No description available.

The research project discusses the ethical aspects of governance focusing on formalisation of ethics within a state owned enterprises as a mechanism to improve governance practices.

Using personal narratives, this thesis theorizes the lived experiences of attempting to align one’s consumption choices with the principles of food sovereignty in a place like Victoria, BC. First, to provide a detailed summary of the problem, a thematic analysis is used to identify and describe the tensions that arise throughout this journey. Second, drawing on institutional ethnography (IE), this thesis explores the various ruling relations that coordinate the (mis)understanding of the political potential of food sovereignty. By critically and reflexively analyzing my personal experience of engaging with food sovereignty I will suggest how others who are entering the study of alternative food initiatives can be more effective in their engagement with such movements. Furthermore, I suggest potential ways for those who have a relatively good understanding of alternative food movements to engage more effectively with others who share an interest in these initiatives, but who perhaps lack the accessibility to academic literature and/or the knowledge of how to participate politically in such initiatives. When we are able to see our shared interests and political connections, we are able to build political alliances. This then creates the potential for transformational change in the current industrial food system to one that is socially just and environmentally sustainable. / Graduate / 2018

M.A. (Philosophy) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Across four experiments, we show that when people can serve their self-interest, they are more likely to refrain from reporting the truth ( lie of omission) than actively lie ( lie of commission). We developed a novel online "Heads or Tails" task in which participants can lie to win a monetary prize. During the task, they are informed that the software is not always accurate, and it might provide incorrect feedback about their outcome. In Experiment 1, those in the omission condition received incorrect feedback informing them that they had won the game. Participants in commission condition were correctly informed that they had lost. Results indicated that when asked to report any errors in the detection of their payoff, participants in the omission condition cheated significantly more than those in the commission condition. Experiment 2 showed that this pattern of results is robust even when controlling for the perceived probability of the software error. Experiments 3 and 4 suggest that receiving incorrect feedback makes individuals feel more legitimate in withholding the truth, which, in turn, increases cheating.

No description available.

M.A. / This dissertation evaluates the concept of a third alternative surrounding abortion which focuses on making abortion rare by addressing contemporary arguments. This third alternative recognises abortion as morally problematic but contends that it should be both legal and rare. Its aim is to address the overly narrow focus of the usual debate on either just the foetus or just the maternal body. In doing this it evaluates some of the current contemporary arguments surrounding abortion to show how these arguments are simply not enough. This includes questioning the social and political dimensions of the dilemma of abortion, and in particular, questions about the conditions that should be in place that will help make abortion rare. This should show how the current debate has created a clear division which has done very little to help women who are considering an abortion. Therefore the argument of making abortion rare should be supported by both Pro-Life and Pro-Choice arguments because if abortion became rare, it would mean that not only would there be fewer abortions, which is exactly what Pro-Life is arguing for, but it would also mean that women would be given more options, which is what Pro-Choice is arguing for.

Thesis advisor: Richard M. Kearney / This dissertation exposes the significance of ‘self-disruption’ in ethical development (the process of understanding how to flourish), especially as incited through conversation. By ‘self-disruption’, I mean the experience of being torn away from self-concern (which is a self-reflective enterprise) by something other. ‘Self-concern’ here refers to one’s attachment to one’s projects and plans—including the future self that one seeks to produce (qua preservation of its current identity). This study engages the history of ethical thinking, but it is not antiquarian. To make my case, I primarily rely on Emmanuel Levinas’s ethical metaphysics and critically interpret and draw from insights within 1) Kant’s account of the moral self, 2) Aristotle’s account of the virtuous soul, and 3) the teleological account of the self that we find in contemporary virtue ethics. My claim is that what is latent in each of these accounts is the pivotal role of having one’s attention arrested by ‘the other’, and that fostering this phenomenon belongs to the work of moral philosophy understood as moral cultivation. This research homes in on key discussions within Anglo-American ethics, particularly those that stem from the reevaluation of the nature and task of moral philosophy in the 20th-century. I am skeptical as to whether the resulting Aristotelian virtue ethics is as radical as its advocates claim, and I challenge its reliance on narrative coherence. I do not seek to deny the narrative dimensions of self-understanding, but I do want to underscore the ethical importance of welcoming their disruption. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.

In 2011, a period began in which the United States demographic will change to include the largest, least prepared, and most diverse elderly population in our nation’s history. That was the year the “Baby Boomer” generation started retiring and members of this large cohort will continue to do so for approximately twenty years (Kemper, Komisar & Alecxih, 2005). Chronic health conditions and the obesity epidemic may make retirement years less healthy ones than for previous generations of older adults. Lifestyle changes in Baby Boomers as compared to previous cohorts of elders – increased divorce, fewer children, nontraditional family relationships – may result in less support for frail elders when they can no longer care for themselves, thereby increasing their vulnerability to long-term care placement (Cherlin, 2010; Ryan, Smith, Antonucci & Jackson, 2012

Science can define what is practicable, what can be done, but it cannot determine which developments it is right to pursue- this is largely an ethical judgment attempting to answer ‘ought we to do it’? The most sensible approach to making an ethical assessment is to try and weigh up the benefits of a novel technology against its potential to do harm. Deciding whether GM technology is acceptable in ethical terms involves a judgment about both the plausibility and moral weight of competing sets of claims, beginning with an assessment of the possible benefits and risks. Using four main guiding principles as the basis of my discussion and point of evaluation, I focus firstly on the principle of general welfare to examine the debate what would amount to an adequate safety assessment of GM foods and its possible ecological risk. The right of consumers to freedom of choice is addressed by exploring both the arguments against and for labelling. The principle of justice then questions the claims whether food security can indeed be improved by using GM technology and how patents, bioprospecting and biopiracy can be judged ethically justifiable. Finally the ethical status of the natural world is raised by attempting to answer whether modern biotechnology could be considered blasphemous and whether it is ethically permissible to breach the natural integrity of the species. Using these guiding principles do not make such as assessment straightforward as they cannot be rigidly applied in an abstract way to reflect absolutes on what is right or wrong and their operation depends on context. My approach is normative and presented in a way to stimulate dialogue as an explorative ethical travel through the genetically modified zone with the recognition that the debate remains inconclusive and controversial. Keywords: GM; Genetically Modified Foods; GM Technology; Transgenic.