Consequentialist Research Articles

Multiomics, artificial intelligence, and precision medicine in perinatology.

Technological advances in omics evaluation, bioinformatics, and artificial intelligence have made us rethink ways to improve patient outcomes. Collective quantification and characterization of biological data including genomics, epigenomics, metabolomics, and proteomics is now feasible at low cost with rapid turnover. Significant advances in the integration methods of these multiomics data sets by machine learning promise us a holistic view of disease pathogenesis and yield biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis. Using machine learning tools and algorithms, it is possible to integrate multiomics data with clinical information to develop predictive models that identify risk before the condition is clinically apparent, thus facilitating early interventions to improve the health trajectories of the patients. In this review, we intend to update the readers on the recent developments related to the use of artificial intelligence in integrating multiomic and clinical data sets in the field of perinatology, focusing on neonatal intensive care and the opportunities for precision medicine. We intend to briefly discuss the potential negative societal and ethical consequences of using artificial intelligence in healthcare. We are poised for a new era in medicine where computational analysis of biological and clinical data sets will make precision medicine a reality. IMPACT: Biotechnological advances have made multiomic evaluations feasible and integration of multiomics data may provide a holistic view of disease pathophysiology. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning tools are being increasingly used in healthcare for diagnosis, prognostication, and outcome predictions. Leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning tools for integration of multiomics and clinical data will pave the way for precision medicine in perinatology.

An Empirical Study of Unethical Behavioral Conducts to Understand Why Managers Fail to Do the "Right" Thing

The primary goal of this report is to investigate the relationship between management decision-making behavior and ethics. This report will delve into two aspects: one is to examine how managers are aware of ethical consequences when making choices; the other is to analyze why good managers may also be ethically transgressive due to personal and contextual reasons.

Deontological and Consequential Ethics for Quality Standards: Blurring the Boundaries to Secure Accountability in Policy Compliance for Public Administration Practices

The nexus between ethics and accountability has long been assumed and debated in public administration but the nature of that relationship has not been clearly scrutinized and pronounced. This is the essence of this article as it seeks to define how problematic the relationship has been in administrative practices in a Ghanaian public university. The paper makes an effort to provide policy direction for service improvement by introducing two key philosophies that form the basis of ethical behaviour for quality standards in administrative work in public universities. It discusses the major approaches to moral theory (deontology, consequentialism and virtue ethics) and links ethics to laws and statutory regimes of public organisations. Finally, the paper discusses how these theories might inform ethical administrative practices to achieve quality standards in public universities. The paper obtained empirical data from students and administrative staff from a public university, and lays primary emphasis on the general and common elements in contemporary administrative practices that are needed to achieve quality standards, but nonetheless the discussion also considers the contextualisation processes involved in the realisation or enactment of policy or regulatory statutes in specific organisational settings for ethical behaviour. A set of generic ‘problems’ which constitute the contemporary social and political conditions for administrative practices are also adumbrated. The paper sets out philosophical ideas and a number of practical mechanisms for infusing and institutionalizing quality standards in administrative work. It shows that for the introduction of the relevant codes of ethics and conduct to be effective in administrative work, these need to be supported by a range of mechanisms, training, and strong leadership by managers, and these are made possible when the boundaries around deontological and consequential ethics are blurred. Keywords: public administration; good governance; code of ethics; professionalism; moral principles; Kantianism; utilitarianism; moral theories. DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/12-5-01 Publication date: July 31 st 2022

The Problem of African Swine Fever (ASF) in View of the Polish Legislation and Controversies Related to Current Regulations

The aim of the article is to present Polish and EU regulations established to combat the African swine fever (ASF) as well as an assessment of the effectiveness of their application, also taking into account ethical and purposeful aspects. It contains a presentation of factors leading to loss of control over the spread of the disease, including cross-sectional overview of legal rules concerning swine slaughter, biosecurity rules, sanitary shots and hunting alongside with the examples and outcomes of their non-compliance with. The issue of negligence in veterinary supervision has also been addressed. It has also been shown that preventive slaughtering decisions issued within the framework of broad administrative discretion, based on current legislation, have serious ethical consequences and cause disproportionate economic losses for farms.

THE ETHICAL IMPLEMENTATION OF ALGORITHM-BASED DECISION-MAKING: AN ANALYTIC ROADMAP TO EXAMINE ACCOUNTABILITY AND RESPONSIBILITY OF DESIGNING AND IMPLEMENTING AUDIT DATA ANALYTICS

This essay aims to manage the ethical issues of data and analytics in data-driven solutions. The proposed analytic roadmap emphasizes identifying potential root causes throughout the design and implementation process, from data collection to analytics output. The study adopts a futuristic approach to take proactive actions to manage the ethical issues at the beginning of the design. It concerns consequential ethics highly related to the analytical context. The interaction between emerging technology and the business context intensifies the uncertainty of data analytics’ consequences. The study theorizes eleven potential ethical dimensions from the technology level, artifact level, and application level. Then, a four-phase ethics assessment map is developed to evaluate and deal with these moral problems. The four stages include assessing the data source, training data selection, the algorithm’s traceability, and the output’s interpretation. The assessment guides a detailed discussion about handling “ethical laziness” to decrease the evidence’s entropy. One contribution of this study is that it offers a practical roadmap to solve the ethical issue in algorithmic accounting analytics, from raw data through the analytic output deployment.

Pursuing the Post Philosophical New: Taking Our Thoughts for a Walk

We meditate on and talk/write about issues that arose for us during the Post Philosophy series, specifically engaging with a topic entangled within each presentation, “the new.” Quandaries that emerged for us include the post philosophical raison d’être for the new, the possibility and nature of the post philosophical new, and its ethical, ontological, and epistemological consequences. Taking the form of conversation, we provide tracings of our collaboration, with its multiple, complex plug-in points, hauntological connections, and missed calibrations—an agencement set in motion by this series as a minor gesture and fueled by our thinking-with the work of the presenters.

Representing Tibetan Buddhism in Books on Spirituality: A Discourse-Historical Approach

This article looks into how Tibetan Buddhism is framed in terms of East-West dichotomy in six popular books on Buddhism and spirituality. Discourse Historical Approach is employed to uncover the rhetorical representation of Tibetan Buddhism to the readers. A critical post-colonial perspective offers an insight into various power dynamics, arising from these representations, structured according to Yoshikawa's model of intercultural communication between East and West. The various power outcomes of rhetorical styles range from Ethnocentric to Dialogical, with their ethical consequences and problematics discussed.

Socrates’ “maieutics” and the ethical foundations of psychotherapy

IntroductionThe noun “maieutics” derives from maia (mother, midwife) and the related verbs “maieusis” and “maieonuai” mean “giving birth” and “easing childbirth”. Socrates’ maieutics aspires to give birth to the truth in the youth. Since homeric times psychotherapy has been part of medical act. Initially, the physician’s word had a magical character. Plato rationalized this in many of his dialogues, specially in “Charmides”.ObjectivesThe search of the essential characteristics of this therapeutic method described by Plato, as well as its ethical implicationsMethodsHermeneutic methodResultsThe consequences for doctor-patient relationship in general and psychotherapy in particular are: 1. Remedy and “epodé” (charm) must be applied in every doctor-patient relationship. 2. The body can only be healed if the soul is cured first by a charm. 3. The openness of the patient’s soul to the physician and the physician’s beautiful speech to the patient will enable the latter to reach the state of “sophrosyne” (temperance), condition of possibility of true health.ConclusionsIn the discussion of the meaning of “sophrosyne”, Socrates questions disciples’ propositions and concludes that the only thing one can be sure of is that “sophrosyne” is a way of searching virtue (arete). Later, in Theaetetus, Plato adds another element: temperance is a “homoiosis theó”, that is, the assimilations of patient to God. With this Plato seals the ethical character of psychotherapy for ever.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Where psychological science meets moral theory: Linking up motivational primitives with normative ethics

The main normative moral theories in Western thought, from deontology to virtue and consequentialist ethics, revolve around conceptions of the moral right, good, and worth. However, a few elementary psychological motives lie at a deeper level. In the present article, I outline the key tenets of regulatory focus, regulatory mode, and the hedonic principle (approach/avoidance), which I define as “motivational primitives,” and provide a conceptual analysis of their links with specific ethical systems. I unveil how moral judgment in each of them is psychologically construed on the basis of the motivational primitives and their underlying self-regulatory processes. The credibility of the proposed framework will be fully brought to life when researchers, having agreed on satisfactory operationalizations and manipulations of the primitives, will be able to reconcile the speculative and the empirical planes.

Three locals of peace: a typology of local capacities for peace

In recent thinking on peace, the ‘local’ has taken centre stage, carrying our last hopes after decades of ‘failed’ peacebuilding. The local can, however, denote quite a variety of different actors. How we select and define the kind of local to work with has huge implications. By developing a typology of three kinds of locals, this piece points to how installing the local as pivotal for establishing peace can take very different forms, implying vastly different policies. These different ways of conceptualising the role of the local, and what are seen as possible ways of engaging with the people who are at the receiving end of peacebuilding interventions, carry political value and reveal shifts in the political terrain of interventions. The article points to how engaging with locals might serve as an attempt at evading the political and ethical consequences of intervention, yet shows how such avoidance of political consequences fails by pointing to the political and ethical choices implied in choosing what kind of locals to work with.

A Satisficing Theory of Epistemic Justification

AbstractThere is now a significant body of literature on consequentialist ethics that propose satisficing instead of maximizing accounts. Even though epistemology recently witnessed a widespread discussion of teleological and consequentialist theories, a satisficing account is surprisingly not developed yet. The aim of this paper is to do just that. The rough idea is that epistemic rules are justified if and only if they satisfice the epistemic good, i.e., reach some threshold of epistemic value (which varies with practical context), and believing is justified if and only if it follows said rules.I argue that this alternative to the implicitly established way of thinking in maximizing terms has significant advantages. First, maximizing epistemic value can be unreasonably demanding; second, a satisficing theory can make finding reasonable rules for belief formation and sustenance much more accessible; and third, a satisficing approach is a better alternative to both general subjectivist and maximizing objectivist attempts to spell out epistemic blame.

Suffering with Style

Suffering with Style

Luke/Acts and the End of History

Luke/Acts and the End of History

Ethical Questions Concerning Corporal Punishment of Children: Touring its Implications and Directions

The following paper intends to expound few ethical questions around thepractice of corporal punishment of children. Moving beyond a myriad of mental and physical ramifications, the objective here is to estimate the deep-seated issues that the damaging disciplinary model of corporal punishment yields and, furthermore, to promote a Virtue Ethical approach to parental discipline. For the sake of clarity and precision, the paper will restrict to two ethical questions: the question of personhood and degradation. Plainly put, a beating does not just affect the subject physically but has reverberating ethical consequences. In the end, I shall suggest/ argue that Virtue Ethics presents an approach to remedial parenting that guides the child in an ethical manner. The paper will address the following fundamental research questions: What ethical concerns does the practice of corporal punishment of children upheave? How do the questions concerning personhood and degradation offer an ethical interpretive paradigm for understanding the real iniquitous transactions of corporal punishment of children? and Which prominent ethical theory can act as a remedial model in this context? This paper intends to make the readers cognizant of the entrenched ethical implications and ensuing directions of this inglorious form of parenting style.

What's in a Handshake? Multi-Faith Practice as a Starting Point for Christian Migration Ethics

This article assesses the tension between cosmopolitan and communitarian approaches to the ethics of migration by analysing how the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) has responded to the current so-called migration crisis in Europe. I argue that the statements of the EKD frame people on the move either as migrants or as Muslims. These frames come with competing ethical consequences. Whereas migrants are presented as passive victims in need of some form of support by Christians, Muslims are presented as active victimisers in need of some form of suppression by Christians. However, when the then chairman of the EKD shook hands with people on the move who were arriving at Munich station in the summer of 2015, the surplus of meaning communicated in this encounter demonstrated that these people cannot be reduced to their respective framing, thus resisting the construction of both the cosmopolitan migrant frame and the communitarian Muslim frame. Accordingly, I advocate for a re-conceptualisation of the theological ethics of migration which takes multi-faith practices, such as these handshakes, as a point of departure.

Post-COVID-19 ethics of people analytics

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of the ethical investigation of the emerging practice of people analytics (PA) within human resource (HR) management through charting the development of PA before during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is designed as a short review of the current thinking in the ethics of PA, a practical journey through the progression of PA across the pandemic and a theoretical exploration of PA through three lenses: virtue ethics, critical social theory and actor network theory.FindingsThe authors suggest that PA raises novel ethical issues in terms of personal impact, increased penetration into working and home lives and the punch delivered in terms of organisational and behavioural change.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides a short review of three theoretical approaches to PA. Detailed research and reflection is required to develop and extend an ethics of PA. While engagement with the ethics of PA requires gaining an understanding of the discipline, ideas and jargon of HR management, it is essential that ethicists engage with PA as HR departments take on greater influence and adopt executive roles.Practical implicationsPA is now at the top of the HR management agenda, but there is limited understanding of the technology, the ethics and the new responsibilities it brings for HR management. This paper raises the profile of an ethical agenda, which practitioners should engage with.Social implicationsThe ethical consequences of PA have social implications as work practices change and hybrid working becomes prevalent. It has the potential to change the relationship between home and the workplace.Originality/valueThis paper provides a unique synthesis of theory and practice in a new area of ethical importance.

The Indian Context for Buddhist Reductionism

The Indian Context for Buddhist Reductionism Prabal Kumar Sen (bio) Personal Identity and Buddhist Philosophy: Empty Persons. By Mark Siderits. Second Edition. London and New York: Routledge, 2015. In 1984, Derek Parfit, in his book Reasons and Persons, argued in favor of the reductionist view about persons, which at that time aroused a great deal of controversy. Although Parfit’s views were not accepted by the majority of the exponents of Western analytic philosophy, in Personal Identity and Buddhist PhilosophyMark Siderits observes that Parfit did not abandon the view that “the existence of a person just consists in the existence of a brain and a body and the occurrence of a series of physical and psychological events” (pp. 19–20). While Parfit was aware of the fact that the Buddha also maintained a similar view, neither he nor his critics were aware of the fact that “in the Classical Indian controversy over the Buddha’s view of persons, philosophical tools were forged that might help us to adjudicate the dispute between Parfit and his many critics” (p. 1). [End Page 537] In the first edition of Personal Identity and Buddhist Philosophy, published in 2003, an attempt was made to show how such philosophical tools can actually be employed for solving some problems related to this dispute, and it was justifiably praised by discerning scholars for successfully developing “fusion philosophy,” where one finds “a serious and sustained effort to use elements from one tradition in order to solve problems arising in another” (p. 1). Siderits, however, also contends that since “[t]he Indian Buddhist philosophical corpus has not (yet) been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site” (p. 4), such tools borrowed from the Buddhist tradition may be put to novel uses and also that, in some cases, one may also go “into the terrain of rational reconstruction” (p. 4) and construe what the Buddhists could have said, in conformity with their basic tenets, if confronted with a novel problem that is being discussed in contemporary philosophy. In the second edition, important and relevant publications that have appeared in the intervening twelve years have been duly taken into account, and many portions of the first edition have been revised, or even rewritten in view of such new materials. The book has nine chapters: (1) Situating Reductionism; (2) Refuting the Self; (3) Getting Impersonal; (4) Wholes, Parts, and Emergence; (5) Ironic Engagement; (6) Establishing Emptiness; (7) Empty Knowledge; (8) The Turn of the True; and (9) Empty Persons. In the first five Siderits has considered the important objections raised so far against reductionism as developed by Parfit, and also discussed how suitable materials from Buddhist texts can be utilized for meeting such objections. In the last four chapters it has been shown how reductionism can be criticized, following the Buddhists who are Global Antirealists. The first chapter discusses “just what reductionism amounts to” (p. 5). Chapter 2 discusses several Buddhist arguments against “the view that the continued existence of a person consists in the continued existence of a self” (p. 5). The third chapter discusses how a number of objections raised against the reductionist view of self by Eliminativists and Non-Reductionists can be answered. The fourth chapter expounds the Buddhist view that no composite entity is ultimately real, and also discusses some objections against this view. The fifth chapter deals with the ethical consequences of this reductionist view of self, arguing in favor of the claim that such a thesis results in “a diminished degree of existential dread and greater concern for the welfare of others” (p. 6). The sixth chapter presents the objections against Buddhist reductionism that have been raised by Buddhist Antirealists, who deny the claim that there are things with intrinsic nature. The seventh chapter deals with another claim of the Buddhist Antirealists, that nothing is intrinsically a means of knowledge. The eighth chapter asks whether the charge against Antirealism—that it makes truth dependent on our ability to know—is true of the global anti-realism espoused by the Buddhistic sect that denies the intrinsic nature of things. The ninth chapter discusses the ethical consequences of the claim that persons are devoid of intrinsic nature. [End Page...

Building political capital through corporate social responsibility: a microlevel focus on the role of business leaders

PurposeThere are no management decisions deprived of ethical or political consequences. Political corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been highlighting this assertion but research at the microlevel on this topic is scarce. This study aims to contribute to the microlevel research by proposing a behavioral framework where leaders’ political skills are determinants of engagement in strategic CSR and perceived CSR leverages their ascribed legitimacy to perform a political role outside the boundaries of the organizations.Design/methodology/approachBuilding upon political CSR and critical realism theories, this study offers a general review on key political CSR microlevel concepts and examines multiple dimensions of CSR to explain the indirect effect between boards' political skills and political legitimacy.FindingsThis research suggests that high politically skilled leaders are associated to more CSR adoption which fosters higher legitimacy to act as political influencers. Among these, CSR activities directed toward community members and employees are seemingly the most successful from a political standpoint.Originality/valueThis study proposes a contemporary form of political influence to business leaders that, in contrast with other strategies such as lobbying or financing political campaigns, does not end up damaging corporate image and reputation. Also, this study proposes that not all CSR activities leverage corporate political legitimacy per se, therefore they do need to be differentiated. This study then offers a comprehensive future research agenda, including detailed suggestions for research designs and measurements.

In vitro gametogenesis: A benefit for women at advanced and very advanced age? An ethical perspective

Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) may be supplemented with in vitro gametogenesis (IVG). Although IVG is still experimental the question arises whether IVG offers any moral advantages compared to implemented methods. The aim of the paper is to present the landscape of ethical arguments in favour or against IVG. ART-related ethical issues in relation to reproductive autonomy, health risks for the woman and foetus, the welfare of the future child, the adverse effects of advanced motherhood, gender equality, and justice are similar for IVG, oocyte cryopreservation, and oocyte donation. IVG may have the following advantages: (I) the psychological and physical burden of stimulation and puncture of the oocyte could be avoided; (II) women do not necessarily have to cope with motherhood at young age; (III) ethical doubts associated with oocyte donation would be eliminated; (IV) by using IVG in combination with preimplantation diagnostics, it is more likely to find suitable oocytes or embryos to increase the probability of pregnancy; (V) women would have the opportunity to decide how many oocytes should be generated and how often an attempt should be made to achieve pregnancy. Simultaneously, however, the advent of IVG may lead to new moral disadvantages: pressure on women to give birth at an advanced age or pressure on women to follow ‘male’ career structures. Additionally, the reimbursement of costs related to IVG is an open question, especially if equal opportunities regarding motherhood are linked to demands for equal access to ART. An early discussion about the ethical, legal, and social consequences for IVG is necessary.

Ethical issues in multilingual research situations: a focus on interview-based research

Interview-based research in multilingual situations can present researchers with specific ethical challenges relating to language-based power play, data handling and presentation. Studies indicate favouring the L1 (first language) as an interviewing language may produce better quality data, but external pressures can favour English as the dominant research language. This article examines researcher perceptions and experiences of the ethical consequences of language choice and the practical issues involved. Interviews were conducted with five European researchers working on an interview-based project with experiences of diverse interviewing scenarios. The four moral principles of respect for autonomy, justice, beneficence and non-maleficence were used as a framework for analysis. The analysis revealed a nuanced picture of ethical issues in both L1- and English-oriented scenarios. This included potential misrepresentation and deculturalisation of the data in the former, and language-based power asymmetries in the latter. The findings highlight the importance of documenting ethics-related methodological details of language use, and advocates publication practices favouring the inclusion and foregrounding of L1 data.