Engineering Ethics: Looking Back, Looking Forward

The eight pieces constituting this Meeting Report are summaries of presentations made during a panel session at the 2011 Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) annual meeting held between March 3rd and 6th in Cincinnati. Lisa Newton organized the session and served as chair. The panel of eight consisted both of pioneers in the field and more recent arrivals. It covered a range of topics from how the field has developed to where it should be going, from identification of issues needing further study to problems of training the next generation of engineers and engineering-ethics scholars.     

Knowing through the felt-sense: a gesture of openness to the other

In the discussion of children’s spirituality and education, David Hay and Brendan Hyde place emphasis on the felt-sense. Originally identified by the psychotherapist Eugene Gendlin, the felt-sense is a way of knowing that involves attentiveness to the body and body wisdom. Although emphasised by Hay and Hyde, the felt-sense does not feature strongly in the academic discussion of children’s spiritual education. This article compares Gendlin’s use of the term ‘felt-sense’ with that of Hay and Hyde, and discusses understandings of the felt-sense and body wisdom gathered through interviews with focusing, shiatsu and yoga practitioners, and through the author’s encounters with these practices. The article considers synergies between the notions of ‘felt-sense’ and ‘bildung’, as described by Gadamer, and concludes that their shared openness to the other points to ‘a way of being’ for the educator which may hold the greatest value for spiritual education, given the complexity of post-secular spiritual identity.     

Demonstrating the Effects of Presentation Rate on Aging Memory Using the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT)

Previous research has repeatedly found that the elderly demonstrate significant declines in direct measures of memory. This study examined verbal learning and memory in the young and old participants using the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT). We hypothesized that slowing down the presentation rate of a list of words, therefore giving the participants more time to rehearse while learning new information, would decrease the normal differences found between the young and old adults on memory recall. However, at a faster presentation rate, the usual differences would be found. Participants took the CVLT, and correct recall responses were measured as a function of age and presentation rate. It was found, as expected, that at the faster presentation rate, the young did significantly better than the old on recall, but at the slower presentation rate, the differences between age groups diminished. It was concluded that by giving the elderly more time to rehearse information, age-related differences in memory recall could be greatly diminished.     

Aggregation, acquiescence, and the assessment of trait affectivity

General affect ratings are subject to problems that lessen their validity. Some critics therefore have argued that aggregated on-line ratings provide better measures of trait affectivity. However, aggregated mood ratings suffer from two significant problems. First, correlations among same-valenced affects are substantially higher, indicating poorer discriminant validity. Second, cross-valence correlations are much weaker, reflecting a virtual absence of bipolarity. We show how both of these effects are due to an inflated acquiescence component in aggregated data. We also demonstrate that (a) these effects are a direct result of the aggregation process itself and (b) controlling for acquiescence counteracts these effects. These results indicate that the validity of aggregated mood ratings is lessened by an augmented acquiescence component.     

Theologia Incurvata In Se Ipse?: One Feminist Theologian’s Reading of Eberhard Jüngel’s Theology

Books reviewed in this article:
Eberhard Jüngel, Justification: The Heart of the Christian Faith
Eberhard Jüngel, God's Being is in Becoming: The Trinitarian Being of God in the Theology of Karl Barth. A Paraphrase     

Tomboyism,Sexual Orientation,and Adult Gender Roles Among Israeli Women

The purpose of this study was to examine self-reported connections between sexual orientation (SO) and tomboyism in an Israeli sample. This study also focused on the connection between tomboyism and adult gender roles, and between gender roles and SO. A sample of 127 participants was solicited from lesbian organizations and from workplaces. Participants' SO was self-defined twice, using a forced choice and a Kinsey-type scale. Results revealed a connection between tomboyism and lesbianism. The overall level of tomboyism was lower then reported elsewhere. A relationship between tomboyism and gender roles emerged only for adolescence, and SO was only marginal related to gender roles. The definitions of tomboyism, cultural effects, Israeli society, adolescence gender roles, and bisexualism are discussed.     

A Foucauldian Foray into the New Genetics

A Foucauldian assessment of the common presumption that genetic information is potent and thus oppressive demonstrates that the concern may be misplaced. Foucault's concept of “technologies of self” reveals that genetic power originates not only from the potency of genetic information but from the penchant of individuals to victimize themselves in the name of optimal health, enhanced intelligence, perfect babies, or would-be immortality. Rather than seeking liberation from the power of the new genetics, Foucault's reinterpretation of the ancient understanding of concern for the self offers the possibility to avoid control by the scientific discourse. His ethical response calls for resistance rather than opposition and places responsibility for resistance in the hands of the subject. Characteristically, he avoids a generalizable form of morality but clarifies that resistance includes acknowledging the human appetite for perfection and subordinating science to ethical and aesthetic matters.