Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Teaching The Ethical Foundations Of Economics, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

Some economists consider their discipline a science, and thereby divorced from messy ethical details, the normative passions of right and wrong. They teach in a moral vacuum, perhaps even advocating economic agents' operating independently and avariciously, asserting that this magically produces the greatest good for society.

The Political Psychology Of Collateral Damage, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article provides commentary on how a government purporting to be representative democracy might best approach the construct of collateral damage.

Trends. Implications Of War And Peace For The Morality, Ethics, And Legality Of Killing And Incarceration, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article provides a perspective for the controversy surrounding the appropriateness of killing and incarceration during a war on terrorism with global reach.

Just Because Or Because: Terrorism Discourse And Counterterrorism, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes some antiterrorism and counterterrorism implications of public discourse on terrorism.

"I'M Not A Racist, But...": The Moral Quandary Of Race, Lawrence Blum

Lawrence Blum

Not all racial incidents are racist incidents, Lawrence Blum says. "We need a more varied and nuanced moral vocabulary for talking about the arena of race. We should not be faced with a choice of 'racism' or nothing." Use of the word "racism" is pervasive: An article about the NAACP's criticism of television networks for casting too few "minority" actors in lead roles asks, "Is television a racist institution?" A white girl in Virginia says it is racist for her African-American teacher to wear African attire.Blum argues that a growing tendency to castigate as "racism" everything that goes wrong in …

Trends. Correct Political Incorrectness: Can Germans Be Right About Jews?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses former Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl's analogy, which compared boycotts of his fundraising campaign to pay for fines incurred on his political party because of his illegal and illicit fund-raising initiatives to Nazi-era boycotts of Jewish shops.

Abortion As Killing By The Numbers: An Immoral Approach To Sanctioning Political Violence, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article critiques one quantitative approach to morally supporting violence tolerated and/or approved by a formally constituted authority.

Trends. Human Rights And Mental Health: What Happens When The Right Are Wrong?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

In this analysis the author discusses the moral and ethical criteria of those who seek to prevent human rights violations.

A Scientific Conception Of Animal Welfare That Reflects Ethical Concerns, D. Fraser, D. M. Weary, E. A. Pajor, B. N. Milligan

Ethics and Animal Welfare Collection

Scientific research on 'animal welfare' began because of ethical concerns over the quality of life of animals, and the public looks to animal welfare research for guidance regarding these concerns. The conception of animal welfare used by scientists must relate closely to these ethical concerns if the orientation of the research and the interpretation of the findings is to address them successfully.

At least three overlapping ethical concerns are commonly expressed regarding the quality of life of animals: (1) that animals should lead natural lives through the development and use of their natural adaptations and capabilities, (2) that animals should …

A Question Of Values: New Canadian Perspectives In Ethics And Political Philosophy, Samantha Brennan, Tracy Isaacs, Michael Milde

Samantha Brennan

No abstract provided.

Ethics And Sovereignty, William L. Blizek, Rory J. Conces

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In the political arena, every nation is considered to be sovereign. That is, what happens within the legitimate borders of a nation, what docs not affect other nations, is to be decided by the people of that nation or the government of' that nation and no one else. If a nation wants to centralize economic decisions, that is its business. If a nation wants a free market economy, no other nation can interfere. If a nation wants to be represented by a new form of government, it has the right to change governments. And so on.

Outside or the political …

The Place Of Religious Argument In A Free And Democratic Society, Robert Audi

San Diego Law Review

This Article provides an account of the notion of a religious argument, distinguishes several roles of religious arguments in a liberal democracy, and defends a set of principles for their proper use in such a society. The author argues that it is appropriate that citizens apply a kind of separation of church and state in their public use of religious arguments, especially in advocating laws or public policies that restrict liberty. More specifically, the author contends that whatever religious arguments one may have in such cases, one should also be willing to offer, and be to a certain extent motivated …

Play Fair With Punishment, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

If we want to provide a justification for legal punishment, then, we must answer two distinct questions: (1) What justifies punishment as a social practice? and (2) What justifies punishing particular persons? The principle of fair play is an especially attractive theory of punishment, I shall agree, because it offers plausible and compelling answers to both these questions. I shall also suggest that there is a third question - How should we punish those who commit crimes? - that fair play cannot answer without help from other sources.

Repairing The Three-Legged Stool Of Ethics: A Conversation With Rushworth Kidder, Rushworth Kidder

Maine Policy Review

As founder and president of the two-year-old Institute for Global Ethics (in Camden, Maine), Rushworth Kidder concerns himself not only with chronicling the moral dissonance that characterizes contemporary American society, but also with identifying and trying approaches that address this discord. He is someone who is troubled by what is, but is full of hope for what can be. Earlier this year, Maine Policy Review visited Kidder and queried him about his work and the state of the nation's political values and institutions. This article is an edited version of his comments.

A Question Of Journalism Ethics, Lucinda D. Davenport

Syracuse Scholar (1979-1991)

No abstract provided.

Kant's Political Theory And Philosophy Of History, Philip J. Kain

Philosophy

Kant combined two traditional approaches in his political theory, reference to a utopian and ideal universal moral order in common with Plato, Thomas More, and Jean Jacques Rousseau and an analysis of the pursuit of individual self-interest leading to the establishment of laws that enable citizens to satisfy their interests, like Thomas Hobbes, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Adam Smith. Kant focused on the international level, arguing that following the categorical imperative would arrange a society equitably while national commercial self-interest would lead to a league of nations to adjudicate international disputes. Kant was unique in providing both a theory of an …

Humans And Other Animals: A Biological And Ethical Perspective, Ashley Montagu

Attitudes Towards Animals Collection

What I have been hoping to do in this talk is to provide the scientific basis for the biological kinship of humans with other animals in particular and the whole of nature in general, and to show that the ethical perspective to which such a demonstration leads is inherent in the very nature of nature, that cooperation, love, not conflict and aggression, as we have long been led to believe, is the dominant principle by which living creatures are designed to live with each other. It was not Darwin, but the muscular Darwinists, like Herbert Spencer, who wasn't a biologist …

Is Man's Infliction Of Suffering On Animals Immoral?, Robert Welborn

Attitudes Towards Animals Collection

If it is believed that man is properly in dominion over the earth and that he may do with it and all things on it as he will, then the first definition is sufficient. If generally accepted ideas in man's community are to the effect that man's infliction of suffering on animals is right, then such is not immoral.

If it is believed, however, that life, all life, as it has evolved in its beauty and complexity is the consideration upon which conduct should be judged, then the second definition must apply. Man being the dominant species that consciously and …