Showing papers on "Morality published in 1995"

Life in Fragments: Essays in Postmodern Morality

Abstract: Introduction: In Search of Postmodern Reason. 1 Morality without Ethics. 2 Forms of Togetherness. 3 Broken Lives, Broken Strategies. 4 A Catalogue of Postmodern Fears. 5 The Stranger Revisited -- and Revisiting. 6 Violence, Postmodern. 7 Tribal Moralities. 8 Morality and Politics. Index.

Rethinking 'moral panic' for multi-mediated social worlds

Abstract: It is now over twenty years since the well-established sociology of deviance along with the emergent sociology of mass media produced the concept of 'moral panic'. The various studies of youth culture, drugtakers and the media reaction to these and other phenomena produced some of the most important work in post-war British sociology. This article argues that it is now time that every stage in the process of constructing a moral panic, as well as the social relations which support it, should be revised. lt suggests that more attention should be paid to the consequences of the great expansion of the media and to the many more participants involved in public debate (including, for example, commercial promotions departments and pressure groups). We argue that 'folk devils' are less marginalized than they once were; they not only find themselves vociferously and articulately supported in the same mass media that castigates them, but their interests are also defended by their own niche and micro-media. Finally, the article suggests that what were more stable points of social control have undergone some degree of shift, if not transformation. 'Moral panic' is now a term regularly used by journalists to describe a process which politicians, commercial promoters and media habitually attempt to incite. It has become a standard interview question to put to Conservative MPs: are they not whipping up a moral panic as a foil to deflect attention away from more pressing economic issues? It has become a routine means of making youth-orientated cultural products more alluring; acid house music was marketed as 'one of the most controversial sounds of 1988' set to outrage 'those who decry the glamorization of drug culture'.l Moreover, as moral panics seem to guarantee the kind of emotional involvement that keeps up the interest of, notjust tabloid, but broadsheet newspaper readers, as well as the ratings of news and true crime television, even the media

Legislative Morality in the American States: The Case of Pre-Roe Abortion Regulation Reform

Abstract: Theory: Do policies that regulate morality and/or evoke strong moral reactions have significantly different patterns of adoption in the states than those policies whose impacts are primarily economic? We use social learning theory and demand, resource, and constraint analysis to explore this question. Hypothesis: Contrary to Lowi's thesis that policy determines politics, there should be many similarities in the politics of these very dissimilar types of policy. Methods: An evaluation of three dimensions of abortion regulation reform from 1966 to 1972 (diffusion, reinvention, and determination) is used to test this hypothesis. Event history, hazard rate, and correlation analyses are applied to aggregate state data. A Guttman scale of abortion regulation permissiveness is developed. Results: Our central conclusions are that even distinct policies (morality versus economically based policies) share similar politics, and the three dimensions of the adoption process can be influenced in different ways by the type of policy under consideration.

The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy

Abstract: In a front-page review in the Washington Post Book World, John Judis wrote: "Political analysts have been poring over exit polls and precinct-level votes to gauge the meaning of last November's election, but they would probably better employ their time reading the late Christopher Lasch's book." And in the National Review, Robert Bork says The Revolt of the Elites "ranges provocatively [and] insightfully." Controversy has raged around Lasch's targeted attack on the elites, their loss of moral values, and their abandonment of the middle class and poor, for he sets up the media and educational institutions as a large source of the problem. In this spirited work, Lasch calls out for a return to community, schools that teach history not self-esteem, and a return to morality and even the teachings of religion. He does this in a nonpartisan manner, looking to the lessons of American history, and castigating those in power for the ever-widening gap between the economic classes, which has created a crisis in American society. The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy is riveting social commentary.

Character Development and Physical Activity

Abstract: Part 1 Theory: coming to terms with morality moral development - the first generation internalization approaches to moral development constructivist approaches to moral development. Part 2 Understanding moral action: toward an integrated model of moral action interpreting the situation constructing a moral ideal contextual influences implementing action. Part 3 Physical activity and character development: does sport build character? promoting moral character through physical education and sport.

An Agent Morality View of Business Policy

Abstract: We develop a philosophical perspective on the moral obligations of managers, which we call agent morality, by examining the moral implications of agency theory. Our view is grounded in noninstrumental ethics, which we argue is logically superior to instrumental ethics. We show that the principal-agent model of the firm, once properly considered, requires that managers fashion business policies with reference first to certain moral duties and second to shareholder wealth.

Reciprocity Reconsidered: Gouldner's `Moral Norm of Reciprocity' and Social Support

Abstract: In a classic statement three decades ago, Gouldner (1960) made an important analytic distinction between reciprocity as a pattern of social exchange and reciprocity as a general moral belief. Gouldner argued that the moral norm of reciprocity constitutes an important `causal force' in social life. The reciprocity norm dictates that Ego should not end up gaining at the expense of Alter's beneficial acts towards him or her. In contrast to equity theory, which suggests that people will react equally negatively to under- and overbenefiting, the reciprocity norm suggests that people will, above all, attempt to avoid overbenefiting from their socially supportive interactions. While many studies of social support have incorporated the concepts of reciprocity and exchange, virtually none has examined the validity of Gouldner's distinction nor its potential implications for the dynamics of social support. This paper explores the evidence for Gouldner's claims from studies on support and reciprocity. Evidence is fo...

Justice And Care: Essential Readings In Feminist Ethics

Abstract: * Introduction Delineations Of Care * Caring Nel Noddings. * Moral Orientation and Moral Development Carol Gilligan. * The Need for More than Justice Annette C. Baier. Doubts And Reservations * Beyond Caring: The De-Moralization of Gender Marilyn Friedman. * Gender and Moral Luck Claudia Card. Extensions And Affirmations * Women and Caring: What Can Feminists Learn About Morality from Caring? Joan C. Tronto. * Black Women and Motherhood Patricia Hill Collins. Moral Epistemologies * Moral Understandings: Alternative Epistemology for a Feminist Ethics Margaret Urban Walker. * Feminist Moral Inquiry and the Feminist Future Virginia Held. New Integrations * Caring as a Feminist Practice of Moral Reason Alison M. Jaggar. * Injustice in Families: Assault and Domination Sara Ruddick.

The moral animal : evolutionary psychology and everyday life

Abstract: Robert Wright examines a new science that has emerged from the work of evolutionary biologists and the social sciences. Taking the life and work of the evolutionist Charles Darwin as his context, Wright demonstrates how Darwin's ideas are still relevant today. He retells - from the perspective of evolutionary psychology - the stories of Darwin's marriage, family life and career. From this paradigm Wright draws conclusions about the structure of people's most basic preoccupations - sex, ambition, politics, justice - throwing light on the background of these fundamental instincts, showing why they are so important, and explaining how their importance often gives rise to conflicts. This book poses questions about not only the biological bases for morality, but also the biological bases for amorality.

Kantian Ethics Almost Without Apology

Abstract: A reappraisal on the emphasis on duty in Immanuel Kant's ethics is long overdue. Marcia W. Baron evaluates and for the most part defends Kantian ethics against two frequent criticisms: that duty plays too large a role, leaving no room for the supererogatory; and that Kant places too much value on acting from duty. The author first argues that Kant's distinction between perfect and imperfect duties provides a plausible and intriguing alternative to contemporary approaches to charity, self-sacrifice, heroism, and saintliness. She probes the differences between the supererogationist and the Kantian, exploring the motivation between the former's position and bringing to light sharply divided views on the nature of moral constraint and excellence. Baron then confronts problems associated with Kant's account of moral motivation, she argues that the value that Kant attaches to acting from duty attaches primarily to governing ones conduct by a commitment to doing what morality asks. Thus understood, Kant's ethics steers clear of the most serious criticism. Of special interest is her discussion of overdetermination. Clearly written and cogently argued, Kantian Ethics Almost without Apology takes on the most philosophically intriguing challenges to Kantian ethics and subjects them to a rigorous yet sympathetic assessment. Readers will find here original contributions to the debate over impartial morality.

Banishing the Beast : English Feminism and Sexual Morality, 1885-1914

Abstract: Part 1 Debating and defining the terms: the men and women's club women defined. Part 2 Purifying the public and private - women as moral agents of change: "purifying" the public world - feminist vigilantes, prostitution and "protective surveillance" marriage - its iniquities and its alternatives. Part 3 The politics of fertility control and sex: contraception, feminism and the Malthusian League eugenics, the politics of selective breeding and feminist appropriation speaking of sex.

Feminist Morality: Transforming Culture, Society, and Politics

Abstract: How is feminism changing the way women and men think, feel and act? Virginia Held explores how feminist theory is changing contemporary views of moral choice. She proposes a comprehensive philosophy of feminist ethics, arguing for reconceptualizations of the self; of relations between the self and others; and of images of birth and death, nurturing and violence. Held shows how social, political and cultural institutions have traditionally been founded upon masculine ideals of morality. She then identifies a distinct feminist morality that moves beyond culturally embedded notions about motherhood and female emotionality, and she discusses its far-reaching implications for altering many contemporary social problems, including standards of freedom, democracy, equality, and personal development.

Metaphor, Morality, and Politics, Or, Why Conservatives Have Left Liberals in the Dust

Abstract: [This is an early and much abbreviated discussion of the themes in my book Moral Politics.] In Social Research, vol 62, no. 2 (summer 1995) Metaphor, Morality, and Politics Or, Why Conservatives Have Left Liberals In the Dust1 George Lakoff University of California at Berkeley We may not always know it, but we think in metaphor2. A large proportion of our most commonplace thoughts make use of an extensive, but unconscious, system of metaphorical concepts, that is, concepts from a typically concrete realm of thought that are used to comprehend another, completely different domain. Such concepts are often reflected in everyday language, but their most dramatic effect comes in ordinary reasoning. Because so much of our social and political reasoning makes use of this system of metaphorical concepts, any adequate appreciation of even the most mundane social and political thought requires an understanding of this system. But unless one knows that the system exists, one may miss it altogether and be mystified by its effects. For me, one of the most poignant effects of the ignorance of metaphorical thought is the mystification of liberals concerning the recent electoral successes of conservatives. Conservatives regularly chide liberals for not understanding them, and they are right. Liberals don’t understand how anti-abortion “right-to-life” activists can favor the death penalty and oppose reducing infant morality through prenatal care programs. They don’t understand why budget-cutting conservatives should spare no public expense to build prison after prison to house even non-violent offenders, or why they are willing to spend extra money to take children away from their mothers and put them in orphanages --- in the name of family values. They don’t understand why conservatives attack violence in the media while promoting the right to own machine guns. Liberals tend not to understand the logic of conservatism; they don’t understand what form of morality makes conservative positions moral or what conservative family values have to do with the rest of conservative politics. The reason at bottom is that liberals do not understand the form of metaphorical thought that unifies and makes sense of the full range of conservative values. To understand what metaphor has to do with conservative politics, we must begin with that part of our metaphor system that is used to conceptualize morality—a system of roughly two-dozen metaphors. To illustrate how the system works, let us begin with one of the most prominent metaphors in the system—the metaphor by which morality is conceptualized in terms of accounting. Keeping the Moral Books We all conceptualize well-being as wealth. We understand an increase in well-being as a “gain” and a decrease of well-being as a “loss” or a “cost.” This is combined with a very general

Morality in everyday life : developmental perspectives

Abstract: Introduction Daniel Hart and Melanie Killen Part I. The Acquisition of Morality: 1. The social construction of character in toddlerhood Dale Hay, Jennifer Castle, Carol A. Stimson, and Lisa Davies 2. Morality, autonomy, and social conflict Melanie Killen and Larry P. Nucci 3. Children's conceptions of sociomoral affect: happy victimizers, mixed emotions, and other expectancies William Arsenio and Anthony Lover Part II. Social Judgment in Different Contexts: 4. Obedience to authority in children and adults Marta Laupa, Elliot Turiel, and Philip Cowan 5. Social contexts in social cognition: psychological harm and civil liberties Charles C. Helwig 6. Psychological and philosophical considerations of prudence and morality Marvin Berkowitz, Jeffrey P. Kahn, Gregg Mulry, and Jeanne Piette 7. Context, conflict, and constraint in adolescent-parent authority relationships Judith G. Smetana Part III. Social Judgment in Different Cultures: 8. Development in the context of everyday family relationships: culture, interpersonal morality and adaptation Joan G. Miller and David Bersoff 9. Diversity in social development: between or within cultures Cecilia Wainryb and Elliot Turiel Part IV. Moral Integration and Character: 10. Moral commitment in inner-city adolescents Daniel Hart, Miranda Yates, Suzanne Fegley, and Gerry Wilson 11. The development of extraordinary moral commitment Anne Colby and William Damon 12. Reasoning about morality and real-life moral problems Lawrence J. Walker, Russell C. Pitts, Karl H. Hennig and M. Kyle Matsuba.

Sympathy, Simulation, and the Impartial Spectator

Abstract: Hume observed that our minds are mirrors to one another: they reflect one another's passions, sentiments, and opinions.' This "sympathy," or "propensity we have to sympathize with others, to ... receive by communication [the] inclinations and sentiments [of others], however different from, or even contrary to, our own," he held to be the chief source of moral distinctions.2 Hume presented an account of how this mirroring of minds works. After a brief presentation of the account, I will show how it needs to be updated and corrected in the light of recent empirical research. Then I will give some reasons to think that the mirroring of minds is more pervasive than even Hume had thought: that mirroring is an essential part of the way in which we think about other minds. Finally, I will make some remarks about the relevance of mirroring to ethics.

Morality, Normativity, and Society

Abstract: Moral claims not only purport to be true, they also purport to guide our choices. This book presents a new theory of normative judgment, the "standard-based theory," which offers a schematic account of the truth conditions of normative propositions of all kinds, including moral propositions and propositions about reasons. The heart of Copp's approach to moral propositions is a theory of the circumstances under which corresponding moral standards qualify as justified, the "society-centered theory." He argues that because any society needs a social moral code in order to enable its members to live together successfully, and because it would be rational for a society to choose such a code, certain moral codes, and the standards they include, are justified. According to the standard-based theory then, if certain moral standards are indeed justified, corresponding moral propositions may be true. Copp's approach to morality and explaining normativity and the truth conditions of moral claims, raises a number of important issues in moral theory, as well as in metaphysics and the philosophy of language.

Women and Caring: What Can Feminists Learn About Morality from Caring? [1989]

Abstract: This chapter not only continues challenging the traditional script about men's and women's caring, it also suggests feminists must be careful about the direction their analysis of care takes. It argues that feminists cannot assume that any attribute of women is automatically a virtue worthy of feminists embracing it. The chapter explores some ways in which caring challenges contemporary moral theory. The moral relevance of attentiveness belies the adequacy of the abstract, exchange-oriented individual as the moral subject. Caring challenges the view that morality starts where rational and autonomous individuals confront each other to work out the rules of moral life. The chapter considers the way in which caring for another raises questions about authority and autonomy between carer and cared-for. It examines how caring for another raises problems that grow out of the particularity of caring. The chapter discusses some aspects of moral life posed by the necessary attentiveness to [the] other's needs when caring for another.

The Foundations of Modern Democracy: Reflections on Jürgen Habermas

Abstract: Jurgen Habermas is one of the very few indisputably great moral and social thinkers of our time. We must situate our own thought with respect to his in order to know what it is we truly think, even when we then find that we must disagree. Over a number of years, Habermas has been working out a new conception of moral philosophy that he calls “discourse ethics” ( Diskursethik ). To some extent, this line of thought has developed at a very abstract level. Perhaps its most prominent feature has been the attempt to find the source of morality in a general principle of universalization that any agent must assume just by virtue of being a competent speaker with an understanding of the concept of reasons for action. It cannot be said that this attempt has met with evident success. Like all efforts to draw some fundamental set of moral obligations from the notion of practical rationality as such, Habermas's reflections at this level seem caught in a well-known but inescapable dilemma: either the idea Habermas proposes of practical rationality (or “communicative reason,” as he terms it) proves too weak to deliver any moral principles, or it is made to yield the desired conclusions only by virtue of moral content having been built into it from the outset (see Chapter 2). These exercises in “first philosophy” have been, however, only one part, and doubtlessly not the most deeply felt, of Habermas's project of a “discourse ethics.”

Soul Searching: Why Psychotherapy Must Promote Moral Responsibility

Abstract: Morality In The Practice Of Psychotherapy * Psychotherapy and Moral Responsibility * Commitment * Justice * Truthfulness * Community The Moral Character Of The Therapist * Caring * Courage * Prudence * Postscript: Finding a Good Therapist and Creating Moral Communities Among Therapists

The Sources of Christian Ethics

Abstract: First published in French in 1985, this work has been recognised by scholars worldwide as one of the most important books in the field of moral theology. Here Servais Pinckaers, writing in a tone that is reconciliatory rather than polemical, returns Christians ethics to it's sources: the Gospel and the Holy Spirit. He discusses the complementary domains of morality and the behavioural and natural sciences, and traces the scriptural themes - particularly in the Sermon on the Mount and the writings of St. Paul - that most influence moral instruction. The unique feature of Pinckaer's contemporary Thomistic view it its emphasis on the virtues, gifts, and evangelical Beatitudes as the heart of the Christian moral life. His approach to morality results in what he calls the freedom for excellence, a notion of freedom that he contrasts with the nominalist concept of the freedom of indifference, which has dominated moral theology since the fourteenth century. This volume will serve the needs of both beginning and advanced students in seminary and university courses in moral theology and ethics.It will also provide the background and perspective needed ot achieve a fuller understanding of the moral teaching of the Catechism and of the encyclical Veritatis splendor. Servais Pinckaers, O.P., is professor of moral theology at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He is author of numerous books in moral moral theology, including most recently L'Evangile at la Morale (1989) and La Morale Catholique (1991).

We shared something special: The moral discourse of incest perpetrators.

Abstract: At first glance, suggesting that incest perpetrators have moral perspectives on incest seems like an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. Yet, incest perpetrators are embedded in cultures that view incest as morally repugnant, and laws make incest illegal. Along with other members of their cultures, incest perpetrators are socialized in varying degrees to understand the proscriptions against incest. Consequences for perpetrators can involve repugnance and shame heaped upon them, social ostracism, loss of family relationships, and legal sanctions. In addition, for victims and other family members, incest brings great harm (Armstrong, 1978; Briere, 1992; Browne & Finkelhor, 1986; Finkelhor & Dziuba-Leatherman, 1993; Friedrich, 1990; Gilgun, 1990, 1991; Herman, 1992; Rush, 1980; Russell, 1983; Wyatt, Newcomb, & Riederle, 1993). Self-interest, fairness, and concern for doing no harm, especially to persons in close family relationships, would appear to provide sufficient motivation to deter incest for those who might consider it. Yet, incest occurs in 1 in 6 families in the United States (Russell, 1983, 1986), and about 100,000 new cases occur each year (Williams & Finkelhor, 1992). Perpetrators are members of victims' nuclear and extended families. These figures demonstrate the ineffectiveness-for a large number of persons--of moral repugnance and consequent sanctions as deterrents. These figures also suggest an ability of incest perpetrators to suspend, reinterpret, or neutralize moral principles that enjoin them to promote the welfare of others and to avoid incest. In this article, I use the concepts of justice and care to analyze the narrative accounts of incest perpetrators. These concepts are fundamental ideas in moral philosophy and theories of moral development and were brought to widespread attention by the work of Carol Gilligan and her colleagues (Brown & Gilligan, 1992; Gilligan, 1982; Gilligan, Ward, & Taylor, 1988; Lyons, 1983). Data were gathered through open-ended life history interviews. Through narrative accounts, informants give meaning, value, and coherence to a sequence of events, or stories. Their moral values are infused in their accounts (Tappan, 1991). The method of data analysis and interpretation is modified analytic induction. MORAL DOMAINS Justice and care are central concepts in moral philosophy and theories of moral development (Bloom, 1986; Manning, 1992; Noddings, 1984). Though sometimes considered a set of prescriptions based on conceptions of justice (Kohlberg, 1984; Smetana, Kelly, & Twentyman, 1989), morality also is associated with a capacity for care. Controversy exists over whether care or justice is morally preferred and represents a higher level of moral development (Cortese & Mestrovic, 1990; Gilligan, 1982; Gilligan et al., 1988; Kohlberg, 1984; Manning, 1992; Noddings, 1984). Gender enters this controversy because a perspective emphasizing justice is associated with men's moral decision making while care is associated with women's decision making (Gilligan & Attanucci, 1988; Larrabee, 1993). Currently emerging is the perspective that orientations toward justice and care are complementary. The integration of both perspectives characterizes not only morally mature and responsible individuals (Gilligan, 1982; Gilligan et al., 1988; Manning, 1992), but also morally sensitive policies and a political system that, in the words of Bloom (1986), "contributes to the personal, intellectual and moral growth of its citizens" (p. 97). Criteria for making moral judgments often are implicit and involve interpretations of whether behaviors are just and caring in their intent and consequences and whether individuals take responsibility for the acts and for consequences (Bloom, 1986; Gilligan, 1982; Gilligan et al., 1988; Manning, 1992; Noddings, 1984; Smetana & Kelly, 1989). Care Care encompasses concern, loyalty, and love for self and others (Gilligan, 1982; Dewey, 1908/1980; O'Neill, 1989). …

Reconciling Equality to Difference: Caring (F)or Justice For People With Disabilities

Abstract: A feminist ethics that bases morality on dependence or vulnerability challenges the moral priority of uniform over disparate treatment. Persons with disabilities resist equality's homogenization of moral personhood. But displacing equality in favor of caring or trust reprises the repression of those already marginalized. The ethics of difference proves an ineffective remedy for the negative consequences attendant on how historically marginalized groups are different. An historicized conception of equality resolves the dilemma.

Moral Preferences, Moral Constraints, and Self-Serving Biases

Abstract: Economists have formally modeled moral dispositions by directly incorporating into utility analysis concern for the well-being of others. But sometimes moral dispositions are not preferences, as connoted by utility analysis, but rather are ingrained as (internal) constraints. I present a model fleshing out this distinction: If moral dispositions are internal constraints on a person's real goal of pursuing her self-interest, she will be keen to self-servingly gather, avoid, and interpret relevant evidence, for the purpose of relaxing this constraint and pursuing her self interest. This gives rise to self-serving biases in moral reasoning. I show that this alternative model has some implications different from a standard utility model. Specifically, because a person seeks to avoid information that interferes with her self interest, the scope for social influence in moral conduct is greater than it is in the conventional model. Outside parties can improve a person's moral conduct by a) forcing her to receive certain information, b) discouraging her from (selectively) thinking about other information, or c) encouraging her to think through moral principles before she knows where her self interest lies.

Seeing and Caring: The Role of Affect in Feminist Moral Epistemology

Abstract: I develop two different epistemic roles for emotion and desire. Caring for moral ends and people plays a pivotal though contingent role in ensuring reliable awareness of morally salient details; possession of various emotions and motives is a necessary condition for autonomous understanding of moral concepts themselves. Those who believe such connections compromise the “objective” status of morality tend to assume rather than argue for the bifurcated conception of reason and affect this essay challenges.

Making Sense of Humanity: And Other Philosophical Papers 1982-1993

Abstract: Preface Part I. Action, Freedom, Responsibility: 1. How free does the will need to be? 2. Voluntary acts and responsible agents 3. Internal reasons and the obscurity of blame 4. Moral incapacity 5. Acts and omissions, doing and not doing 6. Nietzsche's minimalist moral psychology Part II. Philosophy, Evolution and the Human Sciences: 7. Making sense of humanity 8. Evolutionary theory and epistemology 9. Evolution, ethics and the representation problem 10. Formal structures and social reality 11. Formal and substantial individualism 12. Saint-Just's illusion Part III. Ethics: 13. The point of view of the universe 14. Ethics and the fabric of the world 15. What does intuitionism imply 16. Professional morality and its dispositions 17. Who needs ethical knowledge? 18. What slopes are slippery? 19. Resenting one's own existence 20. Must a concern for the environment be centred on human beings? 21. Moral luck: a postscript.