Worthwhile Lives Research Articles

The Monies will not Answer: Mary Wollstonecraft and Catrina Davies on property, freedom and precarity

ABSTRACT This paper explores the writing, and lives, of two women, Wollstonecraft and the contemporary writer Catrina Davies. It focuses on their experience of trying to live independent, creative and worthwhile lives under social and economic conditions of precarity and debt which curtail their aspirations to freedom. Wollstonecraft’s critique of property relations and of commercial society echoes through Davies’s experience of navigating the current housing crisis and struggling to make a decent income from her writing. In Newington Green in the 1780s and a coastal Cornish village in the 2010s, the paper explores what it means for women’s freedom when the monies will not answer.

The Multiverse Theodicy Meets Population Ethics

The multiverse theodicy proposes to reconcile the existence of God and evil by supposing that God created all and only the creation-worthy universes and that some universes like ours are, despite their evils, creation-worthy. Drawing on work in population ethics, this paper develops a novel challenge to the multiverse theodicy. Roughly, the challenge contends that the axiological underpinnings of the multiverse theodicy harbor a ‘mere addition paradox’: the assumption that creating creation-worthy universes would always make the world better turns out to have morally repugnant consequences akin to those of the assumption that adding worthwhile lives to a population would always make the overall welfare of the population better. Further, the challenge leverages this difficulty into an argument against God’s having created all and only the creation-worthy universes, and hence against the multiverse theodicy. Responses to this challenge are considered but found wanting, largely because of commitments of the multiverse theodicy that have no analogs in population ethics.

Feasibility study on utilisation of discarded waste material as a partial replacement for coarse aggregate in concrete

Electronic waste, or Discarded waste. The electronic goods that have become unwanted, non-functional, or out-of-date, and have meritoriously grasped the end of their worthwhile lives are known as Discarded waste. Aluminium, bronze, gold, silver, resins, and ferrous metals are just a few of the valuable, reusable materials that can be found in waste that has been discarded. All across the world, discarded waste disposal is a routine occurrence. The usage of Discarded waste materials is only a piece of the puzzle when it comes to environmental and ecological challenges. Concrete is the most significant engineering material, and changing the concrete philosophy may be more achievable by adding or replacing some of the ingredients. The research of concrete employing E trash as a limited replacement for coarse clusters is presented in this work. For various substitutions of coarse aggregate with Discarded waste on M30 grade concrete, the compressive strength, split tensile strength, and flexural strength of concrete were investigated. The concrete gains higher compressive strength after 15 percent partial replacement of coarse aggregate with E trash at 7 and 28 days. The greatest optimum content of the discarded waste-replaced concrete occurs at 15% partial replacement of coarse aggregate accordingly as part of this project.

Contingent Existence, Worthwhile Lives, and Humane Animal Slaughter

Humanely raised farm animals have lives worth living, and their existence is contingent upon human actions. Do these facts render the act of humanely slaughtering such animals permissible? I identify two ethical principles that may seem to connect these facts to the permissibility of humane animal slaughter. The first principle, inspired by the non-identity problem, exonerates some actions that maximize an individual’s well-being, but it is often inapplicable to animal slaughter. The second principle, which exonerates actions that are part of a practice that makes the animal better off, does apply to animal slaughter; but this principle is false.

Can educational psychology develop to meet the challenges, choices and changes of a 21st century world?

Since the 1970s there have been many changes in England to qualifications required to practice as an educational psychologist and the nature of the organisations for which they work. These reflect the slow transformation in societal attitudes to the purposes of public services, education and the role and responsibilities of associated professionals. As a consequence, educational psychology as a distinct field of knowledge and practice is gradually being replaced by the general practice of psychology in Education. I believe that recognising, valuing and working to improve educational psychology as a distinct field of knowledge and practice can make a valuable contribution to the educational development of children and young people as they begin their life-long learning to live satisfying, productive and worthwhile lives for themselves and others as global citizens. Since leaving the profession of educational psychology I have continued to develop theory and practice as a professional educational practitioner supporting the professional development of other educational practitioners working in diverse fields of practice and cultural contexts. I see them faced with the same challenges as educational psychologists to realise their responsibilities as professional educational practitioners working within the constraints imposed by their employers and national government. Education is a values-laden concept and the challenge to us all is not to lose sight of that. I see how members of other professions are creating possibilities of holding fast to values that distinguish educational practice, which I believe educational psychologists might find of use. In this paper I offer an argument for distinguishing between ‘educational psychology as a distinct field of knowledge and practice’ and ‘the practice of psychology in Education’, why it is important and possible ways forward.

“IF WE DIDN’T EAT THEM, THEY WOULDN’T EXIST” The Nonidentity Problem’s Implications for Animals (Including Humans)

“IF WE DIDN’T EAT THEM, THEY WOULDN’T EXIST” The Nonidentity Problem’s Implications for Animals (Including Humans)

The long road

ABSTRACTStreet cultures remain a challenging topic for anthropological analysis, reflecting broader disciplinary tensions. Approaches that focus on structure and power tend to provide overly deterministic accounts of action, especially regarding violence, while attempts to trace ethical striving have tended to characterize street cultures as domains of ethical failure or as defined by the pursuit of short‐term pleasures. Navigating between these approaches, I draw on ethnographic accounts from “the Caldwell,” a deprived London social housing estate, to argue that ethical registers are an important locus of ethical life. Youth strive to build worthwhile lives not simply by adopting particular ethical stances, but by pushing on the limits of available stances by weaving these together into a broader ethical register. For many young people involved with the Caldwell's street culture, ethical striving is inextricable from, and may even primarily entail, efforts to cultivate collective registers, which entangle criminal and noncriminal horizons. [street culture, gangs, violence, ethics, inequality, exclusion, hip‐hop, stance, register, London]

Enriching the narratives we tell about ourselves and our identities: an educational response to populism and extremism

The normative ideals of democracy, trust and respect are under threat from the forces of populism and extremism. I argue for a recalibration of some basic ideas in the moral and social domains in which each person sees her/himself as one among others. I defend 0093The Principle of Personal Worth0094 which asserts that persons are more valuable than non-persons such as nations, religions, ethnicities, tribes, gangs, and cultures. The 0091collectivist0092 mentality denied by this principle is often held up against a strongly (individualist) or atomistic one. However, these two extremes are not the only possibilities. Collectivism and identity politics link our identities to those associations and institutions with which we identify. This link is based on a confusion between qualitative and quantitative identity. Our actual (numerical) identities are determined by a combination of semantic (conceptual) and deictic (referential) factors, not by our qualitative associations. The Alt-Right combines extremes of individualism and collectivism by way of self-serving narratives that simultaneously elevate the individual over the State, and promote the agendas of specific religious, ethnic, gender and sexuality groups. These impoverished narratives support an impoverished sense of community which functions as an echo chamber for its own ideas, while rejecting those coming from beyond its boundaries. Ultimately, the task of repairing and reconstructing such narratives lies in formal education. Teachers and students need to enact forms of discourse and community which are intellectually, ethically and affectively powerful, both as tools for better teaching and learning, and as preparation for living worthwhile lives.

Nietzsche's Search for Philosophy: On the Middle Writings and Nietzsche's Free Spirit Works: A Dialectical Reading

Nietzsche's Search for Philosophy: On the Middle Writings and Nietzsche's Free Spirit Works: A Dialectical Reading

Animal farms and ethics: A view of rights theory

Many animals suffer terribly under intensive farming that existence is simply of no benefit to them. Animals have a moral right not to be raised when their other rights will inevitably be violated. This paper applied the rights theory to the question of farm animals and argues that animals have a moral right not to be killed and not to be made to suffer by agricultural practices, but have no moral right not to be used in farming at all. This paper argues that there is nothing inherently wrong with modifying animals for human ends, however, not all modifications are permissible. For example, modifying animals to be kill and modifying them to suffer is wrong. Those modifications that lead to animals possessing worthwhile lives but with insufficient opportunities for well-being are also impermissible. This paper implies a call to end to intensive farming methods which are not animal friendly, and an end to raising animals for just their meat.

Mobile Telephony, Financial Inclusion and Inclusive Growth

ABSTRACTThe paper employs the multipurpose nature of mobile telephony to investigate its welfare implications using a large sample of households in Ghana. We use seemingly unrelated probit and instrumental variable procedure to test for two related issues: First, we investigate whether mobile telephony promotes pro-poor development by helping households to efficiently allocate consumption and navigate out of poverty. Second, we analyze whether access to a broad array of financial services enhances the capacity of households to live worthwhile lives. The results show that mobile penetration and financial inclusion significantly reduce the probability of a household becoming poor and increase per capita household consumption of food and non-food items. Our results show that the welfare benefits of mobile telephony and financial inclusion are not more pronounced in female-headed households. These insights serve as useful guide for government and other stakeholders who are looking for avenues to improve livelihoods.

Reproductive autonomy: A case study

Reproductive autonomy (RA) has been challenged by the availability of genetic information, disability and the ethics of selective reproduction. Utilitarian and rights-based approaches, as well as procreative beneficence (PB) fail to provide compelling reasons for infringing RA, and may even be likened to dangerous eugenics. Parents are not morally obliged to prevent the birth of a disabled child. Society should rather adopt inclusivity, recognising and providing persons with disabilities opportunities for capability and worthwhile lives.

Personal growth, grandmother engagement and satisfaction among non-custodial grandmothers

Objectives: We investigated grandmothers’ personal growth, their engagement with grandchildren, their satisfaction with this role and how personal growth was related to engagement and satisfaction.Method: One thousand two hundred and five grandmothers completed a survey containing questions about: personal resources (age, education, whether partnered or not, health); engagement with grandchildren (number of grandchildren, hours spent per week, frequency of activities, satisfaction with being a grandmother); and personal growth (life satisfaction, generativity).Results: Participants had a positive sense of living productive and worthwhile lives with most reporting high scores on life satisfaction and generativity. Most were actively engaged with their grandchildren, participating in a wide range of activities. Active engagement was positively related to grandmother satisfaction. Hierarchical regressions showed that both life satisfaction and generativity were significantly predicted by grandmother resources and grandmother engagement.Conclusion: This group of grandmothers did not fit ageist stereotypes of disengagement and loss of function. Our study shows that grandmothering is a rewarding role, and women who engage with it have a positive sense of personal growth.

Justice, Institutions, and Luck: The Site, Ground, and Scope of Equality, by Kok-Chor Tan

In this illuminating, and commendably readable, book Kok-Chor Tan defends global, institutional luck egalitarianism. This view comprises three claims: Global, institutional luck egalitarianism differs: (i) From trans-institutionalist luck egalitarianism, which holds that principles of distributive justice apply to individuals’ actions in the ‘thick of daily life’ also; (ii) from democratic egalitarianism which says the ground of whatever degree of distributive equality justice requires is the ideal of equal, democratic citizenship; and (iii) From statist luck egalitarianism, which implies that the scope of principles of distributive justice stops at state borders. These issues of contention between Tan and other egalitarians are centrally located in the discussion of distributive justice over the last twenty years. The first of the book’s three parts defends institutionalism. According to Tan, it is reasonable given value pluralism. Individuals are committed to ends that are not defined by justice, and the value of their pursuit of these ends is one value along with the value of justice. Institutionalism reconciles these ‘two potentially competing demands … persons have the duty to establish and support just institutions, but within the rules of these institutions persons may freely pursue their ends’ (p. 28). This raises two questions. First, suppose one holds that justice requires that the worst-off be made as well off as possible. Suppose, moreover, that this requires, Cohen-style, that people seek to benefit the worse off in their everyday life. It is unclear why the institutional approach is not then simply a way of weighing justice against a competing, non-justice value, that is, the value of personal pursuit of ends. Admittedly, for Tan, the goal of the institutional approach is not ‘to maximize social equality … Its purpose is to make it possible for persons to live meaningful and worthwhile separate lives consistent with the demands of social justice given the assumption of value pluralism’ (p. 34). However, a response to the present question that appeals to this fact assumes that the substantive demands of social justice cannot be determined independently of which institutions can accommodate individuals’ pursuit of their ends. But some luck egalitarian value pluralists reject this assumption, and it would have been good to know more about Tan’s reasons for rejecting their view.

A New Argument for Anti-Natalism

Consider the view that coming into existence is bad for us. Can we hold this and yet deny that ceasing to exist would be good for us? I argue that we can. First, many animals have lives such that they would be better off not existing. Second, if persons and babies are distinct things then the same is true of babies. Third, even if persons and babies are not distinct things – rather they are phases that human beings go through – still it is bad for babies that they come into existence. So it was bad for us to come into existence. But most of us now enjoy worthwhile lives. So it would be bad for us, now, to cease to exist.

‘Care and compassion’: why does it go wrong?

This editorial is in response to Care and Compassion, the latest report published by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (2011). The report identifies and discusses ten separate investigations following complaints regarding the care of older people within the NHS. Each account provides a unique story of the experiences faced by older people and their families during a period of ill health. Ann Abraham, Health Service Ombudsman for England, highlights that prior to this, each of the individuals referred to in the report led full, worthwhile lives, valued by themselves, their families and friends. Each case paints a disturbing picture of the consequences when things go wrong in the management and delivery of health care for older people whilst in hospital, during discharge and following discharge into the community. Unfortunately nine of the ten patients within the report died during the events outlined. It is essential that health-care staff learn from such incidents to improve service and care provided to individuals.

Achieving Excellence by Means of Critical Reflection and Cultural Imagination in Culinary Arts and Gastronomy Education

This article aims to demonstrate that in raising the discipline of culinary arts and gastronomy beyond the craft/vocational level to under/postgraduate degree level, educators need to become critically reflective and knowledgeable (qualified) and enable students to learn how to learn, to become entrepreneurial and technological innovators, and to lead worthwhile lives as citizens, with a sense of mission and responsibility for the planet and the poor. It draws on a lifetime's study and experience in culinary arts education, transforming craft-based vocational programs into cognitive educational ones, preparing students to become more than cooking operatives, and introducing concepts that establish culinary arts and gastronomy as serious disciplines worthy of full academic status. Critical reflection allows practitioners to think critically about their practices. It allows educators to become critically reflexive practitioners. It facilitates culinary arts and gastronomy students and researchers. It allows them to become resource persons (consultants), offering guidelines and suggesting approaches to critical thinking and problem solving. Critical reflection engages culinary arts and gastronomy students and researchers in exploring the learning–teaching process in a manner that enhances the development of the discipline's knowledge base. It involves both the study of a situation with a view to improving the quality of the action within it and challenging the orthodoxy of traditional methods of education in the field. In short, it is an approach to excellence. In seeking to raise the academic level of culinary, gastronomy, and hospitality education to excellence, lecturers need to enable students to become involved in the assessment process by becoming critically reflective learners. Students must learn how to learn, to assess their own and others' learning through collaborative, peer, and self-assessment processes.

(Mis)Understanding Human Beings: Theory, Value, and Progress in Education Research

There is renewed interest in what can be called an experimentist approach to education research. The claim is that if researchers would focus on experiments and evidence-based policies and practices, irreversible progress in education can be achieved. This experimentist approach cannot provide the understanding of knowledge and human beings needed for meaningful progress in education. Lacking is adequate appreciation for the role of theory, particularly ethical and other philosophical theory. We especially need a theory of our human condition and a keen awareness for how some conceptions of scientific work can influence, and distort, our conceptions of human beings and worthwhile lives. As paradoxical as it might seem at first, to move ahead in education and our service to persons’ welfare, we need to look backward to revisit old truths.

Enhancing Security in the Pacific Through Regionalism

The Auckland Declaration of the Pacific Islands Forum adopted the following as part of its overarching vision which brought about the Pacific Plan: Leaders believe the Pacific region can, should and will be a region of peace, harmony, security and economic prosperity, so that all of its people can lead free and worthwhile lives. It is interesting to note that at the outset of the formulation of the Pacific Plan, the vision upon which it was drafted encapsulated the Forum Island Countries (FIC) desire for the Pacific to be a region of peace, harmony and security which will lead to economic prosperity and ensure the freedom of all our people. However, far from what the name of the region implies, the Pacific has not been a pacific (meaning peaceful) region and has had a share of its conflicts, constitutional crises, political violence that has even led to some academics such as Reilly to suggest that the Pacific is becoming Africanized particularly due to the conflict and crises experienced in the Melanesian countries of the FIC leading to its labeling as the “Arc of Instability”. Notwithstanding, other academics such as Firth contend that Oceania is not Africa and has its unique challenges, constraints regarding security but there has been general consensus that the security situation in a number of FIC has deteriorated having a negative impact on the general outlook for the region. This paper aims at discussing whether security for the pacific can be enhanced through regionalism. In order to analyze this I will discuss the security issues that has affected the region focusing in particular on the period after 2001; what are some of the regional measures and the regional mechanisms that have been used by the Pacific Island Forum as a response to these security issues; the role of Australia and New Zealand in the implementation of the regional responses; and to determine the effectiveness of these regional responses through analyzing their application in the Solomon Islands crisis and in Fiji post 2006.

Intergenerational Initiatives of the Foundation of Social Development for Senior Citizens

The Foundation of Social Development for Senior Citizens started in 1989 as a group that aimed to help senior citizens live worthwhile lives and remain in good health. We have developed various act...