Toward an African Feminist Ethics and the Book of Proverbs

Author(s):  
Funlọla O. Ọlọjẹde

This essay posits that a feminist African ethics must be based on different principles than Western Socratic-Aristotelian ethics. A feminist African ethics centers on communitarian notions of care and collective engagement. The female figures in Proverbs 1–9 illustrate the complex ethical situation in which feminist African ethicists find themselves. Woman Wisdom represents the traditional African ethics of care and empathy, whereas the Strange Woman represents the unethical system dominant in post-independent and postcolonial Africa. A feminist African ethics also has to recognize that it always operates in a confluence or amalgam of ethical paradigms. Most importantly, a feminist African ethics needs to deal with the significance of the social location and lived experiences of African women. The discussion of the relationship between Woman Wisdom and the Strange Woman teaches that the African and the Western ethical paradigms promote two antithetical ideologies or ways of life. Both of them exist in contemporary Africa, and the resulting tension challenges African feminist Bible scholars to struggle with the ethical incongruities prevalent within their geopolitical context.

Author(s):  
Katharine J. Dell

The issue of the relationship of the Song of Songs to wisdom is discussed in this chapter under three headings: that of the Solomonic attribution and references to the King; that of editorial links with the genre of wisdom, and finally that of relationship to wisdom motifs and female configurations in Proverbs. It is argued that the Solomonic inspiration for the work extends beyond the attribution alone to include references to him in the text and that references to ‘the King’ enhance this sense. That the editorial links with wisdom are confirmed with not only 8:6b–7 being seen as of the abstract nature of proverbial wisdom, but also the refrains in 2:7; 3:5, and 8:4. This wisdom connection may, however, form a pre-literary layer in connection with the Solomonic context rather than simply a redactional one. Finally, it is argued that there are close links in themes and imagery with the figures of woman Wisdom and the loose woman that suggest that the Song of Songs may have been an inspiration for the portrayal of such figures, although the more moralistic framework of the wisdom material is acknowledged. Thus whilst the Song is not classified as wisdom literature, it genre being primarily that of ‘love songs’, its links with wisdom circles are acknowledged, both at the stage of oral inspiration and at that of writing down and its ongoing relevance as an inspiration to the wisdom writers is evidenced in the portrayal of female figures in Proverbs 1–9.


Author(s):  
Ruha Benjamin

In this response to Terence Keel and John Hartigan’s debate over the social construction of race, I aim to push the discussion beyond the terrain of epistemology and ideology to examine the contested value of racial science in a broader political economy. I build upon Keel’s concern that even science motivated by progressive aims may reproduce racist thinking and Hartigan’s proposition that a critique of racial science cannot rest on the beliefs and intentions of scientists. In examining the value of racial-ethnic classifications in pharmacogenomics and precision medicine, I propose that analysts should attend to the relationship between prophets of racial science (those who produce forecasts about inherent group differences) and profits of racial science (the material-semiotic benefits of such forecasts). Throughout, I draw upon the idiom of speculation—as a narrative, predictive, and financial practice—to explain how the fiction of race is made factual, again and again. 


Author(s):  
Solomon A. Keelson ◽  
Thomas Cudjoe ◽  
Manteaw Joy Tenkoran

The present study investigates diffusion and adoption of corruption and factors that influence the rate of adoption of corruption in Ghana. In the current study, the diffusion and adoption of corruption and the factors that influence the speed with which corruption spreads in society is examined within Ghana as a developing economy. Data from public sector workers in Ghana are used to conduct the study. Our findings based on the results from One Sample T-Test suggest that corruption is perceived to be high in Ghana and diffusion and adoption of corruption has witnessed appreciative increases. Social and institutional factors seem to have a larger influence on the rate of corruption adoption than other factors. These findings indicate the need for theoretical underpinning in policy formulation to face corruption by incorporating the relationship between the social values and institutional failure, as represented by the rate of corruption adoption in developing economies.


Author(s):  
Oleksii Chepov ◽  

The qualitative and clear definition of the legal regime of the capital of Ukraine, the hero city of Kyiv, is influenced by its legislative enshrinement, however, it should be noted that discussions are ongoing and one of the reasons for the unclear legal status of the capital is the ambiguity of current legislation in this area. Separation of the functions of the city of Kyiv, which are carried out to ensure the rights of citizens of Ukraine and the functions that guarantee the rights of the territorial community of the city of Kyiv. In the modern world, in legal doctrine and practice, the capital is understood as the capital of the country, which at the legislative level received this status and, accordingly, is the administrative and political center of the state, which houses the main state bodies and diplomatic missions of other states. It is the identification of the boundaries of the relationship between the competencies of state administrations and local self-government, in practice, often raises questions about their delimitation and ways of regulatory solution. Peculiarities of local self-government in Kyiv city districts are defined in the provisions of the Law on the Capital, which reveal the norms of the Constitution in these legal relations, according to which the issue of organizing district management in cities belongs to city councils. Likewise, it is unregulated by law to lose the particularity of the legal status of the territory of the city. It should be emphasized that the subject of administrative-legal relations is not a certain administrative-territorial entity, but the social group is designated - the territorial community of the city of Kiev, kiyani. Thus, the provisions on the city of Kyiv partially ignore the potential of the territorial community.


2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Eny Sulistyowati ◽  
Totok Danangdjojo

<span><em>This study aims to explain the influence of the Social Security </em><span><em>program on performance and job satisfaction and job stress as a mediating </em><span><em>variable. In addition, this study also describes the effect of job satisfaction on </em><span><em>the performance and the effect of work stress on performance. The relationship of </em><span><em>each variable in this research is to be measured by conducting a survey on 145 </em><span><em>employees of private companies that included in Social Security program on </em><span><em>DIY and Solo. Then the path analisys used to test the effect of social security </em><span><em>program performance in mediation by job satisfaction, performance and job stress</em><span><em>, job satisfaction, and examines the effect on the performance and the effect of </em><span><em>work stress on performance. The results showed that the social security program </em><span><em>significant positively affects job satisfaction and performance. Job satisfaction was </em><span><em>also positively and significantly affect performance. Even though mediating role </em><span><em>of job satisfaction in the relationship between social security program performance </em><span><em>partial. Because merely direct relationship between social security program with </em><span><em>greater performance than the mediating role of job satisfaction. Social Security </em><span><em>program did not significantly affect the stress of work, as well as job stress did </em><span><em>not significantly affect performance. Therefore, the mediating role of work stress </em><span><em>on the relationship between social security program with the performance did not </em><span><em>occur. Individual differences and work experience may be a factor that causes no </em><span><em>significant relationship between the two variables.</em></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /></span>


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cinzia Di Dio ◽  
Federico Manzi ◽  
Giulia Peretti ◽  
Angelo Cangelosi ◽  
Paul L. Harris ◽  
...  

Studying trust within human-robot interaction is of great importance given the social relevance of robotic agents in a variety of contexts. We investigated the acquisition, loss and restoration of trust when preschool and school-age children played with either a human or a humanoid robot in-vivo. The relationship between trust and the quality of attachment relationships, Theory of Mind, and executive function skills was also investigated. No differences were found in children’s trust in the play-partner as a function of agency (human or robot). Nevertheless, 3-years-olds showed a trend toward trusting the human more than the robot, while 7-years-olds displayed the reverse behavioral pattern, thus highlighting the developing interplay between affective and cognitive correlates of trust.


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