“Des personnages de si près tenus”, TV Fiction and Moral Consensus

How can we understand the adaptations of literary classics made for French television? We simultaneously analyzed the works and the context in which they were produced in order to relate the moral configurations that emerge in the stories to activities carried out by identifiable members of the production team, in specific, empirically observable circumstances. This empirical approach to the constitution of the moral panorama in which characters evolve rejects the idea of the pure autonomy of ideological contents, suggesting instead a study of the way normative demands and professional ethics are combined in practice, thus combining a sociology of characters and a sociology of professionals and showing how professional priorities influence production choices. This detaches the moral question from the philosophical horizon it is associated with in order to make it an object of empirial study. Adopting this perspective produces unexpected findings. Observation shows that the moral landscape in which characters are located is neither stable, autonomous, transparent, or consensual. It is instead caught up in material logics, constrained by temporal dynamics, and dependent on professional coordination. It is traversed by tensions between professional logics, and logics of regulation.

The Importance of Vow

This chapter addresses the role of vows in Buddhist ethics. Vows generate new moral perspectives, as well as new agent-relative moral considerations. Among the vows addressed are the lay vows, monastic vows, bodhisattva vows, and tantric vows. The chapter discusses the diverse Buddhist interpretations of the metaphysical status of vows, and the ways that they transform one’s moral landscape, changing the ethical status of actions. Also addressed here are the binding power of vows, including the roles of both initial intention and admitted exceptions, and the effects of transgressions, including atonement and confession, and the phenomenon of returning vows.

The Ethics in Long-Term Care Model: Everyday Ethics and the Unseen Moral Landscape of Assisted Living

Assisted living (AL) communities are long-term care settings where people live, work, and visit, and where social relationships and care, including end-of-life care, are negotiated. Assisted living is fraught with uncertainty and conflict about values, especially given residents’ cognitive and physical frailty. These value-laden issues have implications for both resident and care partners’ experiences. Yet, almost no research has examined ethics in this complex care environment. In this article, we draw on and synthesize existing theory, research, and practice knowledge to offer a conceptual model and discuss case examples that highlight everyday ethical issues in AL. We conceptualize the moral decision-making process and hence the moral landscape of AL, as influenced by a myriad of multi-level factors that shape interpersonal encounters and decision-making involving residents and their care partners, which ultimately shape individuals’ actions and experiences in the setting. We conclude by discussing implications for research, policy, and practice.

Bàn về "Không gian đạo đức"

This article is an opinion paper about Sam Harris' "The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values"

Artificial Phronesis

Robotics technologies are already impacting the ethical and moral landscape we live in. This chapter looks at the need to develop machines with ethical and moral practical wisdom, a capability we will call artificial phronesis. Phronesis is a skill that most adult humans have to some level, but as of yet no machine has it. It is the ability to think creatively, artfully, and effectively in solving novel ethical and moral problems as they arise. Many of the robots of our imagination display this skill, and this shows that there is a desire to build such machines. This chapter defines the meaning of this new term and the boundaries of which kinds of systems it might apply to.

The Power to be Ethical: Controlling Moral Assemblages in Border Militias

Every year, hundreds of U.S. citizens patrol the Mexican border dressed in camouflage and armed with pistols and assault rifles. Unsanctioned by the government, these militias aim to stop the movement of narcotics into the United States. Recent interest in the anthropology of ethics has focused on how individuals cultivate themselves toward a notion of the ethical. In contrast, within the militias, ethical self-cultivation was absent. I argue the volunteers derived the power to be ethical from the control of the dominant moral assemblage and the construction of an immoral “Other” which provided them the power to define a moral landscape that limited the potential for ethical conflicts. In the article, I discuss two instances Border Watch and its volunteers dismissed disruptions to their moral certainty and confirmed to themselves that their actions were not only the “right” thing to do, but the only ethical response available.

“Now is the real Jungle!” Institutional hunting and migrants’ survival after the eviction of the Calais camp

The refugee makeshift settlement of Calais, globally known as the “Calais Jungle”, was dismantled in October 2016. Its existence, as a spectacle repeatedly spread by the media all over the world, was a key element in the representation of the so-called “migration crisis” in Europe. One year after the end of the camp, this article focuses on a new scenario in which dispersed settlements keep reappearing and migrants are hunted by the authorities and the police on a daily basis, observing the everyday life of the many who continue to reach this borderland in the hope of crossing to the other side, by any means and at any risk. This ethnographic and visual sociology project follows a group of young Afghans, identifying the crucial phases that structure widespread daily routines and a broad moral landscape: survival, the hunt, and the attempt to get across.