Moral Desirability Research Articles

Ectogenesis and gender inequality: Two pathways converge.

Debate on whether ectogenesis is a morally desirable solution to gender inequality often starts by analyzing whether gender inequality has been caused by (i) reproductive differences between the sexes or (ii) social structures. I term these two sides the biological model and the social model. Without taking either side, this article contends that both models provide a fragile foundation for assessing the moral desirability of ectogenesis. I draw on Ronald Dworkin's luck egalitarian theory and Ron Amundson's perspective to demonstrate that both models are inherently interactionist and share the view that society's inadequate response to female reproductive traits is crucial in gender oppression. Actions on either biological or social factors are prima facie valid. Meanwhile, neither model can conclusively determine whether ectogenesis is morally desirable.

Accepting Solar Photovoltaic Panels in Rural Landscapes: The Tangle among Nostalgia, Morality, and Economic Stakes

In the context of climate change and rural revitalization, numerous solar photovoltaic (PV) panels are being installed on village roofs and lands, impacting the enjoyment of the new rural landscape characterized by PV panels. However, the visual acceptance of PV panels in rural areas of China is not yet fully understood. This study aims to identify and correlate three key influential factors that contribute to the acceptance and appreciation of PV panels in China’s rural settings. A quasi-experiment was conducted, incorporating diverse landscapes into six rural settings, each containing both the original landscape and PV panels. The findings demonstrated that the original rural landscape was significantly more scenic than PV panels, and factors contributing to the appreciation of traditional landscapes, such as nostalgia, played a vital role in rejecting PV panels. Conversely, renewable energy-related factors, such as economic stakes and moral desirability, were found to contribute to the acceptance of PV panels. This study contributes to the strategic planning and design of solar PV panels in rural landscapes, taking into consideration social acceptance and local contexts.

Exploring Australian dietitians' experiences and preparedness for working in residential aged care facilities.

Dietitians are increasingly working in residential aged care facilities (RACF). As such, supportingthe RACF dietetic workforce is imperative. This qualitative study explored dietitians' experiences and preparedness for working in RACFs. A qualitative descriptive approach from a non-singular reality relational position was used. Recruitment occurred through convenience and snowball sampling, including contacting a list of dietitians who had previously consented to be contacted for research. The interviews included a semi-structured approach. Data were analysed using constant comparison and reflexive thematic analysis. Thirty-one dietitians (n = 29 female; median age, 39 years) with a range of career experience participated in an interview. Interviews ranged from 25 to 68 min (mean duration, 41 min). Five themes and 14 subthemes were identified. Themes were: (1) joining the aged care workforce was not initially considered a career option, (2) difficulty sustaining satisfaction working in aged care, (3) navigating practical challenges working with residents while prioritising quality care, (4) poor acknowledgement of the dietitian role by staff and (5) grappling with a moral desire to improve the aged care sector. Dietitians face many challenges in fulfilling their role in RACFs, including RACF staff's poor understanding of dietitians' scope and a lack of procedural support for their daily activities. Dietitians report that genuine improvements in their job satisfaction and experiences of older adultsrequire structural reform within the government, beyond their locus of control.

Gender equitable attitudes as a significant mediator of bystander intentions among sexual minority adolescents.

Gender equitable attitudes as a significant mediator of bystander intentions among sexual minority adolescents.

Education and Intergenerational Mobility

A liberal democratic system should ensure intergenerational upwards class mobility. In a rigid class society, the class structure of the society will reproduce itself from generation to generation. Ever since the beginning of the first industrial revolution, questions have arisen about the efficacy, sustainability and moral desirability of such system. One extreme rigid form of such a society is the class and caste system prevalent in India for centuries. However, in the modern times, such systems obstruct rapid development of the society as also of the elites. Rapid economic development requires that opportunities for mobility be available to all segments of the society and education is that one tool through which this can be achieved. The contribution of education in intergenerational class mobility is examined in this paper

Consent and mutuality in sex education

Abstract Sharon Lamb, Sam Gable and Doret de Ruyter have recently argued that sex education in schools should promote a more demanding standard for morally permissible sex than consent. On their view, pupils should be taught that morally permissible sex is not only consensual but also mutual, where mutuality requires participants in sex to ‘try to know what is knowable’ about each other. I argue here that, while Lamb et al. are right about the insufficiency of consent, the case for mutuality as a standard of moral permissibility cannot be sustained. Mutuality fares better as a standard of moral desirability, but even in this weaker form, it is too controversial to promote in schools.

Visual evaluations of wind turbines: Judgments of scenic beauty or of moral desirability?

Visual evaluations of wind turbines: Judgments of scenic beauty or of moral desirability?

When it's not easy to do the right thing: Developmental changes in understanding cost drive evaluations of moral praiseworthiness.

Recent work identified a shift in judgments of moral praiseworthiness that occurs late in development: adults recognize the virtue of moral actions that involve resolving an inner conflict between moral desires and selfish desires. Children, in contrast, praise agents who do the right thing in the absence of inner conflict. This finding stands in contrast with other work showing that children incorporate notions of cost and effort into their social reasoning. Using a modified version of Starmans and Bloom's (2016) vignettes, we show that understanding the virtue of costly moral action precedes understanding the virtue of resolving inner conflict. In two studies (N=192 children, range=4.00-9.95 years; and N=193 adults), we contrasted a character who paid a personal cost (psychological in Study 1, physical in Study 2) to perform a moral action with another who acted morally without paying a cost. We found a developmental progression; 8- and 9-year-old children and adults recognized the praiseworthiness of moral actions that are psychologically or physically costly. Six- and 7-year-old children only recognized the praiseworthiness of moral actions that are physically costly, but not actions that are psychologically costly. Moreover, neither adults nor children inferred that paying a cost to act morally required having a moral desire or resolving inner conflict. These results suggest that both adults and children conceptualize obligation as a direct motivational force on actions. They further suggest that costly choice-a hallmark of moral agency-is implicated in judgments of praiseworthiness early in development.

Halted narratives: The combative futurity of Sahrawi female militant’s public memory

ABSTRACT Since 1976, the Sahrawi national liberation movement known as the Polisario Front anticipates state sovereignty in Western Sahara by organizing into the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in Southern Algeria. Drawing on excerpts from the life-histories of six Sahrawi women who contributed to build the SADR’s early social and physical infrastructures, this paper presents practices of public remembrance as coextensive to a history-making labour of social regeneration that seeks international recognition for the Sahrawi nation, as well as to pass on nationalist moral values and political desire across time. The life-worlds of the Sahrawi generation these six women belong to have undergone considerable structural changes brought about by Spanish colonialism, the emergence of the Polisario Front in the 1970s, war, forced displacement, and a 1991 UN mediated ceasefire. Highlighting the on-going vitality of anticolonial nationalisms, this paper offers an account of how elderly Sahrawi female militants seek to socially regenerate the project of a Sahrawi revolutionary nationalism through their production of history.

Expressivism, Inferentialism and the Simulation Game

Expressivism, Inferentialism and the Simulation Game

Presentism and the Pain of the Past: A Reply to Orilia

In a series of recent papers Francesco Orilia has presented an argument for the moral desirability of presentism. It goes, in brief, as follows: since the existence of painful events is morally undesirable, presentism, which denies that past painful events (tenselessly) exist, is morally more desirable than non-presentism, which instead affirms that past painful events (tenselessly) exist. An objection against this argument, which has already been taken into consideration by Orilia, is the ugly history objection or radical objection: what really matters in the moral appraisal of a world is the history of it, and since the presentist and the non-presentist versions of our world share the same ugly history, they are morally on a par. This paper aims at corroborating this objection and defending it from Orilia’s criticisms. This will be done by bringing into play various thought experiments and a distinction between relevance (of an event or a fact about the occurrence of an event) to the moral evaluation of a world and moral (and psychological) involvement (in an event or in a fact about the occurrence of an event).

Why shouldn’t we cut the human-biosphere umbilical cord?

Why shouldn’t we cut the human-biosphere umbilical cord?

Why Do We Run Basic Income Experiments? From Empirical Evidence to Collective Debate

Abstract There are two major possible responses to the question: what (if anything) can justify a basic income experiment? An experiment might be justified either because it gathers positive empirical evidence supporting rolling out a basic income, or because it justifies the moral desirability of such a measure. This paper critically explores both responses, the “empirical” and “ethical claim” in light of the Barcelona B-MINCOME pilot, alongside other similar experiments. We sustained that although the empirical claim is necessary, there seems to be sufficient data to easily predict that all future experiments are to gather positive results too. Consequently, we argue that experiments are particularly well-equipped to foster debates on the work ethics and on the ethical dimension of social policies and welfare regimes in general.

Losing More than Money: Organizations’ Prosocial Actions Appear Less Authentic When Their Resources are Declining

Companies often benefit from others’ attributions of moral conviction for prosocial behavior, for example, attributions that a company has a sincere moral desire to improve the environment when behaving sustainably. Across four studies, we explored how organizations’ changing resource positions influenced people’s attributions for the motivations underlying prosocial organizational behaviors. Observers attributed less moral conviction following prosocial behavior when they believed an organization was losing (vs. gaining) economic resources (Studies 1 and 2). This effect was primarily a “penalty” assessed against organizations that were losing resources, as opposed to a “reward” given to organizations gaining resources (Study 3). Finally, we found that this effect occurred because people perceive organizations that are losing resources as more situationally constrained, leading them to attribute less dispositional moral conviction (Study 4). We discuss theoretical and practical implications stemming from how changes in resource access can lead people to be more skeptical of organizations’ motivations following prosocial behavior.

Identity Management Systems: Singular Identities and Multiple Moral Issues

The paper looks into some of the competing normative claims surrounding the development of Identity Management systems in general and Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) systems in particular. It is argued that SSI developments should be assessed against the backdrop of IMs attempting to implement a global identity layer based on aggregated singular identities and reputation scores. It is also argued that this trend defines key ethical issues pertaining to the development of SSI systems. In order to explicate and evaluate these issues, the paper looks at the desirability of singular aggregated identities through the lens of moral-philosophical theories. It is argued that such an analysis strongly suggests moral desirability of a plural identities approach in SSIs that have built-in advantage for the implementation of practical separation of identities.

Портретный рисунок Великой Отечественной войны. Документально-художественные свидетельства очевидцев

The article highlights the need to create a portrait drawing in frontline conditions. One of the important factors is the creation of portrait images, posters, aimed at the propaganda of military activities in the Red Army. In addition, the artists were fully interested in creating sketches for paintings, portraits, diary entries reflecting reality not only for agitation, but also for the creation of creative works that contain their own view of the working days of the frontline soldiers. The analysis of the paintings shows how similar and at the same time different the portraits are. To a large extent, the differences are due to the place of battles, their complexity and the circumstances in which the portrait drawings were created. The images of people were united by moral and volitional desire for victory, the imprint of fatigue on the face, the experience of relatives and friends who became close in battle. One of the important aspects for understanding the portrait image is the conditions for creating a picture - it is a portrait after the battle with combat weapons, wounded in hospital, at a concert, in the working environment of the headquarters, writing a letter in a trench. The models for portraits were as a rule people close to the artists and who belonged to the combat unit where they served.

The motivation as the main way to increase the efficiency of public servants (sociological analysis)

The article is devoted to the study of the motivation of the civil servants and local government officials’work. The concept of the motivation was revealed. The elements of moral and psychological methods ofthe motivation were analyzed. The importance of material and immaterial stimulation in public service wasexplained. The main motives and peculiarities of stimulation of a public servant in the modern conditionsof public service development in Ukraine were studied on the basis of empirical data. In particular, ithas been found out that the main motive for joining the public service is a stable salary and the desire ofpublic servants to work for the benefit of the state and society. So, mercantile aspirations in financial termsdominate - stable payment for work, as well as patriotic, valuable, moral and ethical desire to work forthe benefit of the state are in the minds of the citizens. The results of the study show that the prestige ofpublic service remains quite low. The main problems which negatively influence the image of the publicservice and make it unattractive to the public are high staff turnover, incomplete implementation of socialguarantees, poor financial support, and partial satisfaction of the basic needs of public servants, whichreduce the effectiveness of public administration in Ukraine.It is determined that the main way to increase the efficiency of public servants and in general publicadministration is to develop effective methods of the motivation and the stimulation, both economic andnon-economic. It was proven, that effective motivation in the public service depends to a large extent notonly on its filling of highly qualified personnel and efficiency, but also on trust and respect of the population.

Drones in humanitarian contexts, robot ethics, and the human\u2013robot interaction

There are two dominant trends in the humanitarian care of 2019: the ‘technologizing of care’ and the centrality of the humanitarian principles. The concern, however, is that these two trends may conflict with one another. Faced with the growing use of drones in the humanitarian space there is need for ethical reflection to understand if this technology undermines humanitarian care. In the humanitarian space, few agree over the value of drone deployment; one school of thought believes drones can provide a utility serving those in need while another believes the large scale deployment of drones will exacerbate the already prevalent issues facing humanitarian aid providers. We suggest in this paper that the strength of the humanitarian principles approach to answer questions of aid provision can be complimented by a technology-facing approach, namely that of robot ethics. We have shown that for humanitarian actors we ought to be concerned with the risks of a loss of contextualization and de-skilling. For the beneficiary, we raise three concerns associated with the threat to the principle of humanity for this group: a loss of dignity by reducing human-to-human interactions; a threat to dignity through a lack of informational transparency; and, a threat to dignity by failing to account for the physiological and behavioral impacts of the drone on human actors. Although we acknowledge the obstacles (and dangers) associated with understanding the physiological and behavioral impacts we insist that the moral acceptability and desirability of drones in humanitarian contexts is dependent on the findings from such studies and that tailored ethical guidelines for drone deployment in humanitarian action be created to reflect the results of such studies.

Altruism and Desert

AbstractSuppose that virtue is intrinsically morally good, and that we have a pro tanto moral reason to act in ways which promote it. Further suppose that the failure of agents to receive what they deserve is intrinsically morally bad, and that we have a pro tanto moral reason not to act in ways which frustrate desert. When we are deciding whether to encourage others to make altruistic sacrifices, these two pro tanto moral reasons come into conflict. To encourage such sacrifices promotes virtue; it also causes virtuous agents to be worse off, preventing them from receiving their deserts. I argue that these effects on desert can reduce the moral desirability of promoting altruism so significantly as to make it morally wrong. This has implications for public policy, since certain practical questions turn on the extent to which we ought to rely on altruism as a means of solving social problems.

What Justifies Judgments of Inauthenticity?

The notion of authenticity, i.e., being “genuine,” “real,” or “true to oneself,” is sometimes held as critical to a person’s autonomy, so that inauthenticity prevents the person from making autonomous decisions or leading an autonomous life. It has been pointed out that authenticity is difficult to observe in others. Therefore, judgments of inauthenticity have been found inadequate to underpin paternalistic interventions, among other things. This article delineates what justifies judgments of inauthenticity. It is argued that for persons who wish to live according to the prevailing social and moral standards and desires that are seriously undesirable according to those standards, it is justified to judge that a desire is inauthentic to the extent that it is due to causal factors that are alien to the person and to the extent that it deviates from the person’s practical identity. The article contributes to a tradition of thinking about authenticity which is known mainly from Frankfurt and Dworkin, and bridges the gap between theoretical ideals of authenticity and real authenticity-related problems in practical biomedical settings.