Search

Philosophical discussions of free speech often focus on moral considerations such as the harm that certain forms of expression might cause. However, in addition to our moral obligations, we also have a distinct set of epistemic obligations—and even when a false belief doesn't harm anyone, it constitutes an epistemically bad outcome. Moreover, the existing psychological evidence suggests that human beings are vulnerable to the influence of a wide variety of false claims via a wide variety of psychological mechanisms. Taken together, these facts suggest that there is a purely epistemic justification for restricting the distribution of misinformation: Because each of us has an individual epistemic obligation to avoid unnecessary exposure to misinformation, and because avoiding such exposure is simply too difficult when acting alone, we all have a shared epistemic obligation to establish laws or regulations restricting the widespread distribution of misinformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional monotheist religious believers commonly believe that God will sometimes assist them, will be on their side. God, in other words, they believe, is an asset. Conceptually an asset is anything (such as a person or an object) that can assist one, something that is prima facie good to possess or to have on one's side, that is likely to or can assist one to make one's life go better, overall. Having assets can have weighty implications, including moral ones. I argue that here the implications are quite surprising, and indeed paradoxical. In particular, the religious will have in certain circumstances good reasons, and sometimes even moral obligations, to give up their interests for those who lack such assets, namely secular non-believers. The claim is not that religious people actually see things in this way but that, normatively, given their beliefs, many of them should, in the sense of the subjective 'ought'. This can be relevant both in this world and concerning the next. Moreover, in many situations plausible religious replies are not sufficient to block the move. This topic has not, to the best of my knowledge, ever been seriously analysed philosophically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journalism, which provides the public with reliable information, can be perceived to be a social service for the public interest. Modern journalism might evolve into social entrepreneurship, with a focus on creating value for the public amid institutional pressures. Two studies were conducted to investigate the effects of various factors on the social entrepreneurial intention (SEI) of environmental journalists. Study 1, with 287 respondents, confirmed the factor structures of the scales that were used. Study 2, with 352 respondents, confirmed the five precursors to SEI, namely, prior experience, empathy, moral obligation, social support, and self-efficacy, and two aspects of entrepreneurial creativity, namely originality and usefulness. Additionally, two aspects of SEI were identified: conviction and preparation. Accordingly, social support (followed by prior experience, empathy, and usefulness) was the most influential factor on entrepreneurial conviction. Social support (followed by usefulness, prior experience, and empathy) also had the greatest influence on entrepreneurial preparation. Conversely, moral obligation negatively affected both entrepreneurial conviction and preparation. The results have considerable theoretical implications for social services and journalism scholarship by suggesting entrepreneurial creativity as a mediator facilitating journalists' SEI, social responsibility as a substitute for moral obligation, and emphasis on the effects of social support and self-efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizen science, where non-specialists collaborate with scientists, has surged in popularity. While it offers an innovative approach to research involvement, the domain of agri-environmental research participation, particularly in terms of citizen recruitment and retention, remains relatively unexplored. To investigate how what factors influence initial and sustained participation in an agronomic citizen science project, we performed a large survey during the case-study "Soy in 1000 Gardens". We obtained data on citizens motivations, general values, environmental concern, prior citizen science experience, and knowledge regarding sustainable food consumption and garden management and applied a two-step selection model to correct for potential self-selection bias on our participation outcomes. Initially, citizen scientists appear to be mostly motivated by gaining knowledge, having fun social interactions and environmental concern with regards to the effects on others, while the desire for enhancing or protecting their ego is less prominent. They also display higher knowledge and self-transcending values. Sustained participants however, are significantly older and share a stronger sense of moral obligation than their dropped-out counterparts. Moreover, prior experience seems to positively influence the length of their participation, while higher knowledge has a positive impact on the amount of data contributed. These insights offer strategies for tailored engagement that should emphasize collective impact, align with intrinsic values, and foster a sense of moral duty, with potential to enhance agri-environmental citizen science initiatives' effectiveness in addressing environmental challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theological discussions about visits to the Prophet's grave in Madina are the focus of this paper. The relevant question in this context relates to the idea of a postmortem life of the Prophet and its accessibility for believers after his death. The idea of a spiritual presence of the Prophet in this world is found in the description of religious visits to Madina, namely in the traditional Sunni books of Fiqh (describing the normative rules concerning the Prophet's grave), as well as in some books of Tafsir. These ideas have been challenged by the Wahhabi movement, in which the idea of becoming connected to the Prophet's presence is refused and the visit to Madina is seen to be focused on the mosque, not the grave of the Prophet. This reinterpretation is examined in this article on the basis of various textual references. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the development and reception of a new model of Catholic conjugality in 1950s French-speaking Belgium, focusing on the concept of "physical harmony" and its impact on marital duty and women's sexual agency. It analyzes various sources such as articles, manuals, and letters to understand the transmission and negotiation of these new norms. The article highlights the complexities and ambivalences surrounding Catholic attitudes towards sexuality during this period, discussing the changing views on conjugal sexuality in Catholic moral theology. It also explores the gendered dynamics of consent and desire within marital relationships, with women often feeling pressure to please their husbands and experiencing guilt if they couldn't achieve sexual pleasure. The article concludes that while the new Catholic model promoted shared desire and pleasure, it also reinforced gender inequalities and placed additional responsibilities on women. [Extracted from the article]

The obligation to prevent human rights violations has received little attention in the international human rights community, including in academic commentary. This article considers the sources of the obligation to prevent violations in international human rights law and explores some of the content of the obligation. This leads to a recognition that this obligation may challenge the way we often approach human rights violations and what States need to do to comply. While much of the attention to human rights violations tend to be retrospective—after they have occurred, the obligation to prevent violations requires that action be taken before individuals and groups of individuals become victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article illustrates the development and characteristics of two customary forms of mortgage lending by analyzing a total of 3,630 mortgage cases found in four lineage communities in rural Hong Kong during the period 1905–1965 under British colonial rule. Two major findings are presented. First, there was a progressive decline of the dian 典 form, in sharp contrast to the increasing popularity of the diya 抵押 form. Second, while dian practices distinctly followed prevailing kinship-based moral values and obligations to help needy agnates, agnatic ties were not a significant factor in determining the terms of diya loans. This suggests that needy villagers did not feel disinclined to get a loan from lineage outsiders who could offer reasonable or attractive terms. The popularity of the diya practice demonstrates the existence of a strategic balance between self-interest and communal moral values and mutual obligations in lineage communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of Artificial Life studies the nature of the living state by modeling and synthesizing living systems. Such systems, under certain conditions, may come to deserve moral consideration similar to that given to nonhuman vertebrates or even human beings. The fact that these systems are nonhuman and evolve in a potentially radically different substrate should not be seen as an insurmountable obstacle to their potentially having rights, if they are sufficiently sophisticated in other respects. Nor should the fact that they owe their existence to us be seen as reducing their status as targets of moral concern. On the contrary, creators of Artificial Life may have special obligations to their creations, resembling those of an owner to their pet or a parent to their child. For a field that aims to create artificial life-forms with increasing levels of sophistication, it is crucial to consider the possible ethical implications of our activities, with an eye toward assessing potential moral obligations for which we should be prepared. If Artificial Life is larger than life, then the ethics of artificial beings should be larger than human ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health institutions recommend that young infants be exclusively breastfed on demand, and it is widely held that parents who can breastfeed have an obligation to do so. This has been challenged in recent philosophical work, especially by Fiona Woollard. Woollard's work critically engages with two distinct views of parental obligation that might ground such an obligation—based on maximal benefit and avoidance of significant harm—to reject an obligation to breastfeed. While agreeing with Woollard's substantive conclusion, this paper (drawing on philosophical discussion of the 'right to rear') argues that there are several more moderate views of parental obligation which might also be thought to ground parental obligation. We first show that an obligation to breastfeed might result not from a general obligation to maximally benefit one's child, but from what we call 'choice-specific' obligations to maximise benefit within particular activities. We then develop this idea through two views of parental obligation—the Dual Interest view, and the Best Custodian view—to ground an obligation to exclusively breastfeed on demand, before showing how both these more moderate views fail. Finally, we argue that not only is there no general obligation to breastfeed children, but that it is often morally right not to do so. Since much advice from health institutions on this issue implies that exclusive breastfeeding on demand is the best option for all families, our argument drives the feeding debate forward by showing that this advice often misrepresents parents' moral obligations in potentially harmful ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can tort law contribute to combatting climate change? The Principles of European Tort Law (PETL), in particular the framework of art 4:102 PETL, have already served as inspiration for a duty of care for both governments and companies, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This is in line with the development of law in Europe, where liability for an insufficient contribution to combatting global warming is becoming increasingly concrete. The PETL, therefore, do not necessarily need to be amended on this point. However, the development could be strengthened in two ways. First, it is proposed to amend art 4:102(3) PETL, providing that the duty of care may be determined in part by reference to internationally recognised fundamental rights and international documents that constitute a breach of duty for companies. Secondly, making room in the PETL for injunctive relief would do justice to the need to take preventive measures, as, in climate cases, preventing global warming is more urgent than ex post compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we focus on the scholarly and policy debate on autonomous weapon systems (AWS) and particularly on the objections to the use of these weapons which rest on jus ad bellum principles of proportionality and last resort. Both objections rest on the idea that AWS may increase the incidence of war by reducing the costs for going to war (proportionality) or by providing a propagandistic value (last resort). We argue that whilst these objections offer pressing concerns in their own right, they suffer from important limitations: they overlook the difficulties of calculating ad bellum proportionality; confuse the concept of proportionality of effects with the precision of weapon systems; disregard the ever-changing nature of war and of its ethical implications; mistake the moral obligation imposed by the principle of last resort with the impact that AWS may have on political decision to resort to war. Our analysis does not entail that AWS are acceptable or justifiable, but it shows that ad bellum principles are not the best set of ethical principles for tackling the ethical problems raised by AWS; and that developing adequate understanding of the transformations that the use of AWS poses to the nature of war itself is a necessary, preliminary requirement to any ethical analysis of the use of these weapons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1980s and 1990s David Myatt, a British neo-Nazi ideologue, was involved in attempts to establish Aryan enclaves; Myatt's enclave vision imagined a space secluded from the inauthenticity of liberal multicultural modernity where an Aryan folk community could live authentically in accordance with his National-Socialist ideology. This ideology was founded on a cosmology which inextricably interlinked Aryans, the landscape, and the cosmos in a symbiotic relationship. Myatt therefore envisaged rural enclaves established in harmony with Nature, where Aryans could live authentic lives in an authentic community, founded on an imagined emotionology that centred the Aryan virtues of honour, loyalty, and duty. Myatt's legitimacy as an ideologue was largely formed by his vigorous personal adherence to this concept of authentic Aryanism, but this authenticity and legitimacy was tested by Myatt's deliberate tactics of obscuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we argue that our moral concern for future well-being should reduce over time due to important practical considerations about how humans interact with spacetime. After surveying several of these considerations (around equality, special duties, existential contingency, and overlapping moral concern) we develop a set of core principles that can both explain their moral significance and highlight why this is inherently bound up with our relationship with spacetime. These relate to the equitable distribution of (1) moral concern in a universe that we can only causally affect in one temporal direction; (2) access to the benefits from using spacetime as a resource; and (3) the burdens of care given (1) and (2). We conclude by considering the practical implications of our argument and find that, while it is often assumed that a preference for present over future well-being weakens the case for existential risk mitigation, this likely is not the case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that one of Ireland's literary greats Frank O'Connor (1903–1966) utilized the Irish War of Independence (WOI) as a backdrop for "Guests of the Nation," one of the most famous works about the Irish revolutionary period. The 1931 short story is set during the Irish WOI (1919–1921). This essay, however, wishes to explore the notion that a subsequent but separate conflict—the Irish Civil War (1922–1923)—was at the forefront of O'Connor's mind at the time of writing, with concepts of duty, brotherhood, and the questioning of hegemonic military codes suggesting the Civil War undercurrent throughout. Although the cast of characters presented in the story includes two captured English soldiers, Belcher and Hawkins (as well as their Irish captors Bonaparte—the narrator—Noble, and Jeremiah Donovan), the cottage and its inhabitants function, for the writer, as a literary prop that acts as a free landscape to create a "better world." This, it is argued here, allowed O'Connor to articulate his primary thoughts around the societal influences formed during the Civil War, a conflict of which, in contrast to the WOI, the writer had direct experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2006, mountaineer David Sharp died on the slopes of Mount Everest. Sharp's death led to public outrage after allegedly 40 climbers passed by the dying Sharp on their way to the peak, without stopping to help. But, since the slopes of Everest are a high-risk environment and rescuing Sharp would have entailed great risks for the rescuers, it is not clear whether the other mountaineers had a moral duty to rescue him. In a recent article, Patrick Findler introduces a principle to analyse such cases which states that we have a duty to rescue under dangerous circumstances, if the involved risks are not higher than the risks we are already taking in the pursuit of our own, morally less worthy ends. However, Findler then rejects this principle as too demanding. In this paper I will defend the principle against its inventor and argue in favour of such a duty. And while it may be true that the other mountaineers were justified in passing Sharp for different reasons, the principle shows that not only climbers, but adventure-sport athletes in general and people who engage in high-risk endeavours, may have a duty to rescue that doesn't apply to others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many philosophers have argued that statistical evidence regarding group characteristics (particularly stereotypical ones) can create normative conflicts between the requirements of epistemic rationality and our moral obligations to each other. In a recent article, Johnson-King and Babic argue that such conflicts can usually be avoided: what ordinary morality requires, they argue, epistemic rationality permits. In this article, we show that as data get large, Johnson-King and Babic's approach becomes less plausible. More constructively, we build on their project and develop a generalized model of reasoning about stereotypes under which one can indeed avoid normative conflicts, even in a big data world, when data contain some noise. In doing so, we also articulate a general approach to rational belief updating for noisy data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an exploratory research, our paper aims to describe the role played by the Inter-American Court of human rights in standardising the interpretation of conventional human rights in the Americas. This is basic research. We use qualitative methods to understand the different ways applied by the Inter American Court to enforce not only its judgements, but the content of regional human rights instruments as well as its interpretation, over that of national tribunals. Results have implications for victims of human rights violations in the continent, since every national congress has a duty to apply and enact new legislation in order to comply with the Court's standards. Knowing the content of the Inter American Court's judgements is a first necessary step to apply its standards to every domestic decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper will identify and further explore the ideals versus realities of learning poverty and the consequential effects on our moral obligations and responsibilities. The wealthy nations are now under further pressure to recognise and realise their moral obligations to enabling social justice in the context of access, and distribution, of vaccines for the poorer nations. Learning poverty has always been a feature of our global economic, and institutional order, and has become an increasingly important factor in achieving justice. Design/methodology/approach: The study focusses on a human rights approach to learning poverty and the ideals versus the realities of what we are beginning to see in the times of a global pandemic. The major challenges to justice is inherent to the recognition that wealthy nations continue to have a pivotal role in the reduction of poverty. The identified major challenges in the context of learning poverty are: "nation states and the global pandemic", "international interactions and learning poverty" and "global institutions and learning inequalities". In particular, the authors explore the concept of ideals versus realities through three "challenges", which continues to challenge any semblance of justice in the current global vaccine distribution. Nation states and borders, international interactions and global institutions remain barriers in overcoming what is becoming a reality of learning poverty. Findings: This paper seeks to look beyond the economics of vaccine trade and seek a way to accept a moral claim of justice for all. The authors consider how wealthy nations are active participants in the emergence of learning poverty for many nations. Originality/value: By exploring the ideals versus realities of learning poverty, and human rights, the authors highlight some of the challenges, and wealthy nations moral obligations, through the emergence of a new dimensional indicator of poverty, learning poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The “private” dimension of social life is problematic, posing conceptual, political, and ecological challenges. Some of these problems arise from the very nature of private property as it is enshrined in social life, which demands special privileges be granted to “private” matters on the grounds that these are private, because the predominant representation of the involved rights is that they reflect claims of the holders, rather than legitimate claims of society as a whole in allocating responsibilities, benefits, and duties. The claim to the rationality of allocations of property rights, this article argues, must be questioned in light of the kind of commonality that is revealed in a striking manner by environmental issues (although it is not restricted to environmental matters). This questioning makes sense in relation to an analysis of social interactions, beyond the problematic opposition between the private sphere and public life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the ontologizing effect of a care framework? And how can clay cease to insist on itself as an abstracted medium of self‐making? The artists Jade Montserrat, Chinasa Vivian Ezugha, and Cassils each work clay as a material in their performance. Their toil of working with this organic material signals to the work of self‐care as maintenance and ecological maintenance, a sign of the forces of reproduction that may befall marginalized people and communities within the collective care of the earth. Drawing up an analysis of the maintenance work of these three clay performances, this article builds toward an ecocritical framework that takes account of the literal dimensions of what might otherwise fall into the trappings of an abstract, conceptual affinity. That is, existing as conceptually closer to nonhuman nature carries duties and responsibilities, labor and toil, burdens of care, self‐care, maintenance, and the sweaty, untidy, unraveling, by nature always unfinished work of recovery. The article explores a notion of transactional care, asking after the distributed ontologizing effect, the widened field of enclosure, and the matrices of legibility that earth‐care paradigms might afford. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a registered psychotherapist and art therapist, my clinical training was primarily based on North American clinical approaches influenced by traditional Euro and western‐centric clinical theories of human behavior. I completed my training feeling certain that traditional clinical mental health practices were not an appropriate fit for racialized communities and could have negative implications for their healing and well‐being. As clinicians, it is our moral obligation to support and enhance the quality of life for marginalized groups. We can do this by challenging our values and knowledge that have been defined and influenced by structures (i.e., education, training, etc.) embedded in these colonial teachings. For this paper, I used a heuristic self‐inquiry research method to investigate these concerns. I interviewed other racialized psychotherapists practicing in Turtle Island (currently mostly occupied by the political entities of Canada and the United States) with the aim to learn how and if decolonization can be used in therapy practice. With this research, I (1) identified a gap in care for racialized communities, (2) questioned if or how a decolonizing approach to care should be considered, (3) explored my discomfort with practitioners in the field that claim their position on decolonizing therapy, practice, and approaches, and lastly (4) propose other ways of knowing that can inform new ways of practicing therapy. The results of this research helped to problematize the language and use of decolonizing therapeutic practices while learning about other concepts that may be relevant yet distinct, such as principles of coloniality/decoloniality. Those of us, therapists or researchers, wanting to disrupt the current practice of therapy need to work together, share knowledge, and challenge each other, so that we can transform the way we practice as psychotherapists. This paper is my contribution to this conversation. Highlights: I interviewed racialized psychotherapists to learn how and if decolonization can be used in therapy.Traditional psychology can lead to ineffective mental health care for racialized communities.I propose other ways of knowing that can inform new therapy practices for racialized communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay seeks to examine the distinctive way that Herman Bavinck employs the imitation of Christ within Reformed Ethics. The distinctive way in which Bavinck understands and applies the imitation of Christ in his exposition of the commandments is helpfully clarified in conversation with his contemporary, Wilhelm Geesink. Both Bavinck and Geesink penned a Reformed Ethic – one remained unpublished and the other posthumously published – in which they share methodological commitments to scripture, the law, and the Reformed tradition's understanding of the normativity of the law for the Christian life. An analysis of the two thinkers on the first commandment shows, however, that amidst these striking similarities, Bavinck and Geesink differ in their appeal to the imitation of Christ as a guide for the Christian life. Through an examination of Bavinck's ethical method and both Bavinck and Geesink's exposition of the first commandment, this essay will highlight the centrality of the imitation of Christ in Bavinck's ethics as an ethical norm, differentiating his application of the duties of the commandment for the Christian life from his contemporaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution sketches the domestic and international institutional framework that states shall set up to implement their anticipation duties flowing from the HRS and, at the same time, enable international organisations to comply with their anticipation responsibilities for the HRS. Building on the understanding of science as a communal and open-ended endeavour of knowledge seeking in which everyone has an equal right to participate, to benefit from and to be protected against harm arising from it, it elaborates on states' duties under the HRS to anticipate both the (opportunities for) benefits and the (risks of) harm of science, and to promote the former and protect against the latter with due diligence. It then argues that the HRS requires domestic and international institutions working along egalitarian lines and allowing for broad participation to (co-)specify domestic anticipation duties and coordinate their implementation in context. This is essential due to the global nature of many harms and benefits of science and its communal character. The example of the scientific response to SARS-CoV-2 is used to highlight that the current domestic and international institutional framework has, however, serious shortcomings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen the emergence of dual-use technologies and, more generally, of scientific practices that are potentially beneficial to humanity, but that may also have an irreversible impact on human beings. In those circumstances, the issue of the adequate anticipation not only of the risks (of harm) of science, but also of its (opportunities for) benefits has become more pressing. One framework from which States may derive duties and responsibilities to anticipate both those 'risks' and 'benefits' of science is the human right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and to participate in that progress (in short, the 'human right to science'). Not only indeed does that right include everyone's right to participate in the scientific enterprise and its organisation and to access to and enjoy the benefits of scientific progress, but it also includes the right to be protected against the adverse effects of science. Interestingly, while some duties to anticipate grounded in the human right to science have been briefly mentioned in recent interpretations of the right, their specific content, scope and bearers have not yet been addressed in depth. Remedying this gap is the aim of this special issue and of its eight original contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I propose a novel way to understand the stringency of Kant's conception of beneficence. This novel understanding can ground our intuition that we do not have to forego (almost) all pursuit of our personal ends. I argue that we should understand the application of imperfect duties to specific cases according to the framework set by the adoption and promotion of ends. Agents have other ends than obligatory ones and they must weigh obligatory ends against these other ends. Obligatory ends are special among ends only insofar as their adoption is not optional. My reading of the normative status of imperfect duties affords a way of thinking about beneficence modelled on the everyday ways in which agents pursue their personal projects and weigh different ends against each other. This establishes a middle-ground between an extremely demanding conception of beneficence and an overly latitudinarian one. Furthermore, it helps us understand why we do not have to be maximally beneficent and why there is a bias towards the near in our thinking about rescue cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examined ecopreneurial behavior in the COVID-19 context by analyzing the influence of moral obligation and environmental engagement on the perception of empathy, ecopreneurial self-efficacy, and environmental value creation. Primary data was collected from 130 Atlantic Forest Connection Project participants. Data analysis was performed using PLS-SEM. Six of eight hypotheses were supported. Our study confirmed that empathy and self-efficacy perception are influenced by higher moral obligation levels. Results also indicate that more environmentally engaged ecopreneurs have higher levels of self-efficacy and environmental value creation. On the other hand, the premise that a feeling of morality could positively impact environmental value creation arising from the business was contradicted. Similarly, the hypothesis that environmental engagement positively influences ecopreneurial empathy has not been confirmed. Thus, we advanced on ecopreneurship by opening a new research direction for testing the explanatory power of variables that have not been tested so far. The research also offers practical insights for policymakers and educators involved with ecopreneurship. In the same way, we shed light on farmers and agriculture. Additionally, we present contributions directly related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep dyspareunia is one of the main symptoms of endometriosis. It appears to be submerged by a two-way disconnection between patients and their physicians. The aim of our review is to provide clear, ready-to-use advice on how to manage deep dyspareunia overcoming the gap in communication. Sexual history should always be taken as part of routine health care in these regards, using a patient-centered approach. An educational pelvic examination, which actively includes patients in the identification of painful areas, may prove useful to improve patients' understanding of their condition. Correlating painful pelvic areas with sexual positions and inviting patients to adopt alternative positions may represent a simple but extremely effective coping strategy to mitigate pain. Revealing and explaining to partners the nature of the pain is essential to allow them to take part in shared research of coping mechanisms, empowering the couple to make choices and changes. Couples who do not feel comfortable talking about intimacy by themselves may find that including a psychotherapist or a sexual therapist, may be a good way to start communication. Investigating and managing dyspareunia during medical encounters is a medical and ethical duty all healthcare practitioners should pursue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last year, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted, and New York State’s Constitution Bill of Rights has been amended to include, a right to a healthy environment. This continues a trend of adoption of a constitutional or statutory right to a healthy environment. The right to a healthy environment is constitutionally recognised in 110 countries. The article explores what a right to a healthy environment entails and how it can be made operational and effective. It is presented in three parts: first, what the right to a healthy environment involves; second, the correlative duties to uphold and protect the right; and third, the systematic and structural change to law and governance needed to uphold the right and discharge the duties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that, to distinguish between "critical" and "uncritical" solidarity, the normative concept of solidarity must be grounded on the principle of respect for persons. I start analyzing the principle of respect for persons from a modified Kantian perspective, arguing that it must be interpreted as a normative relation of power in which each person must recognize the autonomy of the other as a source of power. In this perspective, the principle of respect offers a foundation for an ethical assessment of situations in which ethical solidarity is required. By drawing on the distinction between passive and active respect, I argue that solidarity is grounded on the duty of active respect in the face of danger or oppression and that this foundation allows us to distinguish between critical (i.e. appropriate) and uncritical (i.e. inappropriate) solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, titled "Case Material: 'Patricia'", discusses the therapy process with a 38-year-old woman named Patricia who sought help to understand her anger towards others. Patricia had a difficult childhood, feeling unwanted by her mother and experiencing sexual molestation by two teenage boys. Throughout therapy, Patricia exhibited anger, sarcasm, and a tendency to sabotage positive interactions. The therapist reflects on their own experiences and challenges in working with Patricia, including a breast cancer diagnosis. Towards the end of therapy, Patricia began to show progress and acceptance of her traumatic past. The article highlights the complex dynamics and milestones in the therapeutic relationship. [Extracted from the article]

Some of the most pressing contemporary social problems result from the amalgamation of a mass of actions that are not intentionally coordinated. Although these essentially aggregative harms are foreseeable, it is unclear what moral duties individuals have with regards to them. This paper offers a new analysis of these problems and uses a nonideal contractualist approach to argue in favour of two kinds of duties for individuals. Collectivization duties that require individuals to act responsively with a view to ensuring that there are effective governance agents that reliably, fairly, and efficiently prevent these outcomes in the long-term and duties of restraint that require individuals to avoid action of a kind that is likely to come together with other actions to cause serious EAH in the immediate future when restraint with regards to actions of this kind could help prevent the outcome from occurring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published in December 2019 by the European Commission, the European Green Deal (EGD) sets out the aim to transform the EU into a sustainable society in which economic growth is decoupled from resource use, so that there are no greenhouse gas net emissions by 2050. As the 'driving force of the transition' citizens are expected a play a key role in achieving this shift, by adopting sustainable consumption habits and changing their life styles and behaviour as well as actively participating in policymaking [EC, 2019, 22]. This expectation raises questions about European citizenship: Can European citizenship be 'greened'? Conversely, might the EGD strengthen European citizenship? Drawing together theoretical insights into 'green citizenship' with research on European citizenship this paper considers what a 'green European citizenship' (GEC) might look like. It examines the rights, duties, virtues and practices of a GEC, and underlines in particular the important role of 'critical acts' of European citizens. It concludes that while the initiatives of the EGD might provoke citizenship engagement, participation and identification, these initiatives might also further expose the fault lines between citizens in Europe. This possibility makes the critical acts undertaken by citizens all the more important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 19th century England, fathers were considered the owner of the family estate where they were to decide everything regarding their children, but the children did not always welcome these decisions. This study uncovers, with the help of comprehensive and interdisciplinary supporting literary, social, and historical resources about and from the 19th century, Eliot's presentation of the resistance of these children, the conflicts they have with their fathers, and finds out if the resistance of these children is justifiable in the context of the period. It also explores how these children come back to reconcile with their fathers emotionally and physically. It is concluded that all these children are inclined to leave home because they have conflicts with their fathers; however, they have to return to their roots, and therefore also to their fathers and embrace them. It is George Eliot's belief that she keeps her characters attached to the family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Italy, the migratory phenomenon has also had an impact on the school system, becoming an interesting potential field for intercultural and inter-religious encounters. As regards, for instance, the presence of pupils and students and their families of Islamic faith, very frequently, emphasis is placed almost exclusively on specific issues and requests, such as exemption from the teaching of the Catholic religion or specific diet. On the other hand, we rarely discuss how the presence of diverse faiths can create a unique opportunity for mutual knowledge to spread and promote the "culture of encounter". In fact, engagement with religious others is an unavoidable duty, both pedagogical and civic. Therefore, starting from an analysis of pedagogical-educational aspects of the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, the aim of this article is to outline a rethinking of the concept of intercultural/inter-religious dialogue, above all as a pedagogical challenge and a preventive measure against extremism, within the broad framework of inclusive citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even as the protection of civilians becomes a widely held norm, there is substantial variation in public support for humanitarian policy efforts. We use a survey experiment in Sweden to gain insights into this puzzle. Our survey confirms that citizens generally support military, but particularly non-military, means of civilian protection. Yet, we also find that support is partly particularized. Specifying that civilians may have ties to extremist groups (as victims or supporters) reduces support for proposals to provide humanitarian aid, contribute to UN observer missions and accept refugees. We trace this reduced support to lower moral obligation and higher threat perceptions. In contrast to expectations, respondents do not prioritize the protection of co-nationals, or women and children. Manipulation checks suggest the explanation that perceptions of who constitutes a civilian are subjective. Our findings provide insights into the domestic political determinants of atrocity prevention abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on 12 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, this study explores the attitudes of news media professionals toward Codes of Practice and guidelines and how they may conflict in the coverage of murder-suicide incidents. There is a dearth of research in this area, even though four organizations in Ireland have issued guidelines on how journalists should report on cases of this nature. This study found that news media professionals have a largely positive attitude toward guidelines and codes; however, news media conventions and routines can conflict with recommendations. Furthermore, the interview subjects' sense of duty to the public, to provide a full and frank disclosure of information often outweighed their responsibility to any guide or code in the context of covering cases of murder-suicide. This raises critical issues for the coverage of cases of this nature, particularly when news values clash with Codes of Practice and guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the scholarly literature on Plato's Republic, one of the abiding questions has been and remains: why must the philosopher return to the cave? Socrates's claim that philosophers will do so willingly thanks to their feeling of duty to the polis is rather unsatisfying and doesn't mesh with the ethical framework presented by the Republic as a whole. Here, I draw on the work of Eric Voegelin and John von Heyking, in order to propose a two-axis model of what I call the erotic-hermetic structure of the philosophical life. By emphasizing the horizontal (i.e. hermetic, or interpersonal) element of the philosophical life, I argue that the philosopher, in order to be what he or she is in the fullest sense, must return to the cave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing socioeconomic precarity and ecological threat, resilience has become the individual responsibility and moral obligation of the neoliberal subject. Digital labor platforms are a clear expression and beneficiary of this development, offering hustling as a way to gain resilience as a micro-entrepreneur. However, we present evidence to the contrary, demonstrating how hustling in the digital economy erodes resilience on a systemic level. For this purpose, we draw on an in-depth, ecological ethnography about Poshmark, a social commerce platform for predominantly female hustlers to sell clothes. We tell the story of a pattern set in motion by the rapid scaling of the platform, which requires hustlers to do more and more click-work to yield smaller and smaller sales. As a result, they are caught up in a runaway dynamic that erodes the resilience of the ecology as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the use of the cluster randomized trial (CRT) design to evaluate vaccines, public health interventions or health systems is increasing, the ethical issues posed by the design are not adequately addressed, especially in low- and middle-income country settings (LMICs). To help reveal ethical challenges, qualitative interviews were conducted with key stakeholders experienced in designing and conducting two selected CRTs in Malawi. The 18 interviewed stakeholders included investigators, clinicians, nurses, data management personnel and community workers who were invited to share their experiences related to implementation of CRTs. Data analysis revealed five major themes with ethical implications: (1) The moral obligation for health care providers to participate in health research and its compensation; (2) Suboptimal care services compromising the integrity of CRT; (3) Ensuring scientific validity and withholding care service; (4) Obtaining valid consent and permission for waiver of consent; and (5) Inadequate risk assessment for trial participation. Understanding key ethical issues posed by CRTs in Malawi could improve ethical review and research oversight of this particular study design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When studying corruption's consequences for voter turnout, reverse causality hinders identification; corruption may affect turnout, but an engaged citizenry may also improve governance. However, because good instruments are hard to find, most studies do not adjust for the issue. Here, I surmount the endogeneity problem by predicting turnout among second generation Americans with the level of corruption in their ancestral country. The core intuition is that the best predictors of turnout—education, income, and civic duty—are endogenous to corruption, internationally mobile, and reproduced inter-generationally. Thus, corruption in one country can affect turnout among the American-born children of the country's émigrés. However, because turnout in US elections does not affect corruption in the ancestral country, there is no threat of reverse causality. Estimating the model with data from the Current Population Survey and the Varieties of Democracy Project reveals a statistically robust, substantively sizable negative effect of corruption on turnout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of compounded bioidentical hormone therapy (cBHT) continues to grow in popularity despite the availability of many US Food and Drug Administration-approved hormone products produced in different formulations and dosages. Numerous claims made by proponents of cBHT are not substantiated by properly designed studies. Valid concerns about purity, efficacy, bioavailability and safety of cBHT have been raised. Since patient welfare is the first duty of health professionals, promoting and prescribing cBHT as first-line therapy violates a number of ethical tenets of medical and pharmacy practice and should be discouraged without a compelling reason. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an editorial introduction to the special issue of Artificial Life, which features selected papers from the Conference on Artificial Life (ALIFE 2022). The conference, held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, had approximately 300 participants and a diverse program that included keynote talks, special sessions, workshops, tutorials, and parallel sessions. The theme of the conference was "La DOLCE Vita: Discoveries on Life Complexity and Evolution for the Improvement of Real Lives," exploring how techniques and discoveries from the ALife field can enhance real life in various areas such as health, environment, social impact, and technology. The special issue includes five articles that cover topics such as the ethics of artificial life, social interaction among evolved model agents, pressure-based soft agents, domain-independent problem-solving, and active inference with empathy mechanisms for socially behaved artificial agents. [Extracted from the article]