An Invitation to Civic Dialogue

Those of us who have benefited from the climate of injustice need an invitation from others to join with them in changing our social climate to a climate of justice. The controversaries over national monuments opens the door to explore the question of who needs an invitation from whom and what white people need to learn in order to respond to the civilian invitation from others. The others include future generations, Syrian refugees, migrants at our Southern border, and personal invitations from People of Color. Personal invitations depend on our aptitude in engaging in dialogue, as is illustrated by an imaginary dialogue involving a white man and a black woman. Such dialogues can create the conditions for good conversations, and these conversation can move us toward a climate of justice—an ethical foundation for developing policies to protect our habitat for future generations.

Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita and the Merited-Response Argument

In attempting to answer whether Nabokov’s Lolita can be described as an unethical novel, the author ponders on what basis one could make such a determination. At (1) the author analyzes the merited-response argument offered by Gaut (and previously Hume and Carroll), which provides a conceptual framework for the resolution of the controversy surrounding Lolita. Based on this analysis, (2) the author decides what constitutes the novel’s ethical foundation and what (3) prescriptions and (4) responses can follow from it.

TOWARDS OPERATIONALIZING WHITE MALE ACCOUNTABILITY IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE DEVELOPMENT INTERROGATING IMPACTS OF AND SOLUTIONS TO OVERREPRESENTATION UTILIZING RELATIONAL ETHICS FRAMEWORKS

Numerical metrics demonstrate that white men are demographically overrepresented in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology development, research, and media coverage. This overrepresentation creates immediate and downstream harms that corporations and technologists in industry and the academy alike must contend with to ensure the creation of AI technologies, AI development organizations, and AI research institutions that are ethical, fair, accountable, transparent, and beneficial to all people. After defining the problem of overrepresentation and exploring why this problem is vital to address, this paper will posit a two-pronged theoretical solution to be implemented: (1) increasing white male accountability in AI technology spaces and (2) moving away from an underlying utilitarian or deontological ethical foundation and towards a relational ethical foundation. Using that theoretical analysis the paper will then present a model for taking this two-pronged theoretical solution from theory into practice by providing specific recommendations for operationalizing the proposed framework at the levels of AI technology development.

Vulnerability in Research with Prisoners

Prisoners are often described as a vulnerable research population. This designation, while intuitively appealing, leaves unclear what is meant by “vulnerability” in the context of research with incarcerated individuals. Conceptual clarity would provide the ethical foundation needed to identify the full scope of research protections to afford prisoners. It would also militate against a tendency among some to view all prison research as irredeemably problematic and prohibitive. Drawing on a prior taxonomy of vulnerability, this chapter specifies eight vulnerability types that apply to prisoner research. It describes their predisposing factors and the ethical concerns they raise. It also considers possible strategies for addressing these concerns and highlights areas where effective strategies are lacking or need further development. This framework is intended to guide researchers and institutional review boards in the planning and review of protocols involving prisoners so that they may safeguard prisoners from abuse and promote the ethical advancement of science.

Kinship Politics: Political Elite’s Desire for Power Versus the Ethics of Consequentialism

Kinship Politics as a form of control of political space by the elites makes it easier for their family members to win an election against other candidates. Kinship Politics is prone to abuse of power that benefits just a few people. The author studied this problem using philosophical reflection. Humans have a relentless desire to achieve success or felicity (as Hobbes stated) that requires humans to continue accumulating power. Power must be attained and defended, although it means forgoing the ethical foundation. For this reason, this study aimed to analyse the moral consequences of the desire for power of the political elites in the 2020 Regional-Head Election (Pilkada) through an ethical lens. This study used descriptive and literature study method, as well as a qualitative approach, and the results of the study showed that the kinship politics in the 2020 Pilkada should not be continued in the perspective of consequentialism ethic that emphasizes the goal of happiness for as many people as possible, since Kinship politics that concentrated the power in one person supported by the circle of power will benefit only a handful of people.