This paper presents a new approach to the demarcation of social emotions, based on their dependence on social appraisals that are designed to assess events bearing on social concerns. Previous theoretical attempts to characterize social emotions are compared, and their inconsistencies highlighted. Evidence for the present formulation is derived from theory and research into links between appraisals and emotions. Emotions identified as social using our criteria are also shown to bring more consistent consequences for social behavior than nonsocial emotions. We (...) conclude by considering ways of validating and refining our classification. (shrink)

Just Business provides the first comprehensive, reasoned framework for resolving questions of business ethics and corporate governance. Innovative, accessible, and global in scope, its powerful Ethical Decision Model can be used to manage the ethical problems of business as they arise in all their complexity and variety. Just Business combines business realism with philosophical rigor, and demonstrates that it is not necessary to emasculate or to adulterate business for business to be ethical. The book benefits from Elaine Sternberg's extensive (...) experience as an academic philosopher, an international investment banker, and head of successful businesses. She is now Principal of a London-headquartered consultancy firm, and Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Leeds. (shrink)

John Rawls, father of contemporary distributive justice, professed the metaphysical neutrality of his theory, and formulated an additional theory to support such neutrality generally. This article exposes Rawls’s own theological underpinnings concerning his conception of the moral arbitrariness of existence, and his structural dichotomous approach for engaging it. I show how both of his theories are reminiscent of Calvin, employing methods of bifurcation, and thus generating tensions within both the concept of justice and moral personality. I end with analysis of (...) the relationship of this structural rationality to arbitrariness. This exposure of Rawls’s theological debt is part of a wider argument concerning the theological basis of distributive justice theory, and the relevance of Theology for philosophical ethics. (shrink)

Beneficence and respect for autonomy are two of the most fundamental moral duties in general and in bioethics in particular. Beyond the usual questions of how to resolve conflicts between these duties in particular cases, there are more general questions about the possible forms of the interactions between them. Only recognition of the full spectrum of possible interactions will ensure optimal moral deliberation when duties potentially conflict. This paper has two simultaneous objectives. The first is to suggest a typological scheme (...) of all possible modes of interaction; these will be classified under the “discrete,” “semi-discrete,” and “non-discrete” categories, according to whether the meaning and/or forms of expression of each duty are treated as independent from or rather as constrained by the other. The second objective is to show that all logical possibilities of interaction indeed have real expressions in medical ethics, to provide clear illustrations of each, and in particular to stress those that have usually escaped recognition. (shrink)

This study in English of Hegel's political philosophy presents an overall view of the development of Hegel's political thinking. The author has drawn on Hegel's philosophical works, his political tracts and his personal correspondence. Professor Avineri shows that although Hegel is primarily thought of as a philosopher of the state, he was much concerned with social problems and his concept of the state must be understood in this context.

The late Rabbi Shlomo Freifeld possessed the enviable ability to relate to a wide range of people. The genuineness of his caring for others, his rock-solid convictions and fluent expression created a magnetic personality few could resist. His ch.

Moral reflection and deliberation on both deception and manipulation is hindered by lack of agreement on the precise meanings of these concepts. Specifically, there is disagreement on how to understand their relation vis-à-vis each other. Curiously, according to one prominent view, all deceptions are instances of manipulations, while according to another, all manipulations are instances of deceptions. This paper makes that implicit disagreement explicit, and argues that both views are untenable. It concludes that deception and manipulation partially overlap, and takes (...) further steps in delineating the border between these concepts. The paper ends with the conclusion that moral judgments regarding either manipulation or deception cannot be transferred wholesale from the one concept to the other just by virtue of the relations between the concepts. (shrink)

Ideas of nudging, choice architecture, and libertarian paternalism have sparked much controversy. Some find in them a long-sought optimal harmonization of the commitments to beneficent, welfare-increasing influence and to respecting persons, whereas people on the opposite end see in them an especially sinister form of control. One area in which these ideas are of greatest importance is health care, where improving people's decisions, under the constraint of respect for persons, is a vital concern. Nudging Health: Health Law and Behavioral Economics, (...) edited by Glenn Cohen, Holly Fernandez Lynch, and Christopher Robertson, is the first book dedicated to this important topic. This anthology of twenty-four chapters, with section introductions and a foreword by Cass Sunstein, presents a wide spectrum of perspectives on both the promise and the difficulties in applying choice architecture to health care. The short and readable chapters, written for the book, cover questions of public health law and policy, clinical practice, medical ethics, and political philosophy. They present a synopsis of the types of questions that nudging brings up in health care broadly construed, offer new analyses, and provide much fodder for thought. (shrink)

Distributive justice assumes a morally critical judgment of nature, which typically contradicts providential conceptions. Hence, simple conceptions of divine Providence cannot support distributive justice. This essay analyzes and develops a complex strand of theorizing about Providence within Jewish philosophy that is compatible with distributive justice. According to this conception, the actions of divine Providence express different and mutually exclusive considerations of justice. Therefore, the moral value of outcomes is intransitive between the situations of different people. And while each providential action (...) is justified from an ethical perspective, the total outcome is distinct from God's ultimate desire. Human ethics responds to this disparity by redistribution. This conception of Providence also contributes to the additional issue of intergenerational justice through the concomitant idea of life missions. The classical rendering of missions creates problems, however, for distributive justice. I conclude by formulating a conception of life missions that is compatible with both distributive and intergenerational justice. (shrink)

Like many other foreign students, Chinese students studying at American universities face special challenges in value-centered humanities courses as cultural outsiders. Moral and political philosophy can be particularly difficult, since these subjects focus on delicate issues of great personal significance, yet rely on cultural norms, discourse contexts, and basic assumptions that Chinese students may not share, understand, or feel comfortable discussing. Programs that invite American professors to teach summer classes to such students in China for American university credit allow for (...) interesting new opportunities to circumvent some of the learning obstacles these students face in the United States. This essay reflects upon general teaching strategies that take advantage of these opportunities, and presents promising approaches to three sensitive topics in this teaching context: cultural relativism as a normative moral theory, diversity, and human rights. Many of the approaches and examples discussed may also be applicable to teaching Chinese students in the U.S. or discussing key issues with them in office hours. (shrink)

Jung & Haier (J&H) have done an admirable job of solving the wrong problem. Their article does not show because intelligence resides not in the brain but, rather, in the interaction of brain and environment. I describe four reasons why the article does not adequately localize intelligence in the brain.

Recent years have seen a shift in the approach to religious life among members of the Israeli Religious Zionist and the American Modern Orthodox communities. The trend towards spirituality, and to Hasidic teachings and practices in particular, is noteworthy and deserving of exploration. A range of leading American and Israeli thinkers - rabbis and philosophers, anthropologists and theologians - weigh in on these trends.

Libertarian paternalism's notion of “nudging” refers to steering individual decision making so as to make choosers better off without breaching their free choice. If successful, this may offer an ideal synthesis between the duty to respect patient autonomy and that of beneficence, which at times favors paternalistic influence. A growing body of literature attempts to assess the merits of nudging in health care. However, this literature deals almost exclusively with health policy, while the question of the potential benefit of nudging (...) for the practice of informed consent has escaped systematic analysis. This article focuses on this question. While it concedes that nudging could amount to improper exploitation of cognitive weaknesses, it defends the practice of nudging in a wide range of other conditions. The conclusion is that, when ethically legitimate, nudging offers an important new paradigm for informed consent, with a special potential to overcome the classical dilemma between paternalistic beneficence and respect for autonomy. (shrink)

The acclaimed and controversial historian turns his critical gaze on the writing of history today. Drawing on his four decades as a professional historian, Shlomo Sand interrogates the academic discipline of history, whose origin lay in the need for a national ideology. In the last few decades, traditional history has begun to fragment, yet only to give rise to a new role of historians as priests of official memory. Working in Israel has sharpened Sand's perspective, since the role of (...) history as national myth is particularly salient in a country where the Bible is treated as a history book. He asks such questions as: Is every historical narrative ideologically marked? Do political requirements and state power weigh down inordinately on historical research and teaching? And, in such conditions, can there be a morally neutral and 'scientific' truth? Despite his trenchant criticism of academic history, Sand would still like to believe that the past can be understood without myth, and sees pointers for this in the work of Weber and Sorel"--Provided by publisher. (shrink)

The late Shlomo Pines (1908-1990) was this century's outstanding historian of Islamic philosophy and science. This volume offers, for the first time in English. Pines' doctoral dissertation on Islamic atomism; the German version appeared in 1936. Pines presents the atomic theories of matter, time and space, as they are found in the literature of kalam, as well their exposition in the writings of Abŭ Bakr al - Râzî; and then investigates in detail possible sources in the Greek, Indian, and (...) other traditions. The present publication incorporates a few revisions which Pines himself had made in a draft translation. A number of the texts, which Pines consulted in the manuscript, have since been published, and some important studies on the kalam have appeared. Nonetheless, it can be stated in confidence that, sixty years after its first publication, Pines' monograph is till today the most significant work on the subject. (shrink)

A central debate in the ethics of deception concerns the moral comparison among the three media through which deception is executed: lying, falsely implicating, or nonlinguistic deception. The two prominent views are that lying is morally worse or that the choice of medium is morally insignificant. This article refutes both and argues for a new position. The article first presents a theory on the moral significance of the medium of deception as such: it argues that the medium of communication affects (...) the reliability of beliefs formed through it, which amounts to gradations in the warrant of truth of different media. Breach of lower warrant of truth is a lesser breach of trust; it therefore deserves lighter condemnation. Consequently, the article shows that, morally speaking, lying is either worse than or equal to falsely implicating and that there is no a priori gradation between nonlinguistic deception and the two linguistic media. (shrink)

Yet until recently very little attention has been devoted to the fact that Marx's first major theoretical work, written in 1843 at the age of twenty-five, is a detailed critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right. Most of the literature which relates Marx to Hegel draws its evidence either from the two essays in the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher or from the Economic-Philosophical Manuscripts: yet Marx's views in these writings are an outcome of his earlier confrontation with Hegel in his Critique of Hegel's (...) Philosophy of Right. This critique of §§ 261-313 of the Rechtsphilosophie had never been published in Marx's lifetime and was printed for the first time by David Riazanov in 1927. While the Economic-Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 have achieved widespread recognition, this Critique remains relatively unknown, has as yet not been translated into English and remains generally neglected. My argument in this paper will be that a close look at the Critique is indispensible for an understanding of Marx's intellectual development, that most of the elements of Marx's later, "mature" social philosophy are already in existence in 1843 and that consequently some of the traditional views about the stages Marx's thought went through have to be radically revised. (shrink)

Ever since the discovery of Marx's Early Writings, most of the literature concerned with Marx's intellectual development has centred around the so-called gap between the 'young' Marx, who was considered to be a humanist thinker, and the 'older' Marx, who was held to be a determinist with little concern for anything outside his narrow theory of historical materialism. Dr Avineri claims that such a gap between the 'young' and 'older' Marx did not exist. He supports his claim by a detailed (...) study of the whole corpus of Marx's writing on social and political thought. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis paper introduces the category of ‘non-deceptive manipulation that causes false beliefs’, analyzes how it narrows the traditional scope of ‘deception’, and draws moral implications.

A new exploration of Karl Marx's life through his intellectual contributions to modern thought Karl Marx —philosopher, historian, sociologist, economist, current affairs journalist, and editor—was one of the most influential and revolutionary thinkers of modern history, but he is rarely thought of as a Jewish thinker, and his Jewish background is either overlooked or misrepresented. Here, distinguished scholar Shlomo Avineri argues that Marx’s Jewish origins did leave a significant impression on his work. Marx was born in Trier, then part (...) of Prussia, and his family had enjoyed equal rights and emancipation under earlier French control of the area. But then its annexation to Prussia deprived the Jewish population of its equal rights. These developments led to the reluctant conversion of Marx’s father, and similar tribulations radicalized many young intellectuals of that time who came from a Jewish background. Avineri puts Marx’s Jewish background in its proper and balanced perspective, and traces Marx’s intellectual development in light of the historical, intellectual, and political contexts in which he lived. (shrink)

The essays collected in this volume reflect the many facets of the debate between communitarianism and individualism and examine its implications for the political arena. They cover a wide spectrum of thought and opinion and include work by Ronald Dworkin, Marilyn Friedman, David Gauthier, Amy Gutmann, Will Kymlicka, Alasdair MacIntyre, David Miller, Robert Nozick, John Rawls, Michael Sandel, Charles Taylor, and Michael Walzer.

The nocebo effect, the mirror-phenomenon to the placebo effect, is when the expectation of a negative outcome precipitates the corresponding symptom or leads to its exacerbation. One of the basic ethical duties in health care is to obtain informed consent from patients before treatment; however, the disclosure of information regarding potential complications or side effects that this involves may precipitate a nocebo effect. While dilemmas between the principles of respect for patient autonomy and of nonmaleficence are recognized in medical ethics, (...) there has not yet been an ethical discussion focused on the potential dilemma raised by the nocebo effect of informed consent. This dilemma is especially pernicious, since it involves a direct causality of harm by the caregiver that is unparalleled by other potential harmful effects of information disclosure. This paper articulates the dilemma of the NEIC and offers a seminal ethical analysis. (shrink)

This article argues that the religious epistemology of the rabbinic tradition, which preserves and respects multiple perspectives in intellectual debate, is best understood in comparison to the definitions of truth proposed by philosophical pragmatists, in particular William James and W. V. Quine, and in contrast to those of philosophical liberals, in particular J. S. Mill. Both the rabbis and the pragmatists emphasize the harmony that innovation must maintain with extant webs of meaning. Conceptions of objectivity and subjectivity in Jewish medieval (...) rationalism and in early modern mysticism are considered and compared with those of latter-day European and American epistemology. This article makes a case for a fundamentally pluralistic conception of truth and argues that it is exemplified in the social interaction of the talmudic sages. (shrink)

In this book, Shlomo Biderman examines the views, outlooks, and attitudes of two distinct cultures: the West and classical India. He turns to a rich and varied collection of primary sources: the _Rg Veda_, the Upanishads, and texts by the Buddhist philosophers Någårjuna and Vasubandhu, among others. In studying the West, Biderman considers the Bible and its commentaries, the writings of such philosophers as Plato, Descartes, Berkeley, Kant, and Derrida, and the literature of Kafka, Melville, and Orwell. Additional sources (...) are Mozart's _Don Giovanni_ and seminal films like Ingmar Bergman's _Persona_. Biderman uses concrete examples from religion and literature to illustrate the formal aspects of the philosophical problems of transcendence, language, selfhood, and the external world and then demonstrates their plausibility in actual situations. Though his method of analysis is comparative, Biderman does not adopt the disinterested stance of an "ideal" spectator. Rather, Biderman approaches ancient Indian thought and culture from a Western philosophical standpoint to uncover cultural presuppositions that can be difficult to expose from within the culture in question. The result is a fascinating landmark in the study of Indian and Western thought. Through his comparative prism, Biderman explores the most basic ideas underlying human culture, and his investigation not only sheds light on India's philosophical traditions but also facilitates a deeper understanding of our own. (shrink)

Individuals who show anger are rated as higher in dominance and lower in affiliation, whereas those who express sadness are rated lower in dominance and higher in affiliation. Little is known about situations where people show both expressions in sequence as happens when a first emotional reaction is followed by a second, different one. This question was examined in two studies. Overall, we found that the last emotion shown had a strong impact on perceived behavioural intentions. However, the information about (...) the previously shown emotion was also integrated. The specific mode of integration was dependent on the salience of the change and naive theories about the type of person who changes their emotion in the face of changing events. (shrink)

Volume I : Studies in the Philosophy of Abu'l- Barak t al-Baghd d , deals with various aspects of the philosophy of Abu'l-Barakat al-Baghdadi. Some of Avicenna's physical and psychological doctrines are also discussed.

“de-extinction” refers to the process of resurrecting extinct species by genetic methods. This science-fiction-sounding idea is in fact already in early processes of scientific implementation. Although this recent “revival of the dead” raises deep ethical questions, the ethics of de-extinction has barely received philosophical treatment. Rather than seeking a verdict for or against de-extinction, this paper attempts an overview and some novel analyses of the main ethical considerations. Five dimensions of the ethics of de-extinction are explored: (a) the possible contribution (...) of de-extinction to promoting ecological values, (b) the deontological argument that we owe de-extinction to species we rendered extinct, (c) the question of “playing God” through de-extinction, (d) the utilitarian perspective, and (e) the role of aesthetic considerations in the ethics of de-extinction. A general feature arising from the paper’s discussion is that, due to de-extinction’s special character, it repeatedly tests the limits of our ethical notions. (shrink)

We reviewed 272 phase I oncology trial consent forms and then created an improved informed consent template in both English and Spanish by redesigning and rewording the consent form to be specific to phase I trials, to avoid repetition, and to use simplified language, identifiable sections framed by first-person questions, and tables to present information. The resulting consent form template is shorter than average and considerably easier to read . The template also meets the recommended eighth-grade maximum reading level for (...) consent forms. Use of this template should help improve the informed consent process. (shrink)

This volume covers some fifty years of Pines' work in the field of Islamic philosophy, from the very first article he published ("Some Problems of Islamic Philosophy", in 1937") to an article that was found in his paper after his death and is published here for the first time (" The origin of the Tale of Salâmân and Absâl").