Ethics and Economics: An Internal Relation

This paper was presented in a relatively informal manner, more to initiate discussion over the ethics/economics relation. The presentation itself took about half an hour to complete, which was followed by a question period. Most questions had to do with clarification. One especially important comment addressed how the relation between ethics and economics could be established in principle, rather than in fact, as it appeared I was arguing. I did note that I intended the argument to lead to one that showed how the relationship was internal in principle, even thought the examples used in the paper suggested that I was arguing for an in fact (de facto) relationship. This part of the paper needs further development. Some comments focused on other possible bodies of evidence, but the main critical comments were formulated in relation to environmental ethics. In this area, the dominant assumption is that economic activity must be controlled externally, otherwise economic forces will run roughshod over environmental concerns. One extended conclusion as a result of discussion ran contrary to many environmental ethics views of economics, namely, that such relations must be local and bioregionally determined. My argument leads to the conclusion that economic relations need to be global, where possible, but based on fair trade principles.The relationship between ethics and economics in the modern age is typically viewed as external. This view is most usually articulated in the notion that for economic relations to be ethical, an ethic must be imposed; otherwise, economic relations are amoral. I try to show how the relationship is actually best explained by adopting an explanatory framework of inter-dependent arising, according to which the emergence and development of both ethical and economic relations is a matter of mutual determination. Ethical values emerge in the course of developing economic relations and, in turn direct or at least implicate economic relations. The consequences of a such a view, however, are that exchange values inform moral concepts (e.g., of what is morally owed to members of a community) and moral concepts help frame economic ones. I offer an argument that starts with a description of a historical relationship between two disparate cultures (English and Iroquoian). The interactions between these cultures were determined initially by trade and then military interests. These interests eventually underwent pressure to evolve into legal and even religiously informed arrangements that necessarily involved certain moral values. Using a presupposition analysis, I show how this evolution was no accident and did not depend on some agent(s) imposing the moral values onto the relationship. Rather, those values arose as a matter of course. In conclusion, the paper advances the idea that, since the relationship between ethics and economics is internal, the ethics of economic relations needs to be formulated more in terms of understanding what economic relations are most fundamentally to achieve

Object kinetic Monte Carlo study of the effect of grain boundaries in martensitic Fe-Cr-C alloys

Fe-Cr-C alloys with chromium concentrations in the range from similar to 2 to 12 wt.% form ferritic-martensitic structures by rapid cooling from the austenite state already in the presence of relatively low carbon concentrations. In this process it is possible to obtain different ratios of ferrite and martensite, as well as formation of carbides, by varying the thermal treatment. The presence of ferrite or martensite might have an influence on the nanostructural evolution under irradiation of these alloys. Here, considering a tempered martensite reference alloy with 9% Cr, we make use of an already validated object kinetic Monte Carlo (OKMC) model in order to study the possible effect of the formation of martensite laths on the material nanostructural evolution under neutron irradiation, assuming that the relevant boundaries act as sinks for radiation defects. The results show that the reduction of the grain size (including in this definition the average size of prior austenite grains, packets, blocks, and laths) does not play any relevant role until sizes of the order of similar to 0.5 mu m are reached: for smaller grains, the number of defects being absorbed by the boundaries becomes dominant. However, this threshold is lower than the experimentally observed martensite lath dimensions, thereby suggesting that what makes the difference in martensitic Fe-Cr-C alloys with respect to ferrite, concerning events and mechanisms taking place during irradiation, are not the lath boundaries as sinks. Differences between the nanostructural evolution under neutron irradiation in ferrite and martensite should therefore be ascribed to other factors. (C) 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinhei

Age-Free Law and Policy: A labor market approach or an approach of guaranteeing human rights (Japanese)

In this paper I analyze problems affecting age-free law and policy aimed at creating a society in which people can work regardless of their age, and the future direction thereof, together with comparative legal considerations. In age-free legislation in the U.S. and European countries, namely the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) in the U.S. and European Commission directives in Europe and domestic laws in individual member countries based on these, there is a good combination of policies from a labor market approach and an approach of guaranteeing human rights. However, with regard to Japan's age-free law and policy in the form of the Employment Measures Act (the prohibition of age limits when recruiting and employing prescribed in the former Article 7 and current Article 10) and the Act Concerning Stabilization of Employment of Older Persons (compulsory provision of employment security measures for older people under Article 9, and accountability when establishing age limits under Article 18-2), there have been not enough discussions based on the approach of guaranteeing human rights. In the future, first of all with regard to the mandatory retirement age, if there is legislation to make it illegal then we must recognize that we will also have to be resigned to accept a society in which dismissal is possible irrespective of age, including because of the removal of the mandatory retirement age's concomitant function of providing job security, and of a change in the doctrine of abusive dismissal. Further, with regard to age limits in recruitment and employment we will need to give study to the direction in which, by placing the accountability stipulated in the Act Concerning Stabilization of Employment of Older Persons at the core of policy rather than the Employment Measures Act, companies themselves will have to find answers to the question of why they impose age limits. In any event, the age-free society has already established itself as a global trend, and to gear themselves for the coming age-free society, Japanese labor and management should prepare themselves institutionally and psychologically.