What is war? -- The ethical arguments -- The history of war ethics -- Can war be justified? -- Lawful authority -- Humanitarian intervention -- With good intention? -- A last resort? -- A good chance of success -- Waging war -- Pre-emptive strikes -- Proportionality -- Weapons -- War and religion -- Holy wars -- Pacifism -- Non-violence -- Aftermath -- War crimes.

Presents opposing viewpoints of animal rights, exploring their sense of pain and intelligence, factory farming, genetic engineering, culling, hunting, pets, and animals in the entertainment industry.

Much of the literature on public space focuses on physical inclusion and exclusion rather than social inclusion or exclusion. In this paper, the implications of this are considered in the context of two monuments, The Volunteers/Les Bénévoles, and The Emigrant, located outside the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. These monuments, while perhaps designed to celebrate Canadian multiculturalism, can be read instead as signaling Canada’s enduring commitment to white supremacy, Eurocentricity and colonization, when viewed through (...) the eyes of racialized immigrants. Thus the “public space” becomes exclusionary. In the context in which the monuments are situated, the racial subtext cannot be ignored. This article purports that images, text and placement, regardless of intention, have significant implications on public space and public demeanor. (shrink)

The essay examines the relation between the explicit aesthetic ideology of Proust’s Recherche and the structure of the “involuntary memory” that is supposed to serve as that ideology’s empirical basis. I challenge the apparent solipsism and idealism of the narrator’s aesthetics by focusing on the one experience of involuntary memory that he omits from his final reflections, in Time Regained, on the relation between memory and art: this is the involuntary memory, in the earlier volume Sodom and Gomorrah, of his (...) dead grandmother, a memory that he describes there as an experience of true otherness. Through a close reading of this passage, I argue that Proust’s interest in involuntary memory implies a concept of literary art as above all ethical in nature, in so far as it is the only means by which individuals can emerge from the solitude to which they are otherwise existentially condemned. In both the Sodom and Gomorrah passage and a later passage from Time Regained this emergence is cast in terms of a rhetoric of multiplicity that emphasizes both the disturbing and the productive dimensions connecting literature with life. (shrink)

The focus of this study was to assess the mediating effect of green innovation, in the relationship between green human resources management (GHRM) and organizational competitiveness of manufacturing multinational enterprises (MNEs). The study further looked at the moderating effect of organizational learning in the relationship between GHRM on organizational competitiveness of manufacturing MNEs. The population comprises manufacturing MNEs in Ghana. Through purposive and simple random sampling techniques, 231 manufacturing MNEs were selected for the study. Data was analyzed using frequencies, percentages, (...) mean scores, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), using SPSS and SMART‐PLS (Partial Least Square) software. The study concludes that green innovation partially mediates the relationship between GHRM and organizational competitiveness. It was further concluded that organizational learning positively moderates the positive relationship between GHRM and organizational competitiveness. The study recommends that manufacturing MNEs should invest and improve the level of their organizational learning as it not only strengthens the effects of GHRM on organizational competitiveness, but it also directly improves competitiveness. Further, particular attention should also pay to green innovation, as it intervenes the relationship between GHRM and organizational competitiveness. (shrink)

© 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.We present new observations of the low-mass companion to HD 984 taken with the Gemini Planet Imager as a part of the GPI Exoplanet Survey campaign. Images of HD 984 B were obtained in the J and H bands. Combined with archival epochs from 2012 and 2014, we fit the first orbit to the companion to find an 18 au orbit with a 68% confidence interval between 14 and 28 au, an eccentricity (...) of 0.18 with a 68% confidence interval between 0.05 and 0.47, and an inclination of 119°with a 68% confidence interval between 114°and 125°. To address the considerable spectral covariance in both spectra, we present a method of splitting the spectra into low and high frequencies to analyze the spectral structure at different spatial frequencies with the proper spectral noise correlation. Using the split spectra, we compare them to known spectral types using field brown dwarf and low-mass star spectra and find a best-fit match of a field gravity M6.5 ±1.5 spectral type with a corresponding temperature of K. Photometry of the companion yields a luminosity of log=2.88 ± 0.07 dex with DUSTY models. Mass estimates, again from DUSTY models, find an age-dependent mass of 34 ±1 to 95 ±4 M Jup. These results are consistent with previous measurements of the object. (shrink)

The Monographs produced by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) apply rigorous procedures for the scientific review and evaluation of carcinogenic hazards by independent experts. The Preamble to the IARC Monographs, which outlines these procedures, was updated in 2019, following recommendations of a 2018 expert Advisory Group. This article presents the key features of the updated Preamble, a major milestone that will enable IARC to take advantage of recent scientific and procedural advances made during the 12 years since (...) the last Preamble amendments. The updated Preamble formalizes important developments already being pioneered in the Monographs Programme. These developments were taken forward in a clarified and strengthened process for identifying, reviewing, evaluating and integrating evidence to identify causes of human cancer. The advancements adopted include strengthening of systematic review methodologies; greater emphasis on mechanistic evidence, based on key characteristics of carcinogens; greater consideration of quality and informativeness in the critical evaluation of epidemiological studies, including their exposure assessment methods; improved harmonization of evaluation criteria for the different evidence streams; and a single-step process of integrating evidence on cancer in humans, cancer in experimental animals and mechanisms for reaching overall evaluations. In all, the updated Preamble underpins a stronger and more transparent method for the identification of carcinogenic hazards, the essential first step in cancer prevention. (shrink)

Some recent authors have argued that Aquinas deliberately integrated a pacifist outlook into his just war theory. Others, by contrast, have maintained that his rejection of pacifism was unequivocal. The present article attempts to set the historical record straight by an examination of Aquinas's writings on this topic. In addition to Q. 40, A. 1 of Summa theologiae II–II, the text usually cited in this connection, this article considers the biblical commentaries where Aquinas explains how the Gospel “precepts of (...) patience,” especially Matthew 5:39, “Do not resist evil,” should be interpreted in light of the doctrine of just war. The article concludes that Aquinas formulated a two-stage theory whereby pacifism was rejected as a suitable form of agency for the state (respublica), while it was affirmed as the appropriate response to evil for the agency of the church (ecclesia). (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Walking the Bodhisattva Path/Walking the Christ PathU.S. Conference of Catholic BishopsCatholics and Buddhists brought together by Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, the San Francisco Zen Center, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) met 20-23 March 2003 in the first of an anticipated series of four annual dialogues. Abbot Heng Lyu, the monks and nuns, and members of the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association hosted the dialogue at the (...) City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Talmage, California. The community had transformed their Confucius Hall into a chapel, with a large, newly constructed wooden cross on a wall above an altar facing out from a raised platform, so the Catholic delegation would have a space for worship. A special poster announcing the theme of the conference, "Walking the Bodhisattva Path/Walking the Christ Path," showing a Buddhist dharma wheel at one foot of a bridge and a Celtic cross at the other foot, had been created by the hosting community.The daily schedule for the dialogue did not interfere with the monastic routine at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, which included early morning chanting (4:00-5:00 am), daily rituals in the Buddha Hall, and the single large meal for monastics before noon to which all participants were invited. Catholics and Buddhists meeting in the dialogue began each day with an optional forty-five minutes of quiet sitting together in the monastery meditation hall, each following their own form of meditation and prayer. There was a Eucharist on Friday and Saturday evenings for the Catholics and to which the Buddhists were invited, and additional meals of breakfast and supper throughout the meeting at the City's Jyun Kang Restaurant.Fourteen Buddhists and fourteen Catholics participated in the formal discussions. Each participant spoke on what it means to them to follow Christ or the way of the Bodhisattvas or enlightened beings. In addition to speaking, each participant distributed a short passage, usually from a traditional text, on this topic. Several passages from Master Dogen's Shobogenzo and the Gospel of John were among those shared by the group. Other passages shared were taken from the Avatamsaka Sutra and the Shurangama Sutra and from the other gospels and the writings of Zen master HakuinZenji, the Dalai Lama, Korean Zen Master I-sahn Hye-yeon, the teachings of Master [End Page 247] Hsuan Hua, Shantideva, Origen, St. Ignatius, St. Benedict, the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, St. John of the Cross, and Chiara Lubich. A minute of silence separated the fifteen-minute segments for each presentation. With so large a group, most of the time in the formal sessions involved listening to series of presentations; however, during discussion periods the participants asked several challenging questions of one another.Some participants noted the tension they felt between belonging to a particular religious group and the need to let go of any consequential narrowness. The goal of the discussion was to promote understanding of the differences and similarities between Christianity and Buddhism. At one point, the participants noted several concerns about mutual enrichment: whether Buddhist methods can be separated from Buddhism and Christian methods from Christianity, and what specific aspects of Christian practice truly enrich Buddhists and which Buddhist practices likewise enrich Christians. Several times participants discussed their understanding of terms such as transformation, grace, the incarnation and the passion of Jesus, discernment of spirits, prayer, Buddha-nature, and related terms. There was consensus that Buddhists and Catholics can practically help one another regarding mental cultivation and religious precepts. They expressed this consensus in their choice of the topic forthe next dialogue, "Transformation of Hearts and Minds: Chan/Zen-Catholic Approaches to Precepts."The group agreed to reconvene in 2004 to respond to six presentations, three from each side, on different aspects of this topic.Chairing the sessions were Rev. Heng Sure for the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, Rev. Taigen Dan Leighton for the San Francisco Zen Center, and Bishop John Webster for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Their three organizations are the sponsors of the Northern California Chan/Zen-Catholic Dialogue. Chan and Zen are respectively the Chinese and Japanese terms for the meditation school... (shrink)

There is a dilemma at the heart of the moral life, in that we often appeal to the Decalogue as being the basis of a common morality, yet it is impossible to justify these precepts as self-evident. I resolve this dilemma in light of Aquinas’s analysis of the relation between the self-evident precepts of the natural law and the Decalogue. The self-evident precepts (that man should live in society and should know and love God) follow directly from (...) human nature. The precepts of the Decalogue indicate how those goods are to be pursued in the context of just social relations. It is this contextualization in terms of just relations that prevents them from being self-evident and, correspondingly, requires their revelation. Since the commandments act as invitations to pursue the good without the defects of injustice, they are the most manifest condition for achieving the end of human happiness. (shrink)

There is a dilemma at the heart of the moral life, in that we often appeal to the Decalogue as being the basis of a common morality, yet it is impossible to justify these precepts as self-evident. I resolve this dilemma in light of Aquinas’s analysis of the relation between the self-evident precepts of the natural law and the Decalogue. The self-evident precepts (that man should live in society and should know and love God) follow directly from (...) human nature. The precepts of the Decalogue indicate how those goods are to be pursued in the context of just social relations. It is this contextualization in terms of just relations that prevents them from being self-evident and, correspondingly, requires their revelation. Since the commandments act as invitations to pursue the good without the defects of injustice, they are the most manifest condition for achieving the end of human happiness. (shrink)

This article examines the significance of patience in Søren Kierkegaard’s 1843–1844 discourses on patience as a needed corrective for the “common sense” perception of time as an adversary rather than a friend. Kierkegaard stresses the biblical idea of the goodness of time especially in connection to the formation of the self. According to his authorship, the self is not a static being, but one that develops, expands, and becomes its most mature expression through God’s transformative work in time. (...) This perspective on the self and its relationship to time illuminates the crucial role of patience as an essential formative virtue. While there are many insights to be garnered from Kierkegaard’s idea of patience for philosophical discussions on the nature of the self, this article focuses on how they are especially salient and applicable for spiritual formation and discipleship. (shrink)

Translated from Telugu by Adivi Radha Krishna and Seeta Rama Hanuma Kumari.

This paper presents Anthony Steinbock's broad theory of moral emotions and specifically the distinction he draws between the temporal orientation and the temporal meaning of emotions. The latter distinction is used in order to provide phenomenological descriptions of, and distinctions between, patience and impatience. The paper takes leading clues from Steinbock’s work in an effort to “do” phenomenology in a way that clarifies these specific natural attitude intentionalities.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:A Trial of PatienceChristopher LewisIt seemed like after two weeks, my “flu” symptoms should have resolved. I was not eating, could not hold anything down, and had no energy. It was easy enough for my pediatrician at the time to attribute this to a common virus. This was not sitting well with my parents, however. My mother decided to take me to the emergency room and get me evaluated (...) there. The doctors there assessed me and sent me back home with a medication to help with the nausea. Later that evening, my mom gave me that medication, and it caused a seizure. She called 911, and I was brought by ambulance to the hospital. After an extensive workup, it was determined I was in liver failure related to an aneurysm in my hepatic artery. I was going to require a liver transplant if I were to live. I had to be transferred to another hospital in New York from the hospital near our home in Connecticut. I do not remember any of the details leading up to this after the seizure. I do not remember being told I needed a liver transplant and I do not remember going into surgery.My memories of these events start after the surgery. What I remember is being in the pediatric ICU and being told my mother was able to donate part of her liver to me. I had quite a lengthy recovery after this point. I spent about two months in the hospital and then went to a rehab facility where I would have to learn how to walk again and regain my strength.By the time I was discharged from the rehab facility, I had missed the last half of my 5th-grade year. By the time I was able to return to school, it was already several months into 6th grade. Slowly but surely, life was returning to normal. I was able to get back to doing the things an eleven-year-old should be doing. For twelve years after this initial transplant, I was in great health, my transplant team was happy with how I was doing, and I just required annual checkups after a while. Unfortunately, I saw as a child how fast things can change. This was once again the case. [End Page 126]I was in my last week of college classes, just about to finish my Bachelor’s degree in nursing and looking forward to starting my career as a nurse in the neuro ICU. However, I once again became acutely ill with seemingly flu-like symptoms. After a few days of dealing with these symptoms, my mother brought me to the emergency room. When we got to the emergency room, they did some initial testing and told me I would need to be admitted for antibiotic therapy. The first thought that came to my mind was, “Would I be able to be discharged in time to take my final exams next week?”Once I arrived in my hospital room, I met with my transplant team. They delivered the grave news. The imaging they had done showed that the graft artery from my original liver transplant as a child had failed. The graft had thrombosed and I had infected bilomas in my liver. Now, twelve years later, I would need to be re-listed for another transplant. I was devastated and in disbelief. I recall telling my mother, who was with me at the time, that we should hold off on telling my dad, thinking this could not be possible, and we shouldn’t worry him over something that was not necessarily true. Unfortunately, however, this was my reality. I would go on to wait a little over two years for the perfect liver from a deceased donor.The road to being listed and ultimately having a repeat transplant was not without its challenges and bumps in the road. About three months into my two-year wait for a liver transplant, I received my first offer for a liver. I went through all of the pre-op preparation and the next morning went into the OR and underwent anesthesia. However, I... (shrink)

This work explores Schopenhauer's ethics and central aspects of his philosophy of value, discussing his conception of the individual character, determinism, depiction of the states of virtue and salvation, and the value that life has when understood in Schopenhauer's terms. This book also investigates the nature and depth of Schopenhauer's pessimism, and the extent to which it is rooted in his metaphysics.

토마스 아퀴나스에 따르면 도덕적으로 올바른 행위의 목적은 욕구능력의 탁월성인 도덕적 덕에 의해 설정된다. 그리고 그것이 가능한 이유는 지성능력이 우선 무엇이 도덕적 덕의 목적들인지를 파악했기 때문이다. 그렇다면 정확히 지성의 어떤 부분이 그것을 파악하는가· 그런데 이 질문에 대한 토마스의 답변은 일견 비일관적으로 보인다. 왜냐하면 그는 한편으로 양지(synderesis)가 그것들을 직관적·무오류적으로 파악한다고 말하는 듯하지만, 다른 한편으로 현명(prudentia)이 숙고적 추론을 통해 그것을 파악하는 것처럼 서술하기 때문이다. 그렇다면 이 문제에 대한 토마스의 정확한 입장은 무엇인가· 이 질문은, 그것이 양지에 의해 파악된 것의 내용과 성격에 관련되는 한, 토마스에서 (...) 자연법의 일차적 계명들이 어떻게 파악되고 그것이 곧 도덕적 함의를 지니는지를 묻는 질문과 직결된다. 그리고 그런 한에서 그 중요성이 크다고 볼 수 있다. 본고는 바로 이 질문을 다룬다. 본고의 목적은 이 문제를 양지의 역할을 축소시키고 현명의 역할을 확대하여 해결하려는 해석을 비판하고, 목적 문제에서 양지와 현명의 역할을 다시 적절히 잡아주는 것이다. 본 연구에 따르면 양지는 형식적 목적들뿐만 아니라 구체적 목적들을 직관적을 파악한다. 그러나 양지에 의해 파악된 목적들(혹은 자연법의 일차적 계명들)은 도덕적으로 중립적이다. 도덕적으로 올바른 행위의 목적이 무엇인지를 판단하는 것은 사변지성 혹은 실천지성(즉 현명)이 추론을 통해 확립해야 할 몫으로 남아 있다. 특히 현명은 한 구체적 상황에서 올바른 목적을 판단하는 것으로 제한된다. (shrink)

Alasdair MacIntyre asks, if all individuals are in fact potential authorities of natural law and agree on its fundamentals, how can we explain manifest moral disagreement? Contemporary Thomistic natural law theorists have not attempted to address this particular issue to a significant degree. MacIntyre, taking this large-scale rejection seriously, focuses on the communal factors that allow individuals to recognize their need for and commitment to Thomistic natural law. By doing so, he attempts to give reasons for why we should expect (...) natural law to be widely denied in contemporary society. In this paper, I argue that MacIntyre’s approach to natural law is capable of accounting for the seemingly paradoxical claim that these per se nota first principles of natural law might suffer apparent widespread rejection. Moreover, I will argue that MacIntyre’s account is also capable of explaining why we should actually expect such rejection to occur. (shrink)

Keith Reader _Robert Bresson_ Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2000 ISBN 0 7190 5365 X (hardback) 0 7190 5366 8 (paperback) 166 pp.

The question of whether AI systems such as robots can or should be afforded moral agency or patiency is not one amenable either to discovery or simple reasoning, because we as societies constantly reconstruct our artefacts, including our ethical systems. Consequently, the place of AI systems in society is a matter of normative, not descriptive ethics. Here I start from a functionalist assumption, that ethics is the set of behaviour that maintains a society. This assumption allows me to exploit the (...) theoretical biology of sociality and autonomy to explain our moral intuitions. From this grounding I extend to consider possible ethics for maintaining either human- or of artefact-centred societies. I conclude that while constructing AI systems as either moral agents or patients is possible, neither is desirable. In particular, I argue that we are unlikely to construct a coherent ethics in which it it is ethical to afford AI moral subjectivity. We are therefore obliged not to build AI we are obliged to. (shrink)

In this chapter, we analyze intellectual patience as a character trait. We look at the contexts that call for patience and at what patience demands in those contexts. Together these constitute our account of patience, though the focus is on patience in the life of the mind. We also consider how patience and perseverance differ, which offers a better understanding of the former and sheds light on how character traits can cooperate. We then consider (...) how to become virtuously patient. We conclude reflecting on some remarks made by the poet Rilke. (shrink)

This paper adds another argument to the rising tide of panic about robots and AI. The argument is intended to have broad civilization-level significance, but to involve less fanciful speculation about the likely future intelligence of machines than is common among many AI-doomsayers. The argument claims that the rise of the robots will create a crisis of moral patiency. That is to say, it will reduce the ability and willingness of humans to act in the world as responsible moral agents, (...) and thereby reduce them to moral patients. Since that ability and willingness is central to the value system in modern liberal democratic states, the crisis of moral patiency has a broad civilization-level significance: it threatens something that is foundational to and presupposed in much contemporary moral and political discourse. I defend this argument in three parts. I start with a brief analysis of an analogous argument made in pop culture. Though those arguments turn out to be hyperbolic and satirical, they do prove instructive as they illustrates a way in which the rise of robots could impact upon civilization, even when the robots themselves are neither malicious nor powerful enough to bring about our doom. I then introduce the argument from the crisis of moral patiency, defend its main premises and address objections. (shrink)

Four centuries ago, Christian moral theologians addressed the issue of dying by turning to scripture and the virtues. This work revives that tradition by showing that careful theological reflection upon the nature of Christian patience, compassion, and hope illuminates the shape of the Good Death. The author draws upon Luke's passion narrative to develop a better understanding of these virtues. He also takes up the question of whether Jesus' death can be a model of dying well for contemporary Christians. (...) Christians are often advised to look to Jesus in his dying as a model for themselves, but this recommendation typically leaves unanswered what exactly it is about Jesus' dying that is to be imitated. The understanding of patience, compassion, and hope developed here provides a means of sorting through this issue. (shrink)

This study examines the relationships between violation of the Buddhist Five Precepts, money consciousness, and the tendency to pay bribes among organizational employees in Bangkok, Thailand. A total of 385 organizational employees in Bangkok participated in the study. Structural equation models were used to test the relationships. The fitted model shows a mediation effect of money consciousness on the relationship between violation of the Buddhist Five Precepts and the tendency to pay bribes. Results indicate that the extent of (...) violation of the Buddhist Five Precepts is associated with money consciousness to predict the tendency to pay bribes. Observing the Buddhist Five Precepts and not allowing money consciousness to influence behaviors may reduce ethical problems. (shrink)

This study tests the Buddhist hypothesis that observance of Buddhist Five Precepts leads to subjective wealth, and happiness. Gotama Buddha defined happiness as the result of subjective wealth: having wealth, using wealth, not being in debt, and engaging in a harmless profession. Four hundred residents of Bangkok participated in the study by responding to scales assessing the extent of their observance of the Five Precepts, subjective wealth, and domain satisfactions and life satisfaction. Regression analyses were used to test (...) the hypothesis. The results confirm that subjective wealth mediates the relationship between observance of the Five Precepts and happiness. Happiness begins by not transgressing upon oneself and violating others, and may depend less on what one has than on what one has left after paying off the bills. (shrink)

This paper examines Kierkegaard 's discussion of patience in some of his Upbuilding Discourses, and its connection with his understanding of the nature of selfhood as it appears both in the Discourses and in The Sickness unto Death. That understanding stresses that selfhood is not simply given, but is a task to be achieved—although a task that can only be achieved by the self that is formed in the process of undertaking it. For Kierkegaard, an account of the self (...) that recognizes its essential temporality must give a crucial role to patience as a virtue necessary for the formation and maintenance of personal identity. However, although the self is essentially temporal for Kierkegaard, it is also essentially such as to participate in eternity, and this complexity and tension in his concept of the self gives his understanding of patience a particular character—one that presents an important challenge to some of the dominant assumptions of recent and contemporary philosophy in both the analytic and the continental traditions. (shrink)

Despite considerable differences, Stanley Cavell and Jean-Luc Nancy share the demand for a renewal of thinking produced through and with the concept of the world. Their articulation of the legacy bequeathed by Heidegger and Wittgenstein begins with an understanding of the world in excess of knowledge and insists on this impossible mastery as the most productive incentive for thinking. Inasmuch as philosophy has understood itself as producer of worldviews, systems and principle, philosophy has constantly suppressed the thinking of the world, (...) for any worldview absorbs and dissolves the world in its vision. For both Cavell and Nancy an insistence on this suppression leads to an emphasis on film. Two gestures can be said to intertwine in their thinking of film: to recapture our relation to the world as one that is not based on knowing as certainty, but on the reception of the singular; to recapture thinking as that which is attracted and called for by the insurgence of the singular, by the seam in experience. Nancy and Cavell reverse the idea of cinema as completing the regime of representation stressing how cinema produces a step away from thinking as representation in view of what the article names thinking as patience. The article concludes by asking: what does it mean for philosophy to understand itself as patience? (shrink)