In the 1990s Johannes looked back to the Philosophy of Design course he took from John Howard Benson in the 1950s when he was an undergraduate at Rhode Island School of Design. He takes this as the springboard to discuss his ideas on aesthetics -- what visual beauty is and how to make it.

A philosophical study of fundamental concepts in delivering the two-dimensional rendition of basic forms. Starting in the late 1950s, the artist posed himself multiple problems about pictorial perception discovered when rendering form, then created 70 black-and-white plates and 20 figures, each a separate work of art, to illustrate the effort. The accompanying text discusses his reflections on his successes and failures and his philosophy regarding the artistic attempt in general, a personal aesthetics.

This dissertation proposes a Thomistic heuristic for transgender individuals based on medical science and Sacra Doctrina. Throughout the previous century, medical professionals aimed to ease the inner tensions found within transgender individuals by conforming their outer appearances to their gender identities. Although well-intentioned, these efforts were on their own insufficient for relieving the underlying distress caused by gender dysphoria. Repeated studies have found a reduction of gender dysphoria through sex reassignment surgeries and hormone therapies; yet, transgender individuals, even after sex (...) reassignment procedures, have higher risks for mortality, neoplasms, suicidal behavior, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population. Faith-based conversion therapies double the morbidity rates of transgender individuals, making it clear that a religious approach not based on medical science pro-duces worse outcomes than providing no support at all. A lack of family and communal support of transgender youth leads to increased homelessness, prostitution, and substance abuse. The uncompromising “tough love” approach does not lead to positive outcomes for many transgender youths. Medical evidence from the previous decade suggests a neurodevelopmental cause for transgender identities; however, studies on Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria point to social causes for the spike of adolescents identifying as transgender. While high rates of pre-adolescent children who are diagnosed as transgender desist in their dysphoria, some studies have shown that adolescents who take hormone blockers do not desist into their early twenties. Longer-term follow-up studies are needed to know the effects hormone blockers have on desisting when prescribed at an early age. Non-cognitivist gender theorists have integrated transgender identities into their ideology whereby the body, mind, and spirit are not essentially united. Although these ideologies attempt to liberate individuals from restrictions of biological realism, this ideology has not offered transgender people an inner sense of peace. According to a 2018 Hu-man Rights Campaign study, individuals who identify as non-binary and other newly named gender identities suffer from the highest levels of depression, anxiety, and suicide attempts. Thomistic realism offers additional resources for transgender individuals, which secular science cannot offer on its own. Thomism embraces all disciplines of science and the humanities to present a holistic expression of the truth. The Thomistic heuristic utilizes medical science and then seeks to restore nature by the least invasive means while depending on virtues and grace to provide wisdom and character to over-come obstacles. This dissertation argues that using a Thomistic heuristic in line with church teaching is a better approach than medical therapies alone, a faith-based conversion therapy, or adopting non-cognitivist-based gender theory ideology. (shrink)

Director of a catechetical school in Alexandria, Clement employed a key concept in Middle Platonism, i.e. Logos, as a means to spread the Gospel among Hellenized Egyptians and Berbers. Ever the pedagogue, Clement freely employed rich metaphors; especially memorable was "Christ the Minstrel"; singing a "... new song for the cosmos.".

This study interrogates the use of technology by an artist, Chawne Kimber, to examine the incorporation of technology and its impact on artistic processes, identity affirmation, and authenticity. With Heideggerian theory serving as a methodological framework, a thorough survey of Kimber’s social media accounts combined with critical analysis of the artwork she exhibited online was conducted in the course of analyzing her use of technology to document artistic practices, engage with and establish artistic communities, and share and display art. Qualitative (...) analysis of Kimber’s social media accounts and her use of social media suggest there is a strong relation between mindful incorporation of technology into an artist’s process and practice and the creation of meaningful work. Based on the results of the evidentiary analysis of Kimber’s thoughts and artistic processes shared on social media, I argue that it is possible to incorporate technology into artistic activity in the endeavor to live a good life as well as a life of authenticity. Furthermore, the intentional integration of technology into artistic activity and focal practices can heighten an artist’s engagement with art while serving as a basis for reconsideration of technology and one’s relationship to it. (shrink)

This dissertation contributes to the discourse about emerging disruptive technology. It examines techniques that may foster a meaningful and honest discussion, within the Department of Defense, about the development and diffusion of transformational technology. The dissertation presents recent discoveries in brain-computer interface technology and neurocognitive augmentation as a lens through which to view a new era in scientific research. As technology starts to manipulate the human mind and body, it is imperative that the research community be aware and take notice (...) of the implications that will shape humanity. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and other components of the DoD hold prominence in advancing some of the most exciting research in brain-computer interaction and neurocognition. While this research is essential for national security, it can be alarming to those unfamiliar with the research agenda, and therefore must be discussed and debated during its early stages to construct a well-informed national vision. To help frame such a vision, the research presented in this dissertation examines signals, indicators, and trends in emerging technology to articulate the key influences that drive strategic decisions. Professional forecasters use trend data to resolve ambiguity and to stimulate negotiation over a range of plausible futures. Nurturing foresight skills within the DoD, including an interdisciplinary appreciation of the human narrative, may foster deeper reflection to maximize success in a burgeoning global intelligence race. Including the scientific community in the discourse over emerging disruptive technology offers an opportunity to shape the future with resilience, mindfulness, and determination. (shrink)

This dissertation focuses on an analysis of the works of James Turner Johnson, Jean Bethke Elsthain, and Eric Patterson through a Kantian lens to determine a set of normative guidelines for jus post bellum. The guidelines for jus post bellum were garnered from this analysis as well as other just war scholars including Brian Orend and Michael Walzer. Kant offers a deontological-based look at jus post bellum offering a guide to twenty-first century challenges facing the international community. The guidelines are (...) presented as well as recommendations for areas outside the scope of this dissertation that are pertinent to jus post bellum and the just war tradition and to make the guidelines manageable and effective. (shrink)

Utilizing a postphenomenological lens, in this study, I analyze Human Security Era, techno-futurist films as case studies to explore how humans and technology can and do co-shape a more harmonious world, resulting in TechnoHumanity. To build a techno-humane world, humans must find a way to spur technological innovation and advancement, embedding ethics in design to avoid a dystopian path to dehumanization. Films, and specifically the content or text of the films, provide case studies for a postphenomenological analysis to explore designed, (...) in-design, and future technologies and their interrelationship with humanity. (shrink)

The Big Lebowski is arguably the most significant cult film in history, and as such, it has garnered a healthy amount of scholarship. Most scholars have addressed the film’s playful use of genre, idiosyncratic dialogue, and farcical nature in an effort to illuminate the particular auteur style of the Coens. Through Jameson’s use of parody, pastiche and nostalgia, Lyotard’s use of metanarratives, and by Baudrillard’s use of hyperreality, this dissertation examines how The Big Lewbowski is postmodern in form, but functions (...) as a cultural critique. Second, the film is examined through a philosophical lens. The Dude is described as an existential hero by using Heideggarian and Sartrean philosophy. Third, the film is examined through ethical lens where Aristotelian virtue ethics are applied to illustrate the absurd banality of life in the postmodern era. Finally, the film’s cinematography is examined in terms of composition and technique to show how the camera visually supports the film’s underlying cultural critique. (shrink)

This dissertation examines how ethics, law, and technology are used to control the behavior of people and in particular how technologies such as video cameras are used to control police officers. In addition, the teaching of ethics to police officers is studied. The use of technologies as control devices will be compared and contrasted with the teaching of ethics to police officers. The thesis of this study is that in current society there is a greater reliance on technology to control (...) the behavior of police officers than on the teaching and reinforcement of ethics. This study assesses which method is most effective at controlling behavior and how the two could work together to achieve the goal of producing ethical behavior in police officers. This is a qualitative study and it will be done by an examination of the literature of the field and by an analysis of research conducted on the effects of video cameras on human behavior. Research into the teaching of ethics to police officers is also studied to assess the frequency of such training and its effectiveness. This dissertation argues that while in Classical Greece the emphasis was on character education and ethics with control coming from within the person, ethics and law in the West have become increasingly rationalized with the shift in emphasis to controls from outside the person. This is manifested in the growth in law in modern society and the proliferation of technology, such as video cameras, that are used to guide human behavior while the emphasis on character education has declined. The concept and theory of the Panopticon as theorized by Jeremy Bentham and Michel Foucault will be analyzed for its contribution to this study. Both saw the Panopticon as the "all seeing eye" which would lead people to proper behavior under the conception that they were always being watched. While it is believed by some that modern society has become the Panopticon as envisioned by Foucault, others disagree, arguing that while there has been a growth in video surveillance, it has not achieved its stated purpose. Those arguments are analyzed in this study as well. (shrink)

Rapid technological change affects humans in any era or culture, but increasingly in contemporary society. The subject of technology in Robert Pinsky’s poetry is clearly a topic for extended study. In his role as intermediary between the technological and literary cultures, Pinsky displays in his poems an ambivalence that reflects larger social attitudes toward, and philosophies of, technology. I intend to examine Pinsky’s role as contemporary poet by analyzing how his poems illuminate the current human condition, now inextricably linked to (...) technological change. Pinsky’s deliberate ambivalence toward technology positions him as a gap mender as described by Stephen Jay Gould. (shrink)

The work highlights the origins of pilgrimage, with particular focus on the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain. It also ties to other major pilgrimage locations and the commonality between faiths regarding the act of pilgrimage itself. The core focuses is the potential for an authentic-transformative experience through the act of pilgrimage while engaging in the profane activity of social media. The paper takes the position that while online faith practice and even digital or virtual pilgrimage offer deeply spiritual and (...) potentially transformative experiences, traditional-physical pilgrimage practice is disturbed by the individual who chooses to consistently connect to the secular world via social media and/or electronic mail. Furthermore, this work illustrates, through a deep engagement with epic “travel” literature from the past, in comparison with modern and contemporary pilgrim memoirs and narratives, that humanity’s desire for engagement with the spiritual world has not changed in any fundamental way, rather how we engage with the spiritual has changed and continues to change. The instant connective power of mobile Smart Technology in general and Social Media specifically is a dangerous distraction to the traditional Pilgrim and ultimately pulls the pilgrim outside the sacred world of pilgrimage making it impossible to fully engage in the experience. (shrink)

This interdisciplinary, qualitative dissertation offers an exploration into possible intimate relationships between recently expanding, technology driven forms of centralization of our social institutions and a supposed decline in moral development and happiness among Americans today. According to Jacques Ellul, technology in itself is not the problem. Instead, he believes the tragedy is that the new idea or spirit of technique, technical efficiency and economic progress, which may have started with the Industrial revolution, and has become the western world s new (...) "religion", the new salvation for humanity. Ellul and other thinkers suggest that the single-minded focus on material progress has made centralization of our institutions necessary. Within increasingly centralized systems human beings are being as means to the new end of efficiency for material progress. According to Ellul and others, our institutions have thereby become increasingly unfit for a certain uniquely human way of being, which facilitates moral development. The ideas of Aristotle and other theorists are used as lenses through which we can also look at the perennial question of human happiness and its possible relationship with moral development and the way we live within community. Aspects of life within centralized America today are being contrasted with features of Aristotle s ideal state. Our highly centralized way of being in America today is also being compared to the less centralized way of being in America 50-60 years ago. (shrink)

This paper has grown out of concerns that I have about the way in which some pro-life arguments have been developing recently, and it is written in a spirit of frank dialogue with those whom I consider allies. I present three basic problems within some prominent contemporary pro-life argumentation, all three of which are rooted in a general tendency towards relying on empirical science in an increasingly exclusive way as the foundation of those arguments. The three problems that I touch (...) on are: a neglect of the role of God in human procreation, a neglect of the dignity of women, and a neglect of understanding personal being. (shrink)

The uniqueness of persons is explored philosophically in the writings of Max Scheler and Pope John Paul II.

This dissertation examines the question of the ‘true’ or ‘essential’ self. It suggests two sets of interrelated propositions. The first set includes these following claims: 1) that all philosophical or scientific theories of the self are fundamentally driven by the personality type or temperament of the theorizer; 2) that the entire philosophical tradition has been dominated by two personality types or temperaments, what William James has called the ‘tender-minded and the ‘tough-minded’ temperaments; 3) that the question of the self, philosophically (...) speaking, only really became a proper topic of study after the Renaissance, and especially after the work of Rene Descartes in the seventeenth-century; 4) that only in the eighteenth century did a third philosophical temperament, what I call the ‘self-minded’ temperament, appear in the form of Jean Jacques Rousseau; 5) that the dominant contemporary theories of the self, which I identify as social constructionist theory and the neuroscientific theory, are the creations of individuals bearing the tough-minded temperament and, 6) that both the tender-minded and tough-minded thinker is not temperamentally suited to describing or understanding the nature of the true or essential self. The second set argues the following claims: 1) that the self-minded temperament is the philosophical temperament best suited to understanding the nature of the true self; 2) that the true self is paradoxically contingent and metaphysical in nature; 3) that there are occult or esoteric technologies, such as Vedic and Western astrology and the Enneagram, that offer a powerful set of tools for understanding the individual self; 4) that these tools have been rejected by most thinkers in the Western philosophical, scientific, and religious traditions because they challenge the fundamental beliefs of those traditions, especially the belief in free will and scientific progress; 5) that this ‘third’ realm of insight into the human self is the realm of the ‘enchanted’, and 6) that any complete theoretical model of the human self must include some serious consideration of these ‘enchanted’ technologies if they are to truly be complete. (shrink)

This qualitative analysis examines the effects of a growing environmental ethic on the electric power grid in southeastern New England from the late nineteenth century to the start of the new millennia. The increased awareness of the environment evolved into a new belief system of the population and altered the methods of construction, operation and maintenance of the advanced technology system of the electric power grid. The manner in which this occurred suggests that technological momentum is a better concept than (...) technological determinism with which to examine the development of technological systems in the modern world. This dissertation examines the trinity of actors affecting this process. The electric power companies, with the New England Electric System as the main protagonist, attempted to expand the electric power grid to meet expected consumer demand and economic opportunities. A devoted cadre of nascent environmentalists, dismissive of the commercial and technological requirements of the electric power grid, suggested to the population that the new idea of protecting the environment should instead take priority. The interaction of these two forces led to a governmental response that attempted to continue to meet the population’s demands while preventing the degradation of the environment. The resultant transformation of the population’s perception of the electric power grid, its regulation by the government, and its operation by the system members, suggest that advanced technology systems are influenced as much by philosophical concerns as any technical constraints. (shrink)

The classical-Christian model of friendship has operated for many centuries from oral traditions and through the age of print. However, technological developments in communication and media rearrange mindscapes. Consequently, values, or, those things that give meaning, can change, such as perceptions of friendship. If one accepts that communication is vital to human relationships, the paradigm for the classical-Christian friendship should operate according to the new vocabulary of expanding communication and media possibilities. This work examines literature and philosophical thought within their (...) historical contexts in order to gauge the operation of the classical-Christian friendship model from the beginning of Western literature to Western literature at the apex of print culture. (shrink)

This interdisciplinary study strives to provide a philosophically critical, historical investigation and qualitative exposition regarding the observations and thought of Romano Guardini in order to suggest an answer to the question of `what it means to be human in an age of technology'. Guardini's concerns and observations are presented as valid and pertinent to the current age. As such, this study investigates the manner in which the continued development and use of technology tend to affect the nature of man and (...) man's perspective towards himself in attempting to identify any basic sense of order and meaning within this contemporary world. This study also identifies and draws upon several thinkers whose thought may be understood as influencing Guardini, or who have more recently addressed similar concerns regarding the relation of man to modern technology as central aspects of a current, ongoing conversation. It remains however, that the primary content of this investigation is to provide a focused introduction and interpretation of Romano Guardini's various concerns regarding the effects of technology on human existence. Guardini perceived existence through the lens of a singularly Christian Weltanschauung. This study presents Guardini's concerns and observations about mankind as valid and relevant for serious consideration by both Christian and non- Christian in the present global culture. The observations of several thinkers such as Gerald Phelan, Frederick Wilhelmsen, and St. John Paul II are drawn upon to provide support and counterpoint to the overall investigation and insights that emerge from Guardini's philosophical and theological anthropology of man. (shrink)

This dissertation employs a theoretical approach to examine the online milieu as an enabling space that allows individuals to act prosocially by providing opportunities for: observability of prosocial participation; receipt of explicit recognition toward the development of implicit recognition; and shared experience with the other, toward an end of increased empathic concern. The parable of the Good Samaritan, illustrates the capacity that the individual possesses to help a stranger in need. With the parable as backdrop, individual motivations for participation in (...) prosocial action are examined, in the setting of the online milieu. The willingness to assist a stranger or “the other,” that the Good Samaritan exemplifies, translates into the online milieu through the connective technology of the Internet, by virtue of its permitting a digitally enabled linking that would otherwise, largely be restricted by geospatial separation. The motivation of the individual, to help another in need, by means of online prosocial action, is examined through an interdisciplinary analysis utilizing the lenses of: religious studies, practical ethics, moral philosophy, social psychology, Internet studies, economics, political philosophy, media studies and contemporary literature. This dissertation investigates the impact of observability; explicit and implicit recognition; and shared experience in terms of motivations at four levels of individual participation in online prosocial behavior: the Inert Actor, the Random Actor, the Individual Actor and the Altruous Actor. These levels of motivation are inspired by C.D. Batson’s “Paths of Motivation Matrix.” The goal of examining motivations at varying levels of individual participation is to develop a deeper understanding of the interplay between other-interested and self-interested motivations in encouraging participation in online prosocial behavior. This dissertation uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine the construction of prosocial behavior. Motivations for prosocial behavior are examined through a comparative analysis of the Parable of the Good Samaritan and similar teachings that are presented in the wisdom traditions of Judaism, Islam and Buddhism, to investigate the role that intrinsic and extrinsic motivations may play in other-interested action. The theories of Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, Plato, Aristotle, Auguste Comte, and Adam Smith are discussed to provide an overview of the philosophical debate surrounding altruistic and egoistic motivations. The social sciences provide a contemporary lens through which to analyze the impact of the online milieu on prosocial behavior. Batson’s “empathy altruism hypothesis” is analyzed to illuminate the role of empathy in online prosocial behavior. The Internet as enabling technology is studied through perspectives in media studies and Internet studies including the works of Marshall McLuhan, which are placed in conversation with Ian McEwan’s novel Saturday. Civic engagement is examined through the observations of Alexis de Tocqueville in dialog with contemporary scholarship discussing the implications of a digitally enabled “feeling-with.” The concept of revelatory participation is analyzed building on the works of Hannah Arendt, Jürgen Habermas, Michel Foucault and Immanuel Kant. The role of empathy as motivation for prosocial action is surveyed through multiple perspectives from the fields of virtue ethics, care ethics and practical ethics including Peter Singer’s theory of “effective altruism.” This dissertation focuses on motivation for online prosocial behavior at the individual level to understand further the potential that the online milieu holds for a digitally mediated empathic concern for the other. (shrink)

Although Christian ethics and contemporary utilitarianism both employ terms such as love and compassion, they are in fact polar opposite ethical views. This fact is not at all easy to discern. One key to perceiving the radical opposition between them lies in clarifying their respective concepts of suffering. In the Christian view, suffering is always understood as the suffering of individual persons, while in utilitarianism suffering is primarily understood as a quantifiable entity detached from the individuals who experience it. The (...) paper attempts a primarily philosophical elucidation of this difference, including some theological points, by taking as its point of departure John Paul II's presentation of the three-fold sense in which suffering has the potential to unleash of love. Following a presentation of the utilitarian view, it then proceeds to explore the relation between suffering and love by probing the public statements on the experience of Peter Singer in the struggle with his mother s debilitating illness. The paper concludes with the presentation of a premise built into the structure of contemporary utilitarian ethics rendering it inherently self-defeating with respect to its own stated goal. (shrink)

This dissertation is an epistemological study of virtue and its place in addressing the transdisciplinary question "What is a good life?" Alasdair MacIntyre's three-pronged account of virtue is applied to a case study of the Nice Paper, an alternative newspaper published in Rhode Island from 1989 until 1995, in order to discern the workings of virtue as resistance to late-capitalist modernity. It was discerned through hermeneutic phenomenology that the practices, traditions and narrative unity of the community of the paper were (...) expressed in the sub-communities of alternative-ness, journalism, being in and of Providence and Rhode Island, being a maker and do-er, and art. The paper functioned as a well curated wunderkammer, itself like a work of art. The application of MacIntyre's account was expanded, and the interpretation included the discovery of the Nice Paper's being a "community of virtue," in which the individual was transformed from "plain person" to "moral philosopher" through the practices that aimed not only at the goods of the sub communities, but also at the greater good of human flourishing. A bridge to the classical virtues courage, justice, and hope is developed. The findings merit the consideration of the paper as a model of a community of practice offering a good life. The study puts forth a historical account of the moral, political, and aesthetic "structure of feeling," and argues for a place in the history of Providence and Rhode Island. (shrink)

Birmingham, Alabama was a racially segregated city up until 1963 when members of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) began a movement to stop discrimination against the African American population. Though the movement itself was conducted in a peaceful nonviolent manner, opposition from the white civic authorities was often cruel and bloody. Images of protesters both young and old were projected across the news and made the American people think deeply about the problems within their country. Eventually, the protests paid off (...) and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed, prohibiting racial discrimination in public accommodations, facilities, transportation and the workplace. The outcome of the protests was positive, but it was a long and brutal journey for all of those involved. Although the Birmingham protesters did not attack anyone, they used the violence against them to gain sympathy. In the end, due to the very nature of man, nonviolent protest was used as a strategy rather than because it was the overwhelmingly noble means of protest. (shrink)

Both philosophical ethical systems and religious ethics are eminently desirable in higher education today. And, like two languages, and despite the differences, they can and should complement each other. In an increasingly secular milieu, our graduates will have to be "bilingual.".

This qualitative analysis examines the thinking of Thomas Merton and Jacques Ellul on the impact that they believe technology and the idea of progress has had on human freedom. The thesis is that for both Merton and Ellul, modern technology itself and an uncritical acceptance of the idea of technological progress potentially inhibits the contemplative life and serves to deprive humanity of the God-given gift of freedom. Examining Merton and Ellul through theological, sociological, and political lenses allows a point-by-point comparison (...) of a number of different ideas that directly relate to the impact that technology has had on the human condition. This comparison identifies commonalities of thought and traces some of the antecedents to their thought. Merton the Roman Catholic and Ellul the Protestant offer remarkably similar conclusions regarding the impact that technology has had on the human condition. As Christians, they provide a distinctly Christocentric view of freedom, and it is against this unique view that the impact of technology and the idea of progress is evaluated. Both men offer a "third way," which is an approach that allows one to transcend the grip that the technological society maintains over the individual. They are examples of men not only thinking about the impact that technology has had on human freedom as much as they are individuals firmly committed to living out the ideals that they spent their lives articulating. (shrink)

One of America's great intellectuals, Ralph Waldo Emerson created Transcendentalism, the underpinning of the Romantic movement and America's 19th century Renaissance. Not so well known is his anguished departure from the Christianity of his youth. This book corrects this oversight by showing connections between the faith of his youth and the central themes of Transcendentalism. This is a book not only about Emerson's intellectual and spiritual journey but about the essence of New England Transcendentalism.

This thesis explores the manner in which the vocabularies of quantum and classical physics can be redescribed in the vocabulary of Richard Rorty’s ironist and common sense dyad, and vice-versa. Of primary concern in this exploration is an examination of the ways in which such a redescription might encourage the realization of Rorty’s postmetaphysical culture and its attendant model of human solidarity. It is suggested that the concept of decoherence in the quantum mechanical tradition will prove especially useful to the (...) Rortian who wishes to usher in the aforementioned cultural shift as decoherence both preserves the commonsensical understanding of the world and also offers a compelling description of the way in which irony must remain, as suggested by Rorty, a private pursuit. (shrink)

The purpose of this study is to analyze the problematic impact of technology on American health care. Although the pharmaceutical industry's use of technology has produced beneficial results, at times the industry seems to overlook the unintended consequences involved. This study also examines the pharmaceutical industry's attempts to influence the physician's prescribing decisions as well as the patient's desire to get well as soon as possible. It analyzes the FDA's role in approving drugs, in monitoring the post-approval process, and in (...) overseeing the industry's technological excesses. While the industry has the admirable goal of trying to relieve or eradicate illness, a few firms regularly engage in questionable behavior as they strive to increase their profitability. In addition to using ethically suspect marketing techniques, some firms suppress unfavorable research. In sum, it is clear that the drug industry needs to engage in deeper ethical reflection. ^. (shrink)

This dissertation examines the following question: Was the intercountry adoption of Romanian children by Americans during the period of 1990–2003 ethically justified? Stated formally, its thesis is: Utilizing developed ethical theories, specifically deontological ethics, an ethic of care, and utilitarianism, this dissertation assesses qualitatively intercountry adoption from Romania to the United States. ^ The assessment begins by examining the internationally approved documents relating to intercountry adoption. These reports help produce a quasi-global consensus for the three main “value views” of intercountry (...) adoption. These value views are then examined against the frameworks of deontological (Kantian) ethics, utilitarianism, and an ethic of care (grounded by phronesis or practical wisdom) to produce an “ethical model” of intercountry adoption. The Romanian/American situation is then compared against this “model.” The assessment demonstrates that during this period, intercountry adoption from Romania was ethical and should continue to be supported by citizens of a globalized world. ^. (shrink)

Physicians currently consider genetic testing for breast cancer, especially the BRCA1 and BRCA2 tests, as problematic, because their predictive value, efficacy, and benefit to patients benefit vary greatly. Individual physicians are pressured by mounting patients demanding access to genetic testing. On the one hand, many patients believe that they have the right to know their future medical condition and that their physician is obligated to respond to this right. On the other hand, a number of physicians hesitate to offer genetic (...) testing to patients because of ethical questions concerning the efficacy of the genetic testing, the psychological and social impact of such testing on the patients or their families, and the desire to honor a patient's rights to make his/her own decisions. ^ Additionally, legal issues surround the patient's perception of the physician's obligation to offer genetic testing. If a physician knows that a patient has a family history of breast cancer but does not offer the genetic test, and if the patient or a family member develops the disease, the doctor could be sued for wrongful practices. In brief, fear of possible legal suits and/or fear of patient reprisal can complicate the ethical questions that physicians must consider together to order BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic testing for the prediction of breast cancer. ^ This study examined the attitudes of Rhode Island primary care physicians about ordering genetic testing for breast cancer. It also compared these attitudes with the gender and the length of medical experience of these primary care physicians. The research studied four attitude clusters: the use of genetic testing; confidentiality and a third party's right to know an individual's genetic information; the physician's feeling of competency in understanding the technological, ethical, legal, and social implications of genetic testing for breast cancer; and finally, the attitude of physicians concerning responsibility to provide genetic counseling. ^ The results indicated that significant differences exist among physicians. Quite different attitudes were found regarding genetic testing and responsibility to counsel patients on the social, legal, and ethical ramifications of genetic testing for breast cancer. On the other hand, this study discovered no significant differences between physicians' gender or length of experience regarding patient confidentiality or adequacy of genetic technology. ^ As a result, these findings suggest a need to do further research on the differences found in this study. The question is, “Do these results reflect the attitudes of all primary care physicians or only the 162 doctors surveyed in Rhode Island?” ^. (shrink)

The purpose of this study is to analyze the problematic impact of technology on American health care. Although the pharmaceutical industry's use of technology has produced beneficial results, at times the industry seems to overlook the unintended consequences involved. This study also examines the pharmaceutical industry's attempts to influence the physician's prescribing decisions as well as the patient's desire to get well as soon as possible. It analyzes the FDA's role in approving drugs, in monitoring the post-approval process, and in (...) overseeing the industry's technological excesses. While the industry has the admirable goal of trying to relieve or eradicate illness, a few firms regularly engage in questionable behavior as they strive to increase their profitability. In addition to using ethically suspect marketing techniques, some firms suppress unfavorable research. In sum, it is clear that the drug industry needs to engage in deeper ethical reflection. (shrink)

Science fiction is a literary response to the social challenges arising from the Industrial Revolution and the subsequent changes of the contemporary technological age. The science-fiction response involves a mythmaking function, which is at once a search for stability and social cohesion, as well as a critical response to failed efforts to achieve those goals. The approach of this paper accounts for the dual nature of science fiction, as exemplified by the dialectic between utopian and dystopian literature: between authors who (...) lay out blueprints for a perfect society and those who criticize such schemes. This dissertation examines the ethical principles of three influential authors: Samuel Butler, H. G. Wells, and Olaf Stapledon. Butler wrote a satiric utopia that reflected the ravages of industrialization and overzealous reformist schemes. H. G. Wells created the opposite of utopia, dystopian worlds where technological progress has led to ever more unhappiness. Olaf Stapledon created a transcendent cosmos with a place for humanity, albeit an extremely insignificant one. The three authors came to reject the notion of progress, and the idea that technological development will cause more human happiness. The methodology uses the comparative approach of literary theory applied in the context of a dialectic between technological change and literary response. The conclusions point to the significance of ethical systems in science fiction. The genre is neither prediction nor apology: it reflects the search for security and stability in a world where technological development has repudiated traditional myth and morality. (shrink)

This dissertation is a contextual examination of an ethical organizational dilemma complicated by elaborate and interrelated systems or soft technologies. Dow Corning's silicone breast implant case is analyzed by example, to show the usefulness of a more varied, flexible, and multi-faceted approach to ethics and management in the midst of a rapidly expanding technological society. This case represents an ongoing managerial crisis that demonstrates why integrated ethical analysis is not a theoretical or historical practice but one of vital and critical (...) social importance. Through qualitative analysis, this study addresses an ethical and managerial crisis from three broad perspectives of ethics, technology, and organizations. The ethical analysis is based on the three constructs of rule ethics, consequence ethics, and virtue ethics. The systems technologies reviewed are the medical system, the legal system, the Federal Food and Drug Administration, the media, and the consumer groups. Finally, as this research provides insights for practical and ethical management, an organizational analysis is included that views corporations as machines, systems, and cultures. The multi-faceted organizational and ethical assessment used in this study enhances the creative and disciplined thought required in today's generally complex, ambiguous, and paradoxical business environment. The Dow Coming silicone implant case demonstrates how systems technologies in an insular rules-based culture caused a corporation reputed for high ethical principles to suffer bankruptcy for alleged unethical and illegal conduct. An organizational culture based predominantly on rules and consequences requires decision-makers with broad perspectives on moral character and virtue. Managers need broader ways of understanding organizational life to better prepare a corporation for both ethical and financial success in today's rapidly changing technological society. A holistic perspective provides extensions of ethical understanding and development, opportunities to ensure stakeholder rights, and increased probabilities for organizational survival and growth. (shrink)

This dissertation examines C. S. Lewis's interpretation of technology, progress, and the human condition through an analysis of his life and writings. The thesis of this study is that Lewis understood technology to be an instrument of power that was increasingly used as a tool of manipulation and control in the twentieth century. Lewis's worldview was shaped by experiential, philosophical, literary, and theological sources and each one had a direct influence on his view of technology. Lewis believed that the propensity (...) for using technology in a destructive manner was a result of universal pride and greed in humanity. These character traits resulted from the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Building upon Christian theology as traced through Augustinianism and Anglicanism, Lewis's understanding of progress was bounded by a belief in a cataclysmic end to human history. He did not believe in the inevitability of progress and he feared the abuse of technology and science by small groups of individuals as well as governments. The study focuses on the non-fiction writings of Lewis and demonstrates that much of his thought pertaining to technology stems from his concern that natural law was being abandoned in modern culture. Lewis's strongest defense of the intellectual heritage of the West is found in his books Mere Christianity, The Discarded Image, The Abolition of Man, and his Cambridge University inaugural lecture “ De Descriptione Temporum.” Five specific topics addressed by Lewis in relation to the use of technology are studied. These areas are: medicine and bioethics, government, education, war, and space exploration. On each of these subjects, Lewis argued that technology could be used for the benefit or detriment of individuals and society, but he feared the latter. (shrink)

Technology, while bestowing benefits upon society, has presented new challenges and risks, and the philosopher Jacques Ellul has reflected upon the problem of technology within society in his works The Technological Society and The Technological Bluff, among others. It is his ideas on ethics, technique, and technology that will be discussed here. ^ This dissertation will examine Ellul's concept of technique within graduate career education, and will measure stakeholder perceptions of a career-focused M.B.A. program. Key to this examination is the (...) notion that the development of career-focused M.B.A. programs need not preclude the creation of a holistically educated person. Indeed a successful program will encourage this process. ^ A preliminary review of the literature reveals that while businesses encourage job training within M.B.A. programs, communication skills—and the ability to communicate with and relate to customer needs—are deemed crucial. An argument within this dissertation will focus on how exposure to the humanities enhances these skills. The research explored in this dissertation will demonstrate how different stakeholders might have different views of the importance of creating a fully educated person. If those differences do exist, why do they? How can these differences be reconciled? These questions will be explored and recommendations for better-educated career-oriented students will be offered. ^. (shrink)

This dissertation examines the following question: Was the intercountry adoption of Romanian children by Americans during the period of 1990–2003 ethically justified? Stated formally, its thesis is: Utilizing developed ethical theories, specifically deontological ethics, an ethic of care, and utilitarianism, this dissertation assesses qualitatively intercountry adoption from Romania to the United States. The assessment begins by examining the internationally approved documents relating to intercountry adoption. These reports help produce a quasi-global consensus for the three main "value views" of intercountry adoption. (...) These value views are then examined against the frameworks of deontological ethics, utilitarianism, and an ethic of care to produce an "ethical model" of intercountry adoption. The Romanian/American situation is then compared against this "model." The assessment demonstrates that during this period, intercountry adoption from Romania was ethical and should continue to be supported by citizens of a globalized world. (shrink)

We appear to be at a critical juncture where the impetus to procure autonomous systems to address urgent needs may push us past our reservations about robots and into embracing a rapidly evolving technology with far-reaching implications. The pursuit of humanoid robots is a fact—it is an ongoing, highly attractive field that cannot be ignored solely on the grounds that the ultimate aim might never be achieved. The issue of realization of a humanoid robot is only tangential to what the (...) research and development of humanoid robots has the potential to reveal to us about our own humanity. The humanoid robot is chosen for a very specific reason—the disciplines within this select field of robotics are oriented toward recreating particular human capabilities or traits, and the humanoid form relates both philosophical and scientific concepts of the need for "embodiment" to the development of true autonomy. The development of humanoid robots connects the works of fiction, philosophy, and technology in a very direct way that allows the exploration of the meaning of humanity in an age of advanced technology. This dissertation examines what humanoid robotics reveals and what it has the potential to reveal about the search for knowledge, the search for the meaning of existence, and the understanding of reality. Both the scientific and fictional investigations of humanoid robots change our views about what a human really is. New questions are raised as a result of the dynamic tension between technologists and humanists. Humanoid robotics is most productively studied from an interdisciplinary, phenomenological perspective, as we must consider the cultural and epistemological impacts of humanoid robots on us as we strive to recreate ourselves. (shrink)

This question has developed, post Hobbes, in two directions. In one understanding, morality is reasonable, either because it coincides with self-interest or because it contributes to self-interest. An alternative approach rejects the primacy of reason and looks instead to human intuition, human affections or the will for an account of being moral.

Defining religion as morality, Thomas Jefferson considered religion essential for the unity of the United States. His casual wall metaphor is not representative of his thinking and, therefore, should not be a basis for constitutional interpretation.

Law and morality now stand as two poles of an American dilemma. We are requiring of law far more than it can deliver, while morality is constitutionally unworkable. However, a third option, viz. philosophical/secular ethics, can provide a viable conceptual-linguistic framework for understanding and achieving the seemingly-elusive unity of national vision.

What is the influence of the increasing complexity and fragmentation of modern society on the moral coherence of the human person as an individual and as a community member? Researchers have tackled the question of modern moral coherence from a variety of disciplinary vantage points, with appropriate intra-disciplinary focus and depth. Rarely have researchers attempted to apply a more comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to the researchable questions of the present study. This dissertation analyzes the impact of complex modern society on moral (...) coherence and explores what the idea of moral coherence looks like in the modern world according to an array of thinkers from five disciplinary fields. Finally, a coherent picture of the modern moral self is constructed from this interdisciplinary selection of thinkers of the late twentieth century. A working definition of the idea of moral coherence for the purpose of the present study includes coherence within the individual human person and across individual selves. Additionally, moral coherence attempts to reconcile moral judgment and action, internal and external moral and non-moral factors, and individual knowledge, experience and beliefs in the moral realm. Sociologists, philosophers, political philosophers, psychologists and theologians, such as Robert Bellah, David Riesman, George H. Mead, Charles Taylor, Michel Foucault, Hannah Arendt, John Rawls, Alasdair Maclntyre, Michael Sandel, Amitai Etzioni, Lawrence Kohlberg, James Rest, H. R. Niebuhr and Stanley Hauerwas, all explore this question of moral coherence of the modern human person as an individual and community member in their work. Using hermeneutic methods to analyze the works of these key thinkers in each of these five fields, this research attempts to determine whether a coherent moral picture emerges from an interdisciplinary approach to these questions. (shrink)

In his early essay "Nature" Emerson lays the foundation of the Transcendentalist or Romantic movement in America. Key is his "transparent eyeball" passage, where "eye" refers to the human role in Nature, i.e. creatively perceiving or knowing Nature. Man is Nature knowing itself.

Interpretations of Emerson's theme of self-reliance which generate charges that he understood neither evil nor virtue are inappropriate. A fairer reading should keep in mind the Neo-Platonism of Plotinus, which gave to Transcendentalism a dynamic emanation/return schema and to mankind a place of privilege in knowing and valuing Nature.

More than ever before, being able to draw a distinction between the tolerable and the intolerable is necessary. Unfortunately the traditional understanding, as identified with the Enlightenment view first articulated by John Locke, presents merely formalistic criteria. Lacking substantive criteria, our contemporary understanding of toleration is inadequate to our needs.

Working from a unique background in both archaeology and philosophy, R.G. Collingwood undertook to revise historiography by redefining the concept of evidence. Historians through the modern period, in their willingness to emulate the natural sciences, had absorbed a brand of empiricism which was not only compromising historical thinking but also frustrating the service which history, ideally, should provide for enlightening human experience. What comes of his project is a concept of evidence which may be described as a priori.

Poaching and animal trafficking is a global issue in the areas of biology, morality and politics. This paper will discuss the different areas of impact as well as consider options for the prevention and alleviation of this issue.