David Hodgson

In this paper, I argue that a satisfactory account of consciousness will involve both (1) local indeterminism, in that some relevant events are not wholly and unequivocally pre‐determined by immediately prior local events, and (2) nonlocality, in that, within the leeways left by local indeterminism, what happens can be immediately affected by spatially separated or extended events. I briefly consider if this can be avoided by treating consciousness as supervenient and epiphenomenal; and I suggest that current theories of consciousness break down through failure to incorporate local indeterminism and nonlocality. I conclude by outlining possible implications for freedom of the will, physicalism, and the relevance of quantum mechanics to consciousness.

Social work is a discipline and a profession, and learning about social work typically commences with a course of study in a university or tertiary institution. Hence, teaching and learning about social work is key to a solid consideration of social justice. However, given the complex and contested nature of social justice, the approach to teaching social justice needs to be thought through and systematic. This chapter is focussed on teaching and learning for social justice in social work curriculums. In this chapter, we present 48 learning outcomesCurriculumlearning outcomes that would assist in developing an explicit focus on social justice in social work education. We introduce three curriculum design frameworks, and these are used to structure learning outcomes for social justice. These learning outcomes will be useful for educators, students, practitioners and researchers who aim to incorporate social justice knowledge, values and skills into their practice.

Social justice has long been an important aim and driving aspiration for social work. The pursuit of social justice is enshrined in ethical codes, practice standards and social work literature around the world, and social work may be considered as an organised attempt at working for social justice. This chapter explains the historical background and meaning of social justice before exploring how social justice is understood in the discipline of social work. Particular emphasis will explore the conceptualisation of social justice in social work ethical codes and theory texts, noting the tension between structural and individual accounts of social justice.

Conceptions of power are important to consider how best to address discrimination and Oppression within social work practice. Early social theory accounts tended to consider power as a property that some institutions, individuals and groups accrued by virtue of unequal social arrangements of various kinds. Later poststructural accounts considered power as constituting Norms, forms of knowledge and various social practices. This chapter outlines both theoretical positions to present contemporary understandings of power where they may be seen as important element in Critical social work practice towards social justice. Specifically, the chapter explains structural and behavioural accounts of power, as well as pastoral Power/knowledgepastoral, Power/knowledgebiopower and the emergence of neuro-bio-psychological knowledge and what this means for social justice, now and into the future.

What is social injustice and why does it persist? Every day we read about, hear about or see various forms of injustice. Poverty and deprivation exists side by side with conspicuous wealth and enormous privilege; numerous humanitarian crises seem to overwhelm the capacity and political will StateSee also nation-stateNation-stateSee also, state; violence at a regional, local and interpersonal level continues to inflict harm and misery on millions of people; discrimination, endemic racism and prejudice in many forms have become a normalised form of political capital. In order to develop a conceptualisation of injustice, this chapter begins by describing the injustices associated with inequality, Refugees and people seeking asylum, stigmatised groups, violence, racism, poverty and the environment. The general mechanisms of injustice are explained before focusing specifically on the role of discrimination, prejudice and privilege in perpetuating and maintaining injustice.

Human dignityDignity and worth are important values for social workers, and these values are enshrined in many social work codes of ethics around the world. This often translates into discussions about human rights and service user self-determination, otherwise referred to as autonomy. Human rights have become a significant part of the global landscape. Given the fact that people live in plural societies, we need better ways to account for issues of rights, autonomy, difference and diversity with respectRespect to equality and social justice. This chapter explores human rights and social work and considers the role that social work can take in relation to the potentials and limits of human rights instruments and agreements. Second, the chapter explores a related concept—autonomy—from liberalLiberal, Kantian and feminist perspectives. The centrality of autonomy as a socially and politically constituted phenomena is examined in relation to implications for social justice and human rights.

The previous chapters have outlined the theoretical ideas pertinent to understanding social justice. This chapter synthesises these ideas into a coherent framework that includes a summary of the critical, distributive, participatory Democracyparticipatory and autonomy and rights philosophies presented in earlier chapters. We present this framework as an integrated and reflexive way to think about social justice practice, and the chapter then draws on social work literature to outline in brief form a wide range of indicative activities and practices that social work could undertake in the pursuit of social justice.

Capitalism and neoliberalism are widely critiqued in social work. Neoliberalism in particular is considered a problematic form of economic and social philosophy that is detrimental to human and ecological well-being and leads to the dismantling of social welfare. As such, neoliberalism is criticised on the grounds that it is an anathema to social justice. Critiques of neoliberalism in the social work literature posit that neoliberalism is deeply implicated in various injustices and contend that social work must challenge neoliberal discourses, hegemony and practice. However, these descriptions of neoliberalism suffer from a lack of conceptual clarity. This chapter will draw on critical and post-structural literature to explain the Liberal, Marxist and Keynesian perspectives on Capitalism, outline the neoliberal critique in social work, and describe in detail the historical and contemporary formation of neoliberalism.

Social work has had a long concern for people experiencing different forms of social injustice. This chapter sets out the history of social work debates about knowledge concerned with the shape of the discipline and profession of social work and then traces a history of practice responses that give social work its distinctive form. Despite changes in contemporary conditions, since its beginnings, social work continues to adapt its focus to challenge forms of injustice, disadvantage and social conditions that impact the well-being of individuals, families, groups, communities and societies.

This chapter examines critical theoryCritical theory as a way of explaining, contesting and acting upon social injustice. Critical theories, of which there are many, have been a significant source of explanatory power and motivating action for social work. As will be shown, there are a number of different generations and formulations of critical theoryCritical theory. What links these different theories is that they combine explanationsInjusticeexplanations of of social reality with practical aims for addressing social injustices. The chapter explains what makes critical social scienceCritical social science critical, and then outlines Marxist, feminist and postcolonial theoryPostcolonialtheory by explaining each position in relation to a theory of false consciousness, theory of crisis, theory of education and a theory of transformative action.

What is the relation of democracy and participationParticipation to social justice? While the distributive theoryDistributive theories offers an account of social justice at the level of abstracted principle, others focus their attention on specific conditions and practices that allow social injustice to emerge as a condition of social arrangements. Work by the philosopher Iris Marion YoungYoung, Iris Marion offers a critical account of social justice, particularly in relation to concepts such as difference and oppressionOppression, and how these are implicated in social injustices such as exclusionExclusion, marginalisation and silencing. There are a number of key aspects related to issues of democracy and participationParticipation that could support social work efforts at empowermentEmpowerment, self-determination and inclusionInclusion. These are the nation-stateNation-stateSee also stateandCivilsocietycivil societyCivil society, constitutionalismConstitutionalism, freedomLibertySee also freedom and liberty and the options for dealing with diversity within societies.

Social justice in the social work literature is frequently equated with Fairness and equality in the distribution and access to resources, opportunities and rights and liberties. This is a version of social justice known as the Distributive theories of justice. The most influential exponent of this theory is philosopher John Rawls, outlined primarily in his book ATheory of justice. Given the influence of the Distributive theories on social work specifically, Welfare state welfare StateSee also nation-state generally, this chapter explains the Distributive theories of justice according to Rawls. The location of justice as the first virtue of institutions is explained, as are Rawls’ two main principles of justice: (1) justice as equal rights and opportunities; and (2) Rawls, Johndifference principleDifference principle, which may be seen as socially just inequality. How and why Rawls arrived at these principles is explained, as are his objections to utilitarian and meritocratic conceptions of justice.

It has been contended that we can never be truly responsible for anything we do: we do what we do because of the way we are, so we cannot be responsible for what we do unless we are responsible for the way we are; and we cannot be responsible for the way we are when we first make decisions in life, so we can never become responsible for the way we are later in life. This article argues that in our consciously chosen actions we respond rationally to whole ‘gestalt’ experiences in ways that cannot be pre determined by pre choice circumstances and laws of nature and/or computational rules; and that this means we are partly responsible for what we do, even if we are not responsible for the way we are.

Statelessness and displacement represent nothing short of a loss of place, the violation of rights and international norms, threat to safety and belonging, and severely limits access to law and citizenship. Social work must leverage and sustain an ethical standpoint as a critical counterpoint to the increasing moral and political urgency of statelessness. However, traditional and normative social work ethics operate at a level of abstraction that do not engage sufficiently with the realpolitik of statelessness. This paper critically engages with moral questions concerning displacement and statelessness by engaging the philosophy of James Tully and Christine Korsgaard. This engagement enables connections between agency and notions of democratic constitutionalism where people have the right to call into and contest relations of governance that oppress them, through various means such as advocacy and activism. We present a reconsideration of established ethical understandings by arguing for the place of public philosophy and the constitution of the self as key to social work theory and practice in response to statelessness and displacement. Korsgaard’s work on normativity and agency, and Tully’s notion of democratic constitutionalism provide a rich and original contribution to social work ethics that will be articulated for social work theory and practice.

DAVID HODGSON: This article supports the proposition that, if a judgment about the aesthetic merits of an artistic object can take into account and thereby be influenced by the particular quality of the object, through gestalt experiences evoked by the object, then we have free will. It argues that it is probable that such a judgment can indeed take into account and be influenced by the particular quality of the object through gestalt experiences evoked by it, so as to make it probable that we do have free will. The proposition is supported by reference to two basic tricks apparently involved in conscious processes, which I call the qualia trick and the chunking trick; and it is suggested that these tricks make possible and indeed probable the existence of a third trick, which I call the selection trick

I want to take issue with the assertion by Flanagan and Polger that there are no good theories as to `why did evolution result in creatures who were more than just informationally sensitive'; that is, why evolution has apparently not produced zombies. I've proposed a theory which I'd like to think is good: that consciousness is for kinds of plausible reasoning not available to mechanistic systems -- that there have been evolutionary advantages in an organism being able to act out choices between alternatives left open to it by the universal laws, choices which require consciousness of inconclusive and incommensurable reasons that the choices can resolve, and which are unique efficacious events rather than just the expression of the universal laws. This idea is developed and defended in Hodgson , 1994a, 1994b, 1995, 1996a, 1996b). No one has yet told me why it is no good

In this book, Hodgson presents a clear and compelling case against today's orthodox mechanistic view of the brain-mind, and in favor of the view that "the mind matters." In the course of the argument he ranges over such topics as consciousness, informal reasoning, computers, evolution, and quantum indeterminancy and non-locality. Although written from a philosophical viewpoint, the book has important implications for the sciences concerned with the brain-mind problem. At the same time, it is largely non-technical, and thus accessible to the non-specialist reader

This book offers a much-needed critical overview of the concept of social justice and its application in professional social work practice. Social justice has a rich conceptual genealogy in critical theory and political philosophy. For students, teachers and social workers concerned with empowerment, social change and human rights, this book provides a guide to the key ideas and thinkers, crucial historical developments and contemporary debates about social justice. It synthesises interdisciplinary knowledge and offers a new framework for practice, including a clear and practical exposition of four domains of skills and knowledge important for social justice informed social work. The book also contributes to social work pedagogy by offering a comprehensive set of learning outcomes that can be used to design curriculum, teaching and learning, and further research into social justice praxis. This book provides a range of philosophical and critical perspectives to support and inform social work professional knowledge and skills. In its tight knitting together of theory and practice this book links philosophical and moral principles with an understanding of how to engage with social justice in a way that is relevant to social work.

David Chalmers distinguishes the hard problem of consciousness -- why should a physical system give rise to conscious experiences at all -- with what he calls the easy problems, the explanation of how cognitive systems, including human brains, perform various cognitive functions. He argues that the easy problems are easy because the performance of any function can be explained by specifying a mechanism that performs the function. This article argues that conscious experiences have a role in the performance by human beings of some cognitive functions, that can't be realised by mechanisms of the kind studied by the objective sciences; and that accordingly some of Chalmers’ easy problems will not be fully solved unless and until the hard problem is solved

This is a review article about John Searle's most recent book The Rediscovery of the Mind, which criticizes it for not going far enough in its departure from orthodox materialistic views of the brain and mind. It argues that Searle's two central propositions, consciousness is irreducible and consciousness cannot cause anything that cannot be explained by the causal behaviour of neurons, are incompatible; and suggests that it is reasonable and scientifically respectable to reject the latter rather than the former