scholarly journals Is the four quadrant approach to military medical ethics a cargo cult? A call for more unity between philosophers and practitioners

2019 ◽  
Vol 165 (4) ◽  
pp. 270-272
Author(s):  
Simon Paul Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Moral Theory ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Systematic Method ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
Ethical Approaches ◽  
Military Medical Ethics ◽  
Four Quadrant ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Military ◽  
Philosophical Community

Moral theory should be practically useful, but without oversight from the philosophical community, the practical application of ethics by other institutions such as the military may drift into forms that are not theoretically robust. Ethical approaches that drift in this way run the risk of becoming ‘cargo cults’: simulations that will never properly fulfil their intended purpose. The four quadrant approach, a systematic method of ethical analysis that applies moral principles to clinical cases, has gained popularity in the last 10 years in a variety of medical contexts, especially the military. This paper considers whether the four quadrant approach is a cargo cult or whether it has theoretical value, with particular reference to the more popular four principles approach. This analysis concludes that the four quadrant approach has theoretical advantages over the four principles approach, if used in the right way (namely, with all four quadrants being used). The principal advantage is that the four quadrant approach leaves more room for clinical judgement, and thus avoids the charge of being too algorithmic, which has been levelled at the four principles approach. I suggest that it is the fourth quadrant, which invites the user to consider wider, contextual features of the case, which gives the approach this key advantage. Finally, I make a more general proposal that theoretical ethicists should work closely with those practitioners who apply ethics in the world, and I call for a symbiotic relationship between these two camps.

Moral Agency, Commitment, and Impartiality

1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neera K. Badhwar
Keyword(s):  
Moral Theory ◽  
Moral Agency ◽  
Moral Identity ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
Political Morality ◽  
Principles Of Justice ◽  
Conception Of The Good ◽  
The Right

Liberal political philosophy presupposes a moral theory according to which the ability to assess and choose conceptions of the good from a universal and impartial moral standpoint is central to the individual's moral identity. This viewpoint is standardly understood by liberals as that of a rational human (not transcendental) agent. Such an agent is able to reflect on her ends and pursuits, including those she strongly identifies with, and to understand and take into account the basic interests of others. From the perspective of liberalism as a political morality, the most important of these interests is the interest in maximum, equal liberty for each individual, and thus the most important moral principles are the principles of justice that protect individuals' rights to life and liberty.According to the communitarian critics of liberalism, however, the liberal picture of moral agency is unrealistically abstract. Communitarians object that moral agents in the real world neither choose their conceptions of the good nor occupy a universalistically impartial moral standpoint. Rather, their conceptions of the good are determined chiefly by the communities in which they find themselves, and these conceptions are largely “constitutive” of their particular moral identities. Moral agency is thus “situated” and “particularistic,” and an impartial reflection on the conception of the good that constitutes it is undesirable, if not impossible. Further, communitarians contend, the good is “prior” to the right in the sense that moral norms are derived from, and justified in terms of, the good. An adequate moral and political theory must reflect these facts about moral agency and moral norms.

scholarly journals Aristotel’s Teaching on Virtues and its Social Prospects

2020 ◽  
pp. 118-124
Author(s):  
Roman Runaev ◽  
Olga Didenko
Keyword(s):  
Personal Growth ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
The Right ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Ancient Philosopher

The article is devoted to the issue of an understanding of a person's way of life through the prism of perception of Aristotle's ethical teachings as an important element of human culture, expressed in the virtuous attitude of people to the world. The presented article reveals the key aspects of virtue in the "Aristotelian" sense and the understanding of the correctness of human actions by the ancient philosopher. As the main value and moral guideline, the scale of virtuous knowledge developed by Aristotle is considered, where virtue itself is the "golden mean", and extremes (vices) are found on different sides of the latter. This work reflects the views of the ancient philosopher on human virtue. He considers the right actions of a person from the point of view of conscious moderation and reasonable prudence in their commission while rejecting the desire to help a person at any cost, as the basis of the measure virtue. Aristotle sees the achievement of "happiness" as the main goal of human behavior. But a feeling of satisfaction from the blissful state should not be expressed as a result of neglect of the moral principles of society but rather through personal growth, achieved through self-improvement, self-restraint, and detachment from attachment to the benefits of the outside world. According to Aristotle, sensory pleasures are achieved not by striving to achieve a comfortable existence in any way but by sensible and moderate motives of a person to feel genuine pleasure through the right actions. It is noted that the Aristotelian doctrine of virtue requires its theoretical understanding and analysis within the framework of the ethics of virtue, which claims to be the practical application of its results in modern society.

scholarly journals METHODOLOGY FOR CALCULATING THE EFFICIENCY OF COVERING GROUND FORCES BY AIR-DEFENSE UNITS WHEN MANAGING LOCAL CONFLICTS

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (37) ◽  
pp. 12-23
Author(s):  
S. Kovalenko ◽  
◽  
A. Volkov ◽  
S. Korsunov ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Practical Application ◽  
Air Defense ◽  
Military Commander ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Military ◽  
Missile System

An urgent issue today is the substantiation of the ability of air defense units to carry out their immediate tasks of covering ground forces from the air. The features of the use of ground forces in local conflicts, when the space in which it is necessary to carry out the assigned task, is stretched along the front and in depth are considered. The purpose of the article is to develop a methodology for calculating the effectiveness of covering ground forces from the air by air defense units in new positioning areas. The practical application of the developed methodology will allow the military commander to make the right decision to cover the actions of ground forces from the air. The article proposes a methodology that makes it possible to assess the effectiveness of covering ground forces of the company-battery type by air defense units. The methodology for calculating the effectiveness of covering the actions of ground forces by air defense units consists of an algorithm for assessing the effectiveness of an anti-aircraft missile system (anti-aircraft artillery complex), an algorithm for selecting the parameters of elements and structure of air defense units, an algorithm for proposing to the commander about the effectiveness of the selected structure for making a decision to conduct combat operations. The proposed technique allows the military commander to evaluate the options for the structure of the air defense, choose rational ones, with the best cover efficiency, and helps him make the right decision to repel air strikes. The proposed methodology makes it possible to assess the effectiveness of covering the weapons and infrastructure of ground forces and suggests whether the air defense units are capable of covering the actions of ground forces from the air.

Informed Consent in the Military: Fighting a Losing Battle Against the Anthrax Vaccine

2002 ◽  
Vol 28 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 325-343
Author(s):  
Ruth K. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Informed Consent ◽  
Service Member ◽  
Individual Choice ◽  
Civilian Life ◽  
Medical Treatments ◽  
Employment History ◽  
Receive Treatment ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Military ◽  
To Receive

In civilian life, an individual has the right to refuse medical treatment in almost any circumstance. While a patient who refuses treatment may face adverse consequences such as prolonged illness, our society recognizes the importance of individual choice in health matters. Members of the military, however, enjoy no such right. Service members are required to submit to certain medical treatments as a part of their employment contract. Refusing such treatments is disobeying an order, and the service member then faces the prospect of a dishonorable or “other than honorable” discharge, and even imprisonment. Disobeying an order to receive treatment can thus result in the equivalent of a felony conviction on the individual's employment history forever.

The Right to Be Right: Civil-Military Relations and the Iraq Surge Decision

2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 87-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter D. Feaver
Keyword(s):  
Hybrid Approach ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Military Commanders ◽  
The Right ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military ◽  
President Bush ◽  
Primary Problem ◽  
Better Than

President George W. Bush's Iraq surge decision in late 2006 is an interesting case for civil-military relations theory, in particular, the debate between professional supremacists and civilian supremacists over how much to defer to the military on decisions during war. The professional supremacists argue that the primary problem for civil-military relations during war is ensuring the military an adequate voice and keeping civilians from micromanaging and mismanaging matters. Civilian supremacists, in contrast, argue that the primary problem is ensuring that well-informed civilian strategic guidance is authoritatively directing key decisions, even when the military disagrees with that direction. A close reading of the available evidence—both in published accounts and in new, not-for-attribution interviews with the key players—shows that the surge decision vindicates neither camp. If President Bush had followed the professional supremacists, there would have been no surge because his key military commanders were recommending against that option. If Bush had followed the civilian supremacists to the letter, however, there might have been a revolt of the generals, causing the domestic political props under the surge to collapse. Instead, Bush's hybrid approach worked better than either ideal type would have.

scholarly journals Labels on the maps of the Third Military Survey of Austria-Hungary and on the survey maps of the Military Geographical Institute (Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny) in Warsaw in the light of survey manuals

2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wojciech Włoskowicz
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Standard Map ◽  
The Third ◽  
Last Stage ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Military ◽  
Topographic Surveys ◽  
The Way

Abstract Materials from topographic surveys had a serious impact on the labels on the maps that were based on these surveys. Collecting toponyms and information that were to be placed as labels on a final map, was an additional duty the survey officers were tasked with. Regulations concerning labels were included in survey manuals issued by the Austro-Hungarian Militärgeographisches Institut in Vienna and the Polish Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny in Warsaw. The analyzed Austro-Hungarian regulations date from the years 1875, 1887, 1894, 1903 (2nd ed.). The oldest manual was issued during the Third Military Survey of Austria-Hungary (1:25,000) and regulated the way it was conducted (it is to be supposed that the issued manual was mainly a collection of regulations issued prior to the survey launch). The Third Survey was the basis for the 1:75,000 Spezialkarte map. The other manuals regulated the field revisions of the survey. The analyzed Polish manuals date from the years 1925, 1936, and 1937. The properties of the labels resulted from the military purpose of the maps. The geographical names’ function was to facilitate land navigation whereas other labels were meant to provide a military map user with information that could not be otherwise transmitted with standard map symbols. A concern for not overloading the maps with labels is to be observed in the manuals: a survey officer was supposed to conduct a preliminary generalization of geographical names. During a survey both an Austro-Hungarian and a Polish survey officer marked labels on a separate “label sheet”. The most important difference between the procedures in the two institutes was that in the last stage of work an Austro-Hungarian officer transferred the labels (that were to be placed on a printed map) from the “label sheet” to the hand-drawn survey map, which made a cartographer not responsible for placing them in the right places. In the case of the Polish institute the labels remained only on the “label sheets”.

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.

scholarly journals XXXI.—On the Limits of our Knowledge respecting the Theory of Parallels

1864 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-450
Author(s):  
Kelland
Keyword(s):  
Human Mind ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Very Old ◽  
Metaphysical Problem ◽  
Pure Logic ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Right ◽  
Negative Conclusion ◽  
Positive Results

The subject of this paper is a very old one, and may to many appear to be sufficiently worn; but I venture to hope, that there are some to whom a glimpse of the successive approaches of the human mind towards the right understanding of a question of pure logic, may have an interest,—even although the problem solved be an abstract one, and the conclusion a negative conclusion, having little practical application. Like the kindred problem of the quadrature of the circle, or the metaphysical problem of “Knowing and Being,” the theory of parallels has been attacked in various directions, and although it is true that no one ever reached the goal he aimed at, yet it is not the less certain that great and positive results have followed in the history of human attainment. If no other lesson has been learnt, this at least may have been: that in reasoning it is necessary to look warily around and abroad at every step, seeing that admissions, the most obviously inadmissible, or evasions the most palpable, have foiled generations of thinkers, whilst those who have detected their errors have fallen into others of an equally destructive character.

scholarly journals Ideal and nonideal moral theory for disaster bioethics

Human Affairs ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dónal O’Mathúna
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Goodness ◽  
The Right ◽  
Practical Implications

AbstractMoral theory has generally focused on resolving ethical dilemmas by identifying ethically sound options. Whether the focus is on consequences, duties, principles or virtues, ethical cases are often approached in ways that assume morally sound solutions can be found and followed. Such ‘ideal morality’ assumes that moral goodness is always possible, leaving people confident they have done the right thing. Such an approach becomes inadequate in disaster settings where any good solution is often difficult to see. This paper examines recent work on nonideal moral theory as a useful model for disaster bioethics. This approach views moral dilemmas as situations where no choice is ideal and every option involves some element of unavoidable wrongdoing. Rather than straining for ideal answers, this approach acknowledges that sometimes the lesser of two evils is the best that can be done. Such situations inevitably lead to feelings of regret or guilt, commonly encountered in discussions of disaster bioethics. This paper explores the practical implications of nonideal approaches for disaster responders working in tragic situations.

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