue that individuals often ignore the impact of animal exploitation and as the “oppressors”, such that we do not even realize that we are oppressing animals and committing an injustice.We have the false …

Hesse's Steppenwolf As Modern Ethical Fiction, Michał Koza

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Hesse's Steppenwolf as Modern Ethical Fiction" Michał Koza discusses the significance of "ethical fiction" in modern literature. Such fiction, according to Kant, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche, are not only milestones of ethical thinking, but more importantly offer a narrative for self-creation as an ethical subject. Harry Haller, the protagonist of Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf, is a man living on the border of modern subjectivity embodying a cultural and existential crisis. Koza argues that "ethical reading" enables one to see the relation between philosophy and literature that not only enter in a dialogue with each other, but also share …

The Case For The International Governance Of Immigration, Javier S. Hidalgo

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

States have rights to unilaterally determine their own immigration policies under international law and few international institutions regulate states’ decision-making about immigration. As a result, states have extensive discretion over immigration policy. In this paper, I argue that states should join international migration institutions that would constrain their discretion over immigration. Immigration restrictions are morally risky. When states restrict immigration, they risk unjustly harming foreigners and restricting their freedom. Furthermore, biases and epistemic defects pervasively influence states’ decision-making about immigration policy. States should transfer some of their decision-making authority over immigration to more reliable institutions in order to mitigate the …

Moral Saints, Hindu Sages, And The Good Life, Christopher G. Framarin

Comparative Philosophy

Roy W. Perrett argues that the Hindu sage, like the western moral saint, seems precluded from pursuing non-moral ends for their own sakes. If he is precluded from pursuing non-moral ends for their own sakes, then he is precluded from pursuing non-moral virtues, interests, activities, relationships, and so on for their own sakes. A life devoid of every such pursuit seems deficient. Hence, the Hindu sage seems to forsake the good life. In response, I adapt a reply that Vanessa Carbonell offers in the context of the moral saint. The Hindu sage might pursue non-moral virtues, interests, activities, relationships, and …

Vol 7 No 1 Contents Page

Comparative Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Vol 7 No 1 Information Page

Comparative Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Vol 7 No 1 Cover Page

Comparative Philosophy

No abstract provided.

An Incongruent Amalgamation: John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism On Naturalism, Jeffrey M. Robinson

Liberty Theological Review

John Stuart Mill's utilitarian principle of the greatest happiness for the greatest number, often surfaces in cultural debates in the contemporary West over the extent and foundations of moral duties. Given the drift from its historical Judeo-Christian moorings, naturalism now provides much of the epistemic grounding in Western culture in relation to moral duties. The amalgamation of Mill’s utilitarianism and naturalism has resulted in a cultural and epistemic disconnect. Naturalism is hard-pressed to provide consistent epistemic support for Mill’s utilitarian principle. This essay provides a number of suggestions as to why Mill’s utilitarianism may be inconsistent on naturalism.

Violence Of Sacred Regimes, Emanuel De Guzman

Mabini Review

The creation of sacred regimes stems in ideology. The sacred as an ideological object legitimates and represents society as a whole in an attempt to crystallize collective consciousness. Here, the attempt is ‘to synthesize the unsynthesizable’ thus forming the imagined totality of the collective, which in turn doomed to fail for the synthesis into a collective union is impossible. The relation of the self to the Other is incongruent vis-à-vis the self fashions the Other as its radical enemy construed in the former’s desire to subjugate the latter under his/her power to the extent of activating violent impulses, energies and …

A Review Of Marx’S Writings On Estranged Labor And Insights From Amartya Sen, Kevin Ross Nera

Mabini Review

No abstract provided.

The Transformative And Healing Powers Of Compassion, Forgiveness, And Wonder, Anna C. Eriksson-Marty

Senior Theses

Since time immemorial, humankind has struggled to coexist peacefully together. As human beings, we strive on our relationships with each other and, yet, with actions of hatred and prejudice, we seem to consistently destroy those very relationships we value so deeply. Our current society is plagued by fear, which seems to run more rampant now – more than ever – with assistance of our rapidly evolving communication technology. The question must be asked, “How can we end this madness and heal ourselves into a kinder and more fulfilling future?” By providing up-to-date scientific research on the human emotions of compassion, …

The Calculus Of Consent, John Thrasher, Gerald Gaus

Philosophy Faculty Books and Book Chapters

The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy is a groundbreaking work in democratic theory. This chapter argues that it is of continued relevance today, due both to its methodological innovations and its use of those innovative techniques to solve the fundamental problem of democratic justification. In Calculus, James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock fuse economic methods, political theory, and the normative project of showing how democratic institutions of a particular sort can be justified contractually, creating a unique form of democratic contractualism that came to be known as “Constitutional Political Economy” and the more general research program of “Public …

Biopower: Foucault And Beyond, Vernon W. Cisney, Nicolae Morar

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Michel Foucault’s notion of “biopower” has been a highly fertile concept in recent theory, influencing thinkers worldwide across a variety of disciplines and concerns. In The History of Sexuality: An Introduction, Foucault famously employed the term to describe “a power bent on generating forces, making them grow, and ordering them, rather than one dedicated to impeding them, making them submit, or destroying them.” With this volume, Vernon W. Cisney and Nicolae Morar bring together leading contemporary scholars to explore the many theoretical possibilities that the concept of biopower has enabled while at the same time pinpointing their most important …

Impartialist Ethics And Psychic Disintegration: A Talking Cure, Roman Nakia Briggs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation deals with integrity understood as a state of the psyche. Its primary interlocutor is Professor Bernard Williams, and its point of departure is my interpretation of his Objection from Integrity to impartialist moral theories. Against Williams, I hope to show that the active adherent of impartialist ethical systems (e.g., act utilitarianism) may retain both moral integrity and integrity. In demonstrating this, I make use of a variant of Roy Schafer’s action language approach to psychoanalysis, and what I call practical aestheticism.

Legitimacy And The International Trade Regime, Thomas Christiano

San Diego Law Review

Issues of global justice and trade are usually dealt with in terms of what a just system of trade is like and what the distribution of income, opportunities, or welfare ought to be. But the question I address and explore is what a legitimate way of making decisions in the international realm is. This issue has arisen acutely in the case of the formation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other international institutions. In particular, many have complained that developed countries engaged in hard bargaining with developing countries in the conferences that led up to the formation of the …

Two Conceptions Of Justice And The Dystopia Of Global Justice, Horacio Spector

San Diego Law Review

Political associations raise special questions of justice. Some authors contend that those special questions derive from characteristic features of the modern state. For instance, Thomas Nagel argues that two defining features of the political community justify associative redistributive duties that hold among its members but not among members and nonmembers. Those features are the fact that the political community exercises sovereign power over its members by resorting to the imposition of coercive rules and the fact that it exercises that power in the name of its members. In this paper, I will not challenge this assertion but will nonetheless argue …

Racism At Home And Abroad: Thoughts From A Christian Ethicist, Michael Jones

Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this article Christian ethicist Michael S. Jones introduces the work of Princeton University ethicist Thomas Pogge on the areas of global poverty and global justice. He then applies Pogge’s ideas to an ethical issue of continuing importance: racism. He discusses the history of racism in the United States and Romania, pointing out numerous parallels both historical and contemporary. He then discusses the appropriate attitude for Christians to adopt on the issue, arguing that while Christian sources are not univocal on the subject, there is an egalitarianism at the heart of Christianity that rules out racism as a Christian attitude. …

How To Construct Global Justice, Aaron James

San Diego Law Review

Do social relationships between people give rise to any demands of social justice whatsoever? If they do, are they of any practical significance given the relationships living human beings are actually in? And, might they be so significant as to ground a theory of global justice—if not the whole of anything rightly called justice, then at least of the central range of issues in world politics? Finally, could that perhaps be what a political philosophy of global justice should mainly be about?

Here, in bare outline, is how the answers to all of these questions might be “yes,” at least …