A construção de uma sociedade livre, justa e solidária, capaz de promover o bem comum, indistintamente, assim como a erradicação da pobreza e da marginalidade, além da redução da desigualdade social, são objetivos de nossa República e com certeza, vontade de quase todos os brasileiros. Isto significa que as ações do Estado têm que ser realizadas visando a concretização de uma justiça social. É para isto que deve estar a serviço o Estado, e é para corroborar com o alcance desta finalidade, que contribuímos por meio dos tributos que pagamos. O tributo advém de uma obrigatoriedade social, que ocasiona a saída do dinheiro da esfera particular e passa a integrar o que conhecemos por recurso público, o qual será administrado pelo Estado, através dos seus agentes estatais. Estes devem gerenciar e empenhar este recurso, única e exclusivamente para cumprir os fins sociais, para o que a honestidade e a probidade são exigências irrenunciáveis. Para ofertar esta garantia é que se presta o princípio da moralidade, o qual está na centralidade de nosso trabalho. Na prática, devido a nossa tradição positivista e a nossa cultura patrimonialista, observamos a dificuldade em se lidar com a moralidade no interior do Direito e especialmente na administração do recurso fruto do esforço coletivo. A consignação do princípio da moralidade em nossa Constituição faz com que a sua observância seja obrigatória no manejo da coisa pública, sendo que a mínima suspeita sobre o seu desrespeito pode e deve ser judicialmente controlado. Para isto é imprescindível que se aprimore cada vez mais os mecanismos de controle. A sociedade civil tem um papel fundamental neste exercício democrático, e para isto, formas dialógicas e interativas entre os cidadãos e o Estado têm que ser constantemente aperfeiçoadas, pois, se a imoralidade na administração tributária favorece somente alguns, a moralidade, por sua vez, vem atender aos interesses da maioria da população. / The construction of a free, fair and solidary society, capable of promoting the common good, indistinctly, such as the eradication of poverty and crime, as well as the decrease in social inequality, are the objectives of our Republic, and without a doubt, the will of nearly all Brazilians. This means that the actions of the State must be executed, bearing in mind the effective implementation of a social justice. This is the role of the State, and it is in order to corroborate within the means of this end that we contribute as taxpayers. Taxes derive from a social obligation in which money leaves the personal sphere and becomes part of what is known as a public resource, which will be administered by the State via its government agents. These agents must manage and make effective use of this public resource, solely and exclusively for the purpose of accomplishing social means, in order for honesty and integrity to be fundamental requirements. This guarantee is ensured by the principal of morality, which is found at the core of our work. In practice, due to our positive law tradition and our patrimonial culture, we observe the difficulty in dealing with morality inside the Law and mainly in the administration of resources which are the product of public efforts. The consignment of the principal of morality in our Constitution makes its observance mandatory in the dealings of public affairs, since a minimal suspicion about its nonobservance may and should be judicially controlled. In order to accomplish this, it is of utmost importance that the control mechanisms are improved continuously. Civil society has a fundamental role in this democratic exercise and therefore, interactive and conversational forms among citizens and the State must be perfected constantly. For, if immorality in the tax administration favors only a few, morality, in its turn, serves the interests of the majority of the population.

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<p>  </p> <p>This project is at the intersections of the anthropology of care, aging and food. The research is conducted in San Francisco among aging Latinos and explores their care relationships. I examine how people define and negotiate what is considered “good” care and “good” food in a society with a prevailing “successful aging” paradigm. The project examines how care is complex and multifaceted and demonstrates how food can be used as a socio-material lens to study care. Food is a part of daily life that is laden with moral, social and political meaning which makes it ideal for studying care interactions. The research takes place in various community settings in San Francisco’s Mission District. These community settings include a local senior center and its food program, the homes of older people and other spaces of significance to the participants (e.g., grocery stores, restaurants, and other neighborhood places). Multiple ethnographic methods such as participant observation, interviews and neighborhood walks were used to collect data. By examining care relationships, I found that caregivers had differing and competing ideas of morality in everyday care and what is “good” for older adults. Studying paradoxes of care and understanding how these tensions and contradictions play out is a crucial component of understanding care as a moral enterprise. Key findings show that many people are not recognized as “caregivers” yet are providing important forms of care that sustain their families and communities. Additionally, studying “rule breaking” that seniors and others engaged in shed light on multiple interpretations of “good” aging care and food. Finally, in a neighborhood that has undergone so much transformation, many older adults saw the changes in the Mission as generally favorable, although those same shifts make the neighborhood relatively unwelcoming to seniors. This research broadens our understanding of “caregiving” by emphasizing the diverse forms of care that people provide throughout the life course.</p>

Robert A. Heinlein is a key figure in the development of American science fiction. What makes his contribution unique is his emphasis on philosophical speculation. Heinlein's program is based on rationality as a vital element to salvation. Although the importance of rationality is an aspect of many schools of philosophy particular value may be gained by comparing Heinlein's system with the philosophy of Plotinus. An examination of Heinlein's key works (Stranger in a Strange Land. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Time Enough For Love, The Number of the Beast--. And various short stories I provides ample evidence to support the idea that the two systems are quite similar. Thus it becomes apparent that Heinlein presents a carefully considered world view which is particularly exemplified in his competent heroes, and in his concern for family, morality, and aesthetics.

Should U.S. political decision-makers decide to wage a moral war, it is not as easy a merely saying go do it. To ensure moral targeting decisions, American national political leaders must suffer the costs of monitoring in terms of time and money, and provide not only detailed direction, but also constant oversight to ensure objectives are clear and subordinates carry out directions. Military officers must ensure that their motivations align with those of their principals, and they must ensure that constraining doctrine for planning and executing combat operations is followed. Having satisfied these variables, moral targeting decisions, wherein proportionality of non-combatant casualties is weighed against target necessity, should then be easily attainable. The process of aligning motivations with respect to desired outcomes, and the process of planning strategies according to doctrine together lead to moral targeting decisions. By following the processes of getting war plans approved according to published U.S. doctrine, a deliberate dialogue is followed with direction and feedback through several steps of planning and approval that result in multiple people working on a product that results in a sort of corporate buy- in. I posit that it is difficult to follow this process and end up with targeting decisions that do not weigh harm to non-combatants against the necessity of individual targets, especially when principals and agents come together to deliberately ensure they align their motivations with respect to objectives. This theory is applicable to U.S. involvement in war, but is not necessarily generalizable to other countries. Through case studies of American involvement in Desert Storm (the first Gulf War), Operation Allied Force (NATOs air war over Serbia), and the U.S. War on Terror (campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq), I find that only in the War on Terror were moral targeting decisions consistently made by US national leaders. Furthermore, that was the only case study wherein both constraining doctrine was present and principal-agent motivations were aligned with respect to objectives. The other two cases showed that the variables were not followed and proportionality- necessity decisions were not made.

<p>The aim of this study is to examine if Kenneth, a character in the novel Nyår by Stig Larsson, takes his ethical responsibility for one of the characters that appears in one section of the book, Ann. Nyår has often been related to morality. This study shows that Levinas philosophy of ethics is a supplement to the discussion of morality. According to Levinas, a person that acts in a non-moral way still can act in a righteous ethical way. With this starting point, it is possible to be close to the text and to bring out new perspectives on the novel. Kenneth is a nihilist, but has got the possibility to take his ethical responsibility for Ann. The ethical responsibility for another person, according to Levinas, always comes first. Kenneth, like everybody else, is obligated to this responsibility.</p>

This study examined people’s attitudes towards killing bugs and their bug-killing behaviour in the context of nature vs. nurture explanations of bug killing. Previous research shows that exposure to genetic (i.e., nature) explanations could have undesirable effects on people’s attitudes and behaviour, compared to the exposure to experiential(i.e., nurture) explanations. Genetic explanations for killing may affect attitudes towards killing and killing behaviour, because they suggest that killing behaviour is predetermined or programmed by nature. Such explanations may also be used by individuals to overcome guilt and dissonance from prior killing or killing in which they are about to participate. This study tested the idea that exposure to genetic explanations for bug killing would lead people to view killing bugs as more morally acceptable, as well as lead them to kill more bugs. A sample of university students was randomly assigned into three conditions, in which they read either genetic or experiential explanations for why people kill bugs or read a neutral passage. The study utilised a procedure in which participants were led to believe that they were killing bugs (although in actuality no bugs were killed), to observe their killing behaviour in a self-paced killing task. Half of the participants were also asked to kill a bug prior to the self-paced killing task. Results showed that participants who read genetic explanations viewed bug killing as more morally acceptable, compared to participants who read experiential explanations, and this occurred particularly among those who engaged in the prior killing task. However, no similar effects emerged for the number of bugs killed, though there was a positive correlation between the moral acceptance of bug killing and the number of bugs killed. Implications of genetic explanations with respect to aggression and killing are discussed.

This thesis argues the need for a critique of foundational values which are often taken to be unquestionable. Values and evaluations inform the decision-making of human individuals on a daily basis on all possible levels – the local, the national, the international, and the global. Yet for all the importance of values, their origin, functioning and effects are rarely brought to light. This paper opposes critique as a creative and genealogical endeavour against shallow conformist analyses that serve the established status quo. With the aid of Nietzsche’s philosophy, in its first part this paper establishes an outline of how a proper critique would look. The proposed method of critique – a transvaluation which seeks to determine the origin of values in order to interpret them in a novel and more affirmative fashion – is then applied via the philosophy of Spinoza in the second part of the thesis wherein the origin of values is questioned. The third part employs the philosophy of Badiou both to bring back the critique to a more modern footing and to juxtapose Badiou to Spinozist and Nietzschean transvaluations. This part also paves the way for a concluding comparative section where the key features of the three philosophers are contrasted regarding the foundational values which where perpetually criticized throughout the thesis. The overall purpose of the paper is to explore the possibility of an alternative method of critique to the seemingly dominant modern opposition... [to full text] / Šis darbas teigia, jog reikia užsiimti kritika pamatinių vertybių, kurios dažnai yra laikomos nekvestionuojamomis. Vertybės ir vertinimai veikia žmonių sprendimus kiekvieną dieną visais įmanomais lygmenimis – vietiniu, nacionaliniu, tarptautiniu ir globaliu. Tačiau nepaisant vertybių svarbos, jų kilmė, veikimas ir poveikiai yra retai nuodugniai svarstomi. Šiame magistriniame darbe kritika kaip kūrybinė ir genealoginė veikla yra oponuojama paviršutiniškai ir konformistiškai analizei, kuri tarnauja dominuojančioms galioms. Su Nietzsche filosofijos pagalba, pirmoji šio darbo dalis apibrėžia kaip turėtų atrodyti tikra kritika. Siūlomas kritikos metodas – pervertinimas, kuris siekia nustatyti vertybių kilmę tam, kad interpretuotų jas nauju ir labiau teigiamu būdu – yra taikomas su Spinozos filosofija antrojoje dalyje, kurioje keliamas klausimas apie vertybių kilmę. Trečioji dalis naudojasi Badiou filosofija tam, kad grąžintų kritiką į šių dienų laikus ir supriešintų pastarąjį su Spinozos ir Nietzsche pervertinimais. Ši dalis taipogi paruošia dirvą apibendrinamai lyginamajai daliai, kurioje apžvelgiamos pagrindinės trijų filosofų nuostatos apie pamatines vertybes, kurios kritikuojamos viso darbo metu. Bendras šio darbo tikslas yra išbandyti alternatyvaus kritikos metodo galimybes: dabartinė situacija atrodo tokia, kur būtina rinktis tarp radikalaus nepasitenkinimo viskuo, arba tarp radikalaus konformizmo. Šių ekstremalumų alternatyva būtų pervertinanti kritika, užsiimanti... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

This thesis used fifty hours of naturally occurring video and audio taped data from the ‘weigh-in' section of four commercial weight management groups in the East Midlands of England. This thesis is a discursive psychological and conversation analytic investigation of the turn-taking organization of the talk, examining what the group leaders and members make relevant in their talk about food and dieting. The data was transcribed using the Jeffersonian method. Group members attend the group weekly, and are weighed - their weight gain, loss or maintenance is recorded on a membership card. The analytic chapters follow the format of the ‘weigh-in' section of the meeting exploring firstly how the group leaders and members manage the practices of getting ready to be weighed; then how the ‘news' of weight gain, loss or maintenance is told and receipted; before exploring how ‘advice-giving' is constructed and the final analytic chapter deals with the issues of morality and accountability in the leaders' and members' talk. Analysis shows that the ‘pre-weigh in practices' involved before the group members are weighed consists of two robust patterns, 1) the practice of getting undressed is not oriented to by either the group members or group leaders and the group leaders avoided direct eye contact and concerned themselves with other business or 2) when no undressing practices took place, the group leaders were much more comfortable with direct eye contact. These sequences show how the body and its practices are constructed in particular ways within, and as part of the practices of getting ready to be weighed. Analysis showed the telling and receipting of weight news gets done differently depending on whether the group members have gained, lost or maintained weight. When the news concerned weight gain, the sequence included a ‘pre-announcement' and the news TCU was punctuated with marked trouble. When the news concerned weight loss, only the group members produced a pre-account and the news TCU contained no marked trouble. Finally, when the group members had maintained weight, the news TCU was delivered bluntly, and there was no evidence of trouble. In relation to advice-giving, analysis showed that group members repeatedly worked to assert their epistemic priority to avoid having to acknowledge the advice and the advice was receipted minimally. Finally, analysis showed that group members produced accounts with reference to a moral evaluation, such as blame or culpability. Sometimes an account was produced to circumvent being held publicly accountable for the event or action. It became apparent that both the group leaders and group members could not orient to themselves, their behaviour or food without it being constructed within a moral or accountable framework. Therefore, the thesis is an exploration of how group leaders and members manage the ‘dieting-practices' involved in getting weighed in a commercial weight management group and how using DP and CA can show the intricate turn by turn organization of such practices.

The majority of people on Earth now live in cities, and estimates hold that 60 percent of the world’s cities have yet to be built. Now is the time for philosophers to develop a philosophy of the city to address the forthcoming issues that urbanization will bring. In this dissertation, I respond to this need for a philosophy of the city by developing a theory of city identity, developing some of the theory’s normative implications, illustrating the theory with a case study, and outlining the nature and future of philosophy of the city more generally. Indeed, this dissertation is only a part of my larger project of founding and institutionalizing this new field of both academic and socially-engaged philosophical activity. Throughout the history of the discipline, other areas such a personal identity have received numerous considerations, along with the concept of identity as an abstraction. For example, there is a bounty of research addressing problems pertaining to how objects and people retain an identity over time and claims about identity in general. While one could argue that cities are not any different than any other object, such an account fails to consider that a city’s dynamic nature makes it dissimilar to other things. To illustrate this point, I develop a position called dynamic composition as identity theory that provides a framework for understanding the identity of a city, exhibiting that views within analytic metaphysics are too narrow to apply to all cases. After establishing a concept of city identity, I use an applied mereology to develop a model of city identity that shows how the parts of a city fit together to form a complete city. This model introduces the normative dimension of my project by providing a way to identify how incongruence between a city’s parts can cause problems for residents’ wellbeing. To understand the moral dimensions of infrastructure, I argue that moral theory alone is ill prepared to adequately demonstrate its full range of effects. Yet, instead of developing another moral theory, we can supplement existing moral theories with the concepts of sustainability and resilience thinking to account for the elements that traditional moral systems neglect. I support this view with a detailed account of transportation infrastructure. Namely, I show that current frameworks for assessing transportation infrastructure are inadequate, and employ the method of complex moral assessment developed earlier to make such assessments. Lastly, I show how the research in this dissertation counts as intra-disciplinary research, a new kind of method for philosophical research.