Ethical Theory

Perverse effects of other-referenced performance goals in an information exchange context

by Nico W. Van Yperen

Is Ethics Headed for Moral Behaviorism and Should We Care?

by Anthony Beavers

First Paragraph: I start with a premise that may appear at first as a moral imperative: if it is within our power to... more First Paragraph: I start with a premise that may appear at first as a moral imperative: if it is within our power to build a machine that can make human beings more moral, both individually and collectively, then we have a prima facie moral obligation to build it. Objections to this claim are, of course, tenable, though they may assume particular conceptions of ethics that have historically carried great credibility, but whose credibility we might have new reason to doubt. Some of these objections are apparent if we substitute the word “nation” with “machine” and claim that if it is within our power to build a nation that can make human beings more moral, then we have a prima facie obligation to build it. While this claim, too, may at first seem intuitively correct, it could prove objectionable if the most direct way to build such a state requires totalitarianism, or minimally, an overly-coercive state that punishes moral (and not merely legal) wrongdoers. We thus find ourselves at the nexus of several inter-related issues, including not only how to determine in a precise way what is morally correct, but also the role that freedom plays in moral culpability. If a total nation-state holds individuals at gun point and demands that they act morally under pain of death, their actions are no more deserving of reward than they would be deserving of punishment if at gun point they were made to act immorally.

Communication in online fan communities: The ethics of intimate strangers

by Christine James

Published in Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication, vol. 2, no. 2, pp279-289, December 2011.

Redefining of values or the root of perspectives and actions

by Tawadeen Bankole

The Thought within Reality and Morality

by Tobias-René Wilczek

Written while studying Philosophy in grade 11

Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Ethics – the major issues that surround people’s minds for thousands of years – consist... more Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Ethics – the major issues that surround people’s minds for thousands of years – consist of various questions concerning the way people live, what they believe in, how they act, why they do what they do, etc. Many philosophers who have discussed these issues tend to focus mostly on questions such as, What is reality? What is the self? How does the mind work? What is morality? This essay will focus on my own philosophy and my views on Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Ethics.

The Particular Stream-of-Consciousness in Alfred Döblin's "Berlin, Alexanderplatz"

by Abraham Friedman

"Sidgwick and Kant: on the so-called 'discrepancies' between Utilitarian and Kantian Ethics"

by Mariko Nakano-Okuno

in Henry Sidgwick: Happiness and Religion, edited by Placido Bucolo, Roger Crisp, and Bart Schultz, and published by University of Catania Press, 2007.

To Win, or Not to Lose, At Any Cost: The Impact of Achievement Goals on Cheating

by Nico W. Van Yperen

Anscombe's Modern Moral Philosophy: A Millian Response

by Chad Kleist

Intrinsic value and intrinsic properties

by Josh Parsons

draft only (2006)

Axiological actualism

by Josh Parsons

Australasian Journal of Philosophy 80:2 (2002)

Some people have an intuition to this effect: the welfare that a person would have, were they actual, cannot... more Some people have an intuition to this effect: the welfare that a person would have, were they actual, cannot constitute a reason to bring that person into existence. John Broome has called this "the basic intuition". ...

Why the handicapped child case is hard

by Josh Parsons

Philosophical Studies 112:2 (2003)

This paper discusses the handicapped child case and some other variants of Derek Parfit's non-identity problem. The... more This paper discusses the handicapped child case and some other variants of Derek Parfit's non-identity problem. The case is widely held to show that there is harmless wrongdoing, and that a moral system which tries to reduce wrongdoing directly to harm ("person-affecting morality") is inadequate. I show that the argument for this does not depend (as some have implied it does) on Kripkean necessity of origin. I distinguish the case from other variants ("wrongful life cases") of the non-identity problem which do not bear directly on person-affecting morality as I understand it. And finally, I describe a respect in which the handicapped child case is puzzling and counter-intuitive, even on the supposition that it is a case of harmless wrongdoing. I conclude that the case is "hard": it will take more than the rejection of person-affecting morality to remove its puzzling character.

Gestalterapia: ensaio de superação ética de sua violenta condição de psicoterapia do Eu

by Herlon Bezerra

BEZERRA, Herlon A. Gestalt Terapia: ensaio de superação ética de sua violenta condição de psicoterapia do Eu. Universidade Federal do Ceará. Departamento de Psicologia. Fortaleza: 2002. (Monografia de Conclusão de Curso).

As transformações culturais contemporâneas vêm promovendo movimentos discursivos cujo significado final parece ser o... more As transformações culturais contemporâneas vêm promovendo movimentos discursivos cujo significado final parece ser o de uma verdadeira reviravolta cultural pós-metafísica. Em tal condição cultural residem, parece certo, questionamentos críticos fundamentais quanto aos tradicionais modelos éticos prescritivos, fundados na estabelecida metafísica ocidental grega. Esse o sentido, por exemplo, de propostas como a da ética da alteridade radical, do filósofo judeu e franco-lituano, Emmanuel Lévinas. Partindo da potente radicalidade crítica levinasiana, Freire (2002) empreendeu um desafiante diálogo com as psicologias do contexto da modernidade tardia. O presente exercício encontra-se inspirado nesse trabalho e ensaia, a partir de uma desleitura inventiva da Gestalterapia, introduzir um parâmetro de leitura no qual possa dar-se a promoção de uma superação ética de leituras nas quais essa abordagem é significada como psicoterapia do Eu, de pretensões ortopédicas e, assim, manifestamente violenta. Este é, pois, um discurso esperançoso, que pretende apontar para as possibilidades contemporâneas de uma psicoterapia ética.

Will Graduating Year Accountancy Students Cheat in Examination? : A Malaysian Case

by Nur Barizah Abu Bakar

Nur Barizah Abu Bakar, Suhaiza Ismail and Suaniza Mamat (2010). Will Graduating Year Accountancy Students Cheat in Examination? : A Malaysian Case.  International Education Studies, Vol.3 No.3 (ISSN 1913-9020; Canadian Center of Science and Education)

Due to a series of high profile accounting scandals and corporate collapses such as Enron, World.Com and Andersen,... more Due to a series of high profile accounting scandals and corporate collapses such as Enron, World.Com and Andersen, ethical conduct has been widely recognized as a crucial element in accounting profession and education. The growing concern over the ethics of professionals has also called for more academic research into this critical area. Our study aims at assessing ethical behaviors of the future accounting professionals (i.e. final year accounting students) in Malaysia. This study which uses questionnaire survey examined the students’ ethical attitudes as to whether they would act unethically in an examination. Also, their attitudes towards whistleblowing – if they become aware of such unethical conduct were examined. A vast majority of students (73 per cent), decided to be on the safe side – neither being purely unethical nor whistleblowers. Of the students, 11 per cent chose to become whistleblowers. While only 16 per cent would act unethically in exam, the percentage significantly declined once the risk of being caught was introduced. This indicates that students have not moved further from the first level of Kohlberg’s stages of moral development which highly depends on the punishment and penalty in order to behave ethically. Results also reveal that students with good academic achievement were less likely to cheat in exam. Furthermore, a larger proportion of male students as compared to female tend to behave unethically. Overall, the study indicates favorable results since the majority of respondents would not prefer to indulge in unethical behavior, although they are not being purely ethical.

Água Viva: vida mais que meramente teorizada em Clarice Lispector

by Herlon Bezerra

BEZERRA, Herlon Alves. Água Viva: vida mais que meramente teorizada em Clarice Lispector. Revista de Gestalt (Instituto Sedes Sapientiae). São Paulo, n. 11, p. 55-62, 2002.

Este livre-escrito se pretende uma aproximação estética ao texto "Água Viva", de Clarice Lispector. Em tal... more Este livre-escrito se pretende uma aproximação estética ao texto "Água Viva", de Clarice Lispector. Em tal aproximação busca-se uma experiência imediata, explicitante do princípio, já presente nas teorizações das psicoterapias de fundamentação fenomenológico-existencial, segundo o qual não encontram-se no cultivo das capacidades humanas de reflexão as possibilidades de atualização das potencialidades humanas de auto-construção e auto-superação.

Environmental Ethics

by Andrew Brennan

This Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article is co-authored with Y S Lo, and provides an overview of current research in the area.

The impact of ethical and legal IT decision making on society

by Dan Calloway

Adorno on Science and Nihilism, Animals, and Jews

by Babette Babich

Original citation:  Babich, “Adorno on Science and Nihilism, Animals, and Jews.” Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy/Revue canadienne de philosophie continentale. Vol. 14, No. 1, (2011). 110-145.

Adorno’s readers are unsettled by the barest hint of anything that might be taken to be anti-science  Yet for... more Adorno’s readers are unsettled by the barest hint of anything that might be taken to be anti-science  Yet for Adorno, so-called “scientistic” tendencies are the very “conditions of society
and of scientific thought.” Yet his readers tend to refuse criticism of this kind. Scientific rationality cannot itself be problematic after all. Rather than science, it is scientism that is to be avoided. But is Adorno speaking of scientific rationality or scientistic rationality? 
Similar observations can be made with regard to animals (as Adorno saw them vs. his interpreters). And so on.  But overall, and in general, how are we to read Adorno?

Scrooge and the Pleasure Witch

by Alan Carter

Abstract:

This article shows both classical utilitarianism and egalitarianism to be inadequate normative... more Abstract:

This article shows both classical utilitarianism and egalitarianism to be inadequate normative theories. It also provides grounds for rejecting prioritarianism. A more adequate moral theory, however, would not dispense with what classical utilitarianism and egalitarianism respectively value. Rather, it would incorporate both values. An indication of how this might be achieved is provided.

Pluralism and projectivism

by Alan Carter

Abstract

This article defends value pluralism against the charge of incoherence, and indicates one form... more Abstract

This article defends value pluralism against the charge of incoherence, and indicates one form that a coherent pluralist ethic might take: namely, one deploying multidimensional isovalue planes combined with a multidimensional practicability frontier in order to determine the best outcome. However, different individuals could be expected to weight their values differently such that the gradients of their respective isovalue planes would be quite dissimilar. A Humean projectivist metaethic can explain how different persons’ isovalue planes may be expected to come into greater alignment, thereby revealing a compatibility between error-theoretic projectivism and pluralism.