Mercy : the concept and its moral standing

Despite its high moral evaluation in both secular and religious worlds, philosophers have surprisingly paid relatively little attention to mercy. The discussion that has developed has produced an image of mercy that is to say the least, equivocal. Moreover, the contemporary discussion rests upon a number of problems that have a long and venerable philosophical pedigree. Unfortunately, these problems have neither been clearly identified nor the issues they raise clearly set out. Further, mercy has always been examined in relation to justice, in a broad retributive and deontological context. Mercy's relationship to consequentialism and its moral standing have received next to no attention. The aim of this dissertation is, through an analysis of the concept and an examination of its relationship to other moral entities, to remedy these omissions. In Chapter One I motivate the project. The problems are introduced and solutions offered by others are examined. As well, I set out the approach that will be followed in the remainder of the thesis. Chapter Two consists of an extended analysis of the concept of mercy. I conclude that mercy is both a particular sort of action and a property of agents. As a property of agents, it is a sensitivity to the great need of another person that produces a responsive attitude of concern and care for their welfare. As an action, it is a response to the great need that another agent possesses. In both cases this arises from the perception of the beneficiary's powerlessness and vulnerability to the acts or omissions of the person holding the power. Thus, mercy rests upon a number of beliefs that agents have, as well as specific relationships between, and properties that, the actors within a merciful context possess. Finally, I distinguish mercy from some of its near relatives. In Chapter Three I examine mercy's relationship to deontology, through an examination of three types of justice: retributive, comparative and consensual. I conclude that, although mercy is sometimes incompatible with some forms of justice, this poses neither conceptual nor moral problems. More importantly, I conclude that mercy is compatible with deontology. Chapter Four is concerned with an examination of mercy's relationship to consequentialism. I conclude that mercy is compatible with consequentialism. If mercy is to achieve wide compatibility with this outlook, however, certain extensive modifications must be made to the traditional account of consequentialism, modifications so radical that many consequentialists would find them unacceptable. Chapter Five contains an account of how deontology and consequentialism can accommodate mercy when it is supererogatory. As well, I examine the apparently incoherent claim that mercy is both required, as shown by the arguments in Chapters Three and Four, while also being in some (attenuated) sense supererogatory, a gift and optional. I conclude that, although mercy is often morally required, it is sometimes still supererogatory, a gift and morally optional. In Chapter Six I move from the theoretical examination of mercy to an examination of it within a practical context. I examine mercy within its most typical practical context — the legal justice system. I recast the problems examined in Chapter Three within this practical context. I conclude that there are no barriers, in principle or in practice, to incorporating mercy into a practical context, of which the legal system is a paradigm example. Thus, it is a permissible act-option for, and property of, institutional agents. I also set out the notion of mercy within legal justice and explain how it is possible and justified. With Chapter Six I conclude the negative case for mercy. The general conclusion of Chapters Three to Six is that mercy is a coherent concept and that the difficulties that have been traditionally raised against it can be overcome. Therefore mercy is capable of being part of our moral pantheon. Chapter Seven contains the positive case for mercy. After examining some further problems I set out mercy's moral standing. I argue for its adoption and the cultivation of an attitude of mercy as a part of what it is to live a good life. I suggest that the moral standing of mercy rests upon the importance placed upon relationships between people and our valuation of traits of character, in particular those traits that dispose a person to care for and be concerned with the well-being of other people who are in need. As such, it is a disposition to be cultivated and an action to be practised in today's world. In Chapter Eight I explain briefly why the problems discussed in the foregoing chapters arise. Then I conclude the thesis with a short review of the country traversed in the preceding seven chapters

Essex Liberal

Title Variations Essex Centre Liberal Essex Center Liberal Publication Dates 1885: Dec.? - 1889: Dec. 6 Frequency Weekly Online Holdings 1886: Mar. 5 (Vol. 2: no. 9) (Whole no. 61) 8p.1886: Aug. 27 Supplement 4p.https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/essexcountyontarionewspapers/1010/thumbnail.jp

Developing Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) for pre-service teachers: a study of students’ developing thinking in relation to the teaching of mathematics

The concept of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) was introduced by Ball and colleagues (Ball, Thames & Phelps, 2008), building on Shulman’s (1986) notion of Pedagogical Content Knowledge. MKT is ‘the mathematical knowledge needed to carry out the work of teaching mathematics’. In this project, a team of researchers at two Irish universities studied the development of MKT in two groups of pre-service teachers. The project aimed to help students develop their own MKT, and to develop a richer conception of the role of mathematics content knowledge in teaching, through a series of workshops designed and delivered by the authors. The students’ awareness and level of MKT was investigated using pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. We describe the intervention and present the findings from the analysis of the data collected. In particular, we describe how the group’s view of the mathematical work of a teacher changed over the course of the project

Access to Optometric Education: Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa

Access to education was identified as a key international priority by UNESCO as far back as 1998 when it called for “equality of access”. The profession of optometry has been challenged to educate practitioners in increasing numbers in order to meet the eye care needs. The World Health Organization reported that globally, an estimated 285 million people are visually impaired and in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) uncorrected refractive error is the main cause of visual impairment. The number of optometrists trained on the continent is currently insufficient to meet these eye care needs with limited access to education remaining a stark reality for students. A qualitative research design framed in phenomenology was used to conduct structured interviews with academic leaders in optometry across SSA. Finance for tuition andstudent maintenance, lack of knowledge of optometry and optometrists, high admission criteria, limited spaces at institutions,poor mathematics and science results, gender inequalities and geographical location were cited as barriers to optometric education. Lack of funding was the main contributing factor for the high attrition rate from university in countries where students have to pay their own fees.Where tertiary education is free, the limited number of spaces available in the programmes was the major barrier to access to optometric education for the ever-increasing number of aspiring applicants. The profession of optometry has a key role to play in eye care service delivery in Africa. Therefore educators, policymakers and health professionals must together formulate strategies to increase access to optometric education

A Genetic Algorithm for Generating Radar Transmit Codes to Minimize the Target Profile Estimation Error

This is the published version.This article presents the design and development of a genetic algorithm (GA) to generate long-range transmit codes with low autocorrelation side lobes for radar to minimize target profile estimation error. The GA described in this work has a parallel processing design and has been used to generate codes with multiple constellations for various code lengths with low estimated error of a radar target profile

Factorial linear model analysis

This thesis develops a general strategy for factorial linear model analysis for experimental and observational studies. It satisfactorily deals with a number of issues that have previously caused problems in such analyses. The strategy developed here is an iterative, four-stage, model comparison procedure as described in Brien (1989); it is a generalization of the approach of Nelder (1965a,b). The approach is applicable to studies characterized as being structure-balanced, multitiered and based on Tjur structures unless the structure involves variation factors when it must be a regular Tjur structure. It covers a wide range of experiments including multiple-error, change-over, two-phase, superimposed and unbalanced experiments. Examples illustrating this are presented. Inference from the approach is based on linear expectation and variation models and employs an analysis of variance. The sources included in the analysis of variance table is based on the division of the factors, on the basis of the randomization employed in the study, into sets called tiers. The factors are also subdivided into expectation factors and variation factors. From this subdivision models appropriate to the study can be formulated and the expected mean squares based on these models obtained. The terms in the expectation model may be nonorthogonal and the terms in the variation model may exhibit a certain kind of nonorthogonal variation structure. Rules are derived for obtaining the sums of squares, degrees of freedom and expected mean squares for the class of studies covered. The models used in the approach make it clear that the expected mean squares depend on the subdivision into expectation and variation factors. The approach clarifes the appropriate mean square comparisons for model selection. The analysis of variance table produced with the approach has the advantage that it will reflect all the relevant physical features of the study. A consequence of this is that studies, in which the randomization is such that their confounding patterns differ, will have different analysis of variance tables.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Plant Science, 1992

Medical Men of Essex County

For many years the Essex County Medical Society has shown its desire to have a record of the medical practitioners who have practiced in this county and have gone on to their reward. Dr. J. W. Brien has by diligent work so characteristic of him, correlated the work of previous historical committees and added to that, information he obtained from all available sources, and from his own knowledge acquired in a long and honorable association with medical affairs in Windsor and Essex County.https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/swoda-windsor-region/1051/thumbnail.jp

A congestion sensitive approach to modelling road networks for air quality management

This research establishes an approach to modelling a congested road network for air quality management, which enables the assessment of traffic management solutions that may create only subtle changes in the traffic flow regimes. Road network emissions have been calculated using standard factors taking into account details of vehicle fleet composition, average speeds and road type. Additionally, the use of microsimulation traffic modelling in conjunction with an instantaneous emissions model (IEM) has been adopted to allow comparison between methodologies and enable congestion sensitive analysis of the impact of air quality management measures on the network. Findings from microscale modelling have revealed that the use of an IEM to calculate emissions as an input for air quality dispersion modelling significantly improved the performance of the dispersion modelling when measured against monitored data. Moreover, this methodology has been successfully applied to assess the performance of a traffic scheme in Durham, UK