Ethics and moral philosophy Books

Book SynopsisIs there any justification for the common practice of allocating expensive medical resources to rescue a few from rare diseases, when those resources could be used to treat devastating diseases that affect the many? Does the use of Prozac and other anti-depressants make us inauthentic beings? Is it immoral and irrational to have children? What is the force of examples and counterexamples in bioethics? What are the relevance of moral intuition and the role of empirical evidence in bioethical argument? What notion of “function” underlies accounts of the distinction between normality and disease and between therapy and enhancement? Is there an inherent conflict between research aimed at therapy and research aimed at gaining knowledge, such that the very notion of “therapeutic research” is an oxymoron? The twenty-one chapters in this volume strive, through the use of high quality argument and analysis, to get a good deal clearer concerning a range of issues in bioethics, and a range of issues about bioethics. The essays are provocative, indeed, some quite radical and disturbing, as they call into question many common methodological and substantive assumptions in bioethics.Table of ContentsForeword by John Lizza Preface Matti Häyry, Tuija Takala, Gardar Árnason, and Peter Herissone-Kelly: Introduction. Arguing About Arguments, Analyzing Analysis Sirkku Kristiina Hellsten: Global Bioethics and “Erroneous Reason”: Fallacies Across the Borders Søren Holm: Is Bioethics Only for the Rich and Powerful? Simona Giordano: Do We Need (Bio)Ethical Principles? Doris Schroeder and Peter Herissone-Kelly: Bioethics and Stephen Toulmin’s Argumentation Theory Harry Lesser: The Use of Examples in Bioethics Harry Lesser: Moral Intuitions in Bioethics Angus Dawson: Toward the “Fair Use” of Empirical Evidence in Ethical Arguments: Vaccination, MMR and Disagreement Cathleen Schulte: An Assessment of the Normal Function Model and Implications for Enhancement Stephen Wilkinson: On the Distinction Between Positive and Negative Eugenics Niall W. R. Scott: Genetic Fallacy and Some Other Concerns in Behavioral Genetics Niall W. R. Scott: Eugenics: Enhancing Individuals or Populations? Anna Smajdor: Harm, Law and Reproductive Cloning Matti Häyry: An Analysis of Some Arguments for and against Human Reproduction Stuart Oultram: Does the Baby Selling Objection to Commercial Surrogacy Misuse Immanuel Kant? John McMillan: Prozac, Authenticity, and the Aristotelian Mean Floris Tomasini: The Case of Self-Demand Amputees: A Dilemma for Professional Ethics? Mark Sheehan: Enzyme Replacement Therapy and the Rule of Rescue Peter Lucas: Is “Therapeutic Research” a Misnomer? Lisa Bortolotti: Can the Subject-of-a-Life Criterion Help Grant Rights to Non-Persons? Jane Wilson: Determining the Limits of Justified Paternalism: Is Maximizing Autonomy the Key? Simo Vehmas: The Who or What of Steve: Severe Cognitive Impairment and its Implications About the Editors and Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisThis book provides an overview of different ethical views on animal experimentation. Special attention is given to the production and experimental use of genetically modified animals. It proposes a middle course between those positions that are very critical and those very positive. This middle course implies that animal experiments originating in vital human research interests are commonly justified, provided that animal welfare is taken seriously. Some animal experiments are not acceptable, since the expected human benefit is too low and the animal suffering too severe. This position is supported by an argument from species care according to which we have special obligations to our children and other humans due to special relations. The book tries to bridge the gap between animal ethics and animal welfare science by discussing various conceptions of animal welfare: function-centered, feeling-based, and those focusing on natural living. The theoretical starting-point is “imaginative casuistry.” This approach stresses the role of moral imagination and metaphor in ethical deliberation, accepts a plurality of values, and recognizes the importance of case-by-case balancing. In the discussion of genetically modified animals, both intrinsic ethical concerns and animal welfare concerns are addressed.Trade Review"The philosophical discussion of the five ethical prototypes on animal experimentation provides interesting insights into the main argumentative structures and logic of the arguments, and the author is largely committed to provide a robust foundation for his position. The knowledge about technical problems relating to genetic engineering in animals is solid." – in: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 14 (2011), 219–223 "This book should appeal to a broad range of readers interested in the ethics of animal experimentation. It is particularly appropriate for scientists and others who have a limited background in the various philosophical positions used to criticize or support animal research. … The presentation is lucid and refreshingly nontechnical. … Nordgren stresses the ‘3Rs’ of animal experimentation: ‘replacement, reduction, and refinement’ … Recommended." – in: CHOICE 47/11 (July 2010) "a pleasant surprise. [Nordgren’s] clear analysis and imaginative insights jolt some tired debates out of accustomed ruts and provoke thought at a deeper and more satisfying level." – in: Animal Welfare 19/3 (August 2010)Table of ContentsPreface Introduction: Animal Experimentation, Public Opinion, and Philosophical Debate Five Ethical Prototypes of Animal Experimentation The Case for “Weak Human Priority” The Scientific Value of Animal Experimentation Animal Welfare and Ethical Balancing Genetically Modified Animals in Research Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisIf philosophy addresses concrete ethical challenges, then what shifts in basic concepts must be made to the discipline in the darkness of our genocidal world? What anti-genocidal strains are in Western philosophy? Are we “really” rejects and/ or “still of intrinsic worth” when we fail our excellence tests? How are we represented and how do we participate in representations? Are representational forms historical in origin and development? Is genocide indissolubly linked to our degradation and destruction of animals? Can one slaughter and eat one’s partners in a social bond? If so, what does this tell us about the socio-political world we have formed? Is there a deep center—metacide—in our culture from which genocide receives its impulse? These are some of the pivotal questions addressed in the thirteen thought-provoking essays of this volume.Table of ContentsEditorial Foreword Acknowledgements Editor’s Introduction Bettina G. Bergo: The Differend that is Global: Contemporary Slavery as a Challenge to Human Rights Thomas R. Flynn: The Meanness is [not entirely] in the System Dorothea Olkowski: Science and Human Nature: How to Go From Nature to Ethics Roy Ben Shai: To Reverse the Irreversible: On Time Disorder in the Work of Jean Améry Lissa Skitolsky: Finding Man in Der Muselmann: The Use & Abuse of the Walking Dead André Mineau: Operation Barbarossa as Genocidal Warfare Natalie Nenadic: Feminist Philosophical Intervention in Genocide Marc De Kesel: Shooting the Unimaginable: On the Reception Of Four Shoah Photographs Henry C. Theriault: Rousseau, Plato, and Western Philosophy’s Anti-Genocidal Strain Todd Kesselman: Disconcerting Forms: Uneasiness and the Dislocation of Holocaust Cinema Erik M. Vogt: Animal Tracings in Adorno’s Reflections on Genocidal Machines Ryan Crawford: The Terror of Animality: Arendt, Badiou, Sartre James R. Watson: Genocide in the Pursuit of Excellence About The Authors Index

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Book SynopsisEnvironmental justice is the subtext of this collection of anxieties around the need for a sustainable future on Planet Earth. Thinkers and scholars from a diversity of backgrounds reflect on what it means and how cultures must change to greet this future. From Romania to Mexico, Bosnia to Canada, Sweden to California authors analyze and recount community experiences and expectations leading to justice for land, sea, air and wildlife. The kind of ethical weltanschauung for a society in which this kind of justice is achievable is suggested. The collection points to the myriad of single instance decisions that we must all make in living our daily lives whether in our homes, workplaces or leisure time. From good policies to sound management, governments, corporations and community-based organizations will find prudent praxis from cover to cover.Table of ContentsForeword Dennis Pavlich: Introduction List of Abbreviations Values and Signification: Foundations for Environmental Justice Mark H. Dixon: Environmental Virtue Ethics: Core Concepts and Values Eurig Scandrett: Knowledge and Valuation in Environmental Justice Struggles Rasmus Karlsson: Advanced Technology Paths to Intergenerational Justice Heuristic Strategies on Political, Economic and Social Issues Joanna Burch Brown: Compensation and Climate Change: Three Exploratory Games Lucie Middlemiss: Community Action for Individual Sustainability: Linking Sustainable Consumption, Citizenship and Justice Mary Stroud: Eco-Composition Pedagogy: The Environmental Imperative for L’écriture Féminine F. Medardo Tapia Uribe: Building Democratic Citizenship on Environmental Local Problems in Mexico Environmental Justice and Law Sofia de Abreu Ferreira: Fundamental Environmental Rights in EU Law: An Analysis of the Right of Access to Environmental Information Erika Techera: Customary Law and Community Based Conservation of Marine Areas in Fiji Precarious Technologies? Rafaela Hillerbrand: Unintended Consequences and Risky Technologies: A Virtue-Ethical Approach to the Moral Problems Caused by Genetic Engineering Nicoleta Dospinescu: The Marketing of GM Products: Between Economic Growth and Ecology Embedding Environmental Justice in Local, Social Frameworks Vanesa Castán Broto and Claudia Carter: Environmental Justice within Local Discourses about Coal-Ash Pollution in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina Elaine Anderson: Adaptations to Environmental Sustainability: The Story of the Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust Dennis Pavlich and Spencer Rose: University Autonomy and Sustainability: A Case Study of the University of British Columbia Index Notes on Contributors

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Book SynopsisThe essays in this volume provide rich fodder for reflection on topics that are of urgent interest to all thinking people. Each one suggests new ways to contemplate our own role(s) in the production and promotion of evil. The authors encourage the reader to be challenged, outraged, and disturbed by what you read here. The eighth gathering of Global Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness, which took place in Salzburg in March 2007, provided a look at evil past, present, and future, from a broad spectrum of disciplinary perspectives. Papers were presented on the Holocaust, genocide, violence, sadism, pædophilia, physical, verbal, and visual weapons of mass destruction, and on the effects of a variety of media on our apperception of and responses to evil. One of the overarching themes that emerged was the ethical role of the observer or witness to evil, the sense that all of our writings are, in an echo of Thomas Merton’s salient phrase, the conjectures of guilty bystanders. The notion of complicity was examined from a number of angles, and imbued the gathering with a sense of urgency: that our common goal was to engender change by raising awareness of the countless and ubiquitous ways in which evil can be actively or passively carried on and promoted. The papers selected for this volume provide a representative sample of the lively, provocative, and often disturbing discussions that took place over the course of that conference. This volume also contains a few papers from a sister conference, Cultures of Violence, which was held in Oxford in 2004. These papers have been included here because of their striking relevance to the themes that emerged in the Evil conference of 2007.Table of ContentsNancy Billias: Preface Linguistic Frameworks for Evil Phil Fitzsimmons: Little White Lies: 9/11 and the Recasting of Evil through Metaphor Dalit Yassour-Borochowitz and Eli Buchbinder: The Phenomenology of Domestic Violence: An Insider’s Look Encarnación Hidalgo Tenorio: Side Effects of the Linguistic Construction of Others’ Wickedness Literary Frameworks for Evil Jeffrey Wallen: Falling Under an Evil Influence Ilana Shiloh: The Banality of Violence: From Kafka’s The Castle to Auster’s The Music of Chance Sophie Oliver: Sacred and (Sub)human Pain: Witnessing Bodies in Early Modern Hagiography and Contemporary Spectatorship of Atrocity Nancy Billias: Overturning Adorno: Poetry as a Rational Response to Evil Evil in a Cinematic Framework Pete Remington: Twelve Pages of Madness: Developments in Cinema’s Narration of Insanity Ann-Marie Cook: Based on the True Story: Cinema’s Mythologised Vision of the Rwandan Genocide David E. Isaacs: We Have No Trouble Here: Considering Nazi Motifs in The Sound of Music and Cabaret Margarita Carretero-González: Sympathy for the Devil: The Hero is a Terrorist in V for Vendetta Paul Davies: Be not overcome by evil but overcome evil with good: The Theology of Evil in Man on Fire Ewan Kirkland: Remediation, Analogue Corruption, and the Signification of Evil in Digital Games Evil in Historical/Political Frameworks Robert W. Butler: Akhenaten, the Damned One: Monotheism as the Root of All Evil Peter Mario Kreuter: Are Witches Good - and Devils Evil? Some Remarks on the Conception of Evil in the Works of Paracelsus Frank J. Faulkner: Can I Play with Madness? The Psychopathy of Evil, Leadership, and Political Mis-Management Joshua Mills-Knutsen: Desire for Destruction: The Rhetoric of Evil and Apocalyptic Violence Notes on Contributors

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Book SynopsisA clear understanding of social justice requires complex rather than simple answers. It requires comfort with ambiguity rather than absolute answers. This is counter to viewing right versus wrong, just vs. unjust, or good vs. evil as dichotomies. This book provides many examples of where and how to begin to view these as continuums rather than dichotomies.Table of ContentsList of Figures List of Tables Editorial Foreword Preface Joanna Swanger: Introduction to the Work Theoretical Approaches to Social Justice Lawrence J. Hanks: Barriers to Truth Concerning Social Justice: Towards an Understanding of the Challenging Quest for Social Justice Wazir Mohamed: The Limits of Western Democracy: Ethnic Politics and its Constraints for Social Justice in Post-colonial Polyethnic Societies? Jerome Dean Mahaffey: Imaginary Leaders: Resolving the Anonymity Problem for Modern Social Activism? John M. Davis: International Perspectives on Social Justice Dwight G. Watson: Murder on the Bayou: The Demand for Social Justice Following the Death of José Campos Torres Teaching About Social Justice, Poverty and Race Randall E. Osborne and Paul Kriese: Sociocentric Social Justice: Moving From “I’m Right” to “We’re Connected” Karon LeCompte and Stephanie Sefcik: Navigating New Worlds of Social Justice in Teacher Education Margaret A. Syverson: Social Justice and Evidence-Based Assessment With the Learning Record Marilyn D. Moore: Bearing the Burden: Will the Elite be America’s Only College Educated? Kevin D. Blair: Developing an Understanding of Best Practices for Teaching Undergraduate Students about Poverty Practical Applications of Knowledge About Social Justice, Poverty and Race Joanna Zubrzycki: Social Justice and the Integration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Worldviews in Australian Social Work Practice and Education Sabry Shehata: Can GMO Solve World Hunger? Elvinet S. Wilson: Reconceptualizing the Story of U.S. Cultural Adaptation? Cecilia Giusti: Poverty, Immigration and Latinos in U.S. Texas Colonias John E. Valdez: Victory in the Fields: César Chavez’s Quest for Dignity and Social Justice for Farm Workers Through Non-Violence and Spiritual Power Paul Gomberg: Conclusion to the Work Works Cited About the Authors Index

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Book SynopsisFriendship was recognized as a central moral value in the classical period, but it was dismissed from medieval, modern, and twentieth century moral theories. This book argues that this dismissal is unjustifiable. The validity of this claim is established in four steps. First, it proposes the concept of moral paradigm. This concept enables us to explore the source of moral value and to provide a criterion for the evaluation of the adequacy of moral theory. Second, the book explains why medieval, modern and twentieth century moral theorists neglected friendship as a central moral value in their analysis of moral behavior and why this neglect was unjustifiable. Third, it explains why the classical moral philosophers viewed friendship as a central moral value. Fourth, it argues that friendship is an ontological need, therefore, a necessary condition of the moral life. This need is implicitly recognized in the moral paradigms that underlie the moral theories of the medieval, modern, and twentieth century moral theories. Accordingly it cannot be neglected in the process of moral theorizing.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Thesis and Plan of the Book Concept of Moral Paradigm Moral Paradigms in Hellenic and Hellenistic Cultures Friendship in Hellenic and Hellenistic Moral Theory Friendship in Medieval Moral Theory Friendship in Modern Moral Theory Friendship in Contemporary Moral Theory Friendship as an Ontological Need Notes About The Author Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisSince the 1990s we witness a rise in public apologies. Are we living in the ‘Age of Apology’? Interesting research questions can be raised about the opportunity, the form, the meaning, the effectiveness and the ethical implications of public apologies. Are they not merely a clever and easy device to escape real and tangible responsibility for mistakes or wrong done? Are they not at risk to become well-rehearsed rituals that claim to express regret but, in fact, avoid doing so? In a joint interdisciplinary effort, the contributors to this book, combining findings from their specific fields of research (legal, religious, political, linguistic, marketing and communication studies), attempt to articulate this tension between ritual and sincere regret, between the discourse and the content of apologies, between excuses that pretend and regret that seeks reconciliation.Table of ContentsIntroduction Daniël Cuypers: When Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word: An Apology with a Legal Disclaimer Regret and Sincerity Nick Smith: An Overview of Challenges Facing Collective Apologies Danielle Celermajer: Apology and the Possibility of the Ethical Nation Raymond Cohen: A Time to Heal: Pope John Paul II’s Penitential Gesture at Jerusalem’s Western Wall Benjamin R. Bates and Jason A. Edwards: An Attempt to Heal Rifts in Medicine: Collective Apology and the American Medical Association’s Attempts at Reconciliation with the African-American Community Davide Denti: Public Apologies in the Western Balkans: The Shadow of Ambiguity Daniela Bolivar, Ivo Aertsen and Inge Vanfraechem: The Ritual of Apology and Restorative Justice: Exploring the Victim’s Perspective Ritual and Discourse Zohar Kampf: The Discourse of Public Apologies: Modes of Realization, Interpretation and Mediation Alexandra Herfroy-Mischler: Post-Transitional Apology: Expressing Contrition Whilst Addressing the Holocaust Transitional Justice’s Failure Willemine Willems: From Apology to Excuse: Abuse Cases within the Catholic Church as Public and Scientific Objects of Research Lisa S. Villadsen: The Regretful Acknowledgement: A Dignified End to a Disgraceful Story? W. Timothy Coombs: An Overview of Challenges Facing Collective Apologies: Their Use in the Corporate World Daniel Janssen: Apologies in Written Messages: What Are the Effects?

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Book SynopsisThis book addresses the ethical and political questions flowing from the vastly increased possibilities to manipulate the genetic properties of organisms, including human beings. Due to the great complexity of the scientific fields involved, these questions are framed and answered mostly by scientific experts. But the new technological possibilities and social practices connected with genetic manipulation intrude into domains that for a long time have been the provenance of religious and secular worldviews and touch upon deep-seated convictions and emotions. Moreover they are strongly influenced by economic and political interests. As a consequence, questions of scientific truth and technical control are getting more and more mixed up with questions regarding values and interests. Against this background, this book starts from the premise that neither clinging to the idea of value-neutral, disinterested science, nor the complete abandonment of this idea in favour of postmodern relativism will be of much help here. Instead the different contributions to this book explore the idea of a ‘lingua democratica’ for the life sciences and sketch the contours of this notion by focusing on a broad range of conceptual and practical issues in the field of genomics.Table of ContentsHarry Kunneman and Peter Derkx: Introduction Complexity Theory, Social Constructionism and Hermeneutics Paul Cilliers: A Crisis of Knowledge: Complexity, Understanding and the Problem of Responsible Action Erica Haimes: The Contributions of Social Constructionism to the Study of the Ethical, Social and Political Aspects of the Life Sciences Cees Pieters: Engineering, Humanistics and the Lingua Democratica: on Cross-Disciplinary Communications between ‘Strange Bedfellows’ Harry Kunneman: Ethical Complexity, Hermeneutics and Mode 3 Knowledge Ethics and Worldviews Cor van der Weele: Morality and Genomics: Which Comes First? Towards Cooperative Inquiry Andries De Smet, Sigrid Sterckx and Julian Cockbain: The Lack of Access to Medicines and the Health Impact Fund Scheme Fernando Suárez Müller: Human Rights and Transhumanism: is a Humanist Transhumanism Possible? Tatjana Kochetkova: The Spiritual Dimension of Human Enhancement: Remarks concerning the Discussion about Immortality Peter Derkx: Worldviews, Genomics and Enhanced Human Lifespan Corporations, Governments and Democracy Alle Bruggink: The Influence of Government and Industry on Technological Research in the Netherlands: a Personal Experience Anders Nordgren: Consumer Genomics Companies and Their Appeal to Empowerment Michiel Korthals: Fundamental Uncertainty as an Issue for Deliberative Democracy Guido Ruivenkamp and Joost Jongerden: From Prescription to Reconstruction: Opportunities for Subpolitical Choices in Biotechnological and Genomics Research Marli Huijer: Storytelling as a Way to Enrich Democratic Discussion: The Dutch Debate on Embryo Selection for Hereditary Breast Cancer About the Authors Index

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Book SynopsisThis book of essays focuses on the new approaches to moral issues from two perspectives. The first part, ‘Various Concepts of Morality’, analyses certain central approaches to moral study, and creates the methodological starting point for the more specific enquiries of the second part. ‘New Trends in Understanding Morality’ contains five articles focusing on these new approaches, especially as they are related to their conceptions of scientific knowledge. This section deals with selected special issues of morality in biology, natural sciences, but also in humanities.Table of ContentsVasil Gluchman: Introduction: Morality: Reasoning on Different Approaches Different Concepts of Morality Jeremy Bendik-Keymer: The Moral and the Ethical: What Conscience Teaches us about Morality Howard M. Ducharme: A Critical Evaluation of a Classic Moral Scientist: Are there any Moral Facts to Discover? Mark Piper: Some Problems with Grounding Moral Respect for Persons in Autonomy Janusz Mariański: Models of Change in Modernity and in Contemporary Societies Kumar Neeraj Sachdev: Morality, Good Life, and Selflessness New Trends in Understanding Morality Francesco Belfiore: Searching for an ‘Objective’ Human Good: An Overview Frederic Gilbert: Does Neuropathology Dictate Morality? Acquired Pedophilia as a Neuroethics Case Vasil Gluchman: Humanity: Biological and Moral Issues Dieter Birnbacher: Are Ethical Experts also Experts in Morality? Marta Gluchmanová: The Teacher as a Moral Agent: Humanity and Human Dignity in the Teaching Profession About the Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisWhile Plato recommended expelling poets from the ideal society, W. H. Auden famously declared that poetry makes nothing happen. The 19 contributions to the present book avoid such polarized views and, responding in different ways to the “ethical turn” in narrative theory, explore the varied ways in which narratives encourage readers to ponder matters of right and wrong. All work from the premise that the analysis of narrative ethics needs to be linked to a sensitivity to esthetic (narrative) form. The ethical issues are accordingly located on different levels. Some are clearly presented as thematic concerns within the text(s) considered, while others emerge through (or are generated by) the presentation of character and event by means of particular narrative techniques. The objects of analysis include such well-known or canonical texts as Biblical Old Testament stories, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones, Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian and Matthew Lewis’s The Monk. Others concentrate on less-well-known texts written in languages other than English. There are also contributions that investigate theoretical issues in relation to a range of different examples.Table of ContentsLeonidas Donskis: Editorial Foreword Preface Jeremy Hawthorn and Jakob Lothe: Introduction Part One: Theory J. Hillis Miller: Should We Read or Teach Literature Now? Liesbeth Korthals Altes: Narratology, Ethical Turns, Circularities, and a Meta-Ethical Way Out J. Alexander Bareis: Ethics, the Diachronization of Narratology, and the Margins of Unreliable Narration Part Two: Ethics and Reading Greger Andersson: The Problem of Narratives in the Bible: Moral Issues and Suggested Reading Strategies Jeremy Hawthorn: Reading Fiction: Voyeurism without Shame? Markku Lehtimäki: An Ethics of Reading Sophisticated Narratives: The Example of J. M. Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello Jakob Lothe: Authority, Reliability, and the Challenge of Reading: The Narrative Ethics of Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones Part Three: Ethical Responsibility of the Author Katrine Antonsen: Ethical Force of Fictionalization in Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen Henrik Skov Nielsen: The Ethics of Literary Borrowing: Risks and Rewards James Phelan and Peter J. Rabinowitz: Twain, Huck, Jim, and Us: Or, the Ethics of Progression in Huckleberry Finn Howard Sklar: “Anything But a Simpleton”: The Ethics of Representing Intellectual Disability in Tarjei Vesaas’s The Birds Part Four: Textual Studies Karin Kukkonen: Adam Smith Meets the Devil: Demonic Pacts and Moral Sentiments in the Gothic Novel Mirja Kokko: The Grieving Mind in Words and Images Dana Ryan Lande: Travels Across Ethical Borders: Anonymity and Space in Nadine Gordimer’s “The Ultimate Safari” Lykke Guanio-Uluru: Narrative Ethics in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings Erik van Ooijen: The Palpable Lolita: Form and Affect from the Perspective of Poetics Klaus Brax: The Age of Scientific Racism: Internal Focalization and Narrative Ethics in Toni Morrison’s Beloved Works Cited About the Authors Name Index Subject Index

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Book SynopsisLooking Beneath the Surface explores Arab-Islamic and Western perspectives on medical ethical issues: genetic research and treatment, abortion, organ donation, and palliative sedation and euthanasia. The contributions in this volume discuss the state of the (medical) art, the role of laws, counseling, and spiritual counseling in the decision-making process. The different approaches to the ethical issues, ways of moral reasoning, become clear in these contributions, especially the role of tradition for Islam and the importance of autonomy for the West. Beneath the differences, however, the reader will also discover common values, such as the role of dignity and the value of life, and similar practices. Some of the main differences are sociocultural in nature, rather than religious as such. Well-known experts in the fields of medicine and ethics have contributed to this volume from different religious and secular backgrounds. The book offers a carefully written introduction and final chapter on intercultural comparisons. Looking Beneath the Surface is more than a collection of writings on issues in medical ethics: it helps the reader to compare different paradigms of accountability and moral reasoning.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction: Looking Beneath the Surface: Commonalities and Differences between Islamic and Western Perspectives in Medical Ethics Marzouk Aulad Abdellah: The Sources of Islamic Ethics and Fiqh Martina C. Cornel: Genetic Medicine: Facts and Moral Issues from a Western Perspective Ahmed Ragaa A. Ragab and Gamal Serour: Can Facts about Genetic Research Play a Role in Moral Reasoning? Muslim Perspectives Pascal Borry, Marieke Teeuw, and Martina C. Cornel: Genetic Testing and Counseling in the Case of Consanguinity: Facts, Ethical and Legal Consequences Oka Storms and Edien Bartels: “Notre huile est dans notre farine”: An Exploration into the Meaning of Consanguinity in Northern Morocco against the Backdrop of the Medical Risk of Disabled Offspring Ayman M. Nassar, Serag El Din Mansour, and Gamal I. Serour: The Treatment of Embryos from an Islamic Perspective Egbert Schroten: The Moral Status of the Human Embryo: Christian Perspectives and the Impact of New Technologies Leo P. ten Kate: Reflections on Termination of Pregnancy for Genetic or Nongenetic Congenital Disorders Guido de Wert: Treatment of the Embryo: Facts and Moral Questions Moustafa H. Hegab: Abortion: Medical and Moral Aspects in Islamic Perspectives Ahmed Ragai El‐Gindi: Human Organ Transplantation K. Schipper, M. Ghaly, and T.A. Abma: Receiving a Donor Organ and Muslims in Europe: Theological and Intercultural Dimensions Theo A. Boer: Palliative Sedation: An Exploration from a Christian Ethical Point of View Arslan Karagül: Islamic Care Ethics between Law and Conscience Mostafa Salem: The Islamic Legal System vis‐à‐vis Euthanasia and Organ Transplantation Arend Soeteman: The Right to Moral Independence and its Meaning for Medical Issues Petra Verdonk and Hendrik M. Vroom: Observations and Comparisons Index of Subjects Index of Names Contributors

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Book SynopsisWhile scholars frequently discuss different types of value separately, this book approaches values of literature in the plural. It shows how and why the ethical, aesthetic, cognitive, affective, social, historical, and existential values of literature should be explored in connection with each other. Through their interplay, the book argues, literature engages in its own distinctively literary forms of value inquiry.Table of ContentsHanna Meretoja and Pirjo Lyytikäinen: Introduction – Why We Read: The Plural Values of Literature Part One: Literature and Ethics Hanna Meretoja: A Sense of History—A Sense of the Possible: Nussbaum and Hermeneutics on the Ethical Potential of Literature Angela Locatelli: The Moral and the Fable: A Fluid Relationship in Artistic Literature Daphna Erdinast–Vulcan: From Representation to Performance: A Bakhtinian Perspective on Literature and Ethics Colin Davis: What Can Literature Do? Jorge Semprun, Militancy, and the Scandal of Art Part Two: Cognitive, Affective, and Social Values Vera Nünning: Cognitive Science and the Value of Literature for Life Ansgar Nünning: “The Extension of our Sympathies”: George Eliot’s Aesthetic Theory and Narrative Technique as a Key to the Affective, Cognitive, and Social Value of Literature Saija Isomaa: How Are Literary Genres Valuable? A Value-Pluralist Approach to Genres Part Three: Questioning and Constructing the Values of Literature Kristina Malmio: The Role of Debate in Creating the Aesthetic, Cultural, and Social Value of Literature Tero Eljas Vanhanen: Can We Do Wrong with Fiction? Empathy, Exclusion, and Enmity in The Turner Diaries Magnus Persson: The Literature Myth About the Authors Index

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Book SynopsisChanging preferencesis a phenomenonoften invoked but rarely properlyaccounted for. Throughout the history of the social sciences, researchers have come against the possibility that their subjects’ preferenceswere affected by the phenomenato be explainedor by otherfactorsnot taken into accountin the explanation.Sporadically, attempts have been made to systematically investigate these in uences, but none of these seems to have had a lasting impact. Today we are still not much further with respect to preference change than we were at the middle of the last century. This anthology hopes to provide a new impulse for research into this important subject. In particular, we have chosen two routes to amplify this impulse. First, we stress the use of modellingtechniquesfamiliar from economicsand decision theory. Instead of constructing complex, all-encompassing theories of preference change, the authors of this volume start with very simple, formal accounts of some possible and hopefully plausible mechanism of preference change. Eventually, these models may nd their way into larger, empirically adequate theories, but at this stage, we think that the most importantwork lies in building structure.Secondly,we stress the importance of interdisciplinary exchange. Only by drawing together experts from different elds can the complex empirical and theoretical issues in the modelling of preference change be adequately investigated.Table of ContentsPREFACE, LIST OF AUTHORS 1. PREFERENCE CHANGE – AN INTRODUCTION Till Grüne-Yanoff and Sven Ove Hansson ; 2. THREE ANALYSES OF SOUR GRAPES Brian Hill; 3. FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE: DYNAMIC LOGICS OF PREFERENCE Johan van Benthem; 4. PREFERENCE, PRIORITIES AND BELIEF Dick de Jongh and Fenrong Liu; 5. WHY THE RECEIVED MODELS OF CONSIDERING PREFERENCE CHANGE MUST FAIL Wolfgang Spohn;6. EXPLOITABLE PREFERENCE CHANGES Edward F. McClennen; 7. RECURSIVE SELF-PREDICTION IN SELF-CONTROL AND ITS FAILURE George Ainslie; 8. FROM BELIEF REVISION TO PREFERENCE CHANGE Till Grüne-Yanoff and Sven Ove Hansson; 9. PREFERENCE UTILITARIANISM BY WAY OF PREFERENCE CHANGE? Wlodek Rabinowicz; 10. THE ETHICS OF NUDGE Luc Bovens; 11. PREFERENCE KINEMATICS Richard Bradley; 12. POPULATION-DEPENDENT COSTS OF DETECTING TRUSTWORTHINESS - AN INDIRECT EVOLUTIONARY ANALYSIS Werner Güth, Hartmut Kliemt and Stefan Napel

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Book SynopsisContrasting with conventional Neo-Confucian attempts to recast the Confucian heritage in light of modern Western values, this book offers a Reconstructionist Confucian project to reclaim Confucian resources to meet contemporary moral and public policy challenges. Ruiping Fan argues that popular accounts of human goods and social justice within the dominant individualist culture of the West are too insubstantial to direct a life of virtue and a proper structure of society. Instead, he demonstrates that the moral insights of Confucian thought are precisely those needed to fill the moral vacuum developing in post-communist China and to address similar problems in the West. The book has a depth of reflection on the Confucian tradition through a comparative philosophical strategy and a breadth of contemporary issues addressed unrivaled by any other work on these topics. It is the first in English to explore not only the endeavor to revive Confucianism in contemporary China, but also brings such an endeavor to bear upon the important ethical, social, and political difficulties being faced in 21st century China. The book should be of interest to any philosopher working in application of traditional Chinese philosophy to contemporary issues as well as any reader interested in comparative cultural and ethical studies.Trade ReviewFrom the reviews: "Fan Ruiping's courageous book addresses the question of what should replace communism in China. He defends a Confucian morality that sharply contrasts with liberal individualism and draws implications for concrete issues like morality in business and health-care reform. The book is both provocative and plausible, and it is a must-read for anybody concerned about China's future. And perhaps it will inspire liberals to question their own commitments." (Daniel A. Bell, Tsinghua University) "This is an important volume in contemporary philosophical thought, deeply and creatively rooted in Confucian scholarship. It is the only major attempt in English to capture Confucian thought that does not distort that thought through background Western philosophical assumptions and commitments. Fan's work will have an enduring impact. In a world in which no one can ignore contemporary Chinese thought, this volume is essential reading." (Nicholas Capaldi, Loyola University New Orleans) "In recent years, Ruiping Fan has emerged as a strong voice for Confucianism. In this remarkable book on Reconstructionist Confucianism, Fan reclaims and articulates moral resources from the Confucian tradition to meet contemporary moral as well as public policy challenges. Unlike some new-Confucians who either shy away from perceived weaknesses of Confucianism or attempt to dig with a magnifying glass for Confucian values that resonate with modern Western ethics, Fan unapologetically defends a version of Confucian family-oriented favoritism in the face of Western individual-based, universalistic morality, and vigorously argues for a robust Confucian ethic in contemporary society. Fan's position is serious, coherent, and well-grounded. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning Confucian philosophy in its unwatered-down form." (Chenyang Li, author of The Tao Encounters the West) "This study in Confucian thought is a ground-breaking and creative work in philosophy that succeeds in bringing the substantive resources of Confucian moral and political thought to bear on the challenges facing contemporary China, indeed the world today. It is an innovative and engaging work in moral and political philosophy of interest not just to those engaged in Confucian or Chinese studies, but to anyone wishing to understand our contemporary cultural context." (David Solomon, Center for Ethics and Culture, University of Notre Dame)Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction I. Beyond Individualism: Familism as the Key to Virtuous Social Structure Confucian Morality: Why it is in Tension with Contemporary Western Moral Commitments Virtue, Ren and Familial Roles: Deflating Concerns with Individual Rights and Equality A Family-oriented Civil Society: Treating People as Unequals II. Virtue as a Way of Life: Social Justice Reconsidered Virtue and the True Character of Social Obligations: Why Rawlsian Social Justice is Vicious Giving Priority to Virtue over Justice: Reconstructing Chinese Health Care Principles Which Care? Whose Responsibility? And Why Family? Filial Piety and Long-Term Care for the Elderly III. The Market, the Goodness of Profit, and the Proper Character of Chinese Public Policy Towards a Directed Benevolent Market Polity: Looking Beyond Social Democratic Approaches to Health Care How Egalitarianism Corrupted Chinese Medicine: Recovering the Synergy of the Pursuit of Virtue and Profit Honor, Shame, and the Pursuit of Excellence: Towards a Confucian Business Ethics The Human Dominion over Nature: Following the Sages IV. Rites, not Rights: Towards a Richer Vision of the Human Condition Rites as the Foundations of Human Civilization: Rethinking the Role of the Confucian Li How Should We Solve Moral Dissensus? Liberals and Libertarians Have It All Wrong Appeal to Rites and Personhood Restoring the Confucian Personality and Filling the Moral Vacuum in Contemporary China Appendix – Liberalism and Confucianism: A Disputatious Dialogue Index

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Book Synopsis"Food has emerged as a political topic par excellence. It is increasingly involved in controversies at a transnational level, in relation to issues of access, dominance, trade and control in a shared global environment. At the same time, innovations in biotechnology and animal domestication have brought ethics to the forefront of food debates. Thus, we live in an era when the ethics and the politics of food must come together. This book addresses the ethics and the politics of food from a broad range of academic disciplines, including sociology, philosophy, nutrition, anthropology, ethics, political science and history. The chapters expose novel problem areas, and suggest guidelines for approaching them. Topics range from fundamental issues in philosophy to sustainability, from consumer trust in food to ethical toolkits. Transparency, power and responsibility are key concerns, and special attention is given to animal welfare, emerging technologies in food production and marine domestication. Together, the chapters represent a wide range of academic responses to the fundamental dilemmas posed by food production and food consumption in the contemporary world."

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