Moral Imperialism Research Articles

Double standard in clinical research

In the development of clinical research, the social conditions of the societies involved must be taken into account, such as vulnerability and social vulnerability. The contexts of conflicts of interest, whether economic or academic, must also be considered. Another highlight is related to the so-called moral imperialism, a condition in which societies impose their moral standards on others, not considering cultural differences, geographical conditions and social development. Thus, the “double ethical standard” in research imposes a form of imperialism of principles, values, moral relativism and na exclusively economic vision above all. The principles of ethics in biomedical research promulgated by international consensus statements are not sufficient to protect the most vulnerable societies, especially the poorest countries. The ethical principles that govern clinical research need to be translated into procedures and practices that take into account the different cultural aspects and socioeconomic resources of societies. Research participants cannot just bear the risks and not reap the benefits. There are arguments that propose the double standard as a violation of human rights, especially for not taking into account the principles of the Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights of UNESCO, approved by consensus by the countries in 2005. The existence of a “strong” system ethical evaluation of research projects, with social participation, especially in local ethics committees in the most vulnerable societies, is a minimum condition for the protection of people and societies.

Imaginary Conversations: Weiskel Versus Coleridge


 
 
 
 From Robert Southey's prima facie mockery of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798, expanded 1834, also alternatively spelt The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere) in the October 1798 issue of the Critical Review, to John T. Netland transfixing the religious sublime on the poem, the Coleridgean Sublime, vis-à-vis his arguably classic piece, has walked a perilous way.Whether Southey contests (not unreasonably) the arcane elevation of a poetical theme Germanized by an inwoven philosophical texture, or Netland hinting at the antithetical, if not antinomial (I use it in the sense of unresolved) tension between the supernaturally acquired Sublime (hence heathenic, taking its deus ex machina into consideration) and its counterpart, the residual sublimity accessed, or rendered accessible after the spoils of civilization, it remains clear, adequately enough, that The Rime's erhabene traverses sublimes, or sublimities, instead of being cooped up within one. This assertion, as it now stands, receives its necessary share of emphasis from Thomas Weiskel who, in Chapter Four ('The Logic of Terror') of The Romantic Sublime (1976), contends with its broader argument, projecting Romantic Sublimity across genres of rhetoric, aesthetic and moral enhancement. I take my cue from Weiskel in this essay, expatiating through a Landoresque dialogue (if not a discourse), on how the Coleridgean Sublime, both consciously and unconsciously, walks its ideological path from Longinus to Kant, and why. I shall also contest how the “Logic” (I shall interchange it with limits, the reason being self- explanatory) of terror slowly winds its way from the terror of rhetorical annexation, to the terror of an infinite antithesis, culminating in the terror of moral imperialism, as opposed to superiority. Unless otherwise mentioned in-text, the 1798 edition of the Rime has been accepted as the standard text by the author, instead of the 1834 text.
 
 
 

Ethics form an Islamic Perspective

This essay titled ‘Ethics from Islamic Perspective’ includes morale and akhlaq. It intends to give awareness about the importance of ethics from an Islamic perspective. The essay is sufficient to give the reader a feel for its potential to encourage further research in the area of resolving ethical issues, specifically for those who are calling for universal ethical theories to avoid moral imperialism. The Islamic perspective of the ethical concept should be referred to based on the Holy Qur’an from the God and Ahadith of Prophet Muhammad. The ethical concept must be general and not too bias for others. The findings of this paper can be used as topics of discussion, it is because the Islamic Work Ethics has economic as well as moral/ akhlaq dimensions.

RETHINKING: PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATION OF HUMAN RIGHT

Human rights are grand political philosophy of the modern times which have transcended national boundaries to become aspiration of humankind. Centred upon moral belief propelled on metaphysical moral assumption with its origin in Christianity pity and Enlightment discourse, however, human rights have become a sort of moral imperialism of our time which exclude and include humanity on the basis of coloniality of power. The combination of emotional/moral appeal and lack of conceptual clarity makes human rights immensely effective as a rhetorical tool and serve as a moral apparatus for humanitarian intervention into the third world countries. Both, the just war tradition and those who theorize the ethics of the law of armed conflict have taken moral and political reality of human rights seriously. Taking anti-foundational approach by challenging its main elements such as ‘universality’ and ‘morality’ this paper would argue that moral premises of human rights is flawed.

Global bioethics and respect for cultural diversity: how do we avoid moral relativism and moral imperialism?

One of the major concerns of advocates of common morality is that respect for cultural diversity may result in moral relativism. On their part, proponents of culturally responsive bioethics are concerned that common morality may result in moral imperialism because of the asymmetry of power in the world. It is in this context that critics argue that global bioethics is impossible because of the difficulties to address these two theoretical concerns. In this paper, I argue that global bioethics is possible if we adopt a culturally responsive and self-critical attitude towards our moral values and those of others. I use the example of women's reproductive autonomy in indigenous African culture to show that the difference between the leading Euro-American and indigenous African construal of autonomy is that the former ascribes greater weight on individual self-determination while the latter emphasizes responsibilities towards the community. One develops dignity in virtue of their capacity for communing with others. Hence, women have rights, but as members of the community, they also have obligations including the duty to procreate. The involvement of the family in reproductive decisions does not contravene women's dignity and human rights. In applying the principle of autonomy in this communitarian context, one has to be sensitive to these ontological and moral specificities. The aim of global bioethics should not be to reach common grounds at all costs; any common norms should be the result of a negotiated democratic dialogue between cultures and not the result of imposition by the preponderant culture(s).

Is the European Union imperialist?

ABSTRACT A frequent argument of Eurosceptics is that the EU acts as an imperialist power towards its own member states. This argument has recently gained traction both in Hungary, where Prime Minister Orban complains of the EU’s moral and political imperialism, and also in the UK, where arguments that the EU intends to reduce post-Brexit UK to a ‘vassal state’ have motivated Eurosceptics to support a no-deal withdrawal. There remains an important paradox in the charge of European imperialism, however, because the EU is widely thought to lack much international power, at least in comparison to China and the United States. This essay explores the paradox of a political formation that is both vulnerable to the charge of being an imperialist, while no less vulnerable to being itself the victim of imperialism (or ‘vassalisation’).

COVID-19 and Moral Imperialism in Multinational Clinical Research

A TV debate in April 2020 between two French doctors regarding the benefits of testing a coronavirus vaccine in Africa where there are no masks or treatments available has led to international criticism. This case highlights a problematic ethical double standard in multinational clinical research: trials that would be considered unethical in high income countries (e.g., placebo-controlled where there is an existing treatment) are nonetheless justified in low-and-middle-income countries because the existing standards of care are less (i.e., no access to a treatment). Underlying this ethical double standard in some multinational clinical trials is a moral imperialism and persistent colonialist thinking that must be rejected.

The Fallacy of Analogy and the Risk of Moral Imperialism: Israeli Literature and the Palestinian Other

This article discusses the role of analogy within the ethics of reading. It examines how Israeli literature uses analogies when reflecting on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Many literary texts that depict the Israeli–Palestinian conflict draw analogies between the Israeli Jewish people and the Palestinians, between specific individuals on both sides, or between historical traumas. These analogies are designed to bridge gaps and encourage empathetic reading. This article challenges this role of analogy by arguing that analogies may in fact paint an erroneous picture of symmetrical relations, strengthen victimhood that denies responsibility, and can often lead to “empty empathy.” Analogies may also create a willfully deceptive understanding of the other, while actually maintaining a narcissistic superior stance. Based on philosophical notions put forward by Emmanuel Levinas, this article suggests a different path to ethical understanding in which the literary text, while still enabling analogy, uses other rhetorical devices to create relationships that suspend it and reveal its imposture.

Modernidade, Colonialidade e Imperialismo Moral: manutenção de status quo na relação entre países centrais e periféricos

Entre as relações desenvolvidas entre países encontramos parcerias, dominações, disputas de poder, sob o domínio do homem e de seus interesses. A Modernidade e seus reflexos impactam a relação entre países centrais e periféricos. Este texto se propõe a relacionar a Colonial-Modernidade e o Imperialismo Moral, este último como imperativo de manutenção de poder e influência. São referenciados trabalhos que caracterizam a Modernidade, o Colonialismo, a Colonialidade, bem como o Imperialismo Moral e os reflexos para a Bioética. Foi traçada uma relação entre estes conteúdos por meio da caracterização de ideias e reflexos na dinâmica dos contextos apresentados. A relação entre grupos, sociedades e países, a partir de interesses que podem estar para além da simples e pura manutenção de poder como forma de dominação, mas econômicos, culturais e de conhecimento, entre aqueles que acreditavam ser possuidores do status de racional em detrimento de outras racionalidades, ou seja, o não reconhecimento de um pluralismo.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Rights Lost in Translation?

Since 2003, the United Nations international human rights framework has moved notably toward increased international human rights recognition for sexual and gender minorities. Most recently, 2016 saw the adoption of an Independent Expert on violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Motivated by the nevertheless continued refusal by predominantly African and Middle Eastern countries to recognize any such human rights application, as well as postcolonial critiques of counterproductive moral imperialism and homonationalist strategies by proponent member States, this article asks how dynamics of member State disputes in the UN debates on SOGI-based rights may point to restraints and possibilities for achieving global human rights recognition for culturally diverse sexual and gender minorities. The article demonstrates how interand intradiscursive rules of formation in UN member State debates predicated on either universal or culturally relative readings of international human rights law reproduce normative polarization and obstruct national implementation of human rights protection for sexual and gender minorities. The article therefore finds universality truth claims to restrain transformative change, as well as represent a possibility for achieving human rights recognition through “perverse,” reiterations of the parameters of the universal, wielded from an open-ended multiplicity of sexual and gender minority expressions and articulations. A radical politics of top-down and bottom-up cultural translation is suggested as a possible strategy for human rights recognition for culturally diverse sexual and gender minorities.

War Crimes Trials in the Wake of Decolonization and Cold War in Asia, 1945–1956: Justice in Time of Turmoil ed. by Kerstin von Lingen

Reviewed by: War Crimes Trials in the Wake of Decolonization and Cold War in Asia, 1945–1956: Justice in Time of Turmoil ed. by Kerstin von Lingen Sarah Kovner War Crimes Trials in the Wake of Decolonization and Cold War in Asia, 1945–1956: Justice in Time of Turmoil. Edited by Kerstin von Lingen. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 290 pages. Hardcover, €90.94/$99.99. This volume, the product of a 2014 conference at Heidelberg University, seeks to explain the Allied military tribunals in Asia and the Pacific at the end of World War II. It is an ambitious undertaking, seeing as proceedings occurred in more than fifty locations from Rangoon to Rabaul and Khabarovsk to Kwajalein; some 5,700 Japanese men were prosecuted, and a few more than 900 were executed. The topic requires deep knowledge of local histories and facility in multiple languages, making it a near-perfect theme for an edited volume. In the introductory essay, Kerstin von Lingen and Robert Cribb place the trials in the context of three major historical phenomena of the twentieth century: the development of international humanitarian law, Cold War confrontation, and decolonization. They argue that the war crimes trials constituted a watershed moment. “Political and ideological considerations emanating from decolonization and the Cold War [End Page 131] shaped, and were shaped by, the structure and outcome of the trials as a new post-imperial world gradually began to emerge” (p. 3). The book adds to a reexamination that began with Yuma Totani’s The Tokyo War Crimes Trial (Harvard University Asia Center, 2009). Where Totani examines the better-known International Tribunal for the Far East, the volume under review focuses on the trials elsewhere in Asia and the Pacific. It is part of an emerging body of work, including Barak Kushner’s prizewinning Men to Devils, Devils to Men (Harvard University Press, 2015) and the definitive Japanese War Criminals by Sandra Wilson, Robert Cribb, Beatrice Trefalt, and Dean Aszkielowicz (Columbia University Press, 2017), that completely upends the way we think about these trials. As von Lingen and Cribb argue, the “trial process was driven above all by a determination to do justice, rather than out of overt political considerations” (p. 6). We can no longer dismiss the trials as mere “victor’s justice.” One important contribution of this volume is that it puts each trial in its regional and local context. Thus Wolfgang Form’s essay on the Philippines highlights its colonial relationship with the United States, and Cribb’s essay on Burma treats not only the specific context of the British in Southeast Asia but also local Burmese politics. The geographical reach of the collection is impressive: three essays deal with China, two with France and French Indochina, and one each with the Netherlands and the Netherlands East Indies, India, Burma, the Philippines, the Soviet Union, and Australia. The eleven contributions, which range from outstanding to very good, take up the main arguments of the introduction to varying extents. Questions addressed include extraterritoriality and its legacy, trial strategy by the French and Soviets, and the trials on the ground in Burma, the Philippines, Khabarovsk, and Indochina. In addition to the introduction, four essays are particularly notable for their highlighting of hitherto rarely discussed yet very important aspects of this history. Neil Boister takes up the opium question in chapter 2, pointing out that the Tokyo War Crimes trial was the first and possibly only international military tribunal “to take jurisdiction over the illicit traffic in drugs” (p. 25). He argues that in condemning Japanese policy on opium, the Tokyo Tribunal may have stopped one kind of imperial exploitation only to replace it with the moral imperialism of US prohibitionism. Whereas most people study the war crimes trials from the standpoint of political and legal history, Milinda Banerjee, the author of chapter 5, approaches the topic through intellectual history. His theoretically sophisticated and clearly written discussion examines why twentieth-century anticolonial actors retained “the framework of modern state sovereignty,” put in place by Europeans, despite its obvious “violence and exclusion” (p. 70). The remaining two chapters out of the four do a fine job of explaining how international and regional...

Mediated Compassion and the Politics of Displaced Bodies

In media's attempt to humanize the impact of war, dramatic images of disgruntled human bodies seeking refuge in faraway lands have become symbols of suffering and calls for humanitarian action. However, some media scholars are claiming that compassion fatigue is desensitizing media audiences to the human cost of war. This article argues that certain images resonate with greater signification that offers new ways of looking at compassion as a form of dialogue. The photo of Kim Phuc, the young Vietnamese girl burned by napalm on the fields of Vietnam stands out in our collective memory. There are many others but only a few attain such iconic status. And as war becomes more politically complex, so too are media?s role in portraying the suffering of children especially in the context of forced migration. The photographic image of the three-year old Syrian boy, Aylan Kurdi, washed ashore on a beach in Turkey and the many discourses it engendered represent a new mediated form of human suffering. As Barthes argued, there is a difference between a photograph that “shouts” and a photograph that “wounds”. The swift refugee policy changes expressed by some world leaders days after Aylan?s image came out in mass media is revealing on many levels. Drawing from online media coverage of this particular media event, this article argues that media's dialogic potential problematizes competing arguments between moral obligation and moral imperialism where culture and race are implicated in policy decisions on refugeehood and cultural integration.

Permitting Moral Imperialism? The Public Morals Exception to Free Trade at the Bar of the World Trade Organization

The objective of this article is to critically review the case law on public morals exception in the multilateral trading system and argue against the World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body’s exceedingly deferential approach to the meaning and identification of public morals in international trade disputes. Admittedly, the WTO Appellate Body’s judicial minimalism approach to trade dispute settlement has so far prevented it from making any broad claims about public morals exception. Nevertheless, I argue that the Appellate Body has already waded into treacherous waters. Going forward, the WTO Appellate Body must be cautious so as not to permit moral imperialism and put the delicately balanced multilateral trading system at grave risk. For this purpose, I propose a more nuanced approach to define public morals as well as manage its extraterritorial application in international trade law.

Violence, Moral Imperialism and Colonial Borderlands, 1770s–1820s: Some contradictions of humanitarianism

This article argues that the genealogy of a politics of non-violence might usefully consider the promotion of moral imperialism as a precursor that in turn highlights the structural difficulties of a truly non-violent humanitarianism. In the imperial case studies examined from colonial borderlands in the British empire from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, humanitarian intervention tended to be about working out how to manage violence, or the threat of violence, most appropriately. This in turn helps explain tight linkages between early nineteenth century philanthropy and colonialism, not least the transition from abolition to interventionist arguments. On colonial frontiers states were themselves violent, or at least always potentially violent. Therefore those who saw themselves as philanthropists or as humanitarian were often forced, sometimes reluctantly but more usually with conviction, into the position that empire should be made sufficiently moral to deserve a monopoly of violence. For Indigenous groups (and individuals) this often meant that they ultimately had to choose sides and thus a particular form of violence, rather than to escape from violence altogether. At the same time, international humanitarians, notably missionaries and abolitionists, often struggled with how overtly they should work within colonial structures and were often under pressure to serve as unofficial colonial bureaucracies. It is thus helpful to trouble somewhat the implicit paradigm of triangular relationships between individual agents of violence, individual victims of violence, and humanitarians who sought to protect the victims in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, even though there are important ways in which this was also true. Such “moral imperialism” not infrequently placed pressure on colonized men, in particular, to choose one form of violence over another, rather than to have the luxury of eschewing violence that was more readily available to the white humanitarian.

Leges Sine Moribus Vanae?: On the Relationship Between Social Morality and Law in the Field of Foreign Bribery

The relationship of social morals and laws becomes particularly crucial and problematic with regard to foreign bribery. This is because of three reasons: Foreign bribery is embedded in social actions, has a transnational character, and is mostly committed in business contexts. Therefore, the author reflects on the relationship of social morals and laws. The author argues that even though social morals and laws have to be distinguished on a conceptual level, it is wise to work towards a factual synchronicity. In this context, the author provides some suggestions for linking social morals and anti-bribery laws more closely. However, this linkage becomes especially problematic regarding extraterritorial criminal liability. Nevertheless, after a critical examination the author concludes that the reproach of moral imperialism is not substantial.

Decolonizing nursing ethics

Decolonizing nursing ethics

A Comment on the Public Morals Exception in International Trade and the EC - Seal Products Case: Moral Imperialism and Other Concerns

Public morality concerns are ripe for consideration in international trade disputes. The long-awaited WTO decisions in EC – Seal Products afforded the world's leading international trade arbiter the opportunity to consider, among other things, application of the public morals exception in GATT and the TBT Agreement to the EU's 2009 ban on the importation and marketing of seal products. While the EU's seal products ban was ultimately held to be discriminatory and thus did not meet the requirements of GATT Article XX's chapeau, the reasoning enunciated by the Appellate Body (and WTO Panel) would have allowed the ban as being justified under the right to protect public morals. That same reasoning, however, lacked a measured analysis weighing the competing moral considerations about animal (seal) welfare against protecting the traditional and cultural practices (seal hunting) of impacted indigenous communities with short shrift being paid to the indigenous community interests. In result, the WTO's most recent rulings on public morals effectively legitimizes the moral imperialism inherent in the EU's seal products ban.

Seeing through the secular illusion©

It is often said that we live in a ‘secular’ age and that the principles of ‘secularism’ lead to a ‘neutral’ public sphere. The central terms ‘secular’ and ‘secularism’ however, though they are often used are rarely examined. Related terms, relevant to their meaning, such as ‘faith’ and ‘belief’ are also seldom defined or compared alongside each other to evaluate how well they comply with principles of justice. In this paper, a development of others on similar themes, Professor Benson examines various definitions alongside contemporary topics and legal decisions to argue that an open public sphere requires re-thinking how many of the central terms are used.Only when it is recognized that not all ‘faiths’ are religious and that all citizens operate out of some sort of faith commitments can we be properly in a position to evaluate nonreligious faiths alongside religiously informed ones. This re-adjustment of the usual way of examining matters then should lead, Professor Benson argues, to a more accurate way of viewing current education and politics (and their areas of avoidance) as well as such things as fair access to the public square by religious believers and their communities. The long dominance of atheistic and agnostic forms of social ordering (including funding for such things as education and health care) is based, in part, on a belief that stripping religious frameworks from public sector projects is ‘neutral’ when it is not. In addition, the focus on a rights based jurisprudence has a tendency to view rights such as the freedom of religion in individualist ways that ignore the communal importance of religion. The paper will suggest that moves to put pressure on the associational dimension of religions ignore the communal nature of certain forms of belief to the detriment of a more co-operative society and far from encouraging human freedom, actually reduce it. In the long run, the importance of religions and their communities to the public sphere – which has been recognized by the constitutional court of South Africa – will be encouraged by this fresh and more accurate way of viewing belief systems and the communities that form around them. The more accurate way of understanding both the reality of and the need for more articulate public beliefs, will, Benson argues, provide a richer ground for such things as public school curriculum which often drift in the face of fears of moral imperialism and metaphobia (fear of metaphysics).

Balancing the principles: why the universality of human rights is not the Trojan horse of moral imperialism

The new dilemmas and responsibilities which arise in bioethics both because of the unprecedented pace of scientific development and of growing moral pluralism are more and more difficult to grapple with. At the 'global' level, the call for the universal nature at least of some fundamental moral values and principles is often being contended as a testament of arrogance, if not directly as a new kind of subtler imperialism. The human rights framework itself, which provided the basis for the most relevant international declarations and documents, is not exempt from the charge. However, the refusal of a top-down conception of the universal as a sort of product for exportation should not be confused with a relativistic landscape, where all the cows can be indifferently black or white. This contribution aims at outlining an approach, which reconciles universalism as enshrined in founding human rights declarations with respect for cultural diversity. In order to do so, two conceptual frameworks are discussed: the 'tool-kit' model and the morals/ethics difference. The example of the right to quality health care confirms the argument that striking a balance between cherishing pluralism and defending some fundamental rights and obligations does not amount to an assertion of moral imperialism.

Professional Team Sports and the Urbanisation of Desire

Beginning with passions invoked by songs ‘You and Me’ and ‘Ode to the Motherland’, in the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, this paper examines sports institutions via their structures of feeling, passions connected to their reasons. War and peace and nation and state tend to dominate study of politics of sport. But here we find cities in longstanding, elective public–private partnership with professional team sports because the teams provide spectators quest for excitement, safe intensity they pursue enthusiastically. Contrast with the management motives romanticised in Moneyball enables us to see this remarkable form of desire in Katie Casey, the fictional heroine of the vaudeville classic, ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame’. While the elective anthem of the English, ‘Jerusalem’, reveals distinct passions – connected more closely to muscular Christianity and its moral imperialism – ‘Take Me Out’ suggests, as do close studies of spectators in Japan, China and elsewhere in East Asia, that a quiet politics of safe intensities vies with official efforts in China and elsewhere to enlist sport into patriotic triumphalisms. The virtual contest between Olympism and professional team sports is thus another tension line along which the future of China and East Asia is being fashioned.