Social Ethics

A combination of social forces has thrown marriage into question in westernised societies at the end of the millennium. This uncertainty creates space for new ways of thinking about marriage. In this context, we examine the idea of marriage as friendship. We trace its genealogy in the work of Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor and then subject it to critical scrutiny using some of Michel de Montaigne’s ideas. We ask how applic- able the ideal of higher friendship (...) is to marriage and what might be gained and lost by a synthesis of marriage and friendship. Grounding the discussion in historical sources is valuable because the topic is so little explored in the contemporary philosophical literature. This approach also allows any enduring value in these historical texts to be elicited. (shrink)

Para abordar el miedo desde el Coaching, hay primero que definir qué es el Coaching. Según la Internacional Coach Federation (ICF), e Coaching profesional consiste en una relación profesional continuada que ayuda a obtener resultados extraordinarios en la vida, profesión, empresa o negocios de las personas. Mediante el proceso de Coaching, el cliente (coachee) profundiza en su conocimiento, aumenta su rendimiento y mejora su calidad de vida.

the arguments in their favour are weak. Arguments based on reciprocity fail to explain why only means-tested public benefits should be subject to work requirements, and why unpaid dependant care work should not count as satisfying citizens’ obligations to reciprocate. Argu- ments based on promoting the work ethic misattribute recipients’ nonwork to deviant values, when their core problem is finding steady employment consistent with supporting a family and meeting dependant care responsibilities. Rigid work requirements impose unreasonable costs on some of (...) the poor. A welfare system based on a rebuttable presumption that recipients will work for pay, conjoined with more generous work supports, would promote justice better than either unconditional welfare or strict requirements [1]. (shrink)

Abstract: Bringing children to have respect for others is generally regarded as a central task of moral and social education. In this article one particular view of what ?respect for others? means and how it is justified is examined critically and found to be unsatisfactory. This view states that ?respect for others? follows logically from the proper conceptualization of ?person?, and claims, as a consequence, that in bringing children to respect others moral educators would be engaged primarily in a cognitive (...) task (ie helping children to acquire the proper concept of a ?person') ?? and would not have to resort to the conditioning of attitudes or the use of extrinsic motivation. This view is unsatisfactory, it is argued, as it does not give a correct account of the logical relationship between ?person? and ?respect? ?? and the conclusion is drawn that it has not been shown that moral and social education can be primarily cognitive, in this particular respect. Neither has it been shown that conditioning of attitudes is unnecessary. (shrink)

This article compares Enright's cognitive-developmental model of forgiveness (Enright et al., 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994) with a model of forgiveness based on communication between the wronged and the wrongdoer. While unilateral forgiveness is unconditional and is a process which happens wholly within the person who has suffered an injustice, negotiated forgiveness requires of the wrongdoer (1) confession; (2) ownership; and (3) repentance for their actions. Unilateral forgiveness is built upon the principle of identity; in contrast, negotiated forgiveness begins with, and (...) extends Piaget's principle of ideal reciprocity. Enright's highest stage of forgiveness reasoning is one in which considerations of social context are transcended; in the model of negotiated forgiveness, such understanding of context is central. Whereas unilateral forgiveness is a wholly intraindividual phenomenon, negotiated forgiveness is quintessentially social and dynamic. Using the example of truth and reconciliation commissions, the article examines the implications for the relationship between justice and forgiveness, according to each model. (shrink)

Abstract One of the greatest achievements ensuing from contemporary commitments to multiculturalism has been a greater awareness of the indignity of ethnocentrism. However, an inadequate understanding of how to avoid ethnocentrism may lead to moral paralysis. In this paper, it is argued that extolling the voices of others does not necessarily imply denigrating our own and that respecting diversity is the only genuine antidote for ethnocentrism.

Preferentism is the doctrine that "in deciding what is good and what is bad for a given individual, the ultimate criterion can only be his own wants and his own preferences." If preferentism is true then it would seem to follow that modifying a person's preferences so that they are satisfied by what is on offer should be as good as improving the circumstances of her life to satisfy her preferences. Our intuitive response to stories of life-adjustment through brainwashing, psychosurgery (...) and the like suggests otherwise. I sketch a broadly preferentist account drawing upon Sen's (non-preferentist) capability approach that resists such putative counterexamples. (shrink)

Human beings inhabit a symbolic reality that articulates meaning. This is culture understood as a web of meanings that actually builds our identity by providing guidance in the complexity of our environment. It is the complex interplay between identity and alterity, between interiority and exteriority, between familiarity and strangeness. Worldviews set up borders that delimit one's own world and others' ground by establishing stereotypes and prejudices. This article presents the results of a research project on prejudices towards the other in (...) students majoring in Education and Psychology with the aim of offering some reflections on what is at stake in social exclusion policies. (shrink)

Abortion, distribution of wealth, civil disobedience, reverse discrimination, sex-role stereotyping, censorship – what does philosophy have to contribute to these practical moral issues? In this important book, first published in 1982, Robin Barrow argues convincingly that the capacity to make fine conceptual discriminations is crucial to an informed response to such issues, and he alerts us to the degree to which this ability has been lacking in much previous philosophical thought. The author presents a series of formidable arguments regarding the (...) more controversial social and moral issues of our time, and in doing so he gives the general reader and the student of philosophy a clearer appreciation of the nature of the philosophical contribution. (shrink)

This article explores the hypothesis that third parties are motivated to seek information about agents who have behaved unethically in the past, even if the agent and available information are irrelevant to the third parties’ goals and interests. We explored two possible motives for this information seeking behavior: deonance, or the motive to care about ethics and justice simply for the sake of ethics and justice, and distrust-based threat monitoring. Participants in a consumer decision task were found to seek out (...) information about an agent who had behaved unethically even when the agent was explicitly excluded from the task; there were no intentions to purchase from the agent; performance expectations for the agent’s product were low; the information that could be sought was non-diagnostic, redundant or irrelevant to an ethical judgment; and alternatives in the market offered as good or better value as the unethical agent. Critically, this information seeking took place even when the observer could disengage from and was not vulnerable to the agent. The findings are discussed in terms of third party information seeking and its effects on ethical behavior in the marketplace. (shrink)

Moral reasoning theorists working in the constructivist tradition have tended to explain unethical behaviour by assuming that a breakdown occurs in the link between a person's moral judgement within a particular situation and his ultimate behaviour in that situation. This breakdown is usually seen as being the result of the individual ignoring his deontic judgement in favour of meeting a competing, non-moral social obligation or of fulfilling a selfish interest. This model of unethical behaviour has led to suggestions that moral (...) educators focus on fostering the incorporation of morality into people's self-concepts and on building moral character. An argument is presented that unethical behaviour, especially that involving relatively minor moral breaches, is often not the result of a moral judgement-behaviour hiatus but rather a corruption of the construal process. This corruption, driven by a desire for personal gain, results in the erroneous conclusion that an unethical action is actually morally acceptable. Immoral behaviour under this scenario is not a result of moral judgement failing to determine action but rather of moral judgement corrupted by self-serving interests succeeding in driving action. The educational implications of this alternative model of immoral behaviour are discussed. (shrink)

Empirical research indicates that feelings of disgust actually affect our moral beliefs and moral motivations. The question is, should they? Daniel Kelly argues that they should not. More particularly, he argues for what we may call the irrelevancy thesis and the anti-moralization thesis. According to the irrelevancy thesis, feelings of disgust should be given no weight when judging the moral character of an action (or norm, practice, outcome, or ideal). According to the anti-moralization thesis, feelings of disgust should not be (...) allowed a role in, or harnessed in the service of, moral motivation. In this paper, I will argue against both theses, staking out a moderate position according to which feelings of disgust can (but needn’t always) play a proper role in aid of moral belief formation and moral motivation. (shrink)

Although researchers working from the cognitive-developmental and domain perspective have contributed significantly in presenting insights on children's moral knowledge, specific questions about how caregivers' language-based input facilitates their children's understanding of moral knowledge have not been examined. This article explores how language-based socialisation patterns play an important role in care-givers' and children's construction of socio-moral meanings. I argue that it is through participation in communicative and narrative practices that children begin to understand cultural meanings about morality. By drawing on theories (...) and research conducted in the field of language socialisation, I demonstrate the mutual interdependence between the construction of moral meanings and communicative practices. Examples that demonstrate the various ways in which communicative practices provide the foundation for the co-creation of moral meanings between Hindi-speaking Indian caregivers and their children are discussed. (shrink)

In this article we explore ethical issues arising in a study of home Internet use by low-income families. We consider questions of our responsibility as educational researchers and discuss the ethical implications of some unanticipated consequences of our study. We illustrate ways in which the principles of research ethics for use of human subjects can be ambiguous and possibly inadequate for anticipating potential harm in educational research. In this exploratory research of personal communication technologies, participants experienced changes that were personal (...) and relational. These unanticipated changes in their way of being complicated our research relationships, testing the boundaries of our commitment to the principle of trustworthiness and forcing us to reevaluate our responsibilities. (shrink)

Abstract When families, schools, and communities are unable, through traditional means, to ?modify? habitual, intractible patterns of moral misbehaviour among children and adolescents, these children are often referred to residential treatment. At The Berkeley Academy we have developed principles, policies and practices of intervention which not only address effectively these patterns of moral misbehaviour, but also address the underlying moral disorder, thus helping the child to restructure the way she thinks, feels, and behaves in school, in families and in the (...) community. In this paper we briefly sketch the three most common patterns of moral misbehaviour which we have observed over the past ten years, discuss the underlying disorder, and describe an approach to education and treatment which has been successful with nearly 80 per cent of the girls in our programme, who are among the most seriously emotionally disturbed girls in Northern California. (shrink)

Abstract The study reported examined how young people respond to abuse directed at them purely because they are unemployed. Since young unemployed are known to blame themselves for their failure to gain a job, it was predicted they would not regard the abuse as unjust and would be unable to defend themselves adequately. This was found to be the case: young people sought to justify themselves by pleas of helplessness or totally failed to evolve any argument in self?defence. Alternatively, the (...) attacker's empathy was sought by offering to swap places. It is suggested that the unemployed can be taught coping strategies based upon a reconceptualization of the causes of unemployment and a re?evaluation of the moral standing of those who offer abuse. (shrink)

This research was undertaken in order to investigate the relationship between tolerance and moral reasoning among adolescents in Northern Ireland and in the Irish Republic. A study of Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development led to the expectation that individuals who understood the ?principled? level of moral reasoning would be more tolerant than those who reasoned predominantly at the ?conventional? level. The subjects of this research, all senior students, completed a questionnaire which furnished data on their level of moral reasoning, (...) their tolerance of outgroups, and in addition, on selected personal, demographic and educational variables expected to be associated with moral reasoning and tolerance. The findings supported the hypothesis that students who reasoned at a ?principled? level of moral reasoning would be more tolerant than those who reasoned predominantly at the ?conventional? level. Also, as expected, students? participation in discussion of controversial political, social and moral issues was related to both moral reasoning and tolerance. The results of the study underscore the importance of recognizing moral education as a precursor of tolerance, and of incorporating the discussion of controversial issues into schools? curricula. (shrink)

This study extends research on moral reasoning competence in juvenile delinquents to their practical reasoning and perception of an institutional moral atmosphere in order to find out whether a delay in moral competence is one of the causes of the offence or one of the consequences of institutionalization or both. The study involved 64 delinquent adolescents from a modern, humane, high security detention centre and 81 secondary school pupils, all males. Delinquent adolescents exhibited lower moral competence than non?delinquents, particularly in (...) the value area ?obeying the law?, but the difference was smaller than previously reported. Juvenile delinquents' perception of the moral atmosphere in the detention centre was no lower than that of pupils regarding their school and their low moral competence could not be attributed to a poor moral atmosphere in the centre. Thus, the small delay found in moral competence is likely to precede detention. In both the delinquent and pupil groups perception of a poor moral atmosphere was a more important indicator of self?reported antisocial behaviour than low moral competence. Our conclusion is that improving the perception of the institutional moral atmosphere in school and in prison is more likely to reduce antisocial behaviour among adolescents than only improving their moral competence. (shrink)

In the Nicomachean ethics, Aristotle sets down a scattered and fractional account of the development of moral virtue within young people. Philosopher Martha Nussbaum defends Aristotle's neglect of a systematic account of moral development and argues that more complex expressions of character?building, such as learning to expose oneself to proper desires, feelings, pleasures and pains, are better illustrated through drama or literature than through philosophy. In this vein, the author draws upon literary thinkers J.B. Kerfoot, Sven Birkerts and Wayne C. (...) Booth, as well as the imaginative Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, to illustrate more concretely Aristotle's process of moral development. The author concludes with a proviso about the vulnerability of the connected process of reading and moral development in the current consumer culture. (shrink)

This cross-cultural study of the moral judgements of Mainland Han-Chinese, Chinese-Canadian, and Euro-Canadian children aged seven to 11 examined the evaluations of narrative protagonists? modest lies and self-promoting truthful statements in situations where they had done a good deed. The story characters had thus either lied or told the truth about a prosocial act that they had committed. Chinese children judged modest lies more positively and boastful truths less positively than Euro-Canadian children. Chinese and Chinese-Canadian children rated immodest statements more (...) negatively than did Euro-Canadian children. The cultural differences were greatest with the oldest children. Chinese children rated modest lies significantly more positively than either Canadian group who did not differ from each other but an interaction between age and culture revealed the three groups to be significantly different at age 11 with Chinese children most positive, followed by Chinese-Canadian children, and with Euro-Canadian children evaluating modest lies least positively. Cultural strictures and acculturation factors respecting modesty and self-enhancement are reflected in these differences. (shrink)

Do the sexual inclinations of parents influence those of their children? Of 77 adult children of homosexual parents who volunteered for three different investigations, at least 23 (30%) were currently homosexual: twelve (55%) of 22 daughters and three (21%) of fourteen sons of lesbians; five (29%) of seventeen daughters and three (17%) of eighteen sons of gays; none of six sons with both a gay and a lesbian parent. At least 25 (32%) were currently heterosexual. Of the ten with transsexual (...) parents, one of nine daughters was currently lesbian, one was currently heterosexual, and one was transsexual. The son's sexual preference was not reported. These findings suggest that parents' sexual inclinations influence their children's. (shrink)

This research explored the attitudes of 386 Chinese adolescent students toward collective and communicable responsibility, using three scenarios involving school, society and history, with two different situations and two types of projections per scenario. The results showed that: (1) the majority of Chinese adolescents believed that collective and communicable responsibility was unjust, and this belief differed significantly with different age groups; (2) the majority expressed the view that collective and communicable responsibility could be understood and accepted; (3) their feelings toward (...) collective and communicable responsibility were negative; (4) most showed willingness to take responsibility for misbehaviour in order to avoid collective punishment, and this willingness became stronger with increasing age; and (5) attitudes toward collective and communicable responsibility differed between two situations (?do not know the offender? and ?do not expose the offender?), between two projections (general projection and role?taking projection) and between the three scenarios of school, society and history. (shrink)

Abstract This study challenges Carol Gilligan's gendered interpretation of moral voice by examining the ways in which moral problems and responses were socially constructed in the contexts of power relations based not on gender, but culture. In?depth interviews were conducted with 30 mainland Chinese men and women studying in the United States regarding their lived experiences of moral conflict and choice. Out of these interviews, the problem of power emerged as a central moral concern in Chinese students? relationships with Americans. (...) These relationships were characterised by a dilemma of voice: the tension between an ethical imperative to keep silent to preserve vital yet hurtful power relations, and the moral need to speak out in defence of one's dignity and integrity. Students? responses to this dilemma varied with the nature of the power relationship itself: enjoining students to endure silently those abusive relationships which they felt powerless to change or exit, to abandon those which they could afford to leave, and to protest against those which they felt capable of challenging or even transforming. These findings underscore the situational nature of moral conflict and suggest that it is power??whether rooted in gender or culture??which is the critical dimension of human relationships for the interpretation of moral voice. (shrink)

Some self-proclaimed skeptics of recovered memory claim that traumatic childhood events simply cannot be forgotten at the time only to be remembered later in life. This claim has been made repeatedly by the Advisory Board members of a prominent advocacy group for parents accused of sexual abuse, the so-called False Memory Syndrome Foundation. The research project described in this article identifies and documents the growing number of cases that have been ignored or distorted by such skeptics. To date, this project (...) has documented 35 cases in which recovered memories of traumatic childhood events were corroborated by clear and convincing evidence. This article concludes with some observations about the politics of the false memory movement, particularly the tendency to conceal or omit evidence of corroboration. Several instances of this vanishing facts syndrome are documented and analyzed. (shrink)

This essay was originally presented at the Rutgers Institute for Law and Philosophy as part of the Symposium on The Evolution of Criminal Law Theory. It is a Reply to Professor Donald Dripps’ politically-based justification for blackmail’s prohibition. Under Dripps’ account, by exacting payment from the victim blackmail is an impermissible form of private punishment that usurps the state’s public monopoly on law enforcement. This essay demonstrates that Dripps’ account is either under-inclusive or over-inclusive or both. Dripps’ account is applied (...) to a number of the standard blackmail scenarios by which theories of blackmail are typically assessed. Dripps’ account is under-inclusive by failing to treat as blackmail Victim-Welcomed Blackmail, Non-Monetary Blackmail, Rebuffed Blackmail, and Non-Informational Blackmail which the law considers as blackmail. And it is over-inclusive by treating as blackmail Victim-Initiated Exchange and Unconditional Disclosure which the law does not recognize as blackmail. (shrink)

In the Journal of Moral Education, 39(2), Brenda Almond and Lawrence Blum debate the importance of tolerance versus acceptance in sex education. Blum defines acceptance as ?positive regard?, in contradistinction to mere tolerance, ?a live and let live attitude toward others, an acceptance of coexistence, but with a disapproval of that ?other??. Employing consequentialist and definitional arguments, he defends an acceptant educational policy. I shore up this defence by addressing the issue of autonomy: specifically, I refute the claim that acceptance (...) undermines parental autonomy in a morally unacceptable fashion. Drawing on Philip Pettit and Michael Smith?s defence of the idea of ?orthonomy? or right-rule, I argue that orthonomy, rather than autonomy, should guide educational policy-making. I then show that the principle of orthonomy, together with teachers? professional responsibilities to ensure a safe and prejudice-free learning environment, entails that teachers have an inalienable responsibility to promote homophilic (gay-positive) values, regardless of whether they or their students? parents agree. (shrink)

The ethics of social responsibility is discussed in reference to six case vignettes drawn from forensic psychology. A definitional model of social responsibility is proposed, and two unequal components of the concept - respect for the individual and concern for social welfare - are identified. The sources of ethical conflict in regard to social responsibility are enumerated. Scholarly criticism of the value orientation of forensic psychology is reviewed, and forensic psychology is contrasted with social policy advocacy efforts made by organized (...) psychology. The social responsibility obligations of psychologists in the microethical sphere, where their actions affect individuals, are diffentiated from the obligations psychology has when operating in the macroethical sphere of social policy. The ethical problems inherent in policy advocacy brought about by individual psychologists working with individuals are underscored: the inevitable element of deception, the violation of role integrity, and the circumvention of social structures and institutions that safeguard the rights of individuals. (shrink)