A Meta-Ethical Critique of Care Ethics

A meta-ethical analysis demonstrates that care ethics is a grounded in a distinct mode of moral reasoning. This is comprised primarily of the rejection of principles such as impartiality, and the endorsement of emotional or moral virtues such as compassion, as well as the notion that the preservation of relations may override the interests of the individuals involved in them. The main conclusion of such a meta-ethical analysis is that such meta-ethical foundations of care ethics are not sound. Reasonable alternatives for care ethics may be its formulation as an additional principle within an established principlist framework, or the move to a dialogical ethics, where the good to be acted upon is not decided in advance but rather critically discussed and established within the encounter of the parties involved. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Making Sense of Walt: A Psychoanalytic Understanding of Racism

This paper explores Klein's concepts of the depressive position, paranoid position, envy, projective identification and reparation, and their application to understanding overt racism. An extensive case example from the movie Gran Torino and its protagonist Walt Kowalski are the foci of this theoretical speculation. Implications for antiracist practice are discussed.     

Addressing Clients' Experiences of Racism: A Model for Clinical Practice

This article synthesizes the literature relevant to coping with racism to provide a 4‐stage model for addressing clients' discriminatory experiences. Major suggestions drawn from the literature include applying frameworks with a contextual lens, using broaching and eliciting skills to promote client exploration of racism and the effects of racism on persons of color, enhancing client racial and ethnic identities, and tailoring interventions to the clients' culture and preferred coping strategies.     

Solving Wollheim's Dilemma: A Fix for the Institutional Definition of Art

Richard Wollheim threatened George Dickie's institutional definition of art with a dilemma which entailed that the theory is either redundant or incomprehensible and useless. This article modifies the definition to avoid such criticism. First, it shows that the definition's concept of the artworld is not vague when understood as a conventional system of beliefs and practices. Then, based on Gaut's cluster theory, it provides an account of reasons artworld members have to confer the status of a candidate for appreciation. An authorised member of an artworld has a good reason to confer the status on an object if it satisfies a subset of criteria respected as sufficient within this artworld. The first horn of the dilemma is averted because explaining the reasons behind conferral cannot eliminate references to the institution, and the second loses its sharpness, as accepting partial arbitrariness of the conferral does not deprive the theory of its explanatory power.     

Racism,stress, and sense of personal control among Aboriginal Australian pregnant women

Objectives

To characterise racism experiences in the past year and to investigate a causal association between racism, stress, and sense of personal control in a sample of pregnant South Australian Aboriginal women.

Methods

Data was from the baseline sample of 369 Aboriginal women participating in a randomised controlled trial to prevent early caries in children. Data on demographics, racism experiences, stress, sense of personal control, and health behaviours were collected through interview-guided questionnaires. Linear regression modelling was used to test the association between racism and stress and sense of personal control in separate models. The final models presented were adjusted for confounding.

Results

Participant mean age was 24.7 years (SD ±0.30; Min–Max: 14–43 years). Almost two-thirds (64.7%) resided in rural and regional areas and the highest educational attainment for almost three-quarters (73.7%) was high school or less. Nearly half (48.3%) reported at least one experience of racism in the previous year and almost one third (31.8%) reported racism occurring in a public setting. The adjusted regression coefficients for the effect of racism on stress and sense of personal control were respectively 0.61 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.28, 0.93) and −0.36 (95% CI −0.68, −0.04).

Conclusions

Our findings contribute with evidence that racism is one of the psychosocial causes of poor mental health among Aboriginal Australians. Culturally sensitive and safe mental health interventions may be beneficial in buffering racism effects during pregnancy. Societal-level policies aimed at both naming and reducing institutionalised racism against Aboriginal Australian Aboriginals are necessary.

     

Navigating Moral Struggle: Toward a Social Model of Exemplarity

Exemplars have the power to help people navigate various levels of moral struggle, from the relatively straightforward problem of lacking motivation to the much deeper problem of failing to see the moral realities that surround us. But there are also serious moral risks in the appeal to exemplars: we romanticize them, we make use of them in authoritarian ways, and we tend to forget how our choice of exemplars is conditioned by oppressive cultural formations. I argue that we need to develop a social model of exemplarity, attuned to social contexts of our exemplars themselves as well as the social processes of constructing and appealing to exemplars. More particularly, I argue that we need to develop space for thinking about exemplary groups, not just exemplary individuals, in order to develop the strengths and avoid the weaknesses in exemplarist moral theories.     

Meta-Analysis of Pragmatic and Theoretical Research: A Critique

Meta-analysis refers to a set of statistical procedures used to summarize and integrate many empirical studies that focus on one issue. This numerical method of integrating research findings is said to be superior to the narrative type of reviews because it is more objective, reliable, and rigorous. Moreover, the meta-analytic approach is supposedly capable of resolving research controversies, strengthening empirical hypotheses, and discovering new relationships among variables. In this study, these claims are examined and found to be wanting. Some objections to the use of meta-analysis as a means of substantiating theoretical assertions are raised with reference to the rationale of experimentation and to how knowledge evolves. It is concluded that it is inappropriate to apply meta-analysis to integrate theoretical research.     

Justice and Civic Friendship： An Aristotelian Critique of Modern Citizenry

Modem moral and political theorists make a sharp separation between justice and civic friendship, arguing that justice deals with the fair terms of co-operation in the social sphere whereas civic friendship is about an individual＇s contingent affections in the political domain. In addition, they also argue that the principles of justice must determine the nature and function of civic friendship in modem liberal society. Even though the historical origin of the above view can be traced to the writings of Immanuel Kant （2007）, John Rawls provides us with its most cogent formulation in recent times. In his book A Theory of Justice （1971）, Rawls argues that the considerations of right are prior to the considerations of good; therefore the principles of justice must determine the limits of civic friendship. Against RaMs, I argue that justice and civic friendship are intrinsically connected and that they cannot be separated in experience. I draw upon Aristotle＇s theory of virtue to strengthen my arguments. Following Aristotle, I show that both justice and friendship are virtues and that all virtues hold together. The Aristotelian coherence of virtues, I argue, can be useful in redefining the obligations of justice and civic friendship in contemporary liberal democracies.     

Variables in Psychology: A Critique of Quantitative Psychology

Mind is hidden from direct observation; it can be studied only by observing behavior. Variables encode information about behaviors. There is no one-to-one correspondence between behaviors and mental events underlying the behaviors, however. In order to understand mind it would be necessary to understand exactly what information is represented in variables. This aim cannot be reached after variables are already encoded. Therefore, statistical data analysis can be very misleading in studies aimed at understanding mind that underlies behavior. In this article different kinds of information that can be represented in variables are described. It is shown how informational ambiguity of variables leads to problems of theoretically meaningful interpretation of the results of statistical data analysis procedures in terms of hidden mental processes. Reasons are provided why presence of dependence between variables does not imply causal relationship between events represented by variables and absence of dependence between variables cannot rule out the causal dependence of events represented by variables. It is concluded that variable-psychology has a very limited range of application for the development of a theory of mind—psychology.

Accounting for Racism Against Maori in Aotearoa/New Zealand: A Discourse Analytic Study of the Views of Maori Adults

Previous discursive studies on the construction, reproduction and justification of racism have focussed on the accounts of perpetrators to the exclusion of the targets of racist talk. The current study redresses this imbalance by exploring the talk of targets of racism in Aotearoa/ New Zealand. Interviews were conducted with 24 participants, 19 Māori and five Pākehā partners. Our social constructionist discourse analysis identifies four primary discourses that participants drew on to account for racism, two of which resonated strongly with the literature and two which spotlighted new areas of interest. A discourse of ignorance functioned to allow participants to account for racism by highlighting Pākehā ignorance of Māori people and culture, and of racism itself. The second discourse implicated the media for emphasising negative Māori news, avoiding positive Māori achievements and promoting negative stereotypes. A third discourse constructed Pākehā as possessing an innate sense of superiority which contributed to racism, and fourthly, institutionalised racism was used by participants to construct a colonial society which continued to marginalise Māori. Finally we consider the implications of these findings with respect to existing literature, some implications around the intersectionality and relationship between these discourses, and the importance of potential gains in understanding made possible through the study of targets' perspectives. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Questions in the Making: A Review Essay on Zen and Buddhist Ethics in the Context of Buddhist and Comparative Ethics

In reviewing four works from the 1990s—monographs by Christopher Ives and Phillip Olson on Zen Buddhist ethics, Damien Keown's treatment of Indian Buddhist ethics, and an edited collection on Buddhism and human rights—this article examines recent scholarship on Zen Buddhist ethics in light of issues of Buddhist and comparative ethics. Its highlights selected themes in the notional and real encounter of Zen Buddhism with Western thought and culture as presented in the reviewed works and identifies issues and problems for further consideration, in particular, problems of comparative and cross-cultural understanding and the articulation and redefinition of Zen Buddhist tradition.     

Modern racism and neo‐liberal globalization: the discourses of plausible deniability and their multiple functions

Recently, considerable energy has been focused on extending the mandate of anti‐racism. Modern (or symbolic) racism and discursive psychology have argued that racism has taken on more covert forms. A longitudinal examination of newspaper coverage of two important race‐related newsprint stories in New Zealand (involving Winston Peters, Tuku Morgan and New Zealand First) identified discourses of ‘plausible deniability’ involved in warranting or defending statements about minorities against accusations of racism. We discuss implications of symbolic politics for minorities who are perceived to have violated societal norms, and show how nationalism is used as a framework for denying racist intent. Analyses of historical context show how ‘race’ forms only one lens from which to view issues of intergroup relations. While the press was sensitive to issues of racism, they demonstrated little awareness of concurrent issues of neo‐liberal economics, or market fundamentalism. Anti‐racism may be motivated not only by the ideals of egalitarianism, but also by underlying dynamics of economic power in a global economy. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

If and Then: A Critique of Speculative NanoEthics

Most known technology serves to ingeniously adapt the world to the physical and mental limitations of human beings. Humankind has acquired awesome power with its rather limited means. Nanotechnological capabilities further this power. On some accounts, however, nanotechnological research will contribute to a rather different kind of technological development, namely one that changes human beings so as to remove or reduce their physical and mental limitations. The prospect of this technological development has inspired a fair amount of ethical debate. Here, proponents and opponents of such visions of human enhancement are criticized alike for engaging in speculative ethics. This critique exposes a general pattern that extends to other nano-, bio-, or neuroethical debates. While it does not apply to all discussions of “enhancement technologies” it does apply to all ethical discourse that constructs and validates an incredible future which it only then proceeds to endorse or critique. This discourse violates conditions of intelligibility, squanders the scarce and valuable resource of ethical concern, and misleads by casting remote possibilities or philosophical thought-experiments as foresight about likely technical developments. In effect, it deflects consideration from the transformative technologies of the present.

性善:一种引导性的概念--孟子性善论的哲学意蕴与方法内涵

长期以来,学术界把孟子的性善观念理解为一种先验性的学说,但是,本文认为。先验／经验的范畴归属于认知性的哲学(cognitive philosophy),其论证功能更多的指向理论。而不是规范。而孟子的性善说却以对于“以故言性”的认知性的人性理论的批判为其出发点,后者所导致的理论结果往往是“以情才代性”,也就说,认知性的人性论触及的总是“情”与“才”,而不是真正的“性”。而孟子本人的性善论不是对于人性所表现出来的经验性事实的理论解释,其功能主要是规范性的,可以将之理解为一种引导性(orientative)的概念,它的主旨不在于获得某种知识理论,而是在实现人与世界的某种转化。     

A Critique of Wolfhart Pannenberg's Scientific Theology

Abstract

In Theology and the Philosophy of Science, Wolfhart Pannenberg argues that theology is on a par with the natural sciences, insofar as theological statements are hypotheses subject to confirmation or disconfirmation by experience. He defends his thesis by claiming that theology makes truth-claims about reality; and, second, that these are verifiable in the same sense that scientific statements are. I will argue that this thesis is wrong; and that the first claim could be right in a sense that has yet to be made clear; the second is not defensible even if fleshed out by some conceivable scientific scenario.     

Shaping the Field of Theology and Science: A Critique of Nancey Murphy

Nancey Murphy is a key second-generation figure in the field of religion and science. Through a variety of responsibilities, some of which are reviewed here, she has worked as a discipline builder over the last fifteen years. After trying to convey the general spirit of Murphy's work, the author focuses on five areas where readers might resist her conclusions, including her "postmodern" theory of scientific (and religious) knowledge and truth, her treatment of theology and science as "separate but equal," and her defense of physicalism.     

Refining our understanding of the VIA Classification: Reflections on papers by Han,Miller, and Snow

ABSTRACT

Han, Miller, and Snow have written three thoughtful critiques of the VIA Classification of Strengths and Virtues. In this response, I emphasize five points. First, I suggest the concept of practical wisdom may be understood in terms of three VIA strengths: prudence, judgment, and perspective. Second, recognizing that the VIA Classification is a structural model of individual traits, rather than a moral theory, can address some concerns about the model, including its failure to account for the unity of the virtues. Third, I review a three-virtue model that has emerged in recent research on the VIA strengths may provide essential elements for a taxonomy of virtue. Fourth, I raise several issues associated with the application of the VIA Classification to moral education. Finally, though the model demonstrates substantial generalizabilty across Westernized populations, research in traditional indigenous cultures remains insufficient. I conclude with a series of questions for future research.     

Racism in the Hands of an Angry God: How Image of God Impacts Cultural Racism in Relation to Police Treatment of African Americans

Previous research suggests an angry God image is a narrative schema predicting support for more punitive forms of criminal justice. However, this research has not explored the possibility that racialization may impact one's God image. We perform logistic regression on Wave V of the Baylor Religion Survey to examine the correlation between an angry God image and the belief that police shoot Blacks more often because Blacks are more violent than Whites (a context-specific form of cultural racism). Engaging critical insights from intersectionality theory, we also interact angry God image with both racialized identity and racialized religious tradition. Results suggest that the angry God schema is associated with this form of cultural racism for White people generally as well as White Evangelicals, yet for Black Protestants, belief in an angry God is associated with resistance against this type of cultural racism.     

规范与美德的并存与互补：历史视角

美德伦理与规范伦理是生成道德整体系的两个源头,也是伦理学的两大传统和两个必要的组成部分,并有其各自的特殊功能,在其长期演进的历史过程中,展示了各自的长处与短处。历史和现实表明,美德伦理的长处正是规范伦理的短处,美德伦理的短处正是规范伦理的长处。美德伦理犹如伦理大厦的地基,地基不牢,大厦就会倒塌;规范伦理犹如这座伦理大厦的四梁八柱,是支撑伦理大厦的骨架,骨架缺失,大厦焉存？美德伦理与规范伦理的关系是并存与互补的关系。认清美德伦理与规范伦理的并存与互补的关系,是建设包括医学伦理在内的社会伦理完整体系的最佳选择。