Murdoch, Iris (1919–99)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Norgaard
Keyword(s):  
Moral Theory ◽  
Magnetic Force ◽  
Strong Sense ◽  
Moral Experience ◽  
Iris Murdoch ◽  
Moral Significance ◽  
Moral Philosopher

Iris Murdoch was an Oxford moral philosopher and a prolific novelist. Her philosophy was marked by a strong sense of the moral significance of our inner lives: the quality of our seeing, feeling and imagining is significant, both in itself and as a background for our active lives. Moral effort, Murdoch believed, consists mainly in the struggle against our natural egoism. She thought ethics should discuss the techniques of this struggle and took a particular interest in the role art might play in such a context. Insisting on the irreducible plurality of the moral ‘field of force’, Murdoch did not develop a moral theory; yet she also believed that moral experience is haunted by a sense of unity. Her thought revolved around this tension. Inspired by Plato, she referred to this unity as ‘Good’ and understood it as a distant perfect reality present in imperfect human lives as a baffling but magnetic force. The phenomena and problems that had Murdoch’s philosophical interest were also explored in her fiction, despite her insistence that she was not a philosophical novelist.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Moral Life ◽  
Moral Experience ◽  
Object Relations Theory ◽  
Literary Field ◽  
Moral Significance ◽  
Ideological Criticism ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Psychological Dimensions

Although it is widely observed that a consequential “turn to ethics” took place in the field of literary criticism beginning in the late 1980s, this book argues that a broader cultural privileging of psychological and therapeutic frameworks has led to a displacement of the importance of moral reflection and moral judgment in the literary field. Between the pervasive influence of psychology on intellectual paradigms and cultural life, and the critique of morality within ideological criticism, key elements of the moral life, and of moral experience within the time of a life, have been lost to view. This introduction maps out the recent work on ethics in literary studies, introduces the moral significance of British object relations theory (an outlier among the psychological frameworks under analysis), and concludes by discussing Kant and Nietzsche’s divergent understandings of the psychological dimensions of moral life.

Design of a Magnetic Wall-Climbing Car

2014 ◽  
Vol 526 ◽  
pp. 211-216
Author(s):  
Qiong Ying Lv ◽  
Yu Shi Mei ◽  
Xi Jia Tao
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Wind Energy ◽  
Wind Power ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Magnetic Force ◽  
Mechanical Analysis ◽  
Heavy Duty ◽  
Magnetic Wall ◽  
Force Curves

As the trend of large-scale wind Power, People pay more attention to wind energy, which as a clean, renewable energy. Traditional unarmed climbing and crane lifting has been unable to meet the requirements of the equipment maintenance. Magnetic climb car can automatically crawl along the wall of the steel tower, the maintenance equipment and personnel can be sent to any height of the tower. The quality of the magnetic wall-climbing car is 550kg, which can carry 1.3 tons load. In this paper completed the magnetic wall-climbing car design and modeling, mechanical analysis in static and dynamic, obtained with the air gap and Magnetic Force curves. The application shows that the magnetic wall-climbing car meets the reliable adsorption, heavy-duty operation, simple operation etc..

scholarly journals Two concepts of community in the Niger Delta

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 254-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nwamaka Okeke-Ogbuafor ◽  
Tim Gray ◽  
Selina Stead
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Place ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Strong Sense ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Solid Foundation ◽  
Attachment To Place ◽  
Poor Communities

Purpose This paper aims to understand what two apparently contrasting concepts of communality and place attachment say about the quality of community life in the Niger Delta. Design/methodology/approach The research for this paper relied on extensive qualitative and quantitative data: qualitative data were collected from five oil-rich and three oil-poor communities across Ogoniland, while quantitative data were collected from four of these communities. Thematic content analysis was used to interpret the qualitative data, while the quantitative data were analysed through Excel. Findings Most participants from both oil-rich and oil-poor communities strongly reject a social sense of communality and strongly endorse a geographical sense of place. Practical implications The wider implication of this finding is that proponents of community development (CD) have a choice between either the cynical option of noting that Ogoni’s strong sense of place means that they will tolerate limited CD, or the noble option of noting that Ogoni’s strong sense of place is a solid foundation on which to build sustainable CD by empowering citizens to create their own future. Originality/value The originality of this study is twofold. First, it shows the complexity of people’s sense of community encompassing widely different and possibly contradictory elements. Second, it reveals the strength and persistence of people’s attachment to place despite its physical shortcomings.

Identity formation in adolescents with congenital cardiac disease: a forgotten issue in the transition to adulthood

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koen Luyckx ◽  
Eva Goossens ◽  
Carolien Van Damme ◽  
Philip Moons
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Cardiac Disease ◽  
Strong Sense ◽  
Developmental Task ◽  
Identity Statuses ◽  
Congenital Cardiac Disease ◽  
Sense Of Identity

AbstractIdentity formation is a core developmental task in adolescence and functions as a key resource for transitioning to adulthood. This study investigated how adolescents with congenital cardiac disease form their identity and how it relates to demographic and medical parameters, quality of life, perceived health, depressive symptoms, and loneliness. A total of 429 adolescents aged 14–18 years with congenital cardiac disease and 403 matched controls completed questionnaires on identity and all outcome variables. There were five meaningful identity statuses, similar to those obtained in the control sample, which were found in the patient sample. Of them, two statuses – achievement and foreclosure – were characterised by a strong sense of identity; one status – diffused diffusion – especially was characterised by a weak sense of identity combined with high scores on worry about the future. These identity statuses were differentially related to outcome variables, with individuals in diffused diffusion especially scoring highest on depressive symptoms, problems in school, treatment anxiety, and communication problems with clinicians, and lowest on quality of life. Having a strong sense of personal identity was found to protect against such maladaptive outcomes. In sum, most adolescents with congenital cardiac disease moved through their identity formation process in a similar manner to other adolescents. Adolescents with a diffused identity were particularly at risk of experiencing maladjustment and problems in treatment adherence. Hence, developing intervention strategies to provide continuity of care on the road to adulthood involves paying attention to core developmental tasks, such as identity formation in adolescents with congenital cardiac disease.

scholarly journals How do moral theories stand to each other?

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-299
Author(s):  
Svantje Guinebert
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Deontological Ethics ◽  
Basic Orientation ◽  
Moral Theories ◽  
In Virtue Of

AbstractMoral theories, such as the variations on virtue ethics, deontological ethics, contractualism, and consequentialism, are expected – inter alia – to explain the basic orientation of morality, give us principles and directives, justify those, and thereby (if all goes well) guide our actions. I examine some functions and characteristics of the extant moral theories from a moral metatheoretical point of view, in order to clarify the generally assumed rivalry between them. By thinking of moral theories in analogy to languages it is argued that different moral theories are neither simply competing nor simply complementary; their respective orientations justify using them, in virtue of the problems they help to solve. But even if considerations about the functionality of a theory and the context in which it is created play an important role, they can neither be sufficient to determine these theories’ relations to one other nor for choosing between them. The challenge is to set criteria for the quality of a moral theory on a moral metatheoretical level and, in particular, to make room for future views on morality.

Attention and Blindness: Objectivity and Contingency in Moral Perception

2002 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 319-346
Author(s):  
Rebecca Kukla
Keyword(s):  
Practical Reason ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Moral Agency ◽  
Moral Perception ◽  
States Of Affairs ◽  
Perceptual Skills ◽  
Universal Principles ◽  
Crucial Component ◽  
Moral Theories

Moral perception, as the term is used in moral theory, is the perception of normatively contoured objects and states of affairs, where that perception enables us to engage in practical reason and judgment concerning these particulars. The idea that our capacity for moral perception is a crucial component of our capacity for moral reasoning and agency finds its most explicit origin in Aristotle, for whom virtue begins with the quality of perception. The focus on moral perception within moral theory has made a comeback in the last few decades, especially in the hands of self-proclaimed neo-Aristotelians such as John McDowell, Martha Nussbaum, and Nancy Sherman. For these writers, our perceptual capacities are not static, and the laborious honing of our perceptual skills is a crucial moral task. On this picture, as Nancy Sherman puts it, “How to see becomes as much a matter of inquiry as what to do.”Moral particularists—including but not restricted to the neo-Aristotelians—have emphasized the centrality of moral perception to moral agency and judgment, as a corrective to moral theories that treat deliberation in terms of universal principles as the privileged keystone of moral agency.

Quality in Grandparent/Grandchild Relationships

1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory E. Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Analysis Of Variance ◽  
Strong Influence ◽  
Strong Sense ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Five Elements ◽  
Middle Generation ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Impact

Five elements identified from the literature as expressive of quality in grandparent/grandchild relationships were used in this study. Three hundred ninety-one young adults at a midwest university responded to questions concerning the quality of their relationships with their “most close” grandparent. Responses of the students validated the following five elements of quality as being associated with successful grandparent/grandchild relationships: 1) a fairly high degree of closeness, 2) a strong sense of being known by the grandparent, 3) a strong sense of the young adult's knowing the grandparent, 4) a sense of the grandparent being a fairly strong influence in the life of the grandchild, 5) a sense of an authentic or independent grandparent/grandchild relationship not dominated by, but supported by, the middle generation. Analysis of variance identified the impact of seven independent variables on the quality of grandparent/grandchild relationships.

scholarly journals VII. Magnetical observations in the Britannia and Conway tubular iron bridges

1873 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 331-339
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Force ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
Malleable Iron ◽  
Magnetic Action ◽  
Scrap Iron ◽  
Passing Train ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Magnetic Needle

It occurred to me some time since that it would be matter of interest to examine the character of the magnetic action of the iron in the Britannia and Conway Tubular Iron Bridges upon a magnetic needle within the tube. This was suggested to me by consideration, not so much of the mass and extent of the iron structure (although both, in the Britannia Bridge, are very great) as of the peculiar state of tremor to which the iron is continually subjected. After remarking, when within the tube of the Britannia Bridge, the disturbance of the iron produced by a passing train, my hand being firmly pressed against the iron wall, I described tot he late Robert Stephenson my impression that the particles of the metal were in a state of "molecular shiver," and he replied that those words exactly represented his own idea on the agitation of the iron. All experiments appear to show that iron, in this state of tremor, is peculiarly subject to the inductive action of external magnetic force. When to this is added the consideration that the tubes have been unmoved in position, and that they have been subjected to this disturbance many times every day since their erection, it seems reasonable to conclude that they will exhibit the greatest amount of induced magnetism which it is possible for malleable iron to receive. I know not how far this susceptibility to mag­netic action may depend on the quality of the iron; but I think it proper to state, on the authority of Mr. Edwin Clark, that the iron was made chiefly in Staffordshire and Coalbrookdale, a smaller portion in Derbyshire, and that it was the ordinary "best-best” plates of the day, and intended to be scrap-iron throughout. My friend Mr. James Carpenter (then Assistant in the Royal Observatory) entered warmly into my views, and at my request undertook the conduct of the requisite observations; and I detached him for a few days (at my own pecuniary expense) from his duties at the Royal Observatory. Captain G. L. Tupman, R. M. A., who was at the time preparing himself in the use of instruments for observation of the Transit of Venus, gave his friendly assistance; and I am confident that the work undertaken by these gentlemen was executed with the greatest care and accuracy throughout.

Tracking Control of Automatic Pipe Cutting Robot with Magnetic Binder

2006 ◽  
Vol 505-507 ◽  
pp. 1201-1206
Author(s):  
Sung Soo Rhim ◽  
Soon Geul Lee
Keyword(s):  
Tracking Control ◽  
Magnetic Force ◽  
Welding Process ◽  
Gravitational Effect ◽  
Welding Robot ◽  
Tracking Errors ◽  
Control Scheme ◽  
Repetitive Learning ◽  
Errors Analysis

An automatic pipe cutting/welding robot with a magnetic binder, which is named APCROM, is developed and its tracking control is studied in this paper. Using magnetic force the four-wheeled mobile robot binds itself to the pipe and executes automatic pipe cutting/welding process. As APCROM rotates around the cylindrical pipe laid in the gravitational field, the gravity effect on the movement of the robot varies. The varying gravitational effect deteriorates the tracking performance of the robot and degrades the quality of the pipe cutting/welding process. To maintain a constant velocity and consistent cutting/welding performance, the authors adopt a repetitive learning controller, which learns through practice the required effort to cancel the tracking errors. Analysis results and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

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