<p>In this essay results are developed on two different levels. First, it is shown in demonstration that a phenomenological analysis on the lines of Roman’s Ingarden’s study of works in literature can be applied to Virtual Reality works, such as professional-simulators and video-games. In particular it can then be pointed out that: i) sound is separable from the scene, but using sound VR becomes enriched; ii) the main role in literature is left for the imagination, while in VR we find richness in concretization.</p><p>Second, it is argued in discussion that works in VR can be qualified as works of art. These electronic works may have all the aesthetical qualities (based on the phenomenology of Roman Ingarden) of the works of art in the traditional sense. So, that paper has two objectives: an analysis of VR and the search for the status of VR in art.</p>

<p>The Norwegian Rom community (Gypsies) leads a life outside large society. Most of the members are illiterate and poor and they are dependent on social security. Moreover, the Rom children are not going to school because education is not a part of the Rom culture. This situation raises various ethical dilemmas regarding cultural rights and obligations. In this thesis the author asks which of the conflicting rights should weigh most: The parent’s right to bring up their children in accordance with their own culture and beliefs, or the child’s right to education? The author’s argument is structured around two main problem areas. First, what is it with education that is good for all people? The short answer to this question is that education is important for functioning in society. Knowledge provides for a wider range of opportunities, and how to use this knowledge is up to each person. The other problem area is the limits of cultural toleration in liberal societies. Here, the author argues that although the right to culture is important, liberalism cannot accommodate illiberal practices. Childrearing that restricts the child’s access to the world outside its original community is one example of intolerable practices. In order to get the Rom children in to school, dialogue is the preferable way to go. However, if the establishment of dialogue is impossible because of fundamentalist or non-dialogical attitudes, an alternative argument is provided: Discursive paternalism is a compulsion to argue on contested norms. This compulsion reconciles individual freedom (autonomy) and paternalism, and can therefore be justified by liberals. Main references are Will Kymlicka, Martha Nussbaum, Chandran Kukathas, Adeno Addis and May Thorseth.</p>

<p>This thesis explores the possibility of formulating an intermediate approach towards global justice. The desired approach should be intermediate in the sense that it is located in the normative space between the two rather exterme philosophical positions of cosmopolitanism and liberal nationalism for reasons explained in the thesis. As it turns out in the argumentation within this thesis it is an appropriate identification of the facts that can be thought morally relevant in the context of global justice which is of crucial importance for achieving this task. This is the case since such morally relevant facts, as will be shown, are decisive not only for making definite sense of the ideals at stake with regard to the issues of global inequality and absolute poverty. They furthermore also are essential for determining normatively appropriate and empirically effective obligations for working towards a more just world.</p>

<p>Human rights as codified in international documents are claims every human being have by virtue of being a human. Meaning that every state must ensure, through its laws, that each individual is guaranteed these claims or rights equally. Islamic principles like other religions are obligations that its members (Muslims) must perform rather than claims. Therefore, it is possible that individual rights may not be respected within Islamic principles because, of the differences in their origin and emphasis, one is a claim and the other a duty of believers.</p><p>The concern of violating rights of other people within Islamic law calls into attention how Islamic principles can be applied in a state while guaranteeing human rights as universal principles.</p><p>This study discusses various approaches proposed by Muslim authors on how human rights can be justified in Islam. Since human rights are political concepts, in the sense that each state must ensure that human beings go about their life freely, they should be the focus of consensus among different doctrines in a modern state. That is a principle to justify human rights in Islam must consider the fact of pluralism of religious doctrines and how all are included in the political process of the state.</p>

<p>Forensic DNA databases are expanding in both use and range. In particular, the U.K. and U.S. are developing new techniques and policies in regards to their forensic DNA databases with the hope of increasing the role of forensic DNA databases in criminal investigations. Despite the goal of reducing crime, there are ethical concerns that arise with the ways in which these forensic DNA databases are being developed. This paper outlines the technical aspects of forensic DNA databases and then describes different conceptions of identity, using race as an example of a constructed identity that is relevant in the use of forensic DNA databases. Then it explains how forensic DNA databases construct a unique identity with the goal of ascribing this to people and groups. This ascribed identity is problematic, and different problems that are related to identity are discussed. Despite the benefits of forensic DNA databases, these problems are ethically relevant and as such, a series of policy recommendations are made with the aim of balancing the harms and benefits of forensic DNA databases.</p>

<p>This thesis interprets John Dewey’s theory of the moral life in the global context in order to shed a light on major ethical challenges of the process of globalization. Dewey’s perspective provides an explanation of (1) formation of the individual commitments to particular sets of values,(2) justification of the responsibilities to the distanced peoples as opposed to the responsibilities to the nearest and dearest peoples and (3)the meaning of democratic social arrangements on the global scale.</p><p>In order to find a theoretical basis for justification of democracy in the globalizing world, the thesis reviews Dewey’s educational philosophy. His inquiry in the underlying ideas of public education reveals its core democratic meaning which points out the necessity of progressive democratic character education. This thesis suggests that in the current global context the existing educational bodies (such as UNDP and UNESCO) are insufficient in providing such a humanistic education which would actualize democracy as interdependence of all humans within civilization.</p><p>In order to establish a just social order which would be responsive to every human being within civilization there is the need to maintain a democratic mode of associated living on the global scale where every human partakes in the accumulation of knowledge of civilization and benefits from it in return. Relying on Dewey's theoretical basis the thesis suggests the criteria which the global educational institution should fulfil in order to maintain democracy as a mode of associated living in the global society.</p>

<p>Abortion is clearly one of the most controversal and divisive contemporary moral problems. This thesis is an investigation upon significant number of important, fundemental ethical questions in relation to policy of abortion in Nigeria.</p>

<p>In this thesis I present and discuss the phenomenon of ethical fading, and its association with biased assessment of a fair action. Ethical fading is an intuitive, self-deceptive, unconscious mechanism by which even morally competent agents are lead to disregard the ethical consequences of a particular choice. In engaging in this psychological mechanism, I argue, agents are also presupposing a biased assessment of entitlement. This biased assessment of fairness is intentionally dubious, and to be found in decision frames and reinforced by contexts. In the final part of the work I present an applied ethics case to show how ethical fading may be a quite prevalent pattern of behavior.</p>

<p>Det övergripande syftet med denna c-uppsats är att skapa klarhet i begreppet kritiskt tänkande, vilket görs genom att studera olika kritiska traditioners syn på begreppet samt dess förekomst i lärostadgor från 1900-talets början och framåt med avseende på gymnasieskolan.</p><p>De första tecknen på ett kritiskt förhållningssätt kan vi se redan under antiken, men det var först under 1700-talet som Immanuel Kant utvecklade innebörden av begreppet, vilket senare kom att influera Karl Popper, vars filosofiska idéer inspirerade de informella logikerna, som har uttalat sig om just kritiskt tänkande i relation till pedagogiken och skolvärlden.</p><p>Under 1940-talet kan vi se de första formuleringarna som innehåller begreppet kritiskt tänkande i de svenska lärostadgorna för gymnasieskolan och sedan dess har begreppet getts ett större utrymme allt eftersom nya läroplaner har utvecklats. De första formuleringarna kan härröra från den amerikanska aktivitetspedagogiken, medan nuvarande läroplan gör en viss koppling mellan kritiskt tänkande och det klassiska bildningsbegreppet, så som det formulerades inom den tyska bildningsfilosofin i slutet av 1700-talet.</p>

<p>This paper studies the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein during his years (1920–26) as an elementary school teacher in remote Niederösterreich, Austria. The paper gives a survey of his life, and also a brief account of three of his main works: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Philosophical Investigations and Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics. Attention is given to his alphabetical word list, Wörterbuch für Volksschulen, published for educational use in elementary schools. The study is focused on Wittgenstein’s educational practise, and establishes a connection between his experience as a teacher and his late philosophy.</p>