Filling Collective Duty Gaps

A collective duty gap arises when a group has caused harm that requires remedying but no member did harm that can justify the imposition of individual remedial duties. Examples range from airplane crashes to climate change. How might collective duty gaps be filled? This paper starts by examining two promising proposals for filling them. Both proposals are found inadequate. Thus, while gap-filling duties can be defended against objections from unfairness and demandingness, we need a substantive justification for their existence. I argue that substantive justification can be found in the normative force of commitments individuals make to others with regard to ends. Along the way, I argue that gap-filling duties must be conceptualized differently in group agents, as compared to non-agent groups: in the former, gap-filling duties can be understood as duties to “take up the slack”; in the latter, this would be a category error

The Claims and Duties of Socioeconomic Human Rights

A standard objection to socioeconomic human rights is that they are not claimable as human rights: their correlative duties are not owed to each human, independently of specific institutional arrangements, in an enforceable manner. I consider recent responses to this ‘claimability objection,’ and argue that none succeeds. There are no human rights to socioeconomic goods. But all is not lost: there are, I suggest, human rights to ‘socioeconomic consideration’. I propose a detailed structure for these rights and their correlative duties, while remaining neutral on substantive moral debates. I argue that socioeconomic-consideration human rights are satisfactorily claimable and sufficiently practical

Are 'Coalitions of the Willing' Moral Agents?

In this reply to an article of Toni Erskine's, I argue that coalitions of the willing are moral agents. They can therefore bear responsibility in their own right

The Core of Care Ethics

Chapter 1 Introduction This chapter briefly explains what care ethics is, what care ethics is not, and how much work there still is to be done in establishing care ethics’ scope. The chapter elaborates on care ethics’ relationship to political philosophy, ethics, feminism, and the history of philosophy. The upshot of these discussions is the suggestion that we need a unified, precise statement of care ethics’ normative core. The chapter concludes by giving an overview of the chapters to come: Chapters 2 to 5 will each develop concise statement of one of four key care ethical claims, while Chapters 6 to 8 will unify, specify, and justify those four claims under a new principle : the dependency principle. -/- Chapter 2 Scepticism about Principles Care ethicists tend to be sceptical that there is any useful role for general, abstract principles or rule in moral theory and practice. This chapter assesses this scepticism. It argues for the importance of maintaining a distinction between, on the one hand, scepticism about principles as a tool in deliberation, and, on the other hand, scepticism about principles as a ground of moral rightness. It surveys and assesses the statements made by care ethicists against principles. The conclusion is that care ethicists are correct to be somewhat sceptical about the use of principles in deliberation, but that this scepticism should not extend to principles as the source of moral rightness. -/- Chapter 3 The Value of Relationships Amongst care, a special place is often made for personal relationships. This chapter delimits and justifies this. First, it distinguishes three kinds of importance personal relationships are attributed by care ethicists –as moral paradigms, as goods to be preserved, and as sources of weighty duties. Next, it suggests such ‘relationship importance’ is not justified by the nature of personal relationships or the value of their relatives. It concludes that any personal relationship has importance in proportion to the value the relationship has to its participants. Crucially, this source of importance – a relationship’s value to participants – holds also for non-personal relationships. This allows us to understand how care ethics extends relationship importance to our relations with distant others. -/- Chapter 4 Caring Attitudes Care ethics calls upon agents to care about and for others. This chapter focus on the “about” aspect of caring: on caring attitudes. Caring attitudes are defined as pro-attitudes to the fulfilment of some entity’s interests. The moral value of these attitudes—particularly in emotions like love—is elaborated upon. However, attitudes do not seem under our voluntary control, so do not seem to be something we can be morally instructed to bear. This objection is responded to, with the explanation that we have long-term control over our attitudes and that moral theories can legitimately call upon agents to do things they cannot immediately control. Ultimately, then, care ethics’ injunction that agents hold caring attitudes is both defined and vindicated. -/- Chapter 5 Caring Actions This chapter starts by comparing and assessing the numerous definitions of care found in care ethics literature—distinguishing care, good care, bad care, and non- care. Caring actions are defined as having the intention to fulfil something’s perceived interests. The moral value of such actions is interrogated and found to be a combination off the intention’s value and the action’s consequences’ value. The chapter considers whether acknowledgment of care by the care recipient adds value to caring actions. It is suggested that such ‘ care receiving’ often, but not always, adds value to caring actions, and should not be part of the definition of care. Thus, care ethics’ imploration of agents to perform caring actions is defined. -/- Chapter 6 The Dependency Principle This chapter develops the dependency principle. This principle asserts that a moral agent, A, has a responsibility when: moral person B has an important interest that is unfulfilled; A is sufficiently capable of fulfilling that interest; and A’s most efficacious measure for fulfilling the interest will be not too costly. A incurs a weighty responsibility if ¬ to are true and A’s most efficacious measure for fulfilling the interest will be the least costly of anyone’s most efficacious measure for fulfilling B’s interest. Each of components to is elaborated on in turn. We arrive at a precise, comprehensive statement of the principle that will be used to unify, specify, and justify care ethics. -/- Chapter 7 Collective Dependency Duties It is impossible to do justice to care ethics without discussing the duties of groups—especially groups such as families and nation-states. This chapter defends the claim that the responsibilities produces by the dependency principle are, in many cases, responsibilities of groups. It develops permissive conditions that a group must meet in order to be a prospective responsibility-bearer, and explains how it is that groups’ responsibilities distribute to their individual members. This model of group responsibility is applied to states. This allows us to make sense of how the dependency principle can unify a care ethics that is greatly concerned with social and political outcomes. -/- Chapter 8 Unifying, Specifying, and Justifying Care Ethics Can the abstract, formalised ‘dependency principle ’—developed in Chapter 6 – serve as a compelling justification of the heterogeneous theory of care ethics? This chapter argues that it can. Each of the four claims of care ethics—developed in Chapters 2 to 5—is assessed in turn. Three questions are asked with regard to each. First, does the dependency principle generate some responsibilities of the relevant kind? Second, does the dependency principle generate enough responsibilities of the relevant kind? And third, does the dependency principle give the right explanation of these responsibilities? The answer each time, it is argued, is “yes”. Along the way, this answer produces some new results regarding both care ethics and the dependency principle

Value Discretion in a People-Changing Environment: Taking the Long View

This article explores the normative value judgements (called value discretion) made by Ontario Works income assistance case managers in their people-changing roles. The focus of case management under welfare reform has moved from determining eligibility for income assistance—people processing, to moving recipients from assistance to employment—people changing. The article outlines case managers’ pursuit of “the long view” in working with recipients over time moving from assessment to crisis work to meeting workfare requirements. In taking the long view case managers expose a basic contradiction in welfare reform that people changing does not result in the shortest route to a job

The role of neuroinflammation in chronic traumatic encephalopathy

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by repeated concussive or subconcussive blows to the head. Clinically, this disease is characterized by cognitive dysfunction, short-term memory loss, and motor deficits. Pathologically, deposition of the abnormal protein tau, cerebral atrophy, and white matter degeneration is common. CTE has been categorized into Stages I-IV based on increased severity of protein deposition and cerebral atrophy. Acutely, mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) damages the long white matter tracks in the corpus callosum. In addition, it initiates a neuroinflammatory cascade aimed at protecting healthy tissue by clearing any toxic or damaging debris. This cascade results predominantly from the activation of the resident immune cells of the brain, microglia. Inflammation begins immediately and then subsides weeks or months after injury. However, pathological chronic activation of microglia can occur that can cause cell death and degeneration. Several studies have linked traumatic brain injury as well as chronic neuroinflammation to a variety of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The present study quantifies the level of inflammation found in the brains of those diagnosed with varying stages of CTE compared to normal, healthy controls. The thickness of the corpus callosum was measured to investigate the correlation between microglial density and white matter degeneration. Cases were selected from the donated brains of former athletes and military veterans who had a history of repetitive mild TBI. Eleven healthy control cases, ten early stage (Stage I/II), and nine late stage (Stage III/IV) CTE cases were selected for analysis. Tissue sections of the anterior and posterior cingulate of each case were stained for microglia, reactive astrocytes, and macrophages using IBA-1, GFAP, and CD68 markers. The percent area stained of each section was calculated to compare inflammatory cell density across progressive stages of the disease. Analysis showed a significant thinning of the corpus callosum of Stage III/IV CTE cases compared to normal controls. There was a significant decrease in microglia and reactive astrocytes of both the anterior and posterior portions of the corpus callosum in both early and advanced stage CTE cases compared to healthy controls. Corpus callosum thickness was significantly decreased in advanced stage (III-IV), but not early stage (I-II) disease. Overall, this suggests that neuroinflammation is decreased in the corpus callosum in CTE despite marked degeneration. Repetitive mild TBI might impair mechanisms of brain inflammation and repair

Carbohydrates and Fungal Toxin Exposure Influence the Vaginal Microbiota, Metabolome, and Reproductive Health of Women

The reproductive health of women is influenced by microorganisms and their metabolites, namely those representing the vaginal microbiota and those producing toxins that are ingested. To manipulate the vaginal microbiota toward a health-associated, Lactobacillusdominant state, an approach adopting prebiotic lactulose was taken. Using batch culture, lactulose supported Lactobacillus maintenance and positively altered metabolites, while not disrupting indigenous L. crispatus epithelial adherence. The vagina also harbours abundant glycogen, but initial assumptions that lactobacilli utilize it were incorrect. I have now shown that glycogen selectively stimulates organisms associated with dysbiosis and L. iners in a self-limiting manner. Other compounds such as environmental toxins have not previously been shown to impact vaginal health. In a cohort of Rwandan women, I found that they were indeed exposed to fungal toxins. In summary, I have shown that microbes, carbohydrates, and mycotoxins can play a significant role in the health of women in Canada and beyond

A bridge\u27s link

Not Include

Antinutritional factors in modeling plant-based rainbow trout diets

The effect of inclusion rate of pea meal (PM), pea protein concentrate (PPC), soybean meal (SBM), soy protein concentrate (SPC), canola meal (CM) and canola protein concentrate (CPC) in salmonid diets was determined through six corresponding meta-analyses of all data available in the literature for these six feed ingredients, which was followed by weighted regression analysis. Increasing dietary inclusion levels of SBM, SPC, CM and CPC reduced specific growth rate (SGR). Regression analysis determined all of these relationships to be linear declines in SGR (P 0.05). These results showed that the influence plant proteins have on salmonid SGR is dependent on ingredient type and inclusion level. PM, PPC, SBM, SPC, CM an aqueous-extracted CPC and a high phytate CPC (PCPC) were analyzed for chemical nutrient (proximate, amino acid and phosphorus analysis) and antinutrient composition and total tract digestibility (two separate digestibility trials) in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). The digestibility of proximate chemical components and amino acids were significantly higher for the soy products than the pea products. These digestibilities were also significantly higher in protein concentrates than in plant meals. Dry matter and gross energy digestibility was higher in CPC than in CM (P < 0.05). Phosphorus digestibility was higher in CPC-fed fish than in CM-fed fish (P < 0.05), which is likely due to the fact that CPC did not contain phytic acid. Six consecutive growth studies (one trial per test ingredient) were conducted over a 361-day period to determine the effects of feeding increasing inclusion rates of PM, PPC, SBM, SPC, CM and CPC on the growth performance of rainbow trout. Diets were formulated based on the digestible nutrient content of all ingredients as determined in the previously conducted digestibility trials, to contain 0, 75, 150, 225 or 300 g/kg of each test ingredient. All diets were nutritionally equal and contained 17.6 MJ/kg digestible energy, 386.2 g/kg digestible crude protein and were balanced for digestible essential amino acids to meet or exceed the requirements of rainbow trout. Linear and quadratic analysis was conducted on the experimental data. There were no significant regressions resulting from feeding PM, SPC or CPC at 0-300 g/kg for average daily feed intake (ADFI), specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR) or protein efficiency ratio (PER). A positive relationship was associated between PPC inclusion and ADFI (P < 0.05). There was a significantly negative quadratic equation associated with the inclusion level of SBM on SGR and FCR and significantly negative linear and quadratic equations for PER. There were significantly negative linear relationships between the inclusion rate of CM and the SGR, FCR and PER of rainbow trout (P < 0.05). Growth trial results suggest at inclusion levels up to 300 g/kg, PM, PPC, SPC and CPC are feasible plant-based fish meal replacements with predictable growth effects, provided the nutritional constraints set in this experiment are followed. The results of these growth experiments were further analyzed using structural equation modeling to determine the relationship between ANF in the six ingredients and ADFI and SGR, which were transformed (tSGR and tADFI, respectively) to enable comparisons between experiments. All possible models between ingredient ANF (starch, phytic acid, glucosinolates, tannins, isoflavones, total NSP, soluble NSP, insoluble NSP and saponins) and ADFI and SGR were calculated. The model with the highest likelihood, as determined by the Akaike Information Criteria0, contained 29 parameters and six degrees of freedom. tADFI positively influenced tSGR. Glucosinolates, saponins, and phytates had a significantly negative impact on tADFI, whereas tannins had a significantly positive impact. The presence of saponins in the diet resulted in a decrease in tSGR. This structural equation model had significant correlations between all ANF, with the exception of phytates and saponins. Future applications of this work will be to develop a nutritional model for optimal inclusion of plant-based feed ingredients in rainbow trout diets, based on their ANF content, which may improve the accuracy of diet formulation and growth prediction