The Vicissitudes of Common-Sense Virtue Ethics, Part I: From Aristotle to Slote

http://philpapers.org/rec/KULTVOIn a treatise on methods of applied ethics, Abraham Edel, Elizabeth Flower, and Finbarr O'Connor distinguish between three traditional families of terms, “the family of right and wrong, duty and moral law, rights and responsibilities; the family of good and bad; and the family of virtues and vices.” They argue that “the formulation of an ethical question is choosing among ways in which it may explored. And it is turning to some rather than other of the resources that the history of ethical theory offers in its treatment of ethical concepts.” Under the inspiration of pragmatism, they recommend a pluralistic approach. “Instead of urging a choice among competing theories, we suggest building up an inventory of resources from the theoretical reservoir, with a clear understanding of which can be invoked from what kind of purposes.” They maintain that ethical theories can be utilized to resolve practical problems without unifying concepts into a single system. Unfortunately, attempts by philosophers to resolve practical issues of great concern to the public such as abortion, physician assisted suicide, our obligations to nature and future generations, and capital punishment have resulted in stalemates among members of the same schools of thought and more intractably among members of different schools. Unification of theory seems mandatory if we ever hope to break the stalemates and approach a consensus on how to solve practical problems. Suppose then, contrary to the counsel of Edel, Flower and O'Connor, we undertake to determine which of the three popular approaches to ethical theory is correct and to reduce the concepts of the others to it. We might be able to show that a theory of virtue is a department or application of a theory of the right or a theory of the good, as many modern ethical theorists have argued. We also might find virtue ethics to be fundamental and reduce the other families of concepts to it. A few contemporary moralists assert that it is time to try this route. Prominent among them is Michael Slote, who argues in two recent books that the family of virtue concepts is irreducible to either or both the other two families. He anticipates that the theory of virtue will evolve into a “free-standing” ethic rather than remain a “supplement to common-sense, Kantian, utilitarian, or other forms of ethics and moral philosophy.

Ethnography Study: Effective Teaching in China

Culture is cumulative; culture is found in groups of more than one, is passed from generation to generation, and experiences change. Harrison and Huntington (2000) posit culture is the “values, attitudes, beliefs, orientations, and underlying assumptions prevalent among people in a society” (p. xv). Culture is one of the driving forces that determine the success of a society (Berger & Huntington, 2002). Understanding different cultures can become a diverse and challenging endeavor under the best of circumstances. Research capabilities have added volumes of knowledge about how cultures are realized and understood amongst the multitude of different cultures existing and changing in today’s global world. In particular, ethnographic studies (found in qualitative research methods) have provided valuable tools in this quest to understand the variety, shapes and sounds of culture around the world. Chinese culture has proven to be no exception. According to Gao and Ting-Toomey,(1998) culture varies within societies and within communities, but one consistent cultural aspect found in Chinese culture are the teaching styles, which have remained remarkably the same for 2000 years. The purpose of this narrative ethnography study is to provide avenues in which teachers and professors can effectively communicate the valuable information contained in his or her lectures to Chinese students in China

The Vicissitudes of Common-Sense Virtue Ethics, Part II: The Heuristic Use of Common Sense

http://philpapers.org/rec/KULTVO-2In the first part of this study, I compared the ways in which Aristotle and Michael Slote utilize common sense, meaning the opinions and intuitions of the majority of people or some reference group among them. Both philosophers center their attention on human virtue and so both may be categorized in a very broad way as common-sense virtue ethicists. Aristotle uses common sense only heuristically as an aid to forming opinions of his own, which he then checks against the facts as he sees them. In contrast, Slote uses common sense probatively. When his views accord with common sense, he takes it as a confirmation and, at points, as a proof of their validity. He is thus a commonsense philosopher in a more profound sense than Aristotle. My criticisms of his views were designed to show that he is ill-advised in appealing to common sense in the way he does. Aristotle's guarded and limited use of it is the only approach that can be justified in ethical theory. I will now sketch the way in which intuitions, whether the intuitions of all people, of a select group, or of the philosopher herself, should interplay with theoretical considerations in her development of an ethical theory. The department of ethical theory that I shall discuss will continue to be that devoted to virtue, but I shall argue that virtue as a property of persons cannot be understood without adequate concepts of the right as a property of actions, and the good as a property of goals. In developing a theory of virtue from common intuitions, Slote claims to utilize a systematic procedure exploiting an interplay between theory and intuition. He observes that this is “a methodology at least partially analogous with scientific methodology.” In developing this procedure, we would expect him to improve measurably on Aristotle, since he has available a much more sophisticated form of scientific inquiry as his model. To see how far the analogy between ethics and science takes him, let me sketch a classic example of scientific procedure. This example is Lavoisier's discovery of oxygen and explanation of combustion, which precipitated a revolution in chemistry and led to the development of a body of theory recognizably continuous with that current today. The analysis will show that Slote does not go far enough with the analogy and that the analogy largely impugns the probative value of common sense as Slote uses it

Perceived Risk and the Siting of a Controversial Wastewater Treatment Plant in Central Texas

This thesis is a participant observer case study that examined how three primary intervening variables (resources, trust, and risk communication) influenced the amplification and attenuation of perceived risk during a regulatory permitting process. The objective was to better understand the role of risk perception in a water policy decision, the issuance of a permit by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to the Waco Metropolitan Regional Sewerage System permitting them to discharge 1.5 million gallons of waste water effluent a day into Bull Hide Creek. The study took place between March 2008 and October 2009. The plant, designed to serve the sewer needs of distant cities, was planned without the participation of the residents of the creek community. After being notified of the permit application, they organized to protest the issuance of the permit which they felt presented a serious risk to their community. It is the conclusion of this researcher that risk perception played a key role delaying the issuance of the permit and construction of the plant. When perceived risk attenuated to a mutually acceptable level for all stakeholders, the permit was issued. It is postulated that if risk perception is recognized as a significant factor in potentially controversial urban and regional planning and policy decisions, implementation may be less difficult. The validity of this conclusion is constrained due to the fact this was a single case study and generalization is limited

Vagueness and Ethics

This dissertation is composed of the following series of essays on vagueness, ethics, and their intersection:1. “More or Less Vague” – In this paper, I argue that vagueness admits of degrees and that the standard views of vagueness—vagueness as indeterminacy and epistemicism—cannot satisfactorily accommodate degrees of vagueness.2. “Relocating Vagueness: A Reply to Merricks” – In this paper, I show that Trenton Merricks recent argument against the “vagueness orthodoxy”—the view that vagueness is a feature of language and thought only—reduces to absurdity. 3. “Is There Moral Vagueness?” – In the first part of this paper, I argue that the consequences of moral vagueness, if it exists, are even more problematic than has been argued. I focus on the consequences of moral vagueness for robust moral realism, arguing that no account of moral vagueness—semantic, epistemic, nor ontic—can be satisfactorily reconciled with robust moral realism. In the second part of this paper, I argue that it is still an open question whether moral vagueness exists. I employ a series of tests to cast doubt on whether purported moral Sorites series are actually cases of genuine vagueness. Finally, motivated by the destructive power for arguments from vagueness, I propose a Vagueness Last approach to purported cases of vagueness. The tests developed in examining purported cases of moral vagueness become tools for implementing a Vagueness Last approach. 4. “Posthumous Repugnancy” – In this paper I argue that the possibility of posthumous harm entails what I call Posthumous Repugnancy (PR)—that a person whose wellbeing was extremely high while they were alive could incur small posthumous harms over a long enough period of time after death such that they had a life not worth living. I examine several routes by which the posthumous harm proponent might try and escape posthumous repugnancy, showing each to be highly problematic. I draw a general lesson for desire satisfaction theories of wellbeing. Finally, I consider a vagueness-based objection to my arguments. I draw on strategies developed in my paper “Is There Moral Vagueness?” to diffuse that argument

Simulation of an Air-Source Heat Pump with Two-Stage Compression and Economizing for Cold Climates

A new air-source heat pump technology optimized for cold climates was designed and fabricated by the authors in close cooperation with three industrial partners. The constructed unit will undergo a field demonstration in a military barrack to identify heat pumps as cost effective systems that have less primary energy consumption when compared to traditional cold climate heating methods. A simulation model developed in EES predicted the designed heat pump performance at different ambient conditions. The EES results were incorporated with a TRNSYS model to couple the military barrack building load with the available heat pump capacity using weather data. The TRNSYS model enables the assessment of the field demonstration performance during the heating season. The heat pump design is based on two-stage compression with economizing. Commercially available components were selected for all parts of the heat pump. A variable-speed scroll compressor is used as the high-stage compressor matched with a tandem fixed-speed scroll compressor used as the low-stage compressor. The configuration has a predicted capacity of 18.34 kW (62,580 BTU/h) at the design ambient temperature of -20oC (4oF) based on the EES simulation results. The building has a heating load of less than 18 kW for more than 95% of the heating season that lasts 8 months out of the year. The heat pump design therefore is predicted to satisfy the building heating load for the entire heating season. The heating season COP based on TRNSYS hourly simulation results is 3.67 with a yearly heating capacity of 30,970 kWh (105,674 kBTU) and 8,438.37 kWh (28,793 kBTU). The CCHP simulations predict over 30% savings in primary energy and CO2 emissions with a 25% cost savings for annual heating energy use compared to an 85% AFUE natural gas furnace

Biomedical Ethics Policy in Korea: Characteristics and Historical Development

Ethical consideration is an inseparable part of policy-making in modern society. Biomedical ethics is an interdisciplinary study of ethical issues that result from advances in medical practices and research. Because these issues often arise at the bedside, society must provide solutions or judgments that are effective and applicable. Thus, the development and progress of biomedical ethics has been made possible via the cooperation of experts from diverse backgrounds. The biomedical ethics discourse should not be seen as a conflict between values but as a collective activity for problem-solving. To support this perspective on ethics discourse, a historical perspective on biomedical ethics in Korea was given emphasis on the participants and their perspectives. Major cases and the changes resulting therefrom were discussed with the agenda proposed. The Korean situation with respect to ethics development shows the interactions between groups participating in policy development and its collaborative nature