Morality, Accountability and the Wrong Kind of Reasons

Utilitas ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-40
Author(s):  
MICAH LOTT
Keyword(s):  
Second Person ◽  
Convincing Argument ◽  
The Right ◽  
Wrong Kind Of Reasons ◽  
Stephen Darwall ◽  
Do So

In The Second Person Standpoint, Stephen Darwall makes a new argument against consequentialism, appealing to: (a) the conceptual tie between obligation and accountability, and (b) the ‘right kind of reasons’ for holding others accountable. I argue that Darwall's argument, as it stands, fails against indirect consequentialism, because it relies on a confusion between our being right to establish practices, and our having a right to do so. I also explore two ways of augmenting Darwall's argument. However, while the second of these ways is more promising than the first, neither provides a convincing argument against indirect consequentialism.

Levinas, Darwall, and Løgstrup on Second-Personal Ethics

2018 ◽  
pp. 302-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Stern
Keyword(s):  
Moral Action ◽  
Personal Relation ◽  
Fundamental Difficulty ◽  
Personal Approach ◽  
Right Reason ◽  
The Right ◽  
Personal Ethics ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Stephen Darwall ◽  
Do So

This article considers the relationship between Levinas’s ethics and the “second-personal” approach adopted by Stephen Darwall and K. E. Løgstrup. Darwall’s ethics treats the second-personal relation as one of command as an exercise of authority, while K. E. Løgstrup treats the second-personal relation as one of responsibility rather than command. It is argued that Løgstrup raises a fundamental difficulty for any command view, namely that the reason to act on a command is because one has been commanded to do so, where this cannot provide the right reason for a moral action. This article considers where Levinas should be located in this debate between the two models of second-personal ethics represented by Darwall and Løgstrup. It is suggested that while Levinas’s position reflects elements of both accounts, he is perhaps closer to the command approach, in a way that then makes him vulnerable to Løgstrup’s objections.

Heinrich von Kleist and the Right to War

Romanticism ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-254
Author(s):  
Jan Mieszkowski
Keyword(s):  
Heinrich Von Kleist ◽  
The Right ◽  
Do So

This essay explores the conceptualization of warfare in Romanticism. The focus is on two plays by Heinrich von Kleist, Penthesilea and Prince Friedrich von Homburg. I begin by discussing Carl von Clausewitz's influential understanding of conflict and the problems that arise when he attempts to explain the interdependence of warring parties. I go on to argue that in Kleist's dramas war is a competition between different languages of authority. When no coherent paradigm of agency emerges from this contest, the right to wage war is revealed to be anything but a guarantee that one knows how to do so.

In the Labyrinth

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew McNeillie
Keyword(s):  
The Right ◽  
First Time ◽  
Do So

It is now widely acknowledged, and far beyond Ireland, that Tim Robinson’s two volumes jointly known as Stones of Aran (‘Pilgrimage’ and ‘Labyrinth’) are modern classics, exemplary in every way of how to write about place and to do so with a formal, literary accomplishment that more than earns the right to nod at Ruskin’s own classic. In 2012, Robinson went back to Árainn, the largest of the three islands, for the first time in nearly ten years. He did so at the urging of Andrew McNeillie, with whom he spent two and a half days revisiting old haunts. This chapter makes account of the occasion and uses, in the process, a unique document provided by Robinson as an experiment in annotating his work. This prompts McNeillie to investigate some of his own annotations and footnotes to Aran.

Rights and Demands

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Moral Argument ◽  
Joint Commitment ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Joel Feinberg ◽  
Joseph Raz ◽  
The Right ◽  
Judith Thomson ◽  
Stephen Darwall

This book is the first extended treatment of demand-rights, a class of rights apt to be considered rights par excellence. Centrally, to have a demand-right is to have the standing or authority to demand a particular action from another person, who has a correlative obligation to the right-holder. How are demand-rights possible? Linking its response to central themes and positions within rights theory, Rights and Demands argues for two main theses. First, joint commitment, in a sense that is explained, is a ground of demand-rights. Second, it may well be their only ground. The first thesis is developed with special reference to agreements and promises, generally understood to ground demand-rights. It argues that both of these phenomena are constituted by joint commitments, and that this is true of many other central social phenomena also. In relation to the second thesis it considers the possibility of demand-rights whose existence can be demonstrated by moral argument without appeal to any joint commitment, and the possibility of accruing demand-rights through the existence of a given legal system or other institution construed without any such appeal. The relevance of the book’s conclusions to our understanding of human rights is then explained. Classic and contemporary rights theorists whose work is discussed include Wesley Hohfeld, H. L. A. Hart, Joel Feinberg, Immanuel Kant, Thomas Scanlon, Judith Thomson, Joseph Raz, and Stephen Darwall.

scholarly journals After Hajj: Muslim Pilgrims Refashioning Themselves

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Kholoud Al-Ajarma
Keyword(s):  
Social Contexts ◽  
Religious Behavior ◽  
Transformative Experience ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Community Expectations ◽  
Religious Dimensions ◽  
Personal Level ◽  
The Right ◽  
Self Formation ◽  
Do So

The Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj) is one of the five pillars of Islam and a duty which Muslims must perform—once in a lifetime—if they are physically and financially able to do so. In Morocco, from where thousands of pilgrims travel to Mecca every year, the Hajj often represents the culmination of years of preparation and planning, both spiritual and logistical. Pilgrims often describe their journey to Mecca as a transformative experience. Upon successfully completing the pilgrimage and returning home, pilgrims must negotiate their new status—and the expectations that come with it—within the mundane and complex reality of everyday life. There are many ambivalences and tensions to be dealt with, including managing the community expectations of piety and moral behavior. On a personal level, pilgrims struggle between staying on the right path, faithful to their pilgrimage experience, and straying from that path as a result of human imperfection and the inability to sustain the ideals inspired by pilgrimage. By ethnographically studying the everyday lives of Moroccans after their return from Mecca, this article seeks to answer the questions: how do pilgrims encounter a variety of competing expectations and demands following their pilgrimage and how are their efforts received by members of their community? How do they shape their social and religious behavior as returned pilgrims? How do they deal with the tensions between the ideals of Hajj and the realities of daily life? In short, this article scrutinizes the religious, social and personal ramifications for pilgrims after the completion of Hajj and return to their community. My research illustrates that pilgrimage contributes to a process of self-formation among pilgrims, with religious and non-religious dimensions, which continues long after Hajj is over and which operates within, and interacts with, specific social contexts.

The Historian’s Role, Public History, and the National Truth Commission in Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Viz Quadrat
Keyword(s):  
Public History ◽  
Truth Commission ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
Brazilian Government ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
National Reconciliation ◽  
Do So

AbstractIn 2011, twenty-six years after the end of the military dictatorship, the Brazilian government took the initiative of implementing the right to memory and to the truth, as well as promoting national reconciliation. A National Truth Commission was created aiming at examining and shedding light on serious human rights violations practiced by government agents from 1946 to 1985. It worked across the entire national territory for almost three years and established partnerships with governments of other countries in order to investigate and expose the international networks created by dictatorships for monitoring and persecuting political opponents across borders. This article analyzes the relationship between historians and the National Truth Commission in Brazil, in addition to the construction of dictatorship public history in the country. In order to do so, the Commission’s relationship with the national community of historians, the works carried out, as well as historians’ reactions towards its works, from its creation until its final report in 2014, will be examined.

Judicial Resolution of Issues Related to the Movement of Underages Without Accompanying Parents

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 32-36
Author(s):  
I. V. Botantsov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
Independent Travel ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Right ◽  
Do So

According to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, every citizen has the right to freedom of movement on its territory, but due to the fact that minors cannot be held accountable for their actions, there is a need to control their movement by legal representatives. The practical determination of the age of independent travel of minors and the issues of drawing up documents by parents authorizing them to do so are the subjects of disputes that are subject to judicial resolution. The article provides an analysis of the relevant practice, accompanied by the author's comments.

I Do So, Like Durian

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 66-75
Author(s):  
Jann Everard ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Short Fiction ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
Teenage Girl ◽  
Chinese Restaurant ◽  
The People ◽  
Food And Culture ◽  
The Right ◽  
Wrong Place ◽  
Do So

Where does racism come from? How do experiences with other cultures change our views of race? In this work of philosophical short fiction, Holly, a young teenage girl, heads into Chinatown against her mother’s wishes to visit Jon, a teenage boy, she is interested in dating. He is working at his parents’ Chinese restaurant. She has taken public transportation to Chinatown with her mother knowing, and against her mother’s wishes. Her mother has a strong bias against the area and the people. Holly gets off the bus at the wrong place and gets lost, but friendly locals direct her the right way. She is amazed by the differences in food and culture she sees all around her and ends up buying a durian. Eventually, she finds the restaurant (still carrying the durian), and finds Jon working. Jon is surprised and slightly embarrassed to see Holly and explains to her she will not like taste of the durian. Holly is warmly welcomed by one of Jon’s relatives in the restaurant who agrees to take her in the back and show her out to prepare her exotic fruit.

scholarly journals Building Eminence through Evidence

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (Suppl. 1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Horgan
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Personalised Medicine ◽  
Healthcare Systems ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Front Line ◽  
New Developments ◽  
New Methods ◽  
The Right ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Way

With modern-day medicine going the way it is - new developments, great science, the advent of personalised medicine and more - there's little doubt that healthcare can move in the right direction if everything is put in place to allow it to do so. But in many areas progress is being halted. Or at the very least slowed. Like it or not, many front-line healthcare professionals still do things the way they did things three decades ago, and are reluctant to adapt to new methods (assuming they are aware of them). Evidence exists that today's rapidly developing new medicines and treatments can positively influence healthcare in modern-day Europe, but a gap in education (also applying to patients and politicians), often exacerbated by “fake news” on the internet, is hampering uptake of new and often better methods, while even causing doubts about vaccines. More understanding at every level will inevitably lead to swifter integration of innovation into the healthcare systems of Europe. The time to look, listen and learn has come.

The Human Rights Obligations of un Peacekeepers

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-450
Author(s):  
Conor Foley
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Disciplinary Action ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
The Right ◽  
Do So

Over 100,000 un peacekeeping personnel are deployed on missions with authority from the Security Council, under Chapter vii of the un Charter, to use force to protect civilians. Nevertheless, they have repeatedly failed to do so and yet there does not appear to be a single case where the un has taken disciplinary action against senior staff for failing to act in line with a mission mandate in this regard. This article argues that the ´positive´ and ´negative´ obligations of international human rights law, protecting the right to life and physical integrity, provide the most appropriate guidance to the tactical use of force by un peacekeeping soldiers. Mechanisms also need to be created to improve the accountability of un missions to those that they are responsible for protecting.

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