scholarly journals Beyond‐human ethics: The animal question in institutional ethical reviews

Area ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Oliver
Keyword(s):  

Derrida Today ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-239
Author(s):  
Lynn Turner

While it is Derrida's late work on the ‘animal question’ that brought his insistence on limitrophy between species to wider attention, it is also named as the general condition of the limits in the much earlier text, ‘Tympan’. There, in dislocating the tympanum, the margins of philosophy are eaten. Equally, given the rhythmic address of the tympanum, we might say that the margins of philosophy are beaten. This paper considers the persistent play on rhythmic sounds in Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark as a ‘tympanising’ or derision of the limits, notably of the limits of the law in both juridical and symbolic senses, as they also work the edges of the film's two styles (broadly, realism and musical). In a provocative analysis of this film, Cary Wolfe suggests that we might understand Selma's vocal style (given singular expression by Bjork) as a refusal of the phallic imposition of language, and that her virtually suicidal submission to the death sentence allows for a notion of a ‘posthuman feminine’. ‘Tympan Alley’ redirects this tantalising term ‘posthuman feminine’ through a more consistently Derridean line of thought to sound out the implications of b/eating the limits through Selma's oblique ear.



2021 ◽  
pp. 096973302110032
Author(s):  
Sastrawan Sastrawan ◽  
Jennifer Weller-Newton ◽  
Gabrielle Brand ◽  
Gulzar Malik

Background: In the ever-changing and complex healthcare environment, nurses encounter challenging situations that may involve a clash between their personal and professional values resulting in a profound impact on their practice. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of literature on how nurses develop their personal–professional values. Aim: The aim of this study was to understand how nurses develop their foundational values as the base for their value system. Research design: A constructivist grounded theory methodology was employed to collect multiple data sets, including face-to-face focus group and individual interviews, along with anecdote and reflective stories. Participants and research context: Fifty-four nurses working across various nursing settings in Indonesia were recruited to participate. Ethical considerations: Ethics approval was obtained from the Monash University Human Ethics Committee, project approval number 1553. Findings: Foundational values acquisition was achieved through family upbringing, professional nurse education and organisational/institutional values reinforcement. These values are framed through three reference points: religious lens, humanity perspective and professionalism. This framing results in a unique combination of personal–professional values that comprise nurses’ values system. Values are transferred to other nurses either in a formal or informal way as part of one’s professional responsibility and customary social interaction via telling and sharing in person or through social media. Discussion: Values and ethics are inherently interweaved during nursing practice. Ethical and moral values are part of professional training, but other values are often buried in a hidden curriculum, and attained and activated through interactions during nurses’ training. Conclusion: Developing a value system is a complex undertaking that involves basic social processes of attaining, enacting and socialising values. These processes encompass several intertwined entities such as the sources of values, the pool of foundational values, value perspectives and framings, initial value structures, and methods of value transference.



Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 512
Author(s):  
Samuel Camenzind

Criticism of Kant’s position on our moral relationship with animals dates back to the work of Arthur Schopenhauer and Leonard Nelson, but historically Kantian scholars have shown limited interest in the human-animal relationship as such. This situation changed in the mid-1990s with the arrival of several publications arguing for the direct moral considerability of animals within the Kantian ethical framework. Against this, another contemporary Kantian approach has continued to defend Kant’s indirect duty view. In this approach it is argued, first, that it is impossible to establish direct duties to animals, and second, that this is also unnecessary because the Kantian notion that we have indirect duties to animals has far-reaching practical consequences and is to that extent adequate. This paper explores the argument of the far-reaching duties regarding animals in Kant’s ethics and seeks to show that Kantians underestimate essential differences between Kant and his rivals today (i.e., proponents of animal rights and utilitarians) on a practical and fundamental level. It also argues that Kant’s indirect duty view has not been defended convincingly: the defence tends to neglect theory-immanent problems in Kant’s ethics connected with unfounded value assumptions and unconvincing arguments for the denial of animals’ moral status. However, it is suggested that although the human-animal relationship was not a central concern of Kant’s, examination of the animal question within the framework of Kant’s ethics helps us to develop conceptual clarity about his duty concept and the limitations of the reciprocity argument.



Author(s):  
Tore Fougner

Abstract By raising the “animal question” in International Relations (IR), this essay seeks to contribute not only to put animals and human–animal relations on the IR agenda, but also to move the field in a less anthropocentric and non-speciesist direction. More specifically, the essay does three things: First, it makes animals visible within some of the main empirical realms conventionally treated as the subject matter of IR. Second, it reflects on IR's neglect of animals and human–animal relations in relation to both how IR has been constituted as a field and the broader socio-cultural context in which it is embedded. Third, it explores various ways in which IR scholars can start incorporating and take animals and human–animal relations seriously in studies on international relations.



Author(s):  
Linda Kalof

This chapter introduces the field of animal studies as an interdisciplinary scholarly endeavor to understand the relationship humans have with other animals. That relationship is mapped into five major categories, reflected in the titles of each of the handbook’s five parts: “Animals in the Landscape of Law, Politics and Public Policy”; “Animal Intentionality, Agency, and Reflexive Thinking”; “Animals as Objects in Science, Food, Spectacle and Sport”; “Animals in Cultural Representations”; and “Animals in Ecosystems.” The chapters in each part are summarized and key issues in the “animal question” are explicated. Chapter topics include animals in research, entertainment, law, political theory, public policy, agency, tourism and ecology. Concluding remarks include an appeal for altruistic coexistence for all beings in the earth’s ecosystem.



2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Woods ◽  
Vivien Rodgers ◽  
Andy Towers ◽  
Steven La Grow

Background: Moral distress has been described as a major problem for the nursing profession, and in recent years, a considerable amount of research has been undertaken to examine its causes and effects. However, few research projects have been performed that examined the moral distress of an entire nation’s nurses, as this particular study does. Aim/objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency and intensity of moral distress experienced by registered nurses in New Zealand. Research design: The research involved the use of a mainly quantitative approach supported by a slightly modified version of a survey based on the Moral Distress Scale–Revised. Participants and research context: In total, 1500 questionnaires were sent out at random to nurses working in general areas around New Zealand and 412 were returned, giving an adequate response rate of 27%. Ethical considerations: The project was evaluated and judged to be low risk and recorded as such on 22 February 2011 via the auspices of the Massey University Human Ethics Committee. Findings: Results indicate that the most frequent situations to cause nursing distress were (a) having to provide less than optimal care due to management decisions, (b) seeing patient care suffer due to lack of provider continuity and (c) working with others who are less than competent. The most distressing experiences resulted from (a) working with others who are unsafe or incompetent, (b) witnessing diminished care due to poor communication and (c) watching patients suffer due to a lack of provider continuity. Of the respondents, 48% reported having considered leaving their position due to the moral distress. Conclusion: The results imply that moral distress in nursing remains a highly significant and pertinent issue that requires greater consideration by health service managers, policymakers and nurse educators.



2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 299-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Irvine


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 98-122
Author(s):  
Sahil Sholla ◽  
Roohie Naaz Mir ◽  
Mohammad Ahsan Chishti

IoT is expected to have far-reaching consequences on society due to a wide spectrum of applications like smart healthcare, smart transportation, smart agriculture, smart home, etc. However, ethical considerations of AI-enabled smart devices have not been duly considered from a design perspective. In this paper, the authors propose a novel fuzzy logic-based method to incorporate ethics within smart things of IoT. Ethical considerations relevant to a machine context are represented in terms of fuzzy ethics variables (FEVs) and ethics rules. For each ethics rule, a value called scaled ethics value (SEV) is used to indicate its ethical desirability. In order to model flexibility in ethical response, the authors employ the concept of ethics modes that selectively allow scenarios depending on the value of SEV. The method offers a viable mechanism for smart devices to imbue ethical sensitivity that can pave the way for a technology society amenable to human ethics. However, the method does not account for varying ethics, as such incorporating learning mechanisms represent a promising research direction.



Author(s):  
Perttu Salovaara

Purpose It has recently become more acknowledged that there is a quality of “messiness” to the qualitative research process. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the fieldpath approach—a hermeneutically inspired framework—to account for the non-linearity, uncertainty and ambiguity of the research process. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper reviews how the scope of hermeneutics has been partly misunderstood. The paper discusses how the scope of hermeneutics has lately been expanded by works such as Günter Figal’s (2010) Objectivity: The Hermeneutical and Philosophy. Findings The fieldpath approach proposes that a heightened relation to materiality enables the messiness of the process to be preserved, while at the same time offering a way to find one’s footing in the midst of ontologically incomplete phenomena that are still—in a processual fashion—forming and becoming. Research limitations/implications This is a conceptual paper. In addition to the research mentioned here, more studies would be needed to legitimise, test and refine the approach. Practical implications Objectivity provides an additional criterion for researchers to lean on when facing the non-linearity and unexpected turns inherent in the qualitative research process. Social implications The stress on materiality involves an ethical dimension. Post-human ethics are concerned with the future environmental consequences and sustainability of the material world. The way that matter matters in our methodologies is of primary importance. Originality/value First, the paper emphasises that hermeneutics, contrary to the common perception, does offer criteria for evaluating between interpretations. Second, it introduces the notion of hermeneutic objectivity, which stresses the importance of materiality for interpretations. Third, it introduces the fieldpath approach, which, based on the previous criterion of hermeneutic objectivity, allows for the messiness of the research process, while also preserving a tight grip on the hermeneutic imperative of “understanding in a new way”.



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