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201U.S. Domsat Policy: A Case Study of Economic Constraints on Technology AssessmentIn Byrne Edmund (ed.), Papers on Science of Science and Forecasting, . pp. 71-86. 1981.[Collection title in Polish: Prace Naukoznawcze i Prognostvczne]
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394Microelectronics and Workers' RightsIn Mitcham Carl (ed.), Philosophy and Technology 11, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, D. Reidel. pp. 205-216. 1986.A description of how microelectronics and robotics are tending to increase unemployment, followed by comparisons between the social policies of Western European countries and the United States with reard to this problem. A conclusion points out the need for a social philosophy of technology that acknowledges workers' rights.
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370The Labor-Saving Device: Evidence of Responsibility?In Gayle L. Ormiston (ed.), From Artifact to Habitat: Studies in the Critical Engagement of Technology, Lehigh University Press. pp. 132-154. 1990.This article was first published in Technology and Contemporary Life, Philosophy and Technoloy vol. IV, ed. Paul T. Durbin, Dordrecht/Boston: D. Reidel, 1988, pp. 63-85.
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270Robots and the Future of WorkIn Howard Didsbury Jr (ed.), The World of Work: Careers and the Future, World Future Society. pp. 30-38. 1983.In anticipation of an imminent "robot revolution," data-based answers are given to these questions: what is a robot; what impact will robots have on the work force; and what can we do about displaced workers?
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415Workplace Democracy for Teachers: John Dewey's ContributionIn Paul T. Durbin (ed.), Philosophy and Technology, Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 81-95. 1989.Dewey's instrumentalist approach to problem-solving stressed social organization; and under this umbrella he included unionization. First part of this article: his active involvement in and support for the union movement summarized. Second part: his theoretical defense of unions is addressed, especially as to "democratic liberalism" and its implementation in the fabric of society. Third part: a brief account of the current status of unions in universities.
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141Technology and PrivacyIn Byrne Edmund (ed.), The Technology of Discovery and the Discovery of Technology, Society For Philosophy and Technology. pp. 379-390. 1991.Emergent technologies are undermining both decisional privacy (intimacy) and informational privacy. Regarding the former consider, e.g., technical intrusions on burglar alarms and telephone calls. Regarding the latter consider how routinely technologies enable intrusion into electronic data processing (EDP) in spite of government efforts to maintain control. These efforts are uneven among nations thus inviting selective choice of a data storage country. Deregulation of telecommunications and …Read more
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365Globalization and Community: In Search of Transnational JusticeIn Technological Transformation Contextual and Conceptual Implications, Philosophy & Technology, Vol. 5, Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 141-161. 1989.Ethical issues that arise because of the transcendent power of globally oriented corporate entities vis-a-vis local communities. Common problems arise from plant closings and automation, here illustrated by cases of restructuring in Indiana. Public use limitations on "eminent domain" decisions are considered. Then attention turns to the lack of constraints available to regulate decisions made by a transnational corporation. Limited applicability of Rawls's contract theory is noted, then ten r…Read more
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1147Work EthicIn Alex Michalos and Debora Poff (ed.), Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics, Springer. 2017.A work ehic is a value-based motivation for working. In the now developed world, three such values have been stressed over time: soial status, duty, and wealth or, simply, money. Craft pride has also been proffered but is increasingly a victim of automation. Each will be considered here. First, however, a few remarks about how socio-economic conditions influence a society's stance regarding one's obligation to work.
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460The 2003 U.S. Invasion of Iraq: Militarism in the Service of GeopoliticsIn Byrne Edmund (ed.), Justice and Violence: Political Violence, Pacifism and Cultural Transformation, Aldershot. pp. 193-216. 2005.Not the publicly asserted reasons (humanitarianism and self-defense) but cooptation of oil reserves was the objective behind the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. This underlying motive utterly fails to satisfy just war jus ad bellum conditions. This prioritization of petroleum is well documented and is consistent with decades old US policy towards the Middle East, especially as codified by Anthony Cordesman in 1998 and US DoD's Strategic Assessment 1999 and then adopted by Bush II. This fraudulent …Read more
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416Theorists and activists favor empowering government agencies to regulate technology; but an examination of such regulation by the US government exposes the inadequacy of any such regimen. Vested interests routinely interfere, e.g., keeping administration of polio vaccine in the hands of physicians, political infighting with regard to cancer research funding, advantages gained from noncompliance with military technology-constraining treaties. Public/private salary differences limit availability …Read more
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1Work, Inc.: A Philosophical InquiryTemple University Press. 1990.An appeal to philosophers who believe in social contract theory to revise their thinking in fundamental ways. In particular, it calls upon them to take corporations -- especially transnational corporations -- more seriously in their speculations on the "just state" than they have up till now. Why? Because transnational corporations today exercise de facto sovereignty--a sovereignty that always influences, sometomes equals, and often overpowers the sovereignty of nation states. (Excerpted from…Read more
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331Woods C., Sudden Justice: America's Secret Drone Wars (review)Michigan War Studies Review 2015 (106). 2015.
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213Dubik J M Just War Reconsidered: Strategy, Ethics, and Theory (review)Michigan War Studies Review 2017 (044). 2017.
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183Gardner, L. C. Killing Machine: The American Presidency in the Age of Drone Warfare (review)Michigan War Studies Review 2014 (045). 2014.
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198Utopia Without Work? Myth, Machines and Public PolicyIn P. T. Durbin (ed.), Research in Philosophy and Technology VIII, Jai Press. pp. 133-148. 1985.A critique of the prediction that technology will end humans' direct involvement in work. Contentions: a workless world is not without qualification desirable; it is not attainable by technology alone; the end sought does not in and by itself justify present job ending applications. Underlying these contentions: a claim that utopian visions with regard to work function as ideologies. Evidence for this claim derived from revisiting past non-industrial and industrial fantasies regarding a work-f…Read more
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189Law as Technology AssessmentIn Poe Durbin Holly (ed.), Research in Philosophy and Technology, Vol V, Jai Press. pp. 101-115. 1982.Law and technology , though not equivalent, are intertwined at every phase of a technology's "career." Any technology is directly or indirectly social, and as such becomes a target of regulation intrinsically or in relation to other technologies which it supports or opposes. Competing interests influence major decisions as to which technologies are encouraged or discouraged, heavily regulated or not, banned or not. Examples considered range from bounties to fuel, communication, and transporta…Read more
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461Work and Technology: A Bibliographical EssayIn Technology and Contemporary Life: Philosophy and Technology, vol. 4, D. Reidel. pp. 295-313. 1988.Survey of (mostly English-language) philosophical studies of techology as of 1987. Includes studies of work as affected by technology, the extent of technology's impact on workers, a comparison between the value of work as seen by synchronists and by diachronists and by feminists, and finally some projections as to work and technology in the future.
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215PrivacyIn Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, Academic Press. pp. 649-659. 1998.Privacy involves a zone of inaccessibility in a particular context. In social discourse it pertains to activities that are not public, the latter being by definition knowable by outsiders. The public domain so called is the opposite of secrecy and somewhat less so of confidentiality. The private sphere is respected in law and morality, now in terms of a right to privacy. In law some violations of privacy are torts. Philosophers tend to associate privacy with personhood. Professional relati…Read more
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157The Normative Side of TechnologyIn Research in Philosophy and Technology, Vol. II, Jai Press. pp. 91-109. 1979.An adequate philosophy of technology will not stop with knowledge-claim considerations, like traditional philosophy of science, but will address public policy issues, as is done regarding science via science policy studies. Technology is not merely "applied science" but generates attention to normative issues engendered by technologies. Philosophers of technology can find support for such normative concerns in studies of the value impact of applying science, e.g., those of Radnitzky, Ravetz and…Read more
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263Humanization of Technology: Slogan or Ethical Imperative?In Byrne Edmund (ed.), Research in Philosophy & Technology, Vol. I, . pp. 149-177. 1978.Contra mercantile propaganda, technology is "humanized" to the extent that it satisfies or at least permits satisfaction of basic human needs or enhancements. To assess a technology's contribution to humanization requires (1) rejection of the primacy of the machine (cyborg model) and commitment to primacy of the human being (prosthesis model) in man/machine relations, and (2) insistence on the responsibility of managers for consequences of their technology-related decisions. Such decisions are …Read more
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9Secular and Religious: An American Quest for CoexistenceAuthorHouse. 2011.Drawing on group rights theory, author argues that a group organized around a religious motif should neither be summarily excluded from nor unduly favored in secular deliberations as to public policy and practice. To arrive at this conclusion he examines the implications of each of the following claims: (1) individuals need to operate in and through groups to influence government; (2) a political system faces moral difficulties if it is open to group-generated input; (3) worthy causes can be bet…Read more
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137Haunted Victory: The American Crusade to Destroy Saddam and Impose Democracy on Iraq, by William R. Nester (review)Michigan War Studies Review 2012 (048): 1-3. 2012.
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186Elusive Victories: The American President at War, by Andrew J. Polsky (review)Michigan War Studies Review 2013 (043): 1-4. 2013.
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201Preemption: Military Action and Moral Justification, edited by Henry Shue and David Rodin (review)Michigan War Studies Review 2011 (004): 1-3. 2011.
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156Review of Elizabeth H. Wolgast, The Grammar of Justice (review)Noûs 25 (1): 137-139. 1991.Book under review consists of a set of articles by Wolgast that contibute in various ways to her contention that human beings arrive at a theory of justice quasi-empirically insofar as a particular group encounters and seeks to surmount experiences of gross injustice. Via such experiences they develop a community-oriented sense of justice; but they do not thereby create a reliable basis for communitarian ethics.
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185WorkIn James Britt Holbrook (ed.), Ethics, Science, Technology, and Engineering, Vol. 4, 2nd Ed., Gale. pp. 543-549. 2015.The globalization of and technological challenge to the world's workers generate profound ethical problems. Suitable solutions will require governments and civil societies to move beyond the modern tendencies to divinize property rights and base people's income eligibility almost exclusively on their work. Some attention is being paid to the issues involved therein so as to achieve better work/life balance. In some places, in fact, resource-based wealth has been distributed to all citizens, …Read more
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266Nuclear Holocaust in American FilmsIn Carl Mitcham (ed.), Technology and Ethics: Research in Philosophy and Technology, Jai Press. pp. 3-21. 1989.Ordinary people shudder at the thought that people in positions of power might do whatever they think they can get away with. But that is often the way it is in the real world, and the risks go even higher when opportunity is compounded with impatience. The ways of negotiation and diplomacy are not considered entirely outmoded. But more and more we are being duped by a dream of some ultimate technological fix: that one more fancy gadget is all it will take to solve the vexing problems that less …Read more
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519Evolution and Revolution: The Drama of Realtime ComplementarityWorld Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research 11 (1-2): 167-206. 1972.This article is by design a response to Alastair M. Taylor's "For Philosophers and Scientists: A General Systems Paradigm." That work is an advance over stage theories. But its focus on modernization tacitly accepts marginalization. Its focus on an undifferentiated evolving human species disregards intra- and intersocietal conflicts. Its uncritical talk of societal energy shifts obscures the reality of conquest and exploitation. If general systems theory is to be truly objective, it should t…Read more
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278Drones and the Future of Armed Conflict: Ethical, Legal, and Strategic Implications, edited by David Cortright, Rachel Fairhurst, and Kristen Wall (review)Michigan War Studies Review 2016 (071): 1-3. 2016.
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Indiana University Purdue University, IndianapolisDepartment of Philosophy
Philanthropic StudiesRetired faculty
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Professional Ethics |
Business Ethics |
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Just War Theory |