Booster Dose of COVID 19 and Ethical Issues

COVID 19 is a recent and global pandemic. Preventive medicine is not very popular in Pakistan. With the limited resources, an average Pakistani would spend on a medical treatment rather than on a preventive drug. In Pakistan, booster shots are recently made available only to those who can pay for the cost of the vaccine. A Utilitarian approach has been adopted at various levels since the pandemic emerged by health care organizations and the government. The purpose was to maximize the benefits and minimize the risk of harm. It is the need of the hour to think about health equity and justice in a pluralistic way and refrain from initiating booster shots for elite of a resource-poor country. This pandemic will never end if a maximum number of people are not vaccinated in each country. This is only possible if there is an equitable distribution of vaccines.

Discounting and Intergenerational Ethics

The question of social discounting is central in intertemporal cost-benefit analysis that often shapes economists’ recommendations regarding climate policy. The practice of discounting has been the object of heated debates among economists and philosophers, revolving around the issue of intergenerational ethics. In this chapter, we review the different arguments for and against specific values of social discounting. We show that there are actually two different ethical issues at stake: 1) the question of impartiality (or equal treatment of all generations); 2) the question of priority to the worse-off (aversion to inequality in resources, capabilities or welfare). These questions have emerged in the utilitarian approach and can be neatly separated in that case. They also have very different consequences for climate policy. We then argue that the question of social discounting is not confined to the utilitarian framework as it more generally describes the social value of income (or capability or welfare) transfers to future generations. Lastly, we discuss the many limitations of social discounting as a tool for policy analysis.

Brief History of Ethics in the Presence of a Pandemic

The current COVID-19 pandemic has had a strong effect on individual liberty versus a consequentialist ideal of the greater good for societal norms. Rather than arguing for the current situation, I have chosen to take a historical approach to address the ethics of dealing with these health situations in the past. Ultimately, I conclude that, while at risk of individual liberty, a rule utilitarian approach, as backed up by epidemiolocal data suggests that a mandate for the greater good is more ethical than a simple approach to individual liberty.

What Does a Foot Path Do?

<p>In New Zealand pedestrian infrastructure is not a robust area of transport planning. As a funding class it receives minimal monetary allocation. This thesis argues design interventions in the pedestrian environment need to be both responsive to the surrounding context and effective in promoting walking patronage. To achieve this goal this thesis argues that the current process used by central authorities and local authorities for researching, designing, and implementing pedestrian infrastructure, needs to change. As a solution this thesis develops a new methodology for researching, designing and implementing pedestrian infrastructure. The methodology is developed through a series of design experiments using Central Wellington as a site. The methodology uses a multi paradigm framework adopted from landscape perception research, which allows it to successfully alternate between ‘top down’ expert orientated approaches. For example, on one hand the methodology uses standardized typological solutions as a cost and time efficient approach to resolving pedestrian barriers to walking; as well as a ‘top down’ macro scale urban analysis in order to ensure any resources being spent at a micro scale street level are also improving larger urban scale problems in the pedestrian network. While on the other hand uses a ‘bottom up’ qualitative approach through a newly developed ‘cognitive survey and interview technique’, to research from the perspective of the public where pedestrian accessibility barriers to walking are located in the built environment. The research is significant as it reveals new insight into the practical application of a standardized typological approach to pedestrian design. In particular it reveals how a new hybrid methodology combining a ‘top down expert’ and utilitarian approach, with a ‘bottom up qualitative’ and contextual approach, makes for efficient employment of design resources when implementing pedestrian infrastructure.</p>

What Does a Foot Path Do?

<p>In New Zealand pedestrian infrastructure is not a robust area of transport planning. As a funding class it receives minimal monetary allocation. This thesis argues design interventions in the pedestrian environment need to be both responsive to the surrounding context and effective in promoting walking patronage. To achieve this goal this thesis argues that the current process used by central authorities and local authorities for researching, designing, and implementing pedestrian infrastructure, needs to change. As a solution this thesis develops a new methodology for researching, designing and implementing pedestrian infrastructure. The methodology is developed through a series of design experiments using Central Wellington as a site. The methodology uses a multi paradigm framework adopted from landscape perception research, which allows it to successfully alternate between ‘top down’ expert orientated approaches. For example, on one hand the methodology uses standardized typological solutions as a cost and time efficient approach to resolving pedestrian barriers to walking; as well as a ‘top down’ macro scale urban analysis in order to ensure any resources being spent at a micro scale street level are also improving larger urban scale problems in the pedestrian network. While on the other hand uses a ‘bottom up’ qualitative approach through a newly developed ‘cognitive survey and interview technique’, to research from the perspective of the public where pedestrian accessibility barriers to walking are located in the built environment. The research is significant as it reveals new insight into the practical application of a standardized typological approach to pedestrian design. In particular it reveals how a new hybrid methodology combining a ‘top down expert’ and utilitarian approach, with a ‘bottom up qualitative’ and contextual approach, makes for efficient employment of design resources when implementing pedestrian infrastructure.</p>

History and Philosophy of Science at the Crossroads of Doctoral Education’s Reforms: Polemical Notes

The article examines the importance of the discipline of “History and Philosophy of Science” in the context of a new model for training doctoral students. The Russian universities and institutions of higher education should begin its implementation in September 2021. The author analyzes the history of the development and implementation of the course of “History and Philosophy of Science” as an academic discipline, which took place against the background of transformations in doctoral education. The article shows that the significant efforts of the professional philosophical community aimed at conceptualizing the methodological and methodical foundations of the discipline were successful and played an important role in the process of training doctoral students. The professional community not only gave an adequate response to the challenge of the educational reform, but also used it as a chance for renewal, realization of its own scientific and pedagogical potential. The transition to a new model of doctoral education, taking into account the modern realities of the knowledge society, should take into account the need to form critical thinking in postgraduate students as the most important competence. The change of focus from educational training to research component should not lead to utilitarian approach implementation aimed at purely quantitative indicators. The high quality of training future researchers, and focus on the development of human capital meet the challenges posed by the contemporary knowledge society.

Art nouveau period: borders and concepts

The article offers an extensive overview of modern approaches to definition of art nouveau as a literary era and to establishing its chronological boundaries. There have been analyzed main variations of the self-definition of the era as well as researchers attempts to find an appropriate definition to this complex aesthetic phenomenon. The extended interpretation of art nouveau as a macroepoch is examined, the period dating back to the end of the 18th century and connected primarily with the artistic system of Romanticism. Based on the aesthetic manifestos of German Naturalism, the meaning of the literary situation in 1880th Germany is examined, where the widespread proclamations of the aesthetic revolution and modern attitudes coexisted with the adherence to the deterministic aesthetics of the previous decades. The leading trends in the culture of the fin de sicle are connected with the onset of the first stage of art nouveau in the art and literature of 1890-1900, soon to be replaced by avant-garde art at the turn of the second decade of the new century. Avant-garde, which associated itself with modernity, was mainly destroying already established art forms. This article suggests that the literary avant-garde as a project of the future manifests a utilitarian approach to the attitudes of the art nouveau on the brink of the new century, making art nouveau accessible for the audience and bringing the artist into the space of political interaction with the society.

Age, Frailty, Resuscitation and Intensive Care: With Reference to COVID-19

Discussion regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation and admission to an intensive care unit is frequently fraught in the context of older age. It is complicated by the fact that the presence of multiple comorbidities and frailty adversely impact on prognosis. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation and mechanical ventilation are not appropriate for all. Who decides and how? This paper discusses the issues, biases, and potential harms involved in decision-making. The basis of decision making requires fairness in the distribution of resources/healthcare (distributive justice), yet much of the printed guidance has taken a utilitarian approach (getting the most from the resource provided). The challenge is to provide a balance between justice for the individual and population justice.

Defensive over Climate Change? Climate Shame as a Method of Moral Cultivation

The climate crisis is an enormous challenge for contemporary societies. Yet, public discussions on it often lead to anger, mocking, denial and other defensive behaviours, one prominent example of which is the reception met by the climate advocate Greta Thunberg. The paper approaches this curious phenomenon via shame. It argues that the very idea of anthropogenic climate change invites feelings of human failure and thereby may also entice shame. The notion of “climate shame” is introduced and distinguished from “climate guilt”. Whereas climate guilt prioritises the flourishing of the environment and is focused on actions and morality, climate shame is concerned with human identity and selfhood. The paper then explores whether shame is a morally destructive or constructive emotion. Making use of both psychological and philosophical literature on shame, it argues that although shame faces many challenges that question its usefulness in moral pedagogy, these challenges can be met with “moral maturity”—moreover, following a utilitarian approach, the overall benefits of climate shame can justify its costs to individuals. My argument is that climate shame holds the potential of being a highly effective moral psychological method of persuasion, capable of inviting wholesale critical reflection on current, environmentally damaging practices and cultivation of more virtuous ways of co-existing with the rest of the natural world and other species.