ABSTRACT This article deals with a cluster of moral problems raised by the new techniques of human fertilisation. It is concerned primarily with the putative rights of embryos brought into being as a by‐product of the practice of in vitro fertilisation. In this connection it investigates the basis for the ascription of rights to entities and asserts the view that consciousness is a pre‐requisite for the possession of rights. It draws attention to the speciesism implicit in attitudes of some of (...) those who have contributed to the debate. It also examines other issues briefly, raising, for example, the question whether children by AID (or by in vitro fertilisation by donor) must be denied access to information about their genetic fathers; and looking at objections to the new techniques based on the so‐called unnaturalness of the procedures involved. (shrink)

A series of studies investigated the capacity of children between the ages of 7 and 12 to give free and informed consent to participation in psychological research. Children were reasonably accurate in describing the purpose of studies, but many did not understand the possible benefits or especially the possible risks of participating. In several studies children's consent was not affected by the knowledge that their parents had given their permission or by the parents saying that they would not be upset (...) if the children refused. In contrast, other studies found that children were much more likely to stop their participation if the experimenter said explicitly that she would not be upset if they stopped. We suggest that experimenters should pay more attention to describing the possible risks and benefits of participation in research, and that they should also make it clearer to children that they are free to stop once they have begun. (shrink)

Recent philosophical accounts of discrimination face challenges in accommodating robust intuitions about the particular way in which it is wrongful—most prominently, the intuition that discriminatory actions intrinsically violate equality irrespective of their contingent consequences. The paper suggests that we understand the normative structure of discrimination in a way that is different from the one implicitly assumed by these accounts. It argues that core discriminatory wrongs—such as segregation in Apartheid South Africa—divide into two types, corresponding to violations of relational and distributive (...) equality; and that a pluralistic view of the internal structure of each type should be adopted. This normative structure serves to appropriately vindicate the mentioned intuitions; it also contributes to clarifying the normative underpinnings of legal concepts associated with discrimination (including the distinctions between direct and indirect, or ‘disparate treatment/impact’ discrimination, and intentional vs. unintentional discrimination), and developing a more productive public discourse around allegations of discrimination. (shrink)

Lena Dunham is a modern celebrity and television producer-writer who is important in her willingness to self-identify as a feminist, and to engage in feminist activism on social media and in her memoir writing. Her writing in her successful television series, Girls (2012–17), has already raised questions of authenticity. This article develops this analysis further by considering how Dunham’s situation, as a transmedia author, complicates this authenticity, particularly through her construction of ‘affective ordinariness’, a key aspect of her identity as (...) a feminist activist. Her various personas, including that of the celebrity feminist, highlight the ‘contradictions’ which exist within the current complex culture of postfeminism and the perception of new feminisms. Nowhere are these contradictions more apparent than in the dissonance created by Dunham’s transmedia voice in the matter of rape and sexual violence. (shrink)

IntroductionThis paperback text is an intermediate text and is simply written. As the author himself states, “the book aims to speak to that growing number of interested persons who want to understand more about the study of ethics, ethical issues and the ways ethicists approach them” . The author intends for this book to be an introduction to ethics and uses the first few chapters to swiftly and succinctly provide an introduction to the basics of ethics and the main ethical (...) theories. He then uses later chapters to carry these theories into current ethical realms, such as business, bioethics, environmental, and political and allows the reader to attach the rudimentary ethical theories examined in the earlier chapters to real life issues in order to emphasize the main points. The final section discusses how to internalize ethics and incorporate them into the reader’s daily lives.SummaryFollowing the acknowledgement, he provides a valuable preface piece aptly titled “How t .. (shrink)

The distinction between intentional and unintentional discrimination is a prominent one in the literature and public discourse; intentional discriminatory actions are commonly considered particularly morally objectionable relative to unintentional discriminatory actions. Nevertheless, it remains unclear what the two types amount to, and what generates the moral difference between them. The paper develops philosophically-informed conceptualizations of the two types based on which the moral difference between them may be accounted for. On the suggested account, intentional discrimination is characterized by the agent (...) viewing the content of an underlying discriminatory belief as a consideration that counts in favor of her action. This, it is argued, amounts to endorsing the discriminatory belief, which generates the particular moral severity of intentional discrimination. (shrink)

Decisions in healthcare are made against the background of cultural and philosophical definitions of disease, sickness and illness. These concepts or definitions affect both health policy and research , as well as individual encounters between patients and physicians . It is therefore necessary for evidence-based medicine to consider whether any of the definitions underlying research prior to the hierarchisation of knowledge are indeed compatible with its own epistemological principles.

Philosophy prides itself on beginning with Socrates’s death: scandalous with regard to Socrates’s virtue and wisdom, as well as his age, this death is transfigured into an entry into truth. One can...

This essay explores Jean-Luc Nancy’s philosophical return to Cartesian philosophy, specifically to Descartes’s preoccupation with the relation of mind and body, as a fertile ground from which to develop an ontology of the body in (1992). It explores Nancy’s reasons for revisiting the Cartesian thinking framework, which on the face of it, is of little value to an ontology of the body. I argue that Descartes’s impasse in accounting for both mind/body dualism and their union constitutes Nancy’s point of departure (...) in constructing an ontology of the body in, thereby transforming Descartes’s impasse into a productive aporia, in the Derridean sense of the term. To fully understand the significance of the notion of “relation” in Nancy’s’ philosophy, I turn to his reading of Lacan’s famous aphorism “there is no sexual relation” and explore its ontological implications. (shrink)

This essay explores Jean-Luc Nancy’s philosophical return to Cartesian philosophy, specifically to Descartes’s preoccupation with the relation of mind and body, as a fertile ground from which to develop an ontology of the body in. It explores Nancy’s reasons for revisiting the Cartesian thinking framework, which on the face of it, is of little value to an ontology of the body. I argue that Descartes’s impasse in accounting for both mind/body dualism and their union constitutes Nancy’s point of departure in (...) constructing an ontology of the body in, thereby transforming Descartes’s impasse into a productive aporia, in the Derridean sense of the term. To fully understand the significance of the notion of “relation” in Nancy’s’ philosophy, I turn to his reading of Lacan’s famous aphorism “there is no sexual relation” and explore its ontological implications. (shrink)

This _Handbook _is the most comprehensive and up-to-date source available for college reading and study strategy practitioners and administrators. In response to changing demographics, politics, policy, issues, and concerns in the field of college reading and study strategies since publication of the first edition in 2000, this new edition has been substantially revised and fully updated to reflect the newest research in the field, including six new chapters and a more user-friendly structure to make it easier for researchers, program administrators, (...) college instructors, and graduate students to find the information that they need. In this thorough and systematic examination of theory, research, and practice, college reading teachers will find information to make better instructional decisions, administrators will find justification for programmatic implementations, and professors will find in one book both theory and practice to better prepare graduate students to understand the parameters and issues of this field. The _Handbook_ is an essential resource for professionals, researchers, and students as they continue to study, research, learn, and share more about college reading and study strategy issues and instruction. (shrink)

The book is reclaiming economics as a moral science. It argues that ethics is a relevant and inseparable aspect of all levels of economic activity, from individual and organizational to societal and global. Taking ethical considerations into account is needed in explaining and predicting the behavior of economic agents as well as in evaluating and designing economic policies and mechanisms. The unique feature of the book is that it not only analyzes ethics and economics on an abstract level, but puts (...) behavioral, institutional and systemic issues together for a robust and human view of economic functioning. It sees economic "facts" as interwoven with human intentionality and ethical content, a domain where utility calculations and moral considerations co-determine the behavior of economic agents and the outcomes of their activities. The book employs the personalist approach that sees human persons - endowed with free will and conscience - as the basic agents of economic life and defines human flourishing as the final end of economic activities. The book demonstrates that economics can gain a lot in meaning and also in analytical power by reuniting itself with ethics. (shrink)

The global ecological crisis is upon us. From global warming to the long-term implications of ocean acidification, air and water pollution, deforestation, and the omnipresent dangers of nuclear technology the future of our planetary home is threatened. Yet in the midst of the unfolding crisis, the conventional ideologies of the twentieth century and their representations of nature remain unchallenged by both the defenders of capitalism and capitalism's most radical critics. The Distortion of Nature's Image illustrates how the anti-naturalism of late (...) capitalist society, in which nature is reified into the emptiness of mere matter, simply a thing to be dominated, is subtly complemented by the failure of the Left to go both beyond the historic limitations of Marx's ninteenth-century viewpoint and beyond anarchism's blind faith in "natural law." However, an alternative for comprehending nature and the ecological crisis as historical and social phenomena remains open in the dialectical naturalism of Western Marxism and Murray Bookchin's social ecology. By examining in closer detail how Bookchin's social ecology politicizes the concept of nature, as well as how precursory models in Western Marxist thought provide a foundation for this, Damian Gerber illustrates how the notion of an ecological society remains a decisively political question. (shrink)

This book explores the under-researched sources of the consumerist culture and the environmental damage it has brought about. The book is an outcome of the symposium on “The Ethics of Consumption” organised and hosted by the Las Casas Institute at the Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford as part of its Economics as a Moral Science Programme. It takes on two contemporary problems: the human weakness and capacity for wrong-doing, and the failure of modern economic theory to account for the moral (...) character of human behaviour and its implicit encouragement of gluttonous life-styles. In a time when grand political schemes are proposed to revive sustainability of global economy, the authors of the papers collected in this book highlight the need for moral renewal without which the most revolutionary structural reforms are bound to fail at producing the desired outcome. Topics of the book include the meaning and sources of avarice, the attempt to define what is enough, exploration of philosophical and theological perspectives which can serve as building blocks for the ethics of consumption. This makes the book of great interest to a broad readership of economists, social scientists and philosophers. (shrink)

Der vorliegende Band umfasst den Briefwechsel Schleiermachers von April 1806 bis Ende 1807, dem Zeitpunkt seiner endgültigen Übersiedlung nach Berlin. Im Sommer 1806 lehrt Schleiermacher das letzte Semester an der Hallenser Universität, wobei er zum ersten Mal Kirchengeschichte und Christliche Sittenlehre liest. Mit dem Zusammenbruch Preußens und der Besetzung Halles durch französische Truppen im Oktober 1806 findet Schleiermachers akademische Wirksamkeit ein abruptes Ende durch die Schließung der Universität und die Vertreibung der Studenten. Er bleibt zunächst in Halle, um das Schicksal (...) der Universität abzuwarten, beginnt aber im Sommer 1807 mit Privatvorlesungen in Berlin, wohin er Ende 1807 endgültig übersiedelt, in der Hoffnung auf eine Berufung an die neu zu gründende Berliner Universität. Der drohende Krieg und die Niederlage Preußens sind zentrale Themen des Briefwechsels. Eine große Rolle spielen die beruflichen Perspektiven Schleiermachers und die Hoffnung auf die neu zu errichtende Berliner Universität. Von den insgesamt 425 Briefen dieses Bandes sind 240 an Schleiermacher gerichtet und 185 von ihm selbst geschrieben. 127 der hier dokumentierten Briefe konnten nur erschlossen werde; von ihnen ist kein Text überliefert. Von den übrigen Briefen waren bisher nur 80 vollständig gedruckt. 41 Briefe waren bisher im Verhältnis zu den überlieferten Texten bzw. Textzeugen nur gekürzt publiziert; sie werden hier erstmals entsprechend der Überlieferungslage vollständig ediert. 177 Briefe werden im vorliegenden Band überhaupt erstmals ediert. (shrink)

Der Band enthält den Briefwechsel Schleiermachers von seinem Amtsantritt als außerordentlicher Professor der Theologie und Philosophie an der Hallenser Universität im Oktober 1804 bis zum Ende des Wintersemesters 1805/06. In seinen Vorlesungen legte Schleiermacher in dieser Zeit den Grund seines theologischen Systems und seiner philosophischen Ethik. Die Entwicklung seiner wissenschaftlichen Auffassungen spiegelt sich in den Briefen des vorliegenden Bandes. Daneben sind die Briefwechsel mit den Altphilologen Heindorf und Spalding in Berlin zur Platon-Übersetzung und mit dem Verleger Georg Andreas Reimer von (...) besonderem wissenschaftlichen Interesse. Weitere Themen sind die immer wieder verschobene Einrichtung des Universitätsgottesdienstes und ein Ruf an Schleiermacher, Prediger an der Kirche Unserer lieben Frauen in Bremen zu werden, den Schleiermacher nutzte, um als Ordinarius Mitglied der Hallenser Fakultät zu werden. Im privaten Briefwechsel ist das Verhältnis zu Eleonore Grunow ein beherrschendes Thema; die Briefe dokumentieren Schleiermachers Hoffnungen und das endgültige Scheitern dieser Beziehung. Einen breiten Raum nimmt die Korrespondenz mit den Freunden in Schwedisch-Vorpommern (Stralsund und Rügen) ein. Von den insgesamt 342 Briefen werden 109 hier in der Erstedition vorgelegt, 37 Briefe werden erstmalig vollständig veröffentlicht. (shrink)

This study examined individual differences in spatial abilities of architecture students. Students at different educational levels were assessed on spatial ability tests that varied in their domain-specificity to architecture, with the hypothesis that larger differences between beginner and advanced students will emerge on more domain-specific tests. We also investigated gender differences in test performance and controlled for general reasoning ability across analyses. In a cross sectional study, master students (N= 91) outperformed beginners (N= 502) on two novel tests involving perspective (...) taking and object composition, as well as on a standardized visualization of cross-sections test, but not on a standardized mental rotations test. Longitudinally (N= 117), spatial performance improved after the first bachelor year on visualization of cross-sections, object composition and mental rotation. Although both genders showed higher spatial test performance with increased experience, male students outperformed females across tests and levels of education. The results overall confirmed improvements in spatial performance during architecture studies, with partial support for the domain-specificity hypothesis. A gender gap among advanced students calls for further examining architecture-specific spatial thinking. (shrink)

Friedrich Schleiermacher war eine zentrale Figur des geistigen Lebens in Berlin im ersten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts und ein wichtiger Protagonist im preußischen Reformprozess. Der Band widmet sich insbesondere dem zweiten Jahrzehnt zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts. Er untersucht Schleiermachers Denken und Wirken in den entscheidenden Jahren während und nach den Befreiungskriegen und konturiert seine Position während des Umbruchs von der Reform zur Restauration in einzelnen Schlaglichtern. Die interdisziplinären Beiträge geben eine historische Analyse des politischen Kontextes, beleuchten das Berliner Stadtleben (...) sowie Schleiermachers berufliche und private Netzwerke, die sich nicht zuletzt aus den an der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften historisch-kritisch edierten Korrespondenz und Tageskalender F. Schleiermachers erschließen. Vor dem Hintergrund dieser gesellschaftspolitischen Matrix wird deutlich, wie eng Schleiermachers wissenschaftliche Werke und die Genese seiner wissenschaftlichen Systematik mit seinem konkreten Handeln als Wissenschafts- und Kirchenpolitiker, als Gemeindeleiter und Prediger, aber auch als Freund, Kollege und Familienmensch verzahnt ist. (shrink)

Mit einer Dissertation über griechische Philosophie wurde der 23-jährige Karl Heinrich Marx aus Trier 1841 an der Universität Jena mit dem Prädikat "vorzüglich würdig" promoviert.0In der vorliegenden Edition werden die örtlichen Hintergründe im Umfeld der "Hohen Schule" der Ernestiner, die Begleitumstände des amtlichen akademischen Verfahrens und die aufsehenerregende Wirkungsgeschichte im Umgang mit der Qualifikationsschrift behandelt.0Zugleich hatte sich die Alma mater Jenensis ein bleibendes Denkmal für die Förderung eines aufstrebenden und später berühmt gewordenen Nachwuchsgelehrten durch die Jenaer Bildungsstätte gesetzt. Für die (...) politische sowie Ideen- und Symbolgeschichte und die ideologischen Räderwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts bildet die deutsch-sowjetische Editionsgeschichte der Marx-Dokumente ein eindrucksvolles Exempel.0Der 200. Geburtstag 2018 des grossen und nach wie vor heftig umstrittenen Philosophen, Publizisten, Politikers und Ökonomen bot den äusseren Anlass für diese Publikation. Mit einer Zusammenfassung in Chinesisch, Englisch und Spanisch. (shrink)