Immoral Character Research Articles

Spectatorship as a play on moral ambiguities: Neuro-evolutionary semiotic approach to lowly arousal emotions

AbstractThis study seeks to outline a neuro-evolutionary semiotic model for our perception and interpretation of moral ambiguities in the wake of neuroaesthetics. This model is actually an integration of the Saussurean network of differences and the recently discovered default mode network: it serves on the one hand to rectify automatic responses generated by the mirror system in real-life situations, and on the other, to expand the applicability of the sign system for our appreciation of eerie or scary details found in the arts. Such a framework functions not only to blur binary oppositions set between high and lowly arousal emotions, but also to enhance our skills and confidence in dealing with uncertainties and oddities found in the arts. As opposed to experimental schemes devised in neuroaesthetics, which quantify our instant ratings of specific audial and visual inputs, the neuro-evolutionary model allows us some freedom and flexibility to re-evaluate our perceptions of motives concealed in characters’ behaviors. This study therefore enlarges on a qualitative approach to conceptualizing spectatorship in the world of art. We as intelligent and self-governing spectators should manage to align with odd characters’ positions so as to regain meaning, understanding, and harmony from our dealings. By way of comparing and contrasting two film characters’ dealings with valuable paintings and endearing families, the author argues for the fruitful functioning of the neuro-evolutionary sign system in revising our biases against seemingly immoral characters. It is observed that the sign system is characterized with the capacity of multiplying meaningful connections between characters’ motives, choices, and actions. It enables us to sort out and to appreciate strings of actions that enlarge on characters’ persistence and consistence of achieving certain goals. All in all, our choice of engaging with the daunting and the disconcerting fosters not only our pleasure and intelligence of viewing, but also the survival of odd characters in our community.

The Impacts of Moral Character in Celebrity Endorsement

This research consists of two experimental studies investigating the dominance of moral character on athlete endorser perception and the influence of perceiver characteristics on tarnished athlete endorser perception and brand evaluations. Perceiver characteristics are discussed from the perspectives of dispositional tendency, innate moral intuitions and self-location. The first study compared the dominance of moral character and warmth on endorser perception. The second study examined the impact of perceiver characteristics on tarnished athlete endorsers and brand evaluations. The findings reveal that moral character is more influential than warmth on endorser evaluations. Tarnished athlete endorsers with immoral character exert more negative influence than tarnished endorsers with coldness character on brand evaluations. Innate moral intuitions and self-location moderate brand evaluations. Highmorality consumers and heart-locators are more vulnerable than low-morality and brain-locators to the brands endorsed by tarnished endorsers, respectively.

Repeated Play Reduces Video Games’ Ability to Elicit Guilt: Evidence from a Longitudinal Experiment

Statements supported mostly by correlational and cross-sectional studies suggest that playing violent video games can cause emotional desensitization. A longitudinal experiment examined a) whether repeated violent game play leads to emotional desensitization and b) whether desensitization generalizes to other play and real-life experiences. Participants played alternative versions of the same violent game for the first four days; on these days, the character role was varied between-subjects to be moral (United Nations soldier) or immoral (terrorist soldier). On Day 5, all participants played a novel game as a terrorist. Results indicate two things. First, habituation occurs over repeated game play: Repeated exposure decreased the ability of the original game to elicit guilt. Second, the decreased ability to elicit guilt can generalize to other game-play experiences: Guilt elicited by the novel game on Day 5 was reduced for the immoral character condition compared to the moral character condition. The current study provides causal, longitudinal evidence regarding the potential for video game play to lead to emotional desensitization with regard to future video game-play experiences.

Vasari’s Biography of Bazzi as ‘Soddoma’: Art History and Literary Analysis

In his famous Lives (second edition, 1568), Renaissance artist Giorgio Vasari addressed the painter Giovanni Antonio Bazzi as ‘Soddoma’ (implying sodomite) and described him as mad, eccentric, and bestial. For the next 450 years, the majority of art historians have accepted Vasari’s biography as factual, and have viewed Bazzi’s art as reflecting his immoral character. This article approaches Vasari’s text not as a record of historical events, but as a work of prose, applying the methodology of literary analysis to understand how Vasari intentionally manipulates his reader’s response. Vasari’s infrequent praise of Bazzi also emerges from a close reading of the text, with implications suggested for a reconsideration of Bazzi’s standing as an artist of significance. A selection of critical writings from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries will be analysed for the manner in which they endorse or reject Vasari’s language.

“If it doesn't make sense it's not true”: how Judge Judy creates coherent stories through “common-sense” reasoning according to the neoliberal agenda

This study examines the American court show Judge Judy. Drawing on both conversation analysis and critical discourse analysis, this paper aims to show how ideological assumptions about how to be a “good citizen” manifest themselves at a turn-by-turn level in the interactions on Judge Judy and how they contribute to the co-construction of a new version of events. The microanalyses reveal how Sheindlin's strategic use of “common-sense reasoning” sets up a context and characterization of the opposing litigants. Sheindlin reframes complex issues as simple black-and-white stories. These new stories have a plain narrative line without the contingencies of everyday life and with clearly moral and immoral characters allowing her to pass a judgment that only seems fair.

Kants ethisches Lügenverbot – der Sonderfall der Lüge aus Furcht

Abstract. Kant distinguishes sharply between a juridical and an ethical assessment of lies. For the latter, his Doctrine of Virtue establishes the immorality of maxims of lying. However, not all acts of lying have to result from maxims of lying. It will be shown that Kant’s conception of moral weakness extends to lies caused by fear. A morally weak person need not have an immoral character or lose her dignity. Therefore, the inhuman implications of Kant’s strict prohibition of lying can be considerably mitigated if the possibility of fear-induced lies is taken into account. If a person follows the modern planner’s motto failure is not an option and excludes lies from her plans of action, she can satisfy the demands of Kant’s doctrine of virtue even if fear causes her to lie under some circumstances.

"Ottavas" and Spenserians in 1820s Britain

In July, 1820, The, Literary Gazette published an anonymous satirical divertissement entitled Ballydehob featuring a Parnassus of contemporary practitioners of the rima: ... Frere, or Byron, Cornwall or Will. Wastle / four great masters of the rima' ottava (Anon., Ballydehob 476). By this date the Italianate eight-line stanza of iambic pentameters with two triple rhymes and a punchy final couplet had become a fashionable yet ambivalent form. Such ambivalence and its disturbing potential discreetly peek through the Ballydehob couplet. Whether inserted by the author or by the type-setter, the incongruous apostrophe after is a graphic marker emphasizing cultural difference. A few lines later the author duly dubs this metrical form an kind of strain (476) and yet, according to the list, the masters of this allegedly foreign stanza are all British poets. First master, John Hookham Frere, had been responsible for the renewed interest in the by way of his ponderously titled Prospectus and Specimen of an Intended National Work, by William and Robert Whistlecraft (1817, 1818), a parody of the chivalric narrative poetry of the Italian Renaissance mixed with Francesco Berni's and Luigi Pulci's burlesque reinventions of it. Byron comes next thanks to the magisterial reinterpretations of the in his medley poems Beppo and Dan Juan. list then moves on to Barry Cornwall (Brian Waller Procter), the poet linked to the Cockney group who gave two performances in the rima in his 1820 verse narratives Diego de Montilla and Gyges. last of the masters in Ballydehob, William Wastle, was the pseudonym under which John Gibson Lockhart published his spirited and ultimately incomplete poem The Mad Banker of Amsterdam, or the Fate of the Brauns in Blackwood's Magazine between 1818 and 1819. implications of this versified roll call are several. Through this extremely compressed couplet the otherwise negligible Ballydehob offers some novel insights into the cultural status of a metrical form that caused a commotion in a post-Waterloo literary market shot through with a range of distinctively cosmopolitan overtures. To be sure, this phenomenon has been the object of seriously sustained critical attention in Byron studies. Yet Ballydehob intimates that there may be further issues at stake that still require attention. Significantly, the list accords Byron no exclusive or privileged position in the field of rima. It also testifies to the surprising speed with which this form and its related satirical mode infiltrated the British literary field. Its mini-Parnassus highlights the crucial fact that the was a foreign pattern which, a mere few years after the publication of Whistlecraft, could be vindicated as a fully Aught lied form associated with a roster of English-language poets. In other words, this occasional text throws light on the as a nexus of interferences. In terms of literary hierarchies, it seemed to abolish distinctions between major and minor authors, while, from an aesthetic and cultural point of view, it was at the centre of a lively debate about its historical development and formal qualities. In an ideological-political perspective, moreover, it might be linked with either conservative or anti-establishment positions. In the context of narratives of cultural identity, then, the brought with it a lexicon of naturalization which was keyed to the organic and botanical metaphors (such as acclimatization, transplanting or engrafting) typical of Romantic-era discourses of cultural translation and cross-cultural exchange. A number of poets. translators, and commentators saw this form as problematically associated with foreign traditions (mostly, though not exclusively, Italy) and with Byron's foreignized literaty practice and outlandishly immoral character. Yet, just as often, it was discussed as an integral part of the national literary tradition and as a distinctive feature of its current poetical burgeoning. …

N. F. S. Grundtvig og naturalismen

N. F. S. Grundtvig og naturalismen[N. F. S. Grundtvig and the Concept of Naturalism]By Ole NyborgThe concepts o f ‘naturalism’, ‘naturalist’, and ‘naturalistic’ are frequently found in the writings of the Danish theologian N. F. S. Grundtvig (1783-1872), and this is the case during his whole lifetime.In scholarly literature, Grundtvig’s concept of ‘naturalism’ has mainly been interpreted from the way ‘naturalism’ etc. is used in his introduction to Nordisk Mythologi (Northern Mythology) (1832). The frequent references to ‘naturalism’ in Grundtvig’s other works have mostly been neglected by scholars. However, an analysis of Grundtvig’s works as a whole shows a very clear picture. He is a persistent, emotional, and aggressive opponent to naturalism, emphasizing numerous negative aspects of it as a philosophy, because its modern individualistic ideas destroy the natural bonds and social constraints of love, reverence, and respect. According to Grundtvig, naturalism represents a powerful, imminent, and dangerous threat to traditional Christian states and nations of Western Europe, and the notorious revolution of France of 1789 he sees as a terrible and horrifying manifestation of the unchristian, subversive, unbridled, and immoral character of naturalism.

Moksleivių vaikinų sąmoningumo ugdymas reflektuojant internetinę pornografiją

Profesorius socialinių mokslų(edukologijos) daktarasVytauto Didžiojo universitetoSocialinio darbo katedraK. Donelaičio g. 58, LTLT-44248 KaunasTel. (8 37) 22 27 39El. paštas: j.ruskus@smf.vdu.ltSocialinio darbo magistrasUAB „Uno Kompiuteriai“ pardavimų vadovasŽirmūnų g. 139, VilniusTel. 8 628 77 425El. paštas: irmantas.sujeta@gmail.comInternetinė pornografija suvokiama kaip viena iš smurto ir viktimizacijos formų. Pornografijos internetu vartotojais, o kartu ir smurto bei viktimizacijos objektu, neretai tampa vaikai ir jaunuoliai, ypač berniukai ir vaikinai. Pornografija – ugdymo aplinkose nutylima tema, ji suvokiama kaip nelegali ir ypač nemorali veikla. Straipsnyje pristatomas tyrimas, kuriuo buvo siekiama įveikti neregimus socialinius draudimus ir moksleivių vaikinų grupėse inicijuojant internetinės pornografijos refleksiją – ugdyti dalyvių sąmoningumą. Tyrimas atliktas remiantis veiklos tyrimo dalyvaujant metodologija, kuri leido grupinių diskusijų būdu įvardijant turimus internetinės pornografijos suvokimus, projektuojant prevencines priemones, ugdyti vaikinų sąmoningumą internetinės pornografijos atžvilgiu.

What do computer science students think about software piracy?

Today, software piracy is an issue of global importance. Computer science students are the future information and communication technologies professionals and it is important to study the way they approach this issue. In this article, we attempt to study attitudes, behaviours and the corresponding reasoning of computer science students in Greece regarding software piracy. The statements taken in 56 semi-structured interviews with students indicate that computer science students in Greece make intensive use of pirated software, mention as main reason for their practice the cost of genuine software, and blame the academic environment, coincidental stereotypes and their student status for this behaviour. They acknowledge the immoral character of their actions, as well as the fact that others are affected by software piracy, but they pay little attention to this action and they practically don't care. While keeping distance from software development companies, when specifically asked, they easily adopt the role of a software developer and attempt to substantiate their current and eventually future attitude out of hand. They consider software copyright laws to be inapplicable and unrealistic and fail to argue against intellectual property rights for mere digital products, such as software.

Readers Closing in on Immoral Characters' Consciousness. Effects of Free Indirect Discourse on Response to Literary Narratives

Free indirect discourse (FID) is a widely studied mode of speech and consciousness representation in narratives. One aspect of analysis and debate is the combination of the character’s stream of consciousness and the narrator’s voice. Various ideas about the effects FID might have on readers have been formulated. Some of these hypotheses are contradictory, which makes them an excellent starting point for reader response studies. More in particular, there seems to be disagreement whether FID increases or decreases readers’ empathy for story characters. Also, there is no consensus concerning the effect on the transparency of the narrator’s stance toward the story character, nor on the clarity of the implied author’s intentions. Rather than adding theoretical arguments, historical evidence, or exegeses of textual examples, the present contribution attempts to explore the empirical validity of FID hypotheses in a series of reading experiments. The results of these studies demonstrate that the effects of FID are limited, at least when we consider the strength and range of the predicted effects. While the general effect on visibility of character’s consciousness appears robust, there were no consistent effects of FID on variables like empathy or sympathy with the character and variables pertaining to the perception of the author’s opinion and the moral of the story.

The `White Slave Trade' and the Music Hall Affair in 1930s Malta

The music hall affair in 1930s Malta serves as a window into wider social, political issues embodied in the recurring furore that was `white slavery'. Sparked by accusations in London newspapers about sexual exploitation of English women who had come to work as music hall artistes, politicians, newspaper editors, the police and the church in Malta addressed the issue. Although the claims about English women were not true, the stories raised larger questions about prostitution in Malta's night-time leisure economy, and sexual exploitation of foreign artistes and Maltese barmaids did occur in this context. The British reaction followed the pattern of response in other colonies: military authorities chose to focus on the health threat to their personnel posed by what they saw as an indigenous problem of prostitution, rather than acknowledge the effects of colonial rule on local society. Maltese authorities chose to avoid political and economic truths of colonial rule as well: they decided to make the immoral character of the women involved the problem to be addressed. The music hall affair did not champion international human rights, but reflected parochial fears of foreigners and colonial others.

Dionysian Music, Patriotic Sentiment, and Tennyson's Idylls of the King

Dionysian Music, Patriotic Sentiment, and Tennyson's Idylls of the King Ayşe Çelikkol (bio) In The Coming of Arthur, the first idyll in the narrative sequence of Idylls of the King,1 the youthful Gawain, who is not yet a knight, wanders a terrain that is not yet Arthur's: And Gawain went, and breaking into song Sprang out, and followed by his flying hair Ran like a colt, and leapt at all he saw.2 The gush of a spring and its animalistic counterpart, the gallop of a colt, evoke untamed and irrepressible ebullience. The act of breaking into a song, which suggests a sudden outburst, complements the overwhelming energy that Gawain's actions embody. Unbroken like a colt, Gawain sings and travels impulsively. This glimpse at the pre-Arthurian world suggests a link between music and spontaneity that the Idylls in its entirety develops and elaborates. I will suggest in this essay that, through this link, the poem provides a sophisticated commentary on the affective and political functions of music—and, in fact, of the aesthetic as a general category—that is in dialogue with contemporary debates about the topic. As recent scholarship has revealed, music in early- and mid-Victorian culture was "a charged site of struggle insofar as it was promoted as both a transcendent corrective to social ills and a subversive cause for these ills."3 From educational reformists to public moralists, many believed that instrumental and vocal music could strengthen the sense of national belonging, foster religious devotion, and promote domestic happiness. As music theorist Herbert Spencer noted, music developed an "emotional language" that cultivated sympathy, the "essential element" of "friendship, love, and all domestic pleasures." W. E. Hickson, known as the "father of English school music," ascribed a positive moral valence to music's appeal to emotion: "[Music] has a tendency to wean the mind from vicious and sensual indulgences; and, if properly directed, it has a tendency to incline the heart to kindly feelings, and just and generous emotions." Another music educator, Joseph Mainzer, justified musical education by reference to its religious benefits, arguing that [End Page 239] school songs "remind[ed] [children] of their duty towards God."4 Anglican and nonconformist churches contributed immensely to the popularity of music among all classes of society because of the prominent role singing played in worship. The interest in hymnody peaked by the mid-Victorian period, with more hymn books being published than ever before. Oratorios reinforced the affinity of music with spirituality. Wagner observed upon hearing Handel's Messiah at the Exeter Hall in London that "an evening spent in listening to an oratorio may be regarded as a sort of service, and is almost as good as going to church."5 But, as Linda Colley reminds us, The Messiah also owed its appeal to its glorification of Britain as a second Israel. Nationalism played a central role alongside religion in exalting musical experiences, with the coronation hymn, the national anthem, and military bands playing crucial roles in rituals of nation-building.6 The theory that musical sounds mobilized emotions affiliated music with unruly passion in addition to linking it to domesticity, spirituality, and patriotism. Music appeared to produce rapture and sensuality. Frequently, "musical entertainments of a low and immoral character" available in "public houses of an inferior stamp" shouldered the stigma of music's appeal to passion, but the broad category of music, too, could receive criticism for it.7 In 1838, the young John Ruskin wrote, "music . . . raises the passions, or excites the feelings; but it cannot direct intellect, convey ideas, or furnish materials for thought." He asserted that music offered a type of pleasure that is more instinctive than cultivated: "Brutes can enjoy music: mice, in particular, are thrown into raptures by it; horses are strongly excited by the sound of trumpets, and may be taught to dance in excellent time, or even beat a tambourine with their fore-feet; the iguana, a kind of lizard, is so passionately fond of music that if you will do him the favour to whistle a tune to him, . . . he will allow you to kill him rather than stir."8 This diatribe...

The Individual or the Institution? Ethics and Behavioural Responses to Social Insurance

abstract Individuals tend to change their behaviour as a response to insurance. Such behavioural responses to insurance are commonly seen as ethically and morally problematic. This is especially true of effects on behaviour from social insurance. These effects have been seen as an ethical problem, associated with irresponsibility, fraud and an immoral character. This article discusses the relevance of four different types of reasons for claims that behavioural responses to social insurance are immoral. These reasons are (1) independent reasons (2) con‐tract related reasons (3) reasons related to fraud and (4) reasons related to justice. I argue that reasons related to justice are most relevant, but that this type of reason does not render the individual morally blameworthy. Hence, insofar as behavioural responses to social insurance are an ethical problem it is a problem that concerns the institution, i.e. what incentives social insurance exhibits, rather than the individual, i.e. the morality of the individual responding to it. Insofar as behavioural responses to social insurance are an ethical problem it is a problem for political philosophy rather than individual ethics.

Rational Responsibility for Preferences and Moral Responsibility for Character Traits

A theory of rationality evaluates actions and actors as rational or irrational. Assessing preferences themselves as rational or irrational is contrary to the orthodox view of rational choice. The orthodox view takes preferences as given, holding them beyond reproach, and assesses actions as rational or irrational depending on whether the actions tend to serve as effective means to the satisfaction of the given preferences. Against this view, this paper argues that preferences themselves are indeed proper objects of rational evaluation. This evaluation of preferences is driven by whether holding and acting on them conduces to, or interferes with the satisfaction of other, more important preferences. Taking the lead from methods in moral theory of holding individuals responsible for their moral or immoral character traits, this paper goes on to sketch parallel ways of determining an agent's rational responsibility for her rational or irrational preferences.

‘Hitting Highs at Rock Bottom’: LSD Treatment for Alcoholism, 1950–1970

In the 1950s, researchers in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan began treating alcoholics with d-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and achieved significant rates of recovery. Psychiatrists, including Humphry Osmond who coined the term 'psychedelic' while working in Saskatchewan, believed that the successful treatment of alcoholism with biochemical means would scientifically prove that the condition was a disease and not the result of a weak or immoral character. Initial experiments demonstrated unprecedented rates of abstinence among alcoholics treated with LSD. The approach gained support from the provincial government, local chapters of Alcoholics Anonymous and the Bureau of Alcoholism, all of which collaborated in a public campaign that supported LSD treatments. Although Alcoholics Anonymous endorsed psychedelic therapy, the Addictions Research Foundation did not. The leading Canadian authority on addictions disputed the findings in Saskatchewan and challenged these advocates of psychedelic treatments to conduct trials with proper controls. Despite subsequent efforts to demonstrate that the success of psychedelic therapy relied on both medical and non-medical factors, the treatment failed to satisfy current medical methodology, embodied in controlled trials. By the late 1960s, LSD had become a popular recreational drug and gained media attention for its association with counter cultural youth, social disobedience and anti-authoritarian attitudes. All this served further to erode support for its clinical status.

"Sporty" Girls and "Artistic" Boys: Friendship, Illicit Sex, and the British "Companionship" Advertisement, 1913-1928

ON SEPTEMBER 1, 1920, Sir Basil Thomson, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, received a note warning him of a grave threat to the morals of the British nation. The letter was from R. A. Bennett, editor of the weekly newspaper Truth and a prominent campaigner against white slavery. 1 Bennett enclosed a small pamphlet, available from newsagents in plain cover for the price of eight pence. A cursory glance at its pages, he announced, would allow the commissioner to judge its highly immoral character.

Painting Danaë, Diana, Europa and Venus: Titian and Argensola’s “A Nuño de Mendoza”

While Spanish literature of the Golden Age is replete with scenes and allusions from classical mythology, Spanish art of the pe­ riod reveals notable absence of the mythological, topic most popular in Italian Renaissance art. This paper seeks to explore the ten­ sions between literature and art in Bartolome Leonardo de Argensola's satirical poem A Nuno de Mendoza, showing how Titian's art becomes, for the Spanish moralist, symptom of the decadence and effeminacy of Spanish society. At the same time, the classical education and the antique models utilized by Argensola often undermine his moralistic verse, while his use of allegorical interpretations of Titian's paintings subvert his con­ trast between the pagan sensuality of Renaissance Italian art and the as­ cetic teachings of the Christian writers. Spanish painting of the Golden Age was for the most part religious in nature. Pacheco's dictum that painting was to induce men to piety and bring them to God, was not, according to Jonathan Brown, mere platitude. Rather, it voiced a conviction universally held in his society. And the consensus was that this goal was best achieved through direct, unambiguous, dogmatic imagery that inspired intense involvement in the events of the New Testament, the lives of saints, and the doctrines of the church (312). Mythological subjects, on the other hand, were nearly absent from Spanish art of the period, since the home market was con­ fined mainly to an ecclesiastical clientele (Brown 4). The secular and even immoral character of classical together with the pro­ pensity of the ancients and their imitators to sculpt or paint these figures as nudes, made the ecclesiastical clients shun this type of art. Indeed, as Rosa Lopez Torrijos notes, these characteristics made them subject to the church's censorship, following the dictates of the Council of Trent (19).1 And yet, the Spanish Court, its kings and nobles, were well aware of the beauty, sensuality and value of Italian Renaissance paintings, which often depicted mythological and allegorical subjects through partly clothed and nude human figures. Indeed, it has been argued that many Renaissance paintings use the cloak of mythology to revel in sensual­ ity and sexuality.2 Titian's Dana'e, for example, was commissioned for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese in Rome, with the express command that

Dirty Birds, Filthy Immigrants, and the English Sparrow War: Metaphorical Linkage in Constructing Social Problems

The role of metaphor in the construction of social problems has often been neglected. Yet we believe that the use of metaphorical linkage can help explain how social problems become defined. To explore the role of metaphorical linkage, we examine a controversy that shook the American ornithological world of the late 19th century: The Great English Sparrow War. English sparrows were originally imported to the major American cities of the East, in the early 1850s, to control the infestation of trees by dropworms. These birds adapted successfully, and by the mid‐1870s they began to be perceived as a menace to the American ecosystem. As a consequence, a vigorous debate began as to their usefulness or harmfulness, which often exceeded the bounds of scientific discourse. We argue that this controversy over the English sparrow was linked to the controversy over “the new immigration.” A post‐bellum America faced the task of rebuilding its moral boundaries after the disruption of the Civil War and in the face of millions of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe and the Orient. The opponents of the English sparrow drew their imagery from the nativism (anti‐foreignism) of the day. They defined the bird as: (1) a foreigner, (2) that competes unfairly with native birds, (3) that has an immoral character, and (4) that needs to be eliminated from the American community of birds. Examining the metaphorical linkages among public concerns of the same period, we suggest, is a fruitful way of examining social problems.

Individual Responsibility, Nuclear Deterrence, and Excusing Political Inaction

‘The circle of responsibility is drawn around all who have or should have knowledge of the illegal and immoral character of the war.’--Richard FalkJonathan Schell's The Fate of the Earth, is in a large part an earnest, aphoristic essay on individual responsibility in these times. Consider a representative passage: ‘With the generation that has never known a world unmenaced by nuclear weapons, a new order of the generation begins. In it, each person alive is called on to assume his share of the responsibility for guaranteeing the existence of all future generations.’ I have no doubt that many people in most countries — citizens of representative democracies in particular — know this call and feel in some dim and tentative way that there must be special individual responsibilities that have evolved with that defensive, strategic and political doctrine we know as nuclear deterrence. And how could we expect otherwise?