scholarly journals Does kindness towards robots lead to virtue? A reply to Sparrow’s asymmetry argument

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Coeckelbergh
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Robot Ethics ◽  
Moral Relevance ◽  
Critical Response ◽  
The Way

AbstractDoes cruel behavior towards robots lead to vice, whereas kind behavior does not lead to virtue? This paper presents a critical response to Sparrow’s argument that there is an asymmetry in the way we (should) think about virtue and robots. It discusses how much we should praise virtue as opposed to vice, how virtue relates to practical knowledge and wisdom, how much illusion is needed for it to be a barrier to virtue, the relation between virtue and consequences, the moral relevance of the reality requirement and the different ways one can deal with it, the risk of anthropocentric bias in this discussion, and the underlying epistemological assumptions and political questions. This response is not only relevant to Sparrow’s argument or to robot ethics but also touches upon central issues in virtue ethics.

The Self-Absorption Objection and Neo-Aristotelian Virtue Ethics

2018 ◽  
Vol 92 (4) ◽  
pp. 641-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff D’Souza ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Moral Motivation ◽  
The Self ◽  
Virtuous Agent ◽  
Good For ◽  
The Way

This paper examines one of the central objections levied against neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics: the self-absorption objection. Proponents of this objection state that the main problem with neo-Aristotelian accounts of moral motivation is that they prescribe that our ultimate reason for acting virtuously is that doing so is for the sake of and/or is constitutive of our own eudaimonia. In this paper, I provide an overview of the various attempts made by neo-Aristotelian virtue ethicists to address the self-absorption objection and argue that they all fall short for one reason or another. I contend that the way forward for neo-Aristotelian virtue ethicists is to reject the view that the virtuous agent ought to organize her life in a way that is ultimately good for her, and instead adopt a more expansive conception of her ultimate end, one in which no special preference is given to her own good.

An Account of Beauty

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Gerald O’Collins, S.J.
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Jacques Maritain ◽  
Holy See ◽  
Rudolf Otto ◽  
Divine Beauty ◽  
The Way

Jacques Maritain followed Thomas Aquinas by identifying the truly beautiful as perfect, harmonious, and radiantly splendid. To this account we may add that beauty, above all the beauty of God, enjoys inexhaustible meaning and overlaps with the Holy (see Rudolf Otto). The divine beauty is an awesome and fascinating mystery. Beauty triggers love. Loving beauty opens the way to knowing the truth, and helps us grasp and practise virtue. We can speak of beauty ethics, as well as virtue ethics. Despite a partial, modern ‘eclipse’ of beauty, a sense of beauty has not disappeared. Experiments with newly born children suggest that a sense of beauty is innate. Love of beauty, however, should not lead us to ignore ways in which beauty may be used for evil purposes.

Welfare-Prior Eudaimonism, Excellence-Prior Eudaimonism, and the Self-Absorption Objection

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 237-250
Author(s):  
Jeff D’Souza ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
The Self ◽  
Virtuous Agent ◽  
Adequate Response ◽  
Good For ◽  
The Way

One of the longest standing objections levied against virtue ethics is the Self-Absorption Objection. Proponents of this objection state that the main problem with neo-Aristotelian accounts is that the virtuous agent’s motive is to promote her own eudaimonia. In this paper, I examine Christopher Toner’s attempt to address this objection by arguing that we should understand the virtuous agent as acting virtuously because doing so is what it means to live well qua human. I then go on to defend Toner’s view from two of Anne Baril’s criticisms: that his account is un-Aristotelian, and that his account does not take seriously the importance of the virtuous agent organizing her life in a way that is good for her. In doing so, I pave the way for neo-Aristotelian virtue ethicists to develop an adequate response to the self-absorption objection along Toner’s lines.

scholarly journals On the Metric System of Weights and Measures, and its proposed Adoption in this Country

1864 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 263-279
Author(s):  
Samuel Brown
Keyword(s):  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Weights And Measures ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

The great advantages, social, commercial, and political, which would attend the use of one system of weights, measures, and coins throughout the world, have generally been admitted, but as generally considered impossible. Such a result is frequently deemed to be merely the dream of a visionary, or the speculation of a philosopher, who has no practical knowledge of the world, and is incapable of appreciating the difficulties which stand in the way of accomplishing so desirable an object.

The Good Life and the Good Lives of Others

1992 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Annas
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Good Life ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Ethical Theories ◽  
Good Lives ◽  
The Way

It is well-known that in recent years, alongside the familiar forms of modern ethical theory, such as consequentialism, deontology, and rights theory, there has been a resurgence of interest in what goes by the name of “virtue ethics” — forms of ethical theory which give a prominent status to the virtues, and to the idea that an agent has a “final end” which the virtues enable her to achieve. With this has come an increase of theoretical (as opposed to antiquarian) interest in ancient ethical theories, particularly Aristotle's, an interest which has made a marked difference in the way ethics is pursued in the Anglo-Saxon and European intellectual worlds.In this essay, I shall not be discussing modern virtue ethics, which is notably protean in form and difficult to pin down. I shall be focusing on ancient eudaimonistic ethical theories, for in their case we can achieve a clearer discussion of the problem I wish to discuss (a problem which arises also for modern versions of virtue ethics which hark back to the ancient theories in their form).

Postmodern Ethical Conditions and a Critical Response

1998 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 121-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neta C. Crawford
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Belief ◽  
International Ethics ◽  
Critical Response ◽  
Post Modernism ◽  
The World ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
The Way

Postmodern, poststructural, and critical theorists say that there are no universally valid foundations for norms. Whether or not we think that ethics exists in international life, or ought to, these theorists maintain that there are no firm grounds for any particular ethical belief. Rather, they argue, ethics is contextual.Many, perhaps most, students of international ethics believe that such approaches have little to offer considerations of international ethics. Christopher Norris says postmodernists are nihilists: “Postmodernism is merely the most extreme (or as some would say, most consistent and consequent) version of this desire to have done with all truth-claims beyond what is presently and contingenty ‘good in the way of belief.‘” Ken Booth argues: “If one scratches a committed post-modernist one will almost certainly find a comfortably well-off Western urban liberal. Those who live against the wall, or who have emancipated themselves from such a position, do not hold these views.… The reason for this is obvious, and relates to the fact that post-modernism—certainly that of a doctrinaire variety—does not deliver an ethics for the emancipation of victims across the world.”

scholarly journals Reflection-in-action: Measuring ‘context’ in medical interpreting

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robyn Dean
Keyword(s):  
Reflective Practice ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
The United States ◽  
Medical Settings ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Medical Interpreting ◽  
Reflection In Action ◽  
The Way

Community interpreting scholarship has solidly established the importance of appreciating the nuances of context to effective interpreting practice (Angelelli, 2004; Wadensjo?, 1998). Several frameworks for identifying and articulating the way context affects interpreting work have been articulated (Dean & Pollard, 2011). What is less well documented is the way interpreters learn to develop an understanding of context and how that subsequently informs their practice. This article describes the development and implementation of a tool to assess interpreters’ facility in identifying and articulating context – specifically in healthcare settings. The activities and the assessment tool are grounded in the educational theories of Donald Schön and his foregrounding of the intuitive practice abilities of professionals. The resulting assessment tool was refined through its use in postgraduate courses in healthcare interpreting, where various aspects of the healthcare context were explained using videos of provider–patient interactions. Through reflective practice activities, students analysed their practical knowledge and skills and improved their context-based insight. Currently designed for signed language interpreters in medical settings based in the United States, this multi-component assessment tool can be adapted to various contexts in community interpreting.

scholarly journals Kant’s turn in the account of feeling: Critical response to the XVIII century sentimentalism

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-46
Author(s):  
Igor Cvejic
Keyword(s):  
Transcendental Philosophy ◽  
German Romanticism ◽  
German Philosophy ◽  
Critical Response ◽  
Xviii Century ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Way

Rationalism marked the first half of XVIII century German philosophy. Yet, in the second half of the century a new tendency - which based its orientation towards aesthetics on immediate feeling - emerged and ultimately paved the way to German romanticism. This paper aims to show the main features of Kant?s response to this new tendency. However, this response must be understood in terms of Kant?s transcendental philosophy and his tripartite division of irreducible faculties of the mind. I will argue that the development of Kant?s position was based on his account of the Feeling as a separate faculty of the mind, and the principle of purposiveness as an apriori principle for this faculty.

Richard Simeon and the Policy Sciences Project

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 703-720
Author(s):  
Michael M. Atkinson
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Policy Science ◽  
The State ◽  
Policy Sciences ◽  
Policy Studies ◽  
Policy Narratives ◽  
The Way

AbstractIn his classic 1976 article on the state of policy studies in Canada, Richard Simeon explicitly warned against following the path toward a policy science. Simeon was suspicious of the normative agenda embedded in the policy sciences project and worried that it would submerge politics in a broader set of interdisciplinary concerns. Was Simeon right? The policy sciences have not developed the way their principal proponent, Harold Lasswell, had anticipated or hoped, but neither has the study of public policy developed exactly as Simeon advocated. Both Lasswell and Simeon believed strongly in an empirical orientation and Lasswell, more than Simeon, focused on creating a tool kit of techniques. Schools of public policy have moved beyond both critique and technique to estimate risk, ameliorate error and mobilize knowledge. This new agenda requires students of public policy to acquire and employ practical knowledge steeped in the particular and instructed by policy narratives.

A Revolutionary Haunt: Utopian Frontiers in William S. Burroughs’s Late Trilogy

2019 ◽  
pp. 33-73
Author(s):  
Christian P. Haines
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Critical Response ◽  
Communal Property ◽  
The Future ◽  
Self Rule ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines William S. Burroughs’ late trilogy of novels—Cities of the Red Night (1981), The Place of Dead Roads (1983), and The Western Lands (1987)—as a critical response to American neoliberalism. It analyzes what Burroughs terms the trilogy’s retroactive utopianism, or the way in which it reactivates the potential of historical revolutions (including the American Revolution and the global revolts of the 1960s) as a way of reimagining the future of global politics. Focusing on The Place of Dead Roads, the chapter shows how Burroughs combines science fiction and the Western to envision the Frontier in utopian terms. It argues that Burroughs’s fiction builds on the politics of the multitude, or the antisystemic politics of the late 1990s to the present, articulating a vision of the nation in terms of communal property, egalitarian relations, and democratic self-rule.

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