This article addresses two longstanding challenges for human resource (HR) managers; how far they can and should represent the interests of both management and workers and how they can gain the power to do so. Adopting a Kantian perspective, it is argued that to pursue an ethical human resource management (HRM), HR managers need to go some way to resolving both. Three possible avenues are considered. Contemporary approaches to organisation of the HR role associated with the work of Ulrich (...) are explored as a means of enhancing power, but rejected on the basis of research evidence as unlikely to succeed. Promotion of worker outcomes in the context of developing the link between HRM and performance offers the potential for a more ethical HRM but has not been seized by most HR managers. Finally, implementation of legislative and moral requirements to promote quality of working life is explored through the case of bullying at work. This highlights the boundaries of the HR role in a context of limited power and leads to the conclusion that it is unrealistic to look to HR managers, or at least HR managers alone, to achieve an ethical HRM. (shrink)

Working from a "capitalist" theory of exploitation, based on a neo-classical account of economic value, I argue that guest workers are exploited. It may be objected, however, that since they are not citizens, any inequality that stems from their status as non-citizens is morally unobjectionable. Although host countries are under no moral obligation to admit guest workers as citizens, there are independent reasons that call for the extension of economic rights – the freedom of occupation in (...) particular – to guestworkers. Since the cause of unequal exchange rests in the fact that guest workers are deprived of these rights, rather than in their exclusion from citizenship per se, I conclude that they are exploited even if their exclusion from citizenship may be justified. (shrink)

Healthcare facilities in receiving countries regularly encounter guest workers whose need for acute or subacute care triggers the prospect of termination of employment and repatriation. In these scenarios, country‐specific migration and employment policies and norms of medical professionalism and ethics offer some guidance, but also create tensions. It is not clear under what conditions such medical repatriation is ethically permissible.This paper analyses the application of a previously articulated criteria for the ethical medical repatriation of undocumented immigrants, to the (...) situation of documented guest workers, with focus on the context of Singapore. We examine how these standards could be adapted and applied to the provision of care for guest workers, and argue that healthcare institutions and medical professionals have a duty to intervene in employers’ decisions to repatriate guest workers for medico‐economic reasons when repatriation essentially amounts to ‘patient dumping’. Barriers and challenges in implementing the criteria, and their possible solutions will be discussed. (shrink)

Several noted economists and prominent international organizations have recently advocated for the implementation of guest worker programs in developed states. Their primary argument is that guest worker programs would serve as a powerful mechanism for reducing global poverty and inequality. For example, economist Dani Rodrik estimates that guest worker programs in wealthy states would generate $200 billion or more annually for poor countries. According to Rodrik, liberalizing the temporary movement of workers would “produce the largest possible (...) gains for the world economy and for poor countries in particular,” in comparison with other policies, such as trade liberalization. (shrink)

Developing World Bioethics, Volume 21, Issue 4, Page 227-236, December 2021.

This paper examines the Bush Administration’s immigration “reform” initiative of January 2004, which proposes a guest worker category to further regulate the continuing immigration of workers into the United States. The plan is particularly intended to affect the flow of workers from Mexico. I will argue that this doesn’t represent an improvement but rather creates a deeper level of alienation for the laborer and greater control for global capital, and results in another layer of control over human (...) subjects through the regulation of identity. However, there are promising signs that global capital may be weakening, due to both internaland external forces. I don’t propose specific immigration policy changes in this paper. (shrink)

In this special issue of Minds and Machines ("Situations and Artificial Intelligence") we take a close look at recent situation-theoretic research which has mostly originated within a philosophical framework but promises to have strong connotations for Artificial Intelligence workers. The seven papers which make up this special issue (three of the papers appear in Minds and Machines 9(1)) demonstrate the advantages of the situation-based approach towards problems with a definite AI flavor.

For her entire childhood, Joanna's father, Bob, had a ritual: wake up at dawn, walk the dog, and sit down at the kitchen table with a blank pad of paper and plenty of colored markers to craft notes for his two children. Over the years, word games and puzzles for five-year-olds morphed into thoughtful guidance and reflections for his teenagers approaching adulthood. Now, with more than 3,500 of her father's colorful notes in hand, Joanna has decided that the lessons tucked (...) inside are worth sharing. Folded Wisdom highlights the collection of Bob's notes, telling a story filled with universal values that encourages meaningful self-reflection about how we all face successes and failures; express happiness and sadness; and communicate frustration, praise, and love to one another. Heartfelt and full of possibility for the future, a father's folded notes and drawings are timeless reminders of love. (shrink)

Excerpts from the messages to the Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University on the occasion of its World Education Forum in Budapest, on September 9, 2011. compiled by Ervin Laszlo. It is fitting that...

"Géographes naturalistes et penseurs éthiques, politiques, tels sont Alexander von Humboldt, Henry David Thoreau et Élisée Reclus en leurs essais, qu'il faut relire comme littéraires. Alors que le XXe siècle broie l'inconnu et le sauvage, ils cherchent à connaître la Terre et les hommes comme un tout sans que l'universel n'écrase individus et singularités. Luttant contre les oppressions qu'ils documentent, ils pluralisent des sciences écrites pour tous sans que la spécialisation n'impose de séparer les premières en disciplines et les seconds (...) en classes. Préfigurant une écologie alternative qui reste encore inouïe, cette tentative d'une autre modernité choisit l'essai qui ne divise ni ne simplifie le monde. Nommée cosmos, elle mérite plus que jamais notre attention."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

This is a lucid and comprehensive introduction to, and critical assessment of, Ronald Dworkin's seminal contributions to legal and political philosophy. His theories have a complexity, originality, and moral power that have excited a wide range of academic and political thinkers, and even those who disagree with him acknowledge that his ideas must be confronted and given serious consideration. His enormous output of books and papers and his formidable profusion of lectures and seminars throughout the world, in addition to his (...) teaching duties at Oxford and New York University, have made him a giant figure in contemporary thought. In short, Dworkin's theory of law is that the nature of legal argument lies in the best moral interpretation of existing social practices. His theory of Justice is that all political judgements ought to rest ultimately upon the injunction that people are equal as human beings, irrespective of the circumstances in which they are born. Dworkin does not fit into an orthodox category. his theory of law is radical in that it sees legal argument primarily about rights yet conservative in seeing it as constrained by history. He is libertarian both in valuing ambition and in asserting a right to pornography, yet socialist in believing that no person has a right to a greater share of resources than anyone else. in particular, he advocates a system that would tax people on the resources they accumulate solely through their talent alone. Because Dworkin writes for a number of audiences - sometimes the general public, sometimes academic lawyers, sometimes philosophers and economists - it is often difficult to identify the different strands of his thought. The book aims to make his theories clear and accessible and to give an overall picture of his thinking that is sympathetic yet rigorously argued. (shrink)

Awareness of the morally significant distinction between research and innovative therapy reveals serious gaps in the legal provision for compensation in the UK for injured subjects of medical research. Major problems are limitations inherent in negligence actions and a culture that emphasises indemnifying researchers before compensating victims. Medical research morally requires compensation on a no-fault basis even where there is proper consent on the part of the research subject. In particular, for drug research, there is insufficient provision in the current (...) patient guidelines of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, since they make "no legal commitment" to paying compensation for injury to patient subjects. There is a need for the provision of both adequate insurance and contractual arrangements for making payments. The solution is for Local Research Ethics Committees (LRECs) to make use of their power to withhold approval of medical research where compensation is not legally enforceable. (shrink)

In "Justice for Hedgehogs," Ronald Dworkin boldly affirms the independence of arguments of value, arguments that remain securely within their own domain. Mostly, but not at all exclusively, he is concerned with moral value.

This article theorises how home altars can support healing, individuation and personal transformation. It is informed by theory pertaining to Jungian sandplay therapy and Donald Winnicott’s ideas about transitional space and the holding environment. The methodology is grounded in a critical reflexive autobiographical approach that illustrates how altarplay can support the practitioner when negotiating a difficult shift from Christian to postchristian space.

This paper is the result of teaching a thealogy module to a class of Honours level undergraduates. Critical reflection upon this experience and the students' evaluations of the module, raises intriguing questions concerning the value of women-only space, how one can establish a feminist classroom within a British Higher Education context, writing educational learning outcomes for a thealogy module which might include the hope of personal transformation, and ultimately reflection upon my role as an educator at the University of Birmingham.

These excellent volumes show both the strengths and weaknesses of contemporary and serious Dworkin scholarship . Mostly the articles are new, although Susan Hurley's paper in the Hershowitz volume was first published in 1990. As to be expected with work on Dworkin, the division between political and legal theory is not distinct because – as is well-known – he integrates moral problems of politics both into the choice of legal theory and legal argument itself. But, some issues may be separated (...) and since there are excellent essays on both equality of resources and the relevance of ‘intrinsic’ values, I have separated my discussion into the two heads of ‘legal theory’ and ‘political theory’. Work on his political theory is not as advanced as it is on his legal theory and so I have largely directed my attention to the latter. I conclude that the most profitable work with Dworkin's legal theory lies in exploring the idea of the ‘interpretive concept’ and its connection with moral ideals, and in assessing the moral weight of integrity, particularly against the ideals of justice and fairness. Almost all the essays on legal theory show awareness of difficulties concerning these two issues although no one takes on interpretivism directly . However, Stephen Perry and Dale Smith in the Hershowitz volume and Sanford Levinson in the Ripstein volume push the boundaries some way with integrity. (shrink)

El presente artículo trata de las ideas de inte r pretación e int e g ridad s e gún D w orkin, al tiempo que considera e r róneo el posit i vismo jurídico y sostiene la e xistencia de la objet i vidad moral y jurídica. Así mismo, plantea que la idea de "tomar algo como propio" es esencial para la idea de inte r pretación, y conclu y e a f i r mando que la inte r pretación (...) en el derecho, como en la democracia, se basa en lo que la gente realmente cree. De ahí se deduce que considerar el proceso de e v aluación de las prácticas jurídicas un asunto de "inte r pretación const r uct i v a" resulte en g añoso, ya que lo más llamat i v o de la teoría de la inte r pretación de D w orkin reside simplemente en que ofrece una crítica moral (sólida) de las prácticas e xistentes en relación con una concepción muy abstracta de la igualdad. Esta conclusión se con f i r ma con la distinción que D w orkin esta b lece entre los a r gumentos de "ajuste" y "sustancia" en el razonamiento jurídico, pues está claro que los a r gumentos de ajuste son sólo a r gumentos de sustancia disfrazados. Los a r gumentos en torno al ajuste ganan peso gracias al principio moral basado en el cumplimiento de las e xpectat i v as razona b les y al principio democrático que se basa en la idea de que la l e gislatura tiene el derecho moral de l e gisla r . Las conclusiones generales a las que se ll e ga en el presente ar tículo son que la teoría de la int e g ridad de D w orkin está orientada en la práctica al mundo real y que, de este modo, constitu y e únicamente una teoría de la "s e gunda mejor opción", y que el derecho inspirado en el ideal de justicia si r v e mejor como modelo con el que comparar las teorías del mundo real. En pa r ticula r , en lo que se re f iere al modelo de justicia, jamás se les podría pedir a los jueces que mintieran (como reconoce D w orkin que podría ser el caso de la int e g ridad), se preser v aría la estrecha con e xión entre derecho y justicia en el entendimiento común, y los casos difíciles se entenderían mejor como llama mientos directos a la justicia. (shrink)

Le relevé des affleurements de la référence explicite à Pascal, dans les textes de Heidegger, montre que celle-ci n’est nullement aussi erratique qu’il y paraît. Ce gisement de références se concentre autour de quelques thèmes fondamentaux, tels : l’excédentarité de l’« Être » ; la description du caractère mouvementé de la « condition humaine » ; mais aussi : la « logique du cœur » ; et surtout : la place singulière de Pascal, eu égard à Descartes et à l’inflexion (...) décisive que celui-ci apporte à la configuration des Temps modernes, dans un épisode majeur de l’histoire de la métaphysique occidentale. – Mais rien de la thématique pascalienne de la révélation du « Dieu caché » n’y est expressément relevé. – Pourtant, une puissante et quelque peu énigmatique analogie pourrait devoir venir s’y nouer et s’y faire jour – quoique sur un mode « sigétique » – entre la « théologie » pascalienne de la révélation du « Dieu caché », d’une part, et la méditation heideggerienne de la structure paradoxale du « retrait de l’Être », d’autre part, avec l’étrange révélation qui s’y annonce de la fugitive parution du « signe de la passée du dernier Dieu » des Compléments à la philosophie [Beiträge zur Philosophie].Texte intégral Searching for the outcrops of explicit references to Pascal’s thought in Heidegger’s writings, it clearly appears that these references are by far not so erratic as it could have seemed at first sight. They concentrate – for the most part – on a few essential topics, such as Pascal’s taking into account of the irreducibility of « being » to any possible definition, or Pascal’s vivid, passionate description of human « condition » ; such as Pascal’s « Logic of the Heart » too, or the significant historical « situation » of Pascal’s thought in regard to Descartes’ bold renewal of the whole way of thinking of that time, as a pioneer of a new European Age, at the turning point of a major episode of the History of Metaphysics. – Nevertheless, Heidegger does not even hint at Pascal’s meditation of the paradoxical revelation of the Jansenistic « Deus absconditus »: the « Hidden God ». – An enigmatically tight analogy, however, might have been woven there – in a « sigetical », silent way – between Pascal’s theology of the « Hidden God » and Heidegger’s thought of the « withdrawal of Being » and the inherent fugitive revelation of the mysterious « hint of the passing of the Last God », in Heidegger’s Complements to Philosophy [Beiträge zur Philosophie]. (shrink)