Comparison of Engagement with Ethics Between an Engineering and a Business Program

Increasing university students’ engagement with ethics is becoming a prominent call to action for higher education institutions, particularly professional schools like business and engineering. This paper provides an examination of student attitudes regarding ethics and their perceptions of ethics coverage in the curriculum at one institution. A particular focus is the comparison between results in the business college, which has incorporated ethics in the curriculum and has been involved in ethics education for a longer period, with the engineering college, which is in the nascent stages of developing ethics education in its courses. Results show that student attitudes and perceptions are related to the curriculum. In addition, results indicate that it might be useful for engineering faculty to use business faculty as resources in the development of their ethics curricula.     

Justifying Desires

According to an influential conception of reasons for action, the presence of a desire or some other conative state in the agent is a necessary condition for the agent's having a reason for action. This is sometimes known as internalism. This article presents a case for the considerably stronger thesis, which we may call hyper‐internalism, that the presence of a desire is a sufficient condition for the agent's having a (prima facie) reason for action.     

Justifying Partiality

It’s an undeniable fact about our moral lives that we are partial towards certain people and projects. Despite this, it has traditionally been very hard to justify partiality. In this paper I defend a novel partialist theory. The context of the paper is the debate between three different views of how partiality is justified. According to the first view, partiality is justified by facts about our ground projects. According to the second view, partiality is justified by facts about our relationships with the things that we are partial towards. And according to the third view, partiality is justified by facts about the things that we are partial towards. I argue that all three views contain part of the truth. We can see this by adopting a more sophisticated view of the weight of reasons. Once we do this, it will be clear that both facts about individuals and facts about relationships play a role in explaining why we often have stronger reason to act well towards those things we are partial towards. Further, I argue, facts about projects help explain why facts about relationships play the role that they do in determining the strength of our reasons.     

The Curricula of Tibetan Buddhist Commentarial Schools (bshad grwa): Traditional Models and Some Recent Adaptations

This article examines commentarial schools (bshad grwa) within the non-Gelug traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, especially their normative curriculum of ‘thirteen great texts’ promoted—though not necessarily first conceived—by Khenpo Zhenpen Nangwa (1871–1927). Focused on Indian ?āstra, this ideal curriculum omits Tibetan works, tantras and texts on logic and epistemology (pramā?a), and represents the main body of an exoteric curriculum that could be preceded by basic introductory topics and augmented by advanced esoteric study. Recent adaptations of this curriculum by some of the most important non-Gelug institutions in exile depart from Zhenpen Nangwa's non-sectarian ideal in order to accommodate the texts, topics and interpretations favoured by the tradition to which the institution belongs. The article concludes by asking whether further changes to traditional curricula and pedagogy are likely, following the introduction of new qualifications adopted from the Indian university system and developments such as the creation of commentarial schools for international students.     

Using the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual in the training of the competent assessor

The Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM; PDM Task Force, 2006) was published in 2006 and very soon after that date, the assessment faculty at the Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology considered its incorporation into the assessment curriculum. Personality assessment has been a major emphasis of the doctoral program since its inception in 1970. Although faculty had a high level of satisfaction with students' training in using individual techniques, they saw skills lying at the interface of assessment and psychodiagnosis (integration of test data, providing a diagnosis synopsis, formulation of treatment recommendations, and delivery of feedback) as less fully honed. Essentially, all of these activities were tied to the overarching task of case formulation. This finding is unsurprising in that the areas in need of support are at a higher level of complexity and sophistication than the areas the students had more thoroughly mastered. This article discusses how the PDM has been a valuable tool in improving the Widener assessment curriculum and how it could be a potent instrument in other doctoral programs as well. It also considers what kind of curricular adjustments enable the PDM to be used to best advantage.     

Justifying political decisions through theological arguments

The relationship between religion and politics in Muslim contexts has been discussed from many different perspectives. One of these proceeds from the theory of religious politics, according to which political thoughts and decisions are justified and legitimated with the support of theological explanations. A central premise is that religion is able to provide a moral sanction for political actions and decisions. This article discusses the relationship between religion and politics in a Shiite context in pre-modern and early modern times, based on the theory of religious politics. The central point is that the Shiite scholars, during the Safavid era (1501–1736), based their secular viewpoints on interpretations of the Quran, the hadiths, and the 12 Imamite Shiite sources, especially the specific ideas about the hidden imam, to legitimate their own collaboration with the Safavid kings. According to this theory, the religious politics occur within an ideological context such as a nation-state and specific historical circumstances. The religious legitimizations of political actions are usually intertwined with local and historical identities. As such the religious ideologies reflect not a return to tradition per se, but rather an ideological reconstruction of tradition for a new context. The ultimate question is which came first? Did the theological interpretations precede secular and political decisions, or was it the other way around? The theory of religious politics arrives at the conclusion that the theological explanations are employed to legitimate traditions of political thought and secular decisions and not the reverse.     

为“金规则”辨

学界近年在对“己所不欲,勿施于人”这个中国式的“金规则”的议论中,存在不少误读、误解。择要言之,一是将“金规则”之“金”理解为“道德价值最高”;二是用“知道做不到”质疑、贬低“金规则”;三是以“不同”的存在否证“金规则”：四是认为“金规则”不适合现代社会。然而经过仔细辨析可以发现,这些其实都是不确之语。     

Continuing Judicial Education: Cognitive Development as Content, Process, and Outcome

The Leadership Institute in Judicial Education curriculum provides an opportunity for judges to learn about and work in areas that are unfamiliar to most of them. Literature on experiential learning, the life cycle, and cognitive development provide a lens through which to examine our personal and professional lives. These three theoretical streams intertwine and compliment each other, serving as a background against which to design continuing education for judges. Experiential learning provides teaching strategies that challenge learners to take in and process information in new ways. Viewing identity, intimacy, and generativity as powerful motivators, a curriculum can be developed that encourages the complexity of thinking that we think is essential if judges are going to deal with the complexities our global society presents to them. This approach serves the instrumental needs of judges, and also promotes development along a scheme such as Perry's.     

Justifying Deception in Social Science Research

The use of deceptive techniques is common in social science research. It is argued that the use of such techniques is incompatible with the standard of informed consent, which is widely employed in the ethical evaluation of research involving human subjects. A number of proposals to justify the use of deceptions in social science research are examined, in the face of its apparent incompatibility with the standard of informed consent, and found to be inadequate. An alternative method of justification is outlined, which enables some deceived participants in social science research to rationally and autonomously choose to participate in that research. The alternative method of justification appeals to the idea of indirect consent , which is introduced. It is argued that research subjects who receive reliable testimony regarding research procedures can sometimes be placed in a position to rationally and autonomously consent indirectly to participation in experiments and studies, even if these involve significant deceptions.     

Educating the c Ulama: Centres of Islamic religious training in Britain

This paper brings together a diverse range of different sources to profile some of the centres of Islamic religious training in Britain. It distinguishes between dar ul-uloom (literally, ‘house of science’, or seminary) on the one hand, and Islamic ‘colleges’ on the other, the defining quality of the latter being their provision of undergraduate and postgraduate degree schemes which have currency in the world of British higher education. In relation to both types of institution, it explores their history and the nature of the curriculum (especially in Deobandi dar ul-uloom), and tries to offer some sense of the lifestyle. Drawing upon the findings of recent research, it also reports upon how interviewees representing a range of prominent British Muslim organizations view present arrangements for educating and training ^culama. The findings suggest that while Islamic ‘colleges’ have met many of the challenges of delivering religious training in contemporary Britain, in contrast many dar ul-uloom are at a critical and fascinating point of change.     

Justifying the evidential use of linguistic intuitions

Linguistic intuitive judgements are the de facto data source of choice within generative linguistics. But why we are justified in relying on intuitive judgements as evidence for grammars? In the philosophy of linguistics, this question has been hotly debated. I argue that the three most prominent views of that debate all have their problems. Devitt’s Modest Explanation accounts for the wrong kind of intuitive judgements. The Voice of Competence view and Rey’s account both lack independent evidence. I introduce and defend a novel proposal that accounts for the evidential role of linguistic intuitive judgements and avoids these shortcomings. On this account, linguistic intuitive judgements are reports of the speaker’s immediate experience of trying to comprehend the sentence. This experience is due to the speaker’s linguistic competence, at least in part, and so the justification for the evidential use of linguistic intuitions ultimately comes from the speaker’s competence. However, the account does not rely on any special input from the speaker’s competence being available as the basis for linguistic intuitive judgements.

     

Keeping Students in School

This paper examines strategies for the development of programs to prevent students from dropping out of school before graduation. The first set of strategies involves increasing the opportunities for students to succeed in school. This may be accomplished by setting standards that are challenging but within reach of students, by providing students with appropriate support to meet those standards, and by making the school curriculum relevant to the current and future lives of students. The second set of strategies involves increasing the opportunties for students to develop positive relationships in school. Such relationshps may be with adult staff members, with other students, or with the school as an institution.     

Justifying Feasibility Constraints on Human Rights

It is a crucial question whether practicalities should have an impact in developing an applicable theory of human rights—and if, how (far) such constraints can be justified. In the course of the non-ideal turn of today’s political philosophy, any entitlements (and social entitlements in particular) stand under the proviso of practical feasibility. It would, after all, be unreasonable to demand something which is, under the given political and economic circumstances, unachievable. Thus, many theorist—particularly those belonging to the liberal camp—begin to question the very idea of social human rights on grounds of practical infeasibility. This new minimalism about human rights motivates an immanent critique arguing that even if we were to proceed from a liberal framework, we would still wind up with a justification of the full list of social human rights. In the first part of this article, I will present the central positions of the debate presented by Amartya Sen, Maurice Cranston and Pablo Gilabert. Initially arguing that a minimalism of human rights on grounds of practical infeasibility alone proves unjustifiable, however, I shall open up two further perspectives, which allow practical infeasibilities to become normatively determinate. Discussing contributions by James Griffin and Charles Beitz, I will defend the thesis that certain feasibility constraints on (social) human rights can be justified on the condition that they are grounded either in a normative idea of the appropriate implementation of these rights or in reflection of the practical function of a theory of human rights.     

Development of a career-enabler framework within a South African higher education institution

This study developed a preliminary career-enabler framework for use in a higher education setting. A quantitative survey was conducted with a sample of 1392 employees within a higher education institution in South Africa. Structural analysis was performed using exploratory factor analysis. The analysis yielded three enablers with acceptable psychometric properties, namely: self-transcendence, self-enhancement and self-conservation through work motives and needs. Interventions that focus on career-enablers within a higher education institution need to address these three factors.     

Requiring and Justifying: Two Dimensions of Normative Strength

Many contemporary accounts of normative reasons for action accord a single strength value to normative reasons. This paper first uses some examples to argue against such views by showing that they seem to commit us to intransitive or counterintuitive claims about the rough equivalence of the strengths of certain reasons. The paper then explains and defends an alternate account according to which normative reasons for action have two separable dimensions of strength: requiring strength, and justifying strength. Such an account explains our intuitions in the cases that make trouble for single-value views. The justifying/requiring account is compared with two other solutions that have been offered to justify and explain our intuitions about these sorts of cases. These other solutions appeal to the notions of incommensurability of reasons, and to second-order normative entities called `exclusionary permissions'. It is argued that the justifying/requiring distinction provides a superior solution.     

Training vs. Education in Forming Won Buddhist Kyomus in the USA

Abstract. An historically familiar tension in East Asian Buddhism between meditation and cultivation in broad learning has appeared in discussions and planning for preparing ministerial students in Won Buddhism. This paper reviews the history of preparation in this order, which was founded in 1916. While the alternatives of training based on practice and education based on classroom intellectual experience have occurred in Won Buddhism, the tension has appeared within the recently founded Won Institute of Graduate Studies in the USA in a clear manner. While the pre‐ministerial students coming from Korea have preferred the experiential/practical emphasis, it is recognized that graduate education in the USA normally requires broader learning and critical thinking. The faculty of Won Institute respects both strategies and their respective, almost incompatible, goals, and has tried to create a curriculum embracing both. This effort is described and viewed in the context of Won participation in a culture of pluralism and interreligious relations.     

The Emergence of Career Development Facilitators

This article describes the collaborative efforts of the National Career Development Association, National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee, and Career Development Training Institute at Oakland University, which resulted in the emergence and recognition of the important role of career development facilitators (CDFs). The development of the CDF competencies, curriculum, and certification is summarized, and examples of counselor‐facilitator collaboration are provided.