Moral Compromises, Moral Integrity and the Indeterminacy of Value Rankings

Though the art of compromise, i.e. of settling differences by mutual concessions, is part of communal living on any level, we often think that there is something wrong in compromise, especially in cases where moral convictions are involved. A first reason for distrusting compromises on moral matters refers to the idea of integrity, understood in the basic sense of 'standing for something', especially standing for the values and causes that to some extent confer identity. The second reason points out the objective nature of moral values, which seems to make them immune from negotiation and barter. If one sincerely holds some moral conviction to be true, than compromising on that belief must be a sign of serious confusion.In order to reach a better understanding of these two reasons, I analyse what is involved in personal integrity and how this relates to moral integrity. I argue that the search for moral integrity naturally brings us to the question of how one could accept moral compromises and still uphold the idea that moral values and principles have an objective authority over us. To address this question I will present a version of moral pluralism which tries to capture the enormous complexity of what should matter to us as moral persons, and which explains why value-rankings are often deeply indeterminate. The general position I defend in this paper is that compromises involving moral values and norms may be morally required and, therefore, be laudable. To sustain this position I will arrive at a view of ethical objectivity that allows the possibility to negotiate about the truth of moral beliefs.     

β受体阻滞剂治疗慢性心力衰竭作用机制规律的探讨

β受体阻滞剂作为一种负性肌力药物,其在慢性心力衰竭治疗中的地位于近几十年中发生了戏剧性的改变,由禁忌药转变为指南推荐的重要药.β受体阻滞剂引发了人们对慢性心力衰竭发病机制的重新思考,使人们对疾病及其治疗有了更新更全面的认识,这其中体现了哲学与自然科学间的紧密联系,提示我们运用哲学原理可以指导自然科学的发展.     

Gottfredson的职业抱负发展理论简介与研究评述

戈特弗雷德森（L.S.Gottfredson）的职业发展理论是有关职业抱负的内容及其发展的理论。该理论从职业类型、社会地位和性别类型3个维度对职业抱负的发展进行了论述,并提出了职业抱负的发展阶段论和决策过程中的妥协论。该文首先对戈特弗雷德森的职业抱负的发展理论做了简要介绍,然后从职业抱负的范围限定和妥协过程两个方面对已有的有关研究进行了回顾,并提出了已有研究中存在的问题和不足,最后论述了职业抱负发展理论在学校职业辅导中的应用     

Finding the Right Value: Framing Effects on Domain Experts

By defining the essence of a policy problem, an issue frame shapes how individuals think about a political issue. In this research, we investigate framing effects among domain experts, an understudied yet increasingly important set of individuals in the policymaking process. Because domain experts have extensive and highly structured knowledge on a particular topic, they are likely to actively process issue frames to which they are exposed. Consequently, we hypothesize that frames consistent with experts' values will be particularly influential, whereas frames inconsistent with their values will lead to contrast effects. We test our hypotheses on a unique set of domain experts by examining professional farmers' attitudes toward no‐till agriculture. Using an experimental design, we find evidence that environmental values interact with frames to influence farmers' interest in no‐till, especially when farmers are exposed to a novel frame.     

Reassessing the Role of Anxiety in Vote Choice

Much recent political psychology scholarship has examined the role of anxiety in vote choice. This work generally argues that anxiety affects vote choice indirectly by causing citizens to more thoroughly search for and process political information. This indirect effect of anxiety leads citizens to rely less on heuristics, such as party, and more on substantive information, such as policy positions. The most prominent example of this scholarship is the Affective Intelligence (AI) theory of emotions. In this paper, we use cross-sectional and panel survey data to test AI against two simpler alternatives: (1) that emotions directly influence candidate evaluations and (2) that candidate evaluations directly influence emotions. We first show that these simpler alternatives can produce the complex, cross-sectional interactions that provide the principal support for AI. Then, using panel data to better assess causal direction, we find little support for AI, some evidence that emotions directly influence candidate evaluations, and strong evidence that candidate evaluations directly influence emotions. Scholars, we conclude, should be hesitant to abandon these simpler explanations in favor of AI.     

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Gender Factors Contributing to Long-Term Marital Satisfaction

Abstract

This article reports on the major findings of a cross-cultural study comparing long-term marital satisfaction between Caucasian couples and Chinese couples in Canada. The Dyadic Adjustment Scale was used to screen couples' marital satisfaction. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted individually and jointly with the screened couples to explore their meanings and experiences of marital satisfaction. With the use of narrative analysis, the study illuminates how couples constructed their gender relationships to achieve marital satisfaction over a long course of thirty to thirty-six years according to their sociocultural contexts. The similarities and differences in how the two cultural groups' respondents constructed their long-term marital satisfaction are discussed in terms of: (1) household division of labour, (2) decision-making, (3) conflict and compromise, and (4) mutuality.     

The Compromise Effect in Choosing for Others

Most research into the compromise effect focuses on cognitive factors related to choosing for oneself. However, there are daily opportunities to make choices for others, from helping friends to buy merchandise to choosing souvenirs for relatives. Although it is a common practice, choosing for others is rarely discussed in the literature. Hence, this research is directed to determine whether (i) the compromise effect is greater for people choosing for others with whom one has a distant relationship compared to choosing for themselves, (ii) the decision maker's susceptibility to interpersonal relationships, accountability, and anticipated regret moderate the relationship between choosing for others versus choosing for themselves and the compromise effect, and (iii) the confidence of the decision maker mediates the relationship between deciding for others and the compromise effect. Five hypotheses are proposed and they are supported by the results from four experiments. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

福利经济学的伦理选择

本文依据效率与伦理两个基本标准探讨了福利经济学对于经济运行体系的伦理选择问题。首先分别讨论了福利经济学参照两个基本标准对于经济运行体系进行伦理选择的具体情况。其次分析了福利经济学在参照第二个基本标准对于经济运行体系进行伦理选择时所遇到的理论困难及其原因,即仅仅依据功利主义伦理基础的狭窄理论框架与包含道义主义伦理学在内的广阔的价值世界之间的矛盾。最后指出:通过引入道义主义伦理学作为福利经济学的伦理基础之一,特别是通过引入伦理妥协的方法解决经济学的功利主义基础与道义主义基础之间的矛盾,便可以扩展福利经济学的理论框架,消除福利经济学在参照第二个基本标准对于经济运行体系进行伦理选择时所遇到的理论困难,使福利经济学能够在新的意义上同时参照两个基本标准对于经济运行体系进行有效的伦理选择。     

Book Reviews

Books Reviewed:
Daniel Chirot and Martin E. P. Seligman (eds.), Ethnopolitical Warfare: Causes, Consequences, and Possible Solutions
David Patrick Houghton, U.S. Foreign Policy and the Iran Hostage Crisis
Yoram Peri (ed.), The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
Peter Suedfeld (ed.), Light from the Ashes: Social Science Careers of Young Holocaust Refugees and Survivors     

Gendered Characteristics of Political Engagement in College Students

This study was designed to examine gender differences in the political engagement of college students, in relation to perception of gender inequality, partisanship, issue involvement, and media use during the 2000 presidential and congressional campaign. A survey-based study of political engagement was conducted among 236 undergraduate students at a large northeastern university in Pennsylvania—a swing state—during the campaign. Findings support the theory that women with higher perception of gender inequality tend to be more politically engaged than women with lower perception gender inequality. Foreign policy as an issue of interest is important in this study because it is the only policy issue for which there was both a significant gender difference and a significant association with political engagement.