In our everyday moral deliberations, we attend to two central types of considerations – outcomes and moral rules. How these considerations interrelate is central to the long-standing debate between deontologists and utilitarians. Is the weight we attach to moral rules reducible to their conduciveness to good outcomes (as many utilitarians claim)? Or do we take moral rules to be absolute constraints on action that normatively trump outcomes (as many deontologists claim)? Arguments over these issues characteristically appeal to commonsense intuitions about (...) various cases. As a result, an important portion of the debate involves empirically tractable questions — questions that can be investigated by probing for people’s judgments in cases in which the two types of considerations come into conflict with one another. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin This article explores how some of the ethical issues raised by Donation after Cardiac Death are addressed in Australia's new National Protocol. It endorses much of what has been established for the management of professional conflicts of interest, the management of conflicts between the wishes of donor and family, the use of ante mortem interventions, and the determination of death. However, it calls for a 5 minute observation time before the declaration of death, and a stronger statement (...) about conscientious objection. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin Benedict XVI released his third encyclical on 29 June 2009. Its Latin title is 'Caritas in Veritate;' its English title is 'On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth.' This article explores the significant teachings of this encyclical.

McGovern, Kevin After a brief account of the process, this article considers three significant ethical issues about Donation after Cardiac Death.

McGovern, Kevin This article explores the new National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research.

The neoliberal globalization project of expanding and maintaining capitalism globally requires the shaping of neoliberal nation-states that will entrench its ideology, political structures, and practices. In that sense, the neoliberal nation-state provides an appropriate conceptual site for investigating the local-global nexus in the dynamics of global capitalism. Using the Philippines as an example, this paper investigates the various factors or dimensions in the making of the Philippines as a neoliberal nation-state from the colonial era to the supranational structures that exert (...) external control on the Philippine political economy: the global power of transnational corporations, the IMF, American and Chinese imperialism, including the American military aid that supports militarization and counter-insurgency against movements that challenge the neoliberal agenda of the past and current regimes. In addition, this paper offers implications for policy changes and strategies for global resistance that anti-globalization movements can consider. (shrink)

The vulnerability of participants in Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) programs is a consequence of the illnesses that they are experiencing; ethical guarantees must be in place that ensure the dignity of the persons involved in such programs. Dignity is more than an individual concern; it has individual, institutional, and societal dimensions. An ethical framework is proposed that involves the interrelated vulnerabilities and needs of individuals and communities and our societal response to them. Among the issues given (...) particular attention are individual and community stigmatization, target population involvement in program planning, balance with regard to confidentiality and privacy, the place of proportionality grounded in a rich sense of community as a guiding ethical principle, and guidelines for SAMHSA programs. (shrink)

Quick reference guide includes illustrated explanations of the most common terms used in general math classes. Discusses how students can use manipulatives and basic math tools to improve their understanding. With measurement conversion tables, guides to geometric shapes, and more.

Quarterly publication discussing various topics in environmental ethics, including features, discussion papers, book reviews, editorial commentaries, and other text related to environmental philosophies. Some issues also include announcements and other news related to the environmental studies community.

McGovern, Kevin Pope Francis's Evangelii Gaudium calls us to both service and silence. This article explores the theological underpinning of this call, and considers its implications for Catholic health, aged and community care services in Australia.

McGovern, Kevin British political strategist Philip Gould was diagnosed with cancer early in 2008. He died towards the end of 2011. Challenging community attitudes about dying with cancer, he insisted in a book-length memoir that this was "the most important ... the most fulfilling and the most inspirational time of my life." This article reflects on Philip's testimony.

McGovern, Kevin After a brief account of the Victorian Law Reform Act 2008, this article reports on three responses to this law in the last year. Because Section 8 of this law restricts the healthcare practitioner's usual right of conscientious objection, this article also discusses conscience and conscientious objection.

McGovern, Kevin In December 2008, the US President's Council on Bioethics issued a White Paper titled 'Controversies in the Determination of Death.'1 Responding to contemporary critiques of the concept of brain death, the Council upholds the validity of this neurological standard for determining death. Significantly, it also proposes replacing the existing explanation of this standard with a new, very different rationale. As well, it argues that 'total brain failure' is a better name for this condition than 'brain death.' This (...) article summarises and then comments on this important statement. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin This article explores statements from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) about health research involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The companion piece to this article, “Situating Moral Justification,” challenges the idea that moral epistemology's mission is to establish a single, all‐purpose reasoning strategy for moral justification because no reasoning practice can be expected to deliver authoritative moral conclusions in all social contexts. The present article argues that rethinking the mission of moral epistemology requires rethinking its method as well. Philosophers cannot learn which reasoning practices are suitable to use in particular contexts exclusively by exploring logical relations among concepts. Instead, (...) in order to understand which reasoning practices are capable of justifying moral claims in different types of contexts, we need to study empirically the relationships between reasoning practices and the contexts in which they are used. The article proposes that philosophers investigate case studies of real‐world moral disputes in which people lack shared cultural assumptions and/or are unequal in social power. It motivates and explains the proposed case study method and illustrates the philosophical value of this method through a case study. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin In recent years, some speakers at Catholic conferences and a few articles on Catholic websites and in Catholic newspapers have claimed that brain death is not really death. Some Catholics may be confused by this - particularly if they are asked to agree to the removal of mechanical ventilation or the procurement of organs from a relative or friend who has been declared brain dead. At the same time, these claims might damage the reputation of the Church (...) within the scientific and health care communities. This article reviews what brain death is, and then details Catholic investigations and statements about this concept. (shrink)

In the highly contentious abortion arena, the new oral abortifacient technology RU486 is one among many actors. This article offers an arena analysis of the heterogeneous constructions of RU486 by various actors, including scientists, pharmaceutical compa nies, medical groups, antiabortion groups, women's health movement groups, and others who have produced situated knowledges. Conceptually, we find not only that the identity of the nonhuman actor-RU486 -is unstable and multiple but also that, in practice, there are other implicated actors—the downstream users and (...) consumers of the technology. If we try to follow all the actors, we find a fuller and more historicized arena, and, ironically, we too can be construed as implicated actors in it. (shrink)

This title considers whether any generalisations can be made about word order in language. The chapters, written by international scholars, draw on data from several 'disharmonic' and typologically distinct languages, including Mandarin Chinese, Basque, French, English, Hixkaryana (a Cariban language), Khalkha Mongolian, Uyghur Turkic, and Afrikaans.

This book develops a comprehensive theoretical model to understand how transnational interactions relate to orientations towards European integration.

Le projet de mondialisation néolibérale, qui consiste à étendre et à maintenir le capitalisme à l’échelle mondiale, nécessite la création d’États-nations néolibéraux qui intégreront son idéologie, ses pratiques et ses structures politiques. En ce sens, l’État-nation néolibéral constitue un site conceptuel approprié pour examiner le lien entre le local et le global dans la dynamique du capitalisme mondial. En prenant les Philippines comme exemple, l’article examine les différents facteurs ou dimensions qui ont fait des Philippines un État-nation néolibéral, depuis l’époque (...) coloniale jusqu’aux structures supranationales qui exercent un contrôle externe sur l’économie politique philippine : le pouvoir mondial des sociétés transnationales, le FMI, l’impérialisme américain et chinois, y compris l’aide militaire américaine qui soutient la militarisation et la contre-insurrection contre les mouvements remettant en question le programme néolibéral des régimes passés et actuels. Enfin, l’article considère les répercussions que les mouvements antimondialisation peuvent avoir sur le changement d’orientation politique et sur les stratégies de résistance mondiale. (shrink)

Pope John Paul II promulgated his first major social encyclical, Laborem Exercens (“On Human Work”), in September 1981. The encyclical, evoked many favorable reactions, even from Marxists. One such writer even argued that on social issues at least, John Paul II stands as “a sturdy and reliable ally.” The Pope often speaks in categories more familiar to Marxists than to Catholics. Another commentator even indicated doubts whether U.S. Catholics realize the importance of the encyclical because “The pope's concerns are the (...) concerns of Marx, his categories and history are those of Marx.” Yet, the Pope seems to identify Marxism with Marxist-Leninism. (shrink)

Mit Hilfe von Leo Strauss, seinem Freund und philosophischen Kollegen, verließ Hans Jonas Israel und siedelte 1949 nach Kanada. Nachdem Jonas einige Jahre in Kanada an der Carleton University gelehrt hatte, erhielt er 1955 einen Ruf als Professor an die New School for Social Research. Leo Strauss und Karl Löwith, die beide dort lehrten, hatten sich für ihn eingesetzt.

McGovern, Kevin; Brussen, Kerri Anne Some vaccines are produced using cell lines which were originally developed from tissue from an aborted foetus. Vaccines are ethically compromised by this connection to abortion. within the Catholic Church, the Pontifical Academy for Life has called for research and development of alternative vaccines which are ethically acceptable. Until alternative vaccines are developed, it has also accepted the use even of these ethically compromised vaccines in order to protect children, pregnant women and the population (...) as a whole from the risk of contracting serious disease. This article explores all these issues from an Australian perspective. (shrink)

Individuals with high levels of narcissism often ascend to leadership positions. Whereas there is evidence that narcissism is linked to unethical behavior and negative social outcomes, the effects of leader narcissism on an organization’s most important resource—its employees—have not yet been studied thoroughly. Using theoretical assumptions of the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Concept and social exchange theories, we examined how leaders’ narcissistic rivalry was related to follower outcomes in a sample of matched leaders and followers. Followers of leaders high in (...) narcissistic rivalry reported less perceived supervisor support, lower quality leader-member relationships, lower performance-based self-esteem, and lower job engagement. These effects were only found when follower-rated leaders’ narcissistic rivalry was used in the model but not when self-rated leaders’ narcissistic rivalry was used as a predictor. This implies that the negative effects of leaders’ narcissistic rivalry on followers are driven by the expression of narcissistic tendencies. Leader development should thus focus on changing destructive leader behavior. We propose that leaders high in narcissistic rivalry can be motivated to make such changes by showing them that by hurting their followers, they will eventually undermine their own reputation and status. Furthermore, selection and promotion practices should incorporate objective measures to weaken the effects of narcissists’ self-promotional tactics in these contexts and thus prevent people high in narcissistic rivalry from rising to leadership positions. (shrink)

AI for social good is a thriving research topic and a frequently declared goal of AI strategies and regulation. This article investigates the requirements necessary in order for AI to actually serve a public interest, and hence be socially good. The authors propose shifting the focus of the discourse towards democratic governance processes when developing and deploying AI systems. The article draws from the rich history of public interest theory in political philosophy and law, and develops a framework for ‘public (...) interest AI’. The framework consists of (1) public justification for the AI system, (2) an emphasis on equality, (3) deliberation/ co-design process, (4) technical safeguards, and (5) openness to validation. This framework is then applied to two case studies, namely SyRI, the Dutch welfare fraud detection project, and UNICEF’s Project Connect, that maps schools worldwide. Through the analysis of these cases, the authors conclude that public interest is a helpful and practical guide for the development and governance of AI for the people. (shrink)

Introduction. Medical trainees fear disclosing psychological distress and rarely seek help. Social sharing of difficult experiences can reduce stress and burnout. Drawing comics is one way that has been used to help trainees express themselves. The authors explore reasons why some medical trainees chose to draw comics depicting stressful situations that they had never shared with anyone before. Methods. Trainees participated in a comic drawing session on stressors in medicine. Participants were asked if they had ever shared the drawn situation (...) with anyone. Participants who had not previously shared were asked what prevented them and why they shared it now. The authors performed content analysis of the responses. Results. Of two hundred forty participants, forty-six indicated sharing an experience for the first time. Analysis of the responses revealed dedicated time and space was essential to sharing, trainee insecurity was a barrier, and comics were perceived as a safe way to communicate. Discussion. Depicting a stressful situation may be beneficial for trainees who drew an experience they had never shared before. Providing trainees with the opportunity to externalize their experience and create a community for sharing tough experiences may be one way to reduce trainee stress and burnout. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin This exploration of business ethics is based on the fifth edition of Business Ethics by Damian Grace and Stephen Cohen. Against the view that business is an ethics-free zone, it argues that for almost all of us, there is an important place for ethics in business. Against the view of neoliberalism or economic rationalism that free and unfettered markets necessarily bring about fairness, it argues that there is a place for government regulation of business. This article also (...) includes material on a number of other topics including ethics in advertising, ethics in the professions, environmental responsibility, and supporting an ethical culture in organisations through codes of ethics and codes of conduct. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin This article explores what is said in the fourth chapter of Pope Francis's Evangelii Gaudium about social engagement particularly with the poor. Francis sees practical engagement with the poor as an essential component of the Christian faith. This engagement begins with loving attentiveness to them. It seeks their integral development, and their full inclusion in the life of society. Such social engagement also calls us to care for the environment, to participate in the quest for peace, and (...) to engage in dialogue with all people to seek consensus on ways of building a better world. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin Physician and ethicist Professor Paul Komesaroff and former judge Stephen Charles QC have proposed legislation to protect health professionals from the risk of criminal prosecution when in appropriate circumstances they provide pain relief which may shorten a patient's life. For this protection, they recommend that four conditions must all be satisfied: the patient has a terminal illness; the intention is to relieve pain and suffering; the treatment is reasonable in terms of current medical practice; and the treatment (...) is necessary to relieve pain and suffering. This article examines their proposal, supports it, and joins in the call for Victorian legislation which achieves this purpose. (shrink)

McGovern, Kevin The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) released a new Instruction on bioethics on 12 December 2008, and titled it as Dignitas Personae. A brief summary of the new Vatican Instruction on bioethics is presented, which is aimed at contributing to the formation of conscience, and to promote biomedical research which is ethically sound and which truly serves human beings.