Comments on some Methodological Aspects of Rawls’ “Theory of Justice”

1979 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernst Tugendbat

AbstractIn the first part of the paper Rawls’ conception of a ,reflective equilibrium" with our „considered moral judgements“ is criticized. Moral judgements cannot form a court of appeal for the justification of moral principles, since they are themselves in need of justification. An analysis of the meaning of the sentences in which moral judgements are expressed is called for in order to establish their method of justification.In the second part of the paper the consequence which Rawls' repudiation of semantic analysis has had for his conception of the „original position“ is discussed. In retrogressive extension of his four-stage-sequence a zero-stage is postulated which represents the moral point of view. At this stage the reasons would have to be given for adopting the original position and for conceiving it with just those characteristics that Rawls has assumed. Only thus can the advantages and disadvantages of these characteristics be analytically assessed.

1987 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
David O. Brink

Since his article, ‘Outline for a Decision Procedure in Ethics,’ John Rawls has advocated a coherentist moral epistemology according to which moral and political theories are justified on the basis of their coherence with our other beliefs, both moral and nonmoral (1951: 56, 61). A moral theory which is maximally coherent with our other beliefs is in a state which Rawls calls ‘reflective equilibrium’ (1971: 20). In A Theory of Justice Rawls advanced two principles of justice and claimed that they are in reflective equilibrium. He defended this claim by appeal to a hypothetical contract; he argued that parties in a position satisfying certain informational and motivational criteria, which he called ‘the original position,’ would choose the following two principles of justice to govern the basic structure of their society.


2021 ◽  
pp. 16-23
Author(s):  
N. N. Novikova ◽  
Т. A. Kuznetsova

The article focuses on the methodological aspects of organizing communication between participants in the educational process in the context of using distance technologies. The main forms of organizing educational activities in distance learning are considered, depending on the level of technical equipment of the educational organization, the availability of personal devices, communication facilities and communication software. The modern services for organizing the interactive interaction of subjects of the educational process are described, their functionality and features in organizing communication are highlighted, the advantages and disadvantages are revealed. The article touches on the organization of the pedagogical process online from the point of view of the teacher's readiness to use modern digital technologies and depending of the level of development of students' communicative skills. The article presents a block diagram of an online lesson with the organization of group work, designed in accordance with the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard of Basic General Education from the position of systematizing the actions of the teacher and students. At each stage of the online lesson (organizational, motivational-target, design, organizational-activity, evaluative, reflexive-semantic), the tasks of educational activities and methods for organizing communication are highlighted. The preparatory work of a teacher for conducting an online lesson in distance learning mode is disclosed in detail and the features of interaction are described that allow the teacher to recognize the psychological readiness of students for learning. Online etiquette is designed to help learners build productive relationships with classmates. The use of verbal and non-verbal communication methods in an online lesson expands the opportunities for students to interact with each other and with the teacher. The proposed methodological approaches to the use of digital means make it possible to activate the activities of students in the process of distance learning and to develop communication skills in practice.


1979 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arend Kulenkampff

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is the clarification of some methodological problems concerning Rawls’ theory of justice. The first part seeks to make more precise Tugendhat’s distinction between 1st-person-theory and 3rd-person-theory. Rawls’ theory fulfills all criteria for 1st-person-theories. In the second part Rawl’s coherence model for the justification of norms („reflective equilibrium“) is critically analyzed and opposed to the hypothetical decision which individuals are to make in the original position (contract model). It is shown that the conception of reflective equilibrium is in various aspects mistaken. In conclusion a problem is indicated which Rawls has not satisfactorily resolved: The veil of ignorance is supposed to guarantee that the decision for the basic principles of social justice is unanimous. Nevertheless it would appear that the individuals in the original position either have too little empirical knowledge in order to make a rational decision, or they have too much knowledge in order to come to an unanimous decision. The veil of ignorance is either too fine or not fine enough.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 5-10
Author(s):  
V. Barysheva ◽  
O. Druzhinina

The article is devoted to the analysis of the system object from the point of view of design from design, sociocultural and philosophical positions. The authors systematize the definitions of a system object of design proposed in the 1960–1980s by theorists and practitioners, art historians, cultural experts and philosophers from different countries, including Russia, which allows a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of design culture. This article is devoted to the characteristic properties of the system object in design. They were considered and analyzed on the example of the «Absheron» design-program when designing of agricultural village). This concept was developed at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Technical Aesthetics (VNIITE) in 1983. Using the same example, the features of the approach to designing a system object in design was observed not only as a separate product, but as a sociocultural situation that constantly changes at each design stage.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane Goria ◽  
Louise Dupet ◽  
Maëva Négroni ◽  
Gabriel Sega ◽  
Philippe Arnoux ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND most serious games and other game-based tools are designed as digital games or escape games. They are designed for learning or sometimes in the field of medicine as an aid to care. However, they can also be seen as an aid to research, in our case, to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of imaging techniques for cancer detection. OBJECTIVE we present a case study of action research on the design of a serious board game intended to consider the advantages and weaknesses of a diagnostic method in a different ways. The goal was to better understand the principles of designing a tool using game or play. METHODS we explicitly implemented another process than gamification to develop a structure reminiscent of the game to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of different imaging techniques from the point of view of the respondents (in this case specialists not directly involved in the project). Based on this feedback and the scientific literature on this subject, we detail the main categories of games and games developed for serious use in order to understand their differences. Concerning the cancer research part to which game contributes, our method is based on questions asked to experts and practitioners of this specialty. RESULTS an expert point of view translation tool in the form of a game has been realized to apprehend a research in a different way. CONCLUSIONS we show with the help of a diagram, some possible design paths leading to this type of design result including two hidden dimensions to consider (the awareness of the game or play by the "player" and his role as a contributor or recipient).


Author(s):  
Michael Moehler

This chapter discusses contractualist theories of justice that, although they rely explicitly on moral assumptions in the traditional understanding of morality, employ rational choice theory for the justification of principles of justice. In particular, the chapter focuses on the dispute between Rawls and Harsanyi about the correct choice of principles of justice in the original position. The chapter shows that there is no winner in the Rawls–Harsanyi dispute and, ultimately, formal methods alone cannot justify moral principles. This finding is significant for the development of the rational decision situation that serves for the derivation of the weak principle of universalization for the domain of pure instrumental morality.


Author(s):  
Doriana Landi ◽  
Marta Ponzano ◽  
Carolina Gabri Nicoletti ◽  
Gaia Cola ◽  
Gianluca Cecchi ◽  
...  

AbstractRestrictions in the access to healthcare facilities during COVID-19 pandemic have raised the need for remote monitoring of chronic medical conditions, including multiple sclerosis (MS). In order to enable the continuity of care in these circumstances, many telemedicine applications are currently tested. While physicians’ preferences are commonly investigated, data regarding the patients’ point of view are still lacking. We built a 37 items web-based survey exploring patients’ propensity, awareness, and opinions on telemedicine with the aim to evaluate the sustainability of this approach in MS. Analysing 613 questionnaires out of 1093 that were sent to persons with MS followed at the Multiple Sclerosis Center of Tor Vergata University, Rome, we found that more than half of respondents (54%) were open to having a televisit. Propensity toward telemedicine significantly depended on having a higher income (p = 0.037), living farther from the center (p = 0.038), using computer and tablet (p = 0.010) and using the Internet for other remote activities (p < 0.001), conversely it was not influenced by any specific disease characteristics (i.e. degree of disability). The main advantages and disadvantages of televisit reported by participants were respectively saving time (70%) and impossibility to measure physical parameters (71%). Although the majority of respondents are in favour of televisit, so far this approach is restricted to those displaying better socioeconomic conditions and higher familiarity with technology. Implications of the study are that telemedicine platforms should be better tailored to patients’ demands in order to spread the use of telemedicine, to enhance usability and to increase patients’ adherence.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2019 (4) ◽  
pp. 277-294
Author(s):  
Yong Huang

AbstractIt has been widely observed that virtue ethics, regarded as an ethics of the ancient, in contrast to deontology and consequentialism, seen as an ethics of the modern (Larmore 1996: 19–23), is experiencing an impressive revival and is becoming a strong rival to utilitarianism and deontology in the English-speaking world in the last a few decades. Despite this, it has been perceived as having an obvious weakness in comparison with its two major rivals. While both utilitarianism and deontology can at the same time serve as an ethical theory, providing guidance for individual persons and a political philosophy, offering ways to structure social institutions, virtue ethics, as it is concerned with character traits of individual persons, seems to be ill-equipped to be politically useful. In recent years, some attempts have been made to develop the so-called virtue politics, but most of them, including my own (see Huang 2014: Chapter 5), are limited to arguing for the perfectionist view that the state has the obligation to do things to help its members develop their virtues, and so the focus is still on the character traits of individual persons. However important those attempts are, such a notion of virtue politics is clearly too narrow, unless one thinks that the only job the state is supposed to do is to cultivate its people’s virtues. Yet obviously the government has many other jobs to do such as making laws and social policies, many if not most of which are not for the purpose of making people virtuous. The question is then in what sense such laws and social policies are moral in general and just in particular. Utilitarianism and deontology have their ready answers in the light of utility or moral principles respectively. Can virtue ethics provide its own answer? This paper attempts to argue for an affirmative answer to this question from the Confucian point of view, as represented by Mencius. It does so with a focus on the virtue of justice, as it is a central concept in both virtue ethics and political philosophy.


2001 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor V. Andrianov ◽  
Jan Awrejcewicz

In this review article, we present in some detail new trends in application of asymptotic techniques to mechanical problems. First we consider the various methods which allows for the possibility of extending the perturbation series application space and hence omiting their local character. While applying the asymptotic methods very often the following situation appears: an existence of the asymptotics ε → 0 implies an existence of the asymptotics ε → ∞ (or, in a more general sense, ε → a and ε → b). Therefore, an idea of constructing a single solution valid for a whole interval of parameter ε changes is very attractive. In other words, we discuss a problem of asymptotically equivalent function constructions possessing for ε → a and ε → b a known asymptotic behavior. The defined problems are very important from the point of view of both theoretical and applied sciences. In this work, we review the state-of-the-art, by presenting the existing methods and by pointing out their advantages and disadvantages, as well as the fields of their applications. In addition, some new methods are also proposed. The methods are demonstrated on a wide variety of static and dynamic solid mechanics problems and some others involving fluid mechanics. This review article contains 340 references.


Author(s):  
Валерий Иванович Хабаров

Предложена схема формализации задач активной идентификации объекта с использованием аппарата теории моделей - современного раздела математической логики. Теория моделей позволяет погрузить предмет “планирование и анализ эксперимента” в контекст семантического анализа. Семантический анализ понимается как установление соответствия между миром и его формальным представлением. С этой точки зрения представления об исследуемом объекте выражаются в некоторой прикладной теории. Предложен вывод модели для данной теории как процесс интерпретации, в котором ключевая роль отводится “экспериментатору”. Полученные результаты могут быть использованы при проектировании архитектур интеллектуальных систем для экспериментальных исследований, для построения онтологии эксперимента, создания баз знаний Purpose. The purpose of this work is to formalize the tasks of active object identification based on the apparatus of model theory - a modern section of mathematical logic. Model theory allows putting the subject “planning and analysis of an experiment” in the context of semantic analysis. Semantic analysis is understood as establishing a correspondence between the world and its formal representation. From this point of view, the concept of the object under study is expressed in some applied theory, which allows applying formal methods of model theory to it. Methods. It is assumed that the model is derived for this theory as an interpretation process, in which the key role is assigned to the experimenter. As a research method, it is proposed to use commutative diagrams that reflect the process of interpretation and extension of communication diagrams for the so-called equipped theories of planning and analysis of experiments. Results. The properties of the proposed models are proved and examples for planning a regression experiment are presented as an illustration. It is proved that for linear models it is possible to construct a finitely axiomatization capable theory. Findings, originality. The obtained results can be used in the design of architectures for an intelligent system in experimental research, building an experiment ontology and creation of knowledge bases. These studies will allow using logical programming to implement images of the presented commutative diagrams for equipped theories as applied systems for planning and interpreting the experiment


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