Virtue and austerity

Virtue ethics is often proposed as a third way in health-care ethics, that while consequentialism and deontology focus on action guidelines, virtue focuses on character; all three aim to help agents discern morally right action although virtue seems to have least to contribute to political issues, such as austerity. I claim: (1) This is a bad way to characterize virtue ethics. The 20th century renaissance of virtue ethics was first proposed as a response to the difficulty of making sense of ‘moral rightness’ outside a religious context. For Aristotle the right action is that which is practically best; that means best for the agent in order to live a flourishing life.There are no moral considerations besides this. (2) Properly characterized, virtue ethics can contribute to discussion of austerity. A criticism of virtue ethics is that fixed characteristics seem a bad idea in ever-changing environments; perhaps we should be generous in prosperity, selfish in austerity. Furthermore, empirical evidence suggests that people indeed do change with their environment. However, I argue that virtues concern fixed values not fixed behaviour; the values underlying virtue allow for different behaviour in different circumstances: in austerity, virtues still give the agent the best chance of flourishing. Two questions arise. (a) In austere environments might not injustice help an individual flourish by, say, obtaining material goods? No, because unjust acts undermine the type of society the agent needs for flourishing. (b) What good is virtue to those lacking the other means to flourish? The notion of degrees of flourishing shows that most people would benefit somewhat from virtue. However, in extreme circumstances virtue might harm rather than benefit the agent: such circumstances are to be avoided; virtue ethics thus has a political agenda to enable flourishing. This requires justice, a fortiori when in austerity

Association between consumption of black tea and iron status in adult Africans in the North West Province: The THUSA study

The association between black tea consumption and iron status was investigated in a sample of African adults participating in the cross-sectional THUSA (Transition and Health during Urbanization of South Africans) study in the North West Province, South Africa. Data were analysed from 1605 apparently healthy adults aged 15-65 years by demographic and FFQ, anthropometric measurements and biochemical analyses. The main outcome measures were Hb and serum ferritin concentrations. No associations were seen between black tea consumption and concentrations of serum ferritin (men P=0.059; women P=0.49) or Hb (men P=0.33; women P=0.49). Logistic regression showed that tea consumption did not significantly increase risk for iron deficiency (men: OR 1.36; 95 % CI 0.99, 1.87; women: OR 0.98; 95 % CI 0.84, 1.13) nor for iron deficiency anaemia (men: OR 1.28: 95 % Cl 0.84, 1.96; women: OR 0.93; 95 % Cl 0.78, 1.11). Prevalence of iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia was especially high in women: 21.6 and 14.6 %, respectively. However, the likelihood of iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia was not significantly explained by tea consumption in sub-populations which were assumed to be at risk for iron deficiency. Regression of serum ferritin levels on tea consumption in women : 40 years, adults with a daily iron intak

Marxism Lost and Found: Alasdair MacIntyre and the Contemporary Debate

This paper examines the changing nature of debates that focus on the philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre. Whilst outlining the history of MacIntyre’s engagement with Marxism and some of his key ideas, it argues that it is only recently that such debates have begun to rightfully recognise the continued relevance of Marxism to such discussions. I note that crucial aspects of MacIntyre’s politics and philosophy, particularly his opposition to capitalism, are now integral to the contemporary debate which helps in generating a shared vision of radical politics. Nevertheless, I point out that key disagreements still remain as to the role of Marxism within such debates, the validity of MacIntyre’s critique of Marxism, as well as the potentially problematic post-Marxist practice that MacIntyre advocates in After Virtue and beyond

Managerial Work in a Practice-Embodying Institution - The role of calling, the virtue of constancy

What can be learned from a small scale study of managerial work in a highly marginal and under-researched working community? This paper uses the ‘goods-virtues-practices-institutions’ framework to examine the managerial work of owner-directors of traditional circuses. Inspired by MacIntyre’s arguments for the necessity of a narrative understanding of the virtues, interviews explored how British and Irish circus directors accounted for their working lives. A purposive sample was used to select subjects who had owned and managed traditional touring circuses for at least 15 years, a period in which the economic and reputational fortunes of traditional circuses have suffered badly. This sample enabled the research to examine the self-understanding of people who had, at least on the face of it, exhibited the virtue of constancy. The research contributes to our understanding of the role of the virtues in organizations by presenting evidence of an intimate relationship between the virtue of constancy and a ‘calling’ work orientation. This enhances our understanding of the virtues that are required if management is exercised as a domain-related practice

Boundary breathers in the sinh-Gordon model

We present an investigation of the boundary breather states of the sinh-Gordon model restricted to a half-line. The classical boundary breathers are presented for a two parameter family of integrable boundary conditions. Restricting to the case of boundary conditions which preserve the \phi --> -\phi symmetry of the bulk theory, the energy spectrum of the boundary states is computed in two ways: firstly, by using the bootstrap technique and subsequently, by using a WKB approximation. Requiring that the two descriptions of the spectrum agree with each other allows a determination of the relationship between the boundary parameter, the bulk coupling constant, and the parameter appearing in the reflection factor derived by Ghoshal to describe the scattering of the sinh-Gordon particle from the boundary.Comment: 16 pages amslate

Engineering a BCR-ABL-activated caspase for the selective elimination of leukemic cells.

Increased understanding of the precise molecular mechanisms involved in cell survival and cell death signaling pathways offers the promise of harnessing these molecules to eliminate cancer cells without damaging normal cells. Tyrosine kinase oncoproteins promote the genesis of leukemias through both increased cell proliferation and inhibition of apoptotic cell death. Although tyrosine kinase inhibitors, such as the BCR-ABL inhibitor imatinib, have demonstrated remarkable efficacy in the clinic, drug-resistant leukemias emerge in some patients because of either the acquisition of point mutations or amplification of the tyrosine kinase, resulting in a poor long-term prognosis. Here, we exploit the molecular mechanisms of caspase activation and tyrosine kinase/adaptor protein signaling to forge a unique approach for selectively killing leukemic cells through the forcible induction of apoptosis. We have engineered caspase variants that can directly be activated in response to BCR-ABL. Because we harness, rather than inhibit, the activity of leukemogenic kinases to kill transformed cells, this approach selectively eliminates leukemic cells regardless of drug-resistant mutations

Integrable boundary conditions for classical sine-Gordon theory

The possible boundary conditions consistent with the integrability of the classical sine-Gordon equation are studied. A boundary value problem on the half-line $x\leq 0$ with local boundary condition at the origin is considered. The most general form of this boundary condition is found such that the problem be integrable. For the resulting system an infinite number of involutive integrals of motion exist. These integrals are calculated and one is identified as the Hamiltonian. The results found agree with some recent work of Ghoshal and Zamolodchikov.Comment: 10 pages, DTP/94-3

Robot rights? Towards a social-relational justification of moral consideration \ud

Should we grant rights to artificially intelligent robots? Most current and near-future robots do not meet the hard criteria set by deontological and utilitarian theory. Virtue ethics can avoid this problem with its indirect approach. However, both direct and indirect arguments for moral consideration rest on ontological features of entities, an approach which incurs several problems. In response to these difficulties, this paper taps into a different conceptual resource in order to be able to grant some degree of moral consideration to some intelligent social robots: it sketches a novel argument for moral consideration based on social relations. It is shown that to further develop this argument we need to revise our existing ontological and social-political frameworks. It is suggested that we need a social ecology, which may be developed by engaging with Western ecology and Eastern worldviews. Although this relational turn raises many difficult issues and requires more work, this paper provides a rough outline of an alternative approach to moral consideration that can assist us in shaping our relations to intelligent robots and, by extension, to all artificial and biological entities that appear to us as more than instruments for our human purpose

Celebrity advocacy and public engagement: the divergent uses of celebrity

This article sounds a cautionary note about the instrumental use of celebrity advocacy to (re)engage audiences in public life. It begins by setting out the steps necessary to achieve public recognition of a social problem requiring a response. It then presents empirical evidence which suggests that those most interested in celebrity, while also paying attention to the main stories of the day, are also least likely to participate in any form of politics. However, this does not rule out the possibility of forging a link between celebrity and public engagement, raising questions about what would potentially sustain such an articulation. After discussing the broader cultural context of celebrity advocacy in which perceived authenticity functions valorised form of symbolic capital, the article outlines a phenomenological approach to understanding the uses audiences make of celebrity advocacy, using the example of a Ewan McGregor UNICEF appeal for illustration. It concludes that while media encounters with celebrities can underpin a viewer’s sense of self, this is as likely to lead to the rationalisation of inaction as a positive response to a charity appeal

Boundary Reflection Matrix for D4(1)D_4^{(1)} Affine Toda Field Theory

We present one loop boundary reflection matrix for $d_4^{(1)}$ Toda field theory defined on a half line with the Neumann boundary condition. This result demonstrates a nontrivial cancellation of non-meromorphic terms which are present when the model has a particle spectrum with more than one mass. Using this result, we determine uniquely the exact boundary reflection matrix which turns out to be \lq non-minimal' if we assume the strong-weak coupling \lq duality'.Comment: 14 pages, Late