This thesis describes the impact of World War II on the perception of morality, and how this manifests itself in contemporary literature. Kenneth Payne specifically highlights the novel Catch-22 and how its writing reflects the shift in attitudes towards war. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

The overall aim of this thesis is to look at some philosophical issues surrounding autonomous systems in society and war. These issues can be divided into three main categories. The first, discussed in papers I and II, concerns ethical issues surrounding the use of autonomous systems – where the focus in this thesis is on military robots. The second issue, discussed in paper III, concerns how to make sure that advanced robots behave ethically adequate. The third issue, discussed in papers IV and V, has to do with agency and responsibility. Another issue, somewhat aside from the philosophical, has to do with coping with future technologies, and developing methods for dealing with potentially disruptive technologies. This is discussed in papers VI and VII. Paper I systemizes some ethical issues surrounding the use of UAVs in war, with the laws of war as a backdrop. It is suggested that the laws of war are too wide and might be interpreted differently depending on which normative moral theory is used. Paper II is about future, more advanced autonomous robots, and whether the use of such robots can undermine the justification for killing in war. The suggestion is that this justification is substantially undermined if robots are used to replace humans to a high extent. Papers I and II both suggest revisions or additions to the laws or war. Paper III provides a discussion on one normative moral theory – ethics of care – connected to care robots. The aim is twofold: first, to provide a plausible and ethically relevant interpretation of the key term care in ethics of care, and second, to discuss whether ethics of care may be a suitable theory to implement in care robots. Paper IV discusses robots connected to agency and responsibility, with a focus on consciousness. The paper has a functionalistic approach, and it is suggested that robots should be considered agents if they can behave as if they are, in a moral Turing test. Paper V is also about robots and agency, but with a focus on free will. The main question is whether robots can have free will in the same sense as we consider humans to have free will when holding them responsible for their actions in a court of law. It is argued that autonomy with respect to norms is crucial for the agency of robots. Paper VI investigates the assessment of socially disruptive technological change. The coevolution of society and potentially disruptive technolgies makes decision-guidance on such technologies difficult. Four basic principles are proposed for such decision guidance, involving interdisciplinary and participatory elements. Paper VII applies the results from paper VI – and a workshop – to autonomous systems, a potentially disruptive technology. A method for dealing with potentially disruptive technolgies is developed in the paper. / <p>QC 20130911</p>

The aim for this study is to compare Victoria Benedictsson’s position and views in the morality debate during the modern breakthough in the nordics. The works that I have choosen for this study is firstly Benedictsson’s book Money, published in 1885 and secondly the play Theories, written in 1887 and published in 1994. I will research whether or not Benedictsson’s position in the debate will change since there are only two years in between them. Money is published in the beginning of the morality debate and Theories at the end, wich will make the essence of the discussion.

The accumulated importance of the patent law morality exclusion over the recent decades has been prompted by the increased protection sought for biotechnological inventions. This raises specific ethical concerns such as the respect for human dignity. The morality exclusion is regarded as an indispensable safeguard in the patent system of the 21st century, but its application and scope remains unclear, not least due to a division of competence between the European Union (EU), the European Patent Organisation and national Member States. In addition, the international Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) sets minimum standards for the operation of the morality exclusion. In this study the scope, interpretation and application of the morality exclusion in European and international patent law is described and analysed by applying the legal dogmatic method. The object of study is the European patent law morality exclusion in terms of Article 53(a) and Rule 28 of the European Patent Convention and Article 6 of Directive 98/44/EC on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions. A connected purpose of this study is to describe, problematize and analyse the compliance by the regional rules (EU, European Patent Organisation) with the international framework provided by Article 27.2 of the TRIPS Agreement. Although this study is not limited to specific technologies, the majority of issues raised are done so in relation to the morality exclusion concerning biotechnological inventions, which is reflected in this work. Furthermore, the theoretical framework is dependent on the functioning of the morality exclusion in the respective systems, both regional (EU, European Patent Organisation) and international (WTO). This approach necessitates a consideration of the characteristics of each legal system. This thesis uncovers the differences in the interpretation of the morality exclusion (both within as well as between the legal systems), which causes legal uncertainty in this particularly complex field where patent law and ethics interact. The effects of such variations on the scope and application of the morality exclusion are clarified and critically reviewed. According to the wording of the morality exclusion, the commercial exploitation of an invention with regard to morality or ordre public is a central prerequisite in the assessment of excluded subject matter. Consequently, the interpretation of this particular requirement is subject to critical review, since its implications are decisive for the scope of application of the morality exclusion. It is furthermore questioned whether the European morality exclusions are TRIPS-compliant, and the possible effects (and available remedies) of non-compliance for the EU legal order are analysed. This in turn involves issues of norm conflicts in international and EU law. The author presents a critical analysis, investigates the interaction between legal systems and suggests clarifications in order to attain the optimal functioning of the morality exclusion.

Bioethics deals with the ethical problems arising from the developments in life sciences and biotechnologies. Western autonomy-based philosophical framework has dominated the approach of mainstream Bioethics. Yet, many of the assumptions implicit in the Western framework that makes claim to universal validity may not be shared by non-western cultures. Moral pluralism poses a challenge to a common bioethics. Pluralism is understood as a descriptive term, which refers to the existence of different outlooks - moral or religious in a given society. It is simply another word for diversity. Within most western societies, the principle of autonomy sometimes implies that every person has an atomistic right to self-determination. In most African culture, however, the person is viewed as a relational self, one whom social relationships and inter-dependence rather than individualism provide the basis for moral decisions. Through a critical analysis of the Principles of Biomedical Ethics by Tom L. Beauchamp and James F. Childress; the Foundations of Bioethics by H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr.; and the Morality of Pluralism by John Kekes, the author addresses two challenges. The first one concerns the possibility and desirability of a common bioethical framework in a society with a diversity of moral visions. The second deals with what could be the contribution of African thought, philosophy, and culture to such a project. By exploring some of the worldviews of the Igbo of South-eastern Nigeria, the author shows that different cultures have different significances in bioethical analysis. He argues that an acceptable bioethical framework should be sensitive to the cultural realities of the people where it is employed and contextual in its application. At the same time, it should take account of the common morality feature of human experience. He formulates three prima facie common morality principles as meeting the challenge of Bioethics within the African context.

Stunned by the implications of Colage's analysis of the cultural activation of the brain's Visual Word Form Area and the potential role of cultural neural reuse in the evolution of biology and culture, the authors build on his work in proposing a context for the first rudimentary hominin moral systems. They cross-reference six domains: neuroscience on sleep, creativity, plasticity, and the Left Hemisphere Interpreter; palaeobiology; cognitive science; philosophy; traditional archaeology; and cognitive archaeology's theories on sleep changes in Homo erectus and consequences for later humans. The authors hypothesize that the human genome, when analyzed with findings from neuroscience and cognitive science, will confirm the evolutionary timing of an internal running monologue and other neural components that constitute moral decision making. The authors rely on practical modern philosophers to identify continuities with earlier primates, and one major discontinuitysome bright white moral line that may have been crossed more than once during the long and successful tenure of Homo erectus on Earth.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the contents of textbooks texts on sustainable development for pupils in preschool and grades 1-3, from a social science perspective. Based on the study's purpose, the following questions have been formulated: •How does one define sustainable development and what room do the social dimensions have (social and economic) in relation to the ecological? •How is the moral message of the textbooks portrayed and which didactic tools are being used to bring this message to life? •How are the different social orders portrayed in relation to gender and culture in teaching materials on sustainable development? The three selected teaching materials have been analysed using qualitative content analysis which means that the text of the textbooks are picked into smaller parts to create an understanding of the bigger picture. The text is broken down into meaningful units to illustrate how various aspects of society are emphasized when talking about sustainable development. Meaning units are summarized in the analysis to be interpreted in relation to the purpose of the study, issues and theories. The theories are the three dimensions, moral, didactic tools and intersectionality. These theories are used to examine the scope instructional material gives to the three dimensions, the moral and didactic tool are used to impart knowledge on sustainable development and intersectionality to examine how social orders appears in the textbooks. The results show that the ecological dimension is given the most space in the textbooks and the social dimension is given space in relation to the ecological dimension. One of the didactic tools that appear in the text is compassion; the didactic tools have a moral undertone in a way that the author wants to convey morals of sustainable living. It is a noticeable social arrangements in terms of gender differences in the text books, these differences can lead to a lack of human rights, which in turn may hamper the social dimension.

L'Homme attache de l'importance à l'équité et est prêt à aller jusqu'à subir des pertes financières pour la défense de l'équité. Cet attachement coûteux à l'équité constitue un paradoxe pour les théories de l'évolution. Récemment, certains auteurs ont proposé de voir le sens de l'équité comme une adaptation psychologique évoluée pour résoudre le problème du partage des coûts et bénéfices de la coopération. Quand il est possible de choisir avec qui coopérer, partager les coûts et bénéfices d'une manière impartiale aide à être choisi comme partenaire social et procure des bénéfices directs en terme de valeur sélective. Dans cette théorie, le choix du partenaire est donc le mécanisme central permettant l'évolution du sens de l'équité. Ici, nous proposons une étude interdisciplinaire de l'équité pour mettre cette théorie à l'épreuve. Après une revue des théories en compétition pour expliquer l'équité (Article 1, en cours de revue), nous développons des modèles de théorie des jeux et des simulations individu-centrées pour savoir si le choix du partenaire permet d'expliquer deux éléments-clés de l'équité: le refus de profiter de sa force pour exploiter les plus faibles (Article 2, Evolution), et l'attrait des distributions dans lesquelles la rétribution est proportionnelle à la contribution (Article 3, en cours de revue). Nous montrons que le choix du partenaire permet d'expliquer ces deux caractéristiques. Nous produisons également des simulations plus réalistes et prenant mieux en compte les mécanismes d'évolution en essayant de faire évoluer des robots qui se comportent de manière équitable. Nous testons ensuite la théorie de façon empirique, et montrons que le choix du partenaire crée des distributions équitables dans une expérience comportementale (Article 4, Proceedings of the Royal Society B). Nous développons un jeu vidéo collaboratif pour estimer l'importance de la variabilité interculturelle de l'équité dans des situations de justice distributive, et présentons des résultats obtenus sur un échantillon de sujets occidentaux (Article 5, en préparation). Nous passons en revue les expériences cherchant de l'équité chez les animaux non-humains, et discutons pourquoi un sens de l'équité aurait eu plus de chances de se développer chez l'Homme que dans une autre espèce, alors que le choix du partenaire est loin d'être un mécanisme évolutionnaire restreint à l'Homme. Enfin, nous discutons trois malentendus classiques sur la théorie du choix du partenaire et identifions des directions de recherche intéressantes pour le futur. / Humans care about fairness and are ready to suffer financial losses for the sake of it. The existence of such costly preferences for fairness constitutes an evolutionary puzzle. Recently, some authors have argued that human fairness can be understood as a psychological adaptation evolved to solve the problem of sharing the costs and benefits of cooperation. When people can choose with whom they want to cooperate, sharing the costs and benefits in an impartial way helps to be chosen as a partner and brings direct fitness benefits. In this theory, partner choice is thus the central mechanism allowing the evolution of fairness. Here, we offer an interdisciplinary study of fairness to put this theory to the test. After a review of competing theories (Paper 1, in review), we build game-theoretical models and agent-based simulations to investigate whether partner choice can explain two key aspects of human fairness: the wrongness to take advantage of one's strength to exploit weaker people (Paper 2, Evolution), and the appeal of distributions where the reward is proportional to the contribution (Paper 3, in review). We show that partner choice succeeds at explaining these two characteristics. We also go towards more realistic and mechanism-oriented simulations by trying to evolve fair robots controlled by simple neural networks. We then test the theory empirically, and show that partner choice creates fairness in a behavioral experiment (Paper 4, Proceedings of the Royal Society B). We develop a collaborative video game to assess the cross-cultural variation of fairness in distributive situations, and present results coming from a Western sample (Paper 5, in preparation). We review the experiments looking for fairness in non-human animals, and discuss why fairness would have been more prone to evolve in humans than in any other species, despite partner choice being an evolutionary mechanism far from restricted to the human species. Finally, we discuss three common misunderstandings about the partner choice theory and identify interesting directions for future research.

For some years now the need for the emphasis of moral and spiritual values in our public schools has been recognized by the Kentucky Department of Education. The department has given encouragement to numerous research projects and summer workshops held for the purpose of finding an answer to the problem of emphasizing moral and spiritual values in public education. The concern for this need has informally become known as the “Kentucky Movement.” This study was not undertaken with the thought of introducing new programs in our high schools. The teaching of moral and spiritual values should be done through the curriculum and the school activities as they now exist. If the English teacher is sensitive to life-values and endorses the excellent position of the Second Workshop on Moral and Spiritual Values in Education held at the University of Kentucky in 1950 on his subject, he will have a wonderful time working out lesson-plans slanted toward bringing out those values. It is up to the teacher to work out, according to his own teaching field, the procedure he will use. Basic help can be received in workshops and other study groups where evaluations of success and failure in like situations take place, but still, the teacher must depend on his own individual ability.

The Swedish private equity industry has been the target of vast criticism and media coverage in the years following the most recent financial crisis. As a number of scandals related to private equity owned companies within the welfare sector unfolded, the public confidence assigned to the industry diminished. These events triggered an intricate discussion concerning the regulatory conditions surrounding the industry. In an attempt to regain the confidence of the public and to restore the tarnished reputation of the industry, the alternative regulatory approach self-regulation was utilized and a code of conduct was established on the initiative of the industry in 2015. Current research in the field of private equity is predominantly quantitative and the concept of self-regulation and its components are unexplored. The scarcity of qualitative research addressing private equity and the self-regulatory matter induced the following research question: How is self-regulation integrated within the Swedish private equity industry? The main purpose of this inductive study was to generate an increased understanding and to provide new knowledge concerning the integration of self-regulation within the Swedish private equity industry. In order to accommodate this purpose and to produce an answer to the stated research question, a qualitative and interpretative study was conducted. Semi-structured interviews with eight prominent Swedish private equity professionals were pursued as the study adopted the perspective of the industry. Self-regulation has been integrated at two levels within the Swedish private equity industry in response to the existence of information asymmetry. Firstly, the recently introduced and formalized industry self-regulation addresses the relationship with the public at large. Secondly, the informal self-regulation pursued by the individual private firms targets the relationship with investors. The emphasis of the various self- regulations performed relates to issues of ethical and moral nature. By means of self- regulation, the Swedish private equity industry intends to reduce the prevailing information asymmetry and to safeguard the interests of concerned parties. Consequently, the private equity firms within the industry manage to serve as perfect stewards for the investors as well as the public. In addition, a high industrial morality was observed and ethical concerns are of greatest significance to the industry. Finally, self-regulation has enabled the Swedish private equity industry to become less private.