Harmonizing global ethics in the future: a proposal to add south and east to west

This article considers how global ethical matters might be approached differently in the English-speaking literature if values salient in sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia were taken seriously. Specifically, after pointing out how indigenous values in both of these major parts of the world tend to prescribe honouring harmonious relationships, the article brings out what such an approach to morality entails for political power, foreign relations and criminal justice. For each major issue, it suggests that harmony likely has implications that differ from approaches that currently dominate Western thought, namely those of utility, autonomy and capability. Lacking the space to systematically defend harmony as a fundamental value, it nonetheless urges theorists not to neglect it in future work.     

Different Worldviews Explain Perceived Effectiveness of Different Employment Tests

A representative sample of (n = 439) adults in the United States responded to questions about the usefulness of tests of cognitive ability and conscientiousness, along with questions about their beliefs in free will and (scientific) determinism. As hypothesized, belief in scientific determinism predicted perceived usefulness of a cognitive ability test and belief in free will predicted the perceived usefulness of a test of conscientiousness. In a subsequent experiment (n = 337), people watched TED‐style talks emphasizing either the importance of talent or the importance of hard work for success. People who watched the talk emphasizing talent scored higher on scientific determinism. Those who watched the talk emphasizing hard work scored both higher on free will and lower on scientific determinism.     

The Nature of Poverty as an Inhuman Condition

In this article, part of a symposium devoted to Hennie Lötter’s Poverty, Ethics and Justice, my aims are threefold. First, I present a careful reading of Lötter’s original and compelling central conception of the nature of poverty as the inability to ‘obtain adequate economic resources….to maintain physical health and engage in social activities distinctive of human beings in their respective societies’. After motivating this view, particularly in comparison to other salient accounts of poverty, I, second, raise some objections to it, regarding relativistic implications that it has. Third, I propose another, more universalist conception of the nature of poverty, which is inspired by some of Lötter’s other remarks and which is all the stronger. According to this view, people are more poor, the less they can obtain adequate economic resources to pursue a wide array of finally valuable activities and states characteristic of human beings. I conclude by briefly pointing out how this view merits critical comparison with related views, such as Martha Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach.     

Supernaturalist analytic existentialism: Critical notice of Clifford Williams’ Religion and the meaning of life

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion - In this critical notice of Clifford Williams’ Religion and the meaning of life, I focus on his argumentation in favour of the moderate...     

Legal briefing: The unbefriended: making healthcare decisions for patients without surrogates (Part 2)

This issue's "Legal Briefing" column continues coverage of recent legal developments involving medical decision making for unbefriended patients. These patients have neither decision-making capacity nor a reasonably available surrogate to make healthcare decisions on their behalf. This topic has been the subject of recent articles in JCE. It has been the subject of major policy reports. Indeed, caring for the unbefriended has even been described as the "single greatest category of problems" encountered in bioethics consultation. Moreover, the scope of the problem continues to expand, especially with rapid growth in the elderly population and with an increased prevalence of dementia. Unfortunately, most U.S.jurisdictions have failed to adopt effective healthcare decision-making systems or procedures for the unbefriended. "Existing mechanisms to address the issue of decision making for the unbefriended are scant and not uniform." Most providers are "muddling through on an ad hoc basis." Still, over the past several months, a number of state legislatures have finally addressed the issue. These developments and a survey of the current landscape are grouped into the following 14 categories. The first two categories define the problem of medical decision making for the unbefriended.The remaining 12 describe different solutions to the problem. The first six categories were covered in Part 1 of this article; the last eight categories are covered in this issue (Part 2). 1. Who are the unbefriended? 2. Risks and problems of the unbefriended. 3. Prevention: advance care planning, diligent searching, and careful capacity assessment. 4. Decision-making mechanisms and standards. 5. Emergency exception to informed consent. 6. Expanded default surrogate lists: close friends. 7. Private guardians. 8. Volunteer guardians. 9. Public guardians. 10. Temporary and emergency guardians. 11. Attending physicians. 12. Other clinicians, individuals, and entities. 13. Institutional committees. 14. External committees.     

Jus interruptus bellum: the ethics of truce-making

With his new book, A Theory of Truces, Nir Eisikovits has succeed in producing the most comprehensive and insightful book to exist on the nature and morality of truces during international military conflict. In it he plausibly argues that thought about such conflict should avoid binary terms such as long-lasting peace and all-out war, and instead must readily acknowledge conditions ‘in between’ them, such as cease-fires and agreements to limit belligerence to certain times. In this critical notice of Eisikovits’ book, I have two major aims, in light of the fact that in it he does not systematically engage with the contemporary literature on and positions in just war theory. One aim is to situate Eisikovits’ analysis of truces in that context, and to contend that he has implicitly founded a new field that would be aptly labelled jus interruptus bellum as distinct from jus in bello and jus ex bello. Another is to build on Eisikovits’ ethical appraisal of truces, by considering what principles of just war theory entail for them.     

The effects of screening and task partitioning upon evaluations of decision options

Seven experiments examined how information used to screen options is used subsequently in evaluating the survivors before a choice of the best survivor is made and showed the following. (1) In general, information receiver early in the task had a smaller impact upon pre-choice evaluations of options than information received later, whether or not screening had taken place. (2) However, early information had virtually no impact upon pre-choice evaluations when various events partitioned the task into two distinct parts. This was called the ‘task-partitioning effect’. This effect was, however, labile and could be eliminated by repeating the early information at the time that the pre-choice evaluations were made. (3) In contrast, when the partitioning event consisted specifically of screening out unattractive options, early information had virtually no impact on evaluations and its repetition did not increase its use. This was called the ‘screening effect’. This effect was observed even when someone other than the subject carried out the screening.     

Some variation of the twisted cord illusion and their analyses

Two approaches to the analysis of the twisted cord illusion are discussed. One suggests that the illusion is produced by embedded illusions (e.g., Zollner’s illusion); the other points to nonillusion features such as the lines of the cord strands. A number of novel variations of the illusion are presented, and four experiments using these variations are described in an attempt to discern which of the two approaches was more viable. The implications of these remits for various theories, including a multicomponent theory, are discussed.     

Mental rotation of possible and impossible four-cornered toruses

Possible and impossible four-cornered toruses were used as stimuli in a mental rotation paradigm. Rotation rates varied with number of “net changes in depth,” a variable that closely corresponds with ratings of impossibility, rather than with formal distinctions between the possible and the impossible. Rotation rates were also affected by perimeter shapes but not in accord with perimeter complexity as defined by number of vertices. Experiment 2 attempted to separate net changes in depth from figure symmetry and found symmetry to be the more reliable predictor of rotation rates, suggesting that symmetry may underlie the influence of net changes of depth.     

A Mixed Methods Approach to Vulnerability and Quality of Life Assessment of Waste Picking in Urban Nigeria

Quality of life (QoL) studies have become acceptable globally as indicators of how well a people are living. They are increasingly being used to identify and design areas of intervention to raise the wellbeing of a population. While studies on livelihoods in the informal waste recycling system of developing country cities have also been on the increase in recent years, assessments of the QoL expectations within the livelihoods framework in the informal waste recycling sector seem surprisingly few. Studies of this nature have also not been undertaken in the context of Nigerian socio-political, cultural and economic environment. Applying qual-dominant mixed methods approach to the livelihood activity of waste picking in the commercial city of Aba in southeastern Nigeria, this paper identifies predominant social indicators relevant to the Aba scavengers, waste pickers?? perceptions and QoL expectations, and potential outcomes of meeting the QoL expectations of waste pickers in the area. It also categorizes pickers?? vulnerabilities into four levels of increasing magnitude. Given that African social dynamics do not always or often find expression, fully or partially, in figures, the paper stresses the need to apply ethnographic and qualitative research methods in assessment of QoL and wellbeing in the informal waste recycling system. It further argues that integrating QoL assessments into public decision-making and social policy in Nigeria will contribute significantly towards meeting some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) while also engendering sustainable urban livelihood outcomes.