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AI-enabled information systems (AI-enabled IS) offer enhanced utility and efficiency due to their knowledge-based endowments, enabling human agents to assign and receive tasks from AI-enabled IS. As a result, this leads to improved decision-making, ability to manage laborious jobs, and a decrease in human errors. Despite the performance-based endowments and efficiencies, there are significant ethical concerns regarding the use of and delegation to AI-enabled IS, which have been extensively addressed in the literature on the dark side of artificial intelligence (AI). Notable concerns include bias and discrimination, fairness, transparency, privacy, accountability, and autonomy. However, the Information Systems (IS) literature does not have a delegation framework that incorporates ethics in the delegation mechanism. This work seeks to integrate a mixed deontological-teleological ethical system into the delegation mechanism to (and from) AI-enabled IS. To that end, I present a testable model to ethically appraise various AI-enabled IS as well as ethically evaluate delegation to (and from) AI-enabled IS in various settings and situations.

The thesis tries to provide an answer to the problem of tax avoidance. For this purpose a reinterpretation of taxes as practices of mutual recognition is defended. The conception of taxation and tax law defended in the thesis contrast sharply to the merely instrumental or functional conceptions of taxation and tax law that dominates today’s common understanding of taxation and tax law. The thesis lays out the basis for a new general theory of tax law, but does not develop in detail each of the elements of such a theory. The thesis first lays out the problem by analysing different definitions of tax avoidance, tax evasion, and tax planning, as well as their shortcomings. From that discussion, it emerges that the ways in which tax avoidance has been conceptualised are not only unclear but they also fail to produce any relevant insight into the problem of tax avoidance. The thesis then relates those shortcomings to what it calls the classical paradigm of tax law, which leads, in turn, to the contemporary general theory of tax law. A combination of these conceptions – of the substance (function) and form of tax law – explains that the structure of tax law is based on a conception of the obligation to pay taxes in which there is space for tax avoidance. The thesis argues that, in doing so, the purpose of tax law is defeated. Recent alternatives to the contemporary general theory are also analysed and critically evaluated. The second part of the thesis develops the positive aspect of the argument, in three connected moves. First, an argument is provided to prove that both liberal egalitarian and luck egalitarian theories of justice are not able to offer an answer to tax avoidance because they consider taxes and tax law to be mere instruments for redistribution. Second, a substantive reinterpretation of taxation as a practice with an internal good is presented, in which mutual recognition is defended as taxation’s internal good. Finally, an argument for the thesis that the best possible understanding of tax law requires us to interpret it as a teleological institution is provided. With this positive programme, the thesis aims at providing a superior alternative to the merely instrumental conception of taxation and tax law that derives from the classical paradigm presented at the outset. Its superiority is evidenced by the fact that the alternative provided can offer us the conceptual resources to understand the problem of tax avoidance and hence of what tax law is about.

In recent years, mentoring has emerged as a research domain, however, the preponderance of mentoring research has been situated first, in the business or organizational settings and second, in the K-12 educational setting, focusing on protégé experiences, using quantitative survey instruments to collect data. Thus, mentoring research literature includes a paucity of formal studies in the arena of graduate education. Situated in the higher education setting, this study investigated the perspectives of faculty-mentors who provided mentoring to doctoral students who completed the doctoral degree, employing the qualitative research methodology known as phenomenology, as an orthogonal but complimentary epistemology to previous quantitative studies. Located specifically in the College of Education of a large research university, the study asked 262 College of Education doctoral graduates to nominate College of Education faculty who provided mentoring to them during their degree pursuit. A total of 59 faculty were nominated as mentors. Six of the most frequently nominated mentors participated in two semi-structured interviews (Berg, 2004). The interviews addressed the mentor's experience of the mentoring endeavor, seeking to gather a description of their lived experience (Creswell, 1998) of mentoring and the meanings (Cohen & Omery, 1994) they garnered from it. The interviews yielded several shared perspectives on mentoring, including: a Gratifying Perspective, an Intentional Perspective, an Idiographic Perspective, a Teleological Perspective, and a Dynamic Perspective. Other noteworthy concepts that emerged from the mentors' data were: values, motivations, symbiotic relationship, and contextual negotiation. Implications for mentoring theory and practice as well as mentor development were described. The study contributed to development of a fuller phenomenological understanding of the perspectives of faculty-mentors in a mentoring relationship with doctoral students.

Univerzita Karlova v Praze Právnická fakulta Patrik Koželuha Abstract: Teleological interpretation and the case law of Czech courts The purpose of my thesis is to analyze teleological interpretation from both the theoretical and the practical point of view. Since the use of teleological interpretation by Czech courts has increased in the last two decades, the reason for my research is to present recent legal discussions related to the teleological interpretation. The thesis also examines the arguments which support or criticise such method of interpretation and compares them to contemporary judicial decisions. The thesis is composed of two main chapters; each of them explores the teleological interpretation from a different perspective. The first part is a theoretical part which summarizes acquired knowledge of legal theory concerning teleological interpretation. The second part deals with detailed analysis of selected judicial decisions. The aim of the thesis is to provide a reader with a comparison between theoretical and practical approach to the teleological interpretation. The opening subchapters of the theoretical part explicate what the statutory interpretation is. It also attempts to outline the limits of interpretation. Subsequently, the study presents and characterises the main methods of...

Concern about the economic, social and environmental impacts caused by the production and consumption of products and services has resulted in an escalation in the monitoring of companies by stakeholders. Scrutiny has been enhanced by an expanding array of behaviour-modulating instruments, which span a voluntary to mandatory continuum, in the form of ethical identifiers that range from collaborative partnerships, through codes and standards, to regulations, directives and laws. Such identifiers are now becoming more-widely used by businesses in the formulation and communication of their Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability (CSRS) related strategies. In a business environment undergoing closer examination, individual companies must determine the extent to which they will endorse CSRS, as well as deciding on their level of public disclosure of related practices. However, despite an increasing number of tools that are available for communicating ethical disclosure, there is currently no agreed standard format for presenting the relevant data. This can create difficulties for stakeholders who may wish to compare and contrast the ethical business practices of different companies and can reduce the pressure for meaningful change to be brought about. In the course of the research reported in this thesis, philosophical, ethical and legitimacy theories were drawn upon to understand the approaches that underpin CSRS disclosure, whilst the engagement of key stakeholders was evaluated by applying the principles involved in stakeholder mapping and ethical business strategy communication. For practical reasons, the study focusses on a single global business sector with identifiable CSRS interests, the apparel sector, which has well-publicised issues regarding both its social and environmental impacts, while also possessing constituent parts that are applicable to a variety of other consumer goods markets (for example, extended supply chains). Using a pragmatic methodology, the primary research consisted of two phases carried out in sequence; quantitative research first, then qualitative investigation. The first phase utilised findings from previously published quantitative research to pinpoint five fashion sector brands. The brands’ web-based CSRS-related disclosure was examined by means of a longitudinal four-stage content analysis, which involved an assessment of the click paths created by brands to enable interested parties to access information about their ethical business practices. The ethical identifiers disclosed were then classified and enumerated to quantify the range and complexity of the CSRS-related information provided by each brand. The information gained from the findings was also used to inform the development of a framework for identifying, grading and communicating CSRS disclosure to enable comparative analysis of the approaches adopted by different companies and their suitability to different types of stakeholders. The second phase of the research utilised a qualitative methodology to probe the results from the quantitative phase and to develop an improved communication tool. In-depth interviews were undertaken with fifteen key informants on CSRS, encompassing policy makers, advisors and representatives from commerce; as well as five consumer focus groups divided by age (20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60 years and over). As a result of the research findings, ten stakeholder types were identified as key audiences for CSRS-related information, while stakeholder engagement with the data was classified into three levels ranging from ‘active’, through ‘aware but ambivalent’, to ‘inactive’. Stakeholders who were categorised as ‘active’, responded to triggers created by CSRS-related knowledge and readily participated in behaviours that were sympathetic to promoting social responsibility. The ‘active’ stakeholders were likely to be professionals working in the area of CSRS and consumers personally committed to ethical goals. The participants who demonstrated ‘awareness but ambivalence’ to CSRS information possessed knowledge of CSRS issues, but were not emotionally committed to its goals. They used behavioural filters to explain the rationale supporting a position of commitment that was flexible and dependent on circumstances; hence their tendency to consider the information was affected by a range of additional factors. By contrast, ‘inactive’ stakeholders created blockers or barriers to justify why the responsibility for CSRS lay not with themselves, but with second and third parties in the supply chain. They displayed limited or no commitment to CSRS goals and were not swayed in their behaviour by associated knowledge. The multi-layering of stakeholder perspectives emphasises the need for a reporting framework designed to satisfy the requirements of a growing and diverse body of interested parties. To address this need, ethical identifiers used in CSRS disclosure were divided into deontological and teleological indicators to provide greater classification exclusivity than previous models. From this division, the current research proposes a new communications framework suited to a variety of levels of stakeholder commitment and CSRS complexities by using a three concentric circles (TCC) format, with core, intermediate and outer circles identifying respectively what a company is required to do (mandatory and co-regulatory actions), agrees or chooses to do (self-regulatory and voluntary activities), and is going to do (through ethical collaborative partnerships). If applied digitally, the proposed framework could provide further detail relating to the ethical identifiers contained in each circle and expand the level of information available. When current CSRS disclosure by five sample brands was analysed using the TCC format, voluntary aspects (intermediate and outer circles) were found to dominate in number over mandatory obligations (core circle). However, the deontological actions or activities within which the companies engaged (core and intermediate circles) were seen to have greater longevity than their teleological collaborations and partnerships (outer circle). Bringing together the proposed framework for communicating CSRS information and the stakeholder engagement categories, the potential for full-disclosure access to ethical indicators, and their details, was designed for the ‘active’ group, who were the most likely category to create change-making pressure on companies. The availability of basic and concise ethical data was favoured by the ‘aware but ambivalent’ group, whislt an identifiable logo, indicating that a company was disclosing its practices was considered more than adequate for the requirements of the ‘inactive’ group who were unlikely to seek further information. The stance adopted by this latter group highlighted that business accountability is not demanded by all potential stakeholders and illustrated why mandatory intervention can be needed to enforce behavioural expectations on companies. At a time when the primary and secondary rules of society are increasing the expectation of CSRS-related disclosure from companies, as well as imposing a minimum level of annual reporting on them, the current research provides theoretical, practical and public policy-based contributions to progress the discipline of ethical communications.

This thesis examines the doctrine of happiness within the Jonathan Edwards corpus and seeks to understand its function and significance as it relates to Edwards's broader theological project. A close examination of both the internal development and the Early Modern intellectual context of Edwards's thought reveals that spiritual happiness is of central importance to Edwards's 'end of creation' project. Scholars commonly assume that the burden of Edwards's teleological writings is a theocentric defense and promotion of the glory of God in the face of an increasingly anthropocentric Enlightenment. However, this study demonstrates that, notwithstanding Edwards's adherence to the Reformed tradition's high view of God's glory, the early and enduring concern of Edwards's teleological project is the proof and defense of spiritual happiness as ultimate telos from a Reformed perspective. Edwards's purpose to defend the teleological status of happiness is primarily exposed by the development of Edwards's teleology in his Miscellanies notebook and related theological treatises such as Discourse on the Trinity and End of Creation, especially as Edwards engages rival teleological visions that tend to subordinate happiness. While Edwards's teleological conviction regarding happiness is inspired by his own Puritan and Reformed heritage and his early profound religious experience, he subsequently pursues the proof and defense of his Reformed teleology of happiness in response to the increasing tendency of Reformed and non-Calvinist Enlightenment thinkers to subordinate the teleological status of happiness. During the Early Modern period, Reformed theologians frequently subordinate happiness relative to godliness, and especially the glory of God, and Enlightenment thinkers increasingly make practical virtue and usefulness toward the common good the ultimate telos of human existence at the expense of spiritual happiness, which intellectual trends Edwards engages for the sake of defending his Reformed teleology of happiness. The first stage of the development of Edwards's teleology of happiness is marked by his conversion and subsequent profound experiences of spiritual happiness, and by his efforts that follow during the early 1720s to prove happiness as ultimate telos, primarily on the basis of Edwards's doctrine of divine goodness. During the second stage of development, Edwards works to defend happiness as ultimate telos from a comprehensively biblical and Reformed perspective. Edwards spends the rest of his career developing his doctrines of God and the Trinity, the work of redemption, and the glory of God primarily for the sake of defending his Reformed teleology of happiness, which I suggest, significantly influences and shapes Edwards's theology.

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Teleological interpretation in private law Abstract This thesis deals with the problem of teleological interpretation in private law which, after the re-codification of private law in the Czech Republic has become a vital interpretative method in the process of interpretation of private legal rules. This PhD thesis describes the historical development of approaches to teleological interpretation and its relation to the other interpretative methods. Interpretation of the law is a complex process and individual interpretative methods cannot be approached separately but, on the contrary, in their mutual context. Such procedure is also encouraged by the interpretative provisions contained in the introduction to the new Civil Code. In this thesis, the so-called four-element scheme, namely the division of interpretative methods to teleological, historical, linguistic and systematic interpretation were chosen which also correspond to the categorization that can be inferred from the wording of the new Civil Code. The work is divided into chapters with the content of chapter two to seven forming the focal point, while the first chapter is the introduction and the eighth chapter is the conclusion. In the second chapter, the question of private and public law and the concept of interpretation itself are examined....