Greater Good Research Articles

When Own Interest Stands Against the “Greater Good” – Decision Randomization in Ethical Dilemmas of Autonomous Systems That Involve Their User’s Self-Interest

Autonomous systems (ASs) decide upon ethical dilemmas and their artificial intelligence as well as situational settings become more and more complex. However, to study common-sense morality concerning ASs abstracted dilemmas on autonomous vehicle (AV) accidents are a common tool. A special case of ethical dilemmas is when the AS’s users are affected. Many people want AVs to adhere to utilitarian programming (e.g., to save the larger group), or egalitarian programming (i.e., to treat every person equally). However, they want their own AV to protect them instead of the “greater good”. That people reject utilitarian programming as an AS’s user while supporting the idea from an impartial perspective has been termed the “social dilemma of AVs”. Meanwhile, preferences for another technical capability, which would implement egalitarian programming, have not been elicited for dilemmas involving self-interest: decision randomization. This paper investigates normative and descriptive preferences for a self-protective, self-sacrificial, or randomized choice by an AS in a dilemma where people are the sole passenger of an AV, and their survival stands against the survival of several others. Results suggest that randomization may mitigate the “social dilemma of AVs” by bridging between a societally accepted programming and the urge of ASs’ users for self-protection.

Greatest Good for the Greatest Number – the Role of Managers’ Ethical Meaning-Making and Subjective Wellbeing Complexity

AbstractDespite the appeal of ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’ as an ethical ideal for businesses to pursue, applying this utilitarian principle in practice proves challenging. This is not least due to fundamental disagreements as to what constitutes the ‘greatest good.’ For example, the concept of ‘wellbeing’ now commonly proposed as a way of apprehending the greatest good is itself subject to widely varying interpretations. Drawing on an in-depth qualitative study of 64 managers in different sectors and country contexts, we explore this variation through the lens of constructivist ethics, asking how and why managers systematically differ in their ethical meaning-making around wellbeing. Our theorizing advances constructivist ethics by relating these differences to developmental stages identified in constructivist psychology, finding that systematic variations in ethical meaning-making are shaped by differences in actors’ capacities to process complexity. Our analysis reveals that managers’ ethical meaning-making about wellbeing is subjective, socially constructed, dynamic, and evolutionary, progressing in stages that we differentiate with a novel concept of ‘subjective wellbeing complexity.’ We contribute to practice by discussing how managers’ ability to work with more complex conceptions of wellbeing can be purposefully enhanced through stage-by-stage capacity-building in the form of ‘vertical development.’

Together for the greater goods: legitimising social innovation in the pharmaceutical field

Social innovation initiatives in the pharmaceutical field seek alternative, collaborative ways to address problems with availability and affordability of medicines. However, these experimental initiatives require legitimacy. Formulating goals is a way of creating and contesting legitimacy, also for social innovation initiatives, yet has not been studied in this context. Based on document analysis (policy reports, news articles and websites) and semi-structured interviews, we investigate what form and role goal formulations take in constructing and contesting the legitimacy of two Dutch social innovation initiatives: one novel coverage arrangement for a rare disease drug and one new manufacturing process for a personalised cancer treatment. We find that actors formulate goals to manage consensus with powerful, independent governance bodies and with those who reserve their judgement concerning the initiative. They also manage differences, highlighting role differentiation within collaborations and emphasising contrasts with outsiders. These findings show the importance of professional identities and the experimental nature of social innovation initiatives. We conclude that formulating goals is used to probe for and attempt to ensure the longevity of social innovation. Working together in diverse partnerships for ‘the greater goods’ (plural) is thus essential for organising durable social innovation in the European pharmaceutical field .

Population and Welfare: The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number

Population and Welfare: The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number

Feminism against Progress

Feminism against Progress

Political Reasoning and the Nation-State: A MacIntyrean Consideration of a Thomistic Debate

The Traditional Natural Law (TNL) considers the political community a good human beings desire as one of the greatest goods of practical life, while those within the New Natural Law (NNL) camp argue instead that the political community is an instrumental good. Neither side has been able to offer a decisive refutation of the other, despite each offering strong arguments supported by both philosophical argument and textual evidence. In response, I will present Alasdair MacIntyre’s approach to practical reason and political community in hopes of shedding new light on this debate. From a MacIntyrean perspective, the TNL and NNL disagreement is more apparent than real, because the two sides in fact address different objects. MacIntyre presents political community as a constitutive aspect of excellent practical reasoning, but he denies the modern nation-state can be such a community.

Strategi Pemasaran Depot Air Minum Isi Ulang Barito Dalam Meningkatkan Penjualan di Desa Baru Kecamatan Batang Kuis

A corporation may use marketing strategy to thrive in the face of fiercer and fiercer competition by offering the greatest goods and services to satiate its clients and foster strong brand loyalty. This paper was written with the intention of identifying the marketing approach used by the Barito replenish drinking water depot to boost sales in Baru Village, Batang Kuis District. This essay was written using qualitative research that took a descriptive stance. In the meanwhile, the author employed the techniques of observation, interviewing, and literature study. Primary data and secondary data were the sources of the data used in this study. Based on the findings of the analysis, it can be said that the Barito refill drinking water depot employed the proper marketing strategy under the marketing mix approach to win over clients, namely by implementing strategies for both product, price, distribution, and promotion that were carried out correctly target and in accordance with the desired target.
 Keyword: Marketing Strategy, Sales, Barito Refill Drinking Water Depot Business

The Greater Good

Are there people who should be erased from existence? Are we all inherently self, rather than collectively, focused on our motivations? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Mr. Shaw’s mother, along with others, was brutally murdered when he was a child. The rapist/killer was caught, tried, and put to death. This caused Mr. Shaw to have a difficult childhood in foster homes. Now, as a married adult, he has gone back to the government and requested a review of the killer’s life for potential erasure from existence. Under this process, it will be as if the killer was never born. It also means anyone he talked to, or any actions he took (both positive and negative) will have never existed. This means, in potentially, Mr. Shaw will have never met his wife, but he wants to move forward anyway. His request for erasure is denied by the government because, it turns out, one of the women the killer raped gives birth to the child who cures cancer. Mr. Shaw doesn’t care but changes his mind when he finds out his daughter would have become sick, were it not for this medical marvel.

Launching for the “Greater Good”: Spillover Effect of ESG Funds

Launching for the “Greater Good”: Spillover Effect of ESG Funds

Startup Culture: MLMs, Mormons, and Entrepreneurship

Startup Culture: MLMs, Mormons, and Entrepreneurship

Not in the Greater Good: Academic Capitalism and Faculty Labor in Higher Education

American public universities have assumed business-minded practices and norms that more closely align with the goals and values of corporations than social institutions charged with creating and disseminating knowledge. One consistent strategy to lower costs involves faculty labor. Institutions have outsourced educational missions to a largely contingent workforce to decrease instructional costs; over the last two decades, the number of adjunct or part-time faculty now comprises 70% of all faculty. As a result, policies have decreased instructional costs and provided administrators with increased flexibility to respond to student demands. However, research indicates compromised student outcomes, less shared governance, and faculty work–life pressures that can undermine commitment, motivation, and professional identity. The following literature review examines the locus of academic capitalism and faculty labor, theorizing how faculty labor policies infer consequences for equity, inclusion, and social justice in higher education.

Shovah’s Reality (Re)Construction: A Žižekian Reading of Ideology in Phil Kelly's Farsight

This research examines the logic behind Shovah's ideology upon the Greater Good and how his fantasy helps him reconstruct his reality in Phil Kelly's novel Farsight. The primary data of this research is obtained by the means of close reading of the novel, notably narration and conversation which concern Shovah and his overall attitude. The analysis of Shovah's ideological journey employs Slavoj Žižek's theory of ideology. The study reveals that the Greater Good acts as an ideological quilt, an empty signifier that unifies particular attributes. However, at the same time, the Greater Good as an ideological quilt is unstable because there is nothing behind it. According to Žižek's theory, Shovah's devotion to the Greater Good can be seen as a process of satisfying the traumatic abyss of the big Other, which is analogous to nothingness. To elude this traumatic abyss, Shovah constructed fantasy, a screen against the desire of the big Other, to keep living in reality.

Endurance, Acceptance, or Constitutional Gratitude: Non-Theistic and Theistic Attitudes to Suffering

Against those who think that only believers in a personal God are entitled to be grateful for their existence and for reality itself (cosmic gratitude), I show that there are non-theistic views on which everything that happens is part of an overall good order, supporting gratitude toward that order’s source. However, most non-theist views that affirm reality’s goodness, including pantheism, axiarchism, and ultimism, hold that an individual’s existence has value as part of a larger whole. Some things may be bad for me but good for the whole. In such cases, acceptance is the best available positive attitude. Many versions of theism, by contrast, support constitutional gratitude, a characteristic attitude of thankfulness toward the ultimate source of goodness. Using Marilyn Adams’ distinction between global and local goods, I show how Christianity, Islam, and other theistic views that affirm a personal God who cares for the well-being of each individual as such enable constitutional gratitude. If the evils you experience will be defeated by greater goods that you personally experience, you can be grateful to God for God’s presence and plan even in suffering. Whether this attitude is more appropriate than acceptance or endurance depends on facts about reality and value.

For the Greater Good: Sacrificial Violence and the Coronavirus Pandemic

For the Greater Good: Sacrificial Violence and the Coronavirus Pandemic

Higher Purpose, the Greater Good and Finance

Higher Purpose, the Greater Good and Finance

Specialization Within a Specialty: Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nursing Pathways for the Greatest Good.

Dr. Hildegard Peplau's theory on the primacy of the therapeutic interpersonal relationship remains central to the role of the psychiatric-mental health advanced practice nurse (PMH APN). In 1989, Peplau published her thoughts on how World War II (WWII) shaped early PMH APN practice. Following WWII and the return of hundreds of thousands of previously mentally healthy service members with combat-related psychiatric symptoms and disorders, the prevailing societal beliefs about mental illness began to shift from an innate/inherited etiological perspective to a broader appreciation of the additional contributions of social and environmental factors to mental well-being. With that awareness came a decrease in stigma and a shift from housing patients in psychiatric hospitals to treating them in community settings. The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has likewise affected societal beliefs through exposure to the mental toll of massive infection rates, loss of life, social isolation, and other downstream consequences. During these times of crises, psychiatric nurses and educators are challenged to provide innovative solutions to meet the increased demands for psychosocial care. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 59(10), 13-18.].

Consumer Wisdom for Personal Well‐Being and the Greater Good: Scale Development and Validation

Historically, wisdom has been considered a leading character strength for guiding personal well‐being and the greater good. It has also been routinely considered domain‐specific. Hence, consumer researchers should not just borrow conceptualizations or measures of general wisdom from the social sciences or measures of specific wisdom from nonconsumption contexts. Drawing from recent exploratory research on consumer wisdom by Luchs and Mick (Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2018, 28(3), 365‐392), we use survey data to test and refine their multidimensional framework as we develop a Consumer Wisdom Scale (CWS). Across five studies, we demonstrate the discriminant, nomological, predictive, and incremental validity of our CWS. We show that it explains unique variance across a variety of indicators of well‐being (e.g., satisfaction with life) in comparison to other measures previously associated with well‐being (e.g., relationship support). Further, we show that our CWS, versus a general wisdom measure, is more associated with select behaviors relevant to personal well‐being and the greater good (e.g., exercise, healthy eating, and financial savings). Closing discussion summarizes our findings and limitations, and suggests future research.

Pandering for the Greater Good? Senate, People, and Politics in Cicero’s de lege agraria 1 and 2

Abstract Cicero’s first speeches as consul, de lege agraria I and II, delivered to the senate and the people respectively, are virtually identical in outline and broad argument. That allows the rhetorical technique of individual sections to be compared closely. This article uses such comparisons to probe the tactics and ideology of the speeches. In both Cicero’s choice of word and phrase might suggest that he is simply addressing his audiences as suits their stations. But a consideration of the circumstances of the speeches reveals instead that Cicero is directing his audiences to alternate ways of imagining their social and political positions; in effect, Cicero propounds distinct, principled, and communalist definitions of dignitas and libertas, core values of each audience – though sometimes at the price of distorting the intent of the bill.

The Greater Good: Media, Family Removal, and TVA Dam Construction in North Alabama by Laura Beth Daws and Susan L. Brinson

The Greater Good: Media, Family Removal, and TVA Dam Construction in North Alabama by Laura Beth Daws and Susan L. Brinson

Labor Out of Time: Forensic Performance in Kirsten Greenidge's Greater Good and Fullbright's Tacoma

Labor Out of Time: Forensic Performance in Kirsten Greenidge's Greater Good and Fullbright's Tacoma