This study described and analysed the circumstances surrounding a fatal car accident involving personnel of a multinational corporation in a developing country. For some companies, road accidents are the leading cause of work-related fatalities in developing countries. This reality highlights the ethical dilemmas encountered in a global workplace. Questions as to how a company addresses safety concerns outside the standard work environment, the ethics of operating in a risky environment and the requirements for international consistency in compensation standards for loss (...) of life were addressed. The authors argued that multinational companies should localize health and safety practices to address the important asymmetries between different regions of the world regarding social, cultural and infrastructural issues. Furthermore, the authors analysed the leadership role that should be played by multinational companies to help and support national governments to reduce traffic fatalities in developing countries. From this perspective, the article represents a contribution for the body of knowledge dealing with the business–society relations. The authors used an action research approach to address these issues, both in response to the particular incident and to contribute to the body of research in this field. (shrink)

Respect, as Kant describes it, has a duality of nature that seems to embody a contradiction – i.e., it is both a moral motive and a feeling, where these are thought to be mutually exclusive. Most solutions involve eliminating one of the two natures, but unfortunately, this also destroys what is unique about respect. So instead, I question the non-cognitive theory of emotion giving rise to the contradiction. In its place, I develop the cognitive theory implicit in Kant's work, one (...) in which emotions take the form of evaluative judgments that determine the will. I then show that, as a purely rational emotion, respect is perfectly suited to be a moral motive. (shrink)

A common assumption among Kantians is that the feelings/inclinations constituting non-moral motivation are little different from the brute sensations and blind instinctual urges found in animals. And since this “inner animal” lacks reason, it cannot control itself. So our rational nature must step in to govern. The problem, however, is that it must do so as a nature standing above the animal as an independent ruler. I reject this understanding of our lower nature, arguing instead that reason governs from within (...) our lower nature, by giving it shape and structure. I show that this is possible because Kant actually held a cognitive theory of emotion, one in which feeling takes the form of judgments of fit between an object and the sensible needs of the subject, by which the life or well-being of the subject is promoted. Through these judgments of feeling, reason generates a complex evaluative framework that structures our practical point of view. (shrink)

Aging societies frequently fail to imagine their own collective needs, including the care needs of people with dementia and who will be expected to meet these needs. This essay considers how to build a practice of moral imagination—a capacity to think about current and future challenges in ways that aim at better lives and greater justice—into rethinking familiar cultural narratives about dementia that fail to improve the lives of people with dementia or of dementia caregivers, who are usually family members. (...) Focusing on real‐world conditions in the United States and Canada, the essay outlines a public humanities project to improve public understanding and public deliberation about dementia care, through careful reflection on the stories that members of aging societies tell, share, and embed in civic dialogue. (shrink)

Social scientists have shown that scientific characterizations of the egg and the sperm are shaped by gender stereotypes and cultural values. How have such characterizations been transformed by a recent embrace of -omics, when studies of reproduction increasingly go beyond genomics to incorporate proteomics, transcriptomics, exposomics, and other -omics perspectives? Scientists studying reproduction and analyzing eggs, sperm, and embryos are in some ways reimagining the roles, identities, and functions of gametes as fundamentally shaped by other molecular entities and environments. Such (...) relational understandings of substances and processes, however, continue to operate through a teleology that often conscripts more nuanced -omics reflection into familiar genomic visions of sex and reproduction. While ideas of the gene as an alienable object may be unraveling, -omics efforts to go beyond the egg and the sperm are frequently constricted by an understanding of reproduction that remains tied to individualized bodies and by a genomically infused interpretation of the gamete as life itself. (shrink)

Mara Buchbinder, Alyssa Browne, Nancy Berlinger, Tania Jenkins and Liza Buchbinder (2024) set forth an admirably clear and nuanced articulation of the concept of “moral stress,” that directs attent...

Review of: Kant on Evil, Self-Deception, and Moral Reform, by PapishLaura. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xvii + 257.

Purpose – Does the same news item on three different online news platforms, namely: newspapers, blogs and video news, impact each of perceived source credibility, likeability, content believability and attitude toward a message, differently? The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – An experimental approach conducted among university students is adopted. Findings – The psychometric properties of the instruments used are supported. Results showed that source credibility did not differ for the three platforms, indicating that respondents did not find (...) one platform less credible than another. However, differences were observed on each of content believability, likeability and attitude toward the message. Online newspapers scored highest in all of these. Blogs came second in both content believability and likeability, while video news came second in attitude toward a message. Research limitations/implications – A number of limitations are noted. In particular, generalisability of findings to all youths in the country and beyond must be done with extreme caution. Practical implications – The results suggest that the medium does change the message and online newspapers as a platform retain an advantage despite the arrival of alternative new media platforms, represented by blogs and video news. The latter emerges as the least effective indicating that respondents appear to prefer reading their news. Originality/value – The paper uses an experimental approach and robust measures to compare news platforms across a number of elements in the communication process among a strong user segment. (shrink)

International business transactions are commonly subject to misunderstanding with respect to truth telling and promise keeping. This paper argues that cultural differences in contexting contribute greatly to these misunderstandings. This study finds support for the hypothesis that the individual-level characteristic of need for approval is related to contexting at the cultural level and to culturally valued communication outcomes. Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. MBAs had significantly different mean scores on the social desirability scale. This study also finds no systematic differences in (...) attitudes toward truth telling and promise keeping in business based on culture. Theory-based implications for research and business practice are discussed. (shrink)

Since Estonia is in the midst of a national redefinition and examination of past traditions and future aspirations, it makes an excellent case study for the potentiality of theatre as an arbiter of national identity. The changing value of the institution itself is part of the equation (will Estonians continue to appreciate and attend the theatre in coming years?). In addition, the historical role of Estonian theatre as a repository for national narratives, especially literary ones, makes it a significant site (...) for struggles around print and technology, and between embodied performances and archival performatives.This essay introduces a series of articles that address how Estonia and its theatre might be regarded and understood in light of its history, memories, present experiences, and future possibilities. The idea of pretence that lies at the heart of theatricality itself provides an ideal means for interrogating national identity in a time of great instability and flux. The examples of productions discussed in these three essays share more than a deliberate utilization of the rubrics of theatricality. It seems no coincidence that the reworking of national classics, Estonian national myths, and ethnic folk songs and ceremonies takes place concurrently with the representation of new technologies, commodity capitalism, and diasporic collisions. Embodying precisely the predicament of culture in a country reassessing its past and confronting its future, the theatre is an important institution for national resignification. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This paper explores the background to Mill’s feminist thought by relating his Subjection of Women (1869) to his early piece ‘On Marriage’ (1832) and three contemporary essays that were written among the radical Unitarian community of South Place Chapel by Harriet Taylor Mill, William Bridges Adams (1797–1872), and William Johnson Fox (1786–1864). It seeks to demonstrate that Mill’s Subjection of Women (1869) still has close ties with the earlier feminist thought of the South Place Chapel circle. Specifically, it will (...) show that key arguments like the characterisation of marriage as slavery, the pernicious moral effects of gendered education, and the social benefits of women’s liberation feature in the early essays by Mill himself, Harriet Taylor Mill, William Bridges Adams, and William Johnson Fox as well as in Mill’s Subjection. (shrink)

Recent scientific advances mean the widespread introduction of non-invasive prenatal diagnosis (NIPD) for chromosomal aneuploidies may be close at hand, raising the question of how NIPD should be introduced as part of antenatal care pathways for pregnant women. In this paper, the authors examine the ethical implications of three hypothetical models for using NIPD for aneuploidy in state-funded healthcare systems and assess which model is ethically preferable. In comparing the models, the authors consider their respective timings; how each model would (...) fit with current screening and diagnostic tests offered to pregnant women; the implications of offering NIPD at different stages of pregnancy; and the potential for each model to support reproductive autonomy and informed decision-making. The authors conclude by favouring a model that would be offered at 11–13 weeks gestation, alongside existing combined screening, provided that this is accompanied by measures to maximise informed decision-making, for example, provision of adequate pretest and post-test counselling. (shrink)

In healthcare broadly, and especially in genetic (and now genomic) medicine, there is an ongoing debate about whether patients have a right not to know (RNTK) information about their own health. The extensive literature on this topic is characterised by a range of different understandings of what it means to have a RNTK,1–9 and how this purported right relates to patient autonomy. Ben Davies considers whether obligations not to place avoidable burdens on a publicly funded healthcare system might form the (...) basis for an obligation to acquire relevant health information, and hence refute the RNTK. He also makes the interesting argument that an obligation to know does not necessarily limit the RNTK. Davies summarises the more prominent arguments against the RNTK, including harm-to-others arguments that focus on potential harms to individuals related to the patient. However he then considers the RNTK in the context of the obligations that people have to each other within a publicly funded healthcare system. So rather than focusing on harms to specific individuals, Davies’ argument is instead based on the wrong of needlessly consuming public healthcare resources. If a person avoids health-related information and thereby exacerbates their health problems, this makes them more complex and expensive to treat. Davies argues that this constitutes …. (shrink)

This paper provides a political account of sweatshop labour by highlighting the role of political actors in establishing and sustaining exploitative working conditions in global sweatshops. In academic debates on sweatshop labour, the focus has been mostly on the responsibility of business or consumers (cf. Arnold & Bowie, 2007; Meyers, 2007; Zoller, 2015), although there are some authors who deal with the role of trade unions and civil society (cf. Kabeer, 2000). To provide a broader picture, I draw on the (...) differentiation between extractive and inclusive institutions made by development economists Acemoglu and Robinson (2013) and apply this account to the sweatshop issue. I argue that sweatshops are a political rather than an economic problem, and substantiate my claim by drawing on the Chinese household registration system _hukou_, and the political background conditions in Bangladesh. (shrink)

This paper discloses the intellectual context of the feminist arguments English philosopher Harriet Taylor Mill (1807-1858) gives in her essay “Enfranchisement of Women” (1851). It will discuss to what extent Taylor Mill’s feminist views have been influenced by, and contributing to, Unitarianism and radical Unitarianism. My analysis of Taylor Mill’s essay focuses on three core aspects of the Unitarian tenet: its philosophy of history, its educational theory, and the “marriage as slavery”-trope of the radical Unitarians. I thereby provide an account (...) of the influences on Taylor Mill’s thought that are both separate from, and even predate her meeting with J.S. Mill. (shrink)

In episode 6 of the first season of The Handmaid’s Tale (2017–, MGM Television), the Republic of Gilead welcomes a trade delegation of the United Mexican States. Offred’s hope that the ensuing trade agreement between Gilead and Mexico would eventually bring the sexual exploitation she and the other handmaids suffer to public are quickly dashed. During a chance encounter at the house of Offred’s master, the Mexican ambassador Mrs Castillo confides in Offred that Mexico is suffering a fertility crisis just (...) like Gilead. Her country is seriously considering trading with Gilead in handmaids (season 1, episode 6, “A Woman’s Place”). My article will use this episode as a starting point to reflect on the correlation between women’s social and economic status. I will illustrate how The Handmaid’s Tale demonstrates that markets are socially embedded and thereby reproduce and amplify social and political inequalities. This series thereby also functions as a powerful validation of the asymmetry thesis concerning markets in reproductive labour. (shrink)

This paper discusses the political implications of Diderot’s Paradox on the actor by relating it to Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726). Albeit these two authors seem to have only very little in common, they actually just employ different techniques in order to deal with a similar problem: In the same way that Diderot’s Paradox is more than a theoretical essay on the theory of acting, Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is not only a fictitious travel narrative critical of society. In fact, Swift’s (...) literary text offers a unique illustration of Diderot’s theoretical exploration of power structures and structures of thinking. It will become evident that both works are meditations on the correlations of observation, and hence also on power relations. As such, they raise questions concerning the functioning of society and the role of the individual in maintaining this society. (shrink)

This paper discusses Mill’s early essay on marriage and divorce (1832) and gives two possible sources of influence for it: Plato’s arguments on the appropriate scope of the law in book IV of his Republic and Unitarian ideas on motherhood. It demonstrates that Plato’s Republic and Mill’s essay both emphasize the crucial role of background conditions in achieving desirable social aims. Similar to Plato’s claim that the law should provide only a rough framework and not concern itself with questions of (...) etiquette (Republic, 425d), Mill envisions a society in which men and women meet as equals and hence are in no need of marriage laws. Besides, this paper will relate Mill’s essay on marriage and divorce to Unitarian ideas on the social role of women to account for his reservations about the gainful employment of married women and mothers. Mill’s claim that the rightful employment of a mother is “the training of the affections” (Mill 1970, 76) is fueled by the Unitarian conception of women as the moral educators of future citizens. (shrink)

Are the houyhnhnms, the rational horses Gulliver meets in the fourth chapter of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726), meant as role models for man? I think there are reasons to doubt this view. To illustrate this claim, I’ll compare Swift’s portrayal of the houyhnhnms with Immanuel Kant’s Groundwork to the Metaphysics of Morals (1785). There, Kant explicates that man is no ‘purely rational being’ but a ‘sensual rational being’. We’ll see that this characterization has tremendous consequences for the justification of (...) Kant’s moral principle. Similarly, Swift designates man as an animal rationis capax, i.e. an animal which is only capable of reasoning, but not wholly governed by it. Violations of moral norms are hence very likely to occur. Concluding, I shall argue that the houyhnhnms are no role-models because their morality runs counter to human nature. Instead, they serve to show that man adheres to an illusion. (shrink)

Tough Fronts takes the difficult issues in urban education head on by putting street-savvy students at the forefront of the discussion on how to best make successful changes for inner city schools. Individual chapters discuss scholarly depictions of black America, the social complexity of the teacher-student relationship, individual success stories of 'at-risk' programs, popular images of urban students, and implications for education policy. With close attention to the voices of individual students, this engaging book gives vitality and legitimacy to arguments (...) for school changes that have been lacking in previous discussions. (shrink)

The book delves into mathematical mindsets, a current approach to understanding mathematical identities, as well as success and failure in mathematics.

Incidence and prevalence rates of dengue have increased over the years, and the disease is quickly becoming cause for concern within the public health community. Globally, 128 countries and slightly under four billion people are at risk of contracting dengue. In Sri Lanka, more than half of dengue cases originate in Colombo, which in previous years, used a manual pen-and-paper data management system, which meant that it was not possible to obtain or provide up-to-date information about the severity and spread (...) of dengue. In 2015, two versions of a mobile application called Mo-Buzz Dengue were developed and launched in Colombo, Sri Lanka in order to overcome the challenges of the traditional management system by capitalizing on the rising affordability and ubiquity of mobile phone technology. To keep up with the dynamic nature of disease outbreaks, real-time data need to be visualized in a manner which facilitates discerning and comprehending these patterns. Hence, we used health maps in Mo-Buzz to effectively present this information. The first version of Mo-Buzz was for public health inspectors, digitized data management as well as provided educational materials. The second version of Mo-Buzz was a source of information for the general public, a crowdsourcing platform to provide information relating to dengue transmission, and for health authorities to alert users to dengue-specific developments in their area. This paper illustrates the design considerations of the Mo-Buzz disease surveillance system for the general public. A draft scaled-down version of the PHI system was used to obtain feedback and make incremental design enhancements. Additionally, similar health maps were evaluated in terms of capability and usability. These findings were applied to identify future enhancements to the health map of Mo-Buzz Dengue. (shrink)

John C. Altmann decides whether Dracula can really be blamed for his crimes, since it's his nature as a vampire to behave a certain way. Robert Arp argues that Dracula's addiction to live human blood dooms him to perpetual frustration and misery. John V. Karavitis sees Dracula as a Randian individual pitted against the Marxist collective. Greg Littmann maintains that if we disapprove of Dracula's behavior, we ought to be vegetarians. James Edwin Mahon uses the example of Dracula to resolve (...) nagging problems about the desirability of immortality. Adam Barkman and Michael Versteeg ponder what it would really feel like to be Dracula, and thereby shed some light on the nature of consciousness. Robert Vuckovich looks at the sexual morality of Dracula and other characters in the Dracula saga. Ariane de Waal explains that "Dragula" is scary because every time this being appears, it causes "gender trouble." And Cari Callis demonstrates that the Count is really the Jungian Shadow archetype--with added Shapeshifter elements--in the journey of Mina Harker, heroine/victim of Stoker's novel, from silly girl to empowered woman. (shrink)

Jonathan Swift and Philosophy is the first book to analyse and interpret Swift’s writing from a philosophical angle. By placing key texts of Swift in their philosophical and cultural contexts and providing background to their history of ideas, it demonstrates how well informed Swift’s criticism of the politics, philosophy, and science of his age actually was. Moreover, it also sets straight preconceptions about Swift as ignorant about the scientific developments of his time. The authors offer insights into, and interpretations of, (...) Swift’s political philosophy, ethics, and his philosophy of science and demonstrate how versatile a writer and thinker Swift actually was. This book will be of interest to scholars of philosophy, history of ideas, and 18th century literature and culture. (shrink)

Zu kaum einer anderen Thematik äußern sich Vertreter so unterschiedlicher Disziplinen wie zur Sweatshop-Diskussion. Neben Historikern, Sozialwissenschaftlern und Ökonomen umfassen diese auch Philosophen. Obwohl eine solche Kombination das Potential für fruchtbare und relevante Analysen birgt, scheint die wissenschaftliche Auseinandersetzung um Sweatshops weitestgehend stagnierend. Bei der bisherigen Diskussion stellt sich das Problem, dass moralische Fragen einerseits entweder ausgeklammert oder als gegenstandslos dargestellt wer-den und andererseits moralische Vorgaben postuliert werden, ohne sich mit ihren Realisierungsmöglichkeiten auseinanderzusetzen. Die Argumente bewegen sich noch auf sehr (...) unterschiedlichen Ebenen. Für eine aussagekräftige normative Bewertung der Sweatshop-Problematik gilt es daher, diese verschiedenen Ebenen aufeinander zu beziehen bzw. zwischen ihnen zu vermitteln. Dies soll in der vor-liegenden Arbeit geschehen, indem ich für die normative Analyse der Sweatshop-Thematik auch empirische Untersuchungen berücksichtige und damit relevante Ergebnisse der unterschiedlichen Forschungsdisziplinen einbeziehe. (shrink)

This article examines how the work associated with Henry de Bracton functioned in early modern political and legal thought as an ideograph, a one-word summation of arguments deployed by communities in support of ideological goals. The first part explains the medieval and early modern milieu of 'Bracton' and discusses key folios in context. In the second section the authors discuss in detail the ways in which Civil War Royalists and Parliamentarians made De Legibus pertinent to their antithetical causes. The third (...) part explores 'Bracton's' role in the disputes of the late Stuart period, when attempts to alter the succession in Charles II's reign and at the Glorious Revolution brought a reprise of civil war theorizing. Finally, whereas many early modernists see in seventeenth-century England a break with the medieval past, we follow the lead of those medieval scholars who treat the history of political ideas from the twelfth to the seventeenth century as a single epoch. In so doing we hope to contribute to the ongoing discussion of how seventeenth-century political literature can best be read and understood. (shrink)

Robert Zaretsky’s The Subversive Simone Weil: A Life in Five Ideas offers a nuanced and engaging account of a thinker who to this date is mostly shunned by academic philosophy. As indicated by its subtitle, it explores five key concepts in Weil’s thought that according to Zaretsky “still reso-nate today. Or, I believe, should resonate”, given Weil’s obscurity. By linking each of these con-cepts to a particular episode or development in Weil’s more-than-eventful life, Zaretsky makes both his protagonist and the (...) contemporary challenges she deals with in her writings palpable. Es-pecially the first is no easy task, in view of the many paradoxes that surround Weil’s life and per-sonality: A secular Jew in the search of a Christian God, a pacifist eager to fight in the Spanish Civil war, a rationalist with mystic leanings, “a communist with a small c” (68) mistrustful of par-ties on either side of the political spectrum. Zaretsky demonstrates that it is precisely this ambiva-lence of Weil which makes her such a “subversive” and fascinating author who defies expectations and unnerves her readers. (shrink)

Current textbooks in formal semantics are all versions of, or introductions to, the same paradigm in semantic theory: Montague Grammar. Knowledge of Meaning is based on different assumptions and a different history. It provides the only introduction to truth- theoretic semantics for natural languages, fully integrating semantic theory into the modern Chomskyan program in linguistic theory and connecting linguistic semantics to research elsewhere in cognitive psychology and philosophy. As such, it better fits into a modern graduate or undergraduate program in (...) linguistics, cognitive science, or philosophy. Furthermore, since the technical tools it employs are much simpler to teach and to master, Knowledge of Meaning can be taught by someone who is not primarily a semanticist. Linguistic semantics cannot be studied as a stand-alone subject but only as part of cognitive psychology, the authors assert. It is the study of a particular human cognitive competence governing the meanings of words and phrases. Larson and Segal argue that speakers have unconscious knowledge of the semantic rules of their language, and they present concrete, empirically motivated proposals about a formal theory of this competence based on the work of Alfred Tarski and Donald Davidson. The theory is extended to a wide range of constructions occurring in natural language, including predicates, proper nouns, pronouns and demonstratives, quantifiers, definite descriptions, anaphoric expressions, clausal complements, and adverbs. Knowledge of Meaning gives equal weight to philosophical, empirical, and formal discussions. It addresses not only the empirical issues of linguistic semantics but also its fundamental conceptual questions, including the relation of truth to meaning and the methodology of semantic theorizing. Numerous exercises are included in the book. (shrink)

This collection of original essays on Yoga in honour of Professor Gerald James Larson provides fascinating new insights into the yoga traditions of India as a ...

Samkhya is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, system of classical Indian philosophy. This book traces its history from the third or fourth century B. C. up through the twentieth century. The Encyclopedia as a whole will present the substance of the various Indian systems of thought to philosophers unable to read the Sanskrit and having difficulty in finding their way about in the translations (where such exist). This volume includes a lengthy introduction by Gerald James Larson, (...) which discusses the history of Samkhya and its philosophical contours overall. The remainder of the book includes summaries in English of all extant Sanskrit texts of the system. Originally published in 1987. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905. (shrink)

“I often said before starting, that I had no doubt I should frequently repent of the whole undertaking.” So wrote Charles Darwin aboard The Beagle , bound for the Galapagos Islands and what would arguably become the greatest and most controversial discovery in scientific history. But the theory of evolution did not spring full-blown from the head of Darwin. Since the dawn of humanity, priests, philosophers, and scientists have debated the origin and development of life on earth, and with modern (...) science, that debate shifted into high gear. In this lively, deeply erudite work, Pulitzer Prize–winning science historian Edward J. Larson takes us on a guided tour of Darwin’s “dangerous idea,” from its theoretical antecedents in the early nineteenth century to the brilliant breakthroughs of Darwin and Wallace, to Watson and Crick’s stunning discovery of the DNA double helix, and to the triumphant neo-Darwinian synthesis and rising sociobiology today. Along the way, Larson expertly places the scientific upheaval of evolution in cultural perspective: the social and philosophical earthquake that was the French Revolution; the development, in England, of a laissez-faire capitalism in tune with a Darwinian ethos of “survival of the fittest”; the emergence of Social Darwinism and the dark science of eugenics against a backdrop of industrial revolution; the American Christian backlash against evolutionism that culminated in the famous Scopes trial; and on to today’s world, where religious fundamentalists litigate for the right to teach “creation science” alongside evolution in U.S. public schools, even as the theory itself continues to evolve in new and surprising directions. Throughout, Larson trains his spotlight on the lives and careers of the scientists, explorers, and eccentrics whose collaborations and competitions have driven the theory of evolution forward. Here are portraits of Cuvier, Lamarck, Darwin, Wallace, Haeckel, Galton, Huxley, Mendel, Morgan, Fisher, Dobzhansky, Watson and Crick, W. D. Hamilton, E. O. Wilson, and many others. Celebrated as one of mankind’s crowning scientific achievements and reviled as a threat to our deepest values, the theory of evolution has utterly transformed our view of life, religion, origins, and the theory itself, and remains controversial, especially in the United States (where 90% of adults do not subscribe to the full Darwinian vision). Replete with fresh material and new insights, Evolution will educate and inform while taking readers on a fascinating journey of discovery. (shrink)