...Gender and Philosophy Feminist Ethics of Care Lawrence Kohlberg (the late Harvard psychologist) used experiments and trial tests to come to the conclusion that people usually mature in ‘stages’ (Feminist Ethics of Care [FEC] pg85). The stages 3-6 can be explained in brief terms such as: Stage 3: you’ve outgrown the thought process of where you believe being good means helping and making others happy. Stage 4: you’ve come to the supposition that morality consists of a set of rules for maintaining the social order. Stage 5: believing in the concept “the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Stage 6: to think of morality in terms of self-chosen universal principals of justice. This is the highest level of maturity (FEC pg85). Kohlberg maid this claim, another very popular one was by Carol Gilligan, another Harvard psychologist who made the statement that girls had a “different voice” when it came to conducting her own tests on the same type of studies. She found her female subjects of her case study to think about relationships and connection. They weren’t focused entirely on abstract reasoning but were more circumstantial and concrete. With her study of an eleven year old boy, he said for human life to be worth more than the money that the drug was costing the German man for his very ill wife. He made the reasoning that it was okay to steal the drug, because the money wasn’t as important as his love’s life. The young girl of the same age that she tested on was...
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...Small business social responsibility: Expanding core CSR theory Laura J. Spence Abstract This paper seeks to expand business and society research in a number of ways. Its primary purpose is to redraw two core CSR theories (stakeholder theory and Carroll’s CSR pyramid), enhancing their relevance for small business. This is done by the application of the ethic of care, informed by the value of feminist perspectives and the extant empirical research on small business social responsibility. It is proposed that the expanded versions of core theory have wider relevance, value and implications beyond the small firm context. The theorization of small business social responsibility enables engagement with the mainstream of CSR research as well as making a contribution to small business studies in scholarly, policy and practice terms. Key words: corporate social responsibility, ethic of care, feminist ethics, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), small business, Carroll’s pyramid, stakeholder theory. Correspondence: Laura J. Spence, PhD. Professor of Business Ethics. Director, Centre for Research into Sustainability, School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK. Laura.Spence@rhul.ac.uk Acknowledgements: With sincere thanks to the special issue editors and reviewers, Kate Grosser and Dirk Matten for their insightful comments in the development of this paper. Introduction Small business social responsibility - whether it be a software...
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...The feminist theory is concerned with equality of women but in turn it stands for equality in general. The theory presses for equal rights where both male and female roles are equal and unified. These are issues that range from equal opportunity to freedom from domestic violence. In turn this theory looks into the social roles that women perform in a traditional western setting. With this in mind the theory has changed and will continue to change until the equality is attained. The theories origin can be noticed as early as the 15th century by the writing of Christine de Pizan and will continue to evolve. The feminist theory is based upon caring and compassion. With this in mind Judgments are made cautiously, with the focus on moral sensitivity and perception. The question of right or wrong is considered in the sense of one-caring; the one-caring acts as one would for oneself (Freeman, 2000). Ethical judgment is viewed as a full spectrum of endless possibilities, responses, and solutions. Laws, rules, and rationale hold little regard in feminist judgment. The emphasis is placed on the justification and the motivation for the act in question. Moral dilemmas are handled as situations in need of caring and trust, not as problems in need of solutions. Feminist ethics has many elements. Some major elements are theories regarding “why women and men have held unequal power across time and place, why knowledge has historically been accumulated by and for men and excluded women...
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...Pornography & Its Ethical Issues SOC 120 Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility February 3, 2014 Many argue that pornography is degrading, and believed that it denigrates women and in some cases even men. Feminists argue that it’s harmful to society promoting rape, violence, and sex discrimination. Pornography is often seen by others as an erotic art that has been around for thousands of years. Technology today makes access to pornography very easy by video, text, and the internet. Pornography raises many moral questions, but mainly, are pornographic materials morally offensive or not? The ethical issues pertaining to pornography are abundant, considering protecting personal privacy, computer crimes, materialism and cultural expansionism. Anti-pornographic believe that it’s immoral and that pornography should be censor. Pro-pornographic, believe to be education and inspirational, and argue that by taking away the constitutional rights are begging violated. Even though there are many different opinions about pornography, does not seem to be an accurate definition. Some argue that porn is violent, portrays unequal power in sexual relations and showing that many of its acts are judged as immoral. What does pornography mean in the dictionary? Pornography stems from the Greek word porno, meaning prostitutes and the word graphos meaning writing. Pornography is defined to include the definition of actual sexual contact, meaning hard core, and portrayal...
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...Theories of Ethics Consequentialism (Utilitarianism) Consequentialism sees the rightness or wrongness of an action in terms of the consequences brought about by that action. The most common form of consequentialism is utilitarianism. Utilitarianism holds that one should act so as to do the greatest good for the greatest number. The good as defined by J.S. Mill would be the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain. Utilitarians are concerned with the aggregate happiness of all beings capable of experiencing pleasure or pain including nonhuman animals. They consider the principle of utility to be the act, which produces the greatest balance of good over evil. Utilitarians consider both the happiness-producing and unhappiness-producing consequences of several alternative actions before deciding on one. A nineteenth century philosopher Jeremy Bentham created a checklist called the hedonic calculus. Bentham designed what he termed the hedonic calculus to enable people to measure the overall happiness- or pleasure-producing consequences of actions in terms of their duration, intensity, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity, and extent. This tool would not work in today’s society because happiness or pleasure as we know it would be difficult to measure on a numeric scale. There are two forms of utilitarians. Act utilitarians directly apply the principle of utility to each case as it arises. Rule utilitarians apply the principle of utility to general rules of...
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...Health Care Reform highlights many important issues of ethics. Recently adopted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in 2010 caused a debate on ethical issues (acep.org). The changes and proposed changes associated with this law increase the complexity of both patient care and larger healthcare system. Because of this law, health care will receive even more scrunity and must provide high-quality, patient-centered, research-based care with fewer or different types of resources. PPACA is widely recognized as the most important part of health care legislation since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid nearly half a century ago. Perhaps because it is such a radical change in the health care, US Congress debate over PPACA was protracted...
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...will argue for a universal healthcare system in the United States through a comparison of feminist ethics and traditional ethics. I find that the following considerations from Virginia Held’s Ethics of Care, and Kant’s view on autonomy provide a convincing argument for universal healthcare coverage. Held In Virginia Held’s Ethics of Care, she makes six distinct statements on care ethics through a feminist point of view. 1.) “Moralities built on the image of the independent, autonomous, rational individual largely overlook the reality of human dependence and the morality for which it calls.” (Camp, 2011:48) Held is describing how interdependence is primary and one is not in control of caretaking relationships. The majority of caretaking relationships are not chosen (parents and siblings) and we have a responsibility of care to these unchosen relations. We are all interdependent on each other, not autonomous. An argument relating to health care according to the view presented by Held on feminine ethics directly confirms the point that we are not autonomous beings: “Children in particular are harmed by familial stress and developmental delays from not receiving health care, both of which can lead to behavioral problems and loss of potential. When one member is uninsured or becomes ill, there is a financial burden put on the rest of the family” (http://www.amsa.org). Universal health care coverage would allow for this family burden of stress and finances to be decreased, and...
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...Pornography Anquanette Steadham SOC 120: Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility Instructor Sheila Farr April 28, 2014 Pornography Ethical or Not? Feminism means I can take ownership of what I enjoy sexually and that sexuality does not have to determine anything about me. Feminism is not a one size fit all. (Alter, C. 2014) While feminist porn is ethically produced porn, which means performers are paid a fair wage and they are treated with care and respect; their consent, safety, and well-being are critical, and what they bring to a production is valued. Feminist porn explores ideas about desire, beauty, pleasure, and power through alternative representations, aesthetics, and filmmaking styles. Feminist porn seeks to empower the performers who make it and the people who watch it. (Taormino, T. 2013) In ethical porn, everything is safe and consent is part of the narrative, which enables viewers to watch whatever plays out guilt-free. ‘Ethical porn’ is used to describe the performers work, and ‘feminist porn’ is more specifically the kind of work. (Vasquez, T. 2012) Feminist have had a very complicated relationship with pornography, anti-porn activists often showcase the most violent or kinky porn that show images of women being degraded, humiliated, and beaten to show how mainstream pornography is. With this, mainstream pornography reinforces the idea that some forms of sex are unethical and non-consensual, leave the woman who enjoys rough sex...
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...INTRODUCTION By using Feminist Ethics theory, I will examine case of child’s play based on its principles / framework to point out what is the right decision that most benefit the parties. Differ from Deontology which is known as “Duty ethics” of Kant and Virtue ethics of Aristotte, Gilligan’s Caring ethics aim to avoid harm and maintain healthy relationships and also aim at the achievement of harmony, empathy and integration with regard to particular ethical issue. To me, this is most appropriate ethical theory for this particular ‘child’s play’ issue. Now, I shall discuss more on the case from the product manager point of view. ETHICAL DILEMA “Deal or not to deal” While buying souvenirs for my 5 years old and 7 years old nieces, I thought about those hard working children in Thailand. They also have the children’s rights. The right to freedom, right to live happily, right to study..etc. Things even go much bigger as this is not about only one family but the whole village / town has similar case. As a woman, I also want my children to enjoy their childhood and see them grow up with no suffers. If I carry on the deal with Thai Manufacturer, I will save two third on the current cost from the Portuguese supplier but no change in quality. And obviously getting huge bonus at the end of the year. On the other hand, I started asking myself: Do I put these Thai children in the right path that they should be. ARGUMENT First Option: (Deal) If deal is on, everyone will get...
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...tue ethics is a broad term for theories that emphasize the role of character and virtue in moral philosophy rather than either doing one’s duty or acting in order to bring about good consequences. A virtue ethicist is likely to give you this kind of moral advice: “Act as a virtuous person would act in your situation.” Most virtue ethics theories take their inspiration from Aristotle who declared that a virtuous person is someone who has ideal character traits. These traits derive from natural internal tendencies, but need to be nurtured; however, once established, they will become stable. For example, a virtuous person is someone who is kind across many situations over a lifetime because that is her character and not because she wants to maximize utility or gain favors or simply do her duty. Unlike deontological and consequentialist theories, theories of virtue ethics do not aim primarily to identify universal principles that can be applied in any moral situation. And virtue ethics theories deal with wider questions—“How should I live?” and “What is the good life?” and “What are proper family and social values?” Since its revival in the twentieth century, virtue ethics has been developed in three main directions: Eudaimonism, agent-based theories, and the ethics of care. Eudaimonism bases virtues in human flourishing, where flourishing is equated with performing one’s distinctive function well. In the case of humans, Aristotle argued that our distinctive function is reasoning...
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...Assignment 1: Application of the Normative Ethical Theories * 15% of your final mark * Length: 1000 ±100 words * Submit after completing Units 1 & 2 (approximately 5 weeks into the course, according to the recommended schedule). 1. Choose ONE of the cases that appear in Units 1 & 2 of the Philosophy 333 Study Guide except Case 2. 1. However, please refer to the discussion regarding Case 2.1 in Unit 2, under the heading “Applying Normative Theories to a Moral Situation”, as an example of how to apply moral theories to a case. 2. Clearly state a professional ethics issue that pertains to the case. It is recommended that you state your issue in question form. 3. Choose TWO out of the five moral theories studied in Unit 2, but only one version of Utilitarian theory at most (e.g. not both Act and Rule Utilitarianism). 4. In essay-form[1], and in one document, apply each of the two theories to the case, focusing on your stated issue, by doing the following: a. For each theory, provide an explanation of the theories basic approach to moral evaluation and decision making. b. Ethically analyze your stated issue using each of the two theories. The idea here is to adopt the strategy of each of the theories to present what you think is a reasonable and balanced ethical analysis of your issue. In doing so, your aims are (i) to show that you understand how the theories work and (ii) to show that you can use them to express the ethical reasoning...
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...hear about it on the news. We read about it in newspapers and on the Internet. We experience it subtly and overtly in all cultures and across nations in incidents ranging from ethnic slurs to hate crimes to violence carried out in the name of ideology. Such incidents of violence tend to be easily seen as they fall within the public domain. Less visible, however, but often more devastating, is the domestic violence that occurs within the family and often against women. The International Council of Nurses (ICN) (2001) notes in a summary of research done on four continents that as many as 20 to 50 percent of all women in the studies reported experiencing partner violence. But what are the links among domestic violence, health care profession, nurses, and ethics? In moral philosophy, there is a long tradition of debate on whether true moral dilemmas can exist, some arguing that it will always be possible to decide which obligation should prevail. On this concept regardless of the abstract possibility of an ideal resolution and the pragmatic reality that decisions are made and people have to live with them. An ethical dilemma presents a choice that must be made between two mutually exclusive courses of action, each of which is perceived to rest on a moral obligation that carries significant weight for the actor confronting the dilemma. According to Draucker (2002} addresses intimate partner abuse as repeatable and increasing patterns of violence against women by men in their...
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...What really is the gender wage gap? Is the gender wage gap something feminists should be protesting? Feminists have been around since the Seneca Falls Convention on July 19th, 1848. At Seneca Falls they fought for their right to vote, now they fight for equal pay. So, what is the simple explanation of the gender wage gap? The gender wage gap is easy to understand if you break it down into words; gender= female or male and in this case female vs. male, wage= a fixed regular payment and in this case the amount of money one gets, and finally gap= difference or a break or hole in something. If you put it all together it makes the difference between male and female salaries. So, why are feminists protesting something that they have no control over?...
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...Nietzsche v. Bowden In this paper I will analyze the ethical theories of Nietzsche and Bowden and apply them to the recent case involving Volkswagen and its use of “defeat” devices to cheat diesel emissions tests. In order to effectively analyze whether or not the actions of Volkswagen were ethical, I will first discuss Nietzsche’s view of morality, followed by Bowden’s application of care ethics. In Beyond Good and Evil Friedrich Nietzsche presents his critique of morality, as well as the concept of “Master and Slave Morality.” He rejects the idea that the morality of an action is determined based on the consequences of the action because he claims that it is impossible for man to know the true consequences of an action. Although one might be able to predict the immediate consequences of an action, it is impossible to know how that action will cause other consequences further into the future. For example, if I were to steal some medicine for my sick mother, this action might seem ethical or “good” considering the immediate consequences. However, what else might happen as a result of this action further into the future? What if in the process of my theft, I accidentally left the back door to the pharmacy unlocked and the pharmacy was cleaned out, and as a result the insurance company was refusing to cover the pharmacy’s losses. To make matters even worse imagine that the family that owned the pharmacy had to declare bankruptcy which led to the family being unable to pay for...
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...stigmatisms and unfortunate inequities that human beings bring to professionals about the communities they live in. Social justice and the counseling profession have roots that goes back to the 1900’s. It has always been understood from a social work point of view that problems such as depression, anxiety, and abuse often derive from economic and environmental issues. In order to help a client over come their issues it is necessary to address the policies and services available to them in the community they live in. Over the years, the professional counselors focus switched gears from counseling as a concern from a social justice perspective to a preference of individualized therapy due to managed care implementations....
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