Subhuman

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.J. Kasperbauer
Keyword(s):  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Critical Survey ◽  
Moral Obligations ◽  
Animal Minds ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Main Thesis ◽  
Attitudes Toward Animals

This book provides an account of the moral psychology behind our attitudes to animals. Its main thesis is that behind both our positive and negative attitudes to animals is an underlying concern that animals pose a threat to our humanness. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from research in philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, law, history, sociology, economics, and anthropology. The main thesis of the book is developed by looking at recent research on the phenomenon of dehumanization. Though dehumanization research is often applied only to human groups, it is argued that dehumanization also has implications for how we think about animals. The book provides a critical survey of leading theories about the role of animals in human evolutionary history, the psychology of meat-eating and keeping animals as pets, feelings of fear and disgust toward animals, the use of animal minds to determine their moral status, and the “expanding moral circle” hypothesis. Strategies are also offered for revising our attitudes toward animals and for thinking about the implications of psychological obstacles in meeting our moral obligations to animals. Chapters 2–5 present a new picture of the moral psychology behind our attitudes to animals. Chapters 6–8 lay out an account of how we should think about ethical issues concerning animals, given the psychological details provided in chapters 2–5.

scholarly journals Decoupling between policy and practice through the lens of sensemaking and sensegiving

Management ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 225-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agata Austen
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Ethical Awareness ◽  
Potential Significance ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Organizational Reality ◽  
Different Levels

Summary Any organizations, pursuing their goals, they should take into account others, as they are compelled to a joint coexistence. In order to grow, they need plans and rules of conduct. But not always what was intended is actually implemented. That discrepancy is called decoupling. This phenomenon may be due to different levels of acceptance and implementation of rules, which is associated with the process of sensemaking and sensegiving. The first phenomenon involves the creation of meaning, where the new rule is not yet fully developed and understood, and so it must be properly interpreted only to implement the action. In this process, people give meaning to their experiences. If the process of creating a sense is successful, occurring practices are accepted by the members of the organization, and finally implemented. Sensegiving is about exerting influence in terms of the proper understanding of the rules, in order to create an appropriate definition of organizational reality. Moral attitude of employees may be important in minimizing the effect of negative attitudes associated with decoupling. Therefore, there is a need for constant training of employees in ethical issues. The aim of the article is to present the potential significance of sensemaking and sensegiving for decoupling, and explain the role of increasing ethical awareness for neutralizing decoupling resulting from conscious actions of organizational actors.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.J. Kasperbauer
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Attitudes Toward Animals

The introduction explains the need for a book on moral psychology and animals. It outlines the psychological account described in more detail in chapters 2–5, which focus on the implications of the psychology of dehumanization for attitudes toward animals. It also briefly explains the approach to ethics and moral psychology provided in chapters 6–8, which discuss how we should think about ethical issues concerning animals, given the psychological details provided in chapters 2–5. Short case studies are used to illustrate the importance of dehumanization and explain how dehumanization applies to animals. Different approaches are sketched for using psychology to inform ethics.

The Scourge of the Unwilling: George Eliot on the Sources of Normativity

2020 ◽  
pp. 140-172
Author(s):  
Patrick Fessenbecker
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
George Eliot ◽  
The Self ◽  
Altruistic Behavior ◽  
Moral Obligations ◽  
Internal Coherence

In a notebook of 1877, George Eliot at one point muses on moral philosophy, asking “Of what stuff is virtue made?” and ending with the dramatic “What is the scourge of the unwilling?” Such questions show Eliot engaging one of the great questions of nineteenth-century moral philosophy: where does the obligatoriness of moral obligations come from? Or, more simply, why should one care about morality? Henry Sidgwick’s magisterial 1874 treatise The Methods of Ethics ultimately conceded defeat on this issue, concluding that there was no way to show the rational egoist that altruistic behavior was more rational than self-interested action. Eliot’s own attempts to answer this question, reflected in the narratives of Esther Lyon, Fred Vincy, and ultimately Gwendolen Harleth, depend on the role of shame in moral psychology, and in particular on the conditions necessary for maintaining the self-approval necessary for internal coherence and autonomy.

Moral Sensibility

2021 ◽  
pp. 100-132
Author(s):  
Owen Ware
Keyword(s):  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Practical Reason ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Moral Law ◽  
Moral Sensibility ◽  
Common Experience ◽  
Main Thesis ◽  
Personal Character ◽  
Moral Feeling

This chapter forms the next main thesis of the present study: the synthetic path of the second Critique is broader in scope, since Kant seeks to reveal a necessary connection between our consciousness of the moral law and our capacity to feel pleasure and displeasure. The chapter picks up where Chapter 3 left off by providing a close reading of Kant’s theory of moral sensibility in the Critique of Practical Reason. Two important results follow. First, it is argued that debates over the role of moral feeling in Kant’s moral psychology have failed to acknowledge Kant’s emphasis on the first-personal character of feeling as a feature of our common experience of morality. Second, these debates have failed to connect Kant’s theory of moral sensibility to his project of justification, which the present chapter aims to remedy.

ROLE OF LIBRARIANS IN TEACHING INFORMATION LITERACY IN ZIMBABWEAN AND SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Mousaion ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tinashe Mugwisi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
University Libraries ◽  
Information And Communications Technologies ◽  
Communications Technologies ◽  
Information Skills ◽  
The University

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the Internet have to a large extent influenced the way information is made available, published and accessed. More information is being produced too frequently and information users now require certain skills to sift through this multitude in order to identify what is appropriate for their purposes. Computer and information skills have become a necessity for all academic programmes. As libraries subscribe to databases and other peer-reviewed content (print and electronic), it is important that users are also made aware of such sources and their importance. The purpose of this study was to examine the teaching of information literacy (IL) in universities in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and the role played by librarians in creating information literate graduates. This was done by examining whether such IL programmes were prioritised, their content and how frequently they were reviewed. An electronic questionnaire was distributed to 12 university libraries in Zimbabwe and 21 in South Africa. A total of 25 questionnaires were returned. The findings revealed that IL was being taught in universities library and non-library staff, was compulsory and contributed to the term mark in some institutions. The study also revealed that 44 per cent of the total respondents indicated that the libraries were collaborating with departments and faculty in implementing IL programmes in universities. The study recommends that IL should be an integral part of the university programmes in order to promote the use of databases and to guide students on ethical issues of information use.

Is Empathy Required for Making Moral Judgments?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Deigh
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Psychopathic Personality ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Psychological Profile ◽  
Main Thesis ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Additional Support

This essay is a study of the nature of moral judgment. Its main thesis is that moral judgment is a type of judgment defined by its content and not its psychological profile. The essay arrives at this thesis through a critical examination of Hume’s sentimentalism and the role of empathy in its account of moral judgment. The main objection to Hume’s account is its exclusion of people whom one can describe as making moral judgments though they have no motivation to act on them. Consideration of such people, particularly those with a psychopathic personality, argues for a distinction between different types of moral judgment in keeping with the essay’s main thesis. Additional support for the main thesis is then drawn from Piaget’s theory of moral judgment in children.

The Right to Avoid Procreation and the Regulation of Pregnancy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janne Rothmar Herrmann
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
European Perspective ◽  
Legal Basis ◽  
Moral Obligations ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
European Consensus ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Right

This chapter discusses the right to avoid procreation and the regulation of pregnancy from a European perspective. The legal basis for a right to avoid procreation can be said to fall within the scope of several provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), an instrument that is binding for all European countries. Here, Article 12 of the ECHR gives men and women of marriageable age the right to marry and found a family in accordance with the national laws governing this right. However, Article 12 protects some elements of the right not to procreate, but for couples only. The lack of common European consensus in this area highlights how matters relating to the right to decide on the number and spacing of children touch on aspects that differ from country to country even in what could appear to be a homogenous region. In fact, the cultural, moral, and historical milieus that surround these rights differ considerably with diverse national perceptions of the role of the family, gender equality, religious and moral obligations, and so on.

Patents, Governance and Control: Ethics and the Patentability of Novel Beings and Advanced Biotechnologies in Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 529-542
Author(s):  
Aisling McMahon
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Patent Law ◽  
European Patent ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
Patent Holder ◽  
Patented Invention ◽  
Patent Grant ◽  
And Control

AbstractThis article focuses primarily on to what extent novel beings, and particularly, beings which display something akin to human consciousness or agency would be (or should be) patentable under current European patent law. Patents grant the patent holder a right to exclude others from using the patented invention for the period of patent grant (usually 20 years). This allows the patent holder to control how that invention can or cannot be used by others downstream, granting patent holders a governance like function over the patented technology for the duration of the patent. Accordingly, the potential for patentability of novel beings gives rise to a myriad of ethical issues including: to what extent is it appropriate for patent holders to retain and exercise patents over “novel beings”; how issues of “agency” displayed by any “novel beings” would fit within the current patent framework, if at all; and to what extent existing exclusions from patentability might exclude patents on “novel beings” or whether changes within patent law may be needed if patents in relation to “novel beings” are deemed ethically problematic. This article focuses on such issues, and in doing so, also sheds light on the role of ethical issues within the patenting of advanced biotechnologies more generally.

scholarly journals Negativity and Political Behavior: A Theoretical Framework for the Analysis of Negative Voting in Contemporary Democracies

2021 ◽  
pp. 147892992110001
Author(s):  
Diego Garzia ◽  
Frederico Ferreira da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Affective Component ◽  
Parliamentary Systems ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Rational Component

Recent developments in Western societies have motivated a growing consideration of the role of negativity in public opinion and political behavior research. In this article, we review the scant (and largely disconnected) scientific literature on negativity and political behavior, merging contributions from social psychology, public opinion, and electoral research, with a view on developing an integrated theoretical framework for the study of negative voting in contemporary democracies. We highlight that the tendency toward negative voting is driven by three partly overlapping components, namely, (1) an instrumental–rational component characterized by retrospective performance evaluations and rationalization mechanisms, (2) an ideological component grounded on long-lasting political identities, and (3) an affective component, motivated by (negative) attitudes toward parties and candidates. By blueprinting the systematic relationships between negative voting and each of these components in turn, and suggesting multiple research paths, this article aims to stimulate future studies on negative voting in multi-party parliamentary systems to motivate a better understanding of the implications of negativity in voting behavior in contemporary democracies.

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