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1
Burns, Aaron. "Diatribe and Plutarch's practical ethics." Diss., University of Iowa, 2015. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/1832.
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This dissertation concerns two aspects of Plutarch’s ethics that have received relatively little attention: the link between his metaphysics and ethics, and Plutarch’s use of diatribe, a rhetorical style primarily associated with Stoics and Cynics, as a means of targeting a wider audience of educated elite for his philosophy. I argue that Plutarch’s De virtute morali links his ethics with his understanding of Platonic metaphysics. De virtute morali also serves as model for Plutarch’s ethical treatises on specific topics. I analyze the following works: De curiositate, De garrulitate, De vitando aere alieno, De vitioso pudore, and De superstitione. In these, Plutarch identifies a vicious behavior (κρίσις) and suggests methods of self-training to eliminate the vicious behavior (ἄσκησις). Self-training always involves the subordination of emotions to reason (μετριοπάθεια), rather than the elimination of emotions (άπάθεια) advocated by the Stoics. Plutarch uses diatribe, in which the author adopts a conversational tone and addresses the reader in second person, both in κρίσις and ἄσκησις, as well as in his arguments against Stoic άπάθεια. Since Stoicism was the most popular philosophical adherence among educated elites during the time when Plutarch began to write, I argue that Plutarch adopts rhetoric associated with the Stoics as a means of promoting Platonism, and himself as its interpreter, in a culture where intellectuals required the patronage of the educated elite for their personal livelihood and the livelihood of their schools.
2
Brandhorst, Mario. "Foundations of practical reason." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2007. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:12719f6b-eeb1-404f-8eff-bb5f1782ab84.
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This thesis is an examination of the foundations of practical reason. Building on the later work of Wittgenstein, I argue for a subjectivist view of moral judgment and of judgments about reasons for action. On this view, moral judgments and judgments about reasons for action can be true or false, but they are not objective. The argument for this view has the form of an inference to the best explanation. Using a distinction between primary and secondary qualities, I suggest that moral judgments and judgments about reasons for action should not be construed as referring to an ethical or normative reality that exists independently of us. There are ethical facts and facts about our reasons, but these facts arise as the result of our involvement in a linguistic practice. This provides a new way of accounting for these judgments that differs both from moral realism and expressivism. The view of reasons that emerges is closely related to, but not identical with, reasons internalism as described by Bernard Williams. I reject his argument in favour of internalism and provide a new and independent argument to support this view of our reasons. In the course of spelling out that argument, I show why internalism as described by Williams should be modified, and why this does not commit us to externalism. In the final chapters, I show that there is an important parallel between our practical predicament and the account of our epistemic condition as portrayed by Wittgenstein. The inference to the best explanation is completed by considering a number of objections to subjectivism that are based on the idea that a subjectivist account of moral judgment and of reasons fails to do justice to the ethical phenomena. I reject these objections, and suggest that a subjectivist can both be reflectively aware of his subjectivism and continue to live well.
3
Persson, Anders J. "Workplace Ethics : Some practical and foundational problems." Doctoral thesis, Stockholm : Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-4069.
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4
Davanzo, Anthony P. "Practical Paradise: Ethics for a Modern Age." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2016. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1248.
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This play demonstrates an interpretation of Nietzsche's philosophy in practice. The main character experiences loss and confusion, however, through this struggle arrives at a discovery of profound truth. If you've ever wondered how to live your life in the best way possible, the main character believes he's found the answer.
5
Pravica, Tamara Eileen. "Communicative ethics, developing a practical procedure of discourse." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape8/PQDD_0006/MQ46184.pdf.
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6
Dickenson, Donna. "Moral luck in medical ethics and practical politics." Thesis, Open University, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.329198.
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7
CASTRO, MARCELLE DE SOUZA. "TRANSLATION, ETHICS AND SUBVERSION: PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL CHALLENGES." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2007. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=10747@1.
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COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR<br>O presente trabalho se insere na discussão sobre a
identificação de
fronteiras para o fazer tradutório. Levando-se em conta
as
teorias pós-modernas
sobre a linguagem, busca-se compreender se, mesmo diante
de novas concepções
de língua, cultura, sujeito e tradução, é possível
reivindicar características
razoavelmente estáveis para a prática tradutória.
Algumas
práticas de reescrita que
são apresentadas como tradução, mas que, supostamente,
subvertem em excesso
os textos que lhes precedem representam um desafio ao
estabelecimento dessas
fronteiras. Neste trabalho, analisam-se três diferentes
projetos de tradução que
abertamente declaram a defesa de uma agenda política
específica, para verificar
até que ponto eles se afastam da acepção de tradução
como
uma representação
o mais próxima possível, na língua-alvo, de um texto
estrangeiro. Os projetos
estudados são: as traduções feministas, as traduções pós-
colonialistas e o
projeto de tradução minorizante de Lawrence Venuti. Esta
análise se presta a
verificar as motivações ético-políticas dos projetos em
questão e as principais
estratégias por eles utilizadas. A busca de um campo
conceitual e prático próprio
para a tradução está articulada a uma preocupação ética
na
qual o leitor é o norte
das discussões.<br>This paper was developed in the context of the discussion
about the
identification of boundaries in translation practice.
Taking into account the postmodern
theories of language, I try to understand whether it is
possible to define,
even in face of new conceptions of language, culture,
subject and translation,
reasonably stable characteristics of the translation
practice. Some rewriting
practices presented as traslations, but which, in my
opinion, subvert excessively
the original text pose a challenge for the definition of
such boundaries. In this
thesis, I analize three different translation projects
which openly uphold a
particular political agenda, in order to verify to which
extent they are distanced
from the definition of translation as the closest possible
representation of a
foreign text in a target language. The projects studied
here are: feminist
translations, postcolonial translations and Lawrence
Venuti´s minoritizing
project. This analysis aims at understanding the ethical
and political motivations
of the projects at issue and their main strategies. The
pursuit of a specific
conceptual and practical field for translation is linked
to an ethical concern at
which the reader is the focus of the discussion.
8
Elsey, Timothy Alan. "Deliberation and the Role of the Practical Syllogism." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1302455557.
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9
Roberts, Deborah Joan. "Self-respecting practical reason: an analysis of self-respect and its implications for practical reason." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002849.
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What should I do? As long as I am aware of the relevant facts of the situation and deliberating soundly, Bernard Williams argues that I should do what I want to do. It makes no sense to say that there are reasons that are fixed objects of concern, or values, that exist for an agent regardless of what she is in fact motivated to do. Reasons, for Williams, are hypothetical. I argue that he takes this view of practical reason because of a prior answer to the question “How should I live?”. A universal account of the good life would mean an account of values, or interests, that all human beings should have. Williams thinks it is not possible to give a universal account of the good life for human beings; any such account must be constructed out of the particular reasons of a community. But, he takes a constructivist view of the good life because he thinks that to be universal an account of the good life would have to be objective. Since objectivity cannot be achieved, he argues, neither can universality. Williams is only half right. That objectivity is not possible is inconsequential. A foundation for ethics has to be internal, but this does not preclude it being universal. I develop such a foundation based on the Aristotelian conception of human nature. A life cannot be wholly good if it is not self-respecting. Moreover, self-respect fits the framework for the specification of the good life that this foundation provides: I argue that self-respect can be shown to have a structure which provides an account of real interests - reasons that are objects of fixed concern. As such, reasons recognise rather than construct the good, making categorical reasons possible. A person can have a reason to change or act, even if reason itself cannot effect that change or action. Thus, I can be wrong about what I should do not only by being wrong about what would count as a satisfaction of my interests, but also by being wrong about what my interests are.
10
Paterson, Gillian Margaret. "AIDS related stigma : exercise in practical theology and ethics." Thesis, Heythrop College (University of London), 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.498150.
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11
Guardiola-Rivera, Oscar. "Practical consciousness : Marx, mind and the problem of ethics." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.300672.
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The nature of this study is two-fold. Firstly, it is a critique of the ontological assumptions implicit in the neo-Kantian intellectualism which dominates philosophy of mind and cognitive science. As such, it is based upon the criticism against external causalism developed in the last three decades by the Critical Realists in the Anglophone world and some accounts of the history of science and philosophy on the continent. On this basis, the study proposes a materialist approach to the mind which brings together Marxian sociocultural theory of the mind and cognitive science's neurocomputational model. Thus, human beings are conceived as both a social construction and a formal device which can and must be accounted for in terms of productive efficiency rather than any kind of external causality. This study focuses on the materialist ontology of dynamic processes and the embodied nature of thinking, particularly on dialectics as a mediation through language of the internal processes and the external world, and on the actual relevance of Marx's notions of 'passion' or affects and 'practical consciousness'. Secondly, this thesis also studies the nature of the mind in relation to the life of the body, preliminary to a future Ethics whose aim is to consider the form in which passions are used for the political purposes of producing and maintaining, with the manufactured consent of the multitude, authoritarian social formations. Some of the features of such an 'Ethics of Self-valorization' are discussed here. It opposes the transcendental option, considered to be based on a notion of causality which leads it to present the forms of jurisprudence and other ego-ethnocentric discourses as the rational forms. Similar ontological options impede this doctrine from considering the productive role of passions, which are conceived merely as pathological events to be policed by reason and the categorical power of the law. Therefore it does not allow the kind of analysis of the potential of passions that this study aims to make possible.
12
Price, Mark L. "Life and death issues : a practical approach to moral theory /." free to MU campus, to others for purchase, 2001. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/mo/fullcit?p3013012.
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13
Odedoyin, Bayo Aderemi. "Practical reason in Rawls' liberalism : abstract, not gender-biased." Thesis, University of Essex, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.336885.
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14
Moula, Payam. "Virtue Ethics and right action." Thesis, Linköping University, Department of Culture and Communication, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-54309.
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<p>This paper evaluates some arguments made against the conceptions of right action within virtue ethics. I argue that the different accounts of right action can meet the objections raised against them. Michael Slote‘s agent-based and Rosalind Hursthouses agent-focused account of right action give different judgments of right action but there seems to be a lack of real disagreement between the two accounts. I also argue that the concept of right action often has two important parts, relating to action guidance and moral appraisal, respectively, and that virtue ethics can deal with both without a concept of right action.</p>
15
Cortes, Ondina America. "Communion in Diversity? Exploring a Practical Theology of Reconciliation Among Cuban Exiles." Thesis, St. Thomas University, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3589421.
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<p> This dissertation articulates a practical theology of reconciliation for, with, and by Cuban Catholic exiles through the development of a faith-based structured process of reconciliation—the Circles of Reconciliation—that addresses personal reconciliation as the basis for social reconciliation. The Circles of Reconciliation draw on sources of the Christian tradition in dialogue with the empirical sciences and Cuban culture. The Circles provide the space to advance a praxis of reconciliation among Cuban exiles. The reflection that emanates from this process is the basis for the concluding insights on a theology and an ethics of reconciliation for this community.</p>
16
Erler, Alexandre. "Authenticity and the ethics of self-change." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:d0951619-9026-4cf3-a8db-0a2cea132534.
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This dissertation focuses on the concept of authenticity and its implications for our projects of self-creation, particularly those involving the use of "enhancement technologies" (such as stimulant drugs, "mood brighteners", or brain stimulation). After an introduction to the concept of authenticity and the enhancement debate in the first part of the thesis, part 2 considers the main analyses of authenticity in the contemporary philosophical literature. It begins with those emphasizing self-creation, and shows that, despite their merits, such views cannot adequately deal with certain types of cases, which require a third option, “true self” accounts, emphasizing self-discovery. However, it is argued that in their existing versions, accounts of this third sort are also unsatisfactory. Part 3 of the thesis proposes a new account of the "true self" sort, intended to improve upon existing ones. Common problematic assumptions about the concept of the true self are critiqued, after which a new analysis of that concept is presented, based on seven different conditions. Two specific definitions of authenticity, respectively emphasizing self-expression and the preservation of one's true self, are provided, and its relation to various associated notions, such as integrity or sincerity, are examined. Finally, part 4 looks at the implications of the previous parts for the enhancement debate. In particular, it discusses the prospect of technologically enhancing our personality and mood dispositions. Do such interventions always threaten our authenticity, as some worry? A negative answer is provided to that question. Various potential pitfalls hinted at by the inauthenticity worry are discussed and acknowledged. It is, however, argued that such enhancements could still in principle be used in a fully authentic manner, and that they have the potential to bring about genuine improvements in our mood but also to our moral capacities and our affective rationality more generally.
17
Baker, Jennifer Anne. "The practical life of what reasons: Eudaimonist ethics as a guide to right action." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/289860.
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Eudaimonism once had great success in fostering a public appreciation of philosophy. In contrast, a recent editorial on the subject of bioethics was titled, "The Ethicist's New Clothes." Contemporary ethical theories have not been well popularized, and to the public these theories seem untried. But perhaps the public is right to be suspicious of ethical accounts that regard ethics as the province of those with advanced training in philosophy. Once we start thinking this, we have perhaps forgotten what ethics is meant to do, and how it is meant to do what it does for all of us. In this project, I set up a contest between ethical theories, seeking to determine which is the most practically guiding to agents. In chapters one and two I argue that a number of contemporary approaches to ethics are inappropriately inapplicable. In contrast, a version of virtue ethics, ancient eudaimonist theory, is shown to be more applicable and practical to agents than either Kant's theory or consequentialism. In chapters three and four I argue for how this is. In chapters five and six, I look to how far-ranging ethical theories' applicability may be, by considering how eudaimonist ethical theory can help to justify political organization. Stoic and Epicurean eudaimonism, for example, can justify arrangements that we might recognize as liberal, but not by attempting to remain neutral on the subject of value.
18
Errington, Andrew Ross. "Every good path : wisdom and practical reason in Christian ethics and the Book of Proverbs." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2017. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=235585.
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This study brings the biblical book of Proverbs into discussion with two significant accounts of the nature and foundation of practical reason in Christian ethics, one medieval—Thomas Aquinas—and one modern—Oliver O'Donovan. It begins with an outline of the complexities of practical reason in the thought of Aristotle, which leads to an extended discussion of Aquinas's moral theory. The centrality of Proverbs 8 in Aquinas's account of eternal law opens the way to a reading of Proverbs, in which the central constructive ideas of the thesis are developed. These are then sharpened through an engagement with the work of Oliver O'Donovan. The conclusions are consolidated and developed in a final, constructive chapter. The study's central thesis is that the way the Book of Proverbs thinks about wisdom presents an important challenge to the way practical reason has been understood in the Western theological and philosophical tradition. Rather than being a perfection of speculative knowledge, in the Book of Proverbs, wisdom is a practical knowledge of how to act well, grounded in the reality of the world God has made. God's wisdom is therefore better understood as a perfection of his action, which is why it ultimately relates to Jesus Christ crucified. This perspective reframes our understanding of certain aspects of Christian ethical theory. It shows that created, natural order is a crucial, unavoidable presupposition of Christian ethics, but not its only norm. It helps us understand why moral deliberation and discernment centres on the construal of actions as kinds. Finally, it clarifies the purpose of Christian ethics as a theoretical discipline that accompanies the practical wisdom of the Christian life.
19
Nemoto, Kuniaki. "Committing to the party the costs of governance in East Asian democracies /." Diss., [La Jolla] : University of California, San Diego, 2009. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3359876.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2009.<br>Title from first page of PDF file (viewed July 23, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 328-364).
20
Goldstein, Daniel M. (Daniel Michael). "Medicine as practical wisdom : an old foundation for a new way of thinking in biomedical ethics." Thesis, McGill University, 1989. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=22372.
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This inquiry suggests a new epistemological foundation for understanding and discernment in biomedical ethics. This foundation, based on Aristotle's phronesis or practical wisdom, contains elements of the lived human experience which are seen as essential aspects of ethical, as well as medical, deliberation. The Aristotelian intellectual virtues of theoria and phronesis, used as "ideal types" of rationality, provide epistemological prejudices that structure two distinct ways of thinking. With this distinction, an alternative to certain dominant trends within biomedical ethics arises as phronesis provides more human centered prejudices for understanding. In conclusion, we shall see, using the doctrine of informed consent, that a phronetic rationality allows different, more humane meanings to come into being. Phronesis, it will be argued, provides a mode of rationality which promotes compassion and engagement in both ethics and medicine and consequently, is the more appropriate way of thinking in these important human practices.
21
Jesson, S. N. "Forgiveness and its reason." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2011. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12038/.
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Forgiveness might be said to involve a certain kind of intellectual suffering: we forgive, and are forgiven, whilst a great many questions remain undecided, and while it is far from obvious that they are unimportant. This thesis explores the way in which the difficulties in submitting forgiveness to thought may be significant. Contemporary accounts of forgiveness are put into creative dialogue with the work of Simone Weil, Rene Girard and Jacques Derrida in an attempt to assess different forms of approach to the resistance forgiveness offers to thought. Utilising the work of Simone Weil in particular, and through a creative interpretation of some of the gospel sayings from which the modern notion of forgiveness originates, the argument is made that forgiveness can be seen to involve a process of transformation of understanding that is akin to spirituality of death and resurrection. On this account, forgiveness is paradoxical and resistant to thought not because it involves a simple suspension of, or opposition to reasoned forms of judgment, but because it involves a way of holding together attitudes, concerns and insights that do not easily cohere. As such it calls for a ‘posture’ that cultivates and waits with this tension, rather than a theory that allows the meaning and goodness of forgiveness to appear unambiguously. In this sense forgiveness is an expression of a love that both hopes all things and bears all things; a way of accepting the worst whilst desiring the best.
22
Vos, James Antony. "The motivating force of moral beliefs." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003804.
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I investigate the issue of whether or not one's holding a moral belief is sufficient to motivate one to act as that belief prescribes. I argue that rational persons who hold a moral belief that is also a 'self-referential belief' will form a desire to act as that belief prescribes and thereby be motivated to act on the moral belief. I argue for this claim by, firstly, showing that the demand that moral judgements must be intrinsically motivating, Internalism, should only apply to rational persons, that is, the link between moral judgement and motivation can be broken in cases of irrationality. Secondly, I argue against the Humean claim that one cannot rationally form a desire simply because one believes that one ought to have that desire. This claim requires an investigation into a variety of views of Practical Reason and an argument concluding that Practical Reason is broader in scope than the Instrumentalist or Humean allows. I undertake this task in chapter 2. Thirdly, I argue that believing that I ought to perform a certain action will give me an internal commitment to perform that action, insofar as I am rational. I argue that an internal commitment is a form of desire. Once I recognise that I have a moral belief and an internal commitment, I will be motivated to act as that belief and commitment prescribe.<br>KMBT_363<br>Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in
23
Tian, Jie. "The orthos logos in Aristotle’s ethics." Doctoral thesis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Philosophische Fakultät I, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/17712.
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Der Begriff von Orthos Logos ist zentral für die ethische Lehre Aristoteles’. In der Literatur ist jedoch umstritten, was der Inhalt von OL ist. Das genaue Wesen von OL liegt immer noch im Dunkel. Ziel meiner Dissertation ist es, den Beitrag von OL für Aristoteles’ Ethik zu erforschen. Dabei soll vor allem erläutert werden, was OL ist bzw. was OL leisten kann. Auf dieser Untersuchung basierend versuche ich, eine ausführliche bzw. in sich konsistente Interpretation der wichtigen Bestandteile der Nicomachischen Ethik zu liefern. Ich werde dafür argumentieren, dass OL als der praktische Syllogismus selbst aufzufassen ist, der die moralischen Subjekte darüber informiert, was sie tun sollen bzw. weswegen sie gerade dies und nicht etwas anderes tun sollen. Sofern ein hinsichtlich der Moralität noch lernender Mensch den Syllogismus nicht vollständig begreift, ist es allerdings möglich, dass OL diesem Menschen etwas anderes zu sein scheint.<br>The notion of the orthos logos (abbr. OL) is vital and decisive for Aristotle’s ethical project. The question of what OL really means is a vigorously debated issue. But what the OL exactly is still remains ambiguous and obscure. The purpose of my dissertation is to inquire into the philosophical contribution of the OL in Aristotle’s Ethics. To fulfil this goal, it is essentially to determine what the OL is and what the OL can do. Through this inquiry I seek to present a comprehensive and consistent reading of important parts of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. I will argue that the OL is the practical syllogism per se, which could tell moral people what should they do and why should they do this or that. But it could also appear to be something else for moral learners, since they are not capable of fully understanding the syllogism yet.
24
Kronlid, David. "Ecofeminism and Environmental Ethics." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala University, Department of Theology, 2003. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-3307.
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<p>This study focuses on ecofeminist ethical theory. A first aim is to clarify ecofeminist views on five central issues in the field of environmental ethics. These issues are: (1) Views of nature, (2) social constructivism and nature, (3) values of nature, (4) ethical contextualism, and (5) ethical pluralism. A second aim is to compare ecofeminist standpoints with certain standpoints within nonfeminist environmental ethical theory. A third aim is to critically discuss some of the main standpoints in ecofeminism. The analysis focuses on the works of Karen Warren, Sallie McFague, Chris Cuomo, and Carolyn Merchant. Other important sources are the environmental philosophers and ethicists J. Baird Callicott, Paul Taylor, Irene Klaver, Bryan G. Norton, Christopher Stone, Eugene Hargrove, Holmes Rolston III, Per Ariansen, Don E. Marietta, and Bruno Latour.</p><p>The result of this study is that there are no main differences between ecofeminism and nonfeminist environmental ethics regarding the main standpoints on the five issues. Rather, the significant differences are found within these main standpoints. In addition, one important characteristic of ecofeminist ethics is its "double nature," that is, the fact that it is rooted in feminism and environmentalism. The double nature of ecofeminism results in a foundation out of which ecofeminism as an environmental philosophy has a unique potential to handle some of the theoretical tensions that environmental ethics creates.</p><p>From the perspective that environmental problems consist of complex clusters of natureculture- discourse and that environmental ethical theory ought to be action guiding, it is argued that ecofeminist ethical theory has an advantage compared to nonfeminist environmental ethics. This standpoint is explained by the fact that ecofeminism holds a variety of views of nature, kinds of social constructivism and contextualism, and conceptions of values and of the self, and from the presumption that this variety reflects the reality of environmental problems. However, in order for ecofeminist ethical theory to fulfill its promise as an acceptable environmental ethical theory, its theoretical standpoints ought to be explicated and further clarified.</p>
25
Vong, Gerard. "What to do when there isn't enough : the fair distribution of scarce goods." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:56aba9fe-d3ff-4107-974b-00db9bf4e42e.
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My DPhil submission consists of a series of papers on related topics on the moral philosophy of scarce benefit distribution. It focuses on two types of scarce benefit distribution case. The first type occurs when which all potential beneficiaries of a good each have an equally strong moral claim on an equal benefit from the resource but scarcity or indivisibility prevents us from benefiting all potential beneficiaries. Call these cases equal conflict cases. In 'Anti-Majoritarianism', I argue against the view defended by both utilitarians and non-utilitarians that in equal conflict cases you always ought to give the benefit to as many people as possible. I argue that doing so is neither morally right nor fair. In 'Weighing Up Weighted Lotteries', I argue that the philosophical debate between unweighted and weighted lottery benefit distribution procedures has been misconceived and that fairness requires us to use a new kind of weighted lottery that I call the exclusive composition-sensitive lottery. In 'Can't Get No Satisfaction', I defend a new view that I call the dual-structure view about how lotteries satisfy potential beneficiaries' claims in equal conflict cases and highlight the implications of that view for the distribution of donor corneas to those who have suffered corneal degeneration. The second type of this distributional problem occurs when we can either benefit a very large number of potential beneficiaries with a very small benefit (call these the many) or a very small number of potential beneficiaries with a very major benefit (call these the few). In "Valuing the Few Over the Many" I argue that there are cases where not only ought we to benefit the few over the many no matter how numerous the many are, but it is also better to do so. However, this conclusion can be shown to conflict with a number of widely held tenets of value theory. I evaluate different ways of accommodating these intuitions and argue that in some contexts, benefits are not of finite value. The view I defend in 'Valuing the Few Over the Many', combined with some intuitively plausible axiological claims, is inconsistent with the transitivity of the 'better than' relation. In 'Making Betterness Behave' I argue that for what I call the conditional non-coextensive thesis: if 'better than' is not transitive, one ought to take the position that 'more reason to bring about rather than' is transitive. I argue that one can generate a transitive 'more reason to bring about rather than' deontic ordering from a non-transitive axiological ordering in a principled way. This deontic ordering avoids the major practical objections (money pumps, moral dilemmas and threats to practical reasoning) to non-transitivity of the 'better than' relation.
26
Pawley, Daniel W. "Popular privation : suffering in fan cultures." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/2233.
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Contributing to scholarship that explores human suffering within mediated culture has provided the impetus for this PhD thesis. I propose that suffering in mediated modernity be considered in social, cultural, and theological terms; and specifically in the context of privation, a term applied by Saint Augustine to the integrated problems of suffering and evil. Privation, to Augustine, meant negation: a vacuum of human existence understood as the absence of positive, sustaining life forces. I attempt to update this concept by arguing that a modern definition of privation can be conceived of as variable states of human deprivation such as loss, dislocation, isolation, and hunger. Privation encompasses these states of deprivation, expressing the kind of suffering that occurs in mediated culture. To narrow the mediated-culture aspect of the study, I explore the topic of fandom, which I define as “the intentional socialization of textual consumption,” and I attempt to show how privation exists in several well-defined forms within a wide variety of fan cultures (groups of fans). In short, fans use their fandom to satisfy their privation in four ways: through connectivity, release, identification, and empowerment. The corresponding deprivations include dislocation, animus, isolation, and hunger. I bring these concepts together in the form of deprivations requiring satisfactions described as dislocation/connectivity, animus/release, isolation/identification, and hunger/empowerment. In each case I attempt to provide analysis and discussion of relevant findings based on empirical research, and in a final discussion I integrate supportive ideas from theories of attachment, catharsis, identification, and empowerment. My methods of research include a combination of secondary source analysis; two distinct phases of questionnaire-based research among 256 fans from various fan cultures; and a case study approach to the online fan culture of the Harry Potter books by Edinburgh author J.K. Rowling.
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Lumley, Alan. "New ethics for a new era : an analysis of the changing nature of post Cold War international relations and its potential for the practical humanitarian ethics." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.413969.
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Schaefer, G. Owen. "Moral enhancement and moral disagreement." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:cf152e03-a7a0-4877-b519-bd90dd253e89.
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At first glance, the project of moral enhancement (making people more moral) may appear uncontroversial and obviously worth supporting; surely it is a good idea to make people better. However, as the recent literature on moral enhancement demonstrates, the situation is not so simple – there is significant disagreement over the content of moral norms as well as appropriate means by which to manipulate them. This disagreement seriously threatens many proposals to improve society via moral enhancement. In my dissertation, I develop an understanding of how, exactly, disagreement poses problems for moral enhancement. However, I also argue that there is a way forward. It is possible to bring about moral improvement without commitment to particular and controversial moral norms, but instead relying on relatively uncontroversial ideas concerning morally reliable processes. The upshot is that, while attempting to directly manipulate people’s moral ideas is objectionable, it is relatively unproblematic to focus on helping people reason better and avoid akrasia, with the justified expectation that this will generally lead to moral improvement. We should, therefore, focus not on how to bring people in line with what we take to be the right ideas, motives or behaviors. Rather, we should look to helping people determine for themselves what being moral consists in, as well as help ensure that they act on those judgments. Traditional, non-moral education, it turns out, is actually one of the best moral enhancers we have. In fact, the tools of philosophy (which is, in many aspects, concerned with proper reasoning) are central to the project of indirect moral enhancement. Ultimately, one of the best ways to make people morally better may well be to make them better philosophers.
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Pugh, Jonathan David. "Autonomy, rationality and contemporary bioethics." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c9107058-df18-4ccb-91ae-aa51f0b25954.
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Personal autonomy is often lauded as a key value in contemporary bioethics. In this thesis, I aim to provide a rationalist account of personal autonomy that avoids the philosophical flaws present in theories of autonomy that are often invoked in bioethics, and that can be usefully applied to contemporary bioethical issues. I claim that we can understand the concept of autonomy to incorporate two dimensions, which I term the 'reflective' and 'practical' dimensions of autonomy. I suggest that the reflective dimension pertains to the critical reflection that agents must carry out on their motivating desires, in order to be autonomous with respect to them. I begin by rejecting prominent desire-based and historical accounts of this dimension of autonomy, before going on to defend an account based upon a Parfitian analysis of rational desires. Following this analysis of the reflective dimension of autonomy, I argue that autonomy can also be understood to incorporate a practical dimension, pertaining to the agent's ability to act effectively in pursuit of their ends. I claim that recognising this dimension of autonomy more comprehensively reflects the way in which we use the concept of autonomy in bioethics, and makes salient the fact that agents carry out their rational deliberations in the light of their beliefs about what they are able to do. I go on to argue that this latter point means that my account of autonomy can offer a deeper explanation of why coercion undermines autonomy than other prominent accounts. Having considered the prudential value of autonomy in the light of this theoretical analysis, in the latter half of the thesis I apply my rationalist account of autonomy to a number of contemporary bioethical issues, including the use of human enhancement technologies, the nature of informed consent, and the doctor-patient relationship.
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Schmidt, F. W. "Ethical prescription and practical justification in selected apocalyptic literature and the teaching of Jesus, advancing the debate over the relationship between ethics and eschatology." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.371735.
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Silverman, Stephanie J. "The normative ethics of immigration detention in liberal states." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:4c37674b-abdb-42b0-91a9-e6719587bf01.
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This thesis explores the normative propriety of immigration detention in liberal states. In the first part of the thesis, I explore the development, current practice, and popular justifications for immigration detention in the United Kingdom. I argue that a crucial but unacknowledged role for immigration detention is to function as a political spectacle of the centralisation of power in liberal states. I find that the key motivation for detaining non-citizens is that they could abscond before their removals. I conclude that this basis for detention is normatively acceptable in only very limited cases and, even then, alternatives are often available and ethically preferable. Based on the fact that there is a normatively acceptable rationale, albeit circumscribed, for detention practices, I then propose a framework of minimum standards of treatment in detention that I advise all liberal states to follow. After outlining my proposal, I turn in the second part of the thesis to an examination of the normative theories of immigration control and how they take account of detention. Normative theorists differ in how they balance their commitments to individual and state rights, yet I find the majority concedes the need for some degree of immigration admissions control. Such theories face a moral dilemma: there can be no immigration control without detention, and so detention becomes an implicit assumption for these normative theories to be coherent. A potential solution for combating the practical problems associated with the growing, worsening detention estates as well as the moral dilemma of incarcerating a non-citizen based on fear of absconding would be to open borders and eliminate immigration control. Given the reality of the sovereign right to control immigration, however, I argue that the more feasible normative answer is lobby liberal states to adopt my framework of minimum standards of treatment while simultaneously pressing for open borders as the long-term ethical goal.
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Langlois, David Joseph. "The Normativity of Structural Rationality." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:13067678.
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Many of us take for granted that rationality requires that we have our attitudes combined only in certain ways. For example, we are required not to hold inconsistent beliefs or intentions and we are required to intend any means we see as crucial to our ends. But attempts to justify claims like these face two problems. First, it is unclear what unifies the rational domain and determines what is (and is not) rationally required of us. This is the content problem. Second, as philosophers have been unable to find any general reason for us to have our attitudes combined only in certain ways, it is unclear why, or in what sense, we are required to comply with these putative requirements in the first place. This is the normativity problem.
My dissertation offers an account of rationality which solves these problems. I argue that the entire domain of rational requirements can be derived from a single ultimate requirement demanding that we not have sets of intentions and beliefs which cause their own failure. This General Requirement of Structural Rationality explains the unity of the rational domain and directly solves the content problem. But it also solves the normativity problem. I argue that whenever we violate the General Requirement we are engaged in a form of criticizable self-undermining. I propose that this is enough to ground the claim that we ought to comply with the General Requirement's demands. This conclusion can be secured as long as we accept the thesis of normative pluralism, according to which there is more than one fundamentally distinct form of normative 'ought.'<br>Philosophy
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Gower, Graeme. "Ethical research in indigenous contexts and the practical implementation of it." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2015. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1594.
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Research in Indigenous Australia has historically been controlled and dominated by non-Indigenous researchers. However, recent national research guidelines which have been developed by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and together with a number of other research guidelines that have been developed by other institutions, including the Australian Institute for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), have signalled a shift towards Indigenous ownership and control over research. However, despite these revised guidelines, researching in Indigenous contexts can still result in cultural insensitivities, neglect or disregard by researchers and mistrust by Indigenous participants. Similar issues have also been expressed by Indigenous academics such as Moreton-Robinson, Rigney and Nakata who advocate for further reforms in Indigenous research.
This thesis presents a documentary study on the application of the NHMRC’s ethical research guidelines of research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. A unique case study has been chosen to examine the adequacy of the 1991 and 2003 guidelines in conducting ethical research and best practice in Indigenous contexts. The case study evaluation reveals that good ethics practice can be compromised by third parties who are involved in the research process but are not subject to ethical conduct and secondly, by the absence of cultural competence training in research. To minimise risks and to develop effective relationships between researchers and participants, cultural competence training is advocated in this thesis.
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Simpson, Justin T. "Quasi-Subjectivity and Ethics in Non-Modernity." UNF Digital Commons, 2015. https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/557.
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The inspiration behind this philosophical endeavor is an ethical one: interested in what it means to flourish as a human being – how to live well and authentically. Similar to medicine and how the ability to prescribe the appropriate treatment depends on first making a diagnosis, the focus of this work will to be understand the human condition and the ways in which subjectivity, one’s sense of self, is constituted. Given the general dissatisfaction with the modern metaphysical picture of the world, which analyzes the world in terms of the mutually exclusive and completely separate categories of nature/objects and society/subjects, I proceed from an alternative conceptual perspective, that of non-modernity, offered by Bruno Latour. By focusing on the actual practice of the sciences Latour develops one of his central concepts: mediation. From this understanding of the practices of mediation the world is revealed as an ontological continuum of hybrids – mixtures of human and nonhuman elements – that ranges from quasi-object to quasi-subject. Rather than being separate, nature and society are intimately interwoven and co-constituted, forming a nature-culture collective that is connected and defined by the network of relations between existing hybrids. Given this philosophical landscape of mediation, hybrids and networks, the question that I seek to address is how does this effect what it means to be human? What does it mean to human living in a hybrid world? I answer this question by articulating and developing Latour’s concept of quasi-subject. This will ultimately amount to saying that as humans, our sense of self and agency is co-constituted through our networks of relations with both humans and nonhumans. I conclude the paper by exploring some of the ethical implications that naturally emerge from such an understanding.
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de, Dios Anjeline Eloisa J. "Crossing Boundaries : The Ethics of the Pubic/Private Divide in Migrant Domestic Work in Europe." Thesis, Linköping University, Linköping University, Centre for Applied Ethics, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-19155.
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<p> </p><p>The central objective of this thesis is to demonstrate how the concept—or <em>concepts</em>—of the public/private divide actively shapes the conditions of migrant domestic work in Europe. In doing so, I aim to show how European states’ current treatment of migrant domestic work is ethically problematic, and that a sufficient moral response to this dilemma entails a re-evaluation of any operative notions of the public/private distinction.</p><p>The premise of my thesis is that migrants working as domestics suffer human rights abuses due to two distinct but inseparable factors: their gender-based mode of employment and their legal status. I will make the claim that states fail to prevent these abuses, and secure the conditions necessary for the fulfillment of migrants’ human rights, because they assume a morally problematic understanding of the public/private distinction. </p><p>In arguing for a re-evaluation of the public/private sphere, I will likewise propose that certain revisions be accordingly made in several levels and domains of legislation—regional and national, as well as labor and immigration. Less concrete, though no less important, is my contention that receiving and sending countries alike need to undertake a more profound re-examination of the moral status of domestic work, and, more fundamentally, care work itself. </p><p> </p>
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Malmqvist, Erik. "Good Parents, Better Babies : An Argument about Reproductive Technologies, Enhancement and Ethics." Doctoral thesis, Linköpings universitet, Hälsa och samhälle, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-12584.
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This study is a contribution to the bioethical debate about new and possibly emerging reproductive technologies. Its point of departure is the intuition, which many people seem to share, that using such technologies to select non-disease traits – like sex and emotional stability - in yet unborn children is morally problematic, at least more so than using the technologies to avoid giving birth to children with severe genetic diseases, or attempting to shape the non-disease traits of already existing children by environmental means, like education. The study employs philosophical analysis for the purpose of making this intuition intelligible and judging whether it is justified. Different ways in which the moral problems posed by reproductive technologies are often framed in bioethical debates are criticised as inadequate for this task. In particular, it is argued that the intuition cannot fully be made sense of in terms of harm to the children that such technologies help create. The study attempts to elaborate an alternative to that broadly consequentialist approach, by drawing on Martin Heidegger’s philosophy of technology, Hans Jonas’s ethics, and Aristotle’s practical philosophy, as it has been received and developed in the hermeneutical tradition. It is suggested that reproductive choices, unlike decisions for already born children, are characterised by a peculiar one-sidedness: the future child appears to the parents as something wholly theirs to decide about, not as a concrete other with whom they must interact in a responsive and attuned way. This is problematic because it means that such choices cannot call upon the particularised moral understanding only gained in interpersonal encounters. In particular, it makes them easily shaped by various tendencies, to which parents are always susceptible, to relate to children in instrumentalising ways, and at risk of reinforcing such tendencies. However, this does not mean that all uses of reproductive technologies are equally troubling. When selecting against severe disease the parents can rely on a widely shared illness experience to escape the dangers that one-sidedness involves. It is concluded that the intuition under discussion, thus explicated and in some ways qualified, makes sense morally.<br>Avhandlingen är ett bidrag till den bioetiska debatten om olika reproduktionstekniker som antingen nyligen blivit tillgängliga eller som kan komma att utvecklas i framtiden. Utgångspunkten är en intuition som många verkar dela, nämligen att användningen av sådana tekniker i syfte att välja icke-sjukdomsegenskaper – som kön och känslomässig stabilitet – hos framtida barn, är mer moraliskt problematiskt än både att forma sådana egenskaper hos redan existerande barn genom exempelvis utbildning och att använda teknikerna för att undvika att barn föds med svåra sjukdomar. Studien är ett försök att genom filosofisk analys begripliggöra denna intuition och avgöra om den är berättigad. Olika sätt på vilka man i den bioetiska debatten ofta gestaltar de moraliska problem som reproduktionstekniker ger upphov till kritiseras som otillräckliga för denna uppgift. I synnerhet framhålls att intuitionen inte helt kan förstås som en oro över att de barn som sådana tekniker sätter till världen kan komma till skada. Med avsikt att utveckla ett alternativ till detta konsekvensorienterade synsätt söker sig författaren till Martin Heideggers teknikfilosofi, Hans Jonas etik och Aristoteles praktiska filosofi, som den tolkats och utvecklats i den hermeneutiska traditionen. Med hjälp av dessa teorier betonas hur reproduktiva val, till skillnad från beslut gällande redan existerande barn, kännetecknas av en slags ensidighet. Det framtida barnet framstår för föräldrarna som föremål för beslut som är odelat deras, snarare än som en konkret andre som de måste interagera med på ett lyhört, noga avpassat sätt. Detta är problematiskt eftersom det innebär att sådana val inte kan ledsagas av det slags partikulära moraliska förståelse som bara uppnås i möten mellan människor. I synnerhet innebär det att valen lätt formas av, och i sin tur riskerar att underblåsa, olika för föräldraskapet karaktäristiska tendenser som ständigt riskerar förmå föräldrar att förhålla sig till sina barn på ett instrumentaliserande sätt. Men detta betyder inte att alla användningar av reproduktionstekniker är lika problematiska. Val som syftar till att undvika svåra sjukdomar kan undgå de faror som ensidigheten öppnar för genom att åberopa en gemensam mänsklig sjukdomserfarenhet. Avhandlingens slutsats är att intuitionen som diskuteras är berättigad, med vissa reservationer, om den förstås på detta sätt.
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Kohl, Barbara Marie. "Teenage sexual morality a supplemental resource on secular viewpoints, biblical teaching from an evangelical Protestant perspective, and practical implications for Christian teens /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1995. http://www.tren.com.
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Thesis (D. Min.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 1995.<br>Abstract and vita. Includes appendix F, The Booklet: Your body God's sanctuary : Sex for Christian teens, biblical answers to your questions, 49 leaves (= v. 2, leaves [39-88]) Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, leaves 111-132).
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McCormick, Hugh. "The futurity compact : anticipation, interdependence and contract : the possibility and circumstances of justice over time." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:ce50e871-e80f-4d5d-9fcb-96d44aecfd65.
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This thesis is about justice between people born at different times: the way in which they interact and the extent to which those interactions can be a matter of justice. Its principal aims are: to present certain theories that describe what justice over time might look like; to present certain theoretical problems for this subject; and to understand the impact of these problems upon these theories. The thesis draws mainly upon: the work of David Hume, John Rawls and David Gauthier as sources of certain social contract theories; and the work of Wilfred Beckerman, Gustaf Arrhenius and Derek Parfit for certain problems faced by these theories. The central argument of the thesis is that the theoretical obstacles to the application of justice thrown up by the temporal dimension are not as significant as they might appear. In particular, there are good reasons to believe that social contract theories are more susceptible to intertemporal extension and less encumbered by temporally-related problems than previously thought. The conclusion of the thesis is that, issuing from a clearer view of certain theoretical obstacles to their inclusion, there is significant potential for future people to be considered within the scope of justice over time as described by certain social contract theories and that present people have self-interested reasons to take this project seriously.
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Bovell, Virginia. "Is the prevention and/or cure of autism a morally legitimate quest?" Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:59b5a983-b6a9-4f39-a7fd-0c67757aab73.
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The thesis explores the ethical questions underlying important contemporary debates about how society should respond to autism; whether autism is 'disease', 'disability' or 'difference', and whether it requires 'treatment' or 'acceptance'. Part 1 comprises a historical overview of how knowledge about autism has evolved through the perspective of contrasting stakeholders – clinicians and researchers, parents, professionals, the neuro-diversity movement. It reviews the main areas of academic ethical discussion to date with regard to autism, and proposes a new analytic framework – structured in terms of six 'categories of intervention': from pre-conceptual measures to post-birth interventions targeted towards infants and adults, and from individuals through to wider societal measures. Part 2 then conducts an ethical analysis using this framework. Examples are offered at each stage of intervention, along with a discussion of the ethical questions posed at each one. Part 3 reflects on the questions to which Part 2 has given rise, addressing the way ethical positions on how to respond to autism rely on wider views about quality of life and wellbeing; parental virtues; the impact of local decisions on wider states of affairs (the Big Conundrum); and views on "where autism sits" in comparison with other conditions (the Analogy Challenge). It is argued that to conflate autism and suffering is to fail to do justice to extreme variations among autistic people, and disguises the extent to which external barriers may be the main obstacles to flourishing for autistic people and their families. The real-life conditions in which autistic people and their families struggle for recognition and support are therefore held to be of crucial significance for making both global and localised ethical judgements. It is therefore concluded that cure and/or prevention are not morally defensible as global targets for autism as a whole, but should be clearly distinguished from the ethical importance of supportive and therapeutic interventions to address particular problems that autistic individuals may have. The implications, for research and practice, are spelled out, with particular emphasis on the need for further dialogue among all stakeholders.
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Schwartz, Melissa Rachel. "Embodied Ethics : Transformation, Care, and Activism Through Artistic Engagement." UNF Digital Commons, 2012. https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/398.
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In what follows, I highlight negative environmental perspectives and actions based on traditional patterns of Western dualist thought with the ultimate aim of developing an alternative way of relating to the environment and the ‘other’, in general. In pursuit of such an alternative, I utilize embodied artistic practices in order to present the notion that one can engage more holistically with one’s environment, and the other. Through habitual, lifelong ‚Ways‛ cultivating specific practices generally necessary to creating and to viewing art, I argue, one can refine one’s ethical awareness and action. Following the aims of care ethics’ more context and experience-oriented approach to moral concern and to treatment of the other, as well as the philosophies of Japan, and feminist philosopher, Irigaray, I show how these artistic practices form a new awareness and stance that encompasses components of care. Finally, I briefly highlight how art has been used for positive activism.
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Rodríguez, Morales Verónica. "Globalisation in David Greig’s Theatre Space, Ethics and the Spectator." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/401097.
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The present PhD thesis, entitled “Globalisation in David Greig’s Theatre: Space, Ethics and the Spectator”, aims to contribute to the field of contemporary British drama and theatre studies in the form of an extended monographic study of Greig’s theatre and globalisation with a particular focus on a triad of elements: space, ethics and the spectator. The thesis’s corpus spans two decades, from the 1990s to the present time. It examines Europe (1994), One Way Street (1995) [both under “Europe Plays”], The Architect (1996), The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union (1999) [both under “Vertical Plays”], Outlying Islands (2002), San Diego (2003) [both under “Bird Plays”], The American Pilot (2005), Damascus (2007) [both under “Encounter Plays”], Fragile (2011) and The Events (2013) [both under “Here Plays”], all of which are seen as prominently responding to globalisation.
After articulating globalisation by drawing mainly on David Harvey, Zygmunt Bauman and Jean-Luc Nancy, the theoretical and methodological framework focuses on positioning Greig’s work in the context of contemporary British political theatre. Critical theories drawn from ethics (Emmanuel Levinas, Judith Butler), aesthetics (Nicolas Bourriaud, Claire Bishop, Jacques Rancière) and affect studies (Gilles Deleuze) are deployed in order to trace and attempt to explain the woundedness and porousness that characterises it. More specifically, the thesis lays out a theory of crosspollination between aesthetics, ethics and politics in order to address the co-work between world, playwright and play in Greig’s theatre, and uses affect theories in order to examine the transformative loop not just between world, playwright and plays, but also the spectator and the world-to- be-created (Nancy). It is claimed that by means of a complex experimentation with space, Greig’s plays represent all the above-named elements, including the spectator, as ‘holed’.
This produces a sense of ‘aesthethic’ confounding and bleeding across that ultimately articulates the idea of an urgently interconnected ‘here’.
Thus, Europe blurs the borders between two Europes (old and new), immigrants and locals, financial elites and economic pariahs, among others. One Way Street focuses on walking and destabilises space-times in several multivalent ways. The Architect engages with architectures of power, which eventually explode to reveal, perhaps, a new spatial understanding. Cosmonaut ingrains urban and outer spaces in an above-below dialectics wherein characters, despite communication failures, are able to reach out of themselves horizontally. Outlying Islands continues delving into the idea of ‘here’ through bird trajectories and the play’s insistence on the pervasiveness of water and the fluidity of watching acts. San Diego stitches up the whole globe, so that impossible connections are disclosed between supposedly distant occurrences. The American Pilot probes the concept of ‘here’ further through an emphasis on the space of the stage, where the entire cast remain visible throughout the performance. Gaining confidence in the power of both story and theatricality, Damascus acknowledges the presence of both performers and spectators through the use of music on stage, story-telling devices and a character that, by always being ‘here’, connects the worlds of the play and the spectator and the one ‘outside’. Fragile manages to render separate locations as one single space via Jack transcorporeally evoking all bodies and spaces and Caroline’s/the audience’s becoming part of that through the unusual conversation she/they establish(es) with Jack. Finally, The Events highlights ‘here’ via the highly a/effective strategy of having real local choirs participate in each performance so as to compellingly put forward the idea that events (albeit unevenly) always happen to all of us, in this cracked globe.
The thesis concludes by confirming that Greig’s theatre does indeed respond to globalisation ‘aesthethically’, that is, by engaging with complex articulations of space that
underline ethical questions by repeatedly and multifariously infusing the spectator with a sense of our irrepressible interconnectedness and co-responsibility.<br>El objetivo principal de la presente tesis, titulada “Globalisation in David Greig’s Theatre: Space, Ethics and the Spectator”, consiste en llevar a cabo un extenso estudio monográfico de la dramaturgia de David Greig y su imbricación con el fenómeno de la globalización, poniendo un énfasis particular en cuestiones de espacio, ética y espectador. El corpus de este estudio engloba aproximadamente dos décadas, desde los años 1990 hasta el momento actual. Específicamente, las obras estudiadas en relación al tema delineado son Europe (1994), One Way Street (1995) [ambas en la parte titulada “Europe Plays”], The Architect (1996), The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union (1999) [ambas en la parte titulada “Vertical Plays”], Outlying Islands (2002), San Diego (2003) [ambas en la parte titulada “Bird Plays”], The American Pilot (2005), Damascus (2007) [ambas en la parte titulada “Encounter Plays”], Fragile (2011) y The Events (2013) [ambas en la parte titulada “Here Plays”].
Tras introducir la globalización de la mano de David Harvey, Zygmunt Bauman y Jean-Luc Nancy, el marco teórico-metodológico se centra en posicionar el trabajo de Greig en el contexto del teatro británico contemporáneo de corte político a través de la utilización de enfoques crítico-teóricos provenientes tanto de corrientes éticas (Emmanuel Levinas, Judith Butler) y estéticas (Nicolas Bourriaud, Claire Bishop, Jacques Rancière) como de estudios de afecto (Gilles Delleuze) que permiten enmarcar de un modo adecuado la forma dañada y porosa que revelan las obras de Greig. Se trata no tan solo de explicar la entrada del mundo real en las obras, lo cual provoca rupturas en su forma, sino también de examinar y explicar la retroalimentación que se produce entre el mundo, el dramaturgo, la obra, el espectador y, de nuevo, el mundo, en un movimiento afectivo circular que puede, potencialmente, conducir a la creación de ese mundo en el sentido que le da Nancy.
La conclusión principal del trabajo apunta a que el teatro de Greig responde a la realidad de la globalización mediante complejas articulaciones del espacio que subrayan cuestiones éticas, dado que sugieren continuamente al espectador la profunda interconexión que nos une y nos hace corresponsables.
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Gabriel, Iason. "On affluence and poverty : morality, motivation and practice in a global age." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:13e93067-01ec-48ed-9b24-4bf6f32ce378.
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This thesis looks at the failure of individual people living in affluent societies to do more to help those living in conditions of extreme poverty at the present moment. Affluent people have the capacity to assist, by contributing additional funds to aid and humanitarian organisations. Given an understanding of what is at stake, the fact that they fail to do so is both morally problematic and difficult to explain. Yet, without an understanding of the causes of inaction, it is difficult to know what measures may be taken to alleviate extreme suffering in the world today. The thesis draws upon different philosophical accounts of practical reason to argue that the conduct of the affluent can only be understood in one of three ways: these people may lack decisive reason to assist, they may be misinformed, or they may be rationally deficient in some regard. Considering each possibility in turn, it advances two central arguments. Firstly, the normative reasons claim is sound: affluent people, who do not incur minor costs by assisting, ought to do more. Secondly, these people tend to have false beliefs about the nature of poverty, to make substantive errors of judgement, and to follow flawed patterns of reasoning when they deliberate about what to do. Taken together, these factors explain their failure to act. Building upon this diagnosis, the thesis then considers how to respond to the problem of inaction, advancing a solution that is institutional in character. It argues for the construction of a division of labour between state and citizen, at the national level, which would see political institutions take on responsibility for poverty eradication, thereby leaving individuals freer to pursue their own personal goals and objectives. In order to perform this function effectively, wealthy nations would have to improve the quantity and quality of assistance that they provide to low-income countries. They would also have to cease partaking in practices that harm the global poor. This approach has a number of advantages over reliance on private philanthropy alone: it forms part of a fair and effective solution to the problem of motivating assistance, the arrangement it proposes is both stable and legitimate, and it is also something that could be achieved in practice. Therefore, it represents part of the best possible way in which to proceed.
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Ip, Ka-Wai. "Equality and global justice." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:87b8c848-5cbb-4fbd-85dc-72351a5c91e6.
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This dissertation aims to defend an egalitarian conception of global distributive justice. Many hold that the scope of egalitarian justice should be defined by membership of a single political community but my dissertation will challenge this view. I begin by considering three distinctive arguments against the ideal of global equality. They maintain that egalitarian obligations of justice apply only to those people who are subject to the same sovereign authority which coerces them to abide by its rules; or to those who contribute to the preservation of each other’s autonomy through collectively sustaining a state; or to those who belong to the same nation. The first three chapters deal with these arguments respectively. Central to these arguments is the assumption that the domestic and the global contexts are different in some morally relevant way so egalitarian principles of justice apply to the former but not the latter. After rebutting these anti-egalitarian arguments I turn to the more constructive task of developing a form of global egalitarianism that is grounded in the value of equality as a normative ideal of how human relations should be conducted. I argue in Chapter 4 that relational equality—that is, standing in relations of equality to one another (rather than relations characterized by domination or exploitation)—is a demand of justice in the global context. This ideal of relational equality has distributive implications. In Chapter 5 I try to spell out these implications by defending a set of principles of global distributive justice that would follow from our commitment to global relational equality. In the sixth and final chapter, I discuss what responsibilities we have in relation to global injustice, how to distribute the burdens associated with these responsibilities, and whether they are excessively demanding on complying agents.
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Bülow, William. "Unfit to live among others : Essays on the ethics of imprisonment." Doctoral thesis, KTH, Filosofi, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-199567.
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This thesis provides an ethical analysis of imprisonment as a mode of punishment. Consisting in an introduction and four papers the thesis addresses several important questions concerning imprisonment from a number of different perspectives and theoretical starting points. One overall conclusion of this thesis is that imprisonment, as a mode of punishment, deserves more attention from moral and legal philosophers. It is also concluded that a more complete ethical assessment of prison conditions and prison management requires a broader focus. It must include an explicit discussion of both how imprisonment directly affects prison inmates and its negative side-effects on third parties. Another conclusion is that ethical discussions on prison conditions should not be too easily reduced to a question about how harsh or lenient is should be. Paper 1 argues that prisoners have a right to privacy. It is argued that respect for inmates’ privacy is related to respect for them as moral agents. Consequently, respect for inmates’ privacy is called for by different established philosophical theories about the justification of legal punishment. Practical implications of this argument are discussed and it is argued that invasion of privacy should be minimized to the greatest extent possible, without compromising other important values or the rights to safety and security. It is also proposed that respect for privacy should be part of the objective of creating and upholding a secure environment. Paper 2 discusses whether the collateral harm of imprisonment to the children and other close family members of prison inmates may give rise to special moral obligations towards them. Several collateral harms, including decreased psychological wellbeing, financial costs, loss of economic opportunities, and intrusion and control over their private lives, are identified. Two perspectives in moral philosophy, consequentialism and deontology, are then applied in order to assess whether these harms are permissible. It is argued that from either perspective it is hard to defend the claim that allowing for these harms are morally permissible. Consequently, imprisonment should be used only as a last resort. Where it is deemed necessary, it gives rise to special moral obligations. Using the notion of residual obligation, these obligations are then categorized and clarified. Paper 3 focuses on an argument that has figured in the philosophical debate on felon disenfranchisement. This argument states that as a matter of democratic self-determination, a legitimate democratic collective has the collective right to decide whether to disenfranchise felons as a way of defining their political identity. Yet, such a collective’s right to self-determination is limited, since the choice to disenfranchise anyone must be connected to normative considerations of political significance. This paper defends this argument against three charges that has been raised to it. In doing so it also explores under what circumstances felon disenfranchisement can be permissible. Paper 4 explores the question of whether prison inmates suffering from ADHD should be administered psychopharmacological intervention (methylphenidate) for their condition. The theoretical starting point for the discussion is the communicative theory of punishment, which understands criminal punishment as a form of secular penance. Viewed through the lens of the communicative theory it is argued that the provision of pharmacological treatment to offenders with ADHD need not necessarily be conceived of as an alternative to punishment, but as an aid to achieving the penological ends of secular penance. Thus, in this view offenders diagnosed with ADHD should have the option to undergo pharmacological treatment.<br><p>QC 20170110</p>
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Lampe, Monique. "Die Operationalisierung von Unternehmensleitbildern als wirtschaftsethische Herausforderung für Führungskräfte." Doctoral thesis, Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2015. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-175551.
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Die Forschungsarbeit untersucht den Einfluss von Unternehmensleitbildern (sowohl des "Leitbildes für verantwortliches Handeln in der Wirtschaft" als auch der internen Unternehmensordnungen und deren Substitute) auf das interne Führungsverhalten unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Fragestellung, ob die gelebte Unternehmens- bzw. Führungskultur von Führungskräften als maßgeblicher Einflussfaktor auf ihre Entscheidungsprozesse wahrgenommen wird.
Ergebnis ist die Erarbeitung und Analyse unterschiedlicher Handlungsstrategien im Umgang mit wirtschaftsethischen Dilemma-Situationen.
Die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse werden auf zwei Zielebenen übertragen:
1. Implikationen für die Theorie der Ökonomischen Ethik, hier speziell für das Konstrukt des Praktischen Syllogismus,
2. Implikationen für die Praxis, hier im Besonderen bezüglich der Leitbild-Initiative, deren Mitgliedsunternehmen und Führungskräfte.
Nicht primär betrachtet wird das gesellschaftliche Problem im Sinne der Reaktionsmechanismen externer Interessengruppen auf ethische Verfehlungen der Wirtschaft.
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Chavarria, Brijae Anne. "THE PERCEIVED BARRIERS TO HEALTH CARE ADVANCE DIRECTIVE POSSESSION IN THE BLACK AMERICAN COMMUNITY—SHOULD WE ADDRESS IT AS A RACIAL DISPARITY OR A CULTURAL DIFFERENCE?" Master's thesis, Temple University Libraries, 2019. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/542364.
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Urban Bioethics<br>M.A.<br>Death is an inevitable part of life, yet many Americans fail to plan for this final part of life. Only about 1/3 of our country has an advance directive (Off White Papers, 2014). This underutilization of advance directives is reflected in our health care spending. It is estimated that 30% of all Medicare spending occurs during the last six months of a patient’s life. The numbers are even lower when broken down into sub-categories. Only 24% of older Black Americans possess an advance directive versus 44% of their older White counterparts (Huang, Neuhaus, & Chiong, 2016). Some studies found that African Americans were more likely to “express discomfort discussing death, want aggressive care at the end of life, have spiritual beliefs which conflict with the goals of palliative care, and distrust the healthcare system” (Johnson, Kuchibhatla, & Tulsky, 2008). Other studies have even concluded that Black race is an independent predictor of lack of advance directive possession (Huang et al., 2016). This paper further explores the possibility that race and ethnicity may simply be proxies for cultural values that impact advance directive possession. We’ll discuss the barriers, for both Black patients and health care providers, to advance directive possession as well as investigate culturally mindful interventions to combat the barriers.<br>Temple University--Theses
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Campbell, Bruce Kirkwood. "Ethics and worldview in identity-based conflict in Nigeria : a practical theological perspective on the religious dimension of violence in Plateau State." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/33120.
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Severe intercommunal violence has repeatedly rocked Plateau State in the first decade of the new millennium, killing thousands of people. Observers have attributed the "crisis" to political, economic and social forces which breed pockets of exclusion and resentment. One notable model explains the violence through a paradigm of privileged "indigenes" who seek to prevent "settlers" from the political rights which would give them the access to the resources managed by the state and the economic opportunities that this entails. While not taking issue with the diagnosed causes of conflict, the Researcher argues that there is a substantial body of evidence being ignored which points to conflict cleavage having opened up along the divide of Christian-Muslim religious identity in a way that the settler-identity model does not sufficiently explain. On the basis that perceptions are as important as facts when it comes to seeking a transformational peace process, he sets out to map world-views, identities and ethics of the warring factions. The researcher, motivated to undertake this research by his direct experience of the 2008 crises and three years experience as an adviser to the EYN's rural development outreach in Adamawa and Borno States, posits that religion may indeed be part of the problem, and mosque and church must be partners to a solution. Forced to limit the scope of his research, he embarks on the initial stages of a practical theological investigation in order to review the conflict from a specifically religious perspective which might assist the Church in its efforts towards peace. Research is focussed on the perceptions of the pew faithful of two denominations in Plateau and Adamawa States and is based on an evaluation of interviews and focus groups which were held across a range of cohorts and settings in order to draw comparative conclusions. Respondents' backgrounds were both rural/urban, young/old, Muslim/Christian, and hailed from various ethnic groups (Berom, Tarok, Kamwe, Fali and HausaFulani). Evaluation methodology drew heavily on Grounded Theory and also included elements of Critical Discourse Analysis. The success of the methodology hinged on the ability of the Researcher to establish rapport and trust with respondents. The applied research methods were foremostly designed to build theory rather than statistically test any hypotheses. The thesis detects evidence not only for the salience of religion as a factor in the way conflict unfolds, but of religion displacing ethnicity as the marker of identity in some locations and age groups. It also demonstrates how ethno-religious narratives stemming from former rural strife between nomadic and sedentary populations and urban conflicts resulting from the competition for indigene rights have been conflated and then further reinforced by the emerging threat of Boko Haram, resulting in a narrative of a unified Muslim programme for conquest, domination and forced conversion. In tune with an undertaking couched in practical theology, this research also identifies a number challenges to the Church's witness and its ability to be a convincing force for reconciliation which arise from this. Eminently, there are signs that ethnocentric mores have been integrated into an emerging Christian identity, which engenders a monolatric perception of God and a penchant to reinforce boundaries rather than remove them. However, Christians also feel restricted by a Christian imperative to forego violence and beleaguered by an Islamic front which they perceive as having moral licence to perpetrate violence in pursuit of dominance. The researcher holds the conviction that it is the Nigerian Church who must embark on a theological process on her own to respond to some of these problems, and concludes with a number of propositions and recommendations to assist her on this voyage.
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Mollberger, Hedqvist Gun. "Samtal för förståelse : Hur utvecklas yrkeskunnande genom samtal?" Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för individ, omvärld och lärande (IOL), 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-1313.
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The present study belongs in the tradition of working-life research. In this tradition, the point of departure lies in working people’s experience in their occupation. Through reflection on this experience and studies in the occupational field the researcher seeks to elucidate and develop occupational knowledge and skills. As a teacher I have long been preoccupied with how teachers may develop their occupational skills. Teachers wish to promote others’ learning, but how do they themselves learn to be good teachers? In the present work I wish to elucidate how teachers can develop their occupational skills through discourse. Equally, I wish to gain a better understanding of my own professional experience as a teacher and supervisor. These two goals are interconnected. I hope to develop an insight that not only shows my dilemma in a supervision situation but also illustrates the teacher’s challenge when he or she is to develop professional skill as a supervisor. On the one hand the supervisor needs to listen with an open mind to the person being supervised; but on the other, given knowledge places so many constraints upon listening that openness becomes impossible. Can the teacher experience his or her situation in such a way that this dilemma may be avoided? To deepen and modify my answer to this question I carried out fieldwork in my own occupational field. I have studied such teachers’ accounts of their meetings with children as have emerged from two discourse situations: child conferences and group supervisions. The teachers’ discourse shows that the issue is to understand what one has experienced – understanding is the starting point for the development of occupational skill. An attitude of open listening, to oneself and in interaction with others, is a precondition for occupational skills to grow. In other words, a space for reflection is needed if understanding is to be achieved through the medium of discourse.
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Mueller, Monica Elizabeth. "An inquiry into the relationship between thought and action interpreting phronesis /." Diss., Online access via UMI:, 2009.
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Shapiro, Matthew Abraham. "Enforcing respect : iberalism, perfectionism, and antidiscrimination law." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:ee83edc5-162c-42ca-92d8-498a09725d5b.
Full textAbstract:
Can contemporary liberalism justify antidiscrimination law? The question seems impertinent until we consider contemporary liberalism’s commitment to limited government. Once we do, we realize that contemporary liberals may not complacently assume that their theories justify antidiscrimination law simply because discrimination based on race or sex is so obviously wrongful. Rather, they must scrutinize antidiscrimination law just as they do other regulation of individual conduct. Providing such scrutiny, this thesis argues that three of the most prominent contemporary liberal doctrines of political legitimacy—John Rawls’s “political liberalism,” an antiperfectionist version of the “harm principle,” and Joseph Raz’s “liberal perfectionism”—all fail to justify core applications of antidiscrimination law, applications that we intuitively consider perfectly legitimate. In light of this failure, contemporary liberalism faces a dilemma: it must jettison either its commitment to comprehensive, uniform antidiscrimination regimes or its antiperfectionism and overriding commitment to personal autonomy. This thesis argues for the latter course by providing an account of the wrongfulness of discrimination based on race or sex that condemns all instances of the conduct. According to this account, discrimination is wrong because acting on discriminatory intentions is wrong. More specifically, by taking another person’s race or sex as a reason to treat her less favorably than one would treat people of other races or the other sex, one fails to respect her as a person, to regard her as a being of ultimate value. Unlike contemporary liberal accounts, this account is fully perfectionist, since it defines discrimination in terms of the intentions of discriminators, and the intentions of discriminators in terms of their attitudes, which partly constitute their moral characters. So long as we remain committed to antidiscrimination law in its current form, we must attend to discriminators’ characters. And to attend to discriminators’ characters, we must be willing to espouse perfectionism.