The Moral Duty of Self-Preservation

UIDB/00183/2020 UIDP/00183/2020This chapter provides an in-depth examination of Kant’s view of suicide. After a contextualization of Kant’s prohibition of suicide (§2.1), seven different arguments against the moral permissibility of suicide are identified: three from the Lectures on Ethics (§2.2) and four from the published writings (§2.3). Each argument is presented (with possible variations) and explained. Strengths and flaws are pointed out, and possible objections and counter-objections are discussed, taking into consideration the abundant bibliography on the subject. The conclusion is that, against a recent trend in secondary literature, which tends to read Kant as justifying not only a right, but even a duty to suicide, Kant does not allow for any exception to his strict prohibition of suicide.authorsversionpublishe

Depression and Motivation

Among the characteristic features of depression is a diminishment in or lack of action and motivation. In this paper, I consider a dominant philosophical account which purports to explain this lack of action or motivation. This approach comes in different versions but a common theme is, I argue, an over reliance on psychologistic assumptions about action–explanation and the nature of motivation. As a corrective I consider an alternative view that gives a prominent place to the body in motivation. Central to the experience of depression are changes to how a person is motivated to act and, also as central, are changes to bodily feelings and capacities. I argue that broadly characterizing motivation in terms of bodily capacities can, in particular, provide a more compelling account of depressive motivational pathology

Penal Disenfranchisement

This paper considers the justifiability of removing the right to vote from those convicted of crimes. Firstly, I consider the claim that the removal of the right to vote from prisoners (or serious offenders) is necessary as a practical matter to protect the democratic process from those who have shown themselves to be untrustworthy. Secondly, I look at the claim that offenders have broken the social contract and forfeited rights to participate in making law. And thirdly, I look at the claim that the voting ban is essential part of the justified punishment of serious offenders. These arguments have in common the feature that they attempt to articulate the sense in which rights imply responsibilities, particularly that voting rights should be conditional on one's having met one's civic responsibilities. I argue that the only interpretation of this view that could justify prisoner disenfranchisement is that which thinks of disenfranchisement as fair and deserved retributive punishment for crime. Against widespread opposition to, and confusion about, the importance of retributive punishment, I offer a brief defence. However, I conclude that even if legitimate retributive purposes could in principle justify prisoner disenfranchisement, the significance of disenfranchisement is such that it should be reserved for the most serious crimes. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

Parenting the Parents: The Ethics of Parent-Targeted Paternalism in the Context of Anti-poverty Policies

Governments often aim to improve children’s wellbeing by targeting the decision-making of their parents. In this paper, I explore this phenomenon, providing an ethical evaluation of the ways in which governments target parental decision-making in the context of anti-poverty policies. I first introduce and motivate the concept of parent-targeted paternalism to categorize such policies. I then investigate whether parent-targeted paternalism is ever pro tanto wrong, arguing that it is when directed at parents who meet a threshold of parental competency. I next explore the factors that affect the degree of pro tanto wrongness of paternalistic anti-poverty policies targeting parents, and provide an account of the conditions under which such policies are on balance permissible, and when they are not. Finally, I illustrate the plausibility and usefulness of my framework by considering a case

Compression after impact test on woven CFRP laminates with graphene

Nowadays carbon fibre reinforced epoxy laminates represent the standard material in the designing and manufacturing of aeronautical composite structures. However, advantages related to metals manufacturing could represent an important menace for the role of composite materials in this industry. Therefore, new improvements in composite structures have to be seek in order to improve their competitiveness. Graphene is a nanomaterial that possess the higher stiffness and strength ever measured. Therefore, the use of Graphene Related Material (GRM) for enhancing composite laminate materials could represent an important advance in order to reduce their impact vulnerability and to improve the performance of Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) composites.   In this work epoxy resin doped with GRM were used to manufacture carbon fiber aeronautical composites by RTM. Low velocity impacts and Compression After Impact (CAI) tests were performed. Regarding experimental methodology, ASTM standard was followed, also new measuring techniques were used as 3D High Speed Digital Image Correlations. All tests were performed on GRM enhanced material and reference material to compare their results. Under impact loads, elastic behavior, peak force or damage results do not depend on the addition of graphenic particles. Whereas, a minor improvement enhanced with GRM in compression preserving the visible damage for an impact equivalent to the tool drop (30 J). Is important to keep this effect in order to detect damages in the composites structures