Moral Defense Research Articles

La criminalización de las juventudes rebeldes en la Revista Fílmica Cine Mundial, una aproximación al periodismo cinematográfico mexicano, 1956–68

During the 1950s and 1960s, the Mexican government found that hippies and so-called rebels without a cause held attitudes that threatened the corporative PRI system, a situation that led to the identification of youths as a problem requiring government intervention. The defence of morality and the preservation of national values signalled the deviant nature of youth, and legitimated repressive policies against this emerging social group. This article explores how the Cine Mundial newsreel promoted the condemnation of rebellious youths and outlined the profile of a desirable model of youth in alignment with the country’s developmentalist policy. Finally, the scope and limitations of the media and newsreels are analysed.

A Polanyian Rescue of The Abolition of Man

The Abolition of Man, though short in length and casual in tone, is among the most important books of the twentieth century. The reason it possesses such significance is that it reveals through penetrating analysis the contemporary sceptical assault on the very possibility of rational morality and, indeed, on the very meaning of human life. In meeting and overcoming this assault, Lewis embraces the concept of objective value. But this concept is itself under attack in modernity, most notably in Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil. There is, however, an effective response to this withering onslaught. It is found in Michael Polanyi's ‘fiduciary’ philosophy. This study shows how Polanyi's account of justification inoculates Lewis' objective value against Nietzsche's virulent attack, thereby preserving the defence of meaning and morality that constitutes the essential contribution of The Abolition of Man.

Religious Patterns of Neoconservatism in Latin America

During the last four decades, Latin America has witnessed the political strengthening of collective actors with conflicting agendas: feminist and LGBTQ+ movements on one side, and Catholic and Pentecostal Evangelical sectors on the other. While the first two movements focus on gender equality and the extension of sexual and reproductive rights, the Pentecostal and Catholic sectors have also adopted a political identity, but with an agenda prioritizing the defense of religious freedom and Christian sexual morality. Far from being a holdover from the past, the political strategies employed by these religious sectors continue to affect public debate across much of Latin America today.

Free to Choose: A Moral Defense of the Right-to-Try Movement.

The claim that individuals legitimately differ with respect to their values seems to be uncontroversial among bioethicists, yet many bioethicists nevertheless oppose right-to-try laws. This seems to be due in part to a failure to recognize that such laws are intended primarily to be political, not legal, instruments. The right-to-try movement seeks to build political support for increasing access to newly developed drugs outside of clinical trials. Opponents of right-to-try laws claim that increasing access outside of clinical trials would undermine evidence-based medicine. They seek to maximize overall gains to patients by protecting them from adverse drug reactions and ensuring that drugs are more effective on average. In contrast, right-to-try activists have a point that regulatory judgments of drug safety and effectiveness impose one set of trade-offs on all individuals, regardless of their different values. That might be acceptable if determinations of safety and effectiveness were black and white, but that does not seem to be the case. This article argues that judgments of safety and effectiveness are in an important respect normative and reflect the perceived value of those ends relative to others. Such judgments, when universally imposed, harm patients who would readily make do with less knowledge of drug safety and effectiveness in exchange for more time and self-determination. The relevant moral principle is that of respect for individual autonomy. Just as that principle should lead one to substitute collective decisions for individual ones to regulate a natural monopoly, the same principle should lead one to substitute individual decisions for collective ones to avoid a government monopoly on access to newly developed drugs. It is argued that reforms should increase the number of treatment options available to patients outside of clinical trials. The final section of the article discusses ways in which current regulations might be reformed so as to provide more treatment options outside of clinical trials, without undermining evidence-based medicine.

Inventor's Moral Right and the Morality of Patents

Do inventors have moral rights and does morality matter in patent law? Whilst morality provides a normative justification for property as a right having an erga omnes effect, moral rights of the property owner does not exist a priori. In contrast as property right imposes a duty of abstention, morality may justify such duty. As a specie of property right, intellectual property necessarily includes a dimension of morality implied as restriction. Moreover, as intellectual property includes inalienable, personal mental inputs of the creator and inventors into the abstract objects, moral interests of the creators and inventor also justifies the exclusive right. Despite the foundational significance, the moral interests of an inventor based on patent law is scarcely debated. In contrast to perennial discussion on the morality’s restriction of the patent grants and exercise of patent rights, the perception of patent as a moral right is not widely accepted, nor the expression, ‘moral right’ is found in positive patent law. The absence of academic discussion of moral right for inventors begs the question if morality means and should mean different value in patents than copyright, and if indeed there is no ‘moral interests’ that are protected or should be protected for inventors. The chapter aims to answer this by first conceptualizing morality generally in patent law, and then identify areas where it may be expressed as a right in the European Patent Convention (EPC). Finally, the paper explores one concrete aspect in the positive patent law where the moral interest of an inventor is indeed protected. Using the controversial decision on Broad Institute’s European patent application based on gene-editing invention, CRIPSR, as a case study, this paper illustrates how moral right of an inventor exists and how it may be used as a positive right, which may control the use of the invention, although limited in its scope. As the current right is limited in scope, a cautious normative claim calling for extending a moral right based defence to the inventor is made, as it would imbue fairness into the discussion patent law and ameliorate individual inventor’s position in an increasingly corporate owner-centric patent system.

Pastoral Banking Practice – A Christian-ethical and pastoral perspective on financing, credit and moneylending

Financing of human activity through borrowing from third parties is widespread in the Western world. Such financing may give rise to several questions of moral and ethical character. The ethical underpinnings of such banking activity are somewhat unclear and not uniform among the involved actors. Christian thinkers have been divided as to what moral norms should apply and, traditionally, the matter has been discussed mostly in connection with the level of interest charged by the lender to the borrower. In this article, banking is illuminated from different angles, including questions regarding the moral defensibility of lending and borrowing, the taking and posting of collateral, third party guarantees and the level of interest that may be charged. A new banking system is proposed, whereby banking is given a constructive and participatory societal place in concert with sound Christian-ethical and pastoral principles. This new banking paradigm is named Pastoral Banking Practice (PBP) to emphasise its Christian-ethical and pastoral foundations.

Jonson’s Poetaster and the Politics of Defamation

This essay argues that Jonson’s late Elizabethan comedy Poetaster explores in highly complex ways the role of defamatory accusations in the operation of state power, the defense of public morality, and the status of poetry as a form of moral discourse. It does this through two plot-lines, one consisting of efforts by the informer Asinius Lupus to ingratiate himself with the Emperor Augustus by accusing the poets Ovid and Vergil of sedition; the other involving conflicts between Horace, who represents Jonson himself, and other characters who complain against his satires as seditious libels. Lupus’ successful accusation against Ovid raises difficult issues about whether a ruler committed to restoring public morality can tolerate erotic poetry and playfully scandalous erotic behavior within his own family and household. Close reading suggests that Jonson regarded eroticism as less dangerous than the jealous repression of libidinous instincts, but he provides enough outwardly plausible support for the case against Ovid to challenge thought. In the play Horace successfully defends himself by claiming that his satire attacks vices rather than individuals and that his accusers have defamed him by claiming otherwise. But this position is coyly undermined by the fact that two of those accusers are thinly veiled caricatures of Jonson’s rival poets Thomas Dekker and John Marston, who are subjected to ritual humiliation at the play’s conclusion. By engaging in defamation even while pretending to repudiate it, Jonson implied that despite their potential for misuse, libelous attacks on individuals remained a necessary weapon of the satiric poet. [R.M.S.]

Know When to Fold 'Em: The International Effects of Murphy v. NCAA and Why Antigua Holds the Cards

“Americans have never been one mind about gambling.” However, the country’s past demonstrates a long history of discomfort with the concept of betting, especially within the domain of sports. Accordingly, the United States has integrated such concerns into the country’s legal scheme, both nationally and at the state level. Recently, however, the gambling landscape within the United States has evolved. With the advancement of gambling platforms, popularity of sports, ascension of fantasy leagues, and a recent ruling by the Supreme Court, sports gambling has largely become integrated within the country’s recreational culture. However, the effects of such a cultural lifestyle innovation are much broader in scope. The much discussed case of Murphy v. NCAA has obvious implications for domestic providers of sports gambling within states that legalize the activity. However, the international consequences of the decision have largely been ignored. In a 2003 World Trade Organization dispute, various international sovereigns complained that the lack of access to the United States’ gambling market constituted a stark violation of world trade obligations. The United States claimed morality as a defense and argued that the country’s general sentiment for gambling constituted a legitimate excuse for limiting market access. The United States won this battle, but lost the war on other grounds and has been subject to an annual judgment in favor of the claimants – an obligation with which the United State has refused to comply. Notwithstanding this aftermath, a changing of the tide within the country on the issue of gambling produces an important consideration. While a defense of public morality was a compelling argument at the time it was invoked, does this contention have any legitimacy in the United States of today? This Article argues that the United States should acknowledge its internal cultural evolution and accept its own transformation. On an international scale, this means taking action to prevent trade disputes from re-emerging. The country must look to its past without hesitation and employ the Gambler’s Fallacy. Nearly two decades have passed since the United States has justified its international policy on gambling by pointing to public morality. Yet, this span of time without international intervention should be scrutinized by the United States with the “maturity of chances” to become wary that tranquility is near its end. Accordingly, the Article takes a proactive approach to international relations and politics in the trading of gambling services.

The Animal Ethics of Temple Grandin: A Protectionist Analysis

This article brings animal protection theory to bear on Temple Grandin’s work, in her capacity both as a designer of slaughter facilities and as an advocate for omnivorism. Animal protection is a better term for what is often termed animal rights, given that many of the theories grouped under the animal rights label do not extend the concept of rights to animals. I outline the nature of Grandin’s system of humane slaughter as it pertains to cattle. I then outline four arguments Grandin has made defending meat-eating. On a protection-based approach, I argue, Grandin’s system of slaughter is superior to its traditional counterpart. Grandin’s success as a designer of humane slaughterhouses however is not matched by any corresponding success in offering a moral defence of meat-eating. Despite, or perhaps because of, the popularity of her work, Grandin’s arguments for continuing to eat animals are noteworthy only in how disappointing and rudimentary they are. If we can thank Grandin for making a difference in the lives of millions of farm animals, her work can also be criticized for not engaging the moral status of animals with the depth and rigor that it deserves.

Beyond Persecution: A Moral Defence of Expanding Refugee Status

Beyond Persecution: A Moral Defence of Expanding Refugee Status

A Moral Defense of Trophy Hunting

ABSTRACTThis paper defends the morality of hunting for sport, also known as recreational or trophy hunting. Using an argument from analogy, I argue that there is no morally relevant difference between trophy hunting and another activity that most of us regard as uncontroversial. Since the latter is morally permissible, so is trophy hunting. Several disanalogies are examined and found irrelevant.

Genesis of a dissociative child: how ‘I’ can become ‘us’ and back again*

ABSTRACTThis paper traces the aetiology of a dissociative identity disorder in a 15-year-old young woman who attended weekly psychoanalytic psychotherapy at a UK Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) clinic following the discovery of the potentially dangerous ‘second life’ of an alternative personality of which she was largely unaware. The internal impacts of parental dysfunction, sexual trauma and geographical dislocation are examined through the lenses of attachment theory and neuroscience to illustrate how her dissociative disorder was forged in the crucible of a series of unfortunate circumstances and events. Established theories are interwoven into the account, including Putnam’s non-linear shifts between infantile behavioural states, Liotti’s delineation of the tension between opposing inborn motivational systems and Stern’s highlighting of unformulated experience. The material is also viewed from the psychoanalytic perspectives of Fairbairn’s concept of the moral defence, Rosenfeld’s description of the pathological organisation and Michael Sinason’s technique of addressing the destructive internal cohabitee. Details of the internal dynamics between self states and the particular resolution found by this young person are described together with a brief exploration of additional therapeutic approaches with dissociative children: invitational inclusionism, reframing, narrative psychoeducation.

Political participation as self-cultivation: Towards a participatory theory of Confucian democracy

Challenging the popular perception that Confucianism provides mostly a moral defense of political hierarchy, this article demonstrates that Confucianism is more than compatible with democracy and fundamentally contradicts political hierarchy, be it autocracy or meritocracy. Drawing on Zhu Xi (1130–1200 CE), the spokesperson for the state orthodoxy in late imperial China and one of the towering figures in the Confucian tradition, I argue that to realize the Confucian self-cultivation program for all requires popular participation in politics beyond casting ballots. My argument builds on Zhu Xi’s moral egalitarianism that all human beings can pursue sagehood by self-cultivation and should be given the equal opportunity to do so. Since Zhu Xi’s self-cultivation program requires acquiring and perfecting political knowledge in political practice, to realize his moral egalitarianism requires political equality for all. As such, my participatory theory of Confucian democracy exhorts all people to engage in self-governance and daily administration of the state more proactively. Thus, it enriches the prevalent liberal theory of Confucian democracy that focuses on political representation but not on popular participation in politics.

The Case for Markets in Citizenship

AbstractA number of countries sell citizenship rights to foreign buyers. Gary Becker makes an economic case for the state's sale of citizenship; more recently, Javier Hidalgo has offered a moral defence. However, the private sale of citizenship on a market remains largely unexplored and undefended. This article argues that under certain conditions states ought to permit their citizens to swap citizenship rights with foreigners in exchange for payment. I begin by offering two defeasible reasons to legalize citizenship markets: they would enable mutually beneficial exchange and increase the labour market opportunities of the global poor. I consider a number of counterarguments and conclude that none are dispositive, leaving the case for citizenship markets undefeated.

We Are Not the Center of the Universe: The Role of Astronomy in the Moral Defense of Commerce in Adam Smith

Adam Smith's account of commercial societies as societies of strangers may be read as a moral defense of commercial societies. A society of strangers can be a fostering environment for moral development. Smith's account of moral development echoes his contemporaries' accounts of the move from geocentric to heliocentric understandings of the solar system. If we imagine ourselves at a distance from our own position, we humble the arrogance of our self-love as we realize we are not the center of the universe. In The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith describes the realization that we are not the center of the moral universe. In contemporary presentations and popularizations of astronomical theories the realization is that literally we, on Earth, are not the center of the physical universe. Adam Smith's theory of moral development, and therefore his moral defense of commercial societies, seems indebted to astronomical theories in general, rather than just to Newton, as it is commonly assumed.

Two (Weak) Cheers for Markets in Votes

This paper offers the first moral defense of markets in votes in a democratic electoral system based on majority rule where there are no moral restrictions on how votes can be cast. In Part 1 I outline the type of vote buying that I defend in this paper, and defend my methodological assumption. In Part 2 I criticize Freiman’s arguments for legalizing vote buying (arguments that do not address its morality). In Part 3 I outline and reply to some responses that could be made to my criticisms of Freiman’s arguments. In Part 4 I draw from the flaws in Freiman’s arguments to argue that vote buying is morally permissible and defend these arguments against objections.

To what lengths the ‘Physical and Moral Defence of the Record’ in times of conflict and exigency?

Hilary Jenkinson, Ernst Posner and other archivists in Europe and the US played key and often parallel roles on different sides in the identification and strategic securing of records in Europe during the Second World War. This paper is concerned with the various ways in which archivists, in times of conflict and other exigencies, view and act upon their responsibility to the ‘physical and moral defence of the record.’ Drawing from the author’s ethnographic research, it first briefly reflects on the personal positioning and professional agency of archivists during the Yugoslav Wars and amid today’s continuing ethnic and nationalist politics. It then uses archival sources to examine how these Second World War archivists positioned themselves with regard to their physical and moral obligations to the records, the call of their nations, and their personal circumstances and politics. Finally, it contemplates how these historical examples might help the field to prepare archivists for the realities of acting and advocating on behalf of records, archives and their constituents in situations of conflict and exigency around the globe.

Is Capitalist Utopia Noncompetitive? Jason Brennan’s Why Not Capitalism?

Abstract Jason Brennan’s Why Not Capitalism? provides a direct response to G.A. Cohen’s moral defence of the value of socialism, arguing that, even under the utopian conditions Cohen specifies, capitalism would be recognized as the most attractive form of social organization. Yet, in one respect, Brennan’s account of utopia seems oddly out of keeping with the capitalist system it is taken to represent: the freedom of the characters within it seems almost totally untouched by the pressure of competitive market forces. I argue that this absence cannot be explained simply by an appeal to the positive intentions of utopian individuals as, even with such motivations in place, competition would still be unavoidable. This means that, even if we agree with Brennan that people would want a utopia in which they had the greatest possible scope to pursue their own personal plans, they may still have good reason to reject his capitalist ideal in favour of a system that would secure for them fair terms on which to compete.

”Ser ni att det är någon som är ledsen här nu?”

This study focuses on moral work-in-interaction between teachers and children during a circle time episode, focusing on a moral problem related to the children's peer play activities. The data are drawn from ethnographic research combined with video-recordings of routine activities in a Swedish preschool. Using an ethnomethodological conversation analytical approach examining talk-in-interaction in its’ sequential and social context. In the particular case the moral problem concerns a girl’s emotional reactions (i.e. being sad) from being excluded from peer play. The particular problem is dealt with by the teachers through a) holding other children publically accountable and b) making them share the girl’s negative feelings through the telling of hypothetical scenarios. At the same time, the children navigate from a subordinate position and can be seen as doing different forms of moral defense work. In so doing they manifest their own moral agenda, which is different from the teachers’ or the institutional agenda. Thus, the interactional moral work in the circle time episode can be described as an encounter between two worlds or orders. On the one side an institutional order, represented by the teachers, morally fostering children, and on the other side the children´s peer culture, where children learn to use different strategies to handle the moral work of the preschool teachers.

Ethics of trial drug use: to give or not to give?

The 2014 outbreak of Ebola viral disease in some West African countries, which later spread to the USA and Spain, has continued to be a subject of global public health debate. While there is no approved vaccine or drug for Ebola cure yet, moral questions of bioethical significance are emerging even as vaccine studies are at different clinical trial phases. This paper, through a normative and critical approach, focuses on the question of whether it is ethical to give any experimental drugs to Ebola victims in West Africa or not. Given the global panic and deadly contagious nature of Ebola, this paper argues on three major compassionate grounds that it is ethical to use experimental drugs on the dying African victims of Ebola. Besides respecting patients and family consent in the intervention process, this paper argues that the use of Ebola trial drugs on West African population will be ethical if it promotes the common good, and does not violate the fundamental principles of transparency and integrity in human research ethics. Using Kantian ethical framework of universality as a basis for moral defense of allowing access to yet approved drugs. This paper provides argument to strengthen the compassionate ground provisional recommendation of the WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) on Ebola vaccines and vaccination.