This research deals with socially responsible investing (SRI) in its broadest context in South Africa and includes an analysis of the risk-adjusted performance of local SRI funds. SRI refers to an investment strategy whereby investors integrate moral as well as environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations alongside conventional financial criteria in evaluating investment opportunities. Typical SRI strategies include screening, shareholder activism and cause-based (targeted) investing. The primary objective of this research was to obtain a deeper understanding of SRI in South Africa as it represents a powerful means whereby private sector capital can be channelled into areas of national priority. Data and methodological triangulation strategies were adopted to investigate the research problem, respond to the research questions and test the research hypotheses of this study. The phenomenological component of the research consisted of an extensive literature review as well as in-depth, face-to-face interviews conducted with twelve SRI fund managers and industry experts. The positivistic dimension of this research centred on the construction of the first complete database of SRI funds in South Africa, the sourcing of quantitative primary data and the testing of eight pairs of null and alternative hypotheses. Risk-adjusted performance was evaluated by means of the Sharpe, Sortino and Upside-potential ratios during three sub-periods, namely 1 June 1992 to 31 August 1998, 1 September 1998 to 31 March 2002 and 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2006. Forty-three SRI funds have been launched in South Africa since June 1992 and it is estimated that SRIs constitute approximately 0.7 percent of the total investment capacity in the country. It was found that most local SRI funds combine a cause-based investment strategy with a positive or best-of-sector screening approach. ESG screens were found to focus on the promotion of broad-based Black Economic Empowerment and the development of social infrastructure in South Africa. The FTSE/JSE SRI Index and the Financial Sector Charter were identified as the most prominent drivers of SRI in South Africa, whereas a lack of skills and a shortage of new SRI opportunities, asset classes and funds were seen as impediments to the growth of the local SRI sector. The empirical evidence shows that: - local SRI funds underperformed relative to their respective benchmark indices during the first two sub-periods but significantly outperformed them during sub-period three (the resurgence period of SRI in South Africa); - local SRI fund performance is not significantly different from that of a matched sample of conventional (non-SRI) funds; and - local SRI funds significantly underperformed relative to the general equity market in South Africa during sub-period two (the decline period of SRI in South Africa) but performed on a par with the FTSE/JSE All Share Index during sub-periods one and two. The findings of this research therefore suggest that investors can consider SRI funds as part of a well-diversified investment strategy. It is strongly recommended that a Social Investment Forum be established in South Africa to address the educational needs of stakeholders in the local SRI sector. It is also recommended that local asset managers adopt a focused differentiation strategy to take advantage of the growing SRI sector in South Africa.

This thesis will critique Gilbert Harman's moral relativism. Harman argues for a form of moral relativism he calls a "conventionalist" account of morality. He supports this by defending a view of explanations, a view of simplicity, and a view of the moral "ought." However, the anthropological literature contains strong evidence against his drawing of this relativist conclusion — and in support of a contrary one. According to anthropologists, there is a universal belief in the moral wrongness of incest, the "incest taboo": its existence suggests that Harman may have better supported a form of moral realism than the relativism he endorses. Thus, at the very least, Harman's argument does not prove that relativism is true; more strongly, it may prove that relativism is false, and realism true. / Arts, Faculty of / Philosophy, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of the studies was to test 1) the effectiveness of experimenter-directed principle testing discussions in moving subjects from an ethical relativist position to a more universalist position on all cultural practices which are unethical 2) whether subjects at higher levels of moral development rejected ethical relativism to a significantly greater degree than subjects at lower levels of moral development 3) whether subjects at higher levels of moral development were more willing to accept non-ethical cultural practices than were subjects at lower levels of moral development-. These questions were generated from Bernard Gert's rationale for the existence and validity of universal moral principles and from Lawrence Kohlberg's claim that persons at higher levels of moral development are more likely to be universalists. The subjects for the first study were 44 grade eleven students drawn from two classes in a Vancouver-high school. The subjects for the second study were 32 fifth year university students in the Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia. In both cases, the main reason for selection was the cooperation of the teachers, The level of moral development for each subject was measured by using Rest's Defining Issues Test. Movement from an ethical relativist position to an ethical universalist position was measured by using Kehoe's Cultural-Ethical Relativism Scale. In study one, all subjects were pre-tested with the Defining Issues Test and then randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group. All subjects were post-tested with the Cultural-Ethical Relativism Scale. In study two, all subjects were pretested with the Defining Issues Test and Form A of the Cultural-Ethical Relativism Scale. All subjects were administered the treatment and then post-tested with Form B of the Cultural-Ethical Relativism Scale. The treatment in both studies attempted to determine if subjects would demonstrate a greater willingness to 1) accept non-ethical cultural practices 2) reject the ethical relativist position 3) accept the ethical universalist position. Analyses of the data in study one suggested that the treatment had no significant effect. Analyses of the data in study two suggested that the treatment did have a significant effect on the subjects' willingness to accept non-ethical cultural practices. The treatment, however, also had a significant effect on the subjects' willingness to accept unethical cultural practices. These results suggest that the treatment caused disequilibrium within the subjects' values system whereby they could not distinguish cultural practices with ethical implications from those without. In future studies, this distinct-ion must be clarified. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

No description available.

The primary purpose of this inquiry is to examine the techniques of indirect ethical communication which Fielding invented, adapted, and perfected, and which may be seen at work in his novels, developed to meet what he understood to be the special needs of his readers. His innovations in the fictional communication of ethical value are explained in the context of the widespread agreement in his own time that the direct communication of ethical and religious conviction was difficult, if not impossible, because real conviction depends upon a frank, reasonable, and voluntary assent to the terms of belief. The enquiry examines two kinds of indirect ethical discourse, which have been termed dialogue and dialectic. Dialogue in fiction consists in the interchange of ideas in conversation, including series of conflicting or complementary examples or illustrations, implicit references to other texts, and encounters between rival definitions of evaluative terms. The focal points of Fielding's dialogues are matters of some moment, such as the duties of charity, temperance, the respect due to the clergy, marriage, prudence, and the origin and scope of law. Because the reader of satire is invited to compare what is ridiculed with a social normative referent, satire is a kind of dialogue. But certain dialogic patterns are designed to entrap the reader, forcing him to reconsider the assumptions by which he interprets the novels. This process becomes dialectical when the program of reader-implication stimulates an inward turning. The philosophical context includes both the Platonic assumption that the Good is latent in each individual, and the Anglican doctrine of assent lpersonal rsponsibility for belief) . The reader is an appropriate target for the indirect stimulation of the potential faculty of Good Nature, beginning with the reduction of cormnon but erroneous opinion (elenchus), and reaching completion with the Socratic method of "intellectual midwifery" (maieusis), which assists the reader to bring latent ideas into active life. The enquiry undertakes a close reading of Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones, considering questions of comedy and the admixture of jest and earnest, deliberate artificiality of form, narrative technique, irony, reader response, and ethical discourse. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This research is designed to gain an understanding of how accounting students respond to realistic, business ethical dilemmas. Prior research suggests that accounting students exhibit lower levels of ethical reasoning compared to other business and non-business majors. This study uses the Defining Issues Test, Version 2 (Rest, et al., 1999) to measure accounting students' ethical reasoning processes. The Mach IV scale (Christie and Geis, 1970) is used to measure moral behavior. Eight ethical vignettes adapted from prior ethics studies represent realistic, business ethical scenarios. A total of sixty-eight undergraduate accounting students are used to examine three hypotheses. Literature suggests that individuals with lower ethical reasoning levels are more likely to agree with unethical behavior. Therefore, hypothesis one investigates the relationship between ethical reasoning and ethical decision making. Literature also suggests that individuals agreeing with Machiavellian statements are more likely to agree with questionable activities. Hypothesis two investigates the relationship between Machiavellian behavior and ethical decision making. Prior gender literature suggests that gender influences ethical decision making, with females being more ethical than males. Therefore, hypothesis three examines whether female accounting students agree less with questionable activities compared to males. Results indicate that ethical reasoning is significantly correlated with students' ethical ratings on the business vignettes. Similarly, Machiavellian behavior is significantly correlated with students' ethical ratings. Consistent with prior gender literature, females agree less with questionable activities compared to male accounting students. / Ph. D.

Although there is extensive literature on supervision in the human services, there is limited research specific to the stories from supervisors in child welfare, in particular in Canada. This inquiry sought to understand how child welfare supervisors navigated through ethical dilemmas in their practice and how their approach influenced decision making. In addition, specific attention was paid on whether these practitioners used critical reflection in their approach to decision making. Findings indicated that these child welfare supervisors relied primarily on their personal moral framework. They encountered frequent dilemmas in highly complex work environments. Further, they endured ethical tensions as a result of not being able to enact their ethics amid work place barriers. These ongoing tensions often resulted in leaving these supervisors depleted emotionally and physically. Critical reflection in action was used in some cases when examining the context of the family in the process of ethical decision making. As with recent studies, this inquiry found that child welfare supervisors often stepped away from reflection in action for self-preservation and relied more heavily on reflection on action. Implications for future studies and recommendations for child welfare practice are discussed. / Graduate

In this thesis I address two related and rarely asked questions: (i) Is a distinctively virtue ethical theory that is theoretically ambitious possible? (ii) If such a theory is possible, and such a theory is also a credible theory in its own right, then what might such a theory look like? By ‘distinctively virtue ethical,’ I mean a theory in which the virtues and other aretaic concepts are foundational, and which does not collapse into forms of other ethical approaches, such as consequentialism and deontology. By ‘theoretically ambitious,’ I mean a systematic theory that seeks to fulfil all the principal aims of theories of practical reason: to explain, justify, prescribe and to guide action. In this thesis I argue that a distinctively virtue ethical theory that is theoretically ambitious is possible. I do this by working out what such a theory might look like. In developing the theory, I also make a case that the theory is credible and attractive in its own right. In Chapter 1 I look at what makes an ethical theory distinctively virtue ethical. I also argue for a eudaimonic conception of virtue ethics, and determine a number of constraints on such a theory if it is to be distinctively virtue ethical. In Chapter 2 I look at what a more precisely characterised distinctively virtue ethical theory that is theoretically ambitious might look like. I argue in favour of using some ideas derived from Plato. A serious problem remains: the virtue ethical theory I develop in Chapter 2 is unable to give adequate action-guidance, a requirement for the theory to be theoretically ambitious. In Chapter 3 I introduce the central strategy of the thesis: to combine the virtue ethical theory arrived at in Chapter 2 with a form of ethical constitutivism in order to arrive at a distinctively virtue ethical theory that is theoretically ambitious, not least one able to give adequate action-guidance. Chapter 3 is concerned primarily with developing a form of ethical constitutivism suitable for combining with virtue ethics. The chapter is also concerned with examining objections to ethical constitutivism and diagnosing what is required to overcome these objections. In Chapter 4 I combine the virtue ethical theory favoured in Chapter 2 with the form of ethical constitutivism developed in Chapter 3 to form a combined theory. I call this theory: ‘constitutivist virtue ethics.’ I present what the theory involves, and I argue that although the theory incorporates elements from ethical constitutivism, it merits being considered distinctively virtue ethical. I also argue that constitutivist virtue ethics overcomes the objections that, as shown in Chapter 3, ethical constitutivism on its own is unable to overcome. Constitutivist virtue ethics therefore holds out the attractive prospect of a theory incorporating both the advantages of virtue ethics and some of the best of what ethical constitutivism has to offer. In Chapter 5 I address the biggest challenge to constitutivist virtue ethics being regarded as a theoretically ambitious theory: to be able to provide adequate action-guidance. To this end, I present an action-guidance procedure of eight action-guidance principles derived from constitutivist virtue ethics. I then argue that the action-guidance procedure can provide adequate action-guidance, even when faced with a difficult test case. I also examine two objections to the action-guidance procedure, and I argue that these can be overcome. I finish the thesis by considering some topics from the literature relevant to constitutivist virtue ethics, and which might be the basis for further work.

In this thesis, it is argued that the fundamental goal of education is one of equipping individuals to partake of the good life as members of a just democratic society. It is argued further that a necessary condition for the realisation of this goal is that individuals are equipped to think well; more precisely, to make decisions on the basis of arguments that are both logically cogent (that is, which have true premises and which are either inductively strong or deductively valid) and ethically grounded (that is, with premises which express appropriate regard for the welfare of others). The concern of the thesis is the role education might play in fostering both the capability and the readiness to engage widely in such thinking. Although this concern has a long and complex history within the Western tradition, insufficient educational progress has been made. It is suggested that progress has been hampered on the one hand by the stark disciplinary divide between the descriptive approach of psychology and the normative stance of philosophy; and on the other, by a failure on the part of educational programme developers to take into account the constraints of prevailing educational structures. It is argued that what is needed is a new model of interdisciplinary research.

<p>Ethical considerations have become more important in our environment, since all humans are moral agents and we can not avoid the involvement of ethical issues in every activity that we take part in. Ethical issues are vital, and it seems that it has become a burning question. This study presents the results of a survey of how Chief Executive Officers (CEO) in five IT-companies considers and work with attitudes toward ethical issues. The survey indicated that ethics in IT-companies has much to do with relations, relations between employees, relations between company and customer, and the importance of creating long-term relationships with customers. The survey also indicated the individual view of ethics. Finally, suggestions for further examination in this area are made.</p>