Thesis (Ph.D.)--Northwestern University, 1997. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 58-04, Section: A, page: 1339. Adviser: James Will.

Thesis (D. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 1994. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 208-226).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 121-127).

In this dissertation I take exception with a widely held philosophical doctrine, according to which agents are only blameworthy for the bad actions they have chosen to bring about. My argument strategy is to present cases in which agents are blamed for involuntary actions that are not in any way connected to their culpable and voluntary choices. These failures correspond, I suggest, to occasions of culpable ignorance where agents have been negligent or careless. More specifically, I claim that violations of natural duties of respect and consideration, and certain acquired role-type duties, are blamed without any voluntary consent. If my examples are persuasive, then the point is reached where a normative principle of 'voluntary consent' does not in fact coincide with people's actual practices and 'considered judgements'. In the final sections of the dissertation, I argue against the plausibility of keeping the principle and revising our judgements. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

Moral reform is a neglected response to wrongdoing that has been incorrectly portrayed as a practice involving illegitimate treatment of wrongdoers and as totally unsatisfying to those theorists advocating backward-looking practices such as retributive punishment. A clear explanation of the ethical legitimacy and practical necessity of the reformative techniques moral reform involves has been missed, and this paper details the design of moral reform proper in order to fill this gap in punishment theory. The moral reform of an offender is identified as a desideratum of responses to wrongdoing and it is explained what moral reform ought to entail. The claim that moral reform qualifies as the overriding aim of responses to wrongdoing is argued for on the grounds that this practice is capable of achieving all the established ends of responses to wrongdoing. The legitimate desiderata of our practices are identified as those usually selected as the ends of punishment practices, and moral reform must accomplish these if it is to be accepted. Moral reform is shown to realise the goals of punishments as the fortunate effects of what is done to achieve an offender's moral improvement and of what reformees do in taking responsibility for their actions. The suffering involved in moral reform receives particular emphasis since the practice will never satisfy unless it accommodates the widely-held intuition that the offender must suffer sufficiently as a consequence of his wrongdoing. Moral reform is further portrayed as the most meaningful practice for its ability to satisfy the appropriate needs and desires victims have in response to their victimization. A central claim of the thesis is that moral reform best serves the victim, since it most effectively relieves the victim's emotional responses to wrongdoing and is as adept as punishment at the expression of these same emotions. Reformers advocate a constructive response to wrongdoing that benefits all affected parties. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

The central aim of this study was to conduct a qualitative exploration of the prosocial inclinations possessed by young South African students. The literature review argues that traditional approaches to moral responding separate the individual from the social. An alternative approach that reinstates language and ideology is delineated. It is argued that such a paradigm is most appropriate to a study of prosocial responding during a period of social change. Hypothetical moral dilemmas were administered to twenty-nine students. Six students were selected and each was interviewed on two separate occasions. In this way six case studies were developed. The methodological traditions of phenomenology and hermeneutics were employed to analyze the protocols and subsequent interviews. Seven themes descriptive of a moral response were identified. These consisted of moral reasoning, empathy, mood, guilt, alienation, a sense of group-identity, and ambiguity regarding the relative interests of self versus other. These themes are fully discussed in terms of the literature. It is concluded that moral reasoning may be insufficient to motivate prosocial behaviour. Conventional moral narratives may be appropriated in order to make sense of conflicting emotions. Empathy was identified as a necessary but not sufficient condition for a prosocial response. Empathy might translate into either sympathy or personal distress. Mood was found to largely dictate attentional focus. Alienation was found to be a defensive formulation that inhibits the emergence of sympathy. Guilt might precipitate an alienated posture. It was found that guilt might be attributed to group-identity and thereby denied. Tension between a self- and other-oriented response, or between blame and sympathy, was common. It is suggested that this ambiguity reflects ideological contradictions that have been internalized. It is postulated that during periods of social change such contradictions are accentuated.

Because racism remains a significant issue in society, and many victims of racism do not speak up for themselves when faced with racism, it is important to explore how witnesses to racist events may react and intervene upon observing racism toward others. Thus, the current study explored how participants (bystanders) reacted verbally to racist comments made by a confederate during a partner activity, as well as how participants discussed their reactions in post-interviews. Forty college students participated in the study, and three of the participants verbally intervened upon hearing the racist statements. Ajzen's theory of planned behavior was utilized as a framework, and examination of the results indicated that components of the theory as well as social constructions of racism and appropriateness of intervention behaviors affect intervention outcomes. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications, as well as suggestions for future research are included.

This work tries to present the importance of the theory of justice of John Rawls from the point of view of Christian ethics, pointing out selected aspect of this theory. The basis for this reflection gives the fact, that the theory of justice of John Rawls is repeatedly cited in the presentations of the principles of Catholic social teaching. In some points they show similarities, in others are in opposition. Furthermore, John Rawls formulates his formal theory in a way to make it acceptable for every rational human being. In this group are also included persons with religious and moral ideas, or how John Rawls call them himself: people with comprehensive doctrines. The rationale to examine the theory of justice is justified also by the fact that Rawls ascribes not ignorable function in the aforementioned theory to religious ideas. Thirdly, in the case of John Rawls is possible to see one of the advocates and fore-representative of the liberal tradition. Liberalism is, because of its ambiguous definition but simultanously real presence in the society and thinking of people, not ignorable challenge for the Church and religious ideas, with which she already tries for two hundred years to tackle. In this work therefore will be presented the life and works of John Rawls, together with the basic theses of...

Ethics, credibility and objectivity in the history of photography, especially journalistic This work deals with photography as with a socio-ethical pictorial medium, and covers the period from its invention to the mid-fifties of 20th century. I describe the history and development of ethical aspects of photography in the context of the process from image taking to its publication in the press, and its importance in the context of the time. The photos presented in the thesis are selected from those that have, due to their specific impact at the time they were taken, particular importance, and have extraordinary informative value related to ethical aspects in the historical development of photography. I mention photographers and photos that draw attention to the newly emerged ethical problems enable others to see pains, wickedness and injustice in the society, to rouse conscience of the society, and give impetus to correct these. In this respect, photography has played an important and irreplaceable role. There are also presented photographs documenting ethical failures of whole nations under the influence of monstrous ideologies of charismatic leaders, as a memento for future generations to help them to avoid similar events. Keywords Photography, journalism, social ethics, child labor, propaganda,...

Scholarship on Black American religious life has historically understood Black Pentecostalism as unconcerned with the socially-challenging lived experiences of its congregants. Many scholars and lay observers, maintaining that such Pentecostal religious life has no identifiable political dimension, have consequently overlooked the political nature of the ritual practices animating the worship event. Centering the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) as a case study, this dissertation argues that the ritual practices of COGIC worship events carry a tradition of political protest that contest dominant ideas of what it means to be “human” as both a social-political identity and an ontological category. To accomplish its task, this dissertation reinterprets turn-of-the-twentieth-century historical events and employs social theory to investigate the social practices of Black Pentecostals. It is the contention of this dissertation that COGIC congregants have historically embodied and expressed their political commitments through the adoption, adaptation, and engagement with Christian rituals. The project demonstrates how the ritual practices of worship (relating to preaching, music-making, tarrying, and ecstasy) allow COGIC congregants to remake themselves and their world, challenging the larger society to reconsider what it means to be “human.” Through the examination of four ritual practices of COGIC worship, this project explains how that group participates in the political dimension of human life as a necessary part of its religious activity. Through the activity of worship, congregants participate in the work of making themselves anew, which impacts how the greater society relates to them as people who are due the rights and privileges of U.S. American citizenship. Simultaneously, COGIC worship provides the ontological discourse or tools for congregants to become “new beings,” which directly corresponds to—and contests (racist) dominant ideas of—what it means to be human. / 2026-05-16T00:00:00Z