J. J. Lee

Bentham is celebrated by modern animal liberation philosophers for his brief but impassioned defense of animals in the Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Yet the details of Bentham's position are seldom discussed today. It is quite a complex position, comprising half a dozen arguments scattered across several texts. While Bentham claims that we have some moral obligations to animals, he also defends many traditional practices---including eating animals, making them work for us, even hunting them. ;This dissertation aims to explicate, and then evaluate, all of Bentham's writings on animals. In support of these goals, it also includes a large amount of background material---both on the historical context in which Bentham wrote, and on his broader ethical position. ;Chapter One describes the treatment of animals in Bentham's day, and how people's ideas about the status of animals were evolving. It also includes some biographical material on Bentham, including his personal fondness for animals. ;Chapter Two provides a different kind of background. It explains the main lines of Bentham's utilitarianism, focusing on his Greatest Happiness Principle. This principle, which enjoins us to maximize net pleasure, is the basis for Bentham's claim that animals should be protected from abuse. Chapter Three is a detailed exegesis of each of Bentham's writings about animals. The best-known text is the Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, but there are three others. One is a manuscript called "Cruelty to Animals". Another is a letter he wrote to the editor of a newspaper . The third is the Traites de Legislation Civile et Penale , a French work that Bentham wrote with the assistance of an editor/translator. ;Finally, Chapters Four and Five evaluate the arguments described in Chapter Three. Chapter Four focuses on what he says about causing pain to animals, while Chapter Five is concerned with what he says about killing

My thesis examines Aquinas's philosophical psychology in the context of his controversy with Siger of Brabant. Chapters 1 and 2 are concerned with the central thesis of Aquinas's argument against the Averroist doctrine of the intellect, which he often expresses by the claim, intellectus est forma corporis. This claim is fundamental to Aquinas's philosophical psychology insofar as it relates not only to his solution to the tension between the Aristotelian definition of the soul as the form of the body and the intellect's immateriality, but also to his alternative to the Averroist interpretation that the intellect cannot be the form of the body. I argue that this claim cannot be an adequate alternative to the Averroist interpretation of Aristotle since it is not compatible with Aquinas's insistence that the intellect cannot use any bodily organ, nor exist in any part of the body. Furthermore, the thesis of organlessness commits Aquinas to an intellect-body dualism since he postulates the existence of the intellect independently of the body in the human being. ;Chapters 3 and 4 deal with the question of whether Aquinas has an adequate alternative to Siger's critique that the intellect cannot be a power of the human soul which is the substantial form of the body. Some contemporary Thomists have argued that Aquinas's position is not vulnerable to the Sigerian critique at all by appealing to his claim that the human soul is a subsistent form. However, I maintain that the human soul's subsistence cannot be upheld insofar as Aquinas insists that the human soul is essentially the form of the body, and its nature is incomplete without the body. For nothing in the nature of the human soul as the form of the body provides a ground for showing that it can perform its proper operation without the body and thus can be subsistent. Consequently, Aquinas does not offer a satisfactory explanation of the possibility that the human soul can possess the intellect as its power. This leads us to conclude that the difficulties raised by Siger cannot be resolved by Aquinas's position

The functionalist conception of reductive physicalism that Kim has recently espoused, though it is the best theory of mental causation currently available, nevertheless is faced with a problem and unable to respond to some objections. I suggest that the root of Kim's difficulties is his somewhat controversial account of events, the so-called property instantiation account of events Kim develops in a series of recent papers. My diagnosis is that the problem Kim's view faces is dependent upon how we choose between two possible interpretations of one important feature of Kim's event ontology, a feature that concerns the relationship between events and event-describing sentences. I call the two possible interpretations the "strict interpretation," and the "non-strict interpretation." ;In discussing Kim's theory of events, it is essential to distinguish the two interpretations. The strict version of event ontology is that event-describing sentences and events are truly in a strict one-to-one correspondence relation and therefore each event has only one event-describing sentence. The non-strict version is that event-describing sentences and events are in a rough one-to-one correspondence relation, and therefore each event may have non-synonymous or logically in-equivalent event-describing sentences. ;With respect to these two interpretations, Kim seems to be faced with a dilemma. If he adopts the strict interpretation as his official line of event ontology, he can save "explanatory realism," the view that explanatory relations are individuated in terms of causal relations and thus the principle of causal/explanatory exclusion, but he will not be able to cope with some objections against his functional conception of reductive physicalism. If he goes with the non-strict interpretation, he loses his explanatory realism, but can successfully respond to the objection to his physical functionalism. I argue, however, that the loss of explanatory realism is not so serious for his purposes. Even if he loses explanatory realism, there still remains a purely causal exclusion principle which he can use to defend his account against the non-reductionists's theories of MC. Finally, I suggest and develop an alternative functionalist solution interpreted in terms of the nonstrict interpretation of event ontology.

This study is promoted as a search for the Asian theological methodologies in the global context. It envisages that, through converging Asian people's socio-historical experience and their cultural religious heritages, Asian theology could contribute to expanding the horizon of the contemporary theological discourse. ;Christian theology in Asia is regarded as a representative phenomenon of the cultural encounter between East and West. This study takes up Koyama as an example of Asian theologians, because his personal career and works span both Eastern and Western worlds. His theological endeavor is designated as Asian-global theology and critically discussed in light of Asian contextual theology. ;A biographical research method is employed to illuminate his epistemological transition from a Westernized Japanese Christian to an Asian theologian. This study aims to prove the inner-connectedness among Asian theologies through investigating Asian roots of Koyama's theology, such as Asian ecumenical theology, interfaith dialogue in multi-religious situations, Asian resources, minjung theology, and the Japanese theological tradition. ;Christian dialogue with Buddhism is one of the most important issues of contemporary theology which voices response to both the global phenomenon and the locality of the Asian context. Reviewing Koyama's interpretation of Buddhism in accordance with John B. Cobb, Jr.'s method of dialogue, the difference between Eastern and Western perspectives regarding inter-faith dialogue is traced. ;Storytelling, contrasting, and inculturation for contextualization are suggested as Koyama's major theological methods. Koyama's hermeneutical principle of culture is categorized as 'Christ-beyond-culture' in light of Richard Niebuhr's typology of the relationship between Christ and culture. ;The whole scale of Koyama's thought is organized under the rubrics of theology and ethics. The Christocentric theology of the cross is the seedbed of Koyama's thought. He draws the universality and validity of the Christian message in the multireligious Asian context from the crucifixion. The particularity of his vision for global theology and ethics lies in the interpretation of the cross in term of self-denial. Finally, both contribution and weakness of the global vision of Koyama are examined, and the methodological vision of Asian contextual theology in the global context is suggested

This study aims to show that Xunzi's philosophy can best be understood by exploring his notion of xin as the faculty of self-governance and its relation to Xunzi's ethical theory. Through this examination, we find that the consistent theme throughout Xunzi's philosophy is to criticize the "naturalistic" trend of his time and to establish the proper role of human agency. The distinctive features in Xunzi's philosophy---the distinction between tian and humans, the doctrine that human xing is bad, a contrast between human xing and "deliberative exertion," and the moral theory in which the conception of li occupies a central position---all can be characterized as Xunzi's deliberate attempt to guard against "naturalistic" philosophical tendencies represented by Mencius and Zhuangzi. ;By "naturalism," we mean a Chinese philosophical orientation that seeks the source of normativity in the natural realm. For Xunzi, this, however, posed a serious problem: if we take the natural realm as the source of value and resort to the way of nature for directing our ethical life and building society, why do we need to pay respect to the Confucian cultural heritage, and how can we identify the role of human agency in establishing morality and culture? Granted that we acknowledge the "natural and spontaneous" way of nature as the source of value and guidance for morality, how can we follow the way of nature without assuming the distinctive human faculties to direct us to do so? ;We will argue that Xunzi's notion of xin, particularly as the faculty of "autonomy," is the Xunzian response to the challenge of "naturalism" by clearly identifying the human realm that cannot be confounded with the natural realm. Further, the recognition that the Xunzian notion of morality, namely li, is the constructed by the autonomous faculties of xin can lead us to understand the reason why li-morality, for Xunzi, is conventional, and yet "objective.".

Psychologists have demonstrated the value of diversity – particularly diversity of viewpoints – for enhancing creativity, discovery, and problem solving. But one key type of viewpoint diversity is lacking in academic psychology in general and social psychology in particular: political diversity. This article reviews the available evidence and finds support for four claims: (1) Academic psychology once had considerable political diversity, but has lost nearly all of it in the last 50 years. (2) This lack of political diversity can undermine the validity of social psychological science via mechanisms such as the embedding of liberal values into research questions and methods, steering researchers away from important but politically unpalatable research topics, and producing conclusions that mischaracterize liberals and conservatives alike. (3) Increased political diversity would improve social psychological science by reducing the impact of bias mechanisms such as confirmation bias, and by empowering dissenting minorities to improve the quality of the majority's thinking. (4) The underrepresentation of non-liberals in social psychology is most likely due to a combination of self-selection, hostile climate, and discrimination. We close with recommendations for increasing political diversity in social psychology.

For a variety of policy reasons, governments throughout the world are now adopting different legislative and administrative strategies that support the development of FLOSS. Some governments have actually begun to procure FLOSS, whereas others have channeled public funds to large-scale FLOSS projects. This study demonstrates both the benefits and the risks of government policy favoring FLOSS from the perspective of economics, technology, and politics, and to further analyze whether these same policy goals can be achieved through government support of FLOSS. The most fundamental argument of the study is that, in lending its support to FLOSS, the difference between a government user and a business user is that the government should take into account society’s long-term interests, not merely its own interests as a consumer.

La communication sur le projet d'informatisation dans le secteur de l'éducation, le National Education Information System montre comment la société civile en Corée du Sud a réussi à faire valoir ses revendications, bien qu'elle soit souvent exclue du processus institutionnel de décision politique. Les trois principaux acteurs , à la recherche d'un compromis, ont débattu sur la protection des données personnelles et sur l'efficacité administrative en utilisant de multiples moyens de communication.Communication on the computerization project in the education sector, the National Education Information System shows how civil society in South Korea was able to enforce its claims, although it is often excluded from the process institutional policymaking. The three main actors , the search for a compromise, discussed the protection of personal data and on administrative efficiency by using multiple means of communication

Mon étude s’inspire de la thèse suivante : que la philosophie construit son objet seulement à partir d’une certaine perspective normative. La question philosophique du cosmopolitisme – comment établir par le biais de la morale universelle l’association des « citoyens du monde » libres et égaux – ne fonde qu’un horizon normatif d’attentes qui attire le regard sur une réalité irrationnelle. La réalité irrationnelle se caractérise par la notion de « société mondiale du risque », introduite par Ulrich Beck pour faire le diagnostic de notre temps frappé par toutes les catastrophes envisageables. Celles-ci montrent à quel point les fondations sur lesquelles nous avons bâti l’État national et la démocratie sont instables. Plus les risques sont globalisés, plus nous sommes contraints à une « conscience civile mondiale ». Malgré la connaissance des risques globalisés, nous sommes en premier lieu « citoyens d’État » et non « citoyens du monde ». Il est néanmoins indéniable que les frontières de l’État national perdent leur importance. Partant de l’hypothèse que la société mondiale est plus qu’un marché mondial, je souhaiterais souligner le « moment cosmopolite » de la délimitation transnationale afin de développer la morale universaliste de la société civile mondiale à l’égard de l’avenir de la démocratie

Der Name Hannah Arendt bezeichnet eine ebenso radikale wie originale Erneuerung der Frage nach der „politischen Freiheit”. Um es gleich zu sagen: Freiheit ist mit dem Politischen identisch und gleichursprünglich. „Der Sinn von Politik ist Freiheit.” Das heißt, die genuin menschliche Freiheit in dieser Welt ist nur politisch vollziehbar, während die Freiheit der einzige Existenz- und Rechtfertigungsgrund der Politik ist. Hannah Arendts Überlegungen über das Kriterium politischer Freiheit konzentrieren sich vor allem auf drei Kategorien: „Identität”, „Pluralität” und „Spontaneität”

It was recently suggested that quantum field theory is not fundamental but emerges from the loss of phase space information about matter crossing causal horizons. Possible connections between this formalism and Verlinde’s entropic gravity and Jacobson’s thermodynamic gravity are proposed. The holographic screen in Verlinde’s formalism can be identified as local Rindler horizons and its entropy as that of the bulk fields beyond the horizons. This naturally resolves some issues on entropic gravity. The quantum fluctuation of the fields is the origin of the thermodynamic nature of entropic gravity. It is also suggested that inertia is related to dragging Rindler horizons.

Contemporary production of machine-based images relay gradually on the autonomy of computing machines. Autonomous computing machines require the interaction with users like Human-Computer-Interaction technology and other interface technologies, especially computing machine-based images must also ask for viewer as an inter-actor, viewer’s participations. Whether this interaction of viewer-user is with machines or with images, if it is an interaction with each individual that have autonomy or self-organization, its interaction will be the interaction of each ecosystem. And the forms of this environmental interaction are an exchange of energy in natural ecosystem or aesthetic communication in art. Hence the aesthetics of future autonomous machine-based images need to focus on a number of mesh-works and the ways of interactions between the aesthetic individuals and their structures, i.e. aesthetic ecosystems.

This paper explores how the meaning of evidentiality is temporally constrained, by investigating the meaning of Korean evidential sentences with –te. Unlike evidential sentences in languages that have previously been formally analyzed , e.g. Cuzco Quechua and Cheyenne, Korean evidential sentences with –te are compatible with both direct and indirect evidence types. In this paper, I analyze –te as an evidential that lexically encodes the meaning of a ‘sensory observation’. I account for the availability of both direct and indirect evidential readings in terms of the variable temporal relation between relevant eventualities. I show that this temporal relation is compositionally determined by the interaction between –te and tense, and that it in turn constrains possible (direct vs. indirect) evidence types. I also provide empirical evidence for the modal meaning contributions of –te sentences, and develop a formal analysis in terms of Kratzer’s modal theory. The paper concludes by discussing the empirical and theoretical improvements of the proposed analysis over earlier analyses by Chung, and the implications for crosslinguistic studies of evidentials

Abstract   This study was designed to investigate the factors affecting ethical practices of public relations professionals in public relations firms. In particular, the following organizational ethics factors were examined: (1) presence of ethics code, (2) top management support for ethical practice, (3) ethical climate, and (4) perception of the association between career success and ethical practice. Analysis revealed that the presence of an ethics code along with top management support and a non-egoistic ethical climate within public relations firms significantly influenced public relations professionals' ethical practices. Content Type Journal Article Category Original Paper Pages 1-19 DOI 10.1007/s13520-011-0013-1 Authors Eyun-Jung Ki, Department of Advertising and Public Relations, College of Communication and Information Sciences, The University of Alabama, Box 870172, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0172, USA Junghyuk Lee, Division of Communication Arts, Kwangwoon University, Seoul, South Korea Hong-Lim Choi, School of Communication, Sun Moon University, 100, Kalsan-ri, Tangjeong-myeon, Asan-si, Chungnam 336-708, South Korea Journal Asian Journal of Business Ethics Online ISSN 2210-6731 Print ISSN 2210-6723

Attempting to determine solutions for unethical practices in the field, this research was designed to assess the effectiveness of public relations firms’ ethics statements in decreasing the incidence of malpractice. This study revealed an encouraging finding that practitioners working in firms with ethical parameters were significantly more likely to engage in ethical practices. Moreover, educating public relations practitioners about the content of ethics statement could positively influence their ethical practices. At the same time, this study’s findings suggest further questions for consideration in future scholarship and in the application of ethics statements to practice within the field.