“Would you like to contribute to XYZ charity by adding a dollar to your bill today?” Point-of-sale campaigns for fundraising are common to grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants and warehouse clubs. Commonly referred to as ‘checkout charity,’ these fundraisers have generated over $4.1 billion in contributions for nonprofits over the past three decades. Yet little research has focused on the ethicality of this type of campaign. To address this need, we analyze the issue using behavioral ethics and normative theory. We consider (...) three stakeholder perspectives, including the nonprofit initiating the campaign, the business hosting the campaign, and the donor. Often ethical theories are seen as competing for primacy rather than being complementary perspectives in choosing the best action. We demonstrate that ethical discernment results in a richer analysis when consulting multiple frameworks. The purpose of this paper is to provide a set of ethical considerations for individuals to draw upon when devising and donating to checkout charity campaigns. This analysis will serve as a conceptual resource for scholars, practitioners, and students of nonprofit and for-profit management. (shrink)

The old, mechanistic idea of nature is dying. We are witnessing the shift to a new idea, in which nature is seen as an organic system that includes human beings as one of its components rather than as brutal and ultimately self‐defeating conquistadores.

Business and Society Review, Volume 126, Issue 1, Page 3-23, Spring 2021.

Approaches to environmental verification, broadly defined, including varieties of certification and testing, is always intended to change production processes, and cause structural changes. However, sometimes these approaches can differ substantially—based on values and objectives—and thus structure farming processes in varied ways. They can also affect nature-society relations, by determining what differences matter, emphasizing ways of assessing standards that are deemed important, and deciding whether those standards have been met. Here, I compare two types of environmental verification systems for organic and (...) “safe” or “clean” rice, one in northeastern Thailand and the other in southern Laos. The approach used in northeastern Thailand is designed predominantly to gain access to Europe and the United States markets, and is dependent on regular and detailed farm documentation, inspections, and interviews. The other is more of a residue testing and marketing system, one that also has important environmental implications and is being applied for rice from southern Laos. I call the first process-based verification, and the second product-based verification. It is contended here that we need to consider how environmental verification in different forms variously structures production systems, although there are also other important factors, such as China-Laos relations. Crucially, these practices variously affect cultivation and production practices, and thus have important environmental implications, whether fully intended or not. (shrink)

The continuity between Paul's situation and our own which provides the basis for a viable hermeneutic is the reality of God—the God whose righteousness is proclaimed in the Roman epistle.

Dans la tradition occidentale de la pensée, la philosophie morale a fait suite à la philosophie naturelle – l’atomisme antique (Démocrite au V e siècle avant notre ère) et l’atomisme moderne ont tous deux été suivis par l’atomisme social et la théorie du contrat social de l’origine et de l’essence de l’éthique, de la politique et de la loi (Protagoras et Hobbes). À l’instar des atomes physiques liés ensemble de l’extérieur et s’entrechoquant dans un vide physique, les individus liés ensemble (...) par un lien externe de l’« état de nature»s’entrechoquent dans le vide social. Ce que le contrat social apporte au microcosme humain, ce sont la loi et l’ordre. Comme l’annonce l’éthique environnementale qui fait suite à l’écologie, la nouvelle philosophie naturelle de la seconde révolution scientifique du XX e siècle sera suivie par une nouvelle philosophie morale au XXI e siècle. Les êtres naturels sont façonnés par leur relation aux autres et par leur environnement physique, tout comme les êtres sociaux sont liés de l’intérieur aux autres ainsi qu’aux communautés sociales et biotiques dont ils sont issus. (shrink)

Currently the Enlightenment tradition is under such intense attack that Richard Bernstein calls the present mood a “rage against the enlightenment.” The purpose of this essay is to defend the deep spirit of the Enlightenment, the position that no idea, proposition, or principle should be beyond critical assessment. The defense involves an examination of and a response to two criticisms of the Enlightenment: first that the Enlightenment disdainfully rejects religion, particularly Christianity, and second that Enlightenment thinkers had a misguided confidence (...) in the powers of a-historical reason, i. e. the notion that humans have a rational capacity, unaffected by context or historical circumstance, to arrive at truth. (shrink)

Many prominent critiques of philosophical methods proceed by suggesting that some method is unreliable, especially in comparison to some alternative method. In light of this, it may seem natural to conclude that these (comparatively) unreliable methods should be abandoned. Drawing upon work on the division of cognitive labour in science, we argue things are not so straightforward. Rather, whether an unreliable method should be abandoned depends heavily on the crucial question of how we should divide philosophers’ time and effort between (...) different methods, in order to maximise our prospects of achieving epistemic success. We show that, in a range of cases, even a (comparatively) unreliable method deserves to be allocated some of these resources. (shrink)

Inquiry aims at knowledge. Your inquiry into a question succeeds just in case you come to know the answer. However, combined with a common picture on which misleading evidence can lead knowledge to be lost, this view threatens to recommend a novel form of dogmatism. At least in some cases, individuals who know the answer to a question appear required to avoid evidence bearing on it. In this paper, we’ll aim to do two things. First, we’ll present an argument for (...) this novel form of dogmatism and show that it presents a substantive challenge. Second, we’ll consider a way those who take knowledge to be the aim of inquiry can mount a response. In the course of doing so, we’ll try to get clearer on the normative connections between inquiry, knowledge and evidence gathering. (shrink)

Bestselling author Sam Harris dismantles the most common justification for religious faith-that a moral system cannot be based on science.

Sam Harris dismantles the most common justification for religious faith--that a moral system cannot be based on science.

In this enlightening book, Sam Harris argues that free will is an illusion but that this truth should not undermine morality or diminish the importance of social and political freedom; indeed, this truth can and should change the way we think about some of the most important questions in life.