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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Ethical issues & debates > General
This volume contributes to the growing literature on the morality of procreation and parenting. About half of the chapters take up questions about the morality of bringing children into existence. They discuss the following questions: Is it wrong to create human life? Is there a connection between the problem of evil and the morality of procreation? Could there be a duty to procreate? How do the environmental harms imposed by procreation affect its moral status? Given these costs, is the value of establishing genetic ties ever significant enough to render procreation morally permissible? And how should government respond to peoples' motives for procreating? The other half of the volume considers moral and political questions about adoption and parenting. One chapter considers whether the choice to become a parent can be rational. The two following chapters take up the regulation of adoption, focusing on whether the special burdens placed on adoptive parents, as compared to biological parents, can be morally justified. The book concludes by considering how we should conceive of adequacy standards in parenting and what resources we owe to children. This collection builds on existing literature by advancing new arguments and novel perspectives on existing debates. It also raises new issues deserving of our attention. As a whole it is sure to generate further philosophical debate on pressing and rich questions surrounding the bearing and rearing of children.
The contemporary psychiatric approach to trauma, encapsulated in the diagnostic category of PTSD, has been criticized for its neglect of the political dimensions involved in the etiology and treatment of trauma. By means of a philosophical and psychoanalytical analysis, the depoliticizing potential of the biomedical approach is tied to a more general 'ethical crisis' in post-traditional societies. Via the work of Lacan, Zizek and Badiou on the act and the event, this book constructs a conceptual framework that revives the ethical and political dimensions of trauma recovery.
Poultry Quality Evaluation: Quality Attributes and Consumer Values provides a new reference source that covers these aspects with the same scientific authority as texts on traditional poultry meat quality values. The book's first section explores new developments in our understanding of how muscle structure affects the eating qualities of cooked meat. The second section highlights new techniques for measuring, predicting, and producing poultry meat quality and how these new techniques help us minimize variability in eating quality and/or maximize value. The final section identifies the current qualities of consumer and public perceptions, including what is sustainable, ethical, desirable, and healthy in poultry production and consumption.
The Politics of Evidence Based Policymaking identifies how to work with policymakers to maximize the use of scientific evidence. Policymakers cannot consider all evidence relevant to policy problems. They use two shortcuts: 'rational' ways to gather enough evidence, and 'irrational' decision-making, drawing on emotions, beliefs, and habits. Most scientific studies focus on the former. They identify uncertainty when policymakers have incomplete evidence, and try to solve it by improving the supply of information. They do not respond to ambiguity, or the potential for policymakers to understand problems in very different ways. A good strategy requires advocates to be persuasive: forming coalitions with like-minded actors, and accompanying evidence with simple stories to exploit the emotional or ideological biases of policymakers.
The book demonstrates that food safety is a multidisciplinary scientific discipline that is specifically designed to prevent foodborne illness to consumers. It is generally assumed to be an axiom by both nonprofessionals and professionals alike, that the most developed countries, through their intricate and complex standards, formal trainings and inspections, are always capable of providing much safer food items and beverages to consumers as opposed to the lesser developed countries and regions of the world. Clearly, the available data regarding the morbidity and the mortality in different areas of the world confirms that in developing countries, the prevalence and the incidence of presumptive foodborne illness is much greater. However, other factors need to be taken into consideration in this overall picture: First of all, one of the key issues in developing countries appears to be the availability of safe drinking water, a key element in any food safety strategy. Second, the availability of healthcare facilities, care providers, and medicines in different parts of the world makes the consequences of foodborne illness much more important and life threatening in lesser developed countries than in most developed countries. It would be therefore ethnocentric and rather simplistic to state that the margin of improvement in food safety is only directly proportional to thelevel of development of the society or to the level of complexity of any given national or international standard. Besides standards and regulations, humans as a whole have evolved and adapted different strategies to provide and to ensure food and water safety according to their cultural and historical backgrounds. Our goal is to discuss and to compare these strategies in a cross-cultural and technical approach, according to the realities of different socio-economic, ethnical and social heritages.
'The idea which I shall present here came to me more or less out of the blue. I was on a train some five years ago, on my way to spend a day at Headingley, and I was reading a book about the death camp Sobibor... The particular, not very appropriate, conjunction involved for me in this train journey...had the effect of fixing my thoughts on one of the more dreadful features of human coexistence, when in the shape of a simple five-word phrase the idea occurred to me.' The contract of mutual indifference In this classic work, newly reissued here with a preface by Oliver Kamm, Norman Geras discusses a central aspect of the experience of the Holocaust with a view to exploring its most important contemporary implications. A bold and powerful synthesis of memorial, literary record, historical reflection and political theory, Geras's argument focuses on the figure of the bystander - the bystander to the destruction of the Jews of Europe and the bystander to more recent atrocity - to consider the moral consequences of looking on without active responses at persecution and great suffering. This book argues that we owe a duty of help to those who are suffering under terrible oppression. Geras contends that the tragedy of European Jewry - so widely pondered by historians, social scientists, psychologists, theologians and others - has not yet found its proper reflection within political philosophy. Attempting to fill the gap, he adapts an old idea from within that tradition of enquiry, the idea of the social contract, to the task of thinking about the triangular relation between perpetrators, victims and bystanders, and draws a sombre conclusion from it. Geras goes on to ask how far this conclusion may be offset by the hypothesis of a universal duty to bring aid. The contract of mutual indifference is an original and challenging work, aimed at the complacent abstraction of much contemporary theory-building. It is supplemented by three shorter essays on the implications of the Jewish catastrophe for conceptions of human nature and progress. -- .
A comprehensive overview of the ethical dilemmas faced by journalists today. Written in an accessible style, with updated interviews from working journalists discussing challenges and lessons learned. Updated chapters address developments including the phone hacking scandal and Leveson Inquiry, the impact of social media, fake news and citizen journalism. Considers ethical issues surrounding race and representation, protection of sources, privacy and the use of drones.
This book provides a sociological analysis of the controversy surrounding GM crops in Telangana, India. There is much debate as to whether GM technology holds the key to improving the welfare of poor farmers globally or serves primarily to increase the profits of multinational corporations while enhancing cultivator risk. Desmond's study is located in the economically vulnerable and politically volatile district of Warangal in Telangana, a context associated with high numbers of farmer suicides. Uniquely foregrounding the perspectives of cultivators and the landless, Desmond explores how GM crops are variously legitimated and delegitimated in three Warangal villages by those whose livelihoods are at stake in the debate, but whose voices are rarely heard within it. This book will be significant for those with an interest in GM crops, power and knowledge and their relation to understandings of development, democracy and risk management worldwide.
In the 1890s, Amos Lunt served as the San Quentin hangman, tying the nooses that brought the most dangerous criminals in the Wild West to their deaths. A former police chief who became the hangman of San Quentin due to an unfortunate turn of events, Lunt stood on the gallows alongside bank robbers, desperadoes and assassins throughout a five-year career. This book follows Lunt's trail from the Santa Cruz police department to the San Quentin State Prison. Covering his interesting friendship with a series of death row inmates to the gradual deterioration of his sanity, it is a one-of-a-kind biography that profiles an American executioner. Also profiled are his subjects-twenty of the West's most heinous criminals-as well as Lunt's preparations for their hangings and their final moments on the gallows.
People nowadays live in a human-made environment, or technotope.
Their lives are entangled with technology. Because technology not
only brings gifts but also costs and hazards, it is important to
reflect on what good technology is and, indeed, whether a
technology contributes to a good life.
Global cybercrime is arguably the biggest underworld industry of our times. Global forces and technologies such as mobile phones, social media and cloud computing are shaping the structure of the global cybercrime industry estimated at US$1 trillion. Nir Kshetri documents and compares the patterns, characteristics and processes of cybercrime activities in major regions and economies in the Global South such as China, India, the former Second World economies, Latin America and the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East and North Africa. Integrating theories from a wide range of disciplines, he explains initiatives at the global, supranational, national, sub-national and local levels.
This book discusses undercover reporting, betrayal and deception in journalism, addressing the ethical issues encountered by professionals when deception is involved and providing an explanation of how high-profile cases have developed. Carson and Muller begin by examining how philosophical theories which form the basis of contemporary ethical codes for journalists, bear upon undercover reporting and questions of deception in the digital age. Drawing upon case studies such as Al Jazeera's undercover operation against the National Rifle Association in the US and the One Nation political party in Australia, and Britain's Channel 4 infiltration of Cambridge Analytica, this book goes on to define and discuss the ethical concepts behind deception and betrayal and lays out an original ethical framework for undercover journalists facing related challenges in their work. Undercover Reporting, Deception, and Betrayal in Journalism is an important research text for students and academics in journalism and media studies.
This edited collection focuses on the ethics, politics and practices of responsiveness in the context of racism, inequality, difference and controversy. The politics of difference has long been concerned with speech, voice and representation. By focusing on the practices and politics of responsiveness-listening, reading and witnessing-the volume identifies vital new possibilities for ethics and social justice. Chapters focus on the conditions of possibility, or listening as ethical praxis; unsettling or disrupting colonial relationships; and ways of listening that highlight non-Western traditions and move beyond the liberal frame. Ethical responsiveness shifts some of the responsibility for negotiating difference and more just futures from subordinated speakers, and on to the relatively more privileged and powerful.
This book is for people who work in the tech industry-computer and data scientists, software developers and engineers, designers, and people in business, marketing or management roles. It is also for people who are involved in the procurement and deployment of advanced applications, algorithms, and AI systems, and in policy making. Together, they create the digital products, services, and systems that shape our societies and daily lives. The book's aim is to empower people to take responsibility, to 'upgrade' their skills for ethical reflection, inquiry, and deliberation. It introduces ethics in an accessible manner with practical examples, outlines of different ethical traditions, and practice-oriented methods. Additional online resources are available at: ethicsforpeoplewhoworkintech.com.
Why does American law allow the recreational use of some drugs, such as alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine, but not others, such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin? The answer lies not simply in the harm the use of these drugs might cause, but in the perceived morality-or lack thereof-of their recreational use. Despite strong rhetoric from moral critics of recreational drug use, however, it is surprisingly difficult to discern the reasons they have for deeming the recreational use of (some) drugs morally wrong. In this book, Rob Lovering lays out and dissects various arguments for the immorality of using marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and other drugs recreationally. He contends that, by and large, these arguments do not succeed. Lovering's book represents one of the first works to systematically present, analyze, and critique arguments for the moral wrongness of recreational drug use. Given this, as well as the popularity of the morality-based defense of the United States' drug laws, this book is an important and timely contribution to the debate on the recreational use of drugs.
This book provides guidance for structuring ethical reflection as well as analytical tools to get to the heart of issues quickly. It is designed to help practitioners engage ethically in applied peacebuilding and conflict transformation and to help students aspiring to be peacebuilders think about ethics. It discusses ethics and morality, significant barriers to ethical deliberations in applied work, moral theories, creative problem-solving for situations when moral values conflict, and the need for healthy ethical organizations. Throughout, concrete examples, scenarios, and discussion questions help draw out key issues to improve peacebuilding practices. Detailed case studies include peacebuilding initiatives in East Timor, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, and more. Written by an experienced practitioner, the book will help identify and analyze ethical problems and resolve moral value conflicts to create healthy practices. It will provide valuable guidance for thinking ethically about peacebuilding work and handling the specific dilemmas related to it.
How do you decide what is ethically wrong and right? Few people make moral judgments by taking the theory first. Specifically written with the interests, needs, and experience of students in mind, this textbook approaches thinking ethically as you do in real life - by first encountering practical moral problems and then introducing theory to understand and integrate the issues. Built around engaging case studies from news media, court hearings, famous speeches and philosophical writings, each of the 15 chapters: - explains and defines the moral problem dealt with - provides excerpts of readings on all sides of the issue - analyses the problem, using the relevant theory The examples are recognizable ethical problems, including judgments about racism and sexism, controversial debates such as assisted suicide and the death penalty, and contemporary concerns like privacy and technology, corporate responsibility, and the environment. The mission of the book is to assist you to engage in informed, independent, critical thinking and to enable you to enter into ethical discussions in the classroom and beyond. Supported by learning features, including study questions, key quotes, handy definitions and a companion website, this book is essential for any student of moral philosophy.
With the growth of surveillance technologies globally, Taylor
focuses on the phenomenon of the Surveillance School and explores
the impact that continual monitoring is having upon school
children, education and society.
This book is the first comprehensive, in-depth English language study of the animals that were left behind in the exclusion zone in the wake of the nuclear meltdown of three of the four reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in March 2011, triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake of magnitude 9.0.The Japanese government designated an area of 20-kilometer radius from the nuclear power station as an exclusion zone and evacuated one hundred thousand residents, but left companion animals and livestock animals behind in the radioactive area. Consequently, about 90 percent of the animals in the exclusion zone died. This book juxtaposes policies of the Japanese government toward the animals in Fukushima with the actions of grassroots volunteer animal rescue groups that filled the void of the government.
Motivated by the observation that our current social and political theories do not properly account for the actual living circumstances of persons living the 21st century, this book calls for a reassessment of the starting points of moral, social, and political philosophy. Souffrant recognizes that, as it stands, our ethical theories start from a specific conception of the individual. While he believes that this approach has been helpful, he holds however that the contemporary circumstances regarding the way individuals live their lives, their particular interconnectedness and tacit and active participation in the conditions that affect us all, call for a reassessment of the starting points of moral, social and political philosophy.
During the two decades following entry into World War II, nearly 30 million men and women served in or worked for the United States military. Tens of thousands faced a general court-martial under the Articles of War, which prescribed either life in prison or death for crimes of murder, rape or desertion. Only 160 men were sentenced to death and executed-159 for murder or rape (or a combination of the two), and one for desertion. The manner of death was by firing squad or by hanging. These dishonored servicemen were buried in various locations around the world. Later, nearly all were moved to grave sites in military cemeteries, segregated from those who died honorably. This book tells the stories of the men, their crimes and their executions.
The book provides a detailed introduction to a major debate in bioethics, as well as a rigorous account of the role of conscience in professional decision-making. Exploring the role of conscience in healthcare practice, this book offers fresh counterpoints to recent calls to ban or severely restrict conscience objection. It provides a detailed philosophical account of the nature and moral import of conscience, and defends a prima facie right to conscientious objection for healthcare professionals. The book also has relevance to broader debates about religious liberty and civil rights, such as debates about the rights and duties of persons and institutions who refuse services to clients on the basis of a religious objection. The book concludes with a discussion of how to regulate individual and institutional conscientious objection, and presents general principles for the accommodation of individual conscientious objectors in the healthcare system. This book will be of value to students and scholars in the fields of moral philosophy, bioethics and health law.
This foundational text examines the intersection of AI, psychology, and ethics, laying the groundwork for the importance of ethical considerations in the design and implementation of technologically supported education, decision support, and leadership training. AI already affects our lives profoundly, in ways both mundane and sensational, obvious and opaque. Much academic and industrial effort has considered the implications of this AI revolution from technical and economic perspectives, but the more personal, humanistic impact of these changes has often been relegated to anecdotal evidence in service to a broader frame of reference. Offering a unique perspective on the emerging social relationships between people and AI agents and systems, Hampton and DeFalco present cutting-edge research from leading academics, professionals, and policy standards advocates on the psychological impact of the AI revolution. Structured into three parts, the book explores the history of data science, technology in education, and combatting machine learning bias, as well as future directions for the emerging field, bringing the research into the active consideration of those in positions of authority. Exploring how AI can support expert, creative, and ethical decision making in both people and virtual human agents, this is essential reading for students, researchers, and professionals in AI, psychology, ethics, engineering education, and leadership, particularly military leadership.
The subject of the monograph is a multi-layered interpretation of beauty in architecture, the analysis of key ideas, attitudes, and concepts related to the art of shaping space focused on perfection and harmony. An integral approach to significant problems related to shaping the spatial order, taking into account a wide range of social, cultural, aesthetic, and environmental factors related to the beauty and harmony of a place, is a distinctive feature of the monograph. The statements of many theoreticians and practitioners of architecture from Poland and abroad, emphasize the beauty in architecture as an important feature of human surroundings. Architecture, apart from the features of utility and the required technical correctness, should lead to delight, deep reflection, and emotion.
The field of ethics in science aims to improve the way the audience perceives science, and this unique workbook discusses the areas of ethics and scientific misconduct. It provides assessments and exercises for learners to work through in groups or alone. Completion of the workbook but especially the assessment and tests will earn the learner a certificate for scientific misconduct training compiled by the author, and the certificate is available from the author's own website. This volume is a companion to the author's published volume, Ethics in Science: Ethical Misconduct in Scientific Research, Second Edition and will appeal to undergraduates, graduates and even high school students. Features: A unique training workbook in ethics and good conduct, easliy accessible and user friendly Unlike books in this area which mostly cover the theoretical foundations of ethics in science, here the author provides a practical workbook and ancillaries Case studies and a PowerPoint presentation are provided and readers will receive a certificate of completion There is a wealth of instructor resources available from the homepage A knowledge of scientific misconduct is of utmost importance in an era of mass higher education |
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