Patsy Hallen occupies an esteemed place in environmental and ecofeminist philosophy, due to her foundational scholarly contributions, her unique and widely influential work as an earth-centered teacher and mentor, and her decades of experience walking, camping, and sailing the stunning environs of Western Australia. We are honored to have organized an extraordinary symposium celebrating Patsy’s life and career in 2023, and to have developed this publication from the philosophical tributes from colleagues, friends and former students who presented there. (...) On a clear, warm evening in mid-December we gathered in person and virtually on the campus of Murdoch University. We took the framework of “The Power of Ideas” as a guiding prompt, and as we gave our tributes to Patsy, we also engaged that theme through the context of the ongoing interlocked crises of global heating, environmental decline, the extinction crisis, and far too many social crises, but also inspired by the force of Patsy’s embodied, affirming, life-loving philosophy. (shrink)

Several authors have argued that act–utilitarianism cannot provide an adequate critique of buying meat because a single meat purchase will not actually cause more farm animals to be raised or slaughtered. Thus, regardless of whether or not the production of meat is inhumane to animals, someone who buys meat is doing nothing wrong. This argument fails to show that meat purchases are morally permissible, however, because it assumes that act–utilitarians would use actual utility in their decision to buy or not (...) to buy meat. I show that act–utilitarians cannot use actual utility as a decision procedure and must instead use expected utility to prescribe or proscribe actions. I then demonstrate how expected utility can be applied to cases of contributory causation, where many people seem morally responsible for causing something to happen. Buying meat is one case of contributory causation where the probability of any single individual's affecting meat production is slight, but the expected disutility of affecting that production is substantial. Thus, in its expected utility form, act–utilitarianism defeats the ‘causal inefficacy’ defence of buying meat [1]. (shrink)

With complex buyer-driven global production networks and a labour-intensive manufacturing process, the fashion industry has become a focal point for debates on the social responsibility of business. Utilising an interview methodology with influential actors from seven export garment manufacturers in Sri Lanka, we explore the situated knowledge at one nodal point of the production network. We conceptualise factory management perspectives on the implementation of corporate social responsibility in terms of the strategic balancing of ethical considerations against the commercial pressures of (...) cost and lead time. Factory managers framed CSR in terms of compliance, rather than going above and beyond regulatory requirements; seeing it as a strategic competitive imperative and less a developmental mechanism. Sri Lankan manufacturers maintain that they have benefitted from a unique combination of factors, including strict national labour laws, an educated workforce, the characteristics of the garments produced, industrial upgrading, and long-term non-adversarial buyer–supplier relationships, which they argue has supported the establishment and maintenance of CSR practices. The paper thus provides managerial implications that relate CSR activities to CSR outcomes which include both reputational and production benefits. Such insights will be of strategic relevance for lead retail buyers as well as apparel producers keen to invest in CSR to partly mitigate against increasing price-based competition. (shrink)

In this century a number of events could extinguish humanity. The probability of these events may be very low, but the expected value of preventing them could be high, as it represents the value of all future human lives. We review the challenges to studying human extinction risks and, by way of example, estimate the cost effectiveness of preventing extinction-level asteroid impacts.

Health care institutions have paid increasing attention to preventing nosocomial transmission of influenza through vaccination of health care personnel. While multifaceted voluntary interventions have increased vaccination rates, proponents of mandatory programs contend the rates remain unacceptably low. Conventional bioethical analyses of mandatory programs are inadequate; they fail to account for the obligations of nonprofessional personnel or to justify the weights assigned to different ethical principles. Using an ethics framework for public health permits a fuller analysis. The framework's focus on fairness (...) accentuates the potential differences between the risk of transmitting infection and employment status, and the need to equitably evaluate exemptions. The framework's emphasis on balancing benefits and burdens highlights the need to justify a specific goal and questions the need to exclude all nonmedical exemptions. While mandatory vaccination programs are justifiable, greater attention should be paid to their implementation. (shrink)

IntroductionClassifying the ethical issues in clinical ethics consultations is important to clinical practice and scholarship. We conducted a systematic review to characterize the typologies used to analyze clinical ethics consultations.MethodsWe identified empirical studies of clinical ethics consultation that reported types of ethical issues using PubMed. We screened these articles based on their titles and abstracts, and then by a review of their full text. We extracted study characteristics and typologies and coded the typologies.ResultsWe reviewed 428 articles; 30 of the articles (...) fulfilled our inclusion criteria. We identified 27 unique typologies. Each typology contained five to 47 categories (mean = 18). The most common categories were do-not-attempt-resuscitation orders (19 typologies, 70 percent), capacity (18 typologies, 67 percent), withholding (18 typologies, 67 percent), withdrawing (17 typologies, 63 percent), and surrogate or proxy (16 typologies, 59 percent). Only seven (26 percent) of the typologies contained all five of the most common categories. The typologies we used to characterize clinical ethics consultations exhibit significant heterogeneity and several conceptual limitations. A common typology is needed whose development may require multi-institutional collaboration and could be facilitated by professional organizations. (shrink)

Staff at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center used behavior contracts to address “difficult” patients and families for years. Nonadherence with recommended medical treatments was generally...

This article identifies four themes that dominate the literature on corporate reputation and attempts to further distinguish the linkages between the concepts of identity, image, and reputation. Four dimensions of corporate identity are characterized. Arationale for comprehensive measurement of the components of reputation is provided, and a preliminary framework for measuring various dimensions of corporate identity, image, and reputation is developed. Finally, reputation-related questions intended to assist various decision-makers in predicting future business performance are posed in order to focus future (...) advances in the usefulness of the construct of corporate reputation. (shrink)

This Special Issue examines ethics in fashion to further critical understanding of the various drivers and barriers, nuances and layers of complexity in fashion production, marketing, and consumption, and aims toward a more future-oriented perspective through the lens of ethics. Research on ethical issues in fashion is growing but is fragmented across diverse domains, from supply chain and operations management, to psychology and sociology, to marketing and consumption. Furthermore, there has been only a peripheral focus on ethics and limited application (...) of ethical theories or frameworks to fashion’s ethical dilemmas. This Special Issue brings together diverse domains and unpacks salient ethical issues using the lens of ethical theories and frameworks to advance theory development on balancing social justice with environmental responsibility, decision-making in ethical situations, and newer forms of greenwashing and consumerism. The selected papers use varied methodologies and offer novel insights across different global contexts. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Ethics & the Environment 8.1 (2003) 57-60 [Access article in PDF] The Art of Impurity Patsy Hallen I was taken aback when I received a request from the West Australian government to write a response to the question, "What Is The Ethical Foundation For Planning A More Sustainable Future?" My first reaction was: Does not every one want a future? And doesn't this necessarily mean a commitment to (...) sustainability? Would not everyone earnestly want a more sustainable future?To have to ask the question at all shows just how far out of balance our crazy, greed-driven culture is. To ask the question is to imply that many people do not want to live on, or, at least, do not want the next generation to live on. It was like being asked: How can one morally justify a flourishing, joyful life for every being on earth?In a profound sense, there cannot and need not be any moral justification for sustainability because sustainability is the foundation for morality, not the other way around. As the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle cautioned, it shows a lack of education to try and prove everything. You can't prove logic, for example, because logic presupposes proof. Likewise, our ultimate norms such as "Love is better than hate" must be gained by intuition; they can't be proved.No sooner had I received this request than I became ill (no causal connection, I assure you!) and in my fever-induced reveries I penned imaginary responses. I wrote:"The Ethical Foundation of Sustainability is 'Joy' or 'Life' or 'An Ethic of Flourishing'." [End Page 57]'Survival' seemed the most appropriate candidate (especially as the fever escalated), until I settled on Love.Of course, Love.* * *He was huge. He was unbelievably huge. He just kept coming and coming. He was so close.His blue-grey body turned the intensely deep blue depths into a translucent green, like an enormous halo hovering just below the surface.I was drawn into his presence like ink into blotting paper.He blew, rhythmically expelling air. I, too, exhaled and this made me 'come to', returning me to my body. I realized I was wet-by his breath. I had been baptized, the most magnificent baptism one could imagine.In my baptism, luckily, I was spared being hit by a dollop of phlegm.It does happen.His breath smelt... not sweet but not sour-primordial, like the origin of life. I became aware of someone softly counting the breaths: "17... 18... 19..." it seemed everlasting.Then after 19 breaths, he dove, not with a rush, just leisurely, almost seamlessly, like the pulse of life itself, hardly a splash.I hadn't even remembered to be seasick.He is one of the largest animals ever to have lived on earth. His tongue weighs more than an elephant. He measures a length of 26 meters, a weight of around 160 tons.This is the Pygmy Blue Whale, Balaenoptera Brevicanda, hunted close to extinction by the whaling industry, and now slowly returning from the brink. Whoever named him "Pygmy" must have had delusions of grandeur.We were 30 nautical miles off the west end of Rottenest Island (near Perth), on board "Whalesong," a 13-meter catamaran built and sailed by Curt and Mich Jenner, who have been researching whales on the West Australian coast for over 10 years.We were at "the trench," where Pygmies feed. Mich and Curt had spent the summer trying to learn about this Rorqual Whale, before sailing north for the winter to follow Humpbacks on their annual migratory path from their feeding grounds in the southern ocean to their breeding enclaves in the Kimberley.Very little is known about Pygmy Blues. They are a tropical subspecies of the Blue Whale, but might possibly be a new species altogether. No one [End Page 58] knows where they go to mate or to give birth. Very few people have even seen them. Like the Whale Sharks, they are one of the last unfathomable mysteries of the planet.We stayed with this foundational animal for 2 hours, until the last... (shrink)

This chapter discusses the ethical issues raised by the film _Gone Baby Gone_ (2008). The film focuses on the abduction of a young girl, Amanda McCready (Madeline O'Brien). Neighborhood private detectives Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) search for Amanda under the false premise that she has been kidnapped by a drug dealer to force her mother, Helene (Amy Ryan), to return money that she stole from him. One of the fundamental issues raised by the film is (...) the nature of the relationship between parents and children and when, if ever, others should intervene. The extreme ends of the spectrum are the views that the state should raise children and that parents should have absolute authority over their children. The dominant, contemporary view is that there is a rebuttable presumption in favor of parental autonomy and family privacy. This view can be justified both in terms of the benefits of families and the harms of state intervention. (shrink)

This paper demonstrates how the theoretical framework of white-collar crime, grounded in the "Fraud Triangle" provides a useful theoretical foundation for research in academic dishonesty.

This study focuses on the state of gender bias in graduate accounting and finance education utilizing a mail questionnaire to 1721 faculty. Responses from 34% of the overall sample suggest that certain gender-based differences do characterize graduate programs. Directions for further research are proposed.

Michael Potts, Paul A. Byrne, an David W. Evans are critical of donation after cardiac death (DCD). Contrary to the authors’ assertion that the removal of vital organs is the proximate cause of death, the eventual fulfillment of the neurological criteria of death is solely dependant on the rate of brain cell death in the absence of circulation. Consistent with the “dead donor rule,” DCD is not the cause of death. There are also procedural mechanisms to address the potential conflicts (...) of interest that concern the authors. Rather than being prohibited, DCD may be an ethically justifiable exception to the rule that organ donors must be dead prior to organ recovery. (shrink)

This paper analyzes the information provided in sustainability reports by six firms that were named among the top fifty in social reporting and verification. We found that the type of information reported was considerably behind the standards that have been promulgated. Secondly, U.S. companies are considerably behind best practice in social reporting. Thirdly, extemal verification of sustainability reports is inconsistent.

This chapter conceptualises luxury fashion as a cultural phenomenon by exploring the perspectives and lived experiences of contemporary consumers who determine China’s luxury market dynamics. It questions the predominant assumption that Chinese consumers are passive adopters of imported Western luxury consumption values and illustrates the complexity inherent in the Chinese consumer experience, highlighting their potential as proactive value creators. Chinese consumers characterise luxury fashion in financial, conspicuous, functional and hedonic terms (Shukla and Purani in Journal of Business Research 65:1417–1424, 2012; (...) Shukla et al. in Marketing Letters 26:265–278, 2015), but also imbue it with a unique contextual value that reflects the socio-cultural realm of their worlds. They see luxury fashion as a ‘symbol of the West’ and the ‘art of life’ they should aspire to, but its growing accessibility has caused some disorientation and alienation. (shrink)

This study extends prior research on the impact of the 2013 G4 disclosure requirements, issued by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), in the mining and metals sector. Content analysis is used to longitudinally analyze the sustainability reports of mining companies in diverse geographical locations to determine the extent to which the content of reporting has changed over time, and we begin to analyze how each company is adhering to G4 Guidelines by its second reporting iteration. We also identify challenges for (...) researchers who use sustainability reports as a source for data. (shrink)

Many academic medical centers are seeking to attract patients from outside their historical catchment areas for economic and programmatic reasons, and patients are traveling for treatment that is unavailable, of poorer quality, or more expensive at home. Treatment of these patients raises a number of ethical issues including whether they may be given priority in scheduling outpatient follow-up appointments in order to reduce the period of time they are away from home. Granting them priority is potentially unjust because medical treatment (...) is generally allocated based on medical need and resource utilization, and then on a first-come, first-served basis. While it is difficult to compare the opportunity cost of waiting for an appointment to different patients, nonresident patients incur higher expenditures for travel, room, and board than resident patients. Giving them priority in scheduling to reduce these costs may be justifiable. Preferentially scheduling nonresident patients may also indirectly benefit resident patients consistent with Rawls’s difference principle. This potential justification, however, rests on several empirical claims that should be demonstrated. In addition to reducing resident patients’ waiting times, medical centers should not prioritize nonresident patients over resident patients with more urgent medical needs. There is, therefore, a limited and circumscribed justification for prioritizing nonresident patients in scheduling follow-up appointments. (shrink)

The American Medical Association opinion “Physician Exercise of Conscience” is generally sound; its recommendations regarding notice, nondiscrimination, informed consent, referral, and non-abandonment are reasonable. Within its focus on individual physicians’ duties to particular patients, it could also emphasize that physicians should only share the reasons for their objections if patients express an interest and that they should only share the reasons in a respectful manner. The opinion, however, neglects wider time frames and higher levels of organization. It could comment on (...) physicians’ duty to form their consciences appropriately and to select specialities and practice settings that do not engender excessive conflicts. Given the number of physicians who are not self-employed and the role of law in establishing rights and responsibilities, the opinion could also address employers’, legislatures’, and courts’ obligations to balance protecting physicians’ integrity and assuring patients’ access to medical treatment. Addressing these wider perspectives would greatly strengthen the opinion. (shrink)

This symposium focuses on the current state, challenges, and future prospects of sustainability reporting. One goal is to communicate the considerable progress that has been made in developing standards and in getting support from large corporations, which are beginning to use these standards to prepare sustainability or "triple-bottom-line" reports. A second goal is to foster discussion about the issues that remain to be addressed, including the questions of access to which kinds of information, the capability of providing independent audits and (...) who should audit, and comparability of reports. Issues of credibility are paramount. (shrink)

One of the major criticisms of optimal foraging theory (OFT) is that it is not testable. In discussions of this criticism opposing parties have confused methodological concepts and used meaningless biological concepts. In this paper we discuss such misunderstandings and show that OFr has an empirically testable, and even well-confirmed, general core theory. One of our main conclusions is that specific model testing should not be aimed at proving optimality, but rather at identifying the context in which certain types of (...) behaviour are optimal. To do this, it is necessary to be aware of the assumptions made in testing a model. The assumptions that are explicitly stated in the literature up to now do not completely cover the actual assumptions made in testing OFT models in practice. We present a more comprehensive set of assumptions. Although all the assumptions play a role in testing models, they are not of equal status. Crucial assumptions concern constraints and the relation between fitness and currency. Therefore, it is essential to make such assumptions testable in practice. We show that a more explicit relationship between OFT modelling and evolutionary theory can help with this. Specifically, phylogeny reconstruction and population dynamic modelling can and should be used to formulate assumptions concerning constraints and currencies. (shrink)

One of the major criticisms of optimal foraging theory (OFT) is that it is not testable. In discussions of this criticism opposing parties have confused methodological concepts and used meaningless biological concepts. In this paper we discuss such misunderstandings and show that OFr has an empirically testable, and even well-confirmed, general core theory. One of our main conclusions is that specific model testing should not be aimed at ‘proving’ optimality, but rather at identifying the context in which certain types of (...) behaviour are optimal. To do this, it is necessary to be aware of the assumptions made in testing a model. The assumptions that are explicitly stated in the literature up to now do not completely cover the actual assumptions made in testing OFT models in practice. We present a more comprehensive set of assumptions. Although all the assumptions play a role in testing models, they are not of equal status. Crucial assumptions concern constraints and the relation between fitness and currency. Therefore, it is essential to make such assumptions testable in practice. We show that a more explicit relationship between OFT modelling and evolutionary theory can help with this. Specifically, phylogeny reconstruction and population dynamic modelling can and should be used to formulate assumptions concerning constraints and currencies. (shrink)

This paper examines the incremental value added to sustainability reporting by changes in disclosure requirements of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 guidelines in the Metals and Mining industry. Three companies’ most recent G4 sustainability reports are critically compared to their previous G3 reports, and the some results of content analysis are reported.

ABSTRACT Jacques Derrida deploys a type of argument throughout his oeuvre that goes something like this: “X is a normative concept. The conditions of the possibility of X make X impossible. Thus, X has a certain ‘impossible possibility.’” The purpose and meaning of these recurring argumentative structures remain obscure to many readers. The apparent opacity of these arguments exemplifies the seeming incommensurability between deconstruction and anglophone philosophy in the early twenty-first century. A pragmatist, the anglophone tradition perhaps most amenable to (...) deconstruction, might ask: What does Derrida do with these impossible possibility arguments (IPAs)? How do they contribute to the position in which his later philosophy leaves us? This article employs the pragmatist metavocabularies developed by Richard Rorty and Robert Brandom to tease apart Derrida’s notion of the “impossible possibility” of the gift, hospitality, invention, and democracy and aims to demonstrate why these normative concepts are found impossible for Derrida, obviated from any retrospective story and forever deferred into the future of the “to come.” Taking as a point of departure Derrida’s problem of thinking the machine and the event “in a single gesture,” this article connects the theory of normativity present in Derrida’s philosophy to Brandom’s three ages of Geist. (shrink)

Volume 25, Issue 3, March 2025, Page 40-42.

Few moral arguments have been made against vegetarian diets. One exception is the “Logic of the Larder:” We do animals a favor by purchasing their meat, eggs, and milk, for if we did not purchase these products, fewer animals would exist. This argument fails because many farm animals have lives that are probably not worth living, while others prevent a significant number of wild animals from existing. Even if this were not so, the purchase of animal products uses resources that (...) could otherwise be used to bring a much greater number of animals into existence. (shrink)

This study obtained data about faculty attitudes on the ethical propriety of and estimated involvement with 38 activities. A questionnaire, mailed to 480 randomly selected Information Systems (IS) academicians provided insights into the ethical standards held by IS faculty. Several attitudinal differences, based upon individual and institutional demographic characteristics were identified. The most discriminating individual characteristic explaining differences in faculty attitudes was appointment level. The IS major at the graduate level explained more differences in attitude and more critical attitudes than (...) any other factor. (shrink)

Legislation banning gender-affirming medical care (GAMC) for minors is inconsistent with the Consensus Recommendations for Pediatric Decision-Making (Salter et al. 2023). Gender dysphoria is a medical condition, and GAMC promotes adolescents’ health interests. The evidence for GAMC is comparable to the evidence for other types of pediatric medical care. Parents are permitted to consent for similar risks in the treatment of other conditions. Evaluation of the potential benefits, risks, and treatment alternatives is contingent on individual patients’ clinical conditions and adolescents’ (...) and their parents’ values and preferences. Such decisions are within the scope of parental discretion and should be made through shared decision-making with health-care providers. Parents’ declining GAMC does not inherently create a significant risk of serious imminent harm required to justify state intervention. Usurping parental discretion for GAMC is unjust: it treats this medical care differently than other comparable types of medical care without sufficient justification. (shrink)