This paper offers an ethical consideration of how fear can be a tool of agents, used to deliberately shift people away from existing beliefs, commitments, or habits, or towards new ones. It contends that properly understanding the ethical dimensions of such uses of fear depends in part on a clear understanding of the dynamics of disorientation that can be involved in such uses. Section two begins with a clarification of the connections between fear, orientation, and disorientation. It suggests that experiences (...) of fear are in some cases either orienting or disorienting, and that the disorienting aspects of fear are in need of more attention. Section three shows how experiences of fear can be tools—they can be cultivated and wielded by agents deliberately for multiple reasons, including sometimes in order to disorient or re-orient others. Section four turns to a moral evaluation of these uses of fear, attending specifically to why the dynamics of disorientation and orientation often involved in experiences of fear are important for understanding the moral status of uses of fear. (shrink)

In this article, I consider how fear in contexts of crisis shapes and is shaped by agents’ relationships. I survey a number of approaches to understanding fearing at the intersection of empirical psychology and philosophy, highlighting the extent to which interpersonal relationships are positioned as involved in processes of fearing, and establish what I take to insufficient attention paid by these approaches to the ways interpersonal relations shape the emotions we come to have. Contexts of acute crisis and uncertainty can (...) involve rapidly adjusting practices of fearing in response to other agents, both those we trust and those we do not. I call for the development of a model of ‘relational calibration’ for understanding the complex interpersonal dynamics of fearing during crises, including in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. (shrink)

In Disorientation and Moral Life, I consider disorientations as experiences of not knowing how to go on following serious life events and experiences like those involved in traumas, grief, illness, education, consciousness raising, and migration. I challenge a history of moral philosophy that I claim has been preoccupied by a focus on the best moral agents as those who are most decisive, wholehearted, and clear about how they ought to act. In this piece, I respond to three commentaries on Disorientation (...) and Moral Life. In particular, I offer reflections on how disorientations might be useful in contexts of disability studies, prison abolitionism, professional philosophy, anti-racist action, and political organizing. (shrink)

This chapter argues that some disorientations prompt individuals to gain new awareness in politically and morally important ways, even when they do not prompt capacities for decisive moral judgment or confidence. It investigates disorientations of experiencing racism, white privilege, consciousness-raising, and critical education, drawing on first-person, philosophical, and empirical accounts of double consciousness, white anti-racism, moral shock, double ontological shock, gaslighting, outlaw emotions, and feminist pedagogy. It demonstrates how, in some cases, these disorientations generate awareness of contingent oppressive norms and (...) of political complexity, and it then argues for the moral and political significance of such awareness. Even as it does not help individuals resolve how to act, such awareness can generate epistemic humility, allow individuals to relate differently to their histories and communities of origin, and clarify the necessity of collaborative rather than individual action. (shrink)

This paper considers an area of research in clinical psychology that focuses on the resilience of members of marginalized groups who have experienced traumas directly related to their social identities. The paper describes these as social group-based traumas and outlines three effects of social group-based traumas that can make the experiences of them, as well as experiences of recovery following them, distinct from those involved in other kinds of traumas. In cases where resilience frameworks are useful for understanding such recoveries, (...) the paper proposes three methodological strategies for designing research to address the characteristics of social group-based trauma. (shrink)

RÉSUMÉ: Dans cet article, je m’intéresse à l’éthique de l’agentivité sexuelle courante. Il s’agit, plus particulièrement, des questions morales concernant quand, comment et pourquoi nous nous identifions à un type donné d’agent sexuel. Comme l’auto-identification met en jeux une combinaison complexe de processus individuels et sociaux, un cadre conceptuel qui rend justice à ces processus permettrait une analyse de l’éthique de l’auto-identification sexuelle. Je présente le concept de l’authenticité sexuelle comme étant utile dans les contextes où elle comporte deux aspects (...) principaux : l’adoption d’une identité sexuelle qui nous est propre et l’explication que nous en donnons à et avec d’autres personnes. (shrink)

Accounts of human beings as essentially social have had a long history in philosophy as reflected in the Ancient Greeks; in African and Asian philosophy; in Modern European thinkers such as Mary Wo...

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, -1641--Criticism and interpretation. ; Islamic philosophy.

For several years the authors have been working in Detroit with grassroots coalitions resisting Emergency Management. In this essay, we focus on how community groups in Detroit and Flint advanced common struggles for clean, safe, affordable water as a human right, particularly during the period of 2014 to 2016. We explore how, through a series of direct interventions – including public meetings and international gatherings, independent journalism and social media, community-based research projects, and citizen-led policy initiatives – these groups contributed (...) to challenging neoliberal governance, to undermining the legitimacy of state officials and their policies, and to shifting public consciousness around the human right to water. (shrink)

In the development of new vaccines, many trials use age de-escalation: after establishing safety and efficacy in adult populations, progressively younger cohorts are enrolled and studied. Age de-escalation promotes many values. The responsibility to protect children from potential risks of experimental vaccines is significant, not only given increased risks of adverse effects but also because parents and medical professionals have a moral responsibility to protect children from harms associated with novel, uncertain interventions. Further, given that young children cannot provide informed (...) consent, acceptable risks for research requiring proxy consent are lower than for adults making decisions for themselves. Although age de-escalation approaches are widely used in vaccine trials, including notably in the recent development of pediatric COVID-19 vaccines, ethicists have not addressed the benefits and risks of these approaches. Their benefits are largely assumed and unstated, while their potential risks are usually overlooked. There are no official ethics guidelines for the use of age de-escalation in clinical research. In this paper, we provide a systematic account of key moral factors to consider when employing age de-escalation. Analyzing pediatric COVID-19 vaccine development as our key case study, we clarify the benefits, risks, and trade-offs involved in age de-escalation approaches and call for the development of evidence-based best practice guidelines to identify when age de-escalation is likely to be an ethical strategy in vaccine development. (shrink)

Breaks through the cultural barriers between Western, Indian, and Chinese philosophy and demonstrates that despite considerable differences between these three great philosophical traditions, there are fundamental resemblances in their abstract principles.

One branch of bioethics assumes that mainly agents of the state are responsible for public health. Following Susan Sherwin’s relational ethics, we suggest moving away from a “state-centered” approach toward a more thoroughly relational approach. Indeed, certain agents must be reconstituted in and through shifting relations with others, complicating discussions of responsibility for public health. Drawing on two case studies—the health politics and activism of the Black Panther Party and the work of the Common Ground Collective in post-Katrina New Orleans—we (...) argue for the need to attend more carefully to the limitations of states and state-driven public health programs. (shrink)

"He is not a prophet, but he has a holy book" is a famous couplet among Mawlana Jalal-ad Din Rumi (d. 1273) followers. This couplet is attributed to Abdurrahman Jami (d. 1492). The three couplet that have similar connotations to Jami’s couplet, more common in Iran, speculated to be written by Baha-ad Din Amili (d. 1622). In these couplets, the phrase “The Persian Qur'an" is interchangeably used to refer to Mathnawi and draws attention to another phrase "guidance some and misguidance (...) others". Repeatedly these couplets phrase is also used by well known contemporary poets such as Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938) and Mohammad Hossein Shahriar (d. 1988) and some orientalist writers such as Reynold Nicholson (d. 1945) and Annemarie Schimmel (d. 2003). Rumi never claimed to be a prophet and introduced himself as the servant of the Qur'an and dust of the road of the prophet Muhammad. The poet has emphasized the qualities of the Qur'an, its commands and prohibitions, its universal messages and the importance of contemplating on the verses in various parts of Mathnawi. In order to understand the Qur'an better and correctly, he explained what should be done and presented methods. He re-told and elaborated some of the stories in the Qur'an, praised the lofty rank of the Holy Prophet Muhammad and narrated the stories of other prophets with the respect he showed them. The definitions in the poems sung as the praise of Rumi and the Mathnawi on the one hand, based on Rumi’s mentions in Mathnawi's preface: "This is the Mathnawi book and it is the principles of the principles of the principles of the religion". Here, Rumi has described his work with the attributes of the Qur'an and said that it is protected by Allah. Ismail Ankaravı, who is the commentator of the Mathnawi, said: "The Mathnawi is where two seas meet, composed of interpretations of the Qur'an and Hadith". The statement also explains this issue. The commentary of the verses or the references to the verses are clearly mentioned in the Mathnawi. There are references to more than two thousand and two hundred verses in total. This indicates that Mathnawi can be the interpretation of the Qur'an. From another point of view, various writing style and morphological similarities can be established between the Mathnawi and the Qur'an. Like the Qur'an, Mathnawi also starts with an order, is a product of inspiration (revelation), contains a summary of the entire book at the beginning, the mode of expression is generally stories and representations, and there is a need for commentary in order to be understood by passing from form to meaning etc. they have many similarities. In these respects, Mathnawi has been likened to the Qur'an written in Persian by a non-prophet one. In this study, first the process of the emergence and use of this expression will be followed, then Rumi's views on the Qur'an, the place of the Qur'an in Mathnawi, the common aspects of the Qur'an and Mathnawi will be discussed and it will be tried to explain why these great poets and writers called Mathnawi the Persian Qur'an. (shrink)

Rajabʻalī Tabrīzī, -1669 or 1670 -- Philosophical thoughts -- Islamic philosophy - Iran.

Fearing is a central part of how we relate to each other and the unpredictable world. Fearing badly is a key part of many of our moral failures, and fearing better a central part of our moral repair. We might think that fearing is undesirable and should be avoided whenever possible. In fact, Fearing Together shows that the avoidance of fear causes some of our greatest threats. By understanding fear as a relational practice, we see that our relationships with other (...) fearers shape what we fear, what fear feels like, how we identify and understand our fears, and how we cope with them. Growing as moral agents involves coming to grips with what kinds of fearers we want to be and become, and with what we owe each other when facing what we cannot control. At the heart of this book are the moral quandaries and complexities of relational fearing: the ethics of fearing together. (shrink)

Lucid, learned, and incomparably rich in thought and detail, Art Without Borders is a monumental accomplishment, on par with the artistic achievements ...

The aim of this paper is to prove strengthenings of three theorems appearing in Jensen [1].

An introduction to comparative philosophy relates European and Oriental philosophies and brings to light such aspects of Eastern philosophy as intellectuality, reasoning, and logical analysis usually associated with Western thought.

Teachings of Muslim saints on conduct of life.

This book contains readings of canonical Western philosophical texts from the viewpoint of current feminist thinking. The contributors focus specifically on the ways in which modern Western philosophy constructs genders and analyzes gender relations. They provide a detailed analysis of modern philosophers’ conceptions of masculinity and femininity and call attention to the intertwining of gender with conceptual schema and networks.