category
stringclasses 16
values | text
stringlengths 18
204k
| id
stringlengths 2
8
| url
stringlengths 38
44
|
|---|---|---|---|
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Julia Annas
Julia Elizabeth Annas (born 1946) is a British philosopher who has taught in the United States for the last quarter-century. She is Regents Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona.
Annas graduated from Oxford University in 1968 with a B.A., and from Harvard University with an A.M. (1970) and a PhD (1972). She was a Fellow and Tutor at St Hugh's College, Oxford for fifteen years, before joining the faculty at Arizona in 1986, where she has taught since, apart for one year as a professor at Columbia University. She concentrates on the study of ancient Greek philosophy, including Ethics, Psychology and Epistemology.
Her current research interests are in Platonic ethics. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992, and a Fellow of the American Philosophical Society in 2013. She is the founder and former editor of the annual journal, "Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy". She is married to the Hume scholar, David Owen, also a professor of philosophy at the University of Arizona.
Julia Annas has advocated ethics based on character, building on ideas attributed to Greek philosopher, Aristotle and making them relevant for contemporary moral discourse. She has argued that being virtuous involves "practical reasoning" which can be compared to the "exercising of a practical skill". Hence, she argues, rather than relating virtues to rules, principles, or an end goal, Annas says, first, people should ask how they can improve their moral "skills".
| 7624133 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7624133 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Prig
A prig () is a person who shows an inordinately zealous approach to matters of form and propriety—especially where the prig has the ability to show superior knowledge to those who do not know the protocol in question. They see little need to consider the feelings or intentions of others, relying instead on established order and rigid rules to resolve all questions.
The prig approaches social interactions with a strong sense of self-righteousness.
The first edition of H.W. Fowler's "Modern English Usage" has the following definition:
A prig is a believer in red tape; that is, he exalts the method above the work done. A prig, like the Pharisee, says: "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are"—except that he often substitutes "Self" for "God". A prig is one who works out his paltry accounts to the last farthing, while his millionaire neighbour lets accounts take care of themselves. A prig expects others to square themselves to his very inadequate measuring rod, and condemns them with confidence if they do not. A prig is wise beyond his years in all things that do not matter. A prig cracks nuts with a steamhammer: that is, calls in the first principles of morality to decide whether he may, or must, do something of as little importance as drinking a glass of beer. On the whole, one may, perhaps, say that all his different characteristics come from the combination, in varying proportions, of three things—the desire to do his duty, the belief that he knows better than other people, and blindness to the difference in value between different things.
The character of the prig was encapsulated in Charles Dickens' portrait of the day-nurse Betsy Prig—capable of a "rapid change from banter to ferocity" but always referred to by night-nurse Sairah Gamp as "the best of creeturs"—in his novel "Martin Chuzzlewit":
A glimpse of Mrs Prig's nursing technique is afforded by the following exchange, as Sairah Gamp arrives to take over from Mrs Prig in the supervision of a patient:
Another famous portrait of a prig is that of Malvolio in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night". Robert. E. Ornstein has carefully detailed the characteristics of Malvolio's priggishness:
Those who do not enjoy Malvolio would reduce him to a conventional killjoy, a scapegoat who deserves to be held up to ridicule because of his officious humourlessness. There would be a need to expose Malvolio if he pretended to be something he is not, but he never puts on a false manner; his absurdity is native and his egotism so openly displayed that even Olivia, who appreciates his talents, very early accuses him of being ungenerous and "sick of self-love". Incapable of hypocrisy or sanctimony, he is genuinely outraged by Toby's revelries, which offend his sense of propriety and defy his authority. He is a prig with an instinct for grandeur that at once muddles his statements and endows them with an ineffable grandiosity.
Typical of Malvolio's priggish response to irreverent behaviour is his objection to the singing of Toby, Andrew and Feste: "Do ye make an alehouse of my lady's house, that ye squeak out your coziers’ catches without any mitigation or remorse of voice?"
| 7625458 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7625458 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Good safety practice
Good safety practice (GSP) refers to protocols dealing with safety. The term is often used in connection with occupational safety and health (OSH) and may vary between industries or sectors.
| 7635652 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7635652 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | New Times (politics)
New Times was an intellectual movement among leftists in Great Britain in the late 1980s. It was centred on the Eurocommunist faction of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), and most of the intellectual groundwork for the movement was laid out in the latter party's official theoretical journal, "Marxism Today".
After the Soviet invasions of Hungary in 1956, and especially Czechoslovakia in 1968, many western Communists began to question their allegiance to the Soviet Union. Some disillusioned communists swung to the left and joined Trotskyist parties. Others, led by Enrico Berlinguer's Italian Communist Party (PCI), stayed within the Communist Parties and developed their own critique. This would essentially lead to an expanded version of the "popular front" policies of the 1930s, with a number of CPs attempting to ingratiate themselves to the existing political establishment. The movement came to be known as Eurocommunism.
Whereas Eurocommunist factions in the French and Italian communist parties fairly successfully managed to impose their agenda on the party platforms, things were not so simple in other countries. In Britain, particularly, there were bitter struggles from the 1970s on. The party became divided into 'Euros' and 'tankies' (so called for their support of Soviet interventions in Eastern Bloc countries).
A major coup for the Euros was obtaining control over "Marxism Today". Martin Jacques became editor in 1977, and began to publish articles mostly by prominent Eurocommunists. More recently, he cites Eric Hobsbawm's 1978 article "Forward March Of Labour Halted?" as a turning point. In the early 80s, the New Times idea began to emerge. Alongside Jacques, Stuart Hall was highly influential. Articles were published in "MT" questioning the Left's opposition to consumerism, focus on material production and the industrial working class, and approach to Margaret Thatcher. The term "Thatcherism" is largely attributable to Hall's work in "MT", where he argued that she was not 'just another' Tory.
In 1988, New Times was belatedly named in MT's October issue. A special edition proclaimed that ""Mass production, the mass consumer, the big city, big-brother state, the sprawling housing estate, and the nation-state are in decline: flexibility, diversity, differentiation, mobility, communication, decentralisation and internationalisation are in the ascendant. In the process our own identities, our sense of self, our own subjectivities are being transformed. We are in transition to a new era."" The movement had now reached its peak, with a huge influence on Neil Kinnock and later Tony Blair's reorientation of the Labour Party.
The principal basis of New Times is, as the name suggests, the idea that the 1980s and 90s represent a significant break with previous history. The transition from Fordism to Post-fordism is a key factor, as workers in western nations are no longer concentrated in large workplaces, but employed widely in the service and public sectors; blue collar jobs are replaced by white collar ones; and consumption is democratised to a far greater extent than previously.
Other things are seen as radically new. Thatcherism, for example, is seen not as a simple development of previous Tory policy, but as a radical departure. Jacques, in the introduction to the MT special, writes that "at the heart of Thatcherism, has been its sense of New Times, of living in a new era... the Right has glimpsed the future and run with it." The new times require new politics, and Thatcher is the first one to realise it.
In terms of concrete political positions, the NT milieu did not significantly differ from the wider Eurocommunist scene. NT did not see their role as informing Communist cadre so much as influencing the wider left, in particular the Labourites and Liberals. They advocated broad coalitions of oppressed groups, and ushered in an era of 'identity politics'. (Indeed, much of Hall's subsequent work was concerned with questions of identity.) NT repudiated the project of abolishing capitalism, ascribing the failure of Bolshevism to 'voluntarism.' NT held instead to a decidedly reformist project: the left should adapt to the world, rather than seeking to change it.
During the "Marxism Today" discussion, A Sivinandan published a critique in "Race & Class" in which he argued that class struggle was still central to capitalism. It begins:
"New Times is a fraud, a counterfeit, a humbug. It palms off Thatcherite values as socialist, shores up the Thatcherite market with the pretended politics of choice, fits out the Thatcherite individual with progressive consumerism, makes consumption itself the stuff of politics."
Many New Times intellectuals were instrumental in reorganising the Labour Party. Hobsbawm was an advisor to Neil Kinnock, as Martin Kettle later was to Tony Blair. Many of Blair's inner circle were former Communists of the Euro/NT school. While those intellectuals who still identify with the New Times school are often very critical of Blair's alleged over-identification with Thatcherite policy.
The Democratic Left movement set up by "MT" alumni in the 1990s published a magazine also called "New Times". This ceased publication in 2000.
| 7641341 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7641341 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Whitewashing (censorship)
To whitewash is a metaphor meaning "to gloss over or cover up vices, crimes or scandals or to exonerate by means of a perfunctory investigation or through biased presentation of data".
The first known use of the term is from 1591 in England. Whitewash is a cheap white paint or coating of chalked lime that was used to quickly give a uniform clean appearance to a wide variety of surfaces, for instance, the entire interior of a barn.
In 1800, in the United States, the word was used in a political context, when a Philadelphia "Aurora" editorial said that "if you do not whitewash President Adams speedily, the Democrats, like swarms of flies, will bespatter him all over, and make you both as speckled as a dirty wall, and as black as the devil."
In the 20th century, many dictatorships and authoritarian states, as well as democratic countries, have used the method of whitewash in order to glorify the results of war.
For instance, during the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia following the Prague Spring of 1968, the Press Group of Soviet Journalists released a collection of "facts, documents, press reports and eye-witness accounts." Western journalists promptly nicknamed it as "The White Book", both for its white cover and its attempts to whitewash the invasion by creating the impression that the Warsaw Pact countries had the right and duty to invade.
In the early 21st century, North Korean radio broadcasts have claimed the nation has an abundance in food supplies, yet the government receives food aid from foreign states.
In the study of reputation systems by means of algorithmic game theory, whitewashing is used to refer to an agent abandoning a tarnished identity and re-creating a new blank one, in what is more widely known in Internet slang as sockpuppeting.
The text of Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow" has been identified as being whitewashed due to the bias of its conceptual framework. It omits pertinent African American people and history, as well as politically radical ideas in favor of a more conventional and mainstream perspective. Critics maintain that the text has been whitewashed for white middle-class consumption.
Novels by George Orwell have dealt with the subject of whitewash as well. In "Animal Farm", the pig Napoleon tries to whitewash history by deleting a few characters from the minds of the other animals. This was perceived as a direct reference to the USSR under Stalin. The protagonist of his novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four", set in a totalitarian dictatorship, is employed as a routine falsifier of the historical record to ensure that it is always in keeping with the party line.
Czech writer Milan Kundera, in his novel "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting", described histories being revised with both text and photos being changed to take out unpopular dissidents or people on the wrong side of the government.
Since the late 20th century in the United States, new terms have been coined to relate to similar efforts to associate with desirable social goals or get on a bandwagon.
| 7642917 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7642917 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Natural fertility
Natural fertility is the fertility that exists without birth control. The control is the number of children birthed to the parents and is modified as the number of children reaches the maximum. There is evidence that little birth control is used in non-European countries. Natural fertility tends to decrease as a society modernizes. Women in a pre-modernized society typically have given birth to a large number of children by the time they are 50 years old, while women in post-modernized society only bear a small number by the same age. However, during modernization natural fertility rises, before family planning is practiced.
Historical populations have traditionally honored the idea of natural fertility by displaying fertility symbols.
Natural fertility is a concept developed by the French historical demographer Louis Henry to refer to the level of fertility that would prevail in a population that makes no conscious effort to limit, regulate, or control fertility, so that fertility depends only on physiological factors affecting fecundity. In contrast, populations that practice birth control will have lower fertility levels as a result of delaying first births (a lengthened interval between menarche and first pregnancy), extended intervals between births, or stopping child-bearing at a certain age. Such control does not assume the use of artificial means of fertility regulation or modern contraceptive methods but can result from the use of traditional means of contraception or pregnancy prevention (e.g., coitus interruptus). Many social norms or practices effect fertility regulation including celibacy, the age at marriage and the timing and frequency of sexual intercourse, including periods of prescribed sexual abstinence. Breastfeeding has also been used to space births in areas without birth control. Ansley Coale and other demographers have developed several methods for measuring the extent of such fertility control, in which the idea of a natural level of fertility is an essential component.
When women have access to birth control, they can better plan their pregnancies. This leads to better health outcomes and enhances their lives and those of their families. Birth control has dramatically improved the ability of all women to participate actively and with dignity in economies across the world. Birth control allows many women to delay childbearing until they believe they are emotionally and financially ready to be a parent. Children who are born in an unplanned pregnancy tend to occur outside relationships. Birth Control has been the main tool to prevent unplanned births, and with greater access to birth control unplanned pregnancies have declined.
Proximate determinants describe variables that affect a female's fertility. There are seven proximate determinants of natural fertility, four of which affect the inter-birth interval:
Factors like the age at which a woman marries and the inter-birth interval are influenced by social factors like education, religion, and wealth. Educated women tend to delay childbirth and have fewer offspring. In sub-Saharan Africa where gender disparities in education are more prevalent, fertility rates are the highest in the world. Globally, 58 million girls do not attend primary school. Half of those girls live in sub-Saharan Africa; this disparity only widens as the level of education increases. Prevalence of child marriage is an attributing factor to the fertility rates in India as women ages 20–24 reported that they had never used contraception prior to giving birth or within their first year of marriage. Child marriage in India primarily occurs in girls living in poor socioeconomic conditions. Furthermore, women married as minors in South Asia, where half of child marriages occur, reveal having high numbers of unwanted pregnancies than their counterparts that married as adults.
Common reasons communities or individuals will practice natural fertility include concerns about developing medical conditions (including future infertility), pre-existing health conditions (including PCOS), cost of birth control, religious prohibition, lack of availability of birth control, and lack of information about birth control methods. Location also tends to be a factor in regards to the availability of both contraceptives and education on sexual practice. For example, less developed areas, including, but not limited to those extending throughout inland Africa lack access to the drugs necessary to control fertility or informative lessons describing their correct usage.
The number of children born to one woman can vary dependent on her window from menarche to menopause. The average window of fertility is from 13.53 to 49.24. Taking into consideration lactational amenorrhea and the period between conception and birth, the average woman is capable of experiencing around 20 births. However, if the duration of lactation is cut short due to use of a formula substitute or the woman has multiple births, the number of offspring could exceed 20.
Natural fertility is not only influenced by women and their conscious decisions, but also their male counterparts. Even if a woman is unexposed to contraceptives, lacks knowledge of family planning, or purposely refrains from practicing regulated fertility, she could still struggle to conceive. Over the past half century, there has been an increase in scientific data supporting the decline in male sperm count. The decrease is attributed to various environmental toxins that are accumulating as the planet continues to industrialize. If sperm count remains above 60 million per ejaculate, fertility remains normal. But sperm counts are continuing to drop. At such low levels, the sperm often are incapable of successfully fertilizing the egg. As a result, women tend to run into more difficulties when trying to conceive, even if they try to do so naturally.
Ansley J. Coale developed a theory to predict when a population's fertility would begin to decline. His theory focused on three specific aspects. First, a couple must make conscious choice to control their fertility. This is closely related to secularization as some religions prohibit means of contraception. Second, there must be a benefit to controlling fertility that results in the desire for a smaller family. For example, as more regions move away from agriculture children are no longer needed to help with labor and fertility rates and family size tend to decrease. Third, the couple must be able to control fertility. This means that access to contraceptives or other means of limiting fertility must be available.
Coale's preconditions for fertility decline is interrelated to the Demographic Transition, a theory of the transition of societies from an agricultural to an industrial system. A more modernized society has lower mortality and fertility rates while a less modernized society tends to have higher mortality and fertility rates. Developing countries in the early stages of the demographic transition are characterized by high fertility and mortality rates which can be attributed to the lack of medical interventions like birth control and modern technology. Communicable diseases and contaminated resources like water and consequently food, plague developing countries. As a consequence, people of all ages die in masses. Coale's theory favored a fertility decline as a smaller population would allow for a more beneficial spread of resources and keep the number of ill individuals concentrated to a smaller group. In addition, Coale viewed the development of Europe's infrastructure during the Industrial Revolution as a mark in its transition in the demographic transition. Mortality and fertility rates declined with their improved standard of living. Infant mortality rates are indicative of fertility rates as couples decide to have a lot children knowing that a number of them will die so that even after those children die, they have sufficient kids to aid in agricultural work. Conversely, developed countries in the later stages of the demographic transition experience lower fertility and mortality rates due to the accessibility of contraception, the pursuit of higher education in women, and marriage at a later age.
Coale's theory can be observed in sub-Saharan Africa as countries residing within this region have fertility levels that are declining at a much slower rate than before and have one of the highest projected population growths compared to other areas of the world. Individuals inhabiting sub-Saharan Africa have slowly rejected Coale's second precondition for fertility decline which, as stated before, is willingness. They are resistant and unwilling to accept the integration of modern forms of contraception. This can be attributed to the influence of religion and the values it imposes on culture even in individuals who don't practice any religion. To add on, the society they live in encourages young marriages and values large families. Despite the discrepancy between preferred child bearing and natural fertility, women in Africa have reported they don't use any form of contraception to prevent pregnancies. All of these factors have contributed to the slowing down of fertility decline in Africa.
| 7650180 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7650180 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Obsessive love
Obsessive love or Obsessive love disorder (OLD) is a condition in which one person feels an overwhelming obsessive desire to possess and protect another person, with an inability to accept failure or rejection. Symptoms include an inability to tolerate any time spent without that person, obsessive fantasies surrounding the person, and spending inordinate amounts of time seeking out, making, or looking at images of that person. Although it is not categorized under any specific mental diagnosis by the DSM-5, some people argue that obsessive love is a mental illness similar to attachment disorder, borderline personality disorder, and erotomania. Depending on the intensity of their attraction, obsessive lovers may feel entirely unable to restrain themselves from extreme behaviors such as acts of violence toward themselves or others. Obsessive love can have its roots in childhood trauma and may begin at first sight; it may persist indefinitely, sometimes requiring psychotherapy. In November 2019 marriage.com reported that although it could be “a slight exaggeration” Netflix show You had got people talking about obsessive love disorder.
Author Liz Hodgkinson, herself a sufferer from Obsessive Love Disorder, in one instance lasting for fifty years and only being relieved by psychotherapy states "I believe that with obsessive love, time is no healer at all. The experience of obsessive love can be likened to dropping a stitch in knitting, and never picking it up. The knitting never quite looks right from then on, unless we unpick it and start again from the mistake."
You, a 2014 thriller novel by Caroline Kepnes portrays obsessive love disorder. The novel was translated into 19 languages and has been adapted into a television serial of the same name.
In 2018 the psychological thriller novel written by Caroline Kepnes was developed into the September 2018 Lifetime television series You. It attracted a limited audience before becoming more popular and a critical success on Netflix from December 2018. Over 43 million viewers streamed the first season after its debut on the streaming service. Based on Kepnes' follow-up novel "Hidden Bodies", the second season was released exclusively on Netflix on December 26, 2019. On January 14, 2020, the series was renewed by Netflix for a third season, set to be released sometime in 2021.
The term "yandere" is used by the anime and manga fandom as an over-dramatization of OLD. Usually, "yandere" characters are extremely brutal and do not hesitate to hurt and/or kill others in order to be with their beloved. The best known yandere characters include Yuno Gasai from the Future Diary anime and manga series and Ayano Aishi from "Yandere Simulator" stealth action video game.
| 7670972 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7670972 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Bradley Shavit Artson
Bradley Shavit "Brad" Artson (born 1959) is an American rabbi, author, speaker, and the occupant of the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean's Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, California, where he is Vice-President. He supervises the Louis and Judith Miller Introduction to Judaism Program and provides educational and religious oversight for Camp Ramah of California in Ojai and Camp Ramah of Northern California in the Monterey Bay area. He is Dean of the Zacharias Frankel College at the University of Potsdam in Germany, ordaining Conservative/Masorti rabbis for Europe.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Artson holds the A.B. Degree from Harvard College, cum laude, in 1981. As an undergraduate, he served as the LBJ Intern for United States Representative Burton and was an intern for United States Senator Alan Cranston. Following graduation, Artson was a Legislative Assistant to the Speaker of the California Assembly for two years and was ordained with honors by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1988. He wrote his first book, "Love Peace and Pursue Peace: A Jewish Response to War and Nuclear Annihilation" while in rabbinical school. During his last year at rabbinical school, he served as the part-time rabbinic intern at Bolton Street Synagogue in Baltimore.
For 10 years, Artson served as the rabbi of Congregation Eilat in Mission Viejo, which grew under his tenure from about 200 families to over 600. During that period, his Introduction to Judaism course helped over 200 people convert to Judaism, and 10 of his congregants have entered the rabbinate in turn.
From 1998–1999, Artson was a member of the Senior Management of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and served as the Executive Vice President of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California. In 1999, he began his work at the University of Judaism (now the American Jewish University). In addition to his work as Rabbinical School Dean and University Vice-President, Rabbi Artson received his D.H.L. at the Hebrew Union College's Jewish Institute of Religion in Contemporary Jewish Theology, under the supervision of Rabbi Dr. David Ellenson.
His scholarly fields are Jewish philosophy and theology, particularly a process approach integrating contemporary scientific insights from cosmology, quantum physics, evolutionary theory and neuroscience to a dynamic view of God, Torah, Mitzvot and ethics. He is a charter member of the Society for the Study of Judaism and Science.
A prominent leader of Conservative Judaism, Artson serves on the Leadership Council of Conservative Judaism. He supervises the Miller Introduction to Judaism Program and the Center for Jewish Outreach at American Jewish University and he mentors Camp Ramah in California. Rabbi Artson writes a weekly Torah commentary that has over 13,000 internet subscribers. He is the author of 11 books, most recently "Renewing the Process of Creation: A Jewish Integration of Science and Spirit" and "God of Becoming & Relationship: The Dynamic Nature of Process Theology" both published by Jewish Lights. He is a regular contributor to Huffington Post, the Times of Israel, and he has written over 300 articles in several journals and magazines.
He is also Dean of the Zacharias Frankel College at the University of Potsdam, Germany, ordaining Conservative/Masorti rabbis for Europe under the religious supervision of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies.
In 2008, Artson ordained Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, the leader of the Abayudaya Tribe and participated a rabbinic delegation to Uganda to install him as the first African rabbi in Sub-Saharan Africa. While in Africa he joined a Beit Din in converting 250 Africans from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, and Uganda. A regional chief bestowed upon him the African name Walusansa Salongo.
Artson launched the "Walking With …" series, an annual series of books distributed free of charge and available on the web as complimentary PDF files . In 2007 he produced "Walking With God", in 2008, "Walking With Justice," in 2009, "Walking With Life," and in 2010, "Walking With the Jewish Calendar." For the past few years he has also produced an annual Selichot DVD, "Choose Life," a series of conversations with Rabbi Artson, Rabbi David Wolpe, Rabbi Naomi Levy, Rabbi Edward Feinstein, and Rabbi Sharon Brous. It can be viewed at . Under his direction, the Ziegler School sponsored a podcast page that presents the monthly discussions of Rabbi Artson, a Rebbe's Tish of Reb Mimi Feigelson, lessons on the Siddur and prayer by Rabbi Elliot Dorff, and a Halakhah Yomi by Rabbi Aaron Alexander.
Artson has served on the faculty of the Wexner Heritage Foundation and as a speaker for UJC/Federation communities.
Artson is married to Elana Shavit Artson, and they are the parents of twins, Shira and Jacob.
| 7673913 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7673913 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Australian Aboriginal avoidance practices
Aboriginal avoidance practices refers to those relationships in traditional Aboriginal society where certain people are required to avoid others in their family or clan. These customs are still active in many parts of Australia, to a greater or lesser extent.
Avoidance relationships are a mark of respect. There are also strong protocols around avoiding, or averting, eye contact, as well as around speaking the name of the dead.
In general, across most language groups, the two most common avoidance relationships are:
In what is the strongest kinship avoidance rule, some Australian Aboriginal customs ban a person from talking directly to their mother-in-law or even seeing her. A mother-in-law also eats apart from her son-in-law or daughter-in-law and their spouse. If the two are present at the same ceremony, they will sit with their backs to each other but they can still communicate via the wife/husband, who remains the main conduit for communication in this relationship. Often there are language customs surrounding these relationships.
This relationship extends to avoiding all women of the same skin group as the mother-in-law, and, for the mother-in-law, men of the same skin group as the son-in-law. The age of marriage is very different for men and women with girls usually marrying at puberty while a man may not marry until his late 20s or even later. As mothers-in-law and sons-in-law are likely to be of approximately the same age the avoidance practice possibly serves to circumvent potential illicit relationships. It has also been suggested that the custom developed to overcome a common cause of friction in families.
This usually takes place after initiation. Prior to this, brothers and sisters play together freely.
Both these avoidance relationships have their grounding in the Australian Aboriginal kinship system, and so are ways of avoiding incest in small bands of closely related people.
There are many other avoidance relationships, including same-sex relationships, but these are the main two.
Once children are older, they are viewed as potential marital partners and their sexual behavior becomes one of strict avoidance until married. Permanent relationships are prescribed by traditional law and often arranged before birth.
Same-sex relationships are viewed in the same light as incest or "wrong" marriages (i.e., to a partner of their own choice or wrong skin group) which carry the same penalties as a domestic crime against the community. However, intimate bodily contact between women regardless of marital status is not considered sexually suggestive but affirmation of friendship and a "right to touch". Touch is particularly important when women tell jokes or discuss matters of a sexual nature. In these circumstances behavior such as "nipple tweaking" and "groin grabbing" are seen as signs of friendship.
Traditionally, this meant avoiding referring to a deceased individual by name directly after their death as a mark of respect—and also because it is considered too painful for the grieving family. Today the practice continues in many communities, but has also come to encompass avoiding the publication or dissemination of photography or film footage of the deceased as well. Most forms of media include a disclaimer warning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders that the program may contain images and voices of such people who have died. (as recommended by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation).
The avoidance period may last anywhere from 12 months to several years. The person can still be referred to in a roundabout way, such as, "that old lady", or by their generic skin name, but not by first name. In some Central Australian communities, if for example, an individual named Alice dies, that name must be avoided in all contexts. This can even include the township Alice Springs being referred to in conversation in a roundabout way. Those of the same name as the deceased are referred to by a substitute name during the avoidance period such as "Kuminjay", used in the Pintubi-Luritja dialect, or "Galyardu", which appears in a mid-western Australia Wajarri dictionary for this purpose.
This presents some challenges to indigenous people. In traditional society, people lived together in small bands of extended family, and name duplication was less common. Today, as people have moved into larger communities (with upwards of 300 to 600 people), the logistics of name avoidance have become increasingly difficult. Exotic and rare names have therefore become more common, particularly in Central Australia and desert communities, to deal with this new challenge.
| 7676441 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7676441 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Techniques of neutralization
Techniques of neutralization are a theoretical series of methods by which those who commit illegitimate acts temporarily neutralize certain values within themselves which would normally prohibit them from carrying out such acts, such as morality, obligation to abide by the law, and so on. In simpler terms, it is a psychological method for people to turn off "inner protests" when they do, or are about to do something they themselves perceive as wrong.
The idea of such techniques was first postulated by David Matza (born May 1, 1930) and Gresham Sykes (born 1922) during their work on Edwin Sutherland's Differential Association in the 1950s. While Matza and Sykes were at the time working on juvenile delinquency, they hypothocized that the same techniques could be found throughout society and published their ideas in "Delinquency and Drift" 1964.
Matza and Sykes' hypothesis states that people are always aware of their moral obligation to abide by the law, and that they have the same moral obligation within themselves to avoid illegitimate acts. Thus, they reasoned, when a person did commit illegitimate acts, they must employ some sort of mechanism to silence the urge to follow these moral obligations.
This hypothesis rejects other theories which suggested that groups containing delinquents have set up their own permanent moral code which completely replaces moral obligations. Thus, Matza and Sykes were able to explain how offenders 'drift' from illegitimate to legitimate lifestyles repeatedly, as they retain the moral code rather than wipe it clean to be replaced by a more illegitimate one as previous theories suggested.
The theory was built up upon four observations:
These theories were brought from positivistic criminology which looked at epistemological perspectives of delinquency.
From these, Matza and Sykes created the following methods by which, they believed, delinquents justified their illegitimate actions:
There are five methods of neutralization generally manifest themselves in the form of arguments, such as:
In 2017, Bryant et al. analysed statements made by 27 individuals accused of participation in the Rwanda genocide and found two neutralization techniques that had not been identified before:
In 2018 Muel Kaptein and Martien van Helvoort have developed a model, called the Amoralizations Alarm Clock, that covers all existing amoralizations in a logical way.
Amorializations, also called neutralizations, or rationalizations, are defined as justifications and excuses for deviant behavior. Amoralizations are important explanations for the rise and persistence of deviant behavior.
There exist many different and overlapping techniques of amoralizations.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2018.1491696
Further research in the hypothesis has produced inconclusive results. Offenders have been found both with a solid belief in their moral obligations, and without. Travis Hirschi, a social bond theorist, also raised the question as to whether the offender develops these techniques to neutralise their qualms regarding offending "before" or "after" they actually commit the offence.
The Neutralization Hypothosis was introduced by Sykes and Matza in 1957, facing the then prevailing criminological wisdom that offenders engage in crime because they adhere to an oppositional subcultural rule set that values law breaking and violence, they rejected this perspective. Subsequent research revealed that the original formulation of the Sykes and Matza's theory explains only the behavior of "conventionally attached individuals" not those of "nonconventionally oriented individuals" such as "criminally embedded street offenders". Professor Volkan Topalli, at Georgia State University, in his article "The Seductive Nature of Autotelic Crime: How Neutralization Theory Serves as a Boundary Condition for Understanding Hardcore Street Offending", explains that for those groups "guilt is not an issue at all because their crimes are not only considered acceptable, but attractive and desirable".
Amoralizations https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2018.1491696
| 7692848 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7692848 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays
Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays is a 1974 book by economist Murray Rothbard. The book represents the author's theorizing on topics impacting human liberty. Rothbard looks beyond conventional left-right thinking and hence contributes to the groundwork for the current intellectual challenge against centralized social and economic management.
The book's title comes from the lead essay, which argues that egalitarian theory always results in a politics of statist control because it is founded on revolt against the ontological structure of reality itself. According to Rothbard in this lead essay, statist intellectuals attempt to replace what exists with a Romantic image of an idealized primitive state of nature, an ideal which cannot and should not be achieved, according to Rothbard. The implications of this point are worked out on topics such as market economics, child rights, environmentalism, feminism, foreign policy, redistribution and others.
Roy Childs writes in the Foreword:
For until Rothbard's work is carefully studied by every advocate of liberty, the value of his contributions to the libertarian system cannot be fully appreciated and, moreover, the unity and true historical context of libertarianism will not even be fully grasped.
| 7705752 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7705752 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Charitable Uses Act 1601
The Charitable Uses Act of 1601 (known as the "Statute of Elizabeth") is an Act (43 Eliz I, c.4) of the Parliament of England. It was repealed by section 13(1) of the Mortmain and Charitable Uses Act 1888 (c.42) (but see section 13(2) of that Act).
The preamble to the act contained a list of purposes or activities that was, in effect, a list of purposes or activities that the State believed were of general benefit to society, and to which the State wanted to encourage private contributions. The list has formed the foundation of the modern definition of charitable purposes, which has developed through case law. This has come about because the courts, in considering whether or not a particular purpose was charitable in law, have tended to look for an analogy between the purpose under consideration and the list, and to recognise the purpose as charitable if an analogy with the 1601 list could be found.
| 7706038 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7706038 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Wesley J. Smith
Wesley J. Smith (born 1949) is an American lawyer and author, a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism, a politically conservative non-profit think tank. He is also a consultant for the Patients Rights Council. Smith is known for his criticism of assisted suicide and utilitarian bioethics.
Smith has authored or co-authored fourteen books. He formerly collaborated with consumer advocate Ralph Nader, and has been published in regional and national outlets such as "The New York Times", "Newsweek", "The Wall Street Journal", "USA Today", the "San Francisco Chronicle", "The Seattle Times", the "New York Post", and others. He is also well known for his blog, "Human Exceptionalism", hosted by "National Review", which advances his theory of "human exceptionalism" and defends intrinsic human dignity. He is a critic of those he labels "mainstream" bioethicists such as Peter Singer, Julian Savulescu, Jacob M. Appel, and R. Alta Charo. He has also been highly critical of science writer Matt Ridley.
Smith practiced law in the San Fernando Valley from 1976–1985, at which time he left law practice to pursue other interests, particularly as a public policy advocate. His first book in 1987 was "The Lawyer Book: A Nuts and Bolts Guide to Client Survival", introduced by consumer advocate Ralph Nader beginning a collaboration between the two men. Smith is a prolific author and a frequent contributor to "National Review" and "The Weekly Standard". He closely followed the Terri Schiavo case in 2005, and wrote frequently on the topic.
He opposes policies allowing for assisted suicide, euthanasia, human cloning, and granting human style "rights" to animals," making a clear distinction between animal rights and animal welfare. He is also a noted critic of mainstream views in bioethics, human cloning research, radical environmentalism and of what he calls the radical animal liberation movement, which he worries exhibits "anti-humanism". His book "Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America" was named Best Health Book of the Year at the 2001 Independent Publishers Book Awards.
Smith is one of the world's foremost apologists of "human exceptionalism," which he defends from a secular perspective.
Smith is a frequent guest on radio and television talk shows, having appeared on national programs such as "Good Morning America" and "Nightline", as well as internationally on BBC Radio 4. He has testified as an expert witness in front of federal and state legislative committees, and is an international public speaker, appearing throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and many countries in Europe.
Smith is married to the syndicated "Las Vegas Review Journal" White House correspondent Debra J. Saunders.
In a 2001 essay, physician Matthew K. Wynia and attorney Arthur Derse accused Smith of selectively using evidence to create a false impression that bioethics is a monolithic field. They argued that Smith was "prepared to bend the truth to make a point, turn a stomach, and potentially radicalize a reader." Smith rebutted these criticisms, stating in part, "Wynia and Derse assert that I claim bioethics is a monolith. That is not what I write. What I do believe is that bioethics has, generally, crystallized into an orthodoxy, perhaps even an ideology. I acknowledge that disagreements certainly exist within the field. But I view them, with some exceptions, as the arguing of people who agree on fundamentals but disagree on details -- sort of like Catholics bickering with Baptists."
| 7707870 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7707870 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Johanne Agerskov
Johanne Elisabeth Agerskov (1873–1946) was a Danish medium. Together with her husband, Michael Agerskov, she was responsible for the ethico-religious, philosophical, and pseudo-scientific book, "Toward the Light" (in Danish, "Vandrer mod Lyset!"), first published by Michael Agerskov in Copenhagen in 1920.
She was a daughter of a Danish inventor, minister and principal of the Royal Institute for Deaf-Mutes in Copenhagen Rasmus Malling-Hansen ( 1835 - 1890 ).
In her younger days Johanne Agerskov worked as a teacher, and she married Michael Agerskov in 1899. Their only daughter, Inger Agerskov, was born in 1900, and Johanne became a housewife.
During the first decade of the twentieth century, Michael became interested in spiritual phenomena, and persuaded his wife to participate in séances, even though she was skeptical in the beginning. Soon Johanne came to believe that the spirits of the transcendental world had called upon her, and had given her the message that she was a medium, and that before her birth she had promised to be instrumental in bringing eternal truths to mankind.
Convinced that she had a special mission, Agerskov and her husband formed a circle with two more couples, and for many years held weekly séances, in which they believed messages from the spirits of the light were given to Agerskov through intuitive thought-inspiration. She claimed a unique ability to close off her own thoughts, so that all she could "hear" in her mind, according to her, was the thoughts of the spirit with whom she was supposed to be in contact. That was very demanding, and in that period she gave up all the pleasures of social life, in order to be focused and prepared for the séances. The members of the circle would submit questions for her to ask the spirits, and shortly she would give them answers, supposedly from the spirits, which the other participants would write down.
That resulted in the publication of the book, "Toward the Light", which Agerskov called "a message to mankind from the transcendental world", and which she and her husband sent out to all the bishops and sixty ministers of the Danish national church. Their hope was that these would participate in a reformation of the Danish church, based upon the new knowledge given in "Toward the Light". The Agerskovs made great efforts to that end, through correspondence and by opening their home to anybody who wanted to see them about "Toward the Light"; but there was little public interest in the book, and the expected reformation did not take place.
Johanne Agerskov was also deeply engaged in the work of her father. In 1924 a Danish professor asserted that Malling-Hansen was not the inventor of the Hansen Writing Ball, and Agerskov undertook a thorough investigation of the facts, together with her sister, Engelke Wiberg. They wrote several articles on the subject, and Agerskov also wrote a book, called "Hvem var Skrivekuglens Opfinder?" ("Who was the Inventor of the Writing Ball?"), published in Copenhagen in 1925.
In 1926 a Society for the Advancement of "Toward the Light" was formed , which offered religious services for its members, based on "Toward the Light". Agerskov was skeptical, however, because "Toward the Light" calls on believers to remain in the established church and to work for reformation from within.
Even though the Agerskovs in the beginning had participated in spiritualist séances, they soon asked their followers to end that activity, because, as they asserted in "Toward the Light", calling on the spirits of deceased ancestors would bring problems to those who could not resist the call to appear. The spirits, they said, needed to rest and to prepare for their next incarnation, and were not allowed to visit the earth.
Michael Agerskov died in 1933, but Johanne continued to answer letters and to publish up until 1938, in collaboration with their daughter. During the last years of her life, Johanne Agerskov suffered from illness, and was not able to leave her home.
There has been controversy among Agerskov's followers over whether or not to publish photos of her, as she said to destroy all her own pictures of herself before she died. Some of the followers of "Toward the Light!" contend that her will in this matter should be respected, and oppose the publication of such pictures.
Others see nothing wrong with publishing photos of her, considering that photos of her are available in public collections in both Denmark and Norway, and on the World-Wide Web. This article contains photos of both Agerskov and her husband, supplied by their descendants, who have no objection to their publication.
| 7709402 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7709402 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Max Lüscher
Max Lüscher (September 9, 1923 – February 2, 2017) was a Swiss psychotherapist known for inventing the Lüscher color test, a tool for measuring an individual's psychophysical state based on his or her color preferences. Besides research, teaching and practicing psychotherapy in Basel, Lüscher worked for international companies, amongst other things giving color advice. His book "The Lüscher Test" has been translated into more than 30 languages.
Max Lüscher was born in Basel, Switzerland on September 9, 1923. After receiving his Swiss "Matura", comparable to a diploma, he focused on studying psychiatry and achieved his doctorate in the areas of philosophy, psychology, and the philosophy of law. Lüscher completed his dissertation on ""Color as an aid in psychological diagnosis"". This project was chosen as the "summa cum laude" by his professors. After this, working as a psychotherapist, Lüscher created his first color test which was published in 1947. This test used color cards to determine the current emotional state of the test-taker. From 1961 to 1965, Lüscher lived in Berlin and continued his career as a psychotherapist. Lüscher was noted for his guest lectures and training seminars for physicians. The "Lüscher Color-Diagnostics" are now used in several universities across the world.
The test colors from the Lüscher Color-Diagnosis chosen based on favoritism. The test-taker chooses the card color they like best and then orders the rest from most-preferred to lease-preferred. Numbers are printed on the backside of each card, and after the test-taker orders them, the examiner turns them over and references an accompanying book that contains all of the different number combinations and their meaning. Lüscher argues that the subject's choice of color shows the state of their psychosomatic and emotional status and how they feel about themselves.
Lüscher relates to his four fundamental colors to the following fundamental categories:
A 1984 comparison of the Lüscher color test and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory found little agreement between the two tests, prompting the authors to urge cautious use of the former.
| 7713579 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7713579 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | State of World Liberty Index
The State of World Liberty Index was a ranking of countries according to the degree of economic and personal freedoms that their citizens enjoy. It was a compilation of several similar indices created by other organizations. The index's original author Nick Wilson defined freedom as "the ability for the individual to live their lives as they choose, as long as they do not infringe on the rights of others to do the same."
Only one report (the 2006 State of World Liberty Index, released 12 August 2006) was produced by the State of World Liberty Project and the original website is now defunct. However, Patrick Rhamey, professor in the Department of International Studies at the Virginia Military Institute, has updated the rankings through 2020 using the same concept, with some adjustments to the original method.
The index has been cited by human rights organisations, governments, pro-democracy groups, news organisations, and others.
The 2006 State of World Liberty Index was created by combining the rankings of four other indexes of world liberty into one: the "2005 Economic Freedom of the World" Index (Fraser Institute), the "2006 Index of Economic Freedom" (The Heritage Foundation), the "2005 Freedom in the World" index (Freedom House), and the "2005 Press Freedom Index" (Reporters Without Borders).
These reports are used to score countries in three categories: individual freedom, economic freedom, and government size and taxation. These three scores are then averaged to give a country's overall score.
The 2012-2020 Rankings reproduce the original ranking concept using the same data sources, albeit adjusting the weighting of data to best capture the original intent of measuring "the ability of the individual to live their lives as they choose." Measures are also standardized appropriately given the different scales used across indices and the government burden category was condensed into the broader indicator of economic freedom.
Beginning in 2018, the ranking also includes a measure of how Conservative or Progressive a state is, defined as whether a state regulates either social or economic issues more heavily.
In the 2020 index, New Zealand is ranked most free overall, while North Korea is last. Hong Kong was ranked most free in economic liberty, while Norway was ranked most free in the social liberty category.
| 7720337 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7720337 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Compliance and ethics program
Since about 1970, several major business and government excesses were seen in the United States to generate subsequent legal, public and political reaction. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is perhaps the legislation with the most significant influence in the development of ethics and compliance programs; similar ideas are encoded in the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations, and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) marked the early beginnings of compliance programs in the United States. In the mid-1970s, United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigations discovered that a significant number of American companies participated in bribery overseas. “Over 400 U.S. Companies admitted to making questionable or illegal payments to foreign government officials, politicians and political parties.” (United States Department of Justice 2006) One of the most infamous cases of its time was the admission by a Lockheed executive, to the Multinational Corporations Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, that Lockheed had paid bribes in the amount of $22 million to Japanese government officials in the course of trying to sell its aircraft. This revelation came on the heels of the U.S. Government providing Lockheed with a $250 million emergency loan guarantee (Hishikawa 2003).
In an effort to restore faith in American business, in December 1977 the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was signed into law. This anti-bribery provision makes it “unlawful for a U.S. person, and certain foreign issuers of securities, to make a corrupt payment to a foreign official for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business for or with, or directing business to, any person.” (United States Department of Justice 2006) The law also requires publicly traded companies “to maintain records that accurately and fairly represent the company’s transactions. Additionally, it requires these companies to have an adequate systems of internal accounting controls.” (United States Department of Justice 2006)
Following the passage of the FCPA, in 1988, the Congress became concerned that American companies were operating at a disadvantage because their foreign counterparts were, as a matter of practice, paying bribes to foreign officials and deducting those bribes as business expenses on their taxes. (United States Department of Justice 2006) Subsequently, the Executive Branch began negotiations with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a 34-member nation coalition consisting of the United States and 33 other countries, to enact legislation similar to FCPA. In 1997, the OCED signed the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. (http://www.oecd.org/document/21/0,2340,en_2649_34859_2017813_1_1_1_1,00.html)
This regulation requires member nations to designate the payment of bribes to foreign offices as a crime and to follow the rules and regulations that govern bribery in international transactions. The U.S. ratified this convention and enacted implementing legislation in 1998. At this time, the FCPA was amended to include territorial jurisdiction over foreign companies and nationals. A foreign company or person is now subject to the FCPA, if the company or person either directly or indirectly through agents, engages in acts which further the facilitation of corrupt payments taking place within the territory of the United States.
In response to the FCPA and its requirement to implement internal control programs, in 1985 a private-sector initiative was formed called the National Committee on Fraudulent Financial Reporting (commonly known as the Treadway Commission). This Commission recommended that its organizational sponsors work together to develop guidance on internal controls. Subsequently, the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) was formed, and in conjunction with the CPA firm Coopers & Lybrand, COSO authored and published in 1992 the “Internal Control-Integrated Framework". This framework has become the de facto standard in the accounting industry for auditing, evaluating and monitoring internal control systems.
The COSO Internal Control-Integrated Framework is now widely used by most organizations as the basis for “establishing and maintaining an adequate internal control structure and procedures for financial reporting” ( 15 USC § 7262) and for the assessment of control effectiveness under section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley.
In 1984 Congress passed the Sentencing Reform Act, which created a set of mandatory federal sentencing guidelines (Campbell & Bemporad 2006). As part of the Act, the United States Sentencing Commission was formed and delegated the responsibility “to provide “certainty” and “fairness” in sentencing, avoiding “unwarranted sentencing disparities” while “maintaining sufficient flexibility to permit individualized sentencing when warranted by mitigating or aggravating factors (Campbell & Bemporad 2006).”
On May 1, 1991, as an extension of the Sentencing Reform Act, the United States Sentencing Commission submitted to Congress the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations] (FSGO), a set of standards that govern the sentences federal judges impose on organizations convicted of federal crimes. Enacted on November 1, 1991, core to the guidelines was the Commission's intent to “prevent and deter organizational wrongdoing” through its design of the organizational sentencing guidelines. These guidelines describe the elements of an organization's compliance and ethics program that are required to be considered for eligibility for a reduced sentence if convicted. In general, the FSGO require an organization to establish standards to guide its employees and agents. These standards must reflect government regulations and industry standards and apply to almost all types of organizations including corporations, partnerships, unions, non-profit organizations and trusts.
In 2004, the United States Sentencing Commission voted to amend its existing organization guidelines to make the criteria for an effective compliance and ethics program more stringent. Two major standards were identified in the amended guidelines. The amended guidelines stated the need for directors and executives to take an active role in the management of its compliance and ethics program and the importance of promoting an organizational culture that is compliant with the law and demonstrates ethical culture. The amended guidelines outline minimum requirements for an effective compliance and ethics program and the amended FSGO has become synonymous with an effective compliance program.
The FCPA, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines represent just a fraction of the standards and requirements organizations need to consider today when developing and implementing their compliance programs. “Since the passage of SOX, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NASDAQ, and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), have all proposed and implemented new rules relating to compliance programs (Martin 2004).” Organizations today are increasingly accountable to mandated laws, regulations and standards on a number of dimensions, which include geographical/regional considerations, as well as industry and functional discipline concerns. These regulations and standards apply to a variety of financial and non-financial areas. Adding to this complexity are the “voluntary” boundaries, which organizations have individually established such as organizational commitments, values, and contractual obligations. As a result of these dynamics, organizations at the very core of their business strategy need to establish the capacity and the capability to effectively address the conditions mandated by these external requirements and internally generated operating principles while still meeting their business objectives.
History set the tone for increasing regulations and rising standards. Over time, organizations will need to be more proactive in anticipating and addressing these considerations while simultaneously protecting and building the enterprise. More and more organizations will need to translate, integrate and simplify these various standards and requirements into a cohesive approach.
Designing an effective compliance and ethics program requires implementing a detailed plan that will make sure the business achieves their ethics objectives. The organization must have ways of managing, evaluating, and controlling business ethics and compliance programs. There are five items which can affect the success of the compliance and ethics program: (1) the content of the company's code of ethics, (2) the frequency of communication regarding the ethical code and program, (3) the quality of communication, (4) senior management's ability to successfully incorporate ethics into the organization, (5) and local management's ability to do the same.
Compliance and ethics program with regulatory requirements and the organization's own policies are a critical component of effective risk management. An organizations program is recommended to include monitoring and auditing systems that allow detection of criminal and other improper context to be found easily. Maintaining the compliance and ethics program is one of the most important ways for an organization to maintain its ethical health, support its long-term prosperity, and preserve and promote its values.
A compliance and ethics program supports the organization's business objectives, identifies the boundaries of legal and ethical behavior, and establishes a system to alert management when the organization is getting close to (or crossing) a boundary or approaching an obstacle that prevents the achievement of a business objective.
Management should continuously improve its compliance and ethics program. This will enable it to better prevent, detect, and respond to similar misfeasance and/or malfeasance in the future.
The compliance and ethics program should strive to deliver tangible benefits and outcomes to the organization. Every organization is unique and has its own objectives. As such, several objectives of the compliance and ethics program will be unique as well. There are a few universal program outcomes/objectives that a compliance and ethics capability should deliver. These include an enhanced culture of trust, accountability and integrity; prevention of noncompliance, preparation for when (not “if”) noncompliance occurs, protection (to the extent possible) from negative consequences, detection of noncompliance, response to noncompliance and improvement of the program to better prevent, protect, prepare, detect and respond to noncompliance.
An important aspect of a high-performing program, and one that cannot be overstated, is enhancing an ethical culture. A strong ethical culture that provides important benefits would including a “safety net” for when formal controls are weak or absent, and an open environment of trust, ingredients that help drive overall workforce productivity.
A well-designed compliance and ethics program is only half the picture. Critical to its success and its ability to meet the challenges of constant change, increasing complexity, rapidly evolving threats, the need for continuous improvement requires organizations to have the commitment of both senior management and the board, adequate authorization and funding, the appropriate tools to facilitate measurement and rolling-up information, comprehensive training on the measurement process and an early socialization of approach.
Implementation is often the most difficult aspect of any program. This is the juncture where most failure occurs. However, if executed well, it can represent the biggest opportunity for positive influence on the organization's performance and culture.
The engaged involvement of key stakeholders is critical to a successful implementation or major enhancement of a compliance and ethics program, i.e. the dialogue and agreement up front, by all the major parties, regarding the objectives, goals, and overall purpose of the program will be critical to the project's eventual impact. By working together, compliance and ethics officers, executive management, and the board can help ensure a compliance and ethics program not only contributes to the improvement of the organization's governance practices but the success of its company's strategy as well.
One of most important conditions for an ethics program to be effectively implemented is the existence of a feeling of trust from the employees toward the organization. Organizations that present high levels of misconduct will experience lack of trust from its employees, which possible will cause high turnover among its workforce.
Integrate compliance and ethics - Address the “letter of the law” while promoting the “spirit of the law”. For some companies this means making a breach of company policy as serious as breaching laws, resulting in “internal” standards being as important as ‘mandatory’ standards.
Embed compliance and ethics risk management processes into the business - Organizations must systematically assess and prioritize present and emerging compliance and ethics risks. Such analysis should take into account the organization's culture, compliance and ethics history, as well as industry issues. Business processes should incorporate compliance and ethics program needs. Boards should routinely discuss these risks, and how they are addressed, with management.
Demonstrate leadership - The board should ensure senior management consistently communicates and models the organization's values and behavioral expectations identified in the compliance and ethics program.
Require accountability and ownership - In order to have the compliance and ethics program “make a difference”, it should foster a corporate culture that places responsibility on individuals for their actions and motivates everyone. The board and management should ensure employees have appropriate training and information and should participate in such training themselves.
Provide an open culture - Issues and problems should be, and in some cases are, required by law to be investigated and proactively managed to resolution. Unethical or illegal behavior should be addressed promptly. Employees must be required to raise and resolve violations of compliance or ethics standards. To do so, they must feel confident that they can take action without fear of retaliation. Such fears have been reduced, but not eliminated, with the introduction of the “whistleblower” protections of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Canadian equivalents. The board should inquire of management the steps they are taking to create this open culture.
Measure performance and results - Compliance and ethics processes and results should be monitored and measured. Objective data should support evaluations that are more subjective. Evaluation results should provide the basis for continually improving the program.
By using accurate, timely data on the organization's performance, managers know whether they are moving the entity closer to its objectives. Measuring compliance and ethics program performance help organizations gauge their improvement and learn whether the company's tactics are contributing to the success of the company's strategy. Keeping the board informed is a critical activity and robust performance reporting facilitates that important effort too. An organization's compliance and ethics program should be measured like any other critical capability.
There are numerous benefits and challenges to measuring the performance of a program. A well-known maxim is "what gets measured gets done.” The compliance and ethics program and capability is no different.
The Open Compliance and Ethics Group, OCEG, a non-profit organization that provides a performance framework for integrating governance, compliance, risk management and culture, has developed a Measurement and Metrics Guide (MMG) for assisting in measuring and reporting on the performance of compliance and ethics programs. This measurement platform advocates that program objectives be aligned with and contribute to the enterprise objectives in a tangible way. In order to achieve desired program outcomes, an organization should design processes and practices that effectively measure program dimensions on three key dimensions: effectiveness, efficiency and responsiveness.
A solid measurement system and approach should be implemented that embodies these principles:
Key metrics and indicators should be specific/simple, measurable, actionable, relevant and timely.
Performance measurement system should be reviewed and improved on an ongoing basis. It is only by gaining experience measuring performance that the organization can really refine and improve the system.
Compliance risk is the current and prospective risk to earnings or capital arising from violations of, or nonconformance with, laws, rules, regulations, prescribed practices, internal policies, and procedures, or ethical standards. Compliance risk also arises in situations where the laws or rules governing certain bank products or activities of the Bank's clients may be ambiguous or untested. This risk exposes the institution to fines, civil money penalties, payment of damages, and the voiding of contracts. Compliance risk can lead to diminished reputation, reduced franchise value, limited business opportunities, reduced expansion potential, and an inability to enforce contracts.
Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC) management capability is the solution to addressing increasing stakeholder expectations. Solid financial results are no longer sufficient. Stakeholders are demanding more. They want to know about non-financial results and the intangibles that will ensure financial growth. They want increased reporting and transparency and insight into an organization's strategy, risks, and operations along with an understanding of the manner in which business is conducted. As with the quality movement of the mid-1980s to early 1990s, these stakeholder demands are becoming baseline expectations.
Compliance and ethics practices can no longer be viewed in isolation of the rest of the organization, as some function off to the side to keep an organization out of jail. It must become part of the overall business strategy and operations, pervasive throughout the entire organization. Ultimately, taking this integrated approach will lead to better overall performance and compliance will become less of a burden on the business.
| 7720374 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7720374 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Memory work
Memory work is a process of engaging with the past which has both an ethical and historical dimension.
The premise for memory work or "travail de memoire" is that history is not memory. We try to represent the past in the present through memory, history and the archives. As Paul Ricoeur argued, memory alone is fallible. Historical accounts are always partial and potentially misrepresent since historians do not work with bare, uninterpreted facts. Historians construct and use archives that contain traces of the past. However, historians and librarians determine which traces are preserved and stored. This is an interpretive activity. Historians pose questions to which the archives responds leading them to “facts that can be asserted in singular, discrete propositions that usually include dates, places, proper names, and verbs of action or condition”. Individuals remember events and experiences some of which they share with a collective. Through mutual reconstruction and recounting collective memory is reconstructed. Individuals are born into familial discourse which already provides a backdrop of communal memories against which individual memories are shaped. A group's communal memory becomes its common knowledge which creates a social bond, a sense of belonging and identity. Professional historians attempt to corroborate, correct, or refute collective memory. Memory work then entails adding an ethical component which acknowledges the responsibility towards revisiting distorted histories thereby decreasing the risk of social exclusion and increasing the possibility of social cohesion of at-risk groups.
The concept of memory-work as distinguished from history-as-memory finds a textbook case in the Vichy Syndrome as described by Rousso. His title uses medical lexicon to refer to history-memory as dependent on working consciously with unconscious memories to revise accounts of history. This calls for an expanded archive that includes the "oral and popular tradition" as well as the written traditions normally associated with the archives.
Pierre Nora, introduced 'lieu de mémoire' about 25 years ago, he traced the surge in memory work at the level of the nation-state to the revisiting of distorted histories of the anti-Semitic Vichy France (1940-1944) following the death of Charles de Gaulle in 1970. Structural changes resulted from the end of the peasantry and the dramatic economic slump as oil prices worldwide rose in 1974. Added to this was the intellectual collapse of Marxism precipitated in part by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s "Gulag Archipelago" which forced the French to rethink attitudes towards the past. 'Lieu de mémoire' closed down perspectives to better understand cultural memory, instead of opening up perspectives. He associated memory with place, and location.
During memory work, the process of producing an image or what we refer to as the production of the imaginary, is central. Therefore, the key in the analysis of remembered history are contradictions.
After meeting at Yale University in 1966, Jacques Derrida was a colleague and friend of Paul de Man's until de Man's death in 1983. In 1984 Derrida gave three lectures, including one at Yale University on the art of memory. In "Memories:for Paul de Man" described the relationship between memory work and deconstruction in this often-cited passage.
Barbara Gabriel provided a model for reading the complexities of memory and forgetting by situating "unheimlich" within the "heimlich", in a Freudian 'one within the other structure'. As point of departure Gabriel examined Edgar Reitz's eleven-part West German television series entitled "Heimat". Reitz' work was in response to a larger movement in Germany national memory work provoked in part by an American television series entitled the "Holocaust" followed viewed by millions. As European art in general and German art in particular resurged in the 1960s, artists like Günter Grass and Edgar Reitz captured international attention as they grappled with issues of identity in a divided, post-Holocaust Germany. Gabriel developed the concept of an impulse towards national memory work in Germany that stemmed from a haunted subject yearning for a lost, far away, nostalgic place, a utopic homeland. "How do we confront that which we have excluded in order to be, whether it is the return of the repressed or the return of the strangers?" In other words, that which we fear as 'other' is within ourselves through our shared humanity. Repressed memories haunt all of us.
After attending a memory methodology workshop in Cape Town, South Africa in 2005 on forced removal traumas, Australian performance artist Tanya Heyward, created a performance piece called "Site" in Melbourne Watch House in 2006. She referred to a burial ground at Prestwich Street, Cape Town, South Africa with three thousand skeletons dating back to Dutch colonization, the largest of its kind in the South Africa.
The concept of memory work is part of a sociological imagination from a post-national point of view. Expanding on Norbert Loeffler: The idea of one national history is only acceptable as a question, not as an answer.
Memory work is related to identity work often associated with displaced persons. Some of the most provocative research on memory work has been authored by the Pied-noir, or French colonials in Algeria, who returned to France following the Algerian War. Examples of such thinkers include Jacques Derrida and Hélène Cixous. Another major writer in this field, Julia Kristeva, also moved away from the country of her birth, having emigrated to France from Bulgaria when she was 24.
| 7720399 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7720399 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Philosophy of mathematics education
The Philosophy of mathematics education is an interdisciplinary area of study and research based on the intersection of the fields of mathematics education and the philosophy of mathematics, the latter being understood in an inclusive sense to include multidisciplinary theorizing about mathematics incorporating philosophical, sociological, anthropological, semiotic, historical, ethnomathematical, etc., perspectives.
Some of the central questions addressed by this sub-field are:
| 7723865 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7723865 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Sullivan principles
The Sullivan principles are the names of two corporate codes of conduct, developed by the African-American preacher Rev. Leon Sullivan, promoting corporate social responsibility:
In 1977, Rev. Leon Sullivan, an African-American minister, was a member of the board of General Motors. At the time, General Motors was one of the largest corporations in the United States. General Motors also happened to be the largest employer of blacks in South Africa, a country which was pursuing a harsh program of state-sanctioned racial segregation and discrimination targeted primarily at the country's black population.
Sullivan, looking back on his anti-Apartheid efforts, recalled:
Starting with the work place, I tightened the screws step by step and raised the bar step by step. Eventually I got to the point where I said that companies must practice corporate civil disobedience against the laws and I threatened South Africa and said in two years Mandela must be freed, apartheid must end, and blacks must vote or else I'll bring every American company I can out of South Africa.
The Sullivan principles, introduced in 1977 with one addition in 1984, consisted of seven requirements a corporation was to demand for its employees as a condition for doing business. In general, the principles demanded the equal treatment of employees regardless of their race both within and outside of the workplace, demands which directly conflicted with the official South African policies of racial segregation and unequal rights.
The principles read:
The Sullivan principles were celebrated when introduced and gained wide use in the United States, particularly during the disinvestment campaign of the 1980s. Before the end of South Africa's apartheid era, the principles were formally adopted by more than 125 US corporations that had operations in South Africa. Of those companies that formally adopted the principles, at least 100 completely withdrew their existing operations from South Africa.
However, as South Africa's system of apartheid persisted relatively unchanged from the 1970s into the late 1980s, Sullivan "abandoned [his principles] as not going far enough" complaining that the principles by themselves were not enough to pressure a South African government steadfast in its refusal to yield to change.
In 1999, more than 20 years after the adoption of the original Sullivan Principles and six years after the end of apartheid, the Rev. Leon Sullivan and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan together unveiled the new "Global Sullivan Principles".
The overarching objective of these principles, according to Leon Sullivan, is "to support economic, social and political justice by companies where they do business," including respect for human rights and equal work opportunities for all peoples.
In general, the expanded corporate code of conduct requires adopting multinational companies to be a full participant in the advancement of human rights and social justice internationally.
The new principles read:
| 7732687 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7732687 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Hand fetishism
Hand fetishism or hand partialism or also Cheirophilia is the sexual fetish for hands. This may include the sexual attraction to a specific area such as the fingers, palm or nails, or the attraction to a specific action performed by the hands; which may otherwise be considered non-sexual—such as washing or drying dishes. This fetish may manifest itself as a desire to experience physical interaction, or as a source of sexual fantasy.
Hand fetishism is recognized by the porn industry; however, aside from handjobs, it is one of the least common fetishes, despite foot fetishism being the most common.
A hand fetish is a sexual attraction to the hands. This attraction is most commonly expressed with fingering, handjobs, sucking on the fingers and licking the palms.
A sub-type of hand fetishism that is often expressed with scratching with the fingernails, painting the fingernails and fingernail bed length.
In 2007, a study was conducted by the University of Bologna on around 5000 fetishist participants to see the prevalence of fetishes. The study analyzed the content inside online fetish communities and found only 669 participants referring to nails, an extension of hand fetishism. This did not refer to fingernails specifically, and the amount of 669 was less than 1% of the participants.
| 7736805 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7736805 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Agreeableness
Agreeableness is a personality trait manifesting itself in individual behavioral characteristics that are perceived as kind, sympathetic, cooperative, warm, and considerate. In contemporary personality psychology, agreeableness is one of the five major dimensions of personality structure, reflecting individual differences in cooperation and social harmony.
People who score high on this dimension are empathetic and altruistic, while a low agreeableness score relates to selfish behavior and a lack of empathy. Those who score very low on agreeableness show signs of dark triad behavior such as manipulation and competing with others rather than cooperating.
Agreeableness is considered to be a superordinate trait, meaning that it is a grouping of personality sub-traits that cluster together statistically. The lower-level traits, or facets, grouped under agreeableness are: trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty, and tender-mindedness.
Like all Big Five personality traits, the roots of the modern concept of agreeableness can be traced to a 1936 study by Gordon Allport and Henry S. Odbert. Seven years later, Raymond Cattell published a cluster analysis of the thousands of personality-related words identified by Allport and Odbert. The clusters identified in this study served as a foundation for Cattell's further attempts to identify fundamental, universal, human personality factors. He eventually settled on 16 personality factors through the use of factor analysis. Further factor analyses revealed five higher-order, or "global", factors to encompass these 16. Although labelled "independence" by Cattell, a global factor defined by high scores on the E, H, L, and Q1 factors of the 16PF Questionnaire was an early precursor to the modern concept of agreeableness.
Extent of agreeableness in the five factor model of personality is most commonly assessed through self-report measures, although peer-reports and third-party observation can also be used. Self-report measures are either "lexical" or based on "statements". Which measure of either type is used is determined by an assessment of psychometric properties and the time and space constraints of the research being undertaken.
"Lexical measures" use individual adjectives that reflect agreeableness or disagreeableness traits, such as sympathetic, cooperative, warm, considerate, harsh, unkind, rude. Words representing disagreeableness are reverse coded. Goldberg (1992) developed a 20-word measure as part of his 100-word Big Five markers, and Saucier (1994) developed a briefer 8-word measure as part of his 40-word mini-markers. Thompson (2008) systematically revised and improved these markers to develop a 40-word measure with better psychometric properties in both American and non-American populations, the International English Mini-Markers. This brief measure has good internal consistency reliabilities and other validity for assessing agreeableness and other five factor personality dimensions, both within and, especially, without American populations. Internal consistency reliability of the Agreeableness measure for native English-speakers is reported as .86, that for non-native English-speakers is .80.
"Statement measures" tend to comprise more words, and hence consume more research instrument space, than lexical measures. Respondents are asked the extent to which they, for example, "Am on good terms with nearly everyone", "Am not interested in other people's problems" or "Sympathize with others' feelings".
Cattell's factor analytic approach, used to identify the universal personality structures, inspired countless studies in the decades following the introduction of the 16PF. Using Cattell's original clusters, the 16 Personality Factors, and original data, multiple researchers independently developed a five factor model of personality over this period. From the early 1960s on, these explorations typically included a factor called "agreeableness" or "sociability." Despite repeated replications of five stable personality factors following Cattell's pioneering work, this framework only began to dominate personality research in the early 1980s with the work of Lewis Goldberg. Using lexical studies similar to those of Allport and Odbert, Goldberg chose the term "Big Five" to reflect the sheer number of personality-related terms encompassed by each of these five distinct factors. One of these, agreeableness, was defined by a number of personality-related words similar to those present in earlier and more recent manifestations of the construct; examples include "friendly," "good-natured," "cooperative," "trustful," "nurturing," "sociable," and "considerate."
Beginning in the 1970s, Paul Costa and Robert McCrae began researching the development of personality assessments based on factor models. Beginning with cluster analyses of Cattell's 16 Personality Factors, Costa and McCrae initially settled on a three-factor model of personality. These three factors were neuroticism (vs. emotional stability), extraversion (vs. introversion), and openness (vs. closedness) to experience, resulting in the acronym "NEO." Due to similarities between their three-factor NEO Personality Inventory and Goldberg's Big Five, Costa and McCrae began to develop scales to assess agreeableness and conscientiousness in the early 1980s. This work culminated in the 1985 publication of the first NEO PI Manual to be based on the full Five Factor Model. Although this marked the introduction of agreeableness to the NEO PI, Costa and McCrae worked for an additional seven years to identify and elaborate on the facets comprising this factor in the Revised NEO Personality Inventory.
In the NEO PI, each of the five factors identified by Costa and McCrae are identified with six lower-level traits. Known as facets, the lower-level traits subsumed by agreeableness were first introduced with the 1992 publication of the revised version of the NEO PI. Based on the modern NEO PI-R, the six facets of agreeableness are: Trust, straightforwardness, Altruism, Compliance, Modesty, and Tender-Mindedness.
Trust is a defining feature of psychosocial development, personality theory, and folk psychological conceptions of personality. Individuals who score high on this facet generally believe others' intentions to be benevolent. Those scoring low on this facet tend to be cynical and view others as suspicious, dishonest, or dangerous.
Straightforwardness is the quality of directness and honesty in communicating with others. Despite a long history in moral philosophy, straightforwardness is not as vital to personality theory as the other facets of agreeableness. Those scoring high on straightforwardness tend to interact with others in a direct and honest manner. Low scorers are less direct, tend to be high in self-monitoring, and are generally deceitful or manipulative. Although the two concepts are not identical, those who score low on this facet tend to be high in Machiavellianism. Straightforwardness is similar to a dimension in the Interpersonal circumplex called "Ingenuous versus calculating." According to Michael C. Ashton and Kibeom Lee, straightforwardness is similar to the honesty aspect of honesty-humility in the HEXACO Model.
Similar to altruism in animals and ethical altruism, this facet is defined by measures of selflessness, self-sacrifice, generosity, and consideration, courtesy, and concern for others. Altruism is similar to Alfred Adler's concept of social interest, which is a tendency to direct one's actions toward the betterment of society. Individuals who score low on Altruism tend to be discourteous, selfish, or greedy, a pattern of behaviors known as "self-interest" in Adlerian psychology.
As a facet of agreeableness, compliance is defined as an individual's typical response to conflict. Those who score high on compliance tend to be meek and mild, and to prefer cooperation or deference as a means of resolving conflict. Low scorers tend to be aggressive, antagonistic, quarrelsome, and vindictive.
While trust, straightforwardness, altruism, and compliance all refer to interpersonal or social behaviors, modesty refers to an individual's self-concept. Those who score high on modesty tend to be humble and other-focused, while low scorers tend to be arrogant and self-aggrandizing. Low modesty is otherwise known as conceitedness or Narcissism and, in extreme cases, can manifest as Narcissistic personality disorder. Otherwise known as "humility" in the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, modesty resembles the humility aspect of Honesty-Humility in the HEXACO Model.
Tender-mindedness is defined as the extent to which an individual's judgments and attitudes are determined by emotion. Coined by William James, this term was also prominent in early versions of the 16PF. Tender-mindedness is primarily defined by sympathy and corresponds to the International Personality Item Pool's "sympathy" scale. In contrast, "tough minded" is a trait associated with Psychoticism on the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire.
Models based on psychobiological theories of personality have each incorporated a factor similar to agreeableness. In Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory the character trait known as cooperativeness is highly similar to and positively correlated with agreeableness. In Zuckerman's alternative five model of personality the trait known as Aggression-hostility is inversely related to agreeableness.
To address the absence of measures of Dark triad traits (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy), Michael Ashton and Kibeom Lee proposed the addition of a sixth factor to the Five Factor Model. Validated with psycholexical studies similar to those used in the development of the Five Factor Model, the HEXACO Model adds Honesty-Humility to five factors resembling those in the NEO PI. Although Honesty-Humility does not directly correspond to any Big Five trait, it is strongly correlated with the Straightforwardness and Modesty facets of Big Five Agreeableness. As both of these facets are only weakly correlated with Big Five Agreeableness, Ashton and Lee suggest dividing NEO PI Agreeableness into two factors similar to those in the HEXACO Model: Honesty-Humility (i.e., Straightforwardness and Modesty) and a redefined Agreeableness (Trust, Altruism, Compliance, and Tender-Mindedness). Reflecting this conception of Honesty-Humility and HEXACO Agreeableness as unique though similar concepts, Ashton and Lee propose that they represent different aspects of reciprocal altruism: fairness (Honesty-Humility) and tolerance (Agreeableness).
Despite suggesting this reconceptualization of Agreeableness for the NEO PI, Ashton and Lee do not believe HEXACO Agreeableness is accurately captured by Trust, Altruism, Compliance, and Tender-Mindedness. In addition to accounting for these four facets of Big Five Agreeableness, the HEXACO Model's construction of Agreeableness includes content categorized under Neuroticism in the NEO PI (i.e., temperamentalness and irritability). To reflect the negative emotional content at the low end of HEXACO Agreeableness, this factor is also referred to as "Agreeableness (versus Anger)." The inclusion of anger in the definition of HEXACO Agreeableness further helps to differentiate this factor from Honesty-Humility. In response to offensive or transgressive actions, individuals who score low on Honesty-Humility tend not to respond immediately. Instead, they defer their response by planning their revenge and waiting for the perfect opportunity to enact it. Although those who score low on HEXACO Agreeableness also employ this premeditated strategy, they also tend to respond immediately with anger.
To help capture the numerous distinctions between the Big Five and HEXACO models, Ashton and Lee propose four new facet labels in their conceptualization of Agreeableness: Forgiveness, Gentleness, Flexibility, and Patience. In addition to these four Agreeableness-specific facets, Lee and Ashton have proposed an additional "interstitial" facet located in a space shared by Agreeableness, Honesty-Humility, and Emotionality: Altruism versus Antagonism.
Agreeableness is an asset in situations that require getting along with others. Compared to disagreeable persons, agreeable individuals display a tendency to perceive others in a more positive light.
Because agreeable children are more sensitive to the needs and perspectives of others, they are less likely to suffer from social rejection. Specifically, research indicates that children who are less disruptive, less aggressive, and more skilled at entering play groups are more likely to gain acceptance by their peers.
One study found that people high in agreeableness are more emotionally responsive in social situations. This effect was measured on both self-report questionnaires and physiological measures, and offers evidence that extraversion and neuroticism are not the only Big Five personality factors that influence emotion. The effect was especially pronounced among women.
Research also shows that people high in agreeableness are more likely to control negative emotions like anger in conflict situations. Those who are high in agreeableness are more likely to use conflict-avoidant tactics when in conflict with others (whereas people low in agreeableness are more likely to use coercive tactics). They are also more willing to give ground to their adversary and may lose arguments with people who are less agreeable. From their perspective, they have not really lost an argument as much as maintained a congenial relationship with another person.
A central feature of agreeableness is its positive association with altruism and helping behaviour. Across situations, people who are high in agreeableness are more likely to report an interest and involvement with helping others. Experiments have shown that most people are likely to help their own kin, and help when empathy has been aroused. Agreeable people are likely to help even when these conditions are not present. In other words, agreeable people appear to be "traited for helping" and do not need any other motivations.
While agreeable individuals are habitually likely to help others, disagreeable people may be more likely to cause harm. Researchers have found that low levels of agreeableness are associated with hostile thoughts and aggression in adolescents, as well as poor social adjustment. People low in agreeableness are also more likely to be prejudiced against stigmatized groups such as the overweight.
When mental illness is present, low agreeableness may be associated with narcissistic and anti-social tendencies. In theory, individuals who are extremely high in agreeableness are at risk for problems of dependency. Empirical studies show that many more problems are associated with low agreeableness.
However, high agreeableness does not always lead to prosocial behaviour, in a Milgram experiment conscientious and agreeable people, when forced by ill-intent authority, are more willing to administer high-intensity electric shocks to a victim, because conscientious and agreeable people are less capable of resistance.
Agreeableness is of fundamental importance to psychological well-being, predicting mental health, positive affect, and good relations with others. In both childhood and adolescence agreeableness has been tied to externalizing issues. Along with this it has also been implicated in outcomes to conflict management skills, school adjustment, peer-social status and self-esteem. Some work has been done looking into whether agreeableness levels through childhood have effects on adjustment and agreeableness into adulthood. Among young adults, individuals that have been diagnosed with either externalizing as well as internalizing disorders present lower levels of agreeableness and communion, and higher levels of negative emotionality, than those young adults without such disorders. Agreeableness also is reported to mediate links between anger and depression in young adults. Among college students, agreeableness is often associated with self-reports of emotional experience and control along with psycho-physiological responses to affectively charged stimuli. Across adulthood, low agreeableness has been found to be a health risk. High agreeableness, especially trust and honesty, has been linked to longevity.
A study done by Caspi, Elder, and Bem (1987) found that explosive and ill-tempered children were found to have higher rates of divorce as adults when compared with their even-tempered peers. Further, ill-tempered men had lower educational attainment, occupational status, and work stability, and ill-tempered women married men with similar low achievement profiles A second and more recent study by Shiner (2000) found that composite variables describing middle-childhood agreeableness and friendly compliance predicted adolescent academic performance, behavioral conduct, and social competence 10 years later
Most recent is a study done by Larsen, Pulkkinen, and Adams (2002) in which they looked at many different levels of childhood behavior and emotion and the correlation into adulthood agreeableness. In their first analyses, structure coefficients showed that childhood compliance, aggression, and self-control, discriminated high-agreeableness from low-agreeableness in adults better than did activity versus passivity, constructiveness, and anxiety. In their second analyses, structure coefficients indicated that adulthood socialization and impulsivity discriminated high-agreeableness from low-agreeableness in adults better than did inhibition of aggression and anxiety. In linking childhood behavioral profiles to adulthood personality profiles, high-compliant, high-self-control, and low-aggressive children were most likely to become high-agreeable, high-socialized, and low-impulsive adults. These children were more unlikely to become low-agreeable, low-socialized, and high-impulsive adults. Further, low-compliant, low-self-control, and high-aggressive children were likely to become low-agreeable, low-socialized, and high-impulsive adults and these children were unlikely to become high-agreeable, high-socialized, and low-impulsive adults. In addition to this, children classified as low-compliance, low-self-control, low-aggression types and children classified as high-compliance, high-self-control, low-aggression types had a greater probability of becoming adults with high-agreeableness, high-socialization, high-impulsivity profiles. Looking at stability of agreeableness they found results that indicated that stable low agreeable individuals reported less career stability and more depression when compared with stable high agreeable individuals and low to high agreeable individuals. Further, stable high agreeable individuals reported lower levels of alcoholism than did the other groups and fewer arrests than did stable low agreeable individuals.
In the United States, people in the West, Midwest, and South tend to have higher average scores on agreeableness than people living in other regions. According to researchers, the top ten most agreeable states are North Dakota, Minnesota, Mississippi, Utah, Wisconsin, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Nebraska. These findings are consistent with well-known expressions in these states, such as "southern hospitality" and "Minnesota nice." Because these states are generally less urbanized than the east and west coasts, people may be more likely to live in small communities and know their neighbors. Consequently, they may be more willing to care about and help their neighbours.
In a study done by Albright et al. (1997) groups of college students from China and the United States rated strangers from both countries on the "Big Five" personality traits, external traits, and how well they were dressed. They found that both Chinese and U.S. students rated faces as showing similar levels of agreeableness and extroversion. The people who were thought to be the most agreeable wore smiles, a facial expression that is recognized around the world. The findings of the research seem to suggest that the trait of agreeableness is attributed to people in a universal way.
| 7748323 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7748323 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Psychopathy
Psychopathy is traditionally a personality disorder characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, and egotistical traits. It is sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy. Different conceptions of psychopathy have been used throughout history that are only partly overlapping and may sometimes be contradictory.
Hervey M. Cleckley, an American psychiatrist, influenced the initial diagnostic criteria for antisocial personality reaction/disturbance in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM), as did American psychologist George E. Partridge. The DSM and "International Classification of Diseases" (ICD) subsequently introduced the diagnoses of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and dissocial personality disorder (DPD) respectively, stating that these diagnoses have been referred to (or include what is referred to) as psychopathy or sociopathy. The creation of ASPD and DPD was driven by the fact that many of the classic traits of psychopathy were impossible to measure objectively. Canadian psychologist Robert D. Hare later repopularized the construct of psychopathy in criminology with his Psychopathy Checklist.
Although no psychiatric or psychological organization has sanctioned a diagnosis titled "psychopathy", assessments of psychopathic characteristics are widely used in criminal justice settings in some nations and may have important consequences for individuals. The study of psychopathy is an active field of research, and the term is also used by the general public, popular press, and in fictional portrayals. While the term is often employed in common usage along with "crazy", "insane", and "mentally ill", there is a categorical difference between psychosis and psychopathy.
A person suffering from a chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior.
There are multiple conceptualizations of psychopathy, including "Cleckleyan psychopathy" (Hervey Cleckley's conception entailing bold, disinhibited behavior, and "feckless disregard") and "criminal psychopathy" (a meaner, more aggressive and disinhibited conception explicitly entailing persistent and sometimes serious criminal behavior). The latter conceptualization is typically used as the modern clinical concept and assessed by the Psychopathy Checklist. The label "psychopath" may have implications and stigma related to decisions about punishment severity for criminal acts, medical treatment, civil commitments, etc. Efforts have therefore been made to clarify the meaning of the term.
The triarchic model suggests that different conceptions of psychopathy emphasize three observable characteristics to various degrees. Analyses have been made with respect to the applicability of measurement tools such as the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL, PCL-R) and Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) to this model.
An early and influential analysis from Harris and colleagues indicated that a discrete category, or taxon, may underlie PCL-R psychopathy, allowing it to be measured and analyzed. However, this was only found for the behavioral Factor 2 items they identified, child problem behaviors; adult criminal behavior did not support the existence of a taxon. Marcus, John, and Edens more recently performed a series of statistical analyses on PPI scores and concluded that psychopathy may best be conceptualized as having a "dimensional latent structure" like depression.
Marcus et al. repeated the study on a larger sample of prisoners, using the PCL-R and seeking to rule out other experimental or statistical issues that may have produced the previously different findings. They again found that the psychopathy measurements do not appear to be identifying a discrete type (a taxon). They suggest that while for legal or other practical purposes an arbitrary cut-off point on trait scores might be used, there is actually no clear scientific evidence for an objective point of difference by which to label some people "psychopaths"; in other words, a "psychopath" may be more accurately described as someone who is "relatively psychopathic".
The PCL-R was developed for research, not clinical forensic diagnosis, and even for research purposes to improve understanding of the underlying issues, it is necessary to examine dimensions of personality in general rather than only a constellation of traits.
Studies have linked psychopathy to alternative dimensions such as antagonism (high), conscientiousness (low) and anxiousness (low).
Psychopathy has also been linked to high psychoticism—a theorized dimension referring to tough, aggressive or hostile tendencies. Aspects of this that appear associated with psychopathy are lack of socialization and responsibility, impulsivity, sensation-seeking (in some cases), and aggression.
Otto Kernberg, from a particular psychoanalytic perspective, believed psychopathy should be considered as part of a spectrum of pathological narcissism, that would range from narcissistic personality on the low end, malignant narcissism in the middle, and psychopathy at the high end.
Psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism, three personality traits that are together referred to as the dark triad, share certain characteristics, such as a callous-manipulative interpersonal style. The dark tetrad refers to these traits with the addition of sadism.
The current conceptions of psychopathy have been criticized for being poorly conceptualized, highly subjective, and encompassing a wide variety of underlying disorders. Dorothy Otnow Lewis has written
Half of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist consists of symptoms of mania, hypomania, and frontal-lobe dysfunction, which frequently results in underlying disorders being dismissed. Hare's conception of psychopathy has also been criticized for being reductionist, dismissive, tautological, and ignorant of context as well as the dynamic nature of human behavior. Some have called for rejection of the concept altogether, due to its vague, subjective and judgmental nature that makes it prone to misuse.
Socially, psychopathy expresses extensive callous and manipulative self-serving behaviors with no regard for others, and often is associated with repeated delinquency, crime and violence. Mentally, impairments in processes related to affect and cognition, particularly socially related mental processes, have been found in those with the disorder. Developmentally, symptoms of psychopathy have been identified in young children with conduct disorder, and is suggestive of at least a partial constitutional factor that influences its development.
In terms of simple correlations, the PCL-R manual states an average score of 22.1 has been found in North American prisoner samples, and that 20.5% scored 30 or higher. An analysis of prisoner samples from outside North America found a somewhat lower average value of 17.5. Studies have found that psychopathy scores correlated with repeated imprisonment, detention in higher security, disciplinary infractions, and substance misuse.
Psychopathy, as measured with the PCL-R in institutional settings, shows in meta-analyses small to moderate effect sizes with institutional misbehavior, postrelease crime, or postrelease violent crime with similar effects for the three outcomes. Individual studies give similar results for adult offenders, forensic psychiatric samples, community samples, and youth. The PCL-R is poorer at predicting sexual re-offending. This small to moderate effect appears to be due largely to the scale items that assess impulsive behaviors and past criminal history, which are well-established but very general risk factors. The aspects of core personality often held to be distinctively psychopathic generally show little or no predictive link to crime by themselves. For example, Factor 1 of the PCL-R and Fearless dominance of the PPI-R have smaller or no relationship to crime, including violent crime. In contrast, Factor 2 and Impulsive antisociality of the PPI-R are associated more strongly with criminality. Factor 2 has a relationship of similar strength to that of the PCL-R as a whole. The antisocial facet of the PCL-R is still predictive of future violence after controlling for past criminal behavior which, together with results regarding the PPI-R which by design does not include past criminal behavior, suggests that impulsive behaviors is an independent risk factor. Thus, the concept of psychopathy may perform poorly when attempted to be used as a general theory of crime.
Studies have suggested a strong correlation between psychopathy scores and violence, and the PCL-R emphasizes features that are somewhat predictive of violent behavior. Researchers, however, have noted that psychopathy is dissociable from and not synonymous with violence.
It has been suggested that psychopathy is associated with "instrumental", also known as predatory, proactive, or "cold blooded" aggression, a form of aggression characterized by reduced emotion and conducted with a goal differing from but facilitated by the commission of harm. One conclusion in this regard was made by a 2002 study of homicide offenders, which reported that the homicides committed by homicidal offenders with psychopathy were almost always (93.3%) primarily instrumental, significantly more than the proportion (48.4%) of those committed by non-psychopathic homicidal offenders, with the instrumentality of the homicide also correlated with the total PCL-R score of the offender as well as their scores on the Factor 1 "interpersonal-affective" dimension. However, contrary to the equating of this to mean exclusively "in cold blood", more than a third of the homicides committed by psychopathic offenders involved some component of emotional reactivity as well. In any case, FBI profilers indicate that serious victim injury is generally an emotional offense, and some research supports this, at least with regard to sexual offending. One study has found more serious offending by non-psychopathic offenders on average than by offenders with psychopathy (e.g. more homicides versus more armed robbery and property offenses) and another that the Affective facet of the PCL-R predicted reduced offense seriousness.
Studies on perpetrators of domestic violence find that abusers have high rates of psychopathy, with the prevalence estimated to be at around 15-30%. Furthermore, the commission of domestic violence is correlated with Factor 1 of the PCL-R, which describes the emotional deficits and the callous and exploitative interpersonal style found in psychopathy. The prevalence of psychopathy among domestic abusers indicate that the core characteristics of psychopathy, such as callousness, remorselessness, and a lack of close interpersonal bonds, predispose those with psychopathy to committing domestic abuse, and suggest that the domestic abuses committed by these individuals are callously perpetrated (i.e. instrumentally aggressive) rather than a case of emotional aggression and therefore may not be amenable to the types of psychosocial interventions commonly given to domestic abuse perpetrators.
Some clinicians suggest that assessment of the construct of psychopathy does not necessarily add value to violence risk assessment. A large systematic review and meta-regression found that the PCL performed the poorest out of nine tools for predicting violence. In addition, studies conducted by the authors or translators of violence prediction measures, including the PCL, show on average more positive results than those conducted by more independent investigators. There are several other risk assessment instruments which can predict further crime with an accuracy similar to the PCL-R and some of these are considerably easier, quicker, and less expensive to administer. This may even be done automatically by a computer simply based on data such as age, gender, number of previous convictions and age of first conviction. Some of these assessments may also identify treatment change and goals, identify quick changes that may help short-term management, identify more specific kinds of violence that may be at risk, and may have established specific probabilities of offending for specific scores. Nonetheless, the PCL-R may continue to be popular for risk assessment because of its pioneering role and the large amount of research done using it.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that psychopathic behavior is consistent with traits common to some serial killers, including sensation seeking, a lack of remorse or guilt, impulsivity, the need for control, and predatory behavior. It has also been found that the homicide victims of psychopathic offenders were disproportionately female in comparison to the more equitable gender distribution of victims of non-psychopathic offenders.
Psychopathy has been associated with commission of sexual crime, with some researchers arguing that it is correlated with a preference for violent sexual behavior. A 2011 study of conditional releases for Canadian male federal offenders found that psychopathy was related to more violent and non-violent offences but not more sexual offences. For child molesters, psychopathy was associated with more offences. A study on the relationship between psychopathy scores and types of aggression in a sample of sexual murderers, in which 84.2% of the sample had PCL-R scores above 20 and 47.4% above 30, found that 82.4% of those with scores above 30 had engaged in sadistic violence (defined as enjoyment indicated by self-report or evidence) compared to 52.6% of those with scores below 30, and total PCL-R and Factor 1 scores correlated significantly with sadistic violence. Despite this, it is reported that offenders with psychopathy (both sexual and non-sexual offenders) are about 2.5 times more likely to be granted conditional release compared to non-psychopathic offenders.
In considering the issue of possible reunification of some sex offenders into homes with a non-offending parent and children, it has been advised that any sex offender with a significant criminal history should be assessed on the PCL-R, and if they score 18 or higher, then they should be excluded from any consideration of being placed in a home with children under any circumstances. There is, however, increasing concern that PCL scores are too inconsistent between different examiners, including in its use to evaluate sex offenders.
The possibility of psychopathy has been associated with organized crime, economic crime and war crimes. Terrorists are sometimes considered psychopathic, and comparisons may be drawn with traits such as antisocial violence, a selfish world view that precludes the welfare of others, a lack of remorse or guilt, and blame externalization. However, John Horgan, author of "The Psychology of Terrorism", argues that such comparisons could also then be drawn more widely: for example, to soldiers in wars. Coordinated terrorist activity requires organization, loyalty and ideological fanaticism often to the extreme of sacrificing oneself for an ideological cause. Traits such as a self-centered disposition, unreliability, poor behavioral controls, and unusual behaviors may disadvantage or preclude psychopathic individuals in conducting organized terrorism.
It may be that a significant portion of people with the disorder are socially successful and tend to express their antisocial behavior through more covert avenues such as social manipulation or white collar crime. Such individuals are sometimes referred to as "successful psychopaths", and may not necessarily always have extensive histories of traditional antisocial behavior as characteristic of traditional psychopathy.
The PCL:YV is an adaptation of the PCL-R for individuals aged 13–18 years. It is, like the PCL-R, done by a trained rater based on an interview and an examination of criminal and other records. The "Antisocial Process Screening Device" (APSD) is also an adaptation of the PCL-R. It can be administered by parents or teachers for individuals aged 6–13 years. High psychopathy scores for both juveniles, as measured with these instruments, and adults, as measured with the PCL-R and other measurement tools, have similar associations with other variables, including similar ability in predicting violence and criminality. Juvenile psychopathy may also be associated with more negative emotionality such as anger, hostility, anxiety, and depression. Psychopathic traits in youth typically comprise three factors: callous/unemotional, narcissism, and impulsivity/irresponsibility.
There is positive correlation between early negative life events of the ages 0–4 and the emotion-based aspects of psychopathy. There are moderate to high correlations between psychopathy rankings from late childhood to early adolescence. The correlations are considerably lower from early- or mid-adolescence to adulthood. In one study most of the similarities were on the Impulsive- and Antisocial-Behavior scales. Of those adolescents who scored in the top 5% highest psychopathy scores at age 13, less than one third (29%) were classified as psychopathic at age 24. Some recent studies have also found poorer ability at predicting long-term, adult offending.
Conduct disorder is diagnosed based on a prolonged pattern of antisocial behavior in childhood and/or adolescence, and may be seen as a precursor to ASPD. Some researchers have speculated that there are two subtypes of conduct disorder which mark dual developmental pathways to adult psychopathy. The DSM allows differentiating between childhood onset before age 10 and adolescent onset at age 10 and later. Childhood onset is argued to be more due to a personality disorder caused by neurological deficits interacting with an adverse environment. For many, but not all, childhood onset is associated with what is in Terrie Moffitt's developmental theory of crime referred to as "life-course- persistent" antisocial behavior as well as poorer health and economic status. Adolescent onset is argued to more typically be associated with short-term antisocial behavior.
It has been suggested that the combination of early-onset conduct disorder and ADHD may be associated with life-course-persistent antisocial behaviors as well as psychopathy. There is evidence that this combination is more aggressive and antisocial than those with conduct disorder alone. However, it is not a particularly distinct group since the vast majority of young children with conduct disorder also have ADHD. Some evidence indicates that this group has deficits in behavioral inhibition, similar to that of adults with psychopathy. They may not be more likely than those with conduct disorder alone to have the interpersonal/affective features and the deficits in emotional processing characteristic of adults with psychopathy. Proponents of different types/dimensions of psychopathy have seen this type as possibly corresponding to adult secondary psychopathy and increased disinhibition in the triarchic model.
The DSM-5 includes a specifier for those with conduct disorder who also display a callous, unemotional interpersonal style across multiple settings and relationships. The specifier is based on research which suggests that those with conduct disorder who also meet criteria for the specifier tend to have a more severe form of the disorder with an earlier onset as well as a different response to treatment. Proponents of different types/dimensions of psychopathy have seen this as possibly corresponding to adult primary psychopathy and increased boldness and/or meanness in the triarchic model.
Dysfunctions in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala regions of the brain have been associated with specific learning impairments in psychopathy. Since the 1980s, scientists have linked traumatic brain injury, including damage to these regions, with violent and psychopathic behavior. Patients with damage in such areas resembled "psychopathic individuals" whose brains were incapable of acquiring social and moral knowledge; those who acquired damage as children may have trouble conceptualizing social or moral reasoning, while those with adult-acquired damage may be aware of proper social and moral conduct but be unable to behave appropriately. Dysfunctions in the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex may also impair stimulus-reinforced learning in psychopaths, whether punishment-based or reward-based. People scoring 25 or higher in the PCL-R, with an associated history of violent behavior, appear to have significantly reduced mean microstructural integrity in their uncinate fasciculus—white matter connecting the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex. There is evidence from DT-MRI, of breakdowns in the white matter connections between these two important areas.
Although some studies have suggested inverse relationships between psychopathy and intelligence, including with regards to verbal IQ, Hare and Neumann state that a large literature demonstrates at most only a weak association between psychopathy and IQ, noting that the early pioneer Cleckley included good intelligence in his checklist due to selection bias (since many of his patients were "well educated and from middle-class or upper-class backgrounds") and that "there is no obvious theoretical reason why the disorder described by Cleckley or other clinicians should be related to intelligence; some psychopaths are bright, others less so". Studies also indicate that different aspects of the definition of psychopathy (e.g. interpersonal, affective (emotion), behavioral and lifestyle components) can show different links to intelligence, and the result can depend on the type of intelligence assessment (e.g. verbal, creative, practical, analytical).
A large body of research suggests that psychopathy is associated with atypical responses to distress cues (e.g. facial and vocal expressions of fear and sadness), including decreased activation of the fusiform and extrastriate cortical regions, which may partly account for impaired recognition of and reduced autonomic responsiveness to expressions of fear, and impairments of empathy. The underlying biological surfaces for processing expressions of happiness are functionally intact in psychopaths, although less responsive than those of controls. The neuroimaging literature is unclear as to whether deficits are specific to particular emotions such as fear. The overall pattern of results across studies indicates that people diagnosed with psychopathy demonstrate reduced MRI, fMRI, aMRI, PET, and SPECT activity in areas of the brain. Research has also shown that an approximate 18% smaller amygdala size contributes to a significantly lower emotional sensation in regards to fear, sadness, amongst other negative emotions, which may likely be the reason as to why psychopathic individuals have lower empathy. Some recent fMRI studies have reported that emotion perception deficits in psychopathy are pervasive across emotions (positives and negatives). Studies on children with psychopathic tendencies have also shown such associations. Meta-analyses have also found evidence of impairments in both vocal and facial emotional recognition for several emotions (i.e., not only fear and sadness) in both adults and children/adolescents.
Psychopathy has been associated with amorality—an absence of, indifference towards, or disregard for moral beliefs. There are few firm data on patterns of moral judgment. Studies of developmental level (sophistication) of moral reasoning found all possible results—lower, higher or the same as non-psychopaths. Studies that compared judgments of personal moral transgressions versus judgments of breaking conventional rules or laws found that psychopaths rated them as equally severe, whereas non-psychopaths rated the rule-breaking as less severe.
A study comparing judgments of whether personal or impersonal harm would be endorsed in order to achieve the rationally maximum (utilitarian) amount of welfare found no significant differences between subjects high and low in psychopathy. However, a further study using the same tests found that prisoners scoring high on the PCL were more likely to endorse impersonal harm or rule violations than non-psychopathic controls were. The psychopathic offenders who scored low in anxiety were also more willing to endorse personal harm on average.
Assessing accidents, where one person harmed another unintentionally, psychopaths judged such actions to be more morally permissible. This result has been considered a reflection of psychopaths' failure to appreciate the emotional aspect of the victim's harmful experience.
Behavioral genetic studies have identified potential genetic and non-genetic contributors to psychopathy, including influences on brain function. Proponents of the triarchic model believe that psychopathy results from the interaction of genetic predispositions and an adverse environment. What is adverse may differ depending on the underlying predisposition: for example, it is hypothesized that persons having high boldness may respond poorly to punishment but may respond better to rewards and secure attachments.
Genetically informed studies of the personality characteristics typical of individuals with psychopathy have found moderate genetic (as well as non-genetic) influences. On the PPI, fearless dominance and impulsive antisociality were similarly influenced by genetic factors and uncorrelated with each other. Genetic factors may generally influence the development of psychopathy while environmental factors affect the specific expression of the traits that predominate. A study on a large group of children found more than 60% heritability for "callous-unemotional traits" and that conduct problems among children with these traits had a higher heritability than among children without these traits.
A study by Farrington of a sample of London males followed between age 8 and 48 included studying which factors scored 10 or more on the PCL:SV at age 48. The strongest factors included having a convicted parent, being physically neglected, low involvement of the father with the boy, low family income, and coming from a disrupted family. Other significant factors included poor supervision, harsh discipline, large family size, delinquent sibling, young mother, depressed mother, low social class, and poor housing. There has also been association between psychopathy and detrimental treatment by peers. However, it is difficult to determine the extent of an environmental influence on the development of psychopathy because of evidence of its strong heritability.
Researchers have linked head injuries with psychopathy and violence. Since the 1980s, scientists have associated traumatic brain injury, such as damage to the prefrontal cortex, including the orbitofrontal cortex, with psychopathic behavior and a deficient ability to make morally and socially acceptable decisions, a condition that has been termed "acquired sociopathy", or "pseudopsychopathy". Individuals with damage to the area of the prefrontal cortex known as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex show remarkable similarities to diagnosed psychopathic individuals, displaying reduced autonomic response to emotional stimuli, deficits in aversive conditioning, similar preferences in moral and economic decision making, and diminished empathy and social emotions like guilt or shame. These emotional and moral impairments may be especially severe when the brain injury occurs at a young age. Children with early damage in the prefrontal cortex may never fully develop social or moral reasoning and become "psychopathic individuals ... characterized by high levels of aggression and antisocial behavior performed without guilt or empathy for their victims". Additionally, damage to the amygdala may impair the ability of the prefrontal cortex to interpret feedback from the limbic system, which could result in uninhibited signals that manifest in violent and aggressive behavior.
Psychopathy is associated with several adverse life outcomes as well as increased risk of disability and death due to factors such as violence, accidents, homicides, and suicides. This, in combination with the evidence for genetic influences, is evolutionarily puzzling and may suggest that there are compensating evolutionary advantages, and researchers within evolutionary psychology have proposed several evolutionary explanations. According to one hypothesis, some traits associated with psychopathy may be socially adaptive, and psychopathy may be a frequency-dependent, socially parasitic strategy, which may work as long as there is a large population of altruistic and trusting individuals, relative to the population of psychopathic individuals, to be exploited. It is also suggested that some traits associated with psychopathy such as early, promiscuous, adulterous, and coercive sexuality may increase reproductive success. Robert Hare has stated that many psychopathic males have a pattern of mating with and quickly abandoning women, and thereby have a high fertility rate, resulting in children that may inherit a predisposition to psychopathy.
Criticism includes that it may be better to look at the contributing personality factors rather than treat psychopathy as a unitary concept due to poor testability. Furthermore, if psychopathy is caused by the combined effects of a very large number of adverse mutations then each mutation may have such a small effect that it escapes natural selection. The personality is thought to be influenced by a very large number of genes and may be disrupted by random mutations, and psychopathy may instead be a product of a high mutation load. Psychopathy has alternatively been suggested to be a spandrel, a byproduct, or side-effect, of the evolution of adaptive traits rather than an adaptation in itself.
Some laboratory research demonstrates correlations between psychopathy and atypical responses to aversive stimuli, including weak conditioning to painful stimuli and poor learning of avoiding responses that cause punishment, as well as low reactivity in the autonomic nervous system as measured with skin conductance while waiting for a painful stimulus but not when the stimulus occurs. While it has been argued that the reward system functions normally, some studies have also found reduced reactivity to pleasurable stimuli. According to the response modulation hypothesis, psychopathic individuals have also had difficulty switching from an ongoing action despite environmental cues signaling a need to do so. This may explain the difficulty responding to punishment, although it is unclear if it can explain findings such as deficient conditioning. There may be methodological issues regarding the research. While establishing a range of idiosyncrasies on average in linguistic and affective processing under certain conditions, this research program has not confirmed a common pathology of psychopathy.
Thanks to advancing MRI studies, experts are able to visualize specific brain differences and abnormalities of individuals with psychopathy in areas that control emotions, social interactions, ethics, morality, regret, impulsivity and conscience within the brain. Blair, a researcher who pioneered research into psychopathic tendencies stated, “With regard to psychopathy, we have clear indications regarding why the pathology gives rise to the emotional and behavioral disturbance and important insights into the neural systems implicated in this pathology”. Dadds et al., remarks that despite a rapidly advancing neuroscience of empathy, little is known about the developmental underpinnings of the psychopathic disconnect between affective and cognitive empathy.
A 2008 review by Weber et al. suggested that psychopathy is sometimes associated with brain abnormalities in prefrontal-temporo-limbic regions that are involved in emotional and learning processes, among others. Neuroimaging studies have found structural and functional differences between those scoring high and low on the PCL-R in a 2011 review by Skeem et al. stating that they are "most notably in the amygdala, hippocampus and parahippocampal gyri, anterior and posterior cingulate cortex, striatum, insula, and frontal and temporal cortex". A 2010 meta-analysis found that antisocial, violent and psychopathic individuals had reduced structure function in the right orbitofrontal cortex, right anterior cingulate cortex and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
The amygdala and frontal areas have been suggested as particularly important. People scoring 25 or higher in the PCL-R, with an associated history of violent behavior, appear on average to have significantly reduced microstructural integrity between the white matter connecting the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (such as the uncinate fasciculus). The evidence suggested that the degree of abnormality was significantly related to the degree of psychopathy and may explain the offending behaviors. Furthermore, changes in the amygdala have been associated with "callous-unemotional" traits in children. However, the amygdala has also been associated with positive emotions, and there have been inconsistent results in the studies in particular areas, which may be due to methodological issues.
Some of these findings are consistent with other research and theories. For example, in a neuroimaging study of how individuals with psychopathy respond to emotional words, widespread differences in activation patterns have been shown across the temporal lobe when psychopathic criminals were compared to "normal" volunteers, which is consistent with views in clinical psychology. Additionally, the notion of psychopathy being characterized by low fear is consistent with findings of abnormalities in the amygdala, since deficits in aversive conditioning and instrumental learning are thought to result from amygdala dysfunction, potentially compounded by orbitofrontal cortex dysfunction, although the specific reasons are unknown.
Proponents of the primary-secondary psychopathy distinction and triarchic model argue that there are neurological differences between these subgroups of psychopathy which support their views. For instance, the boldness factor in the triarchic model is argued to be associated with reduced activity in the amygdala during fearful or aversive stimuli and reduced startle response, while the disinhibition factor is argued to be associated with impairment of frontal lobe tasks. There is evidence that boldness and disinhibition are genetically distinguishable.
High levels of testosterone combined with low levels of cortisol and/or serotonin have been theorized as contributing factors. Testosterone is "associated with approach-related behavior, reward sensitivity, and fear reduction", and injecting testosterone "shift[s] the balance from punishment to reward sensitivity", decreases fearfulness, and increases "responding to angry faces". Some studies have found that high testosterone levels are associated with antisocial and aggressive behaviors, yet other research suggests that testosterone alone does not cause aggression but increases dominance-seeking. It is unclear from studies if psychopathy correlates with high testosterone levels, but a few studies have found psychopathy to be linked to low cortisol levels and reactivity. Cortisol increases withdrawal behavior and sensitivity to punishment and aversive conditioning, which are abnormally low in individuals with psychopathy and may underlie their impaired aversion learning and disinhibited behavior. High testosterone levels combined with low serotonin levels are associated with "impulsive and highly negative reactions", and may increase violent aggression when an individual is provoked or becomes frustrated. Several animal studies note the role of serotonergic functioning in impulsive aggression and antisocial behavior.
However, some studies on animal and human subjects have suggested that the emotional-interpersonal traits and predatory aggression of psychopathy, in contrast to impulsive and reactive aggression, is related to "increased" serotoninergic functioning. A study by Dolan and Anderson on the relationship between setotonin and psychopathic traits in a sample of personality disordered offenders, found that serotonin functioning as measured by prolactin response, while inversely associated with impulsive and antisocial traits, were positively correlated with arrogant and deceitful traits, and, to a lesser extent, callous and remorseless traits. Bariş Yildirim theorizes that the 5-HTTLPR "long" allele, which is generally regarded as protective against internalizing disorders, may interact with other serotoninergic genes to create a hyper-regulation and dampening of affective processes that results in psychopathy's emotional impairments. Furthermore, the combination of the 5-HTTLPR long allele and high testosterone levels has been found to result in a reduced response to threat as measured by cortisol reactivity, which mirrors the fear deficits found in those afflicted with psychopathy.
Studies have suggested other correlations. Psychopathy was associated in two studies with an increased ratio of HVA (a dopamine metabolite) to 5-HIAA (a serotonin metabolite). Studies have found that individuals with the traits meeting criteria for psychopathy show a greater dopamine response to potential "rewards" such as monetary promises or taking drugs such as amphetamines. This has been theoretically linked to increased impulsivity. A 2010 British study found that a large 2D:4D digit ratio, an indication of high prenatal estrogen exposure, was a "positive correlate of psychopathy in females, and a positive correlate of callous affect (psychopathy sub-scale) in males".
Findings have also shown monoamine oxidase A to affect the predictive ability of the PCL-R. Monoamine oxidases (MAOs) are enzymes that are involved in the breakdown of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine and are, therefore, capable of influencing feelings, mood, and behavior in individuals. Findings suggest that further research is needed in this area.
Psychopathy is most commonly assessed with the "Psychopathy Checklist, Revised (PCL-R)", created by Robert D. Hare based on Cleckley's criteria from the 1940s, criminological concepts such as those of William and Joan McCord, and his own research on criminals and incarcerated offenders in Canada. The PCL-R is widely used and is referred to by some as the "gold standard" for assessing psychopathy. There are nonetheless numerous criticisms of the PCL-R as a theoretical tool and in real-world usage.
Unlike the PCL, the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) was developed to comprehensively index personality traits without explicitly referring to antisocial or criminal behaviors themselves. It is a self-report scale that was developed originally for non-clinical samples (e.g. university students) rather than prisoners, though may be used with the latter. It was revised in 2005 to become the PPI-R and now comprises 154 items organized into eight subscales. The item scores have been found to group into two overarching and largely separate factors (unlike the PCL-R factors), Fearless-Dominance and Impulsive Antisociality, plus a third factor, Coldheartedness, which is largely dependent on scores on the other two. Factor 1 is associated with social efficacy while Factor 2 is associated with maladaptive tendencies. A person may score at different levels on the different factors, but the overall score indicates the extent of psychopathic personality.
There are currently two widely established systems for classifying mental disorders—the "International Classification of Diseases" (ICD) produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM) produced by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Both list categories of disorders thought to be distinct types, and have deliberately converged their codes in recent revisions so that the manuals are often broadly comparable, although significant differences remain.
The first edition of the DSM in 1952 had a section on sociopathic personality disturbances, then a general term that included such things as homosexuality and alcoholism as well as an "antisocial reaction" and "dyssocial reaction". The latter two eventually became antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) in the DSM and dissocial personality disorder in the ICD. Both manuals have stated that their diagnoses have been referred to, or include what is referred to, as psychopathy or sociopathy, although neither diagnostic manual has ever included a disorder officially titled as such.
There are some traditional personality tests that contain subscales relating to psychopathy, though they assess relatively non-specific tendencies towards antisocial or criminal behavior. These include the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (Psychopathic Deviate scale), California Psychological Inventory (Socialization scale), and Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory Antisocial Personality Disorder scale. There is also the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP) and the Hare Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (HSRP), but in terms of self-report tests, the PPI/PPI-R has become more used than either of these in modern psychopathy research on adults.
As with other mental disorders, psychopathy as a personality disorder may be present with a variety of other diagnosable conditions. Studies especially suggest strong comorbidity with antisocial personality disorder. Among numerous studies, positive correlations have also been reported between psychopathy and histrionic, narcissistic, borderline, paranoid, and schizoid personality disorders, panic and obsessive–compulsive disorders, but not neurotic disorders in general, schizophrenia, or depression.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is known to be highly comorbid with conduct disorder (a theorized precursor to ASPD), and may also co-occur with psychopathic tendencies. This may be explained in part by deficits in executive function. Anxiety disorders often co-occur with ASPD, and contrary to assumptions, psychopathy can sometimes be marked by anxiety; this appears to be related to items from Factor 2 but not Factor 1 of the PCL-R. Psychopathy is also associated with substance use disorders.
It has been suggested that psychopathy may be comorbid with several other conditions than these, but limited work on comorbidity has been carried out. This may be partly due to difficulties in using inpatient groups from certain institutions to assess comorbidity, owing to the likelihood of some bias in sample selection.
Research on psychopathy has largely been done on men and the PCL-R was developed using mainly male criminal samples, raising the question of how well the results apply to women. Men score higher than women on both the PCL-R and the PPI and on both of their main scales. The differences tend to be somewhat larger on the interpersonal-affective scale than on the antisocial scale. Most but not all studies have found broadly similar factor structure for men and women.
Many associations with other personality traits are similar, although in one study the antisocial factor was more strongly related with impulsivity in men and more strongly related with openness to experience in women. It has been suggested that psychopathy in men manifest more as an antisocial pattern while in women it manifests more as a histrionic pattern. Studies on this have shown mixed results. PCL-R scores may be somewhat less predictive of violence and recidivism in women. On the other hand, psychopathy may have a stronger relationship with suicide and possibly internalizing symptoms in women. A suggestion is that psychopathy manifests more as externalizing behaviors in men and more as internalizing behaviors in women.
Studies have also found that women in prison score significantly lower on psychopathy than men, with one study reporting only 11 percent of violent females in prison met the psychopathy criteria in comparison to 31 percent of violent males. Other studies have also pointed out that high psychopathic females are rare in forensic settings.
Psychopathy has often been considered untreatable. Its unique characteristics makes it among the most refractory of personality disorders, a class of mental illnesses that are already traditionally considered difficult to treat. People afflicted with psychopathy are generally unmotivated to seek treatment for their condition, and can be uncooperative in therapy. Attempts to treat psychopathy with the current tools available to psychiatry have been disappointing. Harris and Rice's "Handbook of Psychopathy" says that there is currently little evidence for a cure or effective treatment for psychopathy; as yet, no pharmacological therapies are known to or have been trialed for alleviating the emotional, interpersonal and moral deficits of psychopathy, and patients with psychopathy who undergo psychotherapy might gain the skills to become more adept at the manipulation and deception of others and be more likely to commit crime. Some studies suggest that punishment and behavior modification techniques are ineffective at modifying the behavior of psychopathic individuals as they are insensitive to punishment or threat. These failures have led to a widely pessimistic view on its treatment prospects, a view that is exacerbated by the little research being done into this disorder compared to the efforts committed to other mental illnesses, which makes it more difficult to gain the understanding of this condition that is necessary to develop effective therapies.
Although the core character deficits of highly psychopathic individuals are likely to be highly incorrigible to the currently available treatment methods, the antisocial and criminal behavior associated with it may be more amenable to management, the management of which being the main aim of therapy programs in correctional settings. It has been suggested that the treatments that may be most likely to be effective at reducing overt antisocial and criminal behavior are those that focus on self-interest, emphasizing the tangible, material value of prosocial behavior, with interventions that develop skills to obtain what the patient wants out of life in prosocial rather than antisocial ways. To this end, various therapies have been tried with the aim of reducing the criminal activity of incarcerated offenders with psychopathy, with mixed success. As psychopathic individuals are insensitive to sanction, reward-based management, in which small privileges are granted in exchange for good behavior, has been suggested and used to manage their behavior in institutional settings.
Psychiatric medications may also alleviate co-occurring conditions sometimes associated with the disorder or with symptoms such as aggression or impulsivity, including antipsychotic, antidepressant or mood-stabilizing medications, although none have yet been approved by the FDA for this purpose. For example, a study found that the antipsychotic clozapine may be effective in reducing various behavioral dysfunctions in a sample of high-security hospital inpatients with antisocial personality disorder and psychopathic traits. However, research into the pharmacological treatment of psychopathy and the related condition antisocial personality disorder is minimal, with much of the knowledge in this area being extrapolations based on what is known about pharmacology in other mental disorders.
The PCL-R, the PCL:SV, and the PCL:YV are highly regarded and widely used in criminal justice settings, particularly in North America. They may be used for risk assessment and for assessing treatment potential and be used as part of the decisions regarding bail, sentence, which prison to use, parole, and regarding whether a youth should be tried as a juvenile or as an adult. There have been several criticisms against its use in legal settings. They include the general criticisms against the PCL-R, the availability of other risk assessment tools which may have advantages, and the excessive pessimism surrounding the prognosis and treatment possibilities of those who are diagnosed with psychopathy.
The interrater reliability of the PCL-R can be high when used carefully in research but tend to be poor in applied settings. In particular Factor 1 items are somewhat subjective. In sexually violent predator cases the PCL-R scores given by prosecution experts were consistently higher than those given by defense experts in one study. The scoring may also be influenced by other differences between raters. In one study it was estimated that of the PCL-R variance, about 45% was due to true offender differences, 20% was due to which side the rater testified for, and 30% was due to other rater differences.
To aid a criminal investigation, certain interrogation approaches may be used to exploit and leverage the personality traits of suspects thought to have psychopathy and make them more likely to divulge information.
The PCL-R score cut-off for a label of psychopathy is 25 out of 40 in the United Kingdom, instead of 30 as it is in the United States.
In the United Kingdom, "psychopathic disorder" was legally defined in the Mental Health Act (UK), under MHA1983, as "a persistent disorder or disability of mind (whether or not including significant impairment of intelligence) which results in abnormally aggressive or seriously irresponsible conduct on the part of the person concerned". This term was intended to reflect the presence of a personality disorder in terms of conditions for detention under the Mental Health Act 1983. Amendments to MHA1983 within the Mental Health Act 2007 abolished the term "psychopathic disorder", with all conditions for detention (e.g. mental illness, personality disorder, etc.) encompassed by the generic term of "mental disorder".
In England and Wales, the diagnosis of dissocial personality disorder is grounds for detention in secure psychiatric hospitals under the Mental Health Act if they have committed serious crimes, but since such individuals are disruptive to other patients and not responsive to usual treatment methods this alternative to traditional incarceration is often not used.
Starting in the 1930s, before some modern concepts of psychopathy were developed, "sexual psychopath" laws, the term referring broadly to mental illness, were introduced by some states, and by the mid-1960s more than half of the states had such laws. Sexual offenses were considered to be caused by underlying mental illnesses, and it was thought that sex offenders should be treated, in agreement with the general rehabilitative trends at this time. Courts committed sex offenders to a mental health facility for community protection and treatment.
Starting in 1970, many of these laws were modified or abolished in favor of more traditional responses such as imprisonment due to criticism of the "sexual psychopath" concept as lacking scientific evidence, the treatment being ineffective, and predictions of future offending being dubious. There were also a series of cases where persons treated and released committed new sexual offenses. Starting in the 1990s, several states have passed sexually dangerous person laws, including registration, housing restrictions, public notification, mandatory reporting by health care professionals, and civil commitment, which permits indefinite confinement after a sentence has been completed. Psychopathy measurements may be used in the confinement decision process.
The prognosis for psychopathy in forensic and clinical settings is quite poor, with some studies reporting that treatment may worsen the antisocial aspects of psychopathy as measured by recidivism rates, though it is noted that one of the frequently cited studies finding increased criminal recidivism after treatment, a 2011 retrospective study of a treatment program in the 1960s, had several serious methodological problems and likely would not be approved of today. However, some relatively rigorous quasi-experimental studies using more modern treatment methods have found improvements regarding reducing future violent and other criminal behavior, regardless of PCL-R scores, although none were randomized controlled trials. Various other studies have found improvements in risk factors for crime such as substance abuse. No study has yet examined whether the personality traits that form the core character disturbances of psychopathy could be changed by such treatments.
A 2008 study using the PCL:SV found that 1.2% of a US sample scored 13 or more out of 24, indicating "potential psychopathy". The scores correlated significantly with violence, alcohol use, and lower intelligence. A 2009 British study by Coid et al., also using the PCL:SV, reported a community prevalence of 0.6% scoring 13 or more. However, if the scoring was adjusted to the recommended 18 or more, this would have left the prevalence closer to 0.1%. The scores correlated with younger age, male gender, suicide attempts, violence, imprisonment, homelessness, drug dependence, personality disorders (histrionic, borderline and antisocial), and panic and obsessive–compulsive disorders.
Psychopathy has a much higher prevalence in the convicted and incarcerated population, where it is thought that an estimated 15–25% of prisoners qualify for the diagnosis. A study on a sample of inmates in the UK found that 7.7% of the inmates interviewed met the PCL-R cut-off of 30 for a diagnosis of psychopathy. A study on a sample of inmates in Iran using the PCL:SV found a prevalence of 23% scoring 18 or more. A study by Nathan Brooks from Bond University found that around one in five corporate bosses display clinically significant psychopathic traits - a proportion similar to that among prisoners.
There is limited research on psychopathy in the general work populace, in part because the PCL-R includes antisocial behavior as a significant core factor (obtaining a PCL-R score above the threshold is unlikely without having significant scores on the antisocial-lifestyle factor) and does not include positive adjustment characteristics, and most researchers have studied psychopathy in incarcerated criminals, a relatively accessible population of research subjects.
However, psychologists Fritzon and Board, in their study comparing the incidence of personality disorders in business executives against criminals detained in a mental hospital, found that the profiles of some senior business managers contained significant elements of personality disorders, including those referred to as the "emotional components", or interpersonal-affective traits, of psychopathy. Factors such as boldness, disinhibition, and meanness as defined in the triarchic model, in combination with other advantages such as a favorable upbringing and high intelligence, are thought to correlate with stress immunity and stability, and may contribute to this particular expression. Such individuals are sometimes referred to as "successful psychopaths" or "corporate psychopaths" and they may not always have extensive histories of traditional criminal or antisocial behavior characteristic of the traditional conceptualization of psychopathy. Robert Hare claims that the prevalence of psychopathic traits is higher in the business world than in the general population, reporting that while about 1% of the general population meet the clinical criteria for psychopathy, figures of around 3–4% have been cited for more senior positions in business. Hare considers newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell to have been a strong candidate as a "corporate psychopath".
Academics on this subject believe that although psychopathy is manifested in only a small percentage of workplace staff, it is more common at higher levels of corporate organizations, and its negative effects (for example, increased bullying, conflict, stress, staff turnover, absenteeism, reduction in productivity) often causes a ripple effect throughout an organization, setting the tone for an entire corporate culture. Employees with the disorder are self-serving opportunists, and may disadvantage their own organizations to further their own interests. They may be charming to staff above their level in the workplace hierarchy, aiding their ascent through the organization, but abusive to staff below their level, and can do enormous damage when they are positioned in senior management roles. Psychopathy as measured by the PCL-R is associated with lower performance appraisals among corporate professionals. The psychologist Oliver James identifies psychopathy as one of the dark triadic traits in the workplace, the others being narcissism and Machiavellianism, which, like psychopathy, can have negative consequences.
According to a study from the University of Notre Dame published in the "Journal of Business Ethics," psychopaths have a natural advantage in workplaces overrun by abusive supervision, and are more likely to thrive under abusive bosses, being more resistant to stress, including interpersonal abuse, and having less of a need for positive relationships than others.
Characters with psychopathy or sociopathy are some of the most notorious characters in film and literature, but their characterizations may only vaguely or partly relate to the concept of psychopathy as it is defined in psychiatry, criminology, and research. The character may be identified as having psychopathy within the fictional work itself, by its creators, or from the opinions of audiences and critics, and may be based on undefined popular stereotypes of psychopathy. Characters with psychopathic traits have appeared in Greek and Roman mythology, Bible stories, and some of Shakespeare's works.
Such characters are often portrayed in an exaggerated fashion and typically in the role of a villain or antihero, where the general characteristics and stereotypes associated with psychopathy are useful to facilitate conflict and danger. Because the definitions, criteria, and popular conceptions throughout its history have varied over the years and continue to change even now, many of the characters characterized as psychopathic in notable works at the time of publication may no longer fit the current definition and conception of psychopathy. There are several archetypal images of psychopathy in both lay and professional accounts which only partly overlap and can involve contradictory traits: the charming con artist, the deranged serial killer and mass murderer, the callous and scheming businessperson, and the chronic low-level offender and juvenile delinquent. The public concept reflects some combination of fear of a mythical bogeyman, the disgust and intrigue surrounding evil, and fascination and sometimes perhaps envy of people who might appear to go through life without attachments and unencumbered by guilt, anguish or insecurity.
The word "psychopathy" is a joining of the Greek words "psyche" (ψυχή) "soul" and "pathos" (πάθος) "suffering, feeling". The first documented use is from 1847 in Germany as "psychopatisch", and the noun "psychopath" has been traced to 1885. In medicine, "patho-" has a more specific meaning of disease (thus "pathology" has meant the study of disease since 1610, and "psychopathology" has meant the study of mental disorder in general since 1847. A sense of "a subject of pathology, morbid, excessive" is attested from 1845, including the phrase "pathological liar" from 1891 in the medical literature).
The term "psychopathy" initially had a very general meaning referring to all sorts of mental disorders and social aberrations, popularised from 1891 in Germany by Koch's concept of "psychopathic inferiority" (psychopathische Minderwertigkeiten). Some medical dictionaries still define psychopathy in both a narrow and broad sense, such as MedlinePlus from the U.S. National Library of Medicine. On the other hand, Stedman's Medical Dictionary defines psychopathy only as an outdated term for an antisocial type of personality disorder.
The term "psychosis" was also used in Germany from 1841, originally in a very general sense. The suffix -ωσις (-osis) meant in this case "abnormal condition". This term or its adjective "psychotic" would come to refer to the more severe mental disturbances and then specifically to mental states or disorders characterized by hallucinations, delusions or in some other sense markedly out of touch with reality.
The slang term "psycho" has been traced to a shortening of the adjective "psychopathic" from 1936, and from 1942 as a shortening of the noun "psychopath", but it is also used as shorthand for psychotic or crazed.
The media usually uses the term "psychopath" to designate any criminal whose offenses are particularly abhorrent and unnatural, but that is not its original or general psychiatric meaning.
The word element "socio"- has been commonly used in compound words since around 1880. The term "sociopathy" may have been first introduced in 1909 in Germany by biological psychiatrist Karl Birnbaum and in 1930 in the US by educational psychologist George E. Partridge, as an alternative to the concept of "psychopathy". It was used to indicate that the defining feature is violation of social norms, or antisocial behavior, and may be social or biological in origin.
The term is used in various different ways in contemporary usage. Robert Hare stated in the popular science book "Snakes in Suits" that "sociopathy" and "psychopathy" are often used interchangeably, but in some cases the term "sociopathy" is preferred because it is less likely than is "psychopathy" to be confused with psychosis, whereas in other cases the two terms may be used with different meanings that reflect the user's views on the origins and determinants of the disorder. Hare contended that the term "sociopathy" is preferred by those that see the causes as due to social factors and early environment, and the term "psychopathy" preferred by those who believe that there are psychological, biological, and genetic factors involved in addition to environmental factors. Hare also provides his own definitions: he describes psychopathy as not having a sense of empathy or morality, but sociopathy as only differing from the average person in the sense of right and wrong.
Ancient writings that have been connected to psychopathic traits include Deuteronomy 21:18–21, which was written around 700 BCE, and a description of an unscrupulous man by the Greek philosopher Theophrastus around 300 BCE.
The concept of psychopathy has been indirectly connected to the early 19th century with the work of Pinel (1801; "mania without delirium") and Pritchard (1835; "moral insanity"), although historians have largely discredited the idea of a direct equivalence. "Psychopathy" originally described any illness of the mind, but found its application to a narrow subset of mental conditions when was used toward the end of the 19th century by the German psychiatrist Julius Koch (1891) to describe various behavioral and moral dysfunction in the absence of an obvious mental illness or intellectual disability. He applied the term "psychopathic inferiority" (psychopathischen Minderwertigkeiten) to various chronic conditions and character disorders, and his work would influence the later conception of the personality disorder.
The term "psychopathic" came to be used to describe a diverse range of dysfunctional or antisocial behavior and mental and sexual deviances, including at the time homosexuality. It was often used to imply an underlying "constitutional" or genetic origin. Disparate early descriptions likely set the stage for modern controversies about the definition of psychopathy.
An influential figure in shaping modern American conceptualizations of psychopathy was American psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley. In his classic monograph, "The Mask of Sanity" (1941), Cleckley drew on a small series of vivid case studies of psychiatric patients at a Veterans Administration hospital in Georgia to describe the disorder. Cleckley used the metaphor of the "mask" to refer to the tendency of psychopaths to appear confident, personable, and well-adjusted compared to most psychiatric patients, while revealing underlying pathology through their actions over time. Cleckley formulated sixteen criteria to describe the disorder. The Scottish psychiatrist David Henderson had also been influential in Europe from 1939 in narrowing the diagnosis.
The diagnostic category of "sociopathic personality" in early editions of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual" (DSM) had some key similarities to Cleckley's ideas, though in 1980 when renamed Antisocial Personality Disorder some of the underlying personality assumptions were removed. In 1980, Canadian psychologist Robert D. Hare introduced an alternative measure, the "Psychopathy Checklist" (PCL) based largely on Cleckley's criteria, which was revised in 1991 (PCL-R), and is the most widely used measure of psychopathy. There are also several self-report tests, with the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) used more often among these in contemporary adult research.
Famous individuals have sometimes been diagnosed, albeit at a distance, as psychopaths. As one example out of many possible from history, in a 1972 version of a secret report originally prepared for the Office of Strategic Services in 1943, and which may have been intended to be used as propaganda, non-medical psychoanalyst Walter C. Langer suggested Adolf Hitler was probably a psychopath. However, others have not drawn this conclusion; clinical forensic psychologist Glenn Walters argues that Hitler's actions do not warrant a diagnosis of psychopathy as, although he showed several characteristics of criminality, he was not always egocentric, callously disregarding of feelings or lacking impulse control, and there is no proof he could not learn from mistakes.
| 7753430 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7753430 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Anti-oppressive education
Anti-oppressive education encompasses multiple approaches to learning that actively challenge forms of oppression.
Anti-oppressive education is premised on the notion that many traditional and commonsense ways of engaging in "education" actually contribute to oppression in schools and society. It also relies on the notion that many "common sense" approaches to education reform mask or exacerbate oppressive education methods.
The consequences of anti-oppressive education include a deep commitment to changing how educators conceptualize and engage in curriculum, pedagogy, classroom management and school culture. There is also an implication that institutional structure and policies must be transformed. Exploring perspectives on education that do not conform to what has become "common sense" must be partaken as well. Anti-oppressive education expects to be different, perhaps uncomfortable, and even controversial.
Currently, there seem to be four main perspectives in anti-oppression education, as defined by Kumashiro (2000, p. 25) “Education for the Other, Education about the Other, Education that is Critical of Privileging and Othering, and Education that Changes Students and Society”. These approaches come with some controversy, particularly in terms of the potential for upholding hierarchies. Despite controversy, anti-oppressive perspectives are echoed by other social justice writers in education. Both Bell and Benn-John encourage teachers to value and incorporate the narratives and leadership of oppressed and marginalized groups. Bell recommends specific steps, such as being a responsible ally, deconstructing binaries, and analyzing power. Research shows us that in Ontario most teachers are white. This means that it is up to educators to lean into the discomfort of critical questioning. Benn-John reiterates that the work of decolonization begins within each individual.
In Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" (first published in Portuguese in 1968, then in English in 1970), he stated that education is suffering from "narration sickness"; students simply memorize mechanically the narrated content transmitted by the educator. This is the banking model of education, in which the scope of action allowed by the students extends only as far as receiving, filling and storing the deposits. Thus, projecting an absolute ignorance onto others, a characteristic of the ideology of oppression, negates education and knowledge as a process of inquiry. As a result, the more students work at storing these deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness that would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world. As a result, oppressive social controls are never questioned and remain as an integral part of our culture thus, perpetuating oppression in our education systems.
| 7763120 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7763120 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Social cooperative
Social cooperatives exist to provide social services such as the care of children, elderly and disabled people, and the integration of unemployed people into the workforce. The phenomenon is most developed in Italy, but exists in various forms in many countries. In countries such as Sweden and Britain they exist without any special legislation, while elements of the Italian model have been legislated for in Belgium ("société à finalité sociale / venootschap met sociaal oogmerk") and Poland.
An Italian social cooperative is a particularly successful form of multi-stakeholder cooperative, of which over 11,000 exist. A "type A" social cooperative brings together providers and beneficiaries of a social service as members. A "type B" social cooperative brings together permanent workers and previously unemployed people who wish to integrate into the labour market.
Social co-operatives are legally defined as follows:
| 7779204 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7779204 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Sissela Bok
Sissela Bok (née Myrdal; 2 December 1934) is a Swedish-born American philosopher and ethicist, the daughter of two Nobel Prize winners: Gunnar Myrdal who won the Economics prize with Friedrich Hayek in 1974, and Alva Myrdal who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982.
Bok received her B.A. and M.A. in psychology from George Washington University in 1957 and 1958, and her Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University in 1970. Formerly a Professor of Philosophy at Brandeis University, she is currently a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard School of Public Health.
Bok is married to Derek Bok, former president (1971–1991, interim 2006–2007) of Harvard. Her daughter, Hilary Bok, is also a philosopher. Her brother, Jan Myrdal, is a political writer and journalist.
Bok was awarded the Orwell Award in 1978 for "".
Bok was awarded the Courage of Conscience award on 24 April 1991 "for her contributions to peacemaking strategies in the tradition of her mother."
| 7780610 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7780610 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Jonathan Dancy
Jonathan Peter Dancy, FBA (born 8 May 1946) is a British philosopher, who has written on ethics and epistemology. He is currently Professor of Philosophy at University of Texas at Austin and Research Professor at the University of Reading. He taught previously for many years at the University of Keele.
Dancy was the son of John Christopher Dancy. He was educated at Winchester College, where he was Head Boy and played cricket for the school, and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he obtained a double first in classics (1965–7: Classical Honour Moderations: First Class Honours; 1967–9: Literae Humaniores: First Class Honours, BA).
After graduating he served as a lecturer at Pembroke College, Oxford for a year. In 1971 he became a lecturer at Keele University, becoming professor there in 1991.
After being mentioned by his daughter-in-law, American actress Claire Danes, during an appearance on "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson", Dancy appeared as a guest on the program on 1 April 2010.
He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2016.
After having worked on problems of epistemology, and more particularly on the nature of perception (argument from illusion), he emerged as the leading proponent in ethics of moral particularism, the idea that all moral reasons are particular and context-sensitive, rather than general. He also defends what he calls the holism of reasons, namely the idea that a consideration that is a reason for acting in a certain way in one case may not be a reason for acting in that way, or even a reason for not acting in that way, in other cases. In this sense, reasons are context-dependent. Dancy argues that the holism of reasons provides a major support for the main claim of his particularism, i.e., that there are no moral "principles" but that "morality" can get on perfectly well without them. Dancy edited some of George Berkeley's writings and dedicated a book to the Anglo-Irish thinker.
In 1973 he married Sarah Birley; they have three children: the actor Hugh Dancy (husband of actress Claire Danes); Jack Dancy, who runs a travel company; and Kate Redman, who works for UNESCO.
| 7780773 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7780773 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | LZJB
LZJB is a lossless data compression algorithm invented by Jeff Bonwick to compress crash dumps and data in ZFS. The software is CDDL license licensed. It includes a number of improvements to the LZRW1 algorithm, a member of the Lempel–Ziv family of compression algorithms.. The name LZJB is derived from its parent algorithm and its creator—Lempel Ziv Jeff Bonwick. Bonwick is also one of two architects of ZFS, and the creator of the Slab Allocator.
| 7783443 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7783443 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | History of animal testing
The history of animal testing goes back to the writings of the Ancient Greeks in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE, with Aristotle (384–322 BCE) and Erasistratus (304–258 BCE) one of the first documented to perform experiments on animals. Galen, a physician in 2nd-century Rome, dissected pigs and goats, and is known as the "Father of Vivisection." Avenzoar, an Arabic physician in 12th-century Moorish Spain who also practiced dissection, introduced animal testing as an experimental method of testing surgical procedures before applying them to human patients.
In 1242, Ibn al-Nafis provided accurate descriptions of the circulation of blood in mammals. A complete description of this circulation was later provided in the 17th century by William Harvey.
In his unfinished 1627 utopian novel, "New Atlantis", scientist and philosopher Francis Bacon proposed a research center containing "parks and enclosures of all sorts of beasts and birds which we use ... for dissections and trials; that thereby we may take light what may be wrought upon the body of man."
In the 1660s, the physicist Robert Boyle conducted many experiments with a pump to investigate the effects of rarefied air. He listed two experiments on living animals: "Experiment 40", which tested the ability of insects to fly under reduced air pressure, and the dramatic "Experiment 41," which demonstrated the reliance of living creatures on the air for their survival. Boyle conducted numerous trials during which he placed a large variety of different animals, including birds, mice, eels, snails and flies, in the vessel of the pump and studied their reactions as the air was removed. Here, he describes an injured lark:
In the 18th century, Antoine Lavoisier decided to use a guinea pig in a calorimeter because he wanted to prove that respiration was a form of combustion. He had an impression that combustion and respiration are chemically identical. Lavoisier demonstrated this with the help of Pierre-Simon Laplace. They both carefully measured the amount of "carbon dioxide and heat given off by a guinea pig as it breathed". Then they contrasted this to "the amount of heat produced when they burned carbon to produce the same amount of carbon dioxide as had been exhaled by the guinea pig". Their conclusion made Lavoisier confident "that respiration is a form of combustion". Also, the result showed that the heat mammals produce through respiration allowed their bodies to be above room temperature.
Stephen Hales measured blood pressure in the horse. In the 1780s, Luigi Galvani demonstrated that electricity applied to a dead, dissected, frog's leg muscle caused it to twitch, which led to an appreciation for the relationship between electricity and animation. In the 1880s, Louis Pasteur convincingly demonstrated the germ theory of medicine by giving anthrax to sheep. In the 1890s, Ivan Pavlov famously used dogs to describe classical conditioning.
In 1921 Otto Loewi provided the first substantial evidence that neuronal communication with target cells occurred via chemical synapses. He extracted two hearts from frogs and left them beating in an ionic bath. He stimulated the attached Vagus nerve of the first heart and observed its beating slowed. When the second heart was placed in the ionic bath of the first, it also slowed.
In the 1920s, Edgar Adrian formulated the theory of neural communication that the frequency of action potentials, and not the size of the action potentials, was the basis for communicating the magnitude of the signal. His work was performed in an isolated frog nerve-muscle preparation. Adrian was awarded a Nobel Prize for his work.
In the 1960s David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel demonstrated the macro columnar organization of visual areas in cats and monkeys, and provided physiological evidence for the critical period for the development of disparity sensitivity in vision (i.e.: the main cue for depth perception), and were awarded a Nobel Prize for their work.
In 1996 Dolly the sheep was born, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell. The process by which Dolly the sheep was cloned utilized a process known as nuclear transfer applied by lead scientist Ian Wilmut. Although other scientists were not immediately able to replicate the experiment, Wilmut argued that the experiment was indeed repeatable, given a timeframe of over a year.
In 1997, innovations in frogs, "Xenopus laevis", by developmental biologist Jonathan Slack of the University of Bath, created headless tadpoles, which could allow future applications in donor organ transplantation.
There has been growing concern about both the methodology and the care of laboratory animals used in testing. There is increasing emphasis on more humane and compassionate treatment of animals. Methodological concerns include factors that make animal study results less reproducible than intended. For example, a 2014 study from McGill University in Montreal, Canada suggests that mice handled by men rather than women showed higher stress levels.
In the 1880s and 1890s, Emil von Behring isolated the diphtheria toxin and demonstrated its effects in guinea pigs. He went on to demonstrate immunity against diphtheria in animals in 1898 by injecting a mix of toxin and antitoxin. This work constituted in part the rationale for awarding von Behring the 1901 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Roughly 15 years later, Behring announced such a mix suitable for human immunity which largely banished diphtheria from the scourges of humankind. The antitoxin is famously commemorated each year in the Iditarod race, which is modeled after the delivery of diphtheria antitoxin to Nome in the 1925 serum run to Nome. The success of the animal studies in producing the diphtheria antitoxin are attributed by some as a cause of the decline of the early 20th century antivivisectionist movement in the USA.
In 1921, Frederick Banting tied up the pancreatic ducts of dogs and discovered that the isolates of pancreatic secretion could be used to keep dogs with diabetes alive. He followed up these experiments with the chemical isolation of insulin in 1922 with John Macleod. These experiments used bovine sources instead of dogs to improve the supply. The first person treated was Leonard Thompson, a 14-year-old diabetic who only weighed 65 pounds and was about to slip into a coma and die. After the first dose, the formulation had to be re-worked, a process that took 12 days. The second dose was effective. These two won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1923 for their discovery of insulin and its treatment of diabetes mellitus. Thompson lived 13 more years taking insulin. Before insulin's clinical use, a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus meant death; Thompson had been diagnosed in 1919.
In 1943, Selman Waksman's laboratory discovered streptomycin using a series of screens to find antibacterial substances from the soil. Waksman coined the term antibiotic with regards to these substances. Waksman would win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1952 for his discoveries in antibiotics. Corwin Hinshaw and William Feldman took the streptomycin samples and cured tuberculosis in four guinea pigs with it. Hinshaw followed these studies with human trials that provided a dramatic advance in the ability to stop and reverse the progression of tuberculosis. Mortality from tuberculosis in the UK has diminished from the early 20th century due to better hygiene and improved living standards, but from the moment antibiotics were introduced, the fall became steep so that by the 1980s mortality in developed countries was effectively zero.
In the 1940s, Jonas Salk used rhesus monkey cross-contamination studies to isolate the three forms of the polio virus that affected hundreds of thousands yearly. Salk's team created a vaccine against the strains of polio in cell cultures of rhesus monkey kidney cells. The vaccine was made publicly available in 1955 and reduced the incidence of polio 15-fold in the USA over the following five years. Albert Sabin made a superior "live" vaccine by passing the polio virus through animal hosts, including monkeys. The vaccine was produced for mass consumption in 1963 and is still in use today. It had virtually eradicated polio in the US by 1965. It has been estimated that 100,000 rhesus monkeys were killed in the course of developing the polio vaccines, and 65 doses of vaccine were produced from each monkey. Writing in the Winston-Salem Journal in 1992, Sabin said, "Without the use of animals and human beings, it would have been impossible to acquire the important knowledge needed to prevent much suffering and premature death not only among humans but animals as well."
Also in the 1940s, John Cade tested lithium salts in guinea pigs in a search for pharmaceuticals with anticonvulsant properties. The animals seemed calmer in their mood. He then tested lithium on himself, before using it to treat recurrent mania. The introduction of lithium revolutionized the treatment of manic-depressives by the 1970s. Prior to Cade's animal testing, manic-depressives were treated with a lobotomy or electro-convulsive therapy.
In the 1950s the first safer, volatile anaesthetic halothane was developed through studies on rodents, rabbits, dogs, cats and monkeys. This paved the way for a whole new generation of modern general anaesthetics – also developed by animal studies – without which modern, complex surgical operations would be virtually impossible.
In 1960, Albert Starr pioneered heart valve replacement surgery in humans after a series of surgical advances in dogs. He received the Lasker Medical Award in 2007 for his efforts, along with Alain Carpentier. In 1968 Carpentier made heart valve replacements from the heart valves of pigs, which are pre-treated with glutaraldehyd to blunt immune response. Over 300,000 people receive heart valve replacements derived from Starr and Carpentier's designs annually. Carpentier said of Starr's initial advances "Before his prosthetic, patients with valvular disease would die."
In the 1970s, leprosy multi-drug antibiotic treatments were refined using leprosy bacteria grown in armadillos and were then tested in human clinical trials. Today, the nine-banded armadillo is still used to culture the bacteria that causes leprosy, for studies of the proteomics and genomics (the genome was completed in 1998) of the bacteria, for improving therapy and developing vaccines. Leprosy is still prevalent in Brazil, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania, India, and Nepal, with over 400,000 cases at the beginning of 2004. The bacteria has not yet been cultured "in vitro" with success necessary to develop drug treatments or vaccines, and mice and armadillos have been the sources of the bacteria for research.
The non-human primate models of AIDS, using HIV-2, SHIV, and SIV in macaques, have been used as a complement to ongoing research efforts against the virus. The drug tenofovir has had its efficacy and toxicology evaluated in macaques and found long-term/high-dose treatments had adverse effects not found using short-term/high-dose treatment followed by long-term/low-dose treatment. This finding in macaques was translated into human dosing regimens. Prophylactic treatment with anti-virals has been evaluated in macaques because an introduction of the virus can only be controlled in an animal model. The finding that prophylaxis can be effective at blocking infection has altered the treatment for occupational exposures, such as needle exposures. Such exposures are now followed rapidly with anti-HIV drugs, and this practice has resulted in measurable transient virus infection similar to the NHP model. Similarly, the mother-to-fetus transmission, and its fetal prophylaxis with antivirals such as tenofovir and AZT, has been evaluated in controlled testing in macaques not possible in humans, and this knowledge has guided antiviral treatment in pregnant mothers with HIV. "The comparison and correlation of results obtained in monkey and human studies are leading to a growing validation and recognition of the relevance of the animal model. Although each animal model has its limitations, carefully designed drug studies in nonhuman primates can continue to advance our scientific knowledge and guide future clinical trials."
Throughout the 20th century, research that used live animals has led to many other medical advances and treatments for human diseases, such as: organ transplant techniques and anti-transplant rejection medications, the heart-lung machine, antibiotics like penicillin, and whooping cough vaccine.
Presently, animal experimentation continues to be used in research that aims to solve medical problems including Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis spinal cord injury, and many more conditions in which there is no useful "in vitro" model system available.
Animal testing for veterinary studies accounts for around five percent of research using animals. Treatments to each of the following animal diseases have been derived from animal studies: rabies, anthrax, glanders, Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), tuberculosis, Texas cattle fever, Classical swine fever (hog cholera), Heartworm and other parasitic infections.
Testing animals for rabies do require the animal to be dead, and it takes two hours to conduct the test.
Basic and applied research in veterinary medicine continues in varied topics, such as searching for improved treatments and vaccines for feline leukemia virus and improving veterinary oncology.
In 1655, physiologist Edmund O'Meara was recorded as saying that "the miserable torture of vivisection places the body in an unnatural state." O'Meara thus expressed one of the chief scientific objections to vivisection: that the pain that the subject endured would interfere with the accuracy of the results.
In 1822, the first animal protection law was enacted in the British parliament, followed by the Cruelty to Animals Act (1876), the first law specifically aimed at regulating animal testing. The legislation was promoted by Charles Darwin, who wrote to Ray Lankester in March 1871:
You ask about my opinion on vivisection. I quite agree that it is justifiable for real investigations on physiology; but not for mere damnable and detestable curiosity. It is a subject which makes me sick with horror, so I will not say another word about it, else I shall not sleep to-night."
Opposition to the use of animals in medical research arose in the United States during the 1860s, when Henry Bergh founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), with America's first specifically anti-vivisection organization being the American AntiVivisection Society (AAVS), founded in 1883.
In the UK, an article in the "Medical Times and Gazette" on April 28, 1877, indicates that anti-vivisectionist campaigners, mainly clergymen, had prepared a number of posters entitled, "This is vivisection," "This is a living dog," and "This is a living rabbit," depicting animals in a poses that they said copied the work of Elias von Cyon in St. Petersburg, though the article says the images differ from the originals. It states that no more than 10 or a dozen men were actively involved in animal testing on living animals in the UK at that time.
Antivivisectionists of the era believed the spread of mercy was the great cause of civilization, and vivisection was cruel. However, in the U.S., the antivivisectionists' efforts were defeated in every legislature because of the widespread support of an informed public for the careful and judicious use of animals. The early antivivisectionist movement in the U.S. dwindled greatly in the 1920s, potentially caused by a variety of factors including the opposition of the medical community, enormous improvements in medicine through the use of animals, and the tendency of the antivivisectionists to misrepresentation and exaggeration, and their use of inaccurate, vague and outdated references. Overall, this movement had no US legislative success. The passing of the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act, in 1966 was more focused on protecting the welfare of animals that are used in all fields, including research, food production, consumer product development, etc.
On the other side of the debate, those in favor of animal testing held that experiments on animals were necessary to advance medical and biological knowledge and to ensure the safety of products intended for human and animal use. In 1831, the founders of the Dublin Zoo—the fourth oldest zoo in Europe, after Vienna, Paris, and London—were members of the medical profession, interested in studying the animals both while they were alive and when they were dead. Claude Bernard, known as the "prince of vivisectors" and the father of physiology—whose wife, Marie Françoise Martin, founded the first anti-vivisection society in France in 1883—famously wrote in 1865 that "the science of life is a superb and dazzlingly lighted hall which may be reached only by passing through a long and ghastly kitchen." Arguing that "experiments on animals...are entirely conclusive for the toxicology and hygiene of man...the effects of these substances are the same on man as on animals, save for differences in degree," Bernard established animal experimentation as part of the standard scientific method. In 1896, the physiologist and physician Dr. Walter B. Cannon said "The antivivisectionists are the second of the two types Theodore Roosevelt described when he said, 'Common sense without conscience may lead to crime, but conscience without common sense may lead to folly, which is the handmaiden of crime.'" These divisions between pro- and anti- animal testing groups first came to public attention during the brown dog affair in the early 20th century, when hundreds of medical students clashed with anti-vivisectionists and police over a memorial to a vivisected dog.
| 7800672 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7800672 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Phenomenology (psychology)
Phenomenology within psychology (phenomenological psychology) is the psychological study of subjective experience. It is an approach to psychological subject matter that has its roots in the phenomenological philosophical work of Edmund Husserl. Early phenomenologists such as Husserl, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty conducted philosophical investigations of consciousness in the early 20th century. Their critiques of psychologism and positivism later influenced at least two main fields of contemporary psychology: the phenomenological psychological approach of the Duquesne School (The Descriptive Phenomenological Method in Psychology), including Amedeo Giorgi and Frederick Wertz; and the experimental approaches associated with Francisco Varela, Shaun Gallagher, Evan Thompson, and others (embodied mind thesis). Other names associated with the movement include Jonathan Smith (interpretative phenomenological analysis), Steinar Kvale, and Wolfgang Köhler. But "an even stronger influence on psychopathology came from Heidegger (1963), particularly through Kunz (1931), Blankenburg (1971), Tellenbach (1983), Binswanger (1994), and others." Phenomenological psychologists have also figured prominently in the history of the humanistic psychology movement.
The experiencing subject can be considered to be the person or self, for purposes of convenience. In phenomenological philosophy (and in particular in the work of Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty), "experience" is a considerably more complex concept than it is usually taken to be in everyday use. Instead, experience (or being, or existence itself) is an "in-relation-to" phenomenon, and it is defined by qualities of directedness, embodiment, and worldliness, which are evoked by the term "Being-in-the-World".
The quality or nature of a given experience is often referred to by the term qualia, whose archetypical exemplar is "redness". For example, we might ask, "Is my experience of redness the same as yours?" While it is difficult to answer such a question in any concrete way, the concept of intersubjectivity is often used as a mechanism for understanding how it is that humans are able to empathise with one another's experiences, and indeed to engage in meaningful communication about them. The phenomenological formulation of Being-in-the-World, where person and world are mutually constitutive, is central here.
The philosophical psychology prevalent before the end of the 19th century relied heavily on introspection. The speculations concerning the mind based on those observations were criticized by the pioneering advocates of a more scientific approach to psychology, such as William James and the behaviorists Edward Thorndike, Clark Hull, John B. Watson, and B. F. Skinner. However, not everyone agrees that introspection is intrinsically problematic, such as Francisco Varela, who has trained experimental participants in the structured "introspection" of phenomenological reduction.
In the early 1970s, Amedeo Giorgi applied phenomenological theory to his development of the Descriptive Phenomenological Method in Psychology in order to overcome certain problems he perceived, from his work in psychophysics, with approaching subjective phenomena from the traditional hypothetical-deductive framework of the natural sciences. Giorgi hoped to use what he had learned from his natural science background to develop a rigorous qualitative research method. Giorgi has thus described his overall project as such: "[Phenomenological psychology] is nothing like natural sciences... because its [sic] [dealing with] human experiences and human phenomena. [However] I want to be sure that our criteria is [sic] this: that every natural scientist will have to respect our method. I'm not just trying to satisfy clinicians, or therapists, or humanists, I'm trying to satisfy the most severe criterion—natural scientists... because I anticipate that some day, when qualitative research develops and gets strong, the natural science people are going to criticize it. And I want to be able to stand up and say, 'Go ahead, criticize it—but you won't find any flaws here'."
Philosophers have long confronted the problem of "qualia". Few philosophers believe that it is possible to be sure that one person's experience of the "redness" of an object is the same as another person's, even if both persons had effectively identical genetic and experiential histories. In principle, the same difficulty arises in feelings (the subjective experience of emotion), in the experience of effort, and especially in the "meaning" of concepts. As a result, many qualitative psychologists have claimed phenomenological inquiry to be essentially a matter of "meaning-making" and thus a question to be addressed by interpretive approaches.
Carl Rogers's person-centered psychotherapy theory is based directly on the "phenomenal field" personality theory of Combs and Snygg. That theory in turn was grounded in phenomenological thinking. Rogers attempts to put a therapist in closer contact with a person by listening to the person's report of their recent subjective experiences, especially emotions of which the person is not fully aware. For example, in relationships the problem at hand is often not based around what actually happened but, instead, based around the perceptions and feelings of each individual in the relationship. The phenomenal field focuses on "how one feels right now".
| 7802146 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7802146 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Mental reservation
Mental reservation (or mental equivocation) is an ethical theory and a doctrine in moral theology that recognizes the "lie of necessity", and holds that when there is a conflict between justice and veracity, it is justice that should prevail. The doctrine is a special branch of casuistry (case-based reasoning) developed in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. While associated with the Jesuits, it did not originate with them. It is a theory debated by moral theologians, but not part of Canon Law.
It was argued in moral theology, and now in ethics, that mental reservation was a way to fulfill obligations both to tell the truth and to keep secrets from those not entitled to know them (for example, because of the seal of the confessional or other clauses of confidentiality). Mental reservation, however, is regarded as unjustifiable without grave reason for withholding the truth. This condition was necessary to preserve a general idea of truth in social relations.
Social psychologists have advanced cases where the actor is confronted with an avoidance-avoidance conflict, in which he both doesn't want to say the truth and doesn't want to make an outright lie; in such circumstances, equivocal statements are generally preferred. This type of equivocation has been defined as “nonstraightforward communication...ambiguous, contradictory, tangential, obscure or even evasive.” People typically equivocate when posed a question to which all of the possible replies have potentially negative consequences, yet a reply is still expected (the situational theory of communicative conflict).
The Bible contains a good example of equivocation. Abraham was married to Sarah/Sarai, his half-sister by a different mother. Fearing that as he traveled people would covet his beautiful wife and as a result kill him to take her, he counselled her to agree with him when he would say that "she is my sister." This happened on two occasions, first with the Pharaoh of Egypt, told in Genesis 12:11-13, and second, with a king called Abimelech in Gen 20:12. Abraham later explained to Abimelech that Sarah was indeed his sister, as they shared the same father, although had different mothers.
A frequently cited example of equivocation is a well-known incident from the life of Athanasius of Alexandria. When Julian the Apostate was seeking Athanasius's death, Athanasius fled Alexandria and was pursued up the Nile. Seeing the imperial officers were gaining on him, Athanasius took advantage of a bend in the river that hid his boat from its pursuers and ordered his boat turned around. When the two boats crossed paths, the Roman officers shouted out, asking if anyone had seen Athanasius. As instructed by Athanasius, his followers shouted back, "Yes, he is not very far off." The pursuing boat hastily continued up the river, while Athanasius returned to Alexandria, where he remained in hiding until the end of the persecution.
Another anecdote often used to illustrate equivocation concerns Francis of Assisi. He once saw a man fleeing from a murderer. When the murderer then came upon Francis, he demanded to know if his quarry had passed that way. Francis answered, "He did not pass this way," sliding his forefinger into the sleeve of his cassock, thus misleading the murderer and saving a life. A variant of this anecdote is cited by the canonist Martin de Azpilcueta to illustrate his doctrine of a mixed speech ("oratoria mixta") combining speech and gestural communication.
When there was good reason for using equivocation, its lawfulness was admitted by all moral theologians. Traditionally, the doctrine of mental reservation was intimately linked with the concept of equivocation, which allowed the speaker to employ double meanings of words to tell the "literal" truth while concealing a deeper meaning.
The traditional teaching of moral theologians is that a lie is intrinsically evil, and therefore, never allowed. However, there are instances where one is also under an obligation to keep secrets faithfully, and sometimes the easiest way of fulfilling that duty is to say what is false, or to tell a lie. Writers of all creeds and of none, both ancient and modern, have frankly accepted this position. They admit the doctrine of the "lie of necessity", and maintain that when there is a conflict between justice and veracity it is justice that should prevail. The common Catholic teaching has formulated the theory of mental reservation as a means by which the claims of both justice and veracity can be satisfied.
If there is no good reason to the contrary, truth requires all to speak frankly and openly in such a way as to be understood by those who are addressed. A sin is committed if mental reservations are used without just cause, or in cases when the questioner has a right to the naked truth.
In "wide mental reservation" the qualification comes from the ambiguity of the words themselves, or from the circumstances of time, place, or person in which they are uttered.
Spanish Dominican Raymond of Penafort was a noted canon lawyer, and one of the first writers on casuistry, i.e., seeking to resolve moral problems by extracting or extending theoretical rules from a particular case and applying them to new instances. He noted that Augustine of Hippo said that a man must not slay his own soul by lying in order to preserve the life of another, and that it would be a most perilous doctrine to admit that we may do a less evil to prevent another doing a greater. He said that while most doctors teach this, he acknowledged that others allow that a lie should be told when a man's life is at stake.
Raymond gave as an example, if one is asked by murderers bent on taking the life of someone hiding in the house whether he is in:
Raymond did not believe that Augustine would have objection to any of these. Those who hear them may understand them in a sense which is not true, but their self-deception may be permitted by the speaker for a good reason.
According to Malloch and Huntley (1966), this doctrine of permissible "equivocation" did not originate with the Jesuits. They cite a short treatise, "", that had been written by Martin Azpilcueta (also known as Doctor Navarrus), an Augustinian who was serving as a consultant to the Apostolic Penitentiary. It was published in Rome in 1584. The first Jesuit influence upon this doctrine was not until 1609, "when Suarez rejected Azpilcueta's basic proof and supplied another" (speaking of Francisco Suárez).
The 16th-century Spanish theologian Martin de Azpilcueta (often called "Navarrus" because he was born in the Kingdom of Navarre) wrote at length about the doctrine of "mentalis restrictio" or mental reservation. Navarrus held that mental reservation involved truths "expressed partly in speech and partly in the mind," relying upon the idea that God hears what is in one's mind while human beings hear only what one speaks. Therefore, the Christian's moral duty was to tell the truth to God. Reserving some of that truth from the ears of human hearers was moral if it served a greater good. This is the doctrine of "strict mental reservation", by which the speaker mentally adds some qualification to the words which they utter, and the words together with the mental qualification make a true assertion in accordance with fact.
Navarrus gave the doctrine of mental reservation a far broader and more liberal interpretation than had anyone up to that time. Although some other Catholic theological thinkers and writers took up the argument in favor of strict mental reservation, canonist Paul Laymann opposed it; the concept remained controversial within the Roman Catholic Church, which never officially endorsed or upheld the doctrine and eventually condemned as formulated by Sanchez by Pope Innocent XI in 1679. After this condemnation by the Holy See no Catholic theologian has defended the lawfulness of strict mental reservations.
The linked theories of mental reservation and equivocation became notorious in England during the Elizabethan era and the Jacobean era, when Jesuits who had entered England to minister to the spiritual needs of Catholics were captured by the authorities. The Jesuits Robert Southwell (c. 1561–1595) (who was also a poet of note) and Henry Garnet (1555–1606) both wrote treatises on the topic, which was of far more than academic interest to them. Both risked their lives bringing the sacraments to recusant Catholics — and not only "their" lives, since sheltering a priest was a capital offence. In 1586, Margaret Clitherow had been pressed to death for refusing to enter a plea on the charge of harbouring two priests at York. When caught, tortured and interrogated, Southwell and Garnet practiced mental reservation not to save themselves — their deaths were a foregone conclusion — but to protect their fellow believers.
Southwell, who was arrested in 1592, was accused at his trial of having told a witness that even if she was forced by the authorities to swear under oath, it was permissible to lie to conceal the whereabouts of a priest. Southwell replied that that was not what he had said. He had said that "to an oath were required justice, judgement and truth", but the rest of his answer goes unrecorded because one of the judges angrily shouted him down. Convicted in 1595, Southwell was hanged, drawn and quartered. More famous in his own era was Henry Garnet, who wrote a defense of Southwell in 1598; Garnet was captured by the authorities in 1606 due to his alleged involvement in the Gunpowder Plot. Facing the same accusations as Southwell, his attempts to defend himself met with no better result: later that year, Garnet was executed in the same fashion.
The Protestants considered these doctrines as mere justifications for lies. Catholic ethicists also voiced objections: the Jansenist "Blaise Pascal...attacked the Jesuits in the seventeenth century for what he saw as their moral laxity." "By 1679, the doctrine of strict mental reservation put forward by Navarrus had become such a scandal that Pope Innocent XI officially condemned it." Other casuists justifying mental reservation included Thomas Sanchez, who was criticized by Pascal in his "Provincial Letters" – although Sanchez added various restrictions (it should not be used in ordinary circumstances, when one is interrogated by competent magistrates, when a creed is requested, even for heretics, etc.), which were ignored by Pascal.
This type of equivocation was famously mocked in the porter's speech in Shakespeare's "Macbeth", in which the porter directly alludes to the practice of deceiving under oath by means of equivocation. "Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven." ("Macbeth", Act 2, Scene 3)
See, for example Robert Southwell and Henry Garnet, author of "A Treatise of Equivocation" (published secretly c. 1595)—to whom, it is supposed, Shakespeare was specifically referring. Shakespeare made the reference to priests because the religious use of equivocation was well known in those periods of early modern England (e.g. under James VI/I) when it was a capital offence for a Roman Catholic priest to enter England. A Jesuit priest would equivocate in order to protect himself from the secular authorities without (in his eyes) committing the sin of lying.
Following Innocent XI's condemnation of strict mental reservation, equivocation (or wide mental reservation) was still considered orthodox, and was revived and defended by Alphonsus Liguori. The Jesuit Gabriel Daniel wrote in 1694 "Entretiens de Cleanthe et d'Eudoxe sur les lettres provinciales", a reply to Pascal's "Provincial Letters" in which he accused Pascal of lying, or even of having himself used mental reservation, by not mentioning all the restrictions imposed by Sanchez on the use of this form of deception.
In his licentiate thesis, Edouard Guilloux says that it is shown from the study of language "that there can be a gap between what a speaker means when he utters a given sentence and the literal meaning of that same sentence", yet "the literal meaning of a sentence must be apt to convey what the speaker means: the speaker cannot authentically be said to have meant to say something that has no relation to the literal meaning of the sentence he utters." "Since the non-literal meaning intended by the speaker can be detected in the circumstances of his utterance, he can authentically be said to have meant to say it, and if that meaning yields a true statement, then he has said nothing false." According to Alphonsus Liguori, for the licit use of a mental reservation, "an absolutely serious cause is not required; any reasonable cause is enough, for instance to free oneself from the inconvenient and unjust interrogation of another." Alphonsus said, "we do not deceive our neighbor, but for a just cause we allow that he deceive himself."
The "New Catholic Encyclopedia" says, "A man can affirm that he had coffee and toast for breakfast without denying that he had an egg, or he might affirm that he has a lesser amount of money in his pocket without denying that he also has a greater amount. So long as he has reasonable cause to conceal part of the truth, he does no wrong, provided, of course, that he is careful not to indicate that he has 'only' so much to eat or that he has 'only' so much money." Also, if "a wife, who has been unfaithful but after her lapse has received the Sacrament of Penance, is asked by her husband if she has committed adultery, she could truthfully reply: 'I am free from sin.'"
This type of untruth was condemned by Kant in "On a supposed 'right to lie’". Kant was debating against Benjamin Constant, who had claimed, from a consequentialist stance opposed to Kant's categorical imperative, that: "To tell the truth is thus a duty; but it is only in respect to one who has a right to the truth. But no one has a right to a truth which injures others."
On the other hand, Kant asserted, in the "Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals", that lying, or deception of any kind, would be forbidden under any interpretation and in any circumstance. In "Groundwork", Kant gives the example of a person who seeks to borrow money without intending to pay it back. The maxim of this action, says Kant, results in a contradiction in conceivability (and thus contradicts perfect duty) because it would logically contradict the reliability of language. If it is universally acceptable to lie, then no one would believe anyone and all truths would be assumed to be lies (this last clause was accepted by casuists, hence the reasons for restrictions given to the cases where deception was authorized). The right to deceive could also not be claimed because it would deny the status of the person deceived as an end in himself. And the theft would be incompatible with a possible kingdom of ends. Therefore, Kant denied the right to lie or deceive for any reason, regardless of context or anticipated consequences. However, it was permissible to remain silent or say no more than needed (such as in the infamous example of a murderer asking to know where someone is).
The doctrines have also been criticized by Sissela Bok and by Paul Ekman, who defines lies by omission as the main form of lying – though larger and more complex moral and ethical issues of lying and truth-telling extend far beyond these specific doctrines. Ekman, however, does not consider cases of deception where "it is improper to question" the truth as real form of deceptions – this sort of case, where communication of truth is not to be expected and so deception is justified, was included by casuists.
The Irish Catholic Church allegedly misused the concept of mental reservation when dealing with situations relating to clerical child sexual abuse, by disregarding the restrictions placed on its employment by moral theologians and treating it as a method that "allows clerics (to) mislead people...without being guilty of lying", for example when dealing with the police, victims, civil authorities and media. In the Murphy Report into the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin, Cardinal Desmond Connell describes it thus:
Cathleen Kaveny, writing in the Catholic magazine "Commonweal", notes that Henry Garnet in his treatise on the topic took pains to argue that no form of mental reservation was justified — and might even be a mortal sin — if it would run contrary to the requirements of faith, charity or justice. But according to the Murphy Report:
Kaveny concludes: "The truths of faith are illuminated by the lives of the martyrs. Southwell and Garnet practiced mental reservation to save innocent victims while sacrificing themselves. The Irish prelates practiced mental reservation to save themselves while sacrificing innocent victims. And that difference makes all the difference."
| 7803345 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7803345 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Poor relief
In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of helping the poor. Alongside ever-changing attitudes towards poverty, many methods have been attempted to answer these questions. Since the early 16th century legislation on poverty enacted by the English Parliament, poor relief has developed from being little more than a systematic means of punishment into a complex system of government-funded support and protection, especially following the creation in the 1940s of the welfare state.
In the late 15th century, parliament took action on the growing problem of poverty, focusing on punishing people for being "vagabonds" and for begging. In 1495, during the reign of King Henry VII, Parliament enacted the Vagabond Act. This provided for officers of the law to arrest and hold "all such vagabonds, idle and suspect persons living suspiciously and them so taken to set in stocks, there to remain three nights and to have none other sustenance but bread and water; and after the said three days and three nights, to be had out and set at large and to be commanded to avoid the town." As historian Mark Rathbone has discussed in his article "Vagabond!", this Act of Parliament relied on a very loose definition of a vagabond and did not make any distinction between those who were simply unemployed and looking for employment and those who chose to live the life of a vagabond. In addition, the Act failed to recognise the impotent poor, those who could not provide for themselves. These included the sick, the elderly, and the disabled. This lack of a precise definition of a vagabond would hinder the effectiveness of the Vagabond Act for years to come.
The problem of poverty in England was exacerbated during the early 16th century by a dramatic increase in the population. This rose "…from little more than 2 million in 1485,…(to) about 2.8 million by the end of Henry VII's reign (1509)". The population was growing faster than the economy's ability to provide employment opportunities. The problem was made worse because during the English Reformation, Henry VIII severed the ecclesiastical governance of his kingdoms of England and Ireland and made himself the "Supreme Governor" of the Church of England. This involved the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England and Wales: the assets of hundreds of rich religious institutions, including their great estates, were taken by the Crown. This had a devastating impact on poor relief. According to the historian Paul Slack, prior to the Dissolution "it has been estimated that monasteries alone provided 6,500 pounds a year in alms before 1537 (); and that sum was not made good by private benefactions until after 1580." In addition to the closing of the monasteries, most hospitals (which in the 16th century were generally almshouses rather than medical institutions) were also closed, as they "had come to be seen as special types of religious houses". This left many of the elderly and sick without accommodation or care. In 1531, the Vagabonds and Beggars Act was revised, and a new Act was passed by parliament which did make some provision for the different classes of the poor. The sick, the elderly, and the disabled were to be issued with licences to beg. But those who were out of work and in search of employment were still not spared punishment. Throughout the 16th century, a fear of social unrest was the primary motive for much legislation that was passed by parliament.
This fear of social unrest carried into the reign of Edward VI. A new level of punishment was introduced in the Duke of Somerset's Vagrancy Act of 1547. "Two years' servitude and branding with a 'V' was the penalty for the first offense, and attempts to run away were to be punished by lifelong slavery and, there for a second time, execution." However, "there is no evidence that the Act was enforced." In 1550 these punishments were revised in a new act that was passed. The act of 1550 makes a reference to the limited enforcement of the punishments established by the Act of 1547 by stating "the extremity of some [of the laws] have been occasion that they have not been put into use."
Following the revision of the Duke of Somerset’s Act of 1547, parliament passed the poor Act in 1552. This focused on using the parishes as a source of funds to combat the increasing poverty epidemic. This statute appointed two "overseers" from each parish to collect money to be distributed to the poor who were considered to belong to the parish. These overseers were to 'gently ask' for donations for poor relief; refusal would ultimately result in a meeting with the local bishop, who would 'induce and persuade' the recalcitrant parishioners. However, at times even such a meeting with the bishop would often fail to achieve its object.
Sensing that voluntary donation was ineffective, parliament passed new legislation in 1563, and once this Act took effect parishioners could be brought by the bishop before the Justices, and continued refusal could lead to imprisonment until contribution was made. However, even this Act still suffered from shortcomings, because individuals could decide for themselves how much money to give in order to gain their freedom.
A more structured system of donations was established by the Vagabonds Act 1572. After determining the amount of funds needed to provide for the poor of each parish, Justices of the Peace were granted the authority to determine the amount of the donation from each parish's more wealthy property-owners. This Act finally turned these donations into what was effectively a local tax.
In addition to creating these new imposed taxes, the Act of 1572 created a new set of punishments to inflict upon the population of vagabonds. These included being "bored through the ear" for a first offense and hanging for "persistent beggars". Unlike the previous brutal punishments established by the Act of 1547, these extreme measures were enforced with great frequency.
However, despite its introduction of such violent actions to deter vagabonding, the Act of 1572 was the first time that parliament had passed legislation which began to distinguish between different categories of vagabonds. "Peddlers, tinkers, workmen on strike, fortune tellers, and minstrels" were not spared these gruesome acts of deterrence. This law punished all able bodied men "without land or master" who would neither accept employment nor explain the source of their livelihood. In this newly established definition of what constituted a vagabond, men who had been discharged from the military, released servants, and servants whose masters had died were specifically exempted from the Act's punishments. This legislation did not establish any means to support these individuals.
A system to support individuals who were willing to work, but who were having difficulty in finding employment, was established by the Act of 1576. As provided for in this, Justices of the Peace were authorized to provide any town which needed it with a stock of flax, hemp, or other materials on which paupers could be employed and to erect a "house of correction" in every county for the punishment of those who refused work. This was the first time Parliament had attempted to provide labour to individuals as a means to combat the increasing numbers of "vagabonds".
Two years after the Act of 1576 was passed into law, yet more dramatic changes were made to the methods to fight vagabondage and to provide relief to the poor. The Act of 1578 transferred power from the Justices of the Peace to church officials in the area of collecting the new taxes for the relief of poverty established in the Act of 1572. In addition, this Act of 1578 also extended the power of the church by stating that "…vagrants were to be summarily whipped and returned to their place of settlement by parish constables." By eliminating the need for the involvement of the Justices, law enforcement was streamlined.
Starting as early as 1590, public authorities began to take a more selective approach to supporting the poor. Those who were considered to be legitimately needy, sometimes called the "deserving poor", were allowed assistance, while those who were idle were not. People incapable of providing for themselves, such as young orphans, the elderly, and the mentally and physically handicapped, were seen to be deserving, whereas those who were physically able but were too lazy to work were considered as "idle" and were seen as of bad moral character, and thus undeserving of help.
Most poor relief in the 17th century came from voluntary charity which mostly was in the form of food and clothing. Parishes distributed land and animals. Institutionalized charities offered loans to help craftsmen to alms houses and hospitals.
Act for the Relief of the Poor 1597 provided the first complete code of poor relief, established Overseers of the Poor and was later amended by the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601, which was one of the longest-lasting achievements of her reign, left unaltered until 1834. This law made each parish responsible for supporting the legitimately needy in their community. It taxed wealthier citizens of the country to provide basic shelter, food and clothing, though they were not obligated to provide for those outside of their community.
Parishes responsible for their own community caused problems because some were more generous than others. This caused the poor to migrate to other parishes that were not their own. In order to counteract this problem, the Poor Relief Act 1662, also known as the Settlement Act, was implemented. This created many sojourners, people who resided in different settlements that were not their legal one. The Settlement Act allowed such people to be forcefully removed, and garnered a negative reaction from the population. In order to fix the flaws of the 1662 act, the act of 1691 came into effect such that it presented methods by which people could gain settlement in new locations. Such methods included "owning or renting property above a certain value or paying parish rates, but also by completing a legal apprenticeship or a one-year service while unmarried, or by serving a public office" for that identical length of time.
The main points of this system were the following:
During the 16th & 17th centuries, the population of England nearly doubled. Capitalism in the agricultural and manufacturing arenas started to emerge, and trade abroad significantly increased. Despite this flourishing of expansion, sufficient employment rates had yet to be attained by the late 1600s. The population increased at alarming rates, outpacing the increase in productivity, which resulted inevitably in inflation. Concurrently, wages decreased, declining to a point roughly half that of average wages of a century before.
"The boom-and-bust nature of European trade in woolen cloth, England's major manufacture and export" caused a larger fraction of the population of England to fall under poverty. With this increase in poverty, all charities operated by the Catholic Church were abolished due to the impact of protestant reformation.
A law passed by the British government by Sir Edward Knatchbull in 1723 introduced a "workhouse test", which meant that a person who wanted to receive poor relief had to enter a workhouse and undertake a set amount of work. The test was intended to prevent irresponsible claims on a parish's poor rate.
By the mid to late 18th century most of the British Isles was involved in the process of industrialization in terms of production of goods, manner of markets and concepts of economic class. In some cases, factory owners "employed" children without paying them, thus exacerbating poverty levels. Furthermore, the Poor Laws of this era encouraged children to work through an apprenticeship, but by the end of the 18th century the situation changed as masters became less willing to apprentice children, and factory owners then set about employing them to keep wages down. This meant that there were not many jobs for adult labourers. For those who could not find work there was the workhouse as a means of sustenance.
The 1782 poor relief law proposed by Thomas Gilbert aimed to organise poor relief on a county basis, counties being organised into parishes which could set up workhouses between them. However, these workhouses were intended to help only the elderly, sick and orphaned, not the able-bodied poor. The sick, elderly and infirm were cared for in poorhouses whereas the able-bodied poor were provided with poor relief in their own homes.
The "Speenhamland system" was a form of outdoor relief intended to mitigate rural poverty at the end of the 18th century and during the early 19th century. The system was named after a 1795 meeting at the Pelican Inn in Speenhamland, Berkshire, where a number of local magistrates devised the system as a means to alleviate the distress caused by high grain prices. The increase in the price of grain most probably occurred as a result of a poor harvest in the years 1795–96, though at the time this was subject to great debate. Many blamed middlemen and hoarders as the ultimate architects of the shortage.
The authorities at Speenhamland approved a means-tested sliding-scale of wage supplements in order to mitigate the worst effects of rural poverty. Families were paid extra to top up wages to a set level according to a table. This level varied according to the number of children and the price of bread.
Following the onset of the Industrial Revolution, in 1834 the Parliament of the United Kingdom revised the Elizabethan Poor Law (1601) after studying the conditions found in 1832. Over the next decade they began phasing out outdoor relief and pushing the paupers towards indoor relief. The differences between the two was that outdoor relief was a monetary contribution to the needy, whereas indoor relief meant the individual was sent to one of the workhouses.
Following the reformation of the Poor Laws in 1834, Ireland experienced a severe potato blight that lasted from 1845–1849 and killed an estimated 1.5 million people. The effects of the famine lasted until 1851. During this period the people of Ireland lost much land and many jobs, and appealed to the Westminster Parliament for aid. This aid generally came in the form of establishing more workhouses as indoor relief. Some people argue that as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was in its prime as an empire, it could have given more aid in the form of money, food or rent subsidies.
In other parts of the United Kingdom, amendments to and adoptions of poor laws came in and around the same time. In Scotland, for example, the 1845 Scottish Poor Law Act revised the Poor Laws that were implemented under the 1601 Acts.
| 7806603 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7806603 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Kevin Wildes
Reverend Kevin William Wildes, S.J., Ph.D., (born September 27, 1954) is the former president of Loyola University New Orleans. He was formally installed as the school's 16th president on July 1, 2004.
During his second year in the position, he was charged with seeing the school through Hurricane Katrina. On April 10, 2006, President Wildes unveiled "Pathways - Toward Our Second Century", Loyola's strategic plan in response to the university's 15 million dollar budget deficit following Hurricane Katrina. The proposal restructured the academic colleges of Loyola and included program and personnel cuts. The Pathways plan encountered opposition from the university community. The Board of Trustees however unanimously approved and passed the plan in a meeting on May 19, 2006. On 26 September 2006, the faculty of the College of Humanities and Natural Sciences, the largest college, voted "no confidence" in President Wildes with 76% of voting faculty supporting the measure.
Prior to joining the Jesuits, Wildes was a boxer, a sport he continues as an amateur and a teacher. Wildes entered the Society of Jesus in 1976, and was ordained a priest in 1986, completing his vows in March 2004. He holds advanced degrees in theology from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in philosophy from Fordham University and Rice University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1993. Before taking his current position, he worked at Georgetown University where he was a chaplain in residence, beginning his tradition of living in the student residences, and an important advocate for fund raising for the school. His weekly informal masses in his residence attracted a loyal following among students.
As an author, he has published numerous works on ethics and morality, especially in the field of bioethics which he has lectured widely on. He has been called upon to give analysis on bioethics issues on nightly talk shows in Washington, and on July 22, 1997 to testify before the House Committee on Sciences on the topic of human cloning. He is Associate Director and a Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and frequent contributor to its journal. He served as an editor of four compendiums of bioethics essays, such as "Choosing Life: A Dialogue on Evangelium Vitae". In 2000, he published "Moral Acquaintances: Methodology in Bioethics", his most successful work to date.
| 7816144 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7816144 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Asha
Asha (; also arta ; Avestan:"𐬀𐬴𐬀" "aṣ̌a/arta") is a Zoroastrian concept with a complex and highly nuanced range of meaning. It is commonly summarized in accord with its contextual implications of 'truth' and 'right(eousness)', 'order' and 'right working'. For other connotations, see meaning below. It is of cardinal importance to Zoroastrian theology and doctrine. In the moral sphere, "aṣ̌a/arta" represents what has been called "the decisive confessional concept of Zoroastrianism". The opposite of Avestan "aṣ̌a" is "𐬛𐬭𐬎𐬘 druj", "deceit, falsehood".
Its Old Persian equivalent is "arta-". In Middle Iranian languages the term appears as "ard-".
The word is also the proper name of the divinity Asha, the Amesha Spenta that is the hypostasis or "genius" of "Truth" or "Righteousness". In the Younger Avesta, this figure is more commonly referred to as Asha Vahishta ("Aṣ̌a Vahišta", "Arta Vahišta"), "Best Truth". The Middle Persian descendant is "Ashawahist" or "Ardwahisht"; New Persian "Ardibehesht" or "Ordibehesht". In the Gathas, the oldest texts of Zoroastrianism and thought to have been composed by Zoroaster, it is seldom possible to distinguish between moral principle and the divinity. Later texts consistently use the 'Best' epithet when speaking of the Amesha Spenta, only once in the Gathas is 'best' an adjective of "aṣ̌a/arta".
Avestan "" and its Vedic equivalent "" both derive from Proto-Indo-Iranian "*ṛtá-" "truth", which in turn continues Proto-Indo-European "*" "properly joined, right, true", from the root "*".
The word is attested in Old Persian as "".
It is unclear whether the Avestan variation between "aṣ̌a" and "arta" is merely orthographical. Benveniste suggested "š" was only a convenient way of writing "rt" and should not be considered phonetically relevant. According to Gray, "ṣ̌" is a misreading, representing – not /ʃ/ - but /rr/, of uncertain phonetic value but "probably" representing a voiceless "r". Miller suggested that "rt" was restored when a scribe was aware of the morpheme boundary between the /r/ and /t/ (that is, whether the writer maintained the "–ta" suffix).
Avestan "druj", like its Vedic Sanskrit cousin "druh", appears to derive from the PIE root "*", also continued in Persian دروغ / "d[o]rūġ" "lie", German "Trug" "fraud, deception". Old Norse "draugr" and Middle Irish "airddrach" mean "spectre, spook". The Sanskrit cognate "druh" means "affliction, afflicting demon".
In Avestan, " druj-" has a secondary derivation, the adjective "drəguuaṇt-" (Young Avestan " druuaṇt-"), "partisan of deception, deceiver" for which the superlative "draojišta-" and perhaps the comparative "draoj(ii)ah-" are attested (Kellens, 2010, pp. 69 ff.).
"Aṣ̌a" "cannot be precisely rendered by some single word in another tongue" but may be summarized as follows:
It is, first of all, 'true statement'. This 'true statement', because it is true, corresponds to an objective, material reality that embraces all of existence. Recognized in it is a great cosmic principle since all things happen according to it.
"This cosmic [...] force is imbued also with morality, as verbal Truth, 'la parole conforme', and Righteousness, action conforming with the moral order."
The correspondence between 'truth', reality and an all-encompassing cosmic principle is not far removed from Heraclitus' conception of Logos.
Both Avestan "aṣ̌a/arta" and Vedic "ŗtá-" are commonly translated as "truth" as this best reflects both the original meaning of the term as well as the opposition to their respective antonyms. The opposite of Avestan "aṣ̌a/arta" is "druj-", "lie." Similarly, the opposites of Vedic ' are ' and "druh", likewise "lie".
That "truth" is also what was commonly understood by the term as attested in Greek myth of: "Isis and Osiris" 47, Plutarch calls the divinity Αλήθεια "Aletheia", "Truth."
The adjective corresponding to the noun "aṣ̌a/arta", "truth", is Avestan "haithya-" ("haiθiia-"), "true", the opposite of which is also "druj-". Avestan "haithya-" derives from Indo-Iranian "*sātya" that in turn derives from Indo-European "*sat-" "being, existing". The Sanskrit cognate "sátya-" means "true" in the sense of "really existing." This meaning is also preserved in Avestan, for instance in the expression "haiθīm var"ə"z", "to make true" as in "to bring to realization."
Another meaning of "reality" may be inferred from the component parts of the "aṣ̌a/arta": from (root) "ŗ" with a substantivizing "-ta" suffix. The root "ŗ" corresponds to Old Avestan "ar"ə"ta-" and Younger Avestan ə"r"ə"ta-" "established", hence "aṣ̌a/arta" "that which is established."
The synonymy of "aṣ̌a" and "existence" overlaps with the stock identification of Ahura Mazda as the creator (of existence itself). Truth is existence (creation) inasmuch as falsehood is non-existence (uncreated, anti-created). Also, because "aṣ̌a" is everything that "druj-" is not (or vice versa), since "aṣ̌a" is, "druj-" is not.
This notion is already expressed in the Avesta itself, such as in the first "Yasht", dedicated to Ahura Mazda, in which the "fifth name is the whole good existence of Mazda, the seed of Asha" ( "Yasht" 1.7). Similarly, in the mythology of "Gandar"ə"βa", the 'yellow-heeled' dragon of the "druj-" that emerges from the deep to destroy the "living world (creation) of Aṣ̌a" ("Yasht" 19.41)
In the ethical goals of Zoroastrianism ("good thoughts, good words, good deeds"), Vohu Manah is active in good thoughts, Sraosha in good words and Aṣ̌a in good deeds. ("Denkard" 3.13-14). Aṣ̌a is thus "represented as active and effective."
Subject to context, "aṣ̌a/arta-" is also frequently translated as "right working" or "[that which is] right". The word then ("cf." Bartholomae's and Geldner's translations as German language ""Recht"") has the same range of meaning of "right" as in the English language: truth, righteousness, rightfulness, lawfullness, conformity, accord, order (cosmic order, social order, moral order).
These various meanings of "right" are frequently combined, such as "the inexorable law of righteousness," or as "the eternal fitness of things that are in accord with the divine order."
As (the hypostasis of) regularity and "right working", "aṣ̌a/arta-" is present when Ahura Mazda fixed the course of the sun, the moon and the stars ("Yasna" 44.3), and it is through "aṣ̌a" that plants grow ("Yasna" 48.6).
"Right working" also overlaps with both Indo-European "*ár-" "to (properly) join together" and with the notion of existence and realization (to make real). The word for "established", "ar"ə"ta-", also means "proper". The antonymic "anar"ə"ta-" (or "anar"ə"θa-") means "improper" In Zoroastrian tradition, prayers must be enunciated with care for them to be effective. The Indo-Iranian formula "*sātyas mantras" ("Yasna" 31.6: "haiθīm mathrem") "does not simply mean 'true Word' but formulated thought which is in conformity with the reality' or 'poetic (religious) formula with inherent fulfillment (realization)'".
It perhaps has also suggestions of harmoniousness or cooperativeness
The kinship between Old Iranian "aṣ̌a-/arta-" and Vedic "ŗtá-" is evident in numerous formulaic phrases and expressions that appear in both the Avesta and in the RigVeda. For instance, the "*ŗtásya path-", "path of truth", is attested multiple times in both sources: Y 51.13, 72.11; RV 3.12.7, 7.66.3. Similarly "source of truth," Avestan "aṣ̌a khá" and Vedic "" (Y 10.4; RV 2.28.5)
The adjective corresponding to Avestan "aṣ̌a/arta-" is "haiθiia-" "true". Similarly, the adjective corresponding to Vedic "ŗtá-" "truth" is "sátya-" "true". The opposite of both "aṣ̌a/arta-" and "haithya-" is "druj-" "lie" or "false". In contrast, in the Vedas the opposite of both "ŗtá-" and "sátya-" is "druj-" and "ánŗta-", also "lie" or "false".
However, while the Indo-Iranian concept of truth is attested throughout Zoroastrian tradition, "ŗtá-" disappears in post-Vedic literature and is not preserved in post-Vedic texts. On the other hand, "sátya-" and "ánrta-" both survive in classical Sanskrit.
The main theme of the Rig Veda, "the truth and the gods", is not evident in the Gathas. Thematic parallels between "aṣ̌a/arta" and "ŗtá-", however, exist such aa in "Yasht" 10, the Avestan hymn to Mithra. There, Mithra, who is the hypostasis and the preserver of covenant, is the protector of "aṣ̌a/arta". RigVedic Mitra is likewise preserver of "ŗtá-".
Asha Vahishta is closely associated with fire. Fire is "grandly conceived as a force informing all the "other" Amesha Spentas, giving them warmth and the spark of life."
In "Yasht" 17.20, Angra Mainyu clamours that Zoroaster burns him with Asha Vahishta. In "Vendidad" 4.54-55, speaking against the truth and violating the sanctity of promise is detected by the consumption of "water, blazing, of golden color, having the power to detect guilt."
This analogy of truth that burns and detecting truth through fire is already attested in the very earliest texts, that is, in the Gathas and in the "Yasna Haptanghaiti". In "Yasna" 43-44, Ahura Mazda dispenses justice through radiance of His fire and the strength of aṣ̌a. Fire "detects" sinners "by hand-grasping" ("Yasna" 34.4). An individual who has passed the fiery test ("garmo-varah", ordeal by heat), has attained physical and spiritual strength, wisdom, truth and love with serenity ("Yasna" 30.7). Altogether, "there are said to have been some 30 kinds of fiery tests in all." According to the post-Sassanid "Dadestan i denig" (I.31.10), at the final judgement a river of molten metal will cover the earth. The righteous, as they wade through this river, will perceive the molten metal as a bath of warm milk. The wicked will be scorched. For details on aṣ̌a's role in personal and final judgement, see "aṣ̌a" in eschatology, below.
Fire is moreover the "auxiliary of the truth," "and not only, as in the ordeal, of justice and of truth at the same time." In "Yasna" 31.19, "the man who thinks of "aṣ̌a", [...] who uses his tongue in order to speak correctly, [does so] with the aid of brilliant fire". In "Yasna" 34-44 devotees "ardently desire [Mazda's] mighty fire, through aṣ̌a." In "Yasna" 43-44, Ahura Mazda "shall come to [Zoroaster] through the splendour of [Mazda's] fire, possessing the strength of (through) aṣ̌a and good mind (=Vohu Manah)." That fire "possesses strength through "aṣ̌a"" is repeated again in "Yasna" 43.4. In "Yasna" 43.9, Zoroaster, wishing to serve fire, gives his attention to "aṣ̌a". In "Yasna" 37.1, in a list of what are otherwise all physical creations, "aṣ̌a" takes the place of fire.
Asha Vahishta's association with "atar" is carried forward in the post-Gathic texts, and they are often mentioned together. In Zoroastrian cosmogony, each of the Amesha Spentas represents one aspect of creation and one of seven primordial elements that in Zoroastrian tradition are the basis of that creation. In this matrix, "aṣ̌a/arta" is the origin of fire, Avestan "atar", which permeates through all Creation. The correspondence then is that "aṣ̌a/arta" "penetrates all ethical life, as fire penetrates all physical being."
In the liturgy Asha Vahishta is frequently invoked together with fire. ("Yasna" l.4, 2.4, 3.6, 4.9, 6.3, 7.6, 17.3, 22.6, 59.3, 62.3 etc.). In one passage, fire is a protector of "aṣ̌a": "when the Evil Spirit assailed the creation of Good Truth, Good Thought and Fire intervened" ("Yasht" 13.77)
In later Zoroastrian tradition, Asha Vahishta is still at times identified with the fire of the household hearth.
In addition to the role of fire as the agent of Truth, fire, among its various other manifestations, is also "the fire of judicial ordeal, prototype of the fiery torrent of judgement day, when all will receive their just deserts 'by fire and by Aṣ̌a' ("Y" 31.3)."
In the Avesta, the "radiant quarters" of "aṣ̌a" is "the best existence", i.e. Paradise (cf. "Vendidad" 19.36), entry to which is restricted to those who are recognized as "possessing truth" ("aṣ̌avan"). The key to this doctrine is "Yasna" 16.7: "We worship the radiant quarters of "Aṣ̌a" in which dwell the souls of the dead, the Fravašis of the "aṣ̌avan"s; the best existence (=Paradise) of the "aṣ̌avan"s we worship, (which is) light and according all comforts."
'Aṣ̌a' derives from the same Proto-Indo-European root as 'Airyaman', the divinity of healing who is closely associated with Asha Vahishta. At the last judgement, the common noun "airyaman" is an epithet of the "saoshyans", the saviours that bring about the final renovation of the world. The standing epithet of these saviour figures is <nowiki>'</nowiki>"astvat"ә"r"ә"ta"<nowiki>'</nowiki>, which likewise has "arta" as an element of the name. These saviours are those who follow Ahura Mazda's teaching "with acts inspired by aṣ̌a" ("Yasna" 48.12). Both Airyaman and Asha Vahishta (as also Atar) are closely associated with Sraosha "[Voice of] Conscience" and guardian of the Chinvat bridge across which souls must pass.
According to a lost Avestan passage that is only preserved in a later (9th century) Pahlavi text, towards the end of time and the final renovation, Aṣ̌a and Airyaman will together come upon the earth to do battle with the Az, the daeva of greed ("Zatspram" 34.38-39).
The third "Yasht", which is nominally addressed to Asha Vahishta, is in fact mostly devoted to the praise of the "airyaman ishya" ("airy"ә"mā īšyo", "Longed-for "airyaman""), the fourth of the four great Gathic prayers. In present-day Zoroastrianism it is considered to invoke Airyaman just as the "Ashem Vohu", is the second of the four great Gathic prayers, is dedicated to Aṣ̌a. All four prayers (the first is the Ahuna Vairya, the third is the Yenghe Hatam) have judgement and/or salvation as a theme, and all four call on the Truth.
It is Airyaman that – together with fire – will "melt the metal in the hills and mountains, and it will be upon the earth like a river" ("Bundahishn" 34.18). In Zoroastrian tradition, metal is the domain of Xshathra [Vairya], the Amesha Spenta of "[Desirable] Dominion", with whom Aṣ̌a is again frequently identified. Dominion is moreover "a form of truth and results from truth."
In "Denkard" 8.37.13, Asha Vahishta actually takes over Airyaman's healer role as the healer of all spiritual ills and Airyaman then only retains the role of healer of corporeal ills. Although Airyaman has no dedication in the Siroza, the invocations to the divinities of the Zoroastrian calendar, Airyaman is twice invoked together with Aṣ̌a. ("Siroza" 1.3 and 2.3)
"Aogemadaecha" 41-47 prototypes death as a journey that has to be properly prepared for: As mortals acquires material goods as they go through life, so also should they furnish themselves with spiritual stores of righteousness. They will then be well provisioned when they embark on the journey from which they will not return.
Aṣ̌a's role is not limited to judgement: In "Bundahishn" 26.35, Aṣ̌a prevents daevas from exacting too great a punishment to souls consigned to the House of Lies. Here, Aṣ̌a occupies the position that other texts assign to Mithra, who is traditionally identified with fairness.
For the relationship between Aṣ̌a, eschatology and Nowruz, see in the Zoroastrian calendar, below.
Although there are numerous eschatological parallels between Aṣ̌a and Aši "recompense, reward" (most notably their respective associations with Sraosha and Vohu Manah), and are on occasion even mentioned together ("Yasna" 51.10), the two are not etymologically related. The feminine abstract noun "aši/arti" derives from "ar-", "to allot, to grant." Aši also has no Vedic equivalent.
In Zoroastrian cosmogony and , which—though alluded to in the Gathas—is only systematically described in Zoroastrian tradition (e.g. "Bundahishn" 3.12), "aṣ̌a" is the second (cf. "Yasna" 47.1) of the six primeval creations realized ("created by His thought") by Ahura Mazda. It is through these six, the Amesha Spentas that all subsequent creation was accomplished.
In addition to Asha Vahishta's role as an Amesha Spenta and hence one of the primordial creations through which all other creation was realized, Truth is one of the "organs, aspects or emanations" of Ahura Mazda through which the Creator acts and is immanent in the world.
Although Vohu Manah regularly stands first in the list of the Amesha Spenta (and of Ahura Mazda's creations), in the Gathas Asha Vahishta is the most evident of the six, and also the most commonly associated with Wisdom (Mazda). In the 238 verses of these hymns, Aṣ̌a appears 157 times. Of the other concepts, only "Vohu Manah" "Good Purpose" appears nearly as often (136 occurrences). In comparison, the remaining four of the great sextet appear only 121 times altogether.
Although a formal hierarchy is not evident in the Gathas, the group of six "divides naturally into three dyads." In this arrangement, Aṣ̌a is paired with Vohu Manah. This reflects the frequency in which the two appear (together) in the Gathas and is in turn reflected in Zoroastrian tradition. In "Bundahishn" 26.8, Vohu Manah stands at the left hand of God, while Aṣ̌a stands at the right.
Yasht 1, the hymn dedicated to Ahura Mazda, provides a list of 74 "names" by which the Creator is invoked. In the numbered list of "Yasht" 1.7, 'Asha Vahishta' "Best Truth" is the fourth name. A later verse, "Yasht" 1.12, includes 'Aṣ̌avan' "Possessing Truth" and 'Aṣ̌avastəma' "Most Righteous". In "Yasna" 40.3, Ahura Mazda is "aṣ̌aŋāč" "having "aṣ̌a" following".
One of Haoma's stock epithets is "aṣ̌avazah-" "furthering "aṣ̌a"" ("Yasht" 20.3; "Yasna" 8.9, 10.1.14, 11.10 et al.). Atar "possesses strength through "aṣ̌a"" ("aṣ̌a-ahojah", Yasna 43.4).
In the Zoroastrian calendar, the third day of the month and the second month of the year are dedicated to and named after "aṣ̌a" and Asha Vahishta (calledارديبهشت "Ordibehesht" in Modern Persian both in Iranian Calendar and Yazdgerdi calendar).
A special service to "aṣ̌a" and Aṣ̌a, known as the '"Jashan" of Ardavisht', is held on the day on which month-name and day-name dedications intersect. In the "Fasli" and "Bastani" variants of the Zoroastrian calendar, this falls on April 22.
Rapithwin, one of the five "gah"s (watches) of the day, under the protection of Aṣ̌a. ("Bundahishn" 3.22) This implies that all prayers recited between noon and three invoke Aṣ̌a. Noon is considered to be the "perfect" time, at which instant the world was created and at which instant time will stop on the day of the final renovation of the world.
In the winter months, the "daev"ic time of year, Rapithwin is known as the "Second Havan" (the first Havan being from dawn to noon), and with the first day of spring, March 21, Rapithwin symbolically returns. This day, March 21, is Nowruz
Nowruz, the holiest of all Zoroastrian festivals is dedicated to Aṣ̌a. It follows immediately after Pateti, the day of introspection and the Zoroastrian equivalent of All-Souls Day. Nowruz, Zoroastrianism's New Year's Day, is celebrated on the first day of spring, traditionally understood to be the day of rebirth, and literally translated means "New Day". The first month of the year of the Zoroastrian calendar is Farvadin, which is dedicated to and named after the Fravašis, the ancestral higher spirits.
"The underlying idea of the dedication" of the second month of the year to Asha Vahishta "may be revivification of the earth after the death of winter."
On Kushan coins, Asha Vahishta "appears as Aṣ̌aeixšo, with a diadem and nimbus, like Mithra in the same series."
""Arta-" (Mid. Iranian "ard-"), representing either the Av. divinity Aṣ̌a or the principle "aṣ̌a", occurs frequently as an element in Iranian personal names."
Hellenized/Latinized names include:
Other names include:
Middle Iranian "ard-" is also suggested to be the root of names of the current day Iranian cities of Ardabil, Ardekan, Ardehal and Ardestan.
| 7820125 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7820125 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Procuring (prostitution)
Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female) or a brothel keeper, is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The procurer may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing, and possibly monopolizing, a location where the prostitute may engage clients. Like prostitution, the legality of certain actions of a madam or a pimp vary from one region to the next.
Examples of procuring include:
Pimps and madams are diverse and variegated, depending on the strata in which they work, and they enter and leave the sex industry for a variety of internal and external reasons, such as family pressure, interactions with the police, and in some cases recruitment from peer sex workers.
Procuring can take abusive forms. Madams/pimps may punish clients for physical abuse or failure to pay, and enforce exclusive rights to 'turf' where their prostitutes may advertise and operate with less competition. In the many places where prostitution is outlawed, sex workers have decreased incentive to report abuse for fear of self-incrimination, and increased motivation to seek any physical protection from clients and law enforcement that a madam/pimp might provide.
The madam/pimp–prostitute relationship is often understood to be abusive and possessive, with the pimp/madam using techniques such as psychological intimidation, manipulation, starvation, rape and/or gang rape, beating, confinement, threats of violence toward the victim's family, forced drug use and the shame from these acts. Recent empirical research of madams/pimps, however, suggest that these assumptions about abusive relationships represent stereotyped oppression narratives that may only represent a small percentage of the relationships between madams/pimps and sex workers.
In the U.S., madams/pimps can be arrested and charged with pandering and are legally known as procurers. This, combined with the tendency to identify pimping with African-American masculinity, may provide some of the explanation for why approximately three-fifths of all "confirmed" human traffickers in the United States are African-American men. In fact, it has recently been argued that some of the extreme examples of violence cited in the article below come primarily from such stereotyping supported by Hollywood screenwriters, selective and decontextualized trial transcripts, and studies that have only interviewed parties to sex commerce in institutions of rescue, prosecution, and punishment, rather than engaging rigorous study "in situ".
Where prostitution is decriminalized or regulated, procuring may or may not be legal. In jurisdictions where procuring is allowed, however, the forms permitted do not involve threats or other forms of non-consensual acts towards the prostitute or other persons; all procuring regulations differ widely from place to place.
Procuring and brothels are legal in the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, New Zealand, and most of Australia and Nevada.
In Canada, there was a legal challenge to prostitution laws, which ended in the 2013 ruling of "Bedford v. Canada". In 2010, Ontario Superior Court Judge Susan Himel overturned the national laws banning brothels and procuring, arguing that they violated the constitution guaranteeing "the right to life, liberty and security".
In 2012, Ontario Appeal Court reaffirmed the unconstitutionality of the laws. The case was appealed by the Canadian government, and was under trial in the Supreme Court of Canada in June 2013. On 20 December 2013, the Supreme Court unanimously struck down the remaining prostitution laws. , the Canadian government began working on replacing those regulations with ones that do not violate the Canadian constitution.
The United Nations 1949 Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others requires state signatories to ban pimping and brothels, and to abolish regulation of individual prostitutes. It states:
Whereas prostitution and the accompanying evil of the traffic in persons for the purpose of prostitution are incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person and endanger the welfare of the individual, the family and the community
The convention reads:
Article 1
The Parties to the present Convention agree to punish any person who, to gratify the passions of another:
(1) Procures, entices or leads away, for purposes of prostitution, another person, even with the consent of that person;
(2) Exploits the prostitution of another person, even with the consent of that person.
Article 2
The Parties to the present Convention further agree to punish any person who:
(1) Keeps or manages, or knowingly finances or takes part in the financing of a brothel;
(2) Knowingly lets or rents a building or other place or any part thereof for the purpose of the prostitution of others.
Various UN commissions however have differing positions on the issue. For example, in 2012, a UNAIDS commission convened by Ban Ki-moon and backed by UNDP and UNAIDS, recommended the decriminalization of brothels and procuring.
The term "procurer" derives from the French "procureur".
The word "pimp" first appeared in English in 1607 in a Thomas Middleton play entitled "Your Five Gallants." Of unknown origin, but may have stemmed from the French infinitive "pimper" meaning to dress up elegantly and from the present participle "pimpant" meaning alluring in seductive dress. "Pimp" used as a verb, meaning to act as a pimp, first appeared in 1636 in Philip Massinger's play, "The Bashful Lover". In the 18th and 19th centuries, the term was commonly used to refer to informers. A pimp can also mean "a despicable person". The term can also be applied to a person who is considered a ladies' man.
The verb "pimping" came up in the early 17th century. Rapper Nelly tried to redefine the word "pimp" by saying that it is an acronym for "positive, intellectual, motivated person." He created a college scholarship with the name "P.I.M.P. Juice Scholarship". Dawn Turner Trice of the "Chicago Tribune" argues that there is "something truly unsettling, to say the least, about attaching such a vile word to a scholarship" and expresses concern about the glamorization of the term.
In the first years of the 21st century, a new meaning of the word emerged in the form of a transitive verb "pimp", which means "to decorate" or "to gussy up" (compare "primp", especially in Scottish usage). This new definition was made popular by "Pimp My Ride", an MTV television show. Although this new definition paid homage to hip-hop culture and its connection to street culture, it has now entered common, even mainstream commercial, use.
In medical contexts, the verb means "to ask (a student) a question for the purpose of testing her or his knowledge".
The word "pander", meaning to "pimp" is derived from Pandarus, a licentious figure who facilitates the affair between the protagonists in "Troilus and Criseyde", a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer. Pandarus appears with a similar role in Shakespeare's interpretation of the story, "Troilus and Cressida".
Pimping is sometimes operated like a business. The pimp may have a bottom girl who serves as office manager, keeping the pimp apprised of law-enforcement activity and collecting money from the prostitutes. Pimps recognize a hierarchy among themselves. In certain pimp strata, the least respected, or newer pimps, are the "popcorn pimps" and "wannabes". "Popcorn pimps" was a phenomenon which occurred among adolescent cocaine users of both sexes who utilized children younger than themselves to support their habits. A pimp who uses violence and intimidation to control his prostitutes is called a "gorilla pimp", while those who use psychological trickery to deceive younger prostitutes into becoming hooked into the system are called "finesse pimps". In addition, a prostitute may "bounce" from pimp to pimp without paying the "pimp moving" tax.
Some pimps in the United States are also documented gang members, which causes concerns for police agencies in jurisdictions where prostitution is a significant problem. Pimping rivals narcotic sales as a major source of funding for many gangs. Gangs need money to survive, and money equates to power and respect. While selling drugs may be lucrative for a gang, this activity often carries significant risk as stiff legal penalties and harsh mandatory minimum sentencing laws exist. However, with pimping, gang members still make money while the prostitutes themselves bear the majority of the risk. Pimping has several benefits to the gang that the pimp belongs to. These benefits include helping the gang recruit new members because the gang has women available for sex, and the money brought in by prostitution allows gang members to buy cars, clothes and weapons, all of which help to recruit younger members into the gang by increasing the reputation of the gang in the local gang subculture. The presence of gangs (and weapons and drugs) is a virtual guarantee when prostitutes are present, which is why many law-enforcement agencies advocate taking an aggressive stance against prostitutes. Many vice units work to ascertain if the prostitute they have arrested has a pimp, and if so, they pressure them to provide information about their pimp and the gang involved. This information can then be used to go after the more serious and violent offenders.
Some pimp businesses have an internal structure – built around violence – for dealing with rule breakers. For example, some pimps have been known to employ a "pimp stick", which is two coat hangers wrapped together, in order to subdue unruly prostitutes. A variation is a "pimp cane", used for similar purposes. Although prostitutes can move between pimps, this movement sometimes leads to violence. For example, a prostitute could be punished for merely looking at another pimp; this is considered in some pimp milieus to be "reckless eyeballing". Violence can also used on customers, for example if the customer attempts to evade payment or becomes unruly with a prostitute.
Some pimps tattoo prostitutes as a mark of "ownership". The tattoo will often be the pimp's street name or even his likeness. The mark might be as discreet as ankle tattoo, or blatant as a neck tattoo or large scale font across the prostitute's lower back, thigh, chest, or buttocks.
Since the Internet became widely available, prostitutes increasingly use websites to solicit sexual encounters. This has bypassed the need for pimps in some contexts, while some pimps have used these sites to broker their sex workers.
Some scholars and sex workers' rights advocates dispute portrayals of third-party agents as violent and extremely committed to a pimp subculture, finding them inaccurate exaggerations used to foster harmful policies. For example, one study found that pimps tend to drift in and out of pimping, with some of their goals and identities classified as predominantly mainstream, some as predominantly outside of that mainstream, and some as a hybrid of conventional and non-conventional.
Attempts have been made in the U.S. to charge pornographic-film producers with pandering under state law. The case of "California v. Freeman" in 1989 is one of the most prominent examples where a producer/director of pornographic films was charged with pandering under the argument that paying porn actors to perform sex on camera was a form of prostitution covered by a state anti-pandering statute. The State Supreme Court rejected this argument, finding that the California pandering statute was not intended to cover the hiring of actors who would be engaging in sexually-explicit but non-obscene performances. It also stated that only in cases where the producer paid the actors for the purpose of sexually gratifying themselves or other actors, could the producer be charged with pandering under state law. This case effectively legalized pornography in the State of California. In 2008, the New Hampshire Supreme Court issued a similar ruling (New Hampshire v. Theriault) which declared that producing pornography was not a form of prostitution under state law.
| 7833443 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7833443 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Gun violence
Gun-related violence is violence committed with the use of a gun (firearm or small arm). Gun-related violence may or may not be considered criminal. Criminal violence includes homicide (except when and where ruled justifiable), assault with a deadly weapon, and suicide, or attempted suicide, depending on jurisdiction. Non-criminal violence includes accidental or unintentional injury and death (except perhaps in cases of criminal negligence). Also generally included in gun violence statistics are military or para-military activities.
According to GunPolicy.org, 75 percent of the world's 875 million guns are civilian controlled. Roughly half of these guns (48 percent) are in the United States, which has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world. Globally, millions are wounded or killed by the use of guns. Assault by firearm resulted in 180,000 deaths in 2013 up from 128,000 deaths in 1990. There were additionally 47,000 unintentional firearm-related deaths in 2013.
Levels of gun-related violence vary greatly among geographical regions, countries, and even subnationally. Rates of violent deaths by firearm range from as low as 0.03 and 0.04 per 100,000 population in Singapore and Japan, to 59 and 67 per 100,000 in Honduras and Venezuela. The highest rates of violent deaths by firearm in the world occur in low-income South and Central American countries such as Honduras, Venezuela, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Jamaica.
The United States has the 11th highest rate of gun violence in the world, and by far the largest of any large or highly developed nation, having a gun homicide rate which is 25 times higher, an unintentional gun death rate which is 6 times higher, a firearm suicide rate which is 8 times higher, and an overall firearm death rate which is 10 times higher than the average respective rates of other high income nations. Compared to similarly wealthy nations with strict gun control laws, such as Japan, the United Kingdom, or South Korea, the United States has an overall rate of firearms death per capita, which is 50–100 times greater than many of its peers. The high rates of gun violence in the United States, which has the highest rate of gun-related deaths per capita among developed countries, despite having the highest number of police officers, is sometimes thought to be attributable to its extreme rate of gun ownership, as it is the only nation in which guns exceed people. Nearly all studies have found a positive association between gun ownership and gun-related homicide and suicide rates.
According to the United Nations, deaths from small firearms exceed that of all other weapons combined, and more die each year from gun-related violence than did in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. The global death toll from use of guns may number as high as 1,000 dead each day.
A number of ideas have been proposed on how to lessen the incidence of gun-related violence.
Some propose keeping a gun at home to keep one safer. Studies show that guns in the home is associated with an increased risk of violent death in the home. According to the FBI, gun-related violence is linked to gun ownership and is not a function or byproduct of crime. Their study indicates that more than 90% of gun-related deaths were not part of a commission of a crime, rather they were directly related to gun ownership. "Mother Jones" reports that "[a] Philadelphia study found that the odds of an assault victim being shot were 4.5 times greater if he carried a gun" and that "[h]is odds of being killed were 4.2 times greater" when armed. Others propose arming civilians to counter mass shootings. FBI research shows that between 2000 and 2013, "In 5 incidents (3.1%), the shooting ended after armed individuals who were not law enforcement personnel exchanged gunfire with the shooters." Another proposal is to expand self defense laws for cases where a person is being aggressed upon, although "those policies have been linked to a 7 to 10% increase in homicides" (that is, shootings where self-defense cannot be claimed).
There is a strong relationship between guns in the home, as well as access to guns more generally, and suicide risk, the evidence for which is strongest in the United States. In 2017, almost half of the nation's 47,173 suicides involved a firearm. A 1992 case-control study conducted in Tennessee and Washington found that individuals in a firearm owning home are close to five times more likely to commit suicide than those individuals who do not own firearms. A 2002 study found that access to guns in the home was associated with an increased risk of suicide among middle-aged and older adults, even after controlling for psychiatric illness. As of 2008, there were 12 case-control studies that had been conducted in the U.S., all of which had found that guns in the home were associated with an increased risk of suicide. However, a 1996 New Zealand study found no significant relationship between household guns and suicide. Assessing data from 14 developed countries where gun ownership levels were known, the Harvard Injury Control Research Center found statistically significant correlations between those levels and suicide rates. However, the parallels were lost when data from additional nations was included. A 2006 study found a significant effect of changes in gun ownership rates on gun suicide rates in multiple Western countries. During the 1980s and 1990s, the rate of adolescent suicides with guns caught up with adult rates, and the 75-and-older rate rose above all others. A 2002 study found that 90% of suicide attempts with firearms were successful.
The use of firearms in suicides ranges from less than 10 percent in Australia to 50 percent in the United States, where it is the most common method and where suicides outnumber homicides 2-to-1. Those who purchased a firearm where found to be high risk for suicide within a week of the purchase The United States has both the highest number of Suicides and Gun ownerships for a developed country and firearms are the most popular method to commit suicide. In the United States when Gun ownerships rise so too does suicide by firearm. Suicide can be an impulsive act, 40% of those who survived a suicide attempt said that they only considered suicide up to five minutes before attempting the act. This impulsivity can lead to the use of a firearm as it is seen as a quick and lethal method.
According to U.S. criminologist Gary Kleck, studies that try to link gun ownership to victimology often fail to account for the presence of guns owned by other people. Research by economists John Lott of the U.S. and John Whitley of Australia indicates that safe-storage laws do not appear to affect juvenile accidental gun-related deaths or suicides. In contrast, a 2004 study led by Daniel Webster found that such laws were associated with slight reductions in suicide rates among children. The same study criticized Lott and Whitley's study on the subject for inappropriately using a Tobit model. A committee of the U.S. National Research Council said ecological studies on violence and firearms ownership provide contradictory evidence. The committee wrote: "[Existing] research studies and data include a wealth of descriptive information on homicide, suicide, and firearms, but, because of the limitations of existing data and methods, do not credibly demonstrate a causal relationship between the ownership of firearms and the causes or prevention of criminal violence or suicide."
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) defines intentional homicide as "acts in which the perpetrator intended to cause death or serious injury by his or her actions." This excludes deaths: related to conflicts (war); caused by recklessness or negligence; or justifiable, such as in self-defense or by law enforcement in the line of duty. A 2009 report by the Geneva Declaration using UNODC data showed that worldwide firearms were used in an average of 60 percent of all homicides. In the U.S. in 2011, 67 percent of homicide victims were killed by a firearm: 66 percent of single-victim homicides and 79 percent of multiple-victim homicides. In 2009, the United States' homicide rate was reported to be 5.0 per 100,000. A 2016 Harvard study claims that in 2010 the homicide rate was about 7 times higher than that of other high-income countries, and that the US gun homicide rate was 25.2 times higher. Another Harvard study found that higher gun availability was strongly correlated with higher homicide rates across 26 high-income countries. Access to guns is associated with an increased risk of being the victim of homicide. Access to firearms is not the sole contributor to increased homicide rates, however, as one study by the Southern Criminal Justice Association in 2011 found. Equally important seems to be the particular societal conditions in a given area, socio-culturally. These conditions include, but are not limited to societal age structure, economic inequality, cultural symbolism associated with firearms and the cultural value of individual life. A 2001 study examing gun ownership amongst 21 high-income countries found that gun ownership by country was correlated with female firearm homicide rates, but not male firearm and overall homicide rates.
Some gun control advocates say that the strongest evidence linking availability of guns to death and injury is found in domestic violence studies, often referring to those by public health policy analyst Arthur Kellermann. In response to suggestions by some that homeowners would be wise to acquire firearms for protection from home invasions, Kellermann investigated in-home homicides in three cities over five years. He found that the risk of a homicide was in fact slightly higher in homes where a handgun was present. The data showed that the risk of a crime of passion or other domestic dispute ending in a fatal injury was higher when a gun was readily available (essentially loaded and unlocked) compared to when no gun was readily available. Kellerman said this increase in mortality overshadowed any protection a gun might have deterring or defending against burglaries or invasions. He also concluded that further research of domestic violence causes and prevention are needed.
Critics of Kellermann's study say that it is more directly a study of domestic violence than of gun ownership. Gary Kleck and others dispute the work. Kleck says that few of the homicides that Kellermann studied were committed with guns belonging to the victim or members of his or her household, and that it was implausible that victim household gun ownership contributed to their homicide. Instead, according to Kleck, the association that Kellermann found between gun ownership and victimization reflected that people who live in more dangerous circumstances are more likely to be murdered, but also were more likely to have acquired guns for self-protection.
In studies of nonfatal gun use, it was found that guns can contribute to coercive control, which can then escalate into chronic and more severe violence. Guns can have a negative impact on victims even without being discharged. Threats of gun use or showing a weapon can create damaging and long-lasting fear and emotional stress in victims because they are aware of the danger of having an abuser who has access to a gun.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime defines robbery as the theft of property by force or threat of force. Assault is defined as a physical attack against the body of another person resulting in serious bodily injury. In the case of gun-related violence, the definitions become more specific and include only robbery and assault committed with the use of a firearm. Firearms are used in this threatening capacity four to six times more than firearms used as a means of protection in fighting crime. Hemenway's figures are disputed by other academics, who assert there are many more defensive uses of firearms than criminal uses. See John Lott's "More Guns, Less Crime".
In terms of occurrence, developed countries have similar rates of assaults and robberies with firearms, whereas the rates of homicides by firearms vary greatly by country.
From 1979 to 1997, almost 30,000 people in the United States alone died from accidental firearm injuries. A disproportionately high number of these deaths occurred in parts of the United States where firearms are more prevalent. Following the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, accidental firearm deaths increased by about five hundred percent until April 2013.
Violence committed with guns leads to significant public health, psychological, and economic costs.
The economic cost of gun-related violence in the United States is $229 billion a year, meaning a single murder has average direct costs of almost $450,000, from the police and ambulance at the scene, to the hospital, courts, and prison for the murderer. A 2014 study found that from 2006 to 2010, gun-related injuries in the United States cost $88 billion.
Assault by firearm resulted in 180,000 deaths worldwide in 2013, up from 128,000 deaths worldwide in 1990. There were 47,000 unintentional firearm deaths worldwide in 2013.
Emergency medical care is a major contributor to the monetary costs of such violence. It was determined in a study that for every firearm death in the United States for the year beginning 1 June 1992, an average of three firearm-related injuries were treated in hospital emergency departments.
Children exposed to gun-related violence, whether they are victims, perpetrators, or witnesses, can experience negative psychological effects over the short and long terms. Psychological trauma also is common among children who are exposed to high levels of violence in their communities or through the media. Psychologist James Garbarino, who studies children in the U.S. and internationally, found that individuals who experience violence are prone to mental and other health problems, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep deprivation. These problems increase for those who experience violence as children. It is conceivable that over a longer period, physical and emotional sequelae of mass shootings may lead to an array of symptoms and disability among affected individuals and communities who will likely experience lifelong consequences by carrying long-term memories of devastation, violence, injuries, and deaths.
The Port Arthur massacre of 1996 horrified the Australian public. The gunman opened fire on shop owners and tourists, killing 35 people and wounding 23. This massacre, kick started Australia's laws against guns. The Prime Minister at that time, John Howard, proposed a gun law that prevented the public from having all semi-automatic rifles, all semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns, in addition to a tightly restrictive system of licensing and ownership controls.
The government also bought back guns from people. In 1996–2003 it was estimated they bought back and destroyed nearly 1 million firearms. By the end of 1996, whilst Australia was still reeling from the Port Arthur massacre, the gun law was fully in place. Since then, the number of deaths related to gun-related violence dwindled almost every year. In 1979 six hundred and eighty-five people died due to gun violence, and in 1996 it was five hundred and sixteen. The numbers continue to drop, however they were declining also before the gun law was in place.
On the Australia's most mediated gun violence-related incident since Port Arthur, was the 2014 Sydney Hostage Crisis. On 15–16 December 2014, a lone gunman, Man Haron Monis, held hostage 17 customers and employees of a Lindt chocolate café. The perpetrator was on bail at the time, and had previously been convicted of a range of offences.
The following year in August, the New South Wales Government tightened the laws of bail and illegal firearms, creating a new offence for the possession of a stolen firearm, with a maximum of 14 years imprisonment.
Sweden witnessed a steep increase in gun violence in males aged 15 to 29 in the two decades prior to 2018, in addition to a rising trend in gun violence there was also a high rate of gun violence in Sweden compared to other countries in Western Europe. According to a report published by academic researchers in 2017, shooting incidents with fatal outcomes are about 4 to 5 times as common in Sweden compared to neighbouring countries such as Germany and Norway when taking population size into account. The city with the highest prevalence of shootings was Malmö. The grave violence in the studied period also changed character, from criminal motorcycle gangs to city suburbs.
According to researcher Amir Rostami at Stockholm University, police statistics for January–November 2018 showed that the number of shootings was at a continued high rate at 274, where up until the end of November 42 people had been shot and killed and 129 wounded compared to 43 in 2017. Rostami also said there had been 100 hand grenade attacks and 1500 shootings in Sweden since 2011, about 40 people are killed annually and 500 had been wounded. Rostami also said that if this violence had been attributed to some form of extremists, this would have considered a form of civil war. Almost half (46%) of all shootings in 2018 happened in public spaces in vulnerable areas. Both victims and perpetrators are becoming younger.
According to police in 2018, at least nine people who were innocent bystanders had been killed in cross-fire incidents in the last few years and the risk to the law-abiding public was therefore rising.
The shootings at the pub Vår Krog & Bar in Gothenburg happened on 18 March 2015. Two unidentified gunmen entered a pub in Gothenburg, Sweden and began firing indiscriminately at people inside the restaurant. This shooting marked the first time an innocent bystander had been killed by criminal gang violence in Sweden. The shooters were part of a gang from North Biskopsgården out for revenge.
Gun violence in the United States results in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries annually. In 2013, there were 73,505 nonfatal firearm injuries (23.2 injuries per 100,000 U.S. citizens), and 33,636 deaths due to "injury by firearms" (10.6 deaths per 100,000 U.S. citizens). These deaths consisted of 11,208 homicides, 21,175 suicides, 505 deaths due to accidental or negligent discharge of a firearm, and 281 deaths due to firearms use with "undetermined intent". Of the 2,596,993 total deaths in the US in 2013, 1.3% were related to firearms. The ownership and control of guns are among the most widely debated issues in the country.
In 2010, 67% of all homicides in the U.S. were committed using a firearm. In 2012, there were 8,855 total firearm-related homicides in the US, with 6,371 of those attributed to handguns. In 2012, 64% of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides. In 2010, there were 19,392 firearm-related suicides, and 11,078 firearm-related homicides in the U.S. In 2010, 358 murders were reported involving a rifle while 6,009 were reported involving a handgun; another 1,939 were reported with an unspecified type of firearm.
Firearms were used to kill 13,286 people in the U.S. in 2015, excluding suicide. Approximately 1.4 million people have been killed using firearms in the U.S. between 1968 and 2011, equivalent to a top 10th largest U.S. city in 2016, falling between the populations of San Antonio and Dallas, Texas.
Compared to 22 other high-income nations, the U.S. gun-related murder rate is 25 times higher. Although it has half the population of the other 22 nations combined, the U.S. had 82 percent of all gun deaths, 90 percent of all women killed with guns, 91 percent of children under 14 and 92 percent of young people between ages 15 and 24 killed with guns. In 2010, gun violence cost U.S. taxpayers approximately $516 million in direct hospital costs.
Gun violence is most common in poor urban areas and frequently associated with gang violence, often involving male juveniles or young adult males. Although mass shootings have been covered extensively in the media, mass shootings in the US account for a small fraction of gun-related deaths and the frequency of these events steadily declined between 1994 and 2007, rising between 2007 and 2013.
Legislation at the federal, state, and local levels has attempted to address gun violence through a variety of methods, including restricting firearms purchases by youths and other "at-risk" populations, setting waiting periods for firearm purchases, establishing gun buyback programs, law enforcement and policing strategies, stiff sentencing of gun law violators, education programs for parents and children, and community-outreach programs. Despite widespread concern about the impacts of gun violence on public health, Congress has prohibited the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from conducting research that advocates in favor of gun control. The CDC has interpreted this ban to extend to all research on gun violence prevention, and so has not funded any research on this subject since 1996. However the 'Dickey' amendment only restricts the CDC advocating for gun control with government funds. It does not restrict research into gun violence and the causal links between the gun and the violence, however funding has not yet been yet been granted for that purpose, i.e. epidemiology, the CDC requires congressional approval to proceed.
On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza shot and killed his mother at her home and then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting where he killed 20 children and six adult staff. Adam committed suicide as police arrived at the school. Lanza suffered from severe mental health issues which were not adequately treated. The event reignited a debate regarding access to firearms by people with mental illness and gun laws in the United States.
| 7862242 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7862242 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Holy actions
Holy actions are when Roman Catholics offer their work, prayers, apostolic undertakings, daily works, hardships of life, relaxations of body and mind, and family and marriage lives to the Lord, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in the Spirit of Love.
Usually, the spiritual sacrifices are made with intentions in mind, such as "for the intentions of the Pope" or "for the unity of Christians". In reality, these offerings can be made for whatever good intentions that Christians bear in mind.
By their holy actions, Christians share in the priestly office of Jesus Christ, fulfill the call to holiness, consecrate the world to God, and hasten the Second Coming of the Lord.
In light of their share in the priestly office of Christ, Christians also share in the prophetic office and the kingly office of Christ. By their holy lives, Christians evangelize in the ordinary circumstances of the world and overcome the reign of sin in themselves.
According to Sacred Tradition, Christians unite their offerings to the Liturgy of the Hours, if they do not already pray the Divine Office, because the Liturgy of the Hours is the Prayer of the Catholic Church, by which the night and day are made holy, which is the end of holy actions.
One popular example of an offering is that of the Daily Offering of the Apostolate of Prayer. While the Offering has gone through many recent changes, for various reasons, it is the traditional Offering that is the most well-known and prayed.
O Jesus,
through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I offer you
all my works, prayers, joys,
and sufferings,
in union with the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass,
celebrated throughout the world,
for love of you,
for the intentions of
your Sacred Heart,
in reparation for my sins,
for all the intentions of our associations,
and, in particular,
for the intentions of the Pope.
Amen.
| 7869184 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7869184 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Laments (Kochanowski)
The Laments (also "Lamentations" or "Threnodies"; ) are a series of nineteen threnodies (elegies) by Jan Kochanowski. Written in Polish and published in 1580, they are a highlight of Polish Renaissance literature, and one of Kochanowski's signature achievements.
Jan Kochanowski was a prominent Polish poet. Kochanowski wrote the "Laments" on the occasion of the 1579 death of his daughter Urszula (in English, "Ursula").
Little is known of Urszula (or "Urszulka"—"little Ursula"), except that at her death she was two and a half years old. Her tender age has caused some critics to question Kochanowski's truthfulness, when he describes her as a budding poetess — a "Slavic Sappho." There is, however, no doubt as to the unaffected sentiments expressed in the nineteen Roman-numbered "Laments", of varying length, which still speak to readers across the four and a quarter centuries since they were composed.
The poems express Kochanowski's boundless grief; and, standing in sharp contrast to his previous works, which had advocated such values as stoicism, can be seen as the poet's own critique of his earlier work. In a wider sense, they show a thinking man of the Renaissance at a moment of crisis when he is forced, through suffering and the stark confrontation of his ideals with reality, to re-evaluate his former humanistic philosophy of life.
The "Laments" belong to a Renaissance poetic genre of grief (threnody, or elegy), and the entire work comprises parts characteristic of epicedia: the first poems introduce the tragedy and feature a eulogy of the decedent; then come verses of lamentation, demonstrating the magnitude of the poet's loss and grief; followed at last by verses of consolation and instruction.
Kochanowski, while drawing on the achievements of classical poets such as Homer, Cicero, Plutarch, Seneca and Statius, as well as on later works by Petrarch and his own Renaissance contemporaries such as Pierre de Ronsard, stepped outside the borders of known genres, and his "Laments" constitute a mixed form ranging from epigram to elegy to epitaph, not to mention psalmodic song.
When the "Treny" were published (1580), Kochanowski was criticized for having taken as the subject of his "Laments" the death of a young child, against the prevailing literary convention that this form should be reserved for "great men" and "great events."
The "Laments" are numbered among the greatest attainments of Polish poetry. Their exquisite conceits and artistry made them a model to "literati" of the 16th and especially the 17th century. The "Laments" have also inspired musicians , and painters such as Jan Matejko.
All Heraclitus' tears, all threnodies<br>
And plaintive dirges of Simonides,<br>
All keens and slow airs in the world, all griefs,<br>
Wrung hands, wet eyes, laments and epitaphs,<br>
All, all assemble, come from every quarter,<br>
Help me to mourn my small girl, my dear daughter,<br>
Whom cruel Death tore up with such wild force<br>
Out of my life, it left me no recourse.<br>
So the snake, when he finds a hidden nest<br>
Of fledgling nightingales, rears and strikes fast<br>
Repeatedly, while the poor mother bird<br>
Tries to distract him with a fierce, absurd<br>
Fluttering — but in vain! the venomous tongue<br>
Darts, and she must retreat on ruffled wing.<br>
"You weep in vain," my friends will say. But then,<br>
What is not in vain, by God, in lives of men?<br>
All is in vain! We play at blindman's buff<br>
Until hard edges break into our path.<br>
Man's life is error. Where, then, is relief?<br>
In shedding tears or wrestling down my grief?
| 7895736 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7895736 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Tree of virtues and tree of vices
A tree of virtues ("arbor virtutum") is a diagram used in medieval Christian tradition to display the relationships between virtues, usually juxtaposed with a tree of vices ("arbor vitiorum") where the vices are treated in a parallel fashion.
Together with genealogical trees,
these diagrams qualify as among the earliest explicit tree-diagrams in history, emerging in the High Middle Ages.
At first appearing as illustrations in certain theological tracts, the concept becomes more popular in the Late Middle Ages and is also seen in courtly manuscripts such as the psalter of Robert de Lisle (c. 1310-1340).
The nodes of the tree-diagrams are the Cardinal Virtues and the Cardinal Vices, respectively, each with a number of secondary virtues or secondary vices shown as leaves of the respective nodes.
While on a tree of virtues, the leaves point upward toward heaven, on a tree of vices the leaves point downward toward hell.
At the root of the trees, the virtues of "humilitas" "humility" and the vice of "superbia" "pride" is shown as the origin of all other virtues and vices, respectively.
By this time, the concept of showing hierarchical concepts of medieval philosophy in diagrams also becomes more widespread. E.g. ms. Arsenal 1037 (14th century) has a tree of virtue on fol. 4v and a tree of vices on fol. 5r as part of a collection of diagrams on a variety of topics. In this example, the trees are also further subdivided into a ternary structure, as follows:
In the Italian Renaissance, Pietro Bembo developed a similar flow-chart-like "moral schema" of sins punished in Dante's "Inferno" and "Purgatory".
| 7911759 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7911759 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | The Art of Loving
The Art of Loving is a 1956 book by psychoanalyst and social philosopher Erich Fromm, which was published as part of the "World Perspectives Series" edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen. In this work, Fromm develops his perspective on human nature, from his earlier work, "Escape from Freedom" and "Man for Himself" – principles which he revisits in many of his other major works.
Fromm presents love as a skill that can be taught and developed, rejecting the idea of loving as something magical and mysterious that cannot be analyzed and explained. He is therefore skeptical about popular ideas such as "falling in love" or being helpless in the face of love.
Because modern humans are alienated from each other and from nature, we seek refuge from our lonesomeness in romantic love and marriage (pp. 79–81). However, Fromm observes that real love "is not a sentiment which can be easily indulged in by anyone." It is only through developing one's total personality to the capacity of loving one's neighbor with "true humility, courage, faith and discipline" that one attains the capacity to experience real love. This should be considered a rare achievement (p. vii). Fromm defended these opinions also in interview with Mike Wallace when he states: "love today is a relatively rare phenomenon, that we have a great deal of sentimentality; we have a great deal of illusion about love, namely as a...as something one falls in. But the question is that one cannot fall in love, really; one has to be in love. And that means that loving becomes, and the ability to love, becomes one of the most important things in life."
"The Art of Loving" argues that the active character of true love involves four basic elements: care, responsibility, respect, and knowledge (p. 24). Each of these is difficult to define and can differ markedly depending on the people involved and their circumstances. Seen in these terms, love is hard work, but it is also the most rewarding kind of work.
One of the book's concepts is self-love. According to Fromm, loving oneself is quite different from arrogance, conceit or egocentrism. Loving oneself means caring about oneself, taking responsibility for oneself, respecting oneself, and knowing oneself (e.g. being realistic and honest about one's strengths and weaknesses). In order to be able to truly love another person, one needs first to love oneself in this way.
Fromm calls the general idea of love in contemporary Western society "" – a relationship in which each person is entirely focused on the other, to the detriment of other people around them. The current belief is that a couple should be a well-assorted team, sexually and functionally, working towards a common aim. This is in contrast with Fromm's description of true love and intimacy, which involves willful commitment directed toward a single unique individual. One cannot truly love another person if one does not love all of mankind including oneself.
The book includes explorations of the theories of brotherly love, motherly and fatherly love, erotic love, self-love, and the love of God (pp. 7–76), and an examination into love's disintegration in contemporary Western culture (pp. 77–98).
To be able to fully comprehend the ideas illustrated in Fromm's book, one must understand the concept of paradoxical thought, or the ability to reconcile opposing principles in one same instance. Fromm himself explains paradoxical thought in the chapters dedicated to the love of God and erotic love.
Fromm begins the last chapter "The Practice of Love" saying: "[...] many readers of this book, expect to be given prescriptions of 'how to do it to yourself' [...]. I am afraid that anyone who approaches this last chapter in this spirit will be gravely disappointed".
| 7913958 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7913958 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Walter Terence Stace
Walter Terence Stace (17 November 1886 – 2 August 1967) was a British civil servant, educator, public philosopher and epistemologist, who wrote on Hegel, mysticism, and moral relativism. He worked with the Ceylon Civil Service from 1910-1932, and from 1932-1955 he was employed by Princeton University in the Department of Philosophy. He is most renowned for his work in the philosophy of mysticism, and for books like "Mysticism and Philosophy" (1960) and "Teachings of the Mystics" (1960). These works have been influential in the study of mysticism, but they have also been severely criticised for their lack of methodological rigor and their perennialist pre-assumptions.
Walter Terence Stace was born in Hampstead, London into an English military family. He was a son of Major Edward Vincent Stace (3 September 1841 – 6 May 1903) (of the Royal Artillery) and Amy Mary Watson (1856 - 29 March 1934), who were married on 21 December 1872 in Poona (Pune), India. In addition to attaining high rank in the Royal Artillery, Walter's father Edward had also served as a British Political Agent (February 1889-August 1893) in British Somaliland. Walter's great-grandfather William Stace (1755 - 31 May 1839) was Chief Commissary (Commissary-General) of the Royal Artillery during the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815). Walter's mother Amy was a daughter of Rev. George Augustus Frederick Watson (1821-1897) and Elizabeth Mary Williams, who were married on 15 June 1852 in St. James' Church, Paddington, London. Rev. G. A. F. Watson was vicar (1877-1893) of St. Margaret's Church in Abbotsley, Huntingdonshire/Cambridgeshire.
Instead of pursuing a military career, Walter decided to follow a religious and philosophical path. He was educated at Bath College (1895-1901), Fettes College (in Edinburgh, Scotland) (1902-1904), and later at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland). His original intention was to become a priest in the Anglican Church, having experienced a religious conversion in his teens. However, while at Trinity College, through the influence of Hegel scholar Henry Stewart Macran (1867-1937) (professor of moral philosophy in Trinity College) he developed a deep interest in the systematic philosophy of G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831), and graduated in philosophy in 1908.
Under family pressure Stace joined the British Civil Service, and between 1910-1932 he served in the Ceylon Civil Service (now Sri Lanka) which was then a part of the British Empire. He held several positions in the Ceylonese government, including District Judge (1919-1920) and Mayor of Colombo (1931-1932), the capitol city of Ceylon. In Colombo a street named after him (Stace Road) still exists. It was during his period in Ceylon that he developed an interest in Hinduism and Buddhism, religions which were to influence his subsequent studies of mysticism. While employed by the Ceylon Civil Service, during the period 1920-1932 Stace published 4 philosophical works (see below).
Anticipating a change in the Ceylonese government and a possible termination of his employment, in 1929 Stace persuaded Trinity College to grant him an honorary LittD degree after he presented the College with the equivalent of a doctoral thesis he had written titled "The Theory of Knowledge and Existence". In 1932 this thesis was published as a book by Oxford University Press. The LittD degree, and the 4 books he had published while an employee of the Ceylon Civil Service, proved to be the keys to his entry into a new career.
After being employed for 22 years (1910-1932) in the Ceylon Civil Service, in 1932 Stace was offered the option of retirement, which he took. He then moved to Princeton University (in Princeton, New Jersey, USA) where he was employed by the Department of Philosophy, first as Lecturer in Philosophy (1932-1935) and then as Stuart Professor of Philosophy (1935-1955). In 1949-1950 he was president of the American Philosophical Association (Eastern Division). Stace retired from Princeton University in 1955. From 1955-1967 he held the title/status of Professor Emeritus.
Stace was married twice. His first wife, Adelaide McKechnie (born 1868 in Carlow, Ireland), was 18 years older than him. He married Adelaide in 1910 and divorced her in 1924. His second wife was Blanche Bianca Beven (4 August 1897 – 17 July 1986), whom he married in 1926. Blanche was born in Colombo, Ceylon and died in Los Angeles County, California.
Walter Terence Stace died on 2 August 1967, of a heart attack at his home in Laguna Beach, California.
Stace's first 4 books - "A Critical History of Greek Philosophy" (1920), "The Philosophy of Hegel: A Systematic Exposition" (1924), "The Meaning of Beauty" (1929), and "The Theory of Knowledge and Existence" (1932) - were all published while he was employed by the Ceylon Civil Service. After these early works, his philosophy followed the British empiricist tradition of David Hume, G.E. Moore, Bertrand Russell and H.H. Price. However, for Stace, empiricism did not need to be confined to propositions which it is possible to demonstrate. Instead, our common sense beliefs find support in two empirical facts: (1) men's minds are similar (2) men co-operate with each other, with the aim of solving their common problems.
Stace is regarded as a pioneer in the philosophical study of mysticism. Many scholars regard "Mysticism and Philosophy" (1960) as his major work. Stace was the dissertation advisor of John Rawls when Rawls was a graduate student at Princeton, though it is not clear that he had a strong influence on Rawls.
Richard Marius attributed his loss of faith partly to his intellectual engagement with Stace's essay "Man Against Darkness".
His work in the 1930s and 40s bears a strong influence of phenomenalism, a form of radical empiricism (not to be confused with "phenomenology", which examines the structure and content of consciousness). In his first book published while at Princeton, "The Theory of Knowledge and Existence" (1932), Stace proposes an empirical epistemology. He attempts to "trace out the logical steps by which the mind, starting with what is given, arrives at and justifies its belief in an external world". The book can be seen as a criticism of pragmatism. His paper "Refutation of Realism" (1934) acted as a response to G.E. Moore's famous refutation of idealism. Stace did not argue that realism is false, but that "there is absolutely no reason for asserting" it is true, so it "ought not be believed". Turning from epistemology to ethics, in 1937 he considered whether morals were relative or subject to a general law in "The Concept of Morals".
In 1948, Stace wrote an influential essay, "Man Against Darkness", for The Atlantic Review in which he examined religion. He concluded that the spirit of scientific enquiry (rather than scientific discoveries themselves) has furthered religious scepticism by undermining the teleological presumption of an ultimate 'final cause'. Concern with divine purpose of events had been replaced by investigation into what had caused them; the new imaginative picture of the world was dominated by the idea that life is purposeless and meaningless. The effects of this change included moral relativity, the individualisation of morality, and the loss of belief in free will. Stace wrote:
In the spring of 1949, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology hosted a forum called "The Social Implications of Scientific Progress—an Appraisal at Mid-Century." Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman, Vannevar Bush, Nelson Rockefeller were amongst those in attendance. Stace took part in a discussion called 'Science, Materialism and the Human Spirit' alongside J. Seelye Bixler (1894-1985), Percy W. Bridgman and Jacques Maritain. He contributed an essay, "The Need for a Secular Ethic", in which he concluded that although supernatural or metaphysical justifications for morality are in decline, this should not lead to a crisis of the moral faith if it is remembered that 'morals have a perfectly firm and objective foundation in the human personality'. In 1954, he gave the annual Howison Lecture in Philosophy at University of California, Berkeley, where he spoke on "Mysticism and Human Reason".
In the fall of 1957, two years after retiring from his post at Princeton, Stace was involved in a controversy surrounding Dr. Joseph Hugh Halton (1913-1979), a member of the Roman Catholic Dominican Order (Order of Preachers) who was the Roman Catholic chaplain at Princeton University and the Director of the Aquinas Institute (located near the Princeton University campus). Halton criticised the university's 'abusive liberalism', and Stace was the first of those singled out for censure. Halton stated that 'Stace is enthroning the devil' and that he was 'professionally incompetent', while his philosophy was described as a 'metaphysical mambo'. The Princeton president Dr. Robert F. Goheen stripped Dr. Halton of his title, an action which was supported by Jacques Maritain, the noted Roman Catholic philosopher and theologian and former Princeton professor.
Stace continued to engage with the public until the end of his career. Two of his final books, "Religion and the Modern Mind" (1952) and "The Teachings of the Mystics" (1960) were written for the general reader. He gave lectures at various university campuses around the United States, many of which were included in "Man Against Darkness and other essays" (1967).
It is in the philosophy of mysticism that Stace is both important and influential, and his thought is at its most original. He has been described as "one of the pioneers in the philosophical study of mysticism", as someone who laid out and offered solutions to the major issues in the study of the subject, and created an important phenomenological classification of mystical experience. Stace is seen as an important representative of the perennial philosophy (also known as the perennialism) that sees a universal core to religious feelings. However, although he is seen by many scholars as an important thinker to acknowledge, he is also one to dispute.
Stace's philosophy of mysticism grew out of his earlier empiricist epistemology, although this is something many critics of his position fail to appreciate. The concept of the 'given', commonly used in phenomenalism to understand the nature of experience, is crucial to both his earlier epistemology and his later analysis. For Stace it lies at the basis of our knowledge of the external world and of ourselves. The given has an important epistemological function because it possesses the properties of certainty (infallibility, incorrigibility, indubitability), and it provides the ultimate justification for all forms of human knowledge. Stace's "Theory of Knowledge and Existence" (1932) explains that knowledge arises from the process of interpretation of the given, although he writes that it is not easy to distinguish between the given and interpretation of it. For Overall, the 'pure experience' or 'sensation' he refers to in "Mysticism and Philosophy" (1960) is the same as the given that he had been writing about earlier.
In 1952 Stace published three books about religion. Each examined the struggle between the religious worldview and those of science and of naturalism, which he had begun to explore in his essays "Man Against Darkness" and "The Need for a Secular Ethic" in the 1940s. "Religion and the Modern Mind" is divided into three sections, the first of these looks at the medieval "world-picture" which Stace characterises as marked by a religious, moral and purposeful view of existence. The second section looks at the modern world, which is characterised by the rise of science and naturalism (although Stace denies that the latter logically follows from the former), and the Romantic reaction to this. The final section looks specifically at religion and morality in the modern world. Stace examines religious truth and its expression, and concludes that the latter necessarily takes symbolic form in much the same way as he does in "Time and Eternity". He also roots morality in both utilitarian considerations and in mysticism, which together fuse into "a single homogeneous set of ideal ends".
"The Gate of Silence" is a 50-page poetic meditation upon religion and naturalism in which Stace expounds "the doctrine of the flatness of the world", which is a world that is void of meaning, purpose and value, in which "the hogwash of spirituality" will provide no solace. In his prefatory note Stace explains that he wrote the book four years previously and that it "records the phase of intellectual and emotional experience through which the writer was passing at the time."
Stace called "Time and Eternity" a "defence of religion" that also seeks to investigate how God can be both being and non-being. He roots the book in the ancient religious insight that "all religious thought and speech are through and through symbolic". Addressing the apparent inconsistency between the book and the naturalism of "Man Against Darkness", he maintains that he does not withdraw his naturalism by "a jot or a tittle", but rather seeks "to add to it that other half of the truth which I now think naturalism misses." In addition to the symbolic nature of all religious expression, the book proposes the existence of two realms of being, time and eternity, which intersect but do not contradict each other. According to the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, many consider this to be his most profound work.
Stace published his two final books on religion in 1960. "The Teachings of the Mystics"(1960) was written for the general rather than academic reader. The book sets out a simplified version of his philosophy of religion found in "Mysticism and Philosophy", and gives examples from writings of mystics (and occasionally from the scriptures of the world's principal religions) that illustrate his idea that mysticism is everywhere "the apprehension of an ultimate nonsensuous unity in all things".
"Mysticism and Philosophy" (1960) is generally regarded both as Stace's key work and one that is the "standard point of departure" in the critical study of mysticism. In it Stace explains that he writes as a philosopher, empiricist and analyst rather than mystic, and that mystical experience can and should be distinguished from its interpretation. He makes a distinctinction between extrovertive and introvertive mystical experience. In the former, the mystic perceives the unity in "the multiplicity of external material objects", while in the latter the mystic perceives the One within the depths of her consciousness "as the wholly naked One devoid of any plurality whatever". Stace also looks at whether mystical experience can be considered objective or subjective, and considers whether the relationship between God and the world should properly be considered pantheism, dualism or something else. He examines mysticism, logic and language, and concludes that the laws of logic do not apply to mysticism and that mystical experience is paradoxical but not ineffable (a development in his thought from "Time and Eternity"). Finally, Stace says he does not wish to be drawn into a battle of prejudices as to whether or not mysticism contributes to the moral good.
Stace summarised his thought on mysticism in two lectures given at Mount Holyoke College in 1961, entitled "The Psychology of Mysticism" and "The Philosophy of Mysticism" respectively. In the former he states that the psychology of mysticism must rely on introspection, because it is the only method that is available to investigate the phenomenon, despite it being difficult to verify (unlike the inspection of physical events). Like William James, he distinguishes between ordinary and mystical consciousness; the former he describes as sensory-intellectual, while the latter contains neither sensory nor intellectual content. He then proceeds to layout the psychological qualities of mystical experience, which he roots in a passage from the "Mandukya Upanishad":
Stace characterised his philosophy of mysticism as the examination of whether mystical experience is subjective or objective, that is whether it is imagined or real. Again he turns to the "Mandukya Upanishad" for his definition of mysticism, and identifies the realisation the personal self is identical with the infinite Self at the core of the experience. Although there are three causes for this (loss of individuality; transcending space and time; feeling of peace and bliss) these are not logical reasons. Further he holds that the unanimity of mystical experience across cultures is not an argument for its objectivity, as illusions can be found in all peoples and cultures. That mystical experience is found in all cultures indicates that it is a part of human nature. Next Stace asks how we can say if something is objective. He defines the most important criteria for determining objectivity as 'orderliness' - or keeping in order with the laws of nature - rather than verifiability. Mystical experience is neither orderly nor disorderly, so cannot be classed as either subjective or objective. Stace terms this "transsubjective" (because the notions of subjective and objective do not apply to the infinite).
Stace's schema of mystical experience formed the basis for the most commonly cited scale to measure reports of mystical experience, Ralph W. Hood's Mysticism-scale.
Although Stace's work on mysticism received a positive response, it has also been criticised in the 1970s and 1980s, for its lack of methodological rigour and its perennialist pre-assumptions. Major criticism came from Steven T. Katz in his influential series of publications on mysticism and philosophy, and from Wayne Proudfoot in his "Religious experience" (1985).
As early as 1961 the "Times Literary Supplement" was critical of Stace's scholarship:
Moore (1973) gives an overview of criticisms of Stace. He notes that the positing of a "phenomenological identity in mystical experiences" is problematic, which leads to either non-descriptive statements, or to value-laden statements on mystical experiences. Moore doubts whether Stace phenomenology of mystical experience is sufficient. Moore notes that Stace's quotations from mystical writings are brief, "often second-hand," and omitting the contexts of these quotations. Stace's list of characteristics hardly represents the broad variety of mystical experiences described by mystics. His "unitary consciousness" is only one characteristic, and not necessarily connected to illuminating insight. According to Moore, Stace also thinks too lightly about the relation between experience and language, supposing that descriptions are phenomenologically straightforward and reliable. Stace is also normative in his preference for monistic mysticism and his rejection of theistic mysticism. Moore concludes by noting that Stace fails to understand the difference between phenomenology and metaphysics, and that his writings don't provide solutions to the philosophical problems which mystical claims raise.
Masson & Masson (1976) note that Stace starts with a "buried premise," namely that mysticism can provide truths about the world which cannot be obtained with science or logical thinking. According to Masson & Masson, this premise makes Stace naive in his approach, and which is not accord with his self-presentation as an objective and empirical philosopher. According to Masson & Masson, Stace fails in presenting mystical experiences as an objective source of information. They question Stace's exclusion of trances and other phenomena from his investigations, noting that such phenomena are an essential part of many descriptions of mystical experiences. They give the example of Ramakrishna, a 19th-century Indian mystic, who is presented without a critical consideration of the sources. They further note that Ramakrishna had delusions, a fact which they deem problematic for the use of Ramakrishna as a prime example of mystical consciousness. They further note that Stace seems to be unaware of the major relevant scholarly studies on mysticism at the time of his writings. According to Masson & Masson, Stace's criteria for inclusion and exclusion of cases are based on personal preferences, and "his work reads more like a theological text than a philosophical one."
According to Katz (1978), Stace's typology is "too reductive and inflexible," reducing the complexities and varieties of mystical experience into "improper categories." According to Katz, Stace does not notice the difference between experience and interpretation of experience, and Stace fails to notice the epistemological issues involved in "mystical" experiences, especially the fundamental epistemological issue of which conceptual framework precedes and shapes these experiences. Katz further notes that Stace supposes that similarities in descriptive language also implies a similarity in experience, an assumption which Katz rejects. According to Katz, close examination of the descriptions and their contexts reveals that those experiences are not identical. Katz further notes that Stace held one specific mystical tradition to be superior and normative, whereas Katz rejects reductionist notions and leaves God as God, and Nirvana as Nirvana.
In defense of Stace, Hood (2001) cites Forman, who argues that introverted mysticism is correctly conceptualized as a common core, since it lacks all content, and is the correct basis for a perennial philosophy. Hood notes that Stace's work is a conceptual approach, based on textual studies. He posits his own work as a parallel approach, based on an empirical approach, thereby placing the conceptual claims in an empirical framework, assuming that Stace is correct in his approach. Jacob van Belzen (2010) criticized Hood, noting that Hood validated the existence of a common core in mystical experiences, but based on a conceptual framework which presupposes the existence of such a common core:
Belzen also notes that religion does not stand on its own, but is embedded in a cultural context, and this should be taken into account. To this criticism Hood et al. answer that universalistic tendencies in religious research "are rooted first in inductive generalizations from cross-cultural consideration of either faith or mysticism," stating that Stace sought out texts which he recognized as an expression of mystical expression, from which he created his universal core. Hood therefore concludes that Belzen "is incorrect when he claims that items were presupposed."
Shear (2011) notes that Stace regarded extroverted mysticism to be a less complete form of mysticism, but was puzzled by the fact that there are far more descriptions of introverted mysticism than of extroverted mysticism. Shear proposes a developmental sequence of three higher states of consciousness:
According to Shear, HS1 corresponds to Stace's introverted mysticism, whereas HS3 corresponds to Stace's extroverted mysticism, and is actually the more developed form of mysticism, in contrast to what Stace supposed.
| 7916544 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7916544 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Naphtali Hirz Wessely
Naphtali(-)Herz (Hartwig) Wessely, a.k.a. Naphtali(-)Hirz Wessely, also Wesel ( "Vezel"; born 1725, Hamburg – died February 28, 1805, Hamburg), was an 18th-century German Jewish Hebraist and educationist.
One of Wessely's ancestors, Joseph Reis, fled from Podolia in 1648 on account of the Chmielnicki persecutions, during which his whole family had perished. After a brief sojourn in Cracow, Reis settled in Amsterdam, where he acquired great wealth, and where he, in 1671, was one of the signers of a petition to the Dutch government requesting permission to erect a synagogue. Together with his younger son, Moses (Moses Reis(-)Wessely), Reis later settled in Wesel on the Rhine, whence the family name ""Wessely"" originated. In the synagogue at Wesel are still (as of 1906) preserved some ritual paraphernalia presented to it by Moses Reis Wessely, who, upon the advice of the Prince of Holstein, whose purveyor he was, removed to Glückstadt, then the capital of Sleswick. He established there a factory of arms. King Frederick VI of Denmark later sent Moses to Hamburg as his agent, and while there he transacted important business for Peter the Great also.
Moses' son, Issachar Ber Wessely, was the father of Naphtali Hirz.
Naphtali Herz Wessely passed his childhood at Copenhagen, where his father was purveyor to the king. In addition to rabbinical studies under Jonathan Eybeschütz, he studied modern languages. As the representative of the banker Feitel, he later visited Amsterdam, where he published (1765–66) his "Lebanon", or "Gan Na'ul", a philological investigation of Hebrew roots and synonyms. Although prolix in style, and lacking scientific method, this work established his reputation. After his marriage at Copenhagen, he represented Feitel at Berlin, and there became associated with Mendelssohn. Wessely encouraged the latter in his labors by publishing "Alim li-Terufah", a work advocating the "bi'ur" and the translation of the Bible into German. To this work Wessely himself contributed a commentary on Leviticus (Berlin, 1782), having published, two years previously, a Hebrew edition of the Book of Wisdom (?), together with a commentary. He died in Hamburg on February 28, 1805.
Wessely was an advocate of the educational and social reforms outlined in Emperor Joseph II's "Toleranzedict" (Patent of toleration). He even risked his reputation for piety by publishing a manifesto in eight chapters, entitled "Divrei Shalom ve-Emet" (Words of Peace and Truth), in which he emphasized the necessity for secular instruction, as well as for other reforms, even from the points of view of the Mosaic law and the Talmud. This work has been translated into French as "Instructions Salutaires Addressées aux Communautés Juives de l'Empire de Joseph II." (Paris, 1792), into Italian by (Goerz, 1793), and into German by David Friedländer under the title "Worte der Wahrheit und des Friedens" (Berlin, 1798). By thus espousing the cause of reform, as well as by his support of M. Mendelssohn, Wessely incurred the displeasure of the rabbinical authorities of Germany and Poland, who threatened him with excommunication.
His enemies, however, were finally pacified through the energetic intervention of the Italian rabbis, as well as by Wessely's pamphlets "Meḳor Ḥen", in which he gave evidence of his sincere piety. In 1788 Wessely published in Berlin his ethical treatise "Sefer ha-Middot" (The Book of Virtues), a work of Musar literature. He also published several odes; elegies, and other poems; but his masterwork is his "Shire Tif'eret" (5 vols.; i.-iv., Berlin, 1782–1802; v., Prague, 1829), describing in rhetorical style the exodus from Egypt. This work, through which he earned the admiration of his contemporaries, was translated into German (by G. F. Hufnagel and Spalding; 1789–1805), and partly into French (by Michel Berr; Paris, 1815). His commentaries on the Bible were published by the society Meḳiẓe Nirdamim (Lyck, 1868–75) under the title "Imre Shefer."
Wessely influenced his contemporaries in various directions. As a scholar he contributed, by his profound philological researches, to the reconstruction of the language of the Bible, though his work is marred by prolixity and by his refusal to admit shades of meaning in synonyms. As a poet he possessed perfection of style, but lacked feeling and artistic imagination. No one exerted a greater influence than he on the dissemination of modern Hebrew, and no one, on the other hand, did more to retard the development of pure art and of poetic intuition. Because of his energetic commitment to the cause of Jewish emancipation, Wessely may be regarded as a leader of the Maskilim.
Wessely also wrote a commentary on Pirkei Avot entitled "Yein Levanon," which was highly regarded in Musar Yeshivas.
| 7921939 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7921939 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Warren County PCB Landfill
Warren County PCB Landfill was a PCB landfill located in Warren County, North Carolina, near the community of Afton south of Warrenton. The landfill was created in 1982 by the State of North Carolina as a place to dump contaminated soil as result of an illegal PCB dumping incident. The site, which is about , was extremely controversial and led to years of lawsuits.
Warren County was one of the first cases of environmental justice in the United States and set a legal precedent for other environmental justice cases. The site was approximately three miles south of Warrenton. The State of North Carolina owned about of the tract where the landfill was located, and Warren County owned the surrounding acreage around the borders.
The purpose of the Warren County PCB landfill, as the public knew it, was to bury 60,000 tons of PCB-contaminated soil that had been contaminated with toxic PCBs between June and August, 1978, by Robert J. Burns, a business associate with Robert "Buck" Ward of the Ward PCB Transformer Company of Raleigh, North Carolina. Burns and his sons deliberately dripped 31,000 gallons of PCB-contaminated oil along some 240 miles of highway shoulders in 14 counties. Burns of Jamestown, New York, was supposed to take the oil to a facility to be recycled. Allegedly, the rationale for Burns' crime was that he wanted to save money by circumventing new EPA regulations that would make waste disposal more transparent and costly. But he could have easily, discreetly, and illegally disposed of the PCB-contaminated oil in a matter of hours. Burns and Ward were sent to prison for a short time for their involvement in the crime. The Ward Transformer site would later go onto the EPA Superfund cleanup list and be the primary polluter of Lake Crabtree and the Neuse River basin in the vicinity of Raleigh, North Carolina. Contaminants from the Ward site have been detoxified, but the area around the site and surrounding creeks, lakes, and rivers have been permanently polluted.
Soon after the "midnight PCB dumpings," the state erected large warning signs along the roadsides, making the public feel as if the roadside PCBs posed an imminent public health threat. However, the Hunt administration let the PCBs remain for four years as they spread into the environment, while Warren County citizens opposed the PCB landfill. The Governor, the North Carolina General Assembly, and the EPA found they would have to make the political, legal, and regulatory preparations to forcibly bury the PCBs in Warren County.
The Warren County PCB landfill was permitted as a "dry-tomb" toxic waste landfill by the EPA under the Toxic Substances Control Act. The EPA approved the "dry-tomb" PCB landfill which failed from the beginning because it was capped with nearly a million gallons of water in it. The site never operated as a commercial facility because residents forced the Governor to include in the deed that it was a one-time only toxic waste facility. The landfill was built with plastic liners, a clay cap, and PVC pipes which allowed for methane and toxic gas to be released from the landfill. Although state officials told citizens they planned to build the landfill with a perforated pipe leachate collection system under the landfill, a system critical to a functioning "dry-tomb" landfill, no such leachate collection system was ever installed. The nearly 1 million gallons of water that was capped in the "dry-tomb" landfill could not be pumped out, and citizens later learned from state rainfall and landfill monitoring data that tens of thousands of gallons of water had been entering and exiting the landfill for years. Within a few months of burying the PCBs, EPA found significant PCB air emissions at the landfill and 1/2 mile away, but citizens did not learn about this report for another 15 years. The 60,000 tons of PCB-contaminated soil were buried within about 7 feet of groundwater. Warren County's first independent scientist, Dr. Charles Mulchi, had predicted that the landfill would inevitably fail because of unsuitable soils and close proximity to groundwater. He had pointed out at a January 4, 1979, EPA public hearing that state scientists had misrepresented the depths of soil sample testing they had conducted at the site. At Dr. Mulchi's insistence, the state added a plastic top liner to the landfill.
According to detoxification expert, Dr. Joel Hirshhorn, who represented Warren County citizens as they pressed Governor Hunt and the NC General Assembly for funding for a cleanup, the Warren county PCB landfill was an utter failure that should never have been approved by the EPA.
Beginning with Governor Hunt's administration's December 20, 1978, announcement that "public sentiment would not deter the state from burying the PCBs in Warren County," the PCB landfill was surrounded by controversy. The landfill was located in rural Warren County, which was primarily African American. Warren County has about 18,000 people living in the county. Sixty-nine percent of the residents are non-white, and twenty percent of the residents live below the federal poverty level. The county has been determined as a Tier I county for economic development. The state claimed that the Warren County site was the best available site; however, the site selection process was not based on scientific criteria — soil permeability properties or the distance to groundwater — but on other, less tangible criteria, including the demographics of the county. EPA and state officials claimed they could compensate for improper soil qualities and the close proximity to groundwater with the engineering design of their "state-of-the-art", "dry-tomb", zero-percent discharge landfill.
After four years, Warren County citizens officially launched the environmental justice movement as they lay in front of 10,000 truckloads of contaminated PCB soil. During the six-week trucking opposition, with collective nonviolent direct action, which included over 550 arrests, Warren County citizens mounted what the Duke Chronicle described as "the largest civil disobedience in the South since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., marched through Alabama." It was the first time in American history that citizens were jailed for trying to stop a landfill, from attempting to prevent pollution. In an editorial titled "Dumping on the Poor," the "Washington Post" described Warren County's PCB protest movement as "the marriage of environmentalism with civil rights," and in its "1994 Environmental Equity Draft", the EPA described the PCB protest movement as "the watershed event that led to the environmental equity movement of the 1980's." With public pressure mounting, Governor Hunt then pledged to Warren citizens that when technology became available, the state would detoxify the PCB landfill.
In May, 1993, more than 10 years after the Governor promised to detoxify the PCB landfill when it became feasible, and soon after stopping a huge trash landfill to be located near the PCB landfill, citizens learned that there was "an emergency" at the PCB landfill because of nearly a million gallons of water in that landfill that threatened to breach the liner. Speaking and negotiating for Warren County citizens as he had done a decade before, Ken Ferruccio laid out a "5-Point Framework" for resolving the PCB landfill crisis and demanded from the Hunt administration (Governor Jim Hunt's 3rd of 4 terms in office):
Governor Hunt agreed to the "Framework" and the Joint Warren County/State PCB Landfill Working Group was formed.
In 1999, the North Carolina General Assembly promised about eight million dollars to go towards cleanup with another group would be willing to match it. The EPA was deemed a "match" and the cleanup project was able to move forward. In November 2000 an environmental engineering firm, Earth Tech, was hired to serve as the oversight contractor.
In December 2000, public bids were taken for the site-detoxifying contract. The IT group was awarded the contract, with their bid of 13.5 million dollars. Phase I of the cleanup process began, and the contract was signed in March 2001. The IT group was bought by the Shaw Group, in May 2002, and changed their name to Shaw Environmental and Infrastructure. The equipment was sent to the landfill in May 2002, and an open house was held so community members could view the site before the start-up.
The follow-up tests on the site were performed in 2002. The EPA demonstrated test onto the PCB Landfill in January 2003. Based on the test results, an interim operations permit was granted in March. The soil treatment was then completed in October 2003, and in total 81,600 tons of soil was treated for the landfill site. The soil which was treated was the soil that was on the roadside and the soil adjacent to it that had been in the landfill and had been cross-contaminated. The equipment at the site was decontaminated and removed from the site at the end of 2003. The final cost of the cleanup project of the landfill was 17.1 million dollars. (Much of this money paid for various costly studies and administrative costs. It was not the price of the actual detoxification.) The Based Catalyzed Decomposition detoxification was completed in 2004.
| 7930519 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7930519 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Supreme Council for the Confucian Religion in Indonesia
The Supreme Council for the Confucian Religion in Indonesia (, MATAKIN; Chinese: 印尼孔教總會; pinyin: yìnní kǒngiào zǒnghuì) is a Confucian church established in 1955 in Indonesia, comprising the communities of practitioners of Confucianism mostly among Chinese Indonesians. Together with the Hong Kong Confucian Academy it is one of the two branches that formed after the dissolution of mainland China's Confucian Church founded by Kang Youwei in the early 20th century.
| 7931369 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7931369 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Climate ethics
Climate ethics is an area of research that focuses on the ethical dimensions of climate change (also known as global warming), and concepts such as climate justice.
Human-induced climate change raises many profound ethical questions, yet many believe that these ethical issues have not been addressed adequately in climate change policy debates or in the scientific and economic literature on climate change; and that, consequently, ethical questions are being overlooked or obscured in climate negotiations, policies and discussions . It has been pointed out that those most responsible for climate change are not the same people as those most vulnerable to its effects.
Terms such as climate justice and ecological justice ('eco justice') are used worldwide, and have been adopted by various organizations.
An article in the scientific journal "Nature" (Patz, 2005) concluded that the human-induced warming that the world is now experiencing is already causing 150,000 deaths and 5 million incidents of disease each year from additional malaria and diarrhea, mostly in the poorest nations. Death and disease incidents are likely to soar as warming increases. Facts such as this demonstrate that climate change is compromising rights to life, liberty and personal security. Hence, ethical analysis of climate change policy must examine how that policy impacts on those basic rights.
Climate change raises a number of particularly challenging ethical issues about distributive justice, in particular concerning how to fairly share the benefits and burdens of climate change policy options. Many of the policy tools often employed to solve environmental problems such as cost-benefit analysis usually do not adequately deal with these issues because they often ignore questions of just distribution.
In December 2004 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the "Collaborative Program on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change" was launched at the 10th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The major outcome of this meeting was the Buenos Aires Declaration on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change.
The program on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change seeks to:
Given the severity of impact to be expected and given the likelihood that some level of important disruptions in living conditions will occur for great numbers of people due to climate change events, this group contends that there is sufficient convergence among ethical principles to make a number of concrete recommendations on how governments should act, or identify ethical problems with positions taken by certain governments, organizations, or individuals.
Facts about climate change and fundamental human rights provide the starting point for climate ethics.
| 7939170 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7939170 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs is a New York City-based a 501(c)3 public charity serving international affairs professionals, teachers and students, and the attentive public. Founded in 1914, and originally named "Church Peace Union", Carnegie Council is an independent and nonpartisan institution, aiming to be the foremost voice of ethics in international affairs. The Council focuses on, "Ethics, War and Peace", "Global Social Justice", and "Religion in Politics" as its three main themes. It is separate and independent from all other Carnegie philanthropies.
Carnegie Council publishes "Ethics & International Affairs", a quarterly academic journal that examines the intersection of moral issues and the international sphere.
Among Carnegie Council's programs is Global Policy Innovations, which publishes "Policy Innovations," an online magazine.
The Council convenes agenda-setting forums and creates educational opportunities and information resources for a worldwide audience of teachers and students, journalists, international affairs professionals, and concerned citizens. The Council's flagship publication is a quarterly scholarly journal, Ethics & International Affairs, which was launched in 1987. As an operating, rather than a grant-making foundation, the Council supports programs that it initiates and also works with partner organizations.
The Carnegie Council was founded in 1914 by Andrew Carnegie in New York City. Carnegie gathered together numerous religious leaders, scientists and politicians, and appointed them trustees of a new organization, the "Church Peace Union" (CPU). Carnegie hoped to create, with the religious and secular leaders, a new moral leadership to prevent armed conflict. The CPU was established shortly before the outbreak of World War I. The planned international inaugural meeting, on Lake Constance, could not take place due to the outbreak of war. First President of the CPU was William P. Merrill. The first activities of the organization were educational programs, calls for reductions in military spending and an end to military education in public schools.
After the declaration of war by the US President Woodrow Wilson in April 1917, which led to internal disputes within the CPU, the leadership of the organization concluded in December 1917, to stand behind Wilson and the USA’s involvement in the war. R
Henry A. Atkinson was General Secretary of the CPU from 1918 to 1955.
Between the World Wars, the CPU worked towards strengthening the League of Nations and promoted the American influence to resolve international conflicts. At the same time, in the 1920s, they tried to prevent an international naval arms race, and fought against discrimination of Japanese Americans. During the Great Depression, the CPU called for stronger government interventions in the economy.
During World War II, the CPU supported the American government in its efforts to establish the United Nations.
After World War II, the CPU helped with the establishment of the United Nations and fought for the prevention of nuclear proliferation.
From 1950 to 1985, the organization published the monthly magazine "Worldview".
In 1961, the CPU was renamed the “Council on Religion and International Affairs” (CRIA) and appointed William A. Loos as president in 1963, Loos had been executive director since 1955.
CRIA focused its work on the study of moral dimensions of a wide range of issues, especially dangers of a crusading moralism in US foreign policy. In the 1960s and 1970s, CRIA was a strong supporter of the Civil Rights Movement and led open debates on the Vietnam War.
In 1977, the Council put forth the “CRIA Distinguished Lectures on Ethics and Foreign Policy,” which was later renamed the “Morgenthau Memorial Lecture.”
Robert Myers became the new president of CRIA in 1980, which the defeat of Apartheid in South Africa began in the 1980s and 1990s. Throughout this time, the council also lead programs on environmental policy and bioethics.
CRIA changed its name in 1986, to the “Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs” (CCEIA). Since 1987, the council published its quarterly scholarly journal, Ethics & International Affairs. Successor of Robert J. Myers as president in 1995 was Joel H. Rosenthal.
In the 2000s, after the attacks of 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the CCEIA fought against cruel treatment and torture.
The current name, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, was given to the organization in 2005.
The Carnegie Council is mainly funded through an endowment from Andrew Carnegie. Other sources of funding come from grants, donations, and membership dues. The Carnegie Council is a 501(c)(3) public charity.
Resources include transcripts, streaming audio and video, journals, book reviews, articles, papers, reports, and special reports.
Carnegie Council's programs (Christian Barry was the program officer):
| 7939943 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7939943 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Humanitarian principles
There are a number of meanings for the term humanitarian. Here humanitarian pertains to the practice of saving lives and alleviating suffering. It is usually related to emergency response (also called humanitarian response) whether in the case of a natural disaster or a man-made disaster such as war or other armed conflict. Humanitarian principles govern the way humanitarian response is carried out.
Humanitarian principles are a set of principles that governs the way humanitarian response is carried out. The principle is central to establishing and maintaining access to affected populations in natural disasters or complex emergency situations. In disaster management, compliance with the principles are essential elements of humanitarian coordination. The main humanitarian principles have been adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. The four guiding principles are Humanity, Neutrality, Impartiality and Independence.
The core principles are defining characteristics, the necessary conditions for humanitarian response. Organizations such as military forces and for-profit companies may deliver assistance to communities affected by disaster in order to save lives and alleviate suffering, but they are not considered by the humanitarian sector as humanitarian agencies as their response is not based on the core principles.
The principle of humanity means that all humankind shall be treated humanely and equally in all circumstances by saving lives and alleviating suffering, while ensuring respect for the individual. It is the fundamental principle of humanitarian response.
The purpose of humanitarian action is to protect life, health and ensure respect for human beings. It also promotes mutual understanding, cooperation, friendship and peace among all people. According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, the principle of humanity includes:
• It recalls the origin of the movement: a desire to assist without discrimination to the wounded during conflict.
• It recalls the double dimension of the movement: national and international one.
• To protect life and health
• To define the purpose of the movement
The Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief (RC/NGO Code) introduces the concept of the humanitarian imperative which expands the principle of humanity to include the right to receive and to give humanitarian assistance. It states the obligation of the international community "to provide humanitarian assistance wherever it is needed."
Provision of humanitarian assistance must be impartial and no discrimination on the basis of nationality, race, gender, religion, political opinion or class. It must be based on need alone. Priority must be given to the most urgent cases of distress.
To treat everyone the same way without consideration for the level of suffering or the urgency would not be equitable. Impartiality means that the only priority that can set in dealing with people that need help must be based on need and the order of relief must correspond to the urgency.
For most non-governmental humanitarian agencies (NGHAs), the principle of impartiality is unambiguous even if it is sometimes difficult to apply, especially in rapidly changing situations. However, it is no longer clear which organizations can claim to be humanitarian. For example, companies like PADCO, a USAID subcontractor, is sometimes seen as a humanitarian NGO. However, for the UN agencies, particularly where the UN is involved in peace keeping activities as the result of a Security Council resolution, it is not clear if the UN is in position to act in an impartial manner if one of the parties is in violation of terms of the UN Charter.
For International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, neutrality means not to take sides in hostilities or engage at any time in controversies of a political, racial, religious or ideological nature.
The principle of neutrality was specifically addressed to the Red Cross Movement to prevent it from not only taking sides in a conflict, but not to "engage at any time in controversies of a political, racial, religious or ideological nature."
Neutrality can also apply to humanitarian actions of a state. "Neutrality remains closely linked with the definition which introduced the concept into international law to designate the status of a State which decided to stand apart from an armed conflict. Consequently, its applications under positive law still depend on the criteria of abstention and impartiality which have characterized neutrality from the outset."
The application of the word neutrality to humanitarian aid delivered by UN agencies or even governments can be confusing. GA Resolution 46/182 proclaims the principle of neutrality, yet as an inter-governmental political organization, the UN is often engaged in controversies of a political nature. According to this interpretation, the UN agency or a government can provide neutral humanitarian aid as long as it does it impartially, based upon need alone.
Today, the word neutrality is widely used within the humanitarian community, usually to mean the provision of humanitarian aid in an impartial and independent manner, based on need alone. Few international NGOs have curtailed work on justice or human rights issues because of their commitment to neutrality.
Humanitarian agencies must formulate and implement their own policies independently of government policies or actions. Humanitarian agencies, although there are auxiliaries in the humanitarian services and subject to the laws of their countries, must maintain their autonomy from political, economic, military or any other others and to be able at all times to act in accordance with the humanitarian principles.
Problems may arise because most NGHAs rely in varying degrees on government donors. Thus for some organizations it is difficult to maintain independence from their donors and not be confused in the field with governments who may be involved in the hostilities. The ICRC, has set the example for maintaining its independence (and neutrality) by raising its funds from governments through the use of separate annual appeals for headquarters costs and field operations.
In addition to the core principles, there are other principles that govern humanitarian response for specific types of humanitarian agencies such as UN agencies, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and NGOs.
The provision of aid must not exploit the vulnerability of victims and be used to further political or religious creeds. All of the major non-governmental humanitarian agencies (NGHAs) by signing up to the RC/NGO Code of Conduct have committed themselves not to use humanitarian response to further political or religious creeds.
Equal status and share of responsibilities and duties in helping each other. Solidarity with regard to decision-making regardless of their size or wealth.
The humanitarian principles originated from the work of the International Committee of Red Cross and the National Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies. The core principles guided the work of these organizations before it was adopted by the United Nations. In 1991, the first three principles (humanity, neutrality and impartiality) were adopted and endorsed in the General Assembly resolution 46/182. The General Assemble resolution of 1991 also led to the establishment of the role of the Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC). In 2004, the General Assembly resolution 58/114 added independence as the fourth core principle essential to humanitarian action. The fourth principle was as result of co-opting of humanitarian assistance in highly politicized context to address challenges faced in preserving independence for local partners and in relation to targeting of beneficiaries and the delivery of need based services in affected areas. These principles have been adopted by many international humanitarian organizations working with affected populations in disaster crisis.
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee has the responsibility of upholding humanitarian principles globally. This is the body responsible for bringing together UN agencies, Red Cross Movement and NGOs working in humanitarian action.
All of the above principles are important requirements for effective field operations. They are based on widespread field experience of agencies engaged in humanitarian response. In conflict situations, their breach may drastically affect the ability of agencies to respond to the needs of the victims.
If a warring party believes, for example, that an agency is favoring the other side, or that it is an agent of the enemy, access to the victims may be blocked and the lives of humanitarian workers may be put in danger. If one of the parties perceives that an agency is trying to spread another religious faith, there may be a hostile reaction to their activities.
The core principles, found in the Red Cross/NGO Code of Conduct and in GA Resolution 46/182 are derived from the Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross, particularly principles I (humanity), II (impartiality), III (neutrality—in the case of the UN), and IV (independence). A full commentary and analysis of all ten principles in the Red Cross Red Crescent Code of Conduct can be seen in Hugo Slim's book Humanitarian Ethics.
Accountability has been defined as: "the processes through which an organisation makes a
commitment to respond to and balance the needs of stakeholders in its decision making processes and activities, and delivers against this commitment." Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International adds: "Accountability is about using power responsibly."
Article 9 of the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief states:
"We hold ourselves accountable to both those we seek to assist and those from whom we accept resources;" and thus identifies the two major stake holders: donors and beneficiaries. However, traditionally humanitarian agencies have tended to practice mainly "upward accountability", i.e. to their donors.
The experience of many humanitarian agencies during the Rwandan Genocide, led to a number of initiatives designed to improve humanitarian assistance and accountability, particularly with respect to the beneficiaries. Examples include the Sphere Project, ALNAP, Compas, the People In Aid Code of Good Practice, and the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International, which runs a "global quality insurance scheme for humanitarian agencies."
The RC/NGO Code also lists a number of more aspirational principles which are derived from experience with development assistance.
The Sphere Project Humanitarian Charter uses the language of human rights to remind that the right to life which is proclaimed in both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights is related to human dignity.
Humanitarian principles are mainly focused on the behavior of organizations. However a humane response implies that humanitarian workers are not to take advantage of the vulnerabilities of those affected by war and violence. Agencies have the responsibility for developing rules of staff conduct which prevent abuse of the beneficiaries.
One of the most problematic areas is related to the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse of beneficiaries by humanitarian workers. In an emergency where victims have lost everything, women and girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse.
A number of reports which identified the sexual exploitation of refugees in west Africa prodded the humanitarian community to work together in examining the problem and to take measures to prevent abuses. In July 2002, the UN's Interagency Standing Committee (IASC) adopted a plan of action which stated: Sexual exploitation and abuse by humanitarian workers constitute acts of gross misconduct and are therefore grounds for termination of employment. The plan explicitly prohibited the "Exchange of money, employment, goods, or services for sex, including sexual favours or other forms of humiliating, degrading or exploitative behaviour." The major NGHAs as well the UN agencies engaged in humanitarian response committed themselves to setting up internal structures to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse of beneficiaries.
Substantial efforts have been made in the humanitarian sector to monitor compliance with humanitarian principles. Such efforts include The People In Aid Code of Good Practice, an internationally recognised management tool that helps humanitarian and development organisations enhance the quality of their human resources management. The NGO, Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International, is also working to make humanitarian organizations more accountable, especially to the beneficiaries.
Structures internal to the Red Cross Movement monitor compliance to the Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross.
The RC/NGO Code is self-enforcing. The SCHR carries out peer reviews among its members which look in part at the issue of compliance with principles set out in the RC/NGO Code
| 7949372 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7949372 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Reparation (legal)
In jurisprudence, reparation is replenishment of a previously inflicted loss by the criminal to the victim. Monetary restitution is a common form of reparation.
In the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, reparation include the following forms: restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition, whereby
The principle of reparation dates back to the lex talionis of Hebrew Scripture. Anglo-Saxon courts in England before the Norman conquest also contained this principle. Under the English legal system judges must consider making a compensation order as part of the sentence for a crime. Section 130 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 requires the courts to explain their reasoning if they do not issue a compensation order.
| 7949896 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7949896 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Polymorphous perversity
Polymorphous perversity is a psychoanalytic concept proposing the ability to gain sexual gratification outside socially normative sexual behaviors. Sigmund Freud used this term to describe the sexual disposition from infancy to about age five.
Freud theorized that some are born with unfocused pleasure / libidinal drives, deriving pleasure from any part of the body. The objects and modes of pleasurable satisfaction are multifarious, directed at every object that might provide pleasure. Polymorphous perverse sexuality continues from infancy through about age five, progressing through three distinct developmental stages: the oral stage, anal stage, and genital / phallic stage. Only in subsequent developmental stages do children learn to constrain drives towards pleasure-satisfaction to socially accepted norms, culminating in adult heterosexual behavior focused on the genitals and reproduction or sublimations of the procreative drive.
Freud thought that during this stage of undifferentiated impulse for pleasure, incestuous and bisexual urges are normal. Lacking knowledge that certain modes of gratification are forbidden, the polymorphously perverse child seeks gratification wherever it occurs. In the earliest phase, the oral phase, the child forms a libidinal bond with the mother via the inherent pleasure gained from suckling at the breast.
For Freud, "perversion" is a non-judgmental term. He used it to designate behavior outside the socially acceptable norms of his era.
| 7963719 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7963719 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person who is incapable of giving valid consent, such as one who is unconscious, incapacitated, has an intellectual disability or is below the legal age of consent. The term "rape" is sometimes used interchangeably with the term "sexual assault."
The rate of reporting, prosecuting and convicting for rape varies between jurisdictions. Internationally, the incidence of rapes recorded by the police during 2008 ranged, per 100,000 people, from 0.2 in Azerbaijan to 92.9 in Botswana with 6.3 in Lithuania as the median. Worldwide, sexual violence, including rape, is primarily committed by males against females. Rape by strangers is usually less common than rape by people the victim knows, and male-on-male and female-on-female prison rapes are common and may be the least reported forms of rape.
Widespread and systematic rape (e.g., war rape) and sexual slavery can occur during international conflict. These practices are crimes against humanity and war crimes. Rape is also recognized as an element of the crime of genocide when committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a targeted ethnic group.
People who have been raped can be traumatized and develop posttraumatic stress disorder. Serious injuries can result along with the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. A person may face violence or threats from the rapist, and, in some cultures, from the victim's family and relatives.
The term "rape" originates from the Latin "rapere" (supine stem "raptum"), "to snatch, to grab, to carry off". Since the 14th century, the term has come to mean "to seize and take away by force". In Roman law, the carrying off of a woman by force, with or without intercourse, constituted "raptus". In Medieval English law the same term could refer to either kidnapping or rape in the modern sense of "sexual violation". The original meaning of "carry off by force" is still found in some phrases, such as "rape and pillage", or in titles, such as the stories of the Rape of the Sabine Women and The Rape of Europa or the poem "The Rape of the Lock", which is about the theft of a lock of hair.
Rape is defined in most jurisdictions as sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, committed by a perpetrator against a victim without their consent. The definition of rape is inconsistent between governmental health organizations, law enforcement, health providers, and legal professions. It has varied historically and culturally. Originally, "rape" had no sexual connotation and is still used in other contexts in English. In Roman law, it or "raptus" was classified as a form of "crimen vis", "crime of assault". "Raptus" referred to the abduction of a woman against the will of the man under whose authority she lived, and sexual intercourse was not a necessary element. Other definitions of rape have changed over time.
Until 2012, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) considered rape a crime solely committed by men against women. In 2012, they changed their definition from "The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will" to "The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim." The previous definition, which had remained unchanged since 1927, was considered outdated and narrow. The updated definition includes recognizing any gender of victim and perpetrator and that rape with an object can be as traumatic as penile/vaginal rape. The bureau further describes instances when the victim is unable to give consent because of mental or physical incapacity. It recognizes that a victim can be incapacitated by drugs and alcohol and unable to give valid consent. The definition does not change federal or state criminal codes or impact charging and prosecution on the federal, state or local level; it rather means that rape will be more accurately reported nationwide.
Health organizations and agencies have also expanded rape beyond traditional definitions. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines rape as a form of sexual assault, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) includes rape in their definition of sexual assault; they term rape a form of sexual violence. The CDC lists other acts of coercive, non-consensual sexual activity that may or may not include rape, including drug-facilitated sexual assault, acts in which a victim is made to penetrate a perpetrator or someone else, intoxication where the victim is unable to consent (due to incapacitation or being unconscious), non-physically forced penetration which occurs after a person is pressured verbally (by intimidation or misuse of authority to force to consent), or completed or attempted forced penetration of a victim via unwanted physical force (including using a weapon or threatening to use a weapon). The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has implemented universal screening for what has been termed "military sexual trauma" (MST) and provides medical and mental health services free of charge to enrolled veterans who report MST (Title 38 United States Code 1720D; Public Law 108-422).
Some countries or jurisdictions differentiate between rape and sexual assault by defining rape as involving penile penetration of the vagina, or solely penetration involving the penis, while other types of non-consensual sexual activity are called sexual assault. Scotland, for example, emphasizes penile penetration, requiring that the sexual assault must have been committed by use of a penis to qualify as rape. The 1998 International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda defines rape as "a physical invasion of a sexual nature committed on a person under circumstances which are coercive". In other cases, the term "rape" has been phased out of legal use in favor of terms such as "sexual assault" or "criminal sexual conduct".
Victims of rape or sexual assault come from a wide range of genders, ages, sexual orientations, ethnicitities, geographical locations, cultures, and degrees of impairment or disability. Incidences of rape are classified into a number of categories, and they may describe the relationship of the perpetrator to the victim and the context of the sexual assault. These include date rape, gang rape, marital rape, incestual rape, child sexual abuse, prison rape, acquaintance rape, war rape and statutory rape. Forced sexual activity can be committed over a long period of time with little to no physical injury.
Lack of consent is key to the definition of rape. Consent is affirmative "informed approval, indicating a freely given agreement" to sexual activity. It is not necessarily expressed verbally, and may instead be overtly implied from actions, but the absence of objection does not constitute consent. Lack of consent may result from either forcible compulsion by the perpetrator or an inability to consent on the part of the victim (such as people who are asleep, intoxicated or otherwise mentally compromised). Sexual intercourse with a person below the age of consent, i.e., the age at which legal competence is established, is referred to as statutory rape. In India, consensual sex given on the false promise of marriage constitutes rape.
Duress is the situation when the person is threatened by force or violence, and may result in the absence of an objection to sexual activity. This can lead to the presumption of consent. Duress may be actual or threatened force or violence against the victim or someone close to the victim. Even blackmail may constitute duress. Abuse of power may constitute duress. For instance, in the Philippines, a man commits rape if he engages in sexual intercourse with a woman ""By means of fraudulent machination or grave abuse of authority"". The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in its landmark 1998 judgment used a definition of rape which did not use the word 'consent': "a physical invasion of a sexual nature committed on a person "under circumstances which are coercive"."
Marital rape, or spousal rape, is non-consensual sex in which the perpetrator is the victim's spouse. It is a form of partner rape, domestic violence, and sexual abuse. Once widely accepted or ignored by law, spousal rape is now denounced by international conventions and is increasingly criminalized. Still, in many countries, spousal rape either remains legal, or is illegal but widely tolerated and accepted as a husband's prerogative. In 2006, the UN Secretary-General's "In-depth study on all forms of violence against women" stated that (pg 113): "Marital rape may be prosecuted in at least 104 states. Of these, 32 have made marital rape a specific criminal offence, while the remaining 74 do not exempt marital rape from general rape provisions. Marital rape is not a prosecutable offense in at least 53 States. Four States criminalize marital rape only when the spouses are judicially separated. Four States are considering legislation that would allow marital rape to be prosecuted." Since 2006, several other states have outlawed marital rape (for example Thailand in 2007). In the US, the criminalization of marital rape started in the mid-1970s and in 1993 North Carolina became the last state to make marital rape illegal. In many countries, it is not clear if marital rape may or may not be prosecuted under ordinary rape laws. In the absence of a spousal rape law, it may be possible to bring prosecution for acts of forced sexual intercourse inside marriage by prosecuting, through the use of other criminal offenses (such as assault based offenses), the acts of violence or criminal threat that were used to obtain submission.
Consent may be complicated by law, language, context, culture and sexual orientation. Studies have shown that men consistently perceive women's actions as more sexual than they intend. In addition, verbalized 'no' to sex may be interpreted as 'keep trying', or even 'yes' by offenders. Some may believe that when injuries are not visible, the woman must have consented. If a man solicits sex from another man, the pursuer may be regarded as virile.
The WHO states that the principal factors that lead to the perpetration of sexual violence against women, including rape, are:
No single facet explains the motivation for rape; the underlying motives of rapists can be multi-faceted. Several factors have been proposed: anger, power, sadism, sexual gratification, or evolutionary proclivities. However, some factors have significant causal evidence supporting them. American clinical psychologist David Lisak, co-author of a 2002 study of undetected rapists, says that compared with non-rapists, both undetected and convicted rapists are measurably more angry at women and more motivated by a desire to dominate and control them, are more impulsive, disinhibited, anti-social, hypermasculine, and less empathic.
Sexual aggression is often considered a masculine identity characteristic of manhood in some male groups and is significantly correlated to the desire to be held higher in esteem among male peers. Sexually aggressive behavior among young men has been correlated with gang or group membership as well as having other delinquent peers.
Gang rape is often perceived by male perpetrators as a justified method of discouraging or punishing what they consider as immoral behavior among women for example wearing short skirts or visiting bars. In some areas in Papua New Guinea, women can be punished by public gang rape, usually through permission by elders.
Gang rape and mass rape are often used as a means of male bonding. This is particularly evident among soldiers, as gang rape accounts for about three quarters or more of war rape while gang rape accounts for less than a quarter of rapes during peace time. Commanders push recruits to rape, as committing rape can be taboo and illegal and so builds loyalty among those involved. Rebel groups who have forced recruitment as opposed to volunteer recruits are more involved in rape as it is believed the recruits start off with less loyalty to the group. In Papua New Guinea, urban gangs such as Raskol gangs often require raping women for initiation reasons.
One metric used by the WHO to determine the severity of global rates of coercive, forced sexual activity was the question "Have you ever
been forced to have sexual intercourse against your will?" Asking this question produced higher positive response rates than being asked, whether they had ever been abused or raped.
The WHO report describes the consequences of sexual abuse:
Frequently, victims may not recognize what happened to them was rape. Some may remain in denial for years afterwards. Confusion over whether or not their experience constitutes rape is typical, especially for victims of psychologically coerced rape. Women may not identify their victimization as rape for many reasons such as feelings of shame, embarrassment, non-uniform legal definitions, reluctance to define the friend/partner as a rapist, or because they have internalized victim-blaming attitudes. The public perceives these behaviors as 'counterintuitive' and therefore, as evidence of a dishonest woman.
During the assault, a person will respond with fight, flight, freeze, friend (sometimes called fawn), or flop. Victims may react in ways they did not anticipate. After the rape, they may be uncomfortable/frustrated with and not understand their reactions. Most victims respond by 'freezing up' or becoming compliant and cooperative during the rape. These are common survival responses of all mammals. This can cause confusion for others and the person assaulted. An assumption is that someone being raped would call for help or struggle. A struggle would result in torn clothes or injuries.
Dissociation can occur during the assault. Memories may be fragmented especially immediately afterwards. They may consolidate with time and sleep. A man or boy who is raped may be stimulated and even ejaculate during the experience of the rape. A woman or girl may orgasm during a sexual assault. This may become a source of shame and confusion for those assaulted along with those who were around them.
Trauma symptoms may not show until years after the sexual assault occurred. Immediately following a rape, the survivor may react outwardly in a wide range of ways, from expressive to closed down; common emotions include distress, anxiety, shame, revulsion, helplessness, and guilt. Denial is not uncommon.
In the weeks following the rape, the survivor may develop symptoms of post traumatic stress syndrome and may develop wide array of psychosomatic complaints. PTSD symptoms include re-experiencing of the rape, avoiding things associated with the rape, numbness, and increased anxiety and startle response. The likelihood of sustained severe symptoms is higher if the rapist confined or restrained the person, if the person being raped believed the rapist would kill them, the person who was raped was very young or very old, and if the rapist was someone they knew. The likelihood of sustained severe symptoms is also higher if people around the survivor ignore (or are ignorant of) the rape or blame the rape survivor.
Most people recover from rape in three to four months, but many have persistent PTSD that may manifest in anxiety, depression, substance abuse, irritability, anger, flashbacks, or nightmares. In addition, rape survivors may have long term generalised anxiety disorder, may develop one or more specific phobias, major depressive disorder, and may experience difficulties with resuming their social life, and with sexual functioning. People who have been raped are at higher risk of suicide.
Men experience similar psychological effects of being raped, but they are less likely to seek counseling.
Another effect of rape and sexual assault is the stress created in those who study rape or counsel the survivors. This is called vicarious traumatization.
The presence or absence of physical injury may be used to determine whether a rape has occurred. Those who have experienced sexual assault yet have no physical trauma may be less inclined to report to the authorities or to seek health care.
While penetrative rape generally does not involve the use of a condom, in some cases a condom is used. Use of a condom significantly reduces the likelihood of pregnancy and disease transmission, both to the victim and to the rapist. Rationales for condom use include: avoiding contracting infections or diseases (particularly HIV), especially in cases of rape of sex workers or in gang rape (to avoid contracting infections or diseases from fellow rapists); eliminating evidence, making prosecution more difficult (and giving a sense of invulnerability); giving the appearance of consent (in cases of acquaintance rape); and thrill from planning and the use of the condom as an added prop. Concern for the victim is generally not considered a factor.
Those who have been raped have relatively more reproductive tract infections than those not been raped. HIV can be transmitted through rape. Acquiring AIDS through rape puts people risk of suffering psychological problems. Acquiring HIV through rape may lead to the in behaviors that create risk of injecting drugs. Acquiring sexually transmitted infections increases the risk of acquiring HIV.
The belief that having sex with a virgin can cure HIV/AIDS exists in parts of Africa. This leads to the rape of girls and women. The claim that the myth drives either HIV infection or child sexual abuse in South Africa is disputed by researchers Rachel Jewkes and Helen Epstein.
Society's treatment of victims has the potential to exacerbate their trauma. People who have been raped or sexually assaulted are sometimes blamed and considered responsible for the crime. This refers to the just world fallacy and rape myth acceptance that certain victim behaviors (such as being intoxicated, flirting or wearing sexually provocative clothing) may encourage rape. In many cases, victims are said to have "asked for it" because of not resisting their assault or violating female gender expectations. A global survey of attitudes toward sexual violence by the Global Forum for Health Research shows that victim-blaming concepts are at least partially accepted in many countries. Women who have been raped are sometimes deemed to have behaved improperly. Usually, these are cultures where there is a significant social divide between the freedoms and status afforded to men and women.
"Rape victims are blamed more when they resist the attack later in the rape encounter rather than earlier (Kopper, 1996), which seems to suggest the stereotype that these women are engaging in token resistance (Malamuth & Brown, 1994; Muehlenhard & Rogers, 1998) or leading the man on because they have gone along with the sexual experience thus far. Finally, rape victims are blamed more when they are raped by an acquaintance or a date rather than by a stranger (e.g., Bell, Kuriloff, & Lottes, 1994; Bridges, 1991; Bridges & McGr ail, 1989; Check & Malamuth, 1983; Kanekar, Shaherwalla, Franco, Kunju, & Pinto, 1991; L'Armand & Pepitone, 1982; Tetreault & Barnett, 1987), which seems to evoke the stereotype that victims really want to have sex because they know their attacker and perhaps even went out on a date with him. The underlying message of this research seems to be that when certain stereotypical elements of rape are in place, rape victims are prone to being blamed."
Commentators state: "individuals may endorse rape myths and at the same time recognize the negative effects of rape." A number of gender role stereotypes can play a role in rationalization of rape. These include the idea that power is reserved to men whereas women are meant for sex and objectified, that women want forced sex and to be pushed around, and that male sexual impulses and behaviors are uncontrollable and must be satisfied.
For females, victim-blaming correlates with fear. Many rape victims blame themselves. Female jurors might look at the woman on the witness stand and believe she had done something to entice the defendant. In Chinese culture, victim blaming often is associated with the crime of rape, as women are expected to resist rape using physical force. Thus, if rape occurs, it is considered to be at least partly the woman's fault, and her virtue is called into question.
In many cultures, those who are raped have a high risk of suffering additional violence or threats of violence after the rape. This can be perpetrated by the rapist, friends, or relatives of the rapist. The intent can be to prevent the victim from reporting the rape. Other reasons for threats against the those assaulted is to punish them for reporting it, or of forcing them to withdraw the complaint. The relatives of the person who has been raped may wish to prevent "bringing shame" to the family and may also threaten them. This is especially the case in cultures where female virginity is highly valued and considered mandatory before marriage; in extreme cases, rape victims are killed in honor killings.
In the US, victims' rights include the right to have a victims advocate preside over every step of the medical/legal exam to ensure sensitivity towards victims, provide emotional support, and minimize the risk of re-traumatization. Victims are to be informed of this immediately by law enforcement or medical service providers. Emergency rooms of many hospitals employ sexual assault nurse/forensic examiners (SAN/FEs) with specific training to care for those who have experienced a rape or sexual assault. They are able to conduct a focused medical-legal exam. If such a trained clinician is not available, the emergency department has a sexual assault protocol that has been established for treatment and the collection of evidence. Staff are also trained to explain the examinations in detail, the documentation and the rights associated with the requirement for informed consent. Emphasis is placed on performing the examinations at a pace that is appropriate for the person, their family, their age, and their level of understanding. Privacy is recommended to prevent self-harm.
Many rapes do not result in serious physical injury. The first medical response to sexual assault is a complete assessment. This general assessment will prioritize the treatment of injuries by the emergency room staff. Medical personnel involved are trained to assess and treat those assaulted or follow protocols established to ensure privacy and best treatment practices. Informed consent is always required prior to treatment unless the person who was assaulted is unconscious, intoxicated or does not have the mental capacity to give consent. Priorities governing the physical exam are the treatment of serious life-threatening emergencies and then a general and complete assessment. Some physical injuries are readily apparent such as, bites, broken teeth, swelling, bruising, lacerations and scratches. In more violent cases, the victim may need to have gunshot wounds or stab wounds treated. The loss of consciousness is relevant to the medical history. If abrasions are found, immunization against tetanus is offered if 5 years have elapsed since the last immunization.
After the general assessment and treatment of serious injuries, further evaluation may include the use of additional diagnostic testing such as x-rays, CT or MRI image studies and blood work. The presence of infection is determined by sampling of body fluids from the mouth, throat, vagina, perineum, and anus.
Victims have the right to refuse any evidence collection. Victims advocates ensure the victims' wishes are respected by hospital staff. After the physical injuries are addressed and treatment has begun, then forensic examination proceeds along with the gathering of evidence that can be used to identify and document the injuries. Such evidence-gathering is only done with the complete consent of the patient or the caregivers of the patient. Photographs of the injuries may be requested by staff. At this point in the treatment, if a victims' advocate had not been requested earlier, experienced social support staff are made available to the patient and family.
If the patient or the caregivers, (typically parents) agree, the medical team utilizes standardized sampling and testing usually referred to a forensic evidence kit or "rape kit". The patient is informed that submitting to the use of the rape kit does not obligate them to file criminal charges against the perpetrator. The patient is discouraged from bathing or showering for the purpose of obtaining samples from their hair. Evidence gathered within the past 72 hours is more likely to be valid. The sooner that samples are obtained after the assault, the more likely that evidence is present in the sample and provide valid results. Once the injuries of the patient have been treated and she or he is stabilized, the sample gathering will begin. Staff will encourage the presence of a rape/sexual assault counselor to provide an advocate and reassurance.
During the medical exam, evidence of bodily secretions is assessed. Dried semen that is on clothing and skin can be detected with a fluorescent lamp. Notes will be attached to those items on which semen has been found. These specimens are marked, placed in a paper bag, and be marked for later analysis for the presence of seminal vesicle-specific antigen.
Though technically, medical staff are not part of the legal system, only trained medical personnel can obtain evidence that is admissible during a trial. The procedures have been standardized. Evidence is collected, signed, and locked in a secure place to guarantee that legal evidence procedures are maintained. This carefully monitored procedure of evidence collection and preservation is known as the chain of evidence. Maintaining the chain of evidence from the medical examination, testing and tissue sampling from its origin of collection to court allows the results of the sampling to be admitted as evidence. The use of photography is often used for documentation.
Some physical effects of the rape are not immediately apparent. Follow up examinations also assess the patient for tension headaches, fatigue, sleep pattern disturbances, gastrointestinal irritability, chronic pelvic pain, menstrual pain or irregularity, pelvic inflammatory disease, sexual dysfunction, premenstrual distress, fibromyalgia, vaginal discharge, vaginal itching, burning during urination, and generalized vaginal pain.
The World Health Organization recommends offering prompt access to emergency contraceptive medications which can significantly reduce risk of an undesired pregnancy if used within 5 days of rape; it is estimated that about 5% of male-on-female rapes result in pregnancy. When rape results in pregnancy, abortion pills can be safely and effectively used to end a pregnancy up to 10 weeks from the last menstrual period. In the US, federal funding is available to cover the cost of abortion services for pregnancies that occur as a result of rape, even in states that do not offer public-funding for abortion services.
An internal pelvic exam is not recommended for sexually immature or prepubescent girls due to the probability that internal injuries do not exist in this age group. An internal exam may be recommended if significant bloody discharge is observed, though. A complete pelvic exam for rape (anal or vaginal) is conducted. An oral exam is done if there have been injuries to the mouth, teeth, gums or pharynx. Though the patient may have no complaints about genital pain signs of trauma can still be assessed. Prior to the complete bodily and genital exam, the patient is asked to undress, standing on a white sheet that collects any debris that may be in the clothing. The clothing and sheet are properly bagged and labeled along with other samples that can be removed from the body or clothing of the patient. Samples of fibers, mud, hair, leaves are gathered if present. Samples of fluids are collected to determine the presence of the perpetrator's saliva and semen that may be present in the patients mouth, vagina or rectum. Sometimes the victim has scratched the perpetrator in defense and fingernail scrapings can be collected.
Injuries to the genital areas can be swelling, lacerations, and bruising. Common genital injuries are anal injury, labial abrasions, hymenal bruising, tears of the posterior fourchette and fossa. Bruises, tears, abrasions, inflammation and lacerations may be visible. If a foreign object was used during the assault, x-ray visualization will identify retained fragments. Genital injuries are more prevalent in post-menopausal women and prepubescent girls. Internal injuries to the cervix and vagina can be visualized using colposcopy. Using colposcopy has increased the detection of internal trauma from six percent to fifty-three percent. Genital injuries to children who have been raped or sexually assaulted differ in that the abuse may be on-going or it happened in the past after the injuries heal. Scarring is one sign of the sexual abuse of children.
Several studies have explored the association between skin color and genital injury among rape victims. Many studies found a difference in rape-related injury based on race, with more injuries being reported for white females and males than for black females and males. This may be because the dark skin color of some victims obscures bruising. Examiners paying attention to victims with darker skin, especially the thighs, labia majora, posterior fourchette, and fossa navicularis, can help remedy this.
The presence of a sexually contracted infection can not be confirmed after rape because it cannot be detected until 72 hours afterwards.
The person who was raped may already have a sexually transmitted bacterial, viral and other infections and if diagnosed, it is treated. Prophylactic antibiotic treatment for vaginitis, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis and chlamydia may be done. Chlamydial and gonococcal infections in women are of particular concern due to the possibility of ascending infection. Immunization against hepatitis B is often considered. After prophylactic treatment is initiated, further testing is done to determine what other treatments may be necessary for other infections transmitted during the assault. These are:
Treatment may include the administration of zidovudine/lamivudine, tenofovir/emtricitabine, ritonavir/lopinavir. Information regarding other treatment options are available from the CDC.
The transmission of HIV is frequently a major concern of the patient. Prophylactic treatment for HIV is not necessarily administered. Routine treatment for HIV after rape or sexual assault is controversial due to the low risk of infection after one sexual assault. Transmission of HIV after one exposure to penetrative anal sex is estimated to be 0.5 to 3.2 percent. Transmission of HIV after one exposure to penetrative vaginal intercourse is 0.05 to 0.15 percent. HIV can also be contracted through the oral route but is considered rare. Other recommendations are that the patient be treated prophylactically for HIV if the perpetrator is found to be infected.
Testing at the time of the initial exam does not typically have forensic value if patients are sexually active and have an STI since it could have been acquired prior to the assault. Rape shield laws protect the person who was raped and who has positive test results. These laws prevent having such evidence used against someone who was raped. Someone who was raped may be concerned that a prior infection may suggest sexual promiscuity. There may, however, be situations in which testing has the legal purpose, as in cases where the threat of transmission or actual transmission of an STI was part of the crime. In nonsexually active patients, an initial, baseline negative test that is followed by a subsequent STI could be used as evidence, if the perpetrator also had an STI.
Treatment failure is possible due to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of pathogens.
Psychiatric and emotional consequences can be apparent immediately after rape and it may be necessary to treat these very early in the evaluation and treatment. Other treatable emotional and psychiatric disorders may not become evident until some time after the rape. These can be eating disorders, anxiety, fear, intrusive thoughts, fear of crowds, avoidance, anger, depression, humiliation, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) hyperarousal, sexual disorders (including fear of engaging in sexual activity), mood disorders, suicidal ideation, borderline personality disorder, nightmares, fear of situations that remind the patient of the rape and fear of being alone, agitation, numbness and emotional distance. Victims are able to receive help by using a telephone hotline, counseling, or shelters. Recovery from sexual assault is a complicated and controversial concept, but support groups, usually accessed by organizations are available to help in recovery. Professional counseling and on-going treatment by trained health care providers is often sought by the victim.
There are clinicians who are specially trained in the treatment of those who have experienced rape and sexual assault/abuse. Treatment can be lengthy and be challenging for both the counselor and the patient. Several treatment options exist and vary by accessibility, cost, or whether or not insurance coverage exists for the treatment. Treatment also varies dependent upon the expertise of the counselor—some have more experience and or have specialized in the treatment of sexual trauma and rape. To be the most effective, a treatment plan should developed based upon the struggles of the patient and not necessarily based upon the traumatic experience. An effective treatment plan will take the following into consideration: current stressors, coping skills, physical health, interpersonal conflicts, self-esteem, family issues, involvement of the guardian, and the presence of mental health symptoms.
The degree of success for emotional and psychiatric treatments is often dependent upon the terminology used in the treatment, i.e. redefining the event and experience. Labels used like "rape victim" and "rape survivor" to describe the new identities of women who have been raped suggest that the event is the dominant and controlling influence on her life. These may have an effect on supportive personnel. The consequences of using these labels needs to be assessed. Positive outcomes of emotional and psychiatric treatment for rape exist; these can be an improved self-concept, the recognition of growth, and implementing new coping styles.
A perpetrator found guilty by the court is often required to receive treatment. There are many options for treatment, some more successful than others. The psychological factors that motivated the convicted perpetrator are complex but treatment can still be effective. A counselor will typically evaluate disorders that are currently present in the offender. Investigating the developmental background of the offender can help explain the origins of the abusive behavior occurred in the first place. Emotional and psychological treatment has the purpose of identifying predictors of recidivism, or the potential that the offender will commit rape again. In some instances neurological abnormalities have been identified in the perpetrators, and in some cases they have themselves experienced past trauma. Adolescents and other children can be the perpetrators of rape, although this is uncommon. In this instance, appropriate counseling and evaluation are usually conducted.
Short-term treatment with a benzodiazepine may help with anxiety (although caution is recommended with use of these medications as people can become addicted and develop withdrawal symptoms after regular use) and antidepressants may be helpful for symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, depression and panic attacks.
As sexual violence affects all parts of society, the response to sexual violence is comprehensive. The responses can be categorized as: individual approaches, health care responses, community-based efforts and actions to prevent other forms of sexual violence.
Sexual assault may be prevented by secondary school, college, and workplace education programs. At least one program for fraternity men produced "sustained behavioral change." With regard to campus sexual assault, nearly two thirds of students reported knowing victims of rape and over half reported knowing perpetrators of sexual assault in one study; one in ten reported knowing a victim of rape and nearly one in four reported knowing a victim of alcohol-facilitated rape.
International Crime on Statistics and Justice by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) find that worldwide, most victims of rape are women and most perpetrators male. Rapes against women are rarely reported to the police and the number of female rape victims is significantly underestimated. Southern Africa, Oceania and North America report the highest numbers of rape.
Most rape is committed by someone the victim knows. By contrast, rape committed by strangers is relatively uncommon. Statistics reported by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) indicate that 7 out of 10 cases of sexual assault involved a perpetrator known to the victim.
The humanitarian news organization IRIN claims that an estimated "500,000 rapes are committed annually in South Africa once called 'the world's rape capital.' The country has some of the highest incidences of child sexual abuse in the world with more than 67,000 cases of rape and sexual assaults against children reported in 2000, with welfare groups believing that unreported incidents could be up to 10 times higher. Current data suggest that the incidence of rape has risen significantly in India.
Most rape research and reports of rape are limited to male–female forms of rape. Research on male-on-male and female-on-male rape is rare. Fewer than one in ten male-male rapes are reported. As a group, males who have been raped by either gender often get little services and support, and legal systems are often ill-equipped to deal with this type of crime. Instances in which the perpetrator is female, are not clear and lead to the denial of women being sexual aggressors. This could obscure the dimensions of the problem. Research also suggests that men with sexually aggressive peers have a higher chance of reporting coercive or forced sexual intercourse outside gang circles than men without such sexually aggressive peers.
FBI sex offense victims in 2012:
FBI convicted sex offenders in 2012:
Statistics maintained by the CDC include:
Risk factors vary among different ethnicities. About one third of African American adolescent females report encountering some form of sexual assault including rape. One in three Native American women will experience sexual assault, more than twice the national average for American women.
More than 250,000 cases of rape or attempted rape were recorded by police annually in 65 countries in 2001 through 2002. In 2007, 40% of the 90,427 forcible rapes reported were cleared by arrest or "exceptional means." Exceptional refers to situations where the person refuses to provide information or assistance necessary to obtain an arrest, the defendant dies before being arrested, or the defendant cannot be extradited from another state.
Forty-three percent of high school and young college men reported being coerced into sexual behavior and, of those, 95% reported that a female was the aggressor.
In 2005, sexual violence, and rape in particular, was considered the most under-reported violent crime in Great Britain. The number of reported rapes in Great Britain is lower than both incidence and prevalence rates. Victims who do not act in an expected or stereotypical way may not be believed, as happened in the case of a Washington state woman raped in 2008 who withdrew her report after facing police skepticism. Her rapist went on to assault several more women before being identified.
The legal requirements for reporting rape vary by jurisdiction—each US state may have different requirements. New Zealand has less stringent limits.
In Italy, a 2006 National Statistic Institute survey on sexual violence against women found that 91.6% of women who suffered this did not report it to the police.
In the United Kingdom, In 1970 there was a 33% rate of conviction, while by 1985 there was a 24 per cent conviction rate for rape trials in the UK, by 2004 the conviction rate reached 5%. At that time the government report has expressed documented the year-on-year increase in attrition of reported rape cases, and pledged to address this "justice gap". According to Amnesty International Ireland had the lowest rate of conviction for rape, (1%) among 21 European states, in 2003. In America as of 2012, there exists a noticeable discrepancy in conviction rates among women of various ethnic identities; an arrest was made in just 13% of the sexual assaults reported by American Indian women, compared with 35% for black women and 32% for whites.
Judicial bias due to rape myths and preconceived notions about rape is a salient issue in rape conviction, but "voir dire" intervention may be used to curb such bias.
A false accusation of rape is the reporting of a rape where no rape has occurred. It is difficult to assess the true prevalence of false rape allegations, but it is generally agreed by scholars that rape accusations are false about 2% to 10% of the time. In most cases, a false accusation will not name a specific suspect.
Eight percent of 2,643 sexual assault cases were classified as false reports by the police in one study. The researchers noted that much of these classifications were based on the personal judgments and biases of the police investigators and were made in violation of official criteria for establishing a false allegation. Closer analysis of this category applying the Home Office counting rules for establishing a false allegation, which requires "strong evidential grounds" of a false allegation or a "clear and credible" retraction by the complainant, reduced the percentage of false reports to 3%. The researchers concluded that "one cannot take all police designations at face value" and that "[t]here is an over-estimation of the scale of false allegations by both police officers and prosecutors".
Another large-scale study was conducted in Australia, with the 850 rapes reported to the Victoria police between 2000 and 2003 (Heenan & Murray, 2006). Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, the researchers examined 812 cases and found 15.1% of complaints were withdrawn, 46.4% were marked "no further police action", and 2.1% of the total were "clearly" classified by police as false reports. The researchers noted that where the police found a case to be a false allegation but didn't want to pursue charges against the accuser, they marked it as "no further police action" instead. All of these complainants were then charged or threatened with charges for filing a false police report.
In the United Kingdom, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) analyzed every rape complaint made over a 17-month period and found that "the indication is that it is therefore extremely rare that a suspect deliberately makes a false allegation of rape or domestic violence purely out of malice.".
FBI reports consistently put the number of "unfounded" rape accusations around 8%. The unfounded rate is higher for forcible rape than for any other Index crime. The average rate of unfounded reports for Index crimes is 2%. "Unfounded" is not synonymous with false allegation. Bruce Gross of the Forensic Examiner described it as meaningless, saying a report could be marked as unfounded if there is no physical evidence or the alleged victim did not sustain any physical injuries.
Other studies have suggested that the rate of false allegations in America may be higher. A nine-year study by Eugene J. Kanin of Purdue University in a small metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States claimed that 41% of rape accusations were false. However David Lisak, an associate professor of psychology and director of the Men's Sexual Trauma Research Project at the University of Massachusetts Boston states that "Kanin's 1994 article on false allegations is a provocative opinion piece, but it is not a scientific study of the issue of false reporting of rape". He further states that Kanin's study has significantly poor systematic methodology and had no independent definition of a false report. Instead, Kanin classified reports that the police department classified as false also as false. The criterion for falsehood was simply a denial of a polygraph test of the accuser. A 1998 report by the National Institute of Justice found that DNA evidence excluded the primary suspect in 26% of rape cases and concluded that this "strongly suggests that postarrest and postconviction DNA exonerations are tied to some strong, underlying systemic problems that generate erroneous accusations and convictions". However, this study also noted that analyzed samples involved a specific subset of rape cases (e.g. those where "there is no consent defense").
A 2010 study by David Lisak, Lori Gardinier and other researchers published in the journal of "Violence against Women" found that out of 136 cases reported in a ten-year period, 5.9% were found likely to be false.
Virtually all societies have had a concept of the crime of rape. Although what constituted this crime has varied by historical period and culture, the definitions tended to focus around an act of forced vaginal intercourse perpetrated through physical violence or imminent threat of death or severe bodily injury, by a man, on a woman or a girl, not his wife. The actus reus of the crime, was, in most societies, the insertion of the penis into the vagina. The way sexuality was conceptualized in many societies rejected the very notion that a woman could force a man into sex — women were often seen as passive while men were deemed to be assertive and aggressive. Sexual penetration of a male by another male fell under the legal domain of sodomy.
Rape laws existed to protect virginal daughters from rape. In these cases, a rape done to a woman was seen as an attack on the estate of her father because she was his property and a woman's virginity being taken before marriage lessened her value; if the woman was married, the rape was an attack on the husband because it violated his property. The rapist was either subject to payment (see wreath money) or severe punishment. The father could rape or keep the rapist's wife or make the rapist marry his daughter. A man could not be charged with raping his wife since she was his property. Thus, marital rape was allowed. Author Winnie Tomm stated, "By contrast, rape of a single woman without strong ties to a father or husband caused no great concern." An incident could be excluded from the definition of rape due to the relation between the parties, such as marriage, or due to the background of the victim. In many cultures forced sex on a prostitute, slave, war enemy, member of a racial minority, etc., was not rape.
From the classical antiquity of Greece and Rome into the Colonial period, rape along with arson, treason and murder was a capital offense. "Those committing rape were subject to a wide range of capital punishments that were seemingly brutal, frequently bloody, and at times spectacular." In the 12th century, kinsmen of the victim were given the option of executing the punishment themselves. "In England in the early fourteenth century, a victim of rape might be expected to gouge out the eyes and/or sever the offender's testicles herself." Despite the harshness of these laws, actual punishments were usually far less severe: in late Medieval Europe, cases concerning rapes of marriageable women, wives, widows, or members of the lower class were rarely brought forward, and usually ended with only a small monetary fine or a marriage between the victim and the rapist.
In ancient Greece and Rome, both male-on-female and male-on-male concepts of rape existed. Roman laws allowed three distinct charges for the crime: "stuprum", unsanctioned sexual intercourse (which, in the early times, also included adultery); "vis", a physical assault for purpose of lust; and "iniuria", a general charge denoting any type of assault upon person. Aforementioned "Lex Iulia" specifically criminalized "per vim stuprum", unsanctioned sexual intercourse by force. The former two were public criminal charges which could be brought whenever the victim was a woman or a child of either gender, but only if the victim was a freeborn Roman citizen ("ingenuus"), and carried potential sentence of death or exile. "Iniuria" was a civil charge that demanded monetary compensation, and had a wider application (for example, it could have been brought in case of sexual assault on a slave by a person other than their owner.) Augustus Caesar enacted reforms for the crime of rape under the assault statute "Lex Iulia de vi publica", which bears his family name, "Iulia". It was under this statute rather than the adultery statute of "Lex Iulia de adulteriis" that Rome prosecuted this crime. Rape was made into a "public wrong" ("iniuria publica") by the Roman Emperor Constantine.
In contrast to the modern understanding of the subject, Romans drew clear distinctions between "active" (penetrative) and "passive" (receptive) partners, and all these charges implied penetration by the assailant (which necessarily ruled out the possibility of female-on-male or female-on-female rape.) It is not clear which (if any) of these charges applied to assaults upon an adult male, though such an assault upon a citizen was definitely seen as a grave insult (within Roman culture, an adult male citizen could not possibly consent to the receptive role in a sexual intercourse without a severe loss of status.) The law known as Lex Scantinia covered at least some forms of male-on-male "stuprum", and Quintillian mentions a fine of 10,000 sesterces – about 10 years worth of a Roman legionnaire's pay – as a normal penalty for "stuprum" upon an "ingenuus". However, its text is lost and its exact provisions are no longer known.
Emperor Justinian continued the use of the statute to prosecute rape during the sixth century in the Eastern Roman Empire. By late antiquity, the general term "raptus" had referred to abduction, elopement, robbery, or rape in its modern meaning. Confusion over the term led ecclesiastical commentators on the law to differentiate it into "raptus seductionis" (elopement without parental consent) and "raptus violentiae" (ravishment). Both of these forms of "raptus" had a civil penalty and possible excommunication for the family and village receiving the abducted woman, although "raptus violentiae" also incurred punishments of mutilation or death.
In the United States, a husband could not be charged with raping his wife until 1979. In the 1950s, in some states in the US, a white woman having consensual sex with a black man was considered rape. Prior to the 1930s, rape was considered a sex crime that was always committed by men and always done to women. From 1935 to 1965, a shift from labeling rapists as criminals to believing them to be mentally ill "sexual psychopaths" began making its way into popular opinion. Men caught for committing rape were no longer sentenced to prison but admitted to mental health hospitals where they would be given medication for their illness. Because only men deemed insane were the ones considered to have committed rape, no one considered the everyday person to be capable of such violence.
Transitions in women's roles in society were also shifting, causing alarm and blame towards rape victims. Because women were becoming more involved in the public (i.e. searching for jobs rather than being a housewife), some people claimed that these women were "loose" and looking for trouble. Giving up the gender roles of mother and wife was seen as defiant against traditional values while immersing themselves within society created the excuse that women would "not [be] entitled to protection under the traditional guidelines for male-female relationships".
Until the 19th century, many jurisdictions required ejaculation for the act to constitute the offense of rape. Acts other than vaginal intercourse did not constitute rape in common law countries and in many other societies. In many cultures, such acts were illegal, even if they were consensual and performed between married couples (see sodomy laws). In England, for example, the Buggery Act 1533, which remained in force until 1828, provided for the death penalty for "buggery". Many countries criminalized "non-traditional" forms of sexual activity well into the modern era: notably, in the US state of Idaho, sodomy between consensual partners was punishable by a term of five years to life in prison as late as 2003, and this law was only ruled to be inapplicable to married couples in 1995. Today, in many countries, the definition of the actus reus has been extended to all forms of penetration of the vagina and anus (e.g. penetration with objects, fingers or other body parts) as well as insertion of the penis in the mouth.
In the United States, before and during the American Civil War when chattel slavery was widespread, the law focused primarily on rape as it pertained to black men raping white women. The penalty for such a crime in many jurisdictions was death or castration. The rape of a black woman, by any man, was considered legal. As early as the 19th century, American women were criticized if they "stray[ed] out of a [dependent] position...fought off [an] attacker...[or] behaved in too self reliant a manner..." in which case "the term rape no longer applied".
In 1998, Judge Navanethem Pillay of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda said: "From time immemorial, rape has been regarded as spoils of war. Now it will be considered a war crime. We want to send out a strong message that rape is no longer a trophy of war."
In "Aydin v Turkey", the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled for the first time that rape amounts to torture, thus violating article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It stated, "Rape of a detainee by an official of the State must be considered to be an especially grave and abhorrent form of ill-treatment given the ease with which the offender can exploit the vulnerability and weakened resistance of his victim."
In "M.C. v Bulgaria", the Court found that the use of violence on the part of the perpetrator is not a necessary condition for a sexual act to be qualified as rape. It stated, "Indeed, rapists often employ subtle coercion or bullying when this is sufficient to overcome their victims. In most cases of rape against children, violence is not necessary to obtain submission. Courts are also recognizing that some women become frozen with fear at the onset of a sexual attack and thus cannot resist."
Rape, in the course of war, dates back to antiquity, ancient enough to have been mentioned in the Bible. The Israelite, Persian, Greek and Roman armies reportedly engaged in war rape. The Mongols, who established the Mongol Empire across much of Eurasia, caused much destruction during their invasions.
Historian Jack Weatherford said that the earliest incident of mass rape attributed to Mongols took place after Ogodei Khan sent an army of 25,000 soldiers to North China, where they defeated an army 100,000. The Mongols were said to have raped the surviving soldiers at the command of their leader. Ogodei Khan was also said to have ordered mass rapes of the Oirat. According to Rogerius of Apulia, a monk who survived the Mongol invasion of Hungary, the Mongol warriors "found pleasure" in humiliating local women.
The systematic rape of as many as 80,000 women by the Japanese soldiers during the six weeks of the Nanking Massacre is an example of such atrocities. During World War II an estimated 200,000 Korean and Chinese women were forced into prostitution in Japanese military brothels, as so-called "comfort women". French Moroccan troops known as Goumiers committed rapes and other war crimes after the Battle of Monte Cassino. "(See Marocchinate.)" French women in Normandy complained about rapes during the liberation of Normandy.
Rapes were committed by Wehrmacht forces on Jewish women and girls during the Invasion of Poland in September 1939; they were also committed against Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian women and girls during mass executions which were primarily carried out by the Selbstschutz units, with the assistance of Wehrmacht soldiers who were stationed in territory that was under the administration of the German military; the rapes were committed against female captives before they were shot. Only one case of rape was prosecuted by a German court during the military campaign in Poland, and even then the German judge found the perpetrator guilty of "Rassenschande" (committing a shameful act against his race as defined by the racial policy of Nazi Germany), rather than rape. Jewish women were particularly vulnerable to rape during The Holocaust.
Rapes were also committed by German forces stationed on the Eastern Front, where they were largely unpunished (as opposed to rapes committed in Western Europe) Wehrmacht also established a system of military brothels, in which young women and girls from occupied territories were forced into prostitution under harsh conditions. In the Soviet Union women were kidnapped by German forces for prostitution as well; one report by the International Military Tribunal writes ""in the city of Smolensk the German Command opened a brothel for officers in one of the hotels into which hundreds of women and girls were driven; they were mercilessly dragged down the street by their arms and hair"."
Rapes happened under occupied territories by the Red Army. A female Soviet war correspondent described what she had witnessed: "The Russian soldiers were raping every German female from eight to eighty. It was an army of rapists." According to German historian Miriam Gebhardt, as many as 190,000 women were raped by U.S. soldiers in Germany.
According to researcher and author Krisztián Ungváry, some 38,000 civilians were killed during the Siege of Budapest: about 13,000 from military action and 25,000 from starvation, disease and other causes. Included in the latter figure are about 15,000 Jews, largely victims of executions by Hungarian Arrow Cross Party militia. When the Soviets finally claimed victory, they initiated an orgy of violence, including the wholesale theft of anything they could lay their hands on, random executions and mass rape. An estimated 50,000 women and girls were raped, although estimates vary from 5,000 to 200,000. Hungarian girls were kidnapped and taken to Red Army quarters, where they were imprisoned, repeatedly raped and sometimes murdered.
| 7980471 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7980471 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Concept Foundation
The Concept Foundation is a non-profit foundation which was established by the UNDP/UNFPA/WHO/WB Special program in Reproductive Health (WHO/HRP), PATH, the World Bank in 1989 in Bangkok, Thailand, "as a mechanism through which WHO’s rights associated with an injectable contraceptive, Cyclofem, could be licensed to potential producers in developing countries". Estradiol cypionate/medroxyprogesterone acetate (brand names Cyclofem, Lunelle; code name Cyclo-Provera), is a once-a-month combined injectable contraceptive which contains 25 mg of medroxyprogesterone acetate—the same ingredient in Depo Provera—and 5 mg of estradiol cypionate.
Since its inception in 1989, more than 120 million doses of Cyclofem have been manufactured and sold worldwide. Concept Foundation products have been manufactured in 8 different countries and are made available in more than 30 developing countries.
Medabon is another product developed by the Concept Foundation which induces medical abortion. Medabon combines mifepristone and misoprostol, two abortifacients which health organizations had already deemed safe and effective. Implementation and initial research of the Medabon regimen was done by PATH and Ipas.
| 7986129 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7986129 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Animal testing on non-human primates
Experiments involving non-human primates (NHPs) include toxicity testing for medical and non-medical substances; studies of infectious disease, such as HIV and hepatitis; neurological studies; behavior and cognition; reproduction; genetics; and xenotransplantation. Around 65,000 NHPs are used every year in the United States, and around 7,000 across the European Union. Most are purpose-bred, while some are caught in the wild.
Their use is controversial. According to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, NHPs are used because their brains share structural and functional features with human brains, but "while this similarity has scientific advantages, it poses some difficult ethical problems, because of an increased likelihood that primates experience pain and suffering in ways that are similar to humans." Some of the most publicized attacks on animal research facilities by animal rights groups have occurred because of primate research. Some primate researchers have abandoned their studies because of threats or attacks.
In December 2006, an inquiry chaired by Sir David Weatherall, emeritus professor of medicine at Oxford University, concluded that there is a "strong scientific and moral case" for using primates in some research. The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection argues that the Weatherall report failed to address "the welfare needs and moral case for subjecting these sensitive, intelligent creatures to a lifetime of suffering in UK labs".
Human beings are recognized as persons and protected in law by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and by all governments to varying degrees. Non-human primates are not classified as persons in most jurisdictions, which largely means their individual interests have no formal recognition or protection. The status of non-human primates has generated much debate, particularly through the Great Ape Project (GAP), which argues that great apes (gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos) should be given limited legal status and the protection of three basic interests: the right to live, the protection of individual liberty, and the prohibition of torture.
In 1997, the United Kingdom announced a policy of no longer granting licenses for research involving great apes, the first ever measure to ban primate use in research. Announcing the UK’s ban, the British Home Secretary said: "[T]his is a matter of morality. The cognitive and behavioural characteristics and qualities of these animals mean it is unethical to treat them as expendable for research." Britain continues to use other primates in laboratories, such as macaques and marmosets. In 2006 the permanency of the UK ban was questioned by Colin Blakemore, head of the Medical Research Council. Blakemore, while stressing he saw no "immediate need" to lift the ban, argued "that under certain circumstances, such as the emergence of a lethal pandemic virus that only affected the great apes, including man, then experiments on chimps, orang-utans and even gorillas may become necessary." The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection described Blakemore's stance as "backward-looking." In 1999, New Zealand was the first country to ban experimentation on great apes by law.
On June 25, 2008, Spain became the first country to announce that it will extend rights to the great apes in accordance with GAP's proposals. An all-party parliamentary group advised the government to write legislation giving chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans the right to life, to liberty, and the right not to be used in experiments. "The New York Times" reported that the legislation will make it illegal to kill apes, except in self-defense. Torture, which will include medical experiments, will be not allowed, as will arbitrary imprisonment, such as for circuses or films.
An increasing number of other governments are enacting bans. As of 2006, Austria, New Zealand (restrictions on great apes only and not a complete ban), the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom had introduced either "de jure" or "de facto" bans. The ban in Sweden does not extend to non-invasive behavioral studies, and graduate work on great ape cognition in Sweden continues to be carried out on zoo gorillas, and supplemented by studies of chimpanzees held in the U.S. Sweden's legislation also bans invasive experiments on gibbons.
In December 2005, Austria outlawed experiments on any apes, unless it is conducted in the interests of the individual animal. In 2002, Belgium announced that it was working toward a ban on all primate use, and in the UK, 103 MPs signed an Early Day Motion calling for an end to primate experiments, arguing that they cause suffering and are unreliable. No licenses for research on great apes have been issued in the UK since 1998. The Boyd Group, a British group comprising animal researchers, philosophers, primatologists, and animal advocates, has recommended a global prohibition on the use of great apes.
The use of non-human primates in the EU is regulated under the Directive 2010/63/EU. The directive took effect on January 1, 2013. The directive permits the use of non-human primates if no other alternative methods are available. Testing on non-human primates is permitted for basic and applied research, quality and safety testing of drugs, food and other products and research aimed on the preservation of the species. The use of great apes is generally not permitted, unless it is believed that the actions are essential to preserve the species or in relation to an unexpected outbreak of a life-threatening or debilitating clinical condition in human beings. The directive stresses the use of the 3R principle (replacement, refinement, reduction) and animal welfare when conducting animal testing on non-human primates.
A 2013 amendment to the German Animal Welfare Act, with special regulations for monkeys, resulted in a near total ban on the use of great apes as laboratory animals. The last time great apes were used in laboratory experiments in Germany was 1991.
Most of the NHPs used are one of three species of macaques, accounting for 79% of all primates used in research in the UK, and 63% of all federally funded research grants for projects using primates in the U.S. Lesser numbers of marmosets, tamarins, spider monkeys, owl monkeys, vervet monkeys, squirrel monkeys, and baboons are used in the UK and the U.S. Great apes have not been used in the UK since a government policy ban in 1998. In the U.S., research laboratories employ the use of 1,133 chimpanzees as of October 2006.
Most primates are purpose-bred, while some are caught in the wild. In 2011 in the EU, 0.05% of animals used in animal testing procedures were non-human primates.
In 1996, the British Animal Procedures Committee recommended new measures for dealing with NHPs. The use of wild-caught primates was banned, except where "exceptional and specific justification can be established"; specific justification must be made for the use of Old World primates (but not for the use of New World primates); approval for the acquisition of primates from overseas is conditional upon their breeding or supply center being acceptable to the Home Office; and each batch of primates acquired from overseas must be separately authorized.
There are indications that NHP use is on the rise in some countries, in part because biomedical research funds in the U.S. have more than doubled since the 1990s. In 2000, the NIH published a report recommending that the Regional Primate Research Center System be renamed the National Primate Research Center System and calling for an increase in the number of NHPs available to researchers, and stated that "nonhuman primates are crucial for certain types of biomedical and behavioral research." This assertion has been challenged.
In the U.S., the Oregon and California National Primate Research Centers and New Iberia Research Center have expanded their facilities.
In 2000 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) invited applications for the establishment of new breeding specific pathogen free colonies; and a new breeding colony projected to house 3,000 NHPs has been set up in Florida. The NIH's National Center for Research Resources claimed a need to increase the number of breeding colonies in its 2004–2008 strategic plan, as well as to set up a database, using information provided through a network of National Primate Research Centers, to allow researchers to locate NHPs with particular characteristics. China is also increasing its NHP use, and is regarded as attractive to Western companies because of the low cost of research, the relatively lax regulations and the increase in animal-rights activism in the West.
In 2013, British Home Office figures show that the number of primates used in the UK was at 2,440, down 32% from 3,604 NHPs in 1993. Over the same time period, the number of procedures involving NHPs fell 29% from 4,994 from to 3,569 procedures.
The American Society of Primatologists writes that most NHPs in laboratories in the United States are bred domestically. Between 12,000–15,000 are imported each year, specifically rhesus macaque monkeys, cynomolgus (crab-eating) macaque monkeys, squirrel monkeys, owl monkeys, and baboons. Monkeys are imported from China, Mauritius, Israel, the Philippines, and Peru.
China exported over 12,000 macaques for research in 2001 (4,500 to the U.S.), all from self-sustaining purpose-bred colonies. The second largest source is Mauritius, from which 3,440 purpose-bred cynomolgus macaques were exported to the U.S. in 2001.
In Europe, an estimated 70% of research primates are imported, and the rest are purpose-bred in Europe. Around 74% of these imports come from China, with most of the rest coming from Mauritius and Israel.
NHPs are used in research into HIV, neurology, behavior, cognition, reproduction, Parkinson's disease, stroke, malaria, respiratory viruses, infectious disease, genetics, xenotransplantation, drug abuse, and also in vaccine and drug testing. According to The Humane Society of the United States, chimpanzees are most often used in hepatitis research, and monkeys in SIV research. Animals used in hepatitis and SIV studies are often caged alone.
Eighty-two percent of primate procedures in the UK in 2006 were in applied studies, which the Home Office defines as research conducted for the purpose of developing or testing commercial products. Toxicology testing is the largest use, which includes legislatively required testing of drugs. The second largest category of research using primates is "protection of man, animals, or environment", accounting for 8.9% of all procedures in 2006. The third largest category is "fundamental biological research", accounting for 4.9% of all UK primate procedures in 2006. This includes neuroscientific study of the visual system, cognition, and diseases such as Parkinson's, involving techniques such as inserting electrodes to record from or stimulate the brain, and temporary or permanent inactivation of areas of tissue.
Primates are the species most likely to be re-used in experiments. The Research Defence Society writes that re-use is allowed if the animals have been used in mild procedures with no lasting side-effects. This is contradicted by Dr. Gill Langley of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, who gives as an example of re-use the licence granted to Cambridge University to conduct brain experiments on marmosets. The protocol sheet stated that the animals would receive "multiple interventions as part of the whole lesion/graft repair procedure." Under the protocol, a marmoset could be given acute brain lesions under general anaesthetic, followed by tissue implantation under a second general anaesthetic, followed again central cannula implantation under a third. The re-use is allowable when required to meet scientific goals, such as this case in which some procedures are required as preparatory for others.
One of the disadvantages of using NHPs is that they can be difficult to handle, and various methods of physical restraint have to be used. Viktor Reinhardt of the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center writes that scientists may be unaware of the way in which their research animals are handled, and therefore fail to take into account the effect the handling may have had on the animals' health, and thereby on any data collected. Reinhardt writes that primatologists have long recognized that restraint methods may introduce an "uncontrolled methodological variable", by producing resistance and fear in the animal. "Numerous reports have been published demonstrating that non-human primates can readily be trained to cooperate rather than resist during common handling procedures such as capture, venipuncture, injection and veterinary examination. Cooperative animals fail to show behavioural and physiological signs of distress."
Reinhardt lists common restraint methods as: squeeze-back cages, manual restraint, restraint boards, restraint chairs, restraint chutes, tethering, and nets. Alternatives include:
As of 2013, the U.S. and Gabon were the only countries that still allowed chimpanzees to be used for medical experiments. The U.S. is the world's largest user of chimpanzees for biomedical research, with approximately 1,200 individual subjects in U.S. labs as of middle 2011, dropping to less than 700 as of 2016. Japan also still keeps a dozen chimpanzees in a research project for chimpanzee cognition (see Ai (chimpanzee)).
Chimpanzees routinely live 30 years in captivity, and can reach 60 years of age.
Most of the labs either conduct or make the chimpanzees available for invasive research, defined as "inoculation with an infectious agent, surgery or biopsy conducted for the sake of research and not for the sake of the chimpanzee, and/or drug testing." Two federally funded laboratories have used chimps: Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Southwest National Primate Research Center in San Antonio, Texas. By 2008, five hundred chimps had been retired from laboratory use in the U.S. and live in sanctuaries in the U.S. or Canada.
Their importation from the wild was banned in 1973. From then until 1996, chimpanzees in U.S. facilities were bred domestically. Some others were transferred from the entertainment industry to animal testing facilities as recently as 1983, although it is not known if any animals that were transferred from the entertainment industry are still in testing centers. Animal sanctuaries were not an option until the first North American sanctuary that would accept chimpanzees opened in 1976.
In 1986, to prepare for research on AIDS, the U.S. bred them aggressively, with 315 breeding chimpanzees used to produce 400 offspring. By 1996, it was clear that SIV/HIV-2/SHIV in macaque monkeys was a preferred scientific AIDS model to the chimpanzees, which meant there was a surplus. A five-year moratorium on breeding was therefore imposed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) that year, and it has been extended annually since 2001. As of October 2006, the chimpanzee population in US laboratories had declined to 1133 from a peak of 1500 in 1996.
Chimpanzees tend to be used repeatedly over decades, rather than used and killed as with most laboratory animals. Some individual chimpanzees currently in U.S. laboratories have been used in experiments for over 40 years. The oldest known chimpanzee in a U.S. lab is Wenka, who was born in a laboratory in Florida on May 21, 1954. She was removed from her mother on the day of birth to be used in a vision experiment that lasted 17 months, then sold as a pet to a family in North Carolina. She was returned to the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in 1957 when she became too big to handle. Since then, she has given birth six times, and has been used in research into alcohol use, oral contraceptives, aging, and cognitive studies.
With the publication of the chimpanzee genome, there are reportedly plans to increase the use of chimpanzees in labs, with scientists arguing that the federal moratorium on breeding chimpanzees for research should be lifted. Other researchers argue that chimpanzees are unique animals and should either not be used in research, or should be treated differently. Pascal Gagneux, an evolutionary biologist and primate expert at the University of California, San Diego, argues that, given chimpanzees' sense of self, tool use, and genetic similarity to human beings, studies using chimpanzees should follow the ethical guidelines that are used for human subjects unable to give consent. Stuart Zola, director of the Yerkes National Primate Research Laboratory, disagrees. He told "National Geographic": "I don't think we should make a distinction between our obligation to treat humanely any species, whether it's a rat or a monkey or a chimpanzee. No matter how much we may wish it, chimps are not human."
In January 2011 the Institute of Medicine was asked by the NIH to examine whether the government should keep supporting biomedical research on chimpanzees. The NIH called for the study after protests by the Humane Society of the United States, primatologist Jane Goodall and others, when it announced plans to move 186 semi-retired chimpanzees back into active research. On December 15, 2011, the Institute of Medicine committee concluded in their "Chimpanzees in Biomedical and Behavioral Research: Assessing the Necessity" report that, "while the chimpanzee has been a valuable animal model in past research, most current use of chimpanzees for biomedical research is unnecessary," as scientific research indicated a decreasing need for the use of chimpanzees due to the emergence of non-chimpanzee models. Later that day Francis Collins, a head of the NIH, said the agency would stop issuing new awards for research involving chimpanzees until the recommendations developed by the IOM are implemented.
On 21 September 2012, the NIH announced that 110 chimpanzees owned by the government were to be retired. The NIH owned about 500 chimpanzees for research, and this move signified the first step to wind down its investment in chimpanzee research, according to Collins. Housed at the New Iberia Research Center in Louisiana, 10 of the retired chimpanzees were to go to the chimpanzee sanctuary Chimp Haven while the rest were to go to Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio. However, concerns over the chimpanzees' status in the Texas Biomedical Research Institute as ‘research ineligible’ rather than ‘retired’ prompted the NIH to reconsider the plan. On 17 October 2012, it was announced that as many chimpanzees as possible will be relocated to Chimp Haven by August 2013, and that eventually all 110 will move there.
In 2013 the NIH agreed with the IOM's recommendations that experimentation on chimpanzees was unnecessary and rarely helped in advancing human health for infectious diseases and that the NIH would phase out most of its government-funded experiments on chimpanzees. On 22 January 2013, an NIH task force released a report calling for the government to retire most of the chimpanzees under U.S. government support. The panel concluded that the animals provide little benefit in biomedical discoveries except in a few disease cases which can be supported by a small population of 50 primates for future research. It suggested that other approaches, such as genetically altered mice, should be developed and refined instead. On 13 November 2013, Congress and the Senate passed ‘The Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance and Protection Act’, which approved funding to expand the capacity of Chimp Haven and other chimpanzee sanctuaries, allowing for the transfer of almost all of the apes owned by the federal government to live in a more natural and group environment. The transfer was expected to take up to five years, at which point all but 50 chimpanzees were to have been successfully ‘retired’.
On 11 June 2013, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposed to list captive chimpanzees as endangered, matching its existing classification for wild chimpanzees. Until the USFWS proposal, chimpanzees were the only species with a split listing that did not also classify captive members of the species as endangered. Before the proposal gained final approval, it was unclear what effect it would have on laboratory research.
Two years later, on June 16, 2015, the USFWS announced that it has designated both captive and wild chimpanzees as endangered. In November 2015 the NIH announced it would no longer support biomedical research on chimpanzees and release its remaining 50 chimpanzees to sanctuaries. The agency would also develop a plan for phasing out NIH support for the remaining chimps that are supported by, but not owned by, the NIH.
In January 2014, Merck & Co. announced that the company will not use chimpanzees for research, joining over 20 pharmaceutical companies and contract laboratories that have made the commitment. As the trend continues, it is estimated the remaining non-government owned 1,000 chimpanzees will be retired to sanctuaries around 2020.
In the 1940s, Jonas Salk used rhesus monkey cross-contamination studies to isolate the three forms of the polio virus that crippled hundreds of thousands of people yearly across the world at the time. Salk's team created a vaccine against the strains of polio in cell cultures of green monkey kidney cells. The vaccine was made publicly available in 1955, and reduced the incidence of polio 15-fold in the USA over the following five years.
Albert Sabin made a superior "live" vaccine by passing the polio virus through animal hosts, including monkeys. The vaccine was produced for mass consumption in 1963 and is still in use today. It had virtually eradicated polio in the United States by 1965.
In the 1950s, Roger Sperry developed split-brain preparations in non-human primates that emphasized the importance of information transfer that occurred in these neocortical connections. For example, learning on simple tasks, if restricted in sensory input and motor output to one hemisphere of a split-brain animal, would not transfer to the other hemisphere. The right brain has no idea what the left brain is up to, if these specific connections are cut. Those experiments were followed by tests on human beings with epilepsy who had undergone split-brain surgery, which established that the neocortical connections between hemispheres are the principal route for cognition to transfer from one side of the brain to another. These experiments also formed the modern basis for lateralization of function in the human brain.
In the 1960s, David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel demonstrated the macrocolumnar organization of visual areas in cats and monkeys, and provided physiological evidence for the critical period for the development of disparity sensitivity in vision (i.e., the main cue for depth perception). They were awarded a Nobel Prize for their work.
In 1983, designer drug users took MPTP, which created a Parkinsonian syndrome. Later that same year, researchers reproduced the effect in non-human primates. Over the next seven years, the brain areas that were over- and under-active in Parkinson's were mapped out in normal and MPTP-treated macaque monkeys using metabolic labelling and microelectrode studies. In 1990, deep brain lesions were shown to treat Parkinsonian symptoms in macaque monkeys treated with MPTP, and these were followed by pallidotomy operations in humans with similar efficacy. By 1993, it was shown that deep brain stimulation could effect the same treatment without causing a permanent lesion of the same magnitude. Deep brain stimulation has largely replaced pallidotomy for treatment of Parkinson's patients that require neurosurgical intervention. Current estimates are that 20,000 Parkinson's patients have received this treatment.
The non-human primate models of AIDS, using HIV-2, SHIV, and SIV in macaques, have been used as a complement to ongoing research efforts against the virus. The drug tenofovir has had its efficacy and toxicology evaluated in macaques, and found longterm-highdose treatments had adverse effects not found using short term-high dose treatment followed by long term-low dose treatment. This finding in macaques was translated into human dosing regimens. Prophylactic treatment with anti-virals has been evaluated in macaques, because introduction of the virus can only be controlled in an animal model. The finding that prophylaxis can be effective at blocking infection has altered the treatment for occupational exposures, such as needle exposures. Such exposures are now followed rapidly with anti-HIV drugs, and this practice has resulted in measurable transient virus infection similar to the NHP model. Similarly, the mother-to-fetus transmission, and its fetal prophylaxis with antivirals such as tenofovir and AZT, has been evaluated in controlled testing in macaques not possible in humans, and this knowledge has guided antiviral treatment in pregnant mothers with HIV. "The comparison and correlation of results obtained in monkey and human studies is leading to a growing validation and recognition of the relevance of the animal model. Although each animal model has its limitations, carefully designed drug studies in nonhuman primates can continue to advance our scientific knowledge and guide future clinical trials."
The reason for studying primates is due to the similar complexity of the cerebral processes in the human brain which controls emotional responses and can be beneficial for testing new pharmacological treatments. An experiment published in the "Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews" describes habituation of the black-tufted marmoset in a figure eight maze model. They were presented with a taxidermized wild-cat, rattlesnake, a hawk as well as a stuffed toy bear on one side of the maze. Two cameras and a two way mirror was used to observe the difference between the monkeys natural behaviors versus the behaviors expressed by the diazepam induced monkeys in thirteen different locations inside the maze. Scientist Barros and his colleagues created this model to allow the monkeys to roam a less confined environment and slightly eliminate outside factors that may induce stress.
Many of the best-known allegations of abuse made by animal protection or animal rights groups against animal-testing facilities involve non-human primates.
The so-called "pit of despair" was used in experiments conducted on rhesus macaque monkeys during the 1970s by American comparative psychologist Harry Harlow at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.<ref name="Blum1994/95"></ref> The aim of the research was to produce clinical depression. The vertical chamber was a stainless-steel bin with slippery sides that sloped to a rounded bottom. A 3/8 in. wire mesh floor 1 in. above the bottom of the chamber allowed waste material to drop out of holes. The chamber had a food box and a water-bottle holder, and was covered with a pyramid top so that the monkeys were unable to escape.<ref name="Suomi1971/33">Suomi, Stephen John. "Experimental Production of Depressive Behavior in Young Rhesus Monkeys: A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Psychology) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison". University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1971, p. 33. Thesis available in physical form on request; see https://search.library.wisc.edu/catalog/999575603502121</ref> Harlow placed baby monkeys in the chamber alone for up to six weeks. Within a few days, they stopped moving about and remained huddled in a corner. The monkeys generally exhibited marked social impairment and peer hostility when removed from the chamber; most did not recover.
On April 21, 1985, activists of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) broke into the UC Riverside laboratories and removed hundreds of animals. According to Vicky Miller of PETA, who reported the raid to newswire services, UC-Riverside "has been using animals in experiments on sight deprivation and isolation for the last two years and has recently received a grant, paid for with our tax dollars, to continue torturing and killing animals." According to UCR officials, the ALF claims of animal mistreatment were "absolutely false," and the raid would result in long-term damage to some of the research projects, including those aimed at developing devices and treatment for blindness. UCR officials also reported the raid also included smashing equipment and resulted in several hundred thousand dollars of damage.
In Germany in 2004, journalist Friedrich Mülln took undercover footage of staff in Covance in Münster, Europe's largest primate-testing center. Staff were filmed handling monkeys roughly, screaming at them, and making them dance to blaring music. The monkeys were shown isolated in small wire cages with little or no natural light, no environmental enrichment, and subjected to high noise levels from staff shouting and playing the radio. Primatologist Jane Goodall described their living conditions as "horrendous."
A veterinary toxicologist employed as a study director at Covance in Vienna, Virginia, from 2002 to 2004, told city officials in Chandler, Arizona, that Covance was dissecting monkeys while the animals were still alive and able to feel pain. The employee approached the city with her concerns when she learned that Covance planned to build a new laboratory in Chandler.
She alleged that three monkeys in the Vienna laboratory had pushed themselves up on their elbows and had gasped for breath after their eyes had been removed, and while their intestines were being removed during necropsies (autopsy). When she expressed concern at the next study directors' meeting, she says she was told that it was just a reflex. She told city officials that she believed such movements were not reflexes but suggested "botched euthanasia performed by inadequately trained personnel." She alleged that she was ridiculed and subjected to thinly veiled threats when she contacted her supervisors about the issue.
In the UK, after an undercover investigation in 1998, the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV), a lobby group, reported that researchers in Cambridge University's primate-testing labs were sawing the tops off marmosets' heads, inducing strokes, then leaving them overnight without veterinarian care, because staff worked only nine to five.
The experiments used marmosets that were first trained to perform certain behavioral and cognitive tasks, then re-tested after brain damage to determine how the damage had affected their skills. The monkeys were deprived of food and water to encourage them to perform the tasks, with water being withheld for 22 out of every 24 hours.
The Research Defence Society defended Cambridge's research. The RDS wrote that the monkeys were fully anaesthetised, and appropriate pain killers were given after the surgery. "On recovery from the anaesthesia, the monkeys were kept in an incubator, offered food and water and monitored at regular intervals until the early evening. They were then allowed to sleep in the incubators until the next morning. No monkeys died unattended during the night after stroke surgery." A court rejected BUAV's application for a judicial review. BUAV appealed.
In 2003, CNN reported that a post-doctoral veterinarian at Columbia University complained to the university's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee about experiments being conducted on baboons by E. Sander Connolly, an assistant professor of neurosurgery. The experiment involved a left transorbital craniectomy to expose the left internal carotid artery to occlude the blood supply to the brain. A clamp was placed on this blood vessel until the stroke was induced, after which Connolly would test a potential neuroprotective drug which if effective, would be used to treat humans suffering from stroke.
Connolly developed this methodology to make more consistent stroke infarcts in primates, which would improve the detection of differences in stroke treatment groups, and "provide important information not obtainable in rodent models." The baboons were kept alive after the surgery for observation for three to ten days in a state of "profound disability" which would have been "terrifying," according to neurologist Robert Hoffman. Connolly's published animal model states that animals were kept alive for three days, and that animals that were successfully self-caring were kept alive for 10 days. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has expressed strong opposition to this experiment and has written multiple letters to the NIH and other federal agencies to halt further mistreatment of baboons and other animals at Columbia.
An investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found "no indication that the experiments...violated federal guidelines." The Dean of Research at Columbia's School of Medicine said that Connolly had stopped the experiments because of threats from animal rights activists, but still believed his work was humane and potentially valuable.
In 2006, activists forced a primate researcher at UCLA to shut down the experiments in his lab. His name, phone number, and address were posted on the website of the UCLA Primate Freedom Project, along with a description of his research, which stated that he had "received a grant to kill 30 macaque monkeys for vision experiments. Each monkey is first paralyzed, then used for a single session that lasts up to 120 hours, and finally killed." Demonstrations were held outside his home. A Molotov cocktail was placed on the porch of what was believed to be the home of another UCLA primate researcher. Instead, it was accidentally left on the porch of an elderly woman unrelated to the university. The Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the attack.
As a result of the campaign, the researcher sent an email to the Primate Freedom Project stating "you win", and "please don't bother my family anymore." In another incident at UCLA in June 2007, the Animal Liberation Brigade placed a bomb under the car of a UCLA children's ophthalmologist, who performs experiments on cats and rhesus monkeys; the bomb had a faulty fuse and did not detonate. UCLA is now refusing Freedom of Information Act requests for animal medical records.
The house of UCLA researcher Edythe London was intentionally flooded on October 20, 2007, in an attack claimed by the Animal Liberation Front. London conducts research on addiction using non-human primates, and no claims were made by the ALF of any violation of any rules or regulations regarding the use of animals in research. London responded by writing an op-ed column in the "LA Times" titled "Why I use laboratory animals."
In 2009, a UCLA neurobiologist known for using animals to research drug addiction and other psychiatric disorders had his car burned for the second time.
In infectious disease research, China invests more than the U.S. does in conducting research on non-human primates. "Select agents and toxins" refers to a list of over 60 substances that pose the greatest risk to public health, and China uses non-human primates to test treatment of these select agents and toxins more than the U.S. does.
| 8010519 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8010519 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Critical historiography
Critical historiography approaches the history of art, literature or architecture from a critical theory perspective. Critical historiography is used by various scholars in recent decades to emphasize the ambiguous relationship between the past and the writing of history. Specifically, it is used as a method by which one understands the past and can be applied in various fields of academic work.
While historiography is concerned with the theory and history of historical writing, including the study of the developmental trajectory of history as a discipline, critical historiography addresses how historians or historical authors have been influenced by their own groups and loyalties. Here, there is an assumption that historical sources should not be taken at face value and has to be examined critically according to scholarly criteria. A critique of historiography warns against a tendency to focus on past greatness so that it opposes the present as demonstrated in the emphasis on dead traditions that paralyze present life. This view holds that critical historiography can also condemn the past and reveal the effects of repression and mistaken possibilities, among others. For instance, there is the case of the counter discourse to the so-called hegemonic epistemologies that previously defined and dominated the Black experience in America.
Some authors trace the origin of this field in nineteenth-century Germany, particularly with "Leopold von Ranke", one of the proponents of the concept of "Wissenschaft", which means "critical history" or "scientific history", which viewed historiography as a rigorous, critical inquiry. For instance, in the application of "Wissenschaft" to the study of Judaism, it is maintained that there is an implied criticism of the stand of those advocating Orthodoxy. It is said to reveal the tendency of nationalist historians to favor the pious affirmation of the orthodox in attempts to restore pride in Jewish history.
A type of critical historiography can be seen in the work of Harold Bloom. In "Map of Misreading", Bloom argued that poets should not be seen as autonomous agents of creativity, but rather as part of a history that transcends their own production and that to a large degree gives it shape. The historian can try to stabilize poetic production so as to better understand the work of art, but can never completely extract the historical subject from history.
Also among those who argue for the primacy of historiography is the architectural historian Mark Jarzombek. The focus of this work is on disciplinary production rather than poetic production, as was the case with Bloom. Since psychology – which became a more or less official science in the 1880s – is now so pervasive, Jarzombek argued, but yet so difficult to pinpoint, the traditional dualism of subjectivity and objectivity has become not only highly ambiguous, but also the site of a complex negotiation that needs to take place between the historian and the discipline. The issue, for Jarzombek, is particular poignant in the fields of art and architectural history, the principal subject of the book. Pierre Nora's notion of "ego-histories" also moves in the direction of critical historiography. The idea of these histories is to bring into focus the relationship between the personality of historians and their life choices in the process of writing of history. It is also proposed that, in architecture, critical historiography involves a strategic choice to approach the position of architecture within the given Symbolic order. This is demonstrated in the way Kenneth Frampton and Manfredo Tafuri associated Marxism with the Frankfurt School's critical theory.
A critique of critical historiography cites the risk of judging the realities of the past by the yardstick of what is true in the present so that it becomes illusory and can obscure identity.
| 8017687 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8017687 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Shark tourism
Shark tourism is a way for tourists to see sharks the ocean rather than in an aquarium. It is a form of eco-tourism intended to show in that local shark species are more valuable alive than dead. Instead of opting for a one time economic benefit of harvesting sharks for their body parts, communities are enabled to assist tourists who want to see live sharks. People can get close to the sharks by free- or scuba diving or entering the water in a protective cage.
Species commonly seen in shark tourism activities include
Great white shark viewing is available at the Neptune Islands in South Australia, South Africa, Isla Guadalupe in Mexico, and New Zealand. Great white sharks are usually viewed using shark cages to protect the diver. Because of the exceptional visibility underwater in Isla Guadalupe, more outside the cage diving is done than anywhere else.
The great white shark viewing industry was founded in the 1970s by pioneer Australian diver and great white attack survivor Rodney Fox in South Australia. He was the sole world-wide operator until the South African industry was founded in early 1989 by Pieter van der Walt who was joined shortly thereafter by pioneer diver and underwater photographer George Askew who handled promotions and put South African cage diving "on the map" with the publicity he got - until they split in Jan 1992, after they, together with famous Australian divers, Ron and Valerie Taylor, did the world's first dive amongst great white sharks without a cage and completely unprotected.
This dive was directly responsible for the upsurge in shark tourism – especially free-diving (i.e. out of cage) swimming with big sharks. When operators around the world became aware that the great white was quite approachable and not likely to attack they considered whether the other sharks with bad reputations like Tigers, Bulls and Oceanic's might be safe enough to swim with too. This proved to be the case and shark tourism has become a multi-million-dollar a year industry. In attempts to protect the great white shark species, in some places such as South Australia, there is mandatory logbook reporting and photograph/identification required to monitor how cage-diving tourism may impact white sharks involved in these tourism interactions.
The Bahamas is a favorite region for pelagic sharks. Divers in the Bahamas experience reef sharks and tiger sharks while they are hand-fed. Isla Guadalupe, Mexico has been named a Biosphere Reserve in an effort to control the shark diving activities there. Although the practice of shark diving proves to be controversial, it has been proven very effective in attracting tourists. Whale sharks, while not traditionally harvested for their fins but are sometimes harvested for their meat, have also benefited from shark tourism because of snorkelers getting into the water with the gentle giants. In the Philippines snorkelers must maintain a distance of four feet from the sharks and there is a fine and possible jail time for anyone who touches the animals.
Several shark species are known from shark feeding dive sites within the Pacific Region. Grey reef sharks are the main feeders in places such as the Great Barrier Reef, Micronesia and Tahiti. Silvertips and Black Tips Reef Sharks tend to be more seen around the Papua New Guinea coastlines. Bull sharks are found around Mexico, Playa del Carmen in particular.
Whale sharks attract a large amount of tourists each year to South Ari Atoll in the Republic of Maldives, yet, there is still some ambiguity regarding the economic extent of the attraction of these animals. Thus, making conservation/ implementation of management methods difficult to conduct.
Additionally, whale sharks in the waters of the small town of Oslob, on Cebu islands in the Philippines, The sharks have become a top tourist attraction, local governments in the Philippines have followed along in the legalization of feeding these animals in attempt to attract more tourists. Although a huge commercial success, there is growing concern for the implementation of regulation and protection for the whale sharks and its marine environment.
The coral reefs in the Philippines are being harmed greatly by the overpopulation of sharks and people in the area. As the population increases immensely so does the opportunity for the coral reefs to diminish. Sharks are overpopulating because they are being fed by tour operators and it is attracting many more sharks to the area than there naturally would be. This is causing the sharks to be more aggressive with people because they are getting too comfortable with people because they are associating feeding time with the people that are tossing the food to them.
Free Diving
This type of shark tourism is done by professionals that dive down with the individuals that are partaking in the tourism event. A diver takes a small group of people down approximately 40 meters deep where the shark actions takes place. Often times sharks do not pay much attention to the divers, but in rare cases when there are threatening times the operator uses his/her training skills to prevent an attack from occurring.
Ningaloo Marine Park in Western Australia is the site of an annual whale shark aggregation. This site is a very popular tourist site, as whale sharks are incredibly gentle creatures that pose very little threat to humans. Introduced in 1997 and revised to its current version in 2013, the Department of Parks and Wildlife is responsible for a whale shark management program designed to protect the whale shark species and regulate human interaction with them.
The shark tourism industry is meant to educate and increase awareness of the natural environment as well as generate profits for the local people. Data from the years 2006 to 2010 on whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia, has been evaluated to determine the scale of the tourism operations and the spatial and temporal distribution of interactions between whale sharks and humans; for example: whale shark tours at Ningaloo increased by about 70%. The whale shark management program of Ningaloo Marine Park relies on the "Conservation and Land Management Act of 1984" (CALM Act) and the "Wildlife Conservation Act of 1950". The CALM Act requires tour operators to obtain a commercial tourist activity licence, and the Wildlife Conservation Act requires a wildlife interaction licence for each protected species a tour may come in contact with. This includes the whale sharks but is not limited to whales, other shark species, and dugongs. Under these laws, the Western Australian government is able to regulate how tourists interact with whale sharks and to what extent. A maximum of 15 operators are allowed to obtain licences at a given time. In addition, only one tour vessel is allowed to travel to the whale sharks while the rest must stay 250 metres away. Only ten swimmers are allowed in the water at a time, which controls the crowding of the area, and tourists are prohibited from feeding or touching the whale sharks.
Whale sharks are considered a vulnerable species and have been targeted by fishermen for many years. In Ningaloo Marine Park, they are entirely protected. The whale sharks in the area are considered highly valuable in the ecotourism industry, as the industry provides numerous jobs to local people and brings in $12 million USD annually. Tourist interest in wildlife tourism continues to grow, and the whale shark tourism industry is expected to increase through the year 2020.
Previous economic valuation of whale shark tourism (in US million dollars).
Valuations reported in other currencies were converted to US$ using the average official rate for the year of 2007.
Passive and active forms of shark tourism are believed to conserve the species by generating commercial value to their lives in the natural world. In North Carolina wreck divers regularly visit the World War II shipwrecks to dive with the Sand Tiger sharks that make the wrecks their home. The shark tourism industry conducted a search, using a global questionnaire; detecting that 42% of operators conducting shark tourism used an attractant to lure sharks, and that 93% of operators surveyed regulated their practices using codes of conduct.
Business Related to Shark Tourism
Shark tourism opened up a beneficial economic opportunity all over the globe. This helps the poverty stricken areas of the Bahamas, Moorea, Maldives, Australia and many more places around the globe. The only things needed for shark tourism to take place is sharks, which are found almost everywhere in the oceans encompassing the world. Shark tourism is positively impacting the lives of many, as conductors are making good money to take the people down into the water to view the sharks and the people are paying big money to do just this.Tourism providers often provide food to attract sharks to areas where they can be more easily viewed, although this is controversial. In Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and the states of Hawaii and Florida shark feeding is prohibited. Hawaii had several issues with the banning of shark feeding. The initial law that prohibited it was passed in 2002, but many locals realized the tour companies were not following this law and pushed for stricter enforcement.
Sharks, or "mano" as they are called by the local Hawaiians, are viewed as sacred. Early Hawaiians worshiped and protected the sharks which they saw as family gods or "aumaka". In recent years, shark cage diving has become a very profitable tourist attraction in the state. Native Hawaiians were not pleased with this at first due to the fact that the companies were luring in the sharks using bait; they viewed these animals as sacred and feeding them for entertainment was said to be unjust. There was also speculations that by feeding them, the sharks would begin to associate the boats and humans with food. For this reason, a bill was passed in Hawaii in 2002 that banned the feeding of sharks in state waters, which is about 3 miles off shore.
Beqa Lagoon is home to eight species of sharks, each of which are very prominent around feeding sites. Shark diving and shark feeding is very popular in the area, locals have been swimming with the sharks for close to three thousand years. The local people have many myths about these creatures passed down from antiquity. They are easily spotted in the waters of Beqa Lagoon Resort, which is their primary feeding ground. Shark tourism in places such as this is very profitable in Fiji, generating around 42 million USD.
Palau is home to three species of sharks; the grey reef shark, the leopard shark, and the whitetip reef sharks. Palau's waters have many coral reefs, which are home to grey reef sharks, the most commonly seen of the three. Whitetip reef sharks are also seen around coral reefs, and are much more curious than the other sharks. Many tourists and locals are fascinated by these creatures, so that shark diving has become a big part of many tourists incentive to go to Palau. Studies have shown that shark diving and shark tourism in general is a major contributor to the economy of Palau. Over $18 million USD is generated every year, which accounts for close to 10% of all domestic product in the country. The local communities and government benefit, receiving over $1 million and $1.5 million USD respectively.
Many people are involved in interest groups such as the late iDive Sharks Network that aim to celebrate and promote safe and responsible shark diving activities.
| 8026538 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8026538 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Nose ring (animal)
A nose ring is a ring made of metal designed to be installed through the nasal septum of pigs (to prevent them from rooting) as well as domestic cattle, usually bulls. In pigs, nose rings are alternatively pierced through the rim of the nose. Nose rings are often required for bulls when exhibited at agricultural shows. There is a clip-on ring design used for controlling and directing cattle for handling. Nose rings are used to encourage the weaning of young calves by discouraging them from suckling.
Historically, the use of nose rings for controlling animals dates to the dawn of recorded human civilization. They were used in ancient Sumer and are seen on the Standard of Ur, where they were used on both bovines and equines. There are theories that the rod-and-ring symbol are a shepherd's crook and a nose rope.
The nose ring assists the handler to control a dangerous animal with minimal risk of injury or disruption by exerting stress on one of the most sensitive parts of the animal, the nose. Bulls, especially, are powerful and sometimes unpredictable animals which, if uncontrolled, can kill or severely injure a human handler.
Control of the bull may be done by holding the ring by hand, looping a piece of rope through it, clipping on a bull staff. A rope or chain from the ring may be attached to a bull's horns or to a head-collar for additional control.
With an aggressive bull, a short length of chain or rope may be left hanging loose from the ring, so when he ducks in a threatening manner, the bull will step on the chain and be deterred from attacking. This lead may also facilitate capture and control of a frisky bull.
Bull rings are usually about in diameter, depending on the size of the bull. Bull rings are commonly made from aluminium, stainless steel or copper, in the form of a pair of hinged semicircles, held closed by a small brass bolt whose head is broken off during installation. If a ring needs to be removed (for example, if the bull has grown out of it), it is cut or unscrewed.
The ring is normally placed on the bull between 9 and 12 months of age. It is usually done by a veterinarian, who pierces the septum with a scalpel or punch. Self-piercing rings (with sharp ends designed to be pressed through the septum and then pulled together with a screw) have been available for many years; these are also usually installed by a veterinarian rather than the owner.
Calf-weaning nose rings or nosebands provide an alternative to separating calves from their mothers during the weaning period. They have plastic spikes which are uncomfortable for the mother, causing her to reject the calf's efforts at suckling. Weaning nose rings are also available for sheep and goats. These nose rings (usually made of plastic) clip onto the nose without piercing it, and are reusable.
Self-locking or spring-closing show-lead nose rings, also called "bulldogs" or nose grips, are removable rings that do not require the nose to be pierced. They are often used on steers and cows, along with a halter, at agricultural shows, or when handling cattle for examination, marking or treatment. They stay shut until released, and usually have a loop for the attachment of a cord or lead rope. They give similar control to a bull ring without the need for permanent attachment.
Bull-holders, also known as bull-tongs, have a pliers action and are used for short periods on grown cattle when they are being mouthed or drenched. A chain, rope or strap keeps the grips closed and may be passed over a bar at the front of a head bail to elevate the head. The thumb and forefinger may also used in this way on smaller animals.
Rooting is the act of a pig nudging into something with its snout, such as into the dirt to unearth plants to eat. In some circumstances, owners of pigs may find this undesirable. Nose rings make rooting painful for the animal, although a ringed pig may still able to forage freely through leaf litter and surface vegetation. Pig nose-ringing may sometimes be required by local regulations, as when farm pigs are released into public woods to pannage (such as on the New Forest in southern England).
Nose rings specifically designed for pigs usually consist of open copper or steel wire rings with sharp ends, about one inch (about 2.5 cm) in diameter. These are typically clipped to the rim of the nose instead of through the septum, as this is far more painful to the pig and is considered "thus more effective for deterring the pig from rooting than piercing through the septum is". As they may sometimes become dislodged, an adult pig may be given three to four rings.
For safety reasons, many show societies require bulls over 12 months to be led with a nose ring. A bull may be led by a rope tied through the ring, although a halter (headcollar) is usually also used so as not to rely unduly on the nose ring for control. If the bull has horns, the lead rope may also be fastened around those and then passed down through the nose ring. Some shows require other cattle to be led with nose grips (bulldogs). Several methods exist for handling a bull with a ring installed. One method of leading a bull is to have one person on either side of the bull with both halter lead ropes through the ring, which prevents the bull from gaining pace and also from running into the handlers. Another practice is for one handler to use a rope and the other a bull-staff attached to the ring.
It is estimated that 42% of all livestock-related human fatalities are a result of bull attacks, and only about one in twenty victims of a bull attack survives. Dairy breed bulls are particularly dangerous and unpredictable; the hazards of bull handling are a significant cause of injury and death for dairy farmers in some parts of the United States. Most cattle breeders recognize the importance of looking after expensive bulls that are expected to improve herds and profits. Nonetheless, the dangers of bull handling, particularly from dairy bulls in close quarters, are regularly proven by the obituaries. Good bull management and safety practices require caution in handling beef and dairy bulls, and use of the nose ring and chain is a recommended precaution for modern farmers.
However, in many regions, particularly in the beef industry, bulls do not have nose rings unless they are to be exhibited and they are generally driven about as other cattle would be. Cows with young calves can be particularly dangerous if protecting their young, and cattle in general, including calves, steers and bullocks, do cause many serious human injuries and deaths.
Generally the use of both a ring and a halter, and management of the bull by two people, is the preferred method today for controlling the bull. Typically, a bull was led by a wooden staff with a steel end that snapped into the ring. A long rigid steel or wooden bull staff locked into the ring could also be used to push a bull out of a pen without requiring the handler to enter the pen for cleaning or feeding. Because of the risk that the bull may drive the staff into the handler if the bull misbehaves many handlers prefer to avoid their use nowadays. One current veterinary text still recommends the use of a staff in addition to the halter: Many handlers rely on a nose ring to control a bull. But a ring in his nose is no good unless you have a bull staff and use it. A bull staff is a pole with a snap in the end that clips to the bull ring. Leading a bull with a staff gives you a lot more handling power as the bull can't get any closer to you than the length of the staff allows. Leading him only by a chain in the ring lets him run over you at will.
Most dairy or beef farms traditionally had at least one, if not several, bulls for breeding purposes. The handling of an aggressive, powerful animal was a practical issue with life-threatening consequences for the farmer. The need to move the bull in and out of his pen to cover cows exposed the farmer to serious jeopardy of life and limb. Being trampled, jammed against a wall or gored by a bull was one of the most frequent causes of death in the dairy industry prior to 1940. As suggested in one popular farming magazine, "Handle [the bull] with a staff and take no chances. The gentle bull, not the vicious one, most often kills or maims his keeper."
When allowed outside his pen, the bull typically was kept in a halter connected by a strap snapped into the ring in his nose for ease of control. In the bull pen, the use of a ring connected by a cable to a fixed point was recommended as a means of controlling and securing the bull while allowing a degree of movement by the subject bull. If the pen was strong enough, the bull could be turned loose, and if needed, placed in a stanchion. Farmers who lacked an assistant, or a bull staff, had no choice but to adopt other means. Some farmers elected to move their bulls by tying a rope to the ring and tying the other end of the rope to a farm tractor, providing both motive power and a degree of protection from the angry bull. The efficacy of this technique is doubtful, and may depend on the size of the tractor and of the bull; one authority has "seen a bull lift the front end of a tractor like a toy". Others used dogs and horses. Not all farmers could afford specially designed and manufactured bull handling products, which were not readily available until the 1980s. The experimental improvisation of techniques for bull handling, as in many aspects of family farming, was a common practice.
| 8050342 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8050342 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Henry Pachter
Henry Pachter was a Marxist intellectual and a libertarian socialist activist. Perhaps best known as an essayist, who dealt with both historical and political matters, he also authored a number of books on a variety of subjects. An exile from the Nazi regime, deeply concerned with the lessons offered by the Weimar Republic, he taught at the New School for Social Research and then at the City College of the City University of New York until his death in 1980.
Born in 1907 in Berlin, Pachter joined the German Youth Movement as a teenager and, following a split in its ranks, the German Communist Party (KPD) in 1926. He enrolled in the history department at the University of Berlin and, by 1928, found himself expelled from the KPD. He then joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD), where he worked under Rudolf Hilferding at the legendary journal, Society, and finished his dissertation in 1932 on “The Proletariat Before 1848.” He would remain a libertarian socialist for the rest of his life. By the end of 1933, Pachter had been forced to flee to Paris where he took odd jobs, taught at the Universite Populaire, agitated for creating a “popular front” of all antifascist forces, and ultimately served as a publicist for the POUM, a mixed group of Trotskyist and socialists that served the loyalist cause during the Spanish Civil War. Briefly a member of the anti-Nazi underground in which he helped edit probably the first resistance journal, Proletarian Action, he wound up in the Gurs prison camp, before coming to the United States in 1940. Soon enough he was working for the Office of Strategic Services, and part-time for the Institute for Social Research at Columbia University, before becoming a founding member of "Dissent" and entering the academy.
Henry Pachter understood Marxism as a critical method capable of questioning its political employment from a historical and materialist standpoint that emphasized the ability of the working class (rather than a party) to control its destiny. He never viewed it as a “science” or a form of economics guaranteeing the inevitable victory of the proletariat. In this respect, his intellectual lineage derived from Karl Korsch and the libertarian socialism associated with Rosa Luxemburg. His writings were primarily inspired by his political commitments: a work on the Weimar Republic and the Spanish Civil War; a study of economic policy under Mussolini and another dealing with the fascist use of language; the character of authoritarian political parties; foreign policy; the role of reform, and the meaning of socialism. In Pachter’s view, socialism exhibited a fundamental tension between its need to engage the world even as it projects a vision of society as it should be. That tension prevented Pachter from identifying socialism with any movement or party. Indeed, as he once put the matter: “One cannot have socialism; one is a socialist.”
| 8051695 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8051695 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | CrustaStun
The CrustaStun is a device designed to administer a lethal electric shock to shellfish (such as lobsters, crabs, and crayfish) before cooking. This avoids boiling a live shellfish which may be able to experience pain in a way similar to vertebrates. The CrustaStun comprises a stainless-steel box approximately the size of a domestic microwave oven containing a tray with a wet sponge and an electrode. The shellfish is placed in the box and when the lid is closed, the wet sponge conducts the current which electrocutes the animal with a 110 volt, 2–5 amp charge. It is reported the CrustaStun renders the shellfish unconscious in 0.3 seconds and kills the animal in 5 to 10 seconds, compared to 3 minutes to kill a lobster by boiling or 4.5 minutes for a crab.
The inventor of the device, Simon Buckhaven, worked for two years with scientists from the University of Bristol to develop the device which is manufactured by a company in England, at an estimated cost of £2,500 (in 2009).
There are claims that shellfish killed with the CrustaStun taste better than those killed by boiling. Waitrose, Tesco and other major supermarkets in the United Kingdom have insisted that all shellfish products supplied to them are killed using this method.
| 8052493 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8052493 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Social medicine
The field of social medicine seeks to implement social care through
Social medicine as a scientific field gradually began in the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution and the subsequent increase in poverty and disease among workers raised concerns about the effect of social processes on the health of the poor. The field of social medicine is most commonly addressed today by public health efforts to understand what are known as social determinants of health.
The major emphasis on biomedical science in medical education, health care, and medical research has resulted into a gap with our understanding and acknowledgement of far more important social determinants of public health and individual disease: social-economic inequalities, war, illiteracy, detrimental life-styles (smoking, obesity), discrimination because of race, gender and religion. Farmer et al. (2006) gave the following explanation for this gap:
"'The holy grail of modern medicine remains the search for a molecular basis of disease. While the practical yield of such circumscribed inquiry has been enormous, exclusive focus on molecular-level phenomena has contributed to the increasing "desocialization" of scientific inquiry: a tendency to ask only biological questions about what are in fact biosocial phenomena."'
They further concluded that "'Biosocial understandings of medical phenomena are urgently needed"'.
Social care traditionally takes a different look at issues of impairment and disability by adopting a holistic perspective on health. The social model was developed as a direct response to the medical model, the social model sees barriers (physical, attitudinal and behavioural) not just as a biomedical issue, but as caused in part by the society we live in – as a product of the physical, organizational and social worlds that lead to discrimination (Oliver 1996; French 1993; Oliver and Barnes 1993). Social care advocates equality of opportunities for vulnerable sections of society.
German physician Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902) laid foundations for this model. Other prominent figures in the history of social medicine, beginning from the 20th century, include Salvador Allende, Henry E. Sigerist, Thomas McKeown, Victor W. Sidel, Howard Waitzkin, and more recently Paul Farmer and Jim Yong Kim.
In "The Second Sickness", Howard Waitzkin traces the history of social medicine from Engels, through Virchow, through Allende. Waitzkin has sought to educate North Americans about the contributions of Latin American Social Medicine.
In 1976, the British public health scientist and health care critic, Thomas McKeown, MD, published The role of medicine: Dream, mirage or nemesis?, wherein he summarized facts and arguments that supported what became known as the McKeown's thesis, i.e. that the growth of population can be attributed to a decline in mortality from infectious diseases, primarily thanks to better nutrition, later also to better hygiene, and only marginally and late to medical interventions such as antibiotics and vaccines. McKeown was heavily criticized for his controversial ideas, but is nowadays remembered as "'the founder of social medicine"'.
| 8071055 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8071055 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Self-destructive behavior
Self-destructive behavior is any behavior that is harmful or potentially harmful towards the person who engages in the behavior.
Self-destructive behaviors have been shown by many people throughout the years. It is on a continuum, with one extreme end of the scale being suicide. Self-destructive actions may be deliberate, born of impulse, or developed as a habit. The term however tends to be applied toward self-destruction that either is fatal, or is potentially habit-forming or addictive and thus potentially fatal. Self-destructive behavior is often associated with mental illnesses such as borderline personality disorder or schizophrenia.
Self-destructive behavior was first studied in 1895 by Freud and Ferenczi when they first recognized how traumatic experiences affected the development of children. Freud and Ferenczi noticed that children who were raised in an unhealthy environment were more often the ones to act out and take part in self-destructive behavior.
Freud concluded that self-destructive behavior is influenced by one's ego or superego and aggression. Depending on how strongly influenced one is, it will increase the intensity of one’s destructive behavior. Guilt is a leading factor for one's superego. For instance, growing up with alcoholic parents can increase one’s self-destructive behavior because they feel guilty that they didn't provide them with the help they needed. Since they failed to help their parents overcome these obstacles, they feel as if their parent's failed because of them. Then, they use harming themselves as a coping mechanism to their guilt and failure.
Freud additionally states that the aggression in self-destructive behavior is influenced by a personal motive. Just as cultural and environmental factors can play an important role of this, social factors can as well. For example, say a child was bullied all through middle school, the way to get rid of his pain the child would take action in self-destructive behavior, such as self-harm or yelling.
With investigations Freud and Ferenczi formed a hypothesis that people with self-destructive behavior suffer from "forbidden fantasies, not memories," meaning that since the action isn't supposed to be done, self-destructive people get a stronger drive to take part in these actions.
Self-destructive behavior comes in many different forms that varies from person to person. Therefore, superego and aggression is different in every person.
Self-destructive behavior may be used as a coping mechanism when one is overwhelmed. For example, faced with a pressing scholastic assessment, someone may choose to sabotage their work rather than cope with the stress. This would make submission of (or passing) the assessment impossible, but remove the worry associated with it.
Self-destructive behavior may also manifest itself in an active attempt to drive away other people. For example, they may fear that they will "mess up" a relationship. Rather than deal with this fear, socially self-destructive individuals engage in annoying or alienating behavior, so that others will reject them first.
More obvious forms of self-destruction are eating disorders, alcohol abuse, drug addictions, sex addiction, self-injury, and suicide attempts.
An important aspect of self-destructive behavior is the inability to handle the stress stemming from an individual's lack of self-confidence – for example in a relationship, whether the other person is truly faithful ("how can they love someone like me?"); at work or school, whether the realization of assignments and deadlines is possible ("there is no way I can complete all my work on time"). Self-destructive people usually lack healthier coping mechanisms, like asserting personal boundaries. As a result, they tend to feel that showing they are incompetent is the only way to untangle themselves from demands.
Successful individuals may self-destructively sabotage their own achievements; this may stem from a feeling of anxiety, unworthiness, or from an impulsive desire to repeat the "climb to the top."
Self-destructive behavior is often considered to be synonymous with self-harm, but this is not accurate. Self-harm is an extreme form of self-destructive behavior, but it may appear in many other guises. Just as personal experience can affect how extreme ones self-destructive behavior is, self-harm reflects this. Overall, personal experience and mental health problems is what effects self-harm.
Childhood trauma via sexual and physical abuse, as well as disrupted parental care, have been linked with self-destructive behavior. Usually, behavior like this results from the lack of realization of healthy coping mechanisms. Because there's not a lot of focus on specific mental health problems, such as self-destructive behavior, people aren't being educated on specific ways that could benefit or even prevent these people from acting out.
Additionally, people who have experienced some form of childhood trauma, such as abuse or neglect, can make them develop with psychological issues that can lead to bigger problems.
Aside from this, a need for attention or a feel good sensation can ultimately cause this behavior. A prime example of this would be addiction to drugs or alcohol. In the beginning stages, people have the tendency to ease their way into these unhealthy behaviors because it gives them a pleasurable sensation. However, as time goes on, it becomes a habit that they can not stop and they begin to lose these great feelings easily. When these feelings stop, self-destructive behavior enhances because they aren't able to provide themselves with that feeling that makes mental or physical pain go away.
Changing ones self-destructive behavior can be difficult, and may include major stages that one passes through on the way to recovery. The stages founded by Prochaska and DiClemente in 1982 included precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination.
| 8084306 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8084306 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Heavy-tailed distribution
In probability theory, heavy-tailed distributions are probability distributions whose tails are not exponentially bounded: that is, they have heavier tails than the exponential distribution. In many applications it is the right tail of the distribution that is of interest, but a distribution may have a heavy left tail, or both tails may be heavy.
There are three important subclasses of heavy-tailed distributions: the fat-tailed distributions, the long-tailed distributions and the subexponential distributions. In practice, all commonly used heavy-tailed distributions belong to the subexponential class.
There is still some discrepancy over the use of the term heavy-tailed. There are two other definitions in use. Some authors use the term to refer to those distributions which do not have all their power moments finite; and some others to those distributions that do not have a finite variance. The definition given in this article is the most general in use, and includes all distributions encompassed by the alternative definitions, as well as those distributions such as log-normal that possess all their power moments, yet which are generally considered to be heavy-tailed. (Occasionally, heavy-tailed is used for any distribution that has heavier tails than the normal distribution.)
The distribution of a random variable "X" with distribution function "F" is said to have a heavy (right) tail if the moment generating function of "X", "M"("t"), is infinite for all "t" > 0.
That means
An implication of this is that
This is also written in terms of the tail distribution function
as
The distribution of a random variable "X" with distribution function "F" is said to have a long right tail if for all "t" > 0,
or equivalently
This has the intuitive interpretation for a right-tailed long-tailed distributed quantity that if the long-tailed quantity exceeds some high level, the probability approaches 1 that it will exceed any other higher level.
All long-tailed distributions are heavy-tailed, but the converse is false, and it is possible to construct heavy-tailed distributions that are not long-tailed.
Subexponentiality is defined in terms of convolutions of probability distributions. For two independent, identically distributed random variables formula_7 with common distribution function formula_8 the convolution of formula_8 with itself, formula_10 is convolution square, using Lebesgue–Stieltjes integration, by:
The "n"-fold convolution formula_12 is defined in the same way. The tail distribution function formula_13 is defined as formula_14.
A distribution formula_8 on the positive half-line is subexponential if
This implies that, for any formula_17,
The probabilistic interpretation of this is that, for a sum of formula_19 independent random variables formula_20 with common distribution formula_8,
This is often known as the principle of the single big jump or catastrophe principle.
A distribution formula_8 on the whole real line is subexponential if the distribution
formula_24 is. Here formula_25 is the indicator function of the positive half-line. Alternatively, a random variable formula_26 supported on the real line is subexponential if and only if formula_27 is subexponential.
All subexponential distributions are long-tailed, but examples can be constructed of long-tailed distributions that are not subexponential.
All commonly used heavy-tailed distributions are subexponential.
Those that are one-tailed include:
Those that are two-tailed include:
A fat-tailed distribution is a distribution for which the probability density function, for large x, goes to zero as a power formula_28. Since such a power is always bounded below by the probability density function of an exponential distribution, fat-tailed distributions are always heavy-tailed. Some distributions, however, have a tail which goes to zero slower than an exponential function (meaning they are heavy-tailed), but faster than a power (meaning they are not fat-tailed). An example is the log-normal distribution . Many other heavy-tailed distributions such as the log-logistic and Pareto distribution are, however, also fat-tailed.
There are parametric (see Embrechts et al.) and non-parametric (see, e.g., Novak) approaches to the problem of the tail-index estimation.
To estimate the tail-index using the parametric approach, some authors employ GEV distribution or Pareto distribution; they may apply the maximum-likelihood estimator (MLE).
With formula_29 a random sequence of independent and same density function formula_30, the Maximum Attraction Domain of the generalized extreme value density formula_31, where formula_32. If formula_33 and formula_34, then the "Pickands" tail-index estimation is
where formula_36. This estimator converges in probability to formula_37.
Let formula_38 be a sequence of independent and identically distributed random variables with distribution function formula_30, the maximum domain of attraction of the generalized extreme value distribution formula_31, where formula_32. The sample path is formula_42 where formula_19 is the sample size. If
formula_44 is an intermediate order sequence, i.e. formula_45, formula_46 and formula_47, then the Hill tail-index estimator is
where formula_49 is the formula_50-th order statistic of formula_51.
This estimator converges in probability to formula_37, and is asymptotically normal provided formula_53 is restricted based on a higher order regular variation property
. Consistency and asymptotic normality extend to a large class of dependent and heterogeneous sequences, irrespective of whether formula_54 is observed, or a computed residual or filtered data from a large class of models and estimators, including mis-specified models and models with errors that are dependent.
The ratio estimator (RE-estimator) of the tail-index was introduced by Goldie
and Smith.
It is constructed similarly to Hill's estimator but uses a non-random "tuning parameter".
A comparison of Hill-type and RE-type estimators can be found in Novak.
Nonparametric approaches to estimate heavy- and superheavy-tailed probability density functions were given in
Markovich. These are approaches based on variable bandwidth and long-tailed kernel estimators; on the preliminary data transform to a new random variable at finite or infinite intervals which is more convenient for the estimation and then inverse transform of the obtained density estimate; and "piecing-together approach" which provides a certain parametric model for the tail of the density and a non-parametric model to approximate the mode of the density. Nonparametric estimators require an appropriate selection of tuning (smoothing) parameters like a bandwidth of kernel estimators and the bin width of the histogram. The well known data-driven methods of such selection are a cross-validation and its modifications, methods based on the minimization of the mean squared error (MSE) and its asymptotic and their upper bounds. A discrepancy method which uses well-known nonparametric statistics like Kolmogorov-Smirnov's, von Mises and Anderson-Darling's ones as a metric in the space of distribution functions (dfs) and quantiles of the later statistics as a known uncertainty or a discrepancy value can be found in. Bootstrap is another tool to find smoothing parameters using approximations of unknown MSE by different schemes of re-samples selection, see e.g.
| 8092200 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8092200 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Fear of commitment
In self-help literature, fear of commitment is the avoidance of long-term partnership or marriage. The concept is often much more pervasive, affecting school, work, and home life as well.
The term "commitmentphobia" was coined in the popular self-help book "Men Who Can't Love" in 1987. Following criticism of the perceived sexist idea that only men were commitmentphobic, the authors provided a more gender balanced model of commitmentphobia in a later work, " He's Scared, She's Scared" (1995). When aversion to marriage involves fear it's called gamophobia. A hatred of marriage is called "misogamy".
Besides the common criticisms of self-help, Harvard psychologist Deborah DePaulo has written books such as "Singleism" on the stigmatization of single people.
The use of the term "fear" or "phobia" imparts an inherent linguistic bias. It recasts specific lifestyle decisions (such as bachelorhood vs. marriage, or a conscious decision to remain childfree by choice) implicitly as generalised, irrational phobias while failing to identify, describe or address an individual's specific motives. For instance, the men's rights movement, citing high divorce rates and expensive alimony and legal costs, would speak not in terms of "fear of commitment" but of "marriage strike" to reflect their position that non-marriage is an entirely valid, logical position based on rational consideration of the economic factors involved.
| 8094825 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8094825 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Nice guy
A nice guy is an informal term for an (often young) adult male who portrays himself with characteristics such as being gentle, compassionate, sensitive and vulnerable. The term is used both positively and negatively. When used positively, and particularly when used as a preference or description by someone else, it is intended to imply a male who puts the needs of others before his own, avoids confrontations, does favors, gives emotional support, tries to stay out of trouble, and generally acts nicely towards others. In the context of a relationship, it may also refer to traits of honesty, loyalty, romanticism, courtesy, and respect. When used negatively, a nice guy implies a male who is unassertive, does not express his true feelings and, in the context of dating (in which the term is often used), dishonestly uses acts of friendship and basic social etiquette with the unstated aim of progressing to a romantic or sexual relationship.
The results of the research on romantic perception of "nice guys" are mixed and often inconsistent. Herold & Milhausen conclude: "The answer to the question 'Do nice guys finish last?' is complicated in that it is influenced both by the measurement instruments used and by subject characteristics."
Studies that explicitly use the term "nice guy" sometimes cite research that does not directly use the term, but which addresses behaviours which are often associated with disingenuous "niceness".
One difficulty in studying the "nice guy" phenomenon is due to the ambiguity of the "nice guy" construct. Participants in studies interpret "nice guy" to mean different things.
In their qualitative analysis, Herold and Milhausen found that women associate different qualities with the "nice guy" label: "Some women offered flattering interpretations of the 'nice guy', characterizing him as committed, caring, and respectful of women. Some women, however, emphasized more negative aspects, considering the 'nice guy' to be boring, lacking confidence, and unattractive." The "jerks" were also divided into two categories, "as either confident, attractive, sexy, and exciting or as manipulative, unfaithful, disrespectful of women, and interested only in sex."
Nice guys are sometimes suggested to be overbearing or lacking in a vision and ambitions, these opinions suggest self-confidence as key point and area of improvement.
Researchers have therefore operationalized the "nice guy" and "jerk" constructs in different ways, some of which are outlined below.
Various studies explicitly try to elucidate the success, or lack thereof, of "nice guys" with women.
Jensen-Campbell et al. (1995) operationalized "niceness" as prosocial behavior, which included agreeableness and altruism. They found that female attraction was a result of an interaction of "both" dominance and prosocial tendency. They suggest that altruism may be attractive to women when it is perceived as a form of agentic behavior.
Nice guys are usually seen as twice more attractive than men who prefer to present themselves as neutral, and eight times more attractive than the "jerks" in a dating profile. Social dominance enhances female attraction to a male who has shown in the relationship niceness, traits of kindness and warmth stated by women looking for long-term relationships, and less status and physical attractiveness.
Sprecher and Regan (2002) found kindness and warmth, expressiveness, openness and humor, as desirable traits of a long-term partner, less so social status indicators like future earning potential (wealth). Participants suggested they wanted more humor, expressiveness and warmth from their partner than is expressed with their friends.
Herold and Milhausen (1998) asked a sample of undergraduate women "You meet two men. One, John, is nice but somewhat shy. He has not had any sexual experience. The other, Mike, is attractive, a lot of fun, and has had intercourse with ten women. Both wish to date you. Whom do you choose?" 54% reported a preference for "John", 18% preferred "Mike", and the rest had no preference.
Urbaniak and Killman (2003) constructed vignettes of four hypothetical dating show contestants: "Nice Todd" vs. "Neutral Todd" vs. "Jerk Todd" vs. "Michael", who was created to be a control. "Nice Todd" described a "real man" as "in touch with his feelings", kind and attentive, non-macho, and interested in putting his partner's pleasure first. "Neutral Todd" described a "real man" as someone who "knows what he wants and knows how to get it", and who is good to the woman he loves. "Jerk Todd" described a "real man" as someone who "knows what he wants and knows how to get it", who keeps everyone else on their toes, and avoids "touch-feely" stuff. "Michael" described a "real man" as relaxed and positive. In two studies, Urbaniak and Kilmann found that women claimed to prefer "Nice Todd" over "Neutral Todd" and "Jerk Todd", relative to "Michael" even at differing levels of physical attractiveness. They also found that for purely sexual relationships, "niceness appeared relatively less influential than physical attractiveness." After acknowledging that women's preference for "niceness" could be inflated by the social desirability bias, especially due to their use of verbal scripts, they conclude that "our overall results did not favor the nice guy stereotype."
McDaniel (2005) constructed vignettes of dates with a stereotypical "nice guy" vs. a stereotypical "fun/sexy guy", and attempted to make them both sound positive. Participants reported a greater likelihood of wanting a second date with the "nice guy" rather than with the "fun/sexy guy".
A 2008 study at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces showed, that "nice guys" report to have significantly fewer sexual partners than "bad boys".
Barclay (2010) found, that when all other factors are held constant, guys who perform generous acts are rated as being more desirable for dates and long-term relationships than non-generous guys. This study used a series of matched descriptions where each male was presented in a generous or a control version which differed only whether the man tended to help others. The author suggests that niceness itself is desirable to women, but tends to be used by men who are less attractive in other domains, and this is what creates the appearance of "nice guys finish last".
Judge "et al" (2011) concluded, that "Nice guys do not necessarily finish last, but they do finish a distant second in terms of earnings ... yet, seen from the perspective of gender equity, even the nice guys seem to be making out quite well relative to either agreeable or disagreeable women".
These studies also cite other research on heterosexual attraction that does not mention the "nice guy" term. They interpret various studies on female attraction to various traits in men (e.g., dominance, agreeableness, physical attractiveness, wealth, etc.) and on the sexual success of men with different personality traits, to shed light on the "nice guy" phenomenon.
Sadalla, Kenrick, and Vershure (1985) found, that women were sexually attracted to dominance in men (though dominance did not make men likable to women), and that dominance in women had no effect on men.
Bogaert and Fisher (1995) studied the relationships between the personalities of university men and their number of sexual partners. They found a correlation between a man's number of sexual partners, and the traits of sensation-seeking, hypermasculinity, physical attractiveness, and testosterone levels. They also discovered a correlation between maximum monthly number of partners, and the traits of dominance and psychoticism. Bogaert and Fisher suggest that an underlying construct labelled "disinhibition" could be used to explain most of these differences. They suggest that disinhibition would correlate negatively with "agreeableness" and "conscientiousness" from the Big Five personality model.
Botwin, Buss and Shackelford (1997) found that women had a higher preference for surgency and dominance in their mates than men did, in a study of dating couples and newlyweds.
A number of viewpoints have arisen in popular culture that revolve around the concept of the "nice guy", irrespective of the preceding research.
A common aphorism is that "nice guys finish last." The phrase is based on a quote by Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher in 1946, which was then condensed by journalists. The original quote by Durocher, referring to the Dodgers' bitter rivals, the New York Giants, was, "The nice guys are all over there, in seventh place." (1946 July 6), about the 1946 New York Giants – seventh place was actually "second-to-last" place in the National League; many variants appear in later works, including Durocher's autobiography, "Nice Guys Finish Last". The Giants would finish the 1946 season in the National League cellar, while Durocher's Dodgers would end up in second place.
Though this is the origin of the phrase, Durocher's remark was specific to the context of baseball, and indeed to the context of that set of players, rather than intended as generally applicable to male/female relationship dynamics or in any other context and his allegation of a cause-and-effect relationship between being nice and finishing last was at most merely implicit – it can also be interpreted as "Nice guys, but they will finish last", rather than "all nice guys finish last".
Simplistically, the term "nice guy" could be an adjectival phrase describing what appears to be a friendly, kind, or courteous man. The "nice guys finish last" phrase is also said to be coined by American biologist Garrett Hardin to sum up the selfish gene theory of life and evolution. This was disputed by Richard Dawkins, who wrote the book "The Selfish Gene". Dawkins was misinterpreted by many as confirming the "nice guy finishing last" view, but refuted the claims in the BBC documentary "Nice Guys Finish First".
The "nice guys finish last" view is that there is a discrepancy between women's stated preferences and their actual choices in men. In other words, women say that they want nice guys, but really go for men who are "jerks" or "bad boys" in the end. Stephan Desrochers claims, in a 1995 article in the journal "Sex Roles", that many "sensitive" men, based on personal experience, do not believe women actually want "nice guys".
According to McDaniel, popular culture and dating advice: "...suggest that women claim they want a 'nice guy' because they believe that is what is expected of them when, in reality, they want the so-called 'challenge' that comes with dating a not-so-nice guy."
Urbaniak & Kilmann write that:
Another perspective is that women do want "nice guys," at least when they are looking for a romantic relationship. Desrochers (1995) suggests that "it still seems popular to believe that women in contemporary America prefer men who are 'sensitive,' or have feminine personality traits." Women have differing opinions about whether "nice guys finish last" sexually or not.
Herold and Milhausen found that 56% of 165 university women claimed to agree with the statement: "You may have heard the expression, 'Nice guys finish last.' In terms of dating, and sex, do you think women are less likely to have sex with men who are 'nice' than men who are 'not nice'?" A third view is that while "nice guys" may not be as successful at attracting women sexually, they may be sought after by women looking for long-term romantic relationships (however, "nice guys need not lose all hope, with studies showing that while women like 'bad boys' for flings, they tend to settle down with more caring types" – the "bad boys" tending to exhibit the dark triad, i.e., "the self-obsession of narcissism, the impulsive, thrill-seeking and callous behaviour of the psychopath and the deceitful and exploitative nature of Machiavellianism". It is a possibility that women leave to escape their circumstances of abuse, disease or pregnancy to seek a chance with the nice guy (they rejected previously), afterwards.
Herold and Milhausen claim: "While 'nice guys' may not be competitive in terms of numbers of sexual partners, they tend to be more successful with respect to longer-term, committed relationships."
Another study indicates that "for brief affairs, women tend to prefer a dominating, powerful and promiscuous man." Further evidence appears in a 2005 study in Prague: "Since women can always get a man for a one-night stand, they gain an advantage if they find partners for child-rearing."
The terms "Nice Guy" and "nice guy syndrome" can be used to describe a man who views himself as a prototypical "nice guy," but whose "nice deeds" are deemed to be solely motivated by a desire to court women. From said courting, the 'nice guy' may hope to form a romantic relationship or may be motivated by a simple desire to increase his sexual activity. The results of failure are often resentment toward women and/or society. The 'nice guy' is commonly said to be put by women "into the friend zone" who do not reciprocate his romantic or sexual interest. Third wave feminist interpretations tend to see this resentment as being based upon an assumption by men that they are entitled to sex and are therefore confused when they find that it is not forthcoming despite their supposed 'niceness'. More male orientated interpretations claim that the resentment is down to the fact that society, and the vast majority of people in spoken conversation, claim to be attracted to traits such as honesty, integrity and kindness, when in reality more superficial considerations trigger attraction. According to this interpretation people who display wealth, good looks, dominance and confidence tend to succeed more in romance than do 'nice guys'. Nice guys are therefore resentful at the inconsistency between what people claim to be attracted to and by how they act in reality.
In early 2002, the web site Heartless Bitches International (HBI) published several "rants" on the concept of the Nice Guy. The central theme was that a genuinely nice male is desirable, but that many Nice Guys are insecure men unwilling to articulate their romantic or sexual feelings directly. Instead, they choose to present themselves as their paramour's friend, and hang around, doing nice things for her in hopes that she will pick up on their desire for her. If she fails to read their secret feelings, Nice Guys become embittered and blame her for taking advantage of them and their niceness. The site is particularly critical of what they see as hypocrisy and manipulation on the part of self-professed Nice Guys.
According to journalist Paris Martineau, the extremely misogynistic incel and red pill movements (part of the anti-feminist manosphere) recruit depressed, frustrated men – who may suffer from "Nice Guy syndrome" – into the alt-right
| 8097692 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8097692 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Tetrapharmakos
The Tetrapharmakos () "four-part remedy" is a summary of the first four of the Κύριαι Δόξαι ("Kuriai Doxai", the forty Epicurean "Principal Doctrines" given by Diogenes Laërtius in his "Life of Epicurus") in Epicureanism, a recipe for leading the happiest possible life.
They are recommendations to avoid anxiety or existential dread.
The "tetrapharmakos" was originally a compound of four drugs (wax, tallow, pitch and resin); the word has been used metaphorically by Roman-era Epicureans. to refer to the four remedies for healing the soul.
As expressed by Philodemos, and preserved in a Herculaneum Papyrus (1005, 4.9–14), the "tetrapharmakos" reads:
This is a summary of the first four of the forty Epicurean "Principal Doctrines" ("Sovran Maxims") given by Diogenes Laërtius, which in the by Robert Drew Hicks (1925) read as follows:
In Hellenistic religion, the gods were conceived as hypothetical beings in a perpetual state of bliss, indestructible entities that are completely invulnerable. Gods in this view are mere role models for human beings, who are to "emulate the happiness of the gods, within the limits imposed by human nature."
As D. S. Hutchinson wrote concerning this line, "While you are alive, you don't have to deal with being dead, but when you are dead you don't have to deal with it either, because you aren't there to deal with it." In Epicurus' own words in his Letter to Menoeceus, "Death means nothing to us...when we exist, death is not yet present, and when death is present, then we do not exist," for there is no afterlife. Death, says Epicurus, is the greatest anxiety of all, in length and intensity. This anxiety about death impedes the quality and happiness of one's life by the theory of afterlife: the worrying about whether or not one's deeds and actions in life will translate well into the region of the gods, the wondering whether one will be assigned to an eternity of pain or to an eternity of pleasure.
Sustenance and shelter, these things can be acquired by anyone — by both animal and human — with minimal effort, regardless of wealth. But if one wants more than one needs (over indulgency, gluttony, etc.), one is limiting the chances of satisfaction and happiness, and therefore creating a “needless anxiety” in one’s life. "What is good is easy to get" implies that the minimum amount of necessity it takes to satisfy an urge is the maximum amount of interest a person should have in satisfying that urge.
The Epicureans understood that, in nature, illness and pain is not suffered for very long, for pain and suffering is either "brief or chronic ... either mild or intense, but discomfort that is both chronic and intense is very unusual; so there is no need to be concerned about the prospect of suffering." Like "What is good is easy to get," recognizing one's physical and mental limit and one's threshold of pain — understanding how much pain the body or mind can endure — and maintaining confidence that pleasure only follows pain (and the avoidance of anxiety about the length of pain), is the remedy against prolonged suffering.
| 8120627 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8120627 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | PKP Open Archives Harvester
The PKP Open Archives Harvester is software used to accumulate and index freely available metadata, providing a searchable, web-based interface. It is open source, released under the GNU General Public License. It was created and is maintained by the Public Knowledge Project, in Vancouver, Canada.
Originally developed to harvest the metadata from Open Journal Systems articles and Open Conference Systems proceedings, the Harvester can by used with any OAI-PMH-compliant resource.
It can harvest metadata in a variety of schemas (including unqualified Dublin Core, the PKP Dublin Core extension, the Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS), and MARCXML). Additional schema are supported via plugins.
The PKP OA Harvester allows any institution to create their own metadata harvester, which can be focused specifically on gathering information from or for their research community.
| 8147179 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8147179 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Anti-environmentalism
Anti-environmentalism is a movement that opposes action towards maintaining nature and the environment, such as reducing the effects of climate change and/or global warming. Anti-environmentalists seek to persuade the public that environmental policy impacts them negatively through public debate. Various groups in society have sought to counter the effects of environmental ideology and movements, to redirect and diminish public concern about the environment, to attack left-leaning environmentalists, and to persuade politicians against increased environmental regulation. Some anti-environmentalists may argue environmentalism is radical and "anti-human" due to environmentalist's concern for climate change and their belief that humans need to interfere with the Earth less, or stop all together.
Some anti-environmentalists argue that the Earth is not as fragile as some environmentalists maintain, as Earth maintained itself long before humans arrived, and it will continue to maintain itself long after humans are gone. Another argument made by anti-environmentalists is that it is in the interest of the economy, and more specifically job creation, to be anti-environment. Groups which are anti-environment include oil producers and mining companies.
As the nature of anti-environmentalism is a polarizing subject, it has resulted in a variety of conflicts throughout North America, including the Dakota Pipeline in Standing Rock, North Dakota and the Alberta Oil Sands. The Dakota Pipeline, a four-state crude oil pipeline which would transport 470,000 barrels of oil per day from North Dakota to Illinois, evoked backlash from environmentalists, as well as the Indigenous communities residing in South Dakota, primarily the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. These groups had concerns about the ethicality of the pipeline as well as the pollutants the pipeline would release into the water supply of South Dakota inhabitants. Environmentalists had similar complaints regarding the Alberta Oil Sands. Anti-environmentalists argued that the economic benefits that would result from both projects outweigh the negative effects on the environment and these people living in these areas.
Anti-Science movements are criticized by Anne and Paul Ehrlich, in their book "Betrayal of Science and Reason," as being anti-Environmental. Environmental politics are often perceived as a reason for increased taxes. Anti-Environmental groups often believe Environmentalists are ignoring the "good" environmental findings and have other beliefs such as population growth and species extinction are not real issues, natural resources as plentiful, global warming as not a threat, and environmental regulation inhibits the economy. The wise-use movement is also criticized as Anti-Environmental as it also believes environmental protection interferes with economic growth and government effort towards environmental regulation is unnecessary.
In past years, the environmentalism movement has grown popularity along with environmental consciousness. Specifically, businesses and governments would develop anti-environmentalism to counter act the people's concerns. The late 1960s and early 1970s exemplified public awareness of conservation for the land and sea. With this, large businesses, who began to be viewed as being an issue for the environment were experiencing distrust from their customers. This ultimately resulted in the creation of legislations and contracts based upon these environmental issues.
Concern about the impacts of human activity on the environment in Canada started in the 1960s with the concern of pollution. Throughout the 1960s, more emphasis was put on nature conservation, as the natural environment started to be seen not only as scenic, but important to human survival. Public concern for the environment turned into action with the development of activist groups such as Greenpeace. This concern was later reflected in decisions made by the Canadian government, as was seen with Canada ratifying the Kyoto Protocol in 2002 under the leadership of Jean Chrétien of the Liberal Party. Critics of the environmental movements described Greenpeace as a radical group, displaying an act of "domestic extremism".
During the Maoist period in China (1949-1976), Maoism was a popular political theory which guided communism in China and believed in using and destroying nature for economic and industrial growth. Maoism emphasized the importance of industrial growth and saw the destruction of the environment -such as extraction of resources- as essential for the benefit of Chinese people and the economy Eventually with China's growing industrial economy, China began to be large producer of Carbon emissions globally, thus China began to take environmental action in 1990 and eventually enacted the Implementation of a Renewable Energy Law in 2005. The Chinese government -who once believed in the extraction of natural resources as a method of industrialization- has since transitioned to implement policy to reduce the effects of carbon emissions. China also believes they must exclude businesses from environmentalism because most are opposed to any environmental action. ""
From the 1980s, Mexico experienced rampant deforestation to create room for pastures. Tropical forests covered 50% of the state of Tabasco in 1940, which then was reduced to 10% in the late 1980s. The result of this has been mass soil erosion nationwide. By 1985, 17% of Mexico's land was classified as totally eroded, while almost 50% of land was classified as experiencing an accelerated erosion, or signs of impending erosion. The coastline of Mexico experiences other problems, such as the exploitation of petrol as there are relaxed regulations concerning petrol. In 1992, this resulted in 1,000 barrels of gasoline leaking into municipal sewer systems in Guadalajara, where the gases and chemicals produced an explosion killing almost 200 people. Following this event, in 1994, President Bill Clinton issued executive orders demanding that the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation and the Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the United Mexican States Concerning the Establishment of a Border Environment Cooperation Commission be enforced so that it aligns with American environmental policy.
One study conducted in the mid-1980s of twelve urban areas around the world concluded that residents of Mexico City had the highest levels of cadmium in their blood. The concentration of pollutants was impacting surrounding ecosystems, as well as residents in the area. These impacts included birth defects and high levels of gastrointestinal disease. Also in the 1980s, the Mexican government implemented various anti-pollution policies in Mexico City. These policies included vehicle emission inspections, introducing unleaded gasoline, and the installation of converters on vehicles to help reduce pollution created by buses and trucks. Another study in Mexico determined that five million tons of contaminants were released into the atmosphere each year; ten times more than in the previous decade. Vehicles and industrial plants were found to be the main contributors of contaminants into the atmosphere. As well, fecal matter becomes airborne in Mexico during the winter months, resulting in residents being diagnosed with a variety of respiratory illnesses.
During his time as President of the United States, Bill Clinton made strides towards environmentalism and sustainability. Throughout the 1990s, Clinton signed various executive orders committing to the preservation of many facets of the environment including animals, forests and wetlands. In 1993, Clinton and Gore hosted the Forest Conference which was considered to be the beginning of developing a comprehensive, long term policy in which workers, businesses and communities dependent on timber sales would be supported. In the same year, Clinton issued executive orders for federal agencies to increase the use of alternative-fueled vehicles and reduce the use of materials which deplete the ozone. As well, Clinton spearheaded an environmental justice movement, ensuring that low-income citizens and minorities did not disproportionately feel the impacts of industrial pollution, and minimizing the hazards associated with the construction of pipelines.
Clinton's successor, President George W. Bush stated in his campaign platform that he would "ensure that the federal government, which is the country's largest polluter, complies with all environmental laws" and that the United States would even exceed the set standards. Though once elected, Bush verged from what he had promised during his campaign, and instead reversed Clinton administration initiatives on drinking water, and advocated for oil exploration in protected regions. Bush's administration also moved forward in withdrawing its support of the Kyoto Protocol, a worldwide global warming agreement created in 1997. Bush stated that he would work with allies to the United States to reduce greenhouse gases, but would not carry out a plan that would harm the economy and hurt American workers.
Environmental policy is criticized by some politicians for its impact on businesses. Some conservative and neo-liberal groups want to develop and maintain industry and capitalism through diminution of environmental policy. Anti-environmental politicians seek to reduce governmental regulation because businesses are often criticized by environmentalists for having negative impacts on the environment, so they see environmental policy as governmental control of businesses. Some common arguments are that economic growth justifies environmental harm and that employment could be diminished by environmental policy.
The Alberta oil sands has also been a point of contention between environmentalists and anti-environmentalists. Anti-environmentalists maintain that the oil sands have improved Canada's relations with the United States as Canada is their number one foreign supplier of oil.
As well, the oil sands have brought a secure source of energy to Canada, as well as tremendous economic gains for Alberta. There are some environmental efforts in place to mitigate the effects that the mining involved in operating the Oil Sands has on animal species, though environmentalist groups are not satisfied. Environmentalist groups such as Greenpeace are concerned with the environmental, social and health impacts of the Oil Sands, particularly on First Nations communities in Alberta.
The source of this conflict is that on January 25, 2016, Dakota Access announced that it received permit approval to move forward with the construction of a four-state crude oil pipeline which would transport 470,000 barrels of oil per day from North Dakota to Illinois. Anti-environmentalists defended the construction of the Pipeline as it would create thousands of jobs, make the United States more energy independent and create a more cost-effective method of transporting oil to major refining markets. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe took issue with this as the pipeline would run through their communities, tainting their sacred land as well as contaminating their water supply. What followed in the next ten months was a response from Sioux communities, protestors and environmentalist groups in the form of peaceful protests in which over 400 arrests were made by local law enforcement. 26 Environmentalist groups responded to the event with an open letter condemning the actions of the North American banks who helped fund the pipeline, and encouraged them to stop any future payments contributing to it.
Anti-Mining Mobilization in Peru
In the early 1990s, there was an increase in large-scale mining and hydrocarbon operations in Peru. This development created disputes within rural communities. The main cause of conflict involved the struggle over land and natural resources. Individuals tended to participate in illegal operations that oftentimes caused environmental consequences. In May 2009, Defensoria del Pueblo from the Ombudsman's Office made a publishment which highlighted 268 social conflicts in Peru. In June of the same year, a protest against the García administration's concession on the rights of petroleum exploration on indigenous land created a conflict costing the lives of 24 police officers and 10 civilians. In April 2010, Madre de Dios, the Amazonian department witnessed a protest which resulted in 6 informal gold miners being shot and killed. Within the same month, a conflict concerning roughly 6,000 informal protectors and 1,000 police officers occurred in the southern department of Aregupa. Approximately 1,000 protestors were killed. A later report published by the Ombudsman's Office in June 2010 recorded 250 conflicts. Out of these, 18 were developing in the department of the northern highland of Cajamarea and another 13 concerned mineral extraction.
Resistance to Coal Power Plant in Kenya
In June 2018, Kenyan protestors marched the streets in demand that their President Uhuru Kenyatta to stop the building process of a coal power plant in their country. Officials state that the power plant will satisfy Kenya's rising demand for electric power. One of the protest's organizers Khalid Hussein of the national human rights group made a statement that coal is poison to both the people and the environment and citizens are demanding for the plant to not be installed. The coal power plant is being constructed by a Chinese company, China Power Global. Critics believe that this project will pollute the environment and damage the marine ecosystem. This can extend to conflicts due to climate change-induced migration. In 2007, the Christian Aid Charity warned that towards the end of the 21st century 184 million Africans could die from the result of climate change alone, and that roughly one billion will be forced to leave their homes as effects of climate change worsen.
The Czech Republic and the Highway by-pass project
In 1991, Plzen Czech Republic experienced immense air pollution that citizens felt was the source of their health problems. So the government decided they needed to build a new highway so the traffic could no longer create pollution in the city. Two different plans were created, one being the K variant which put the highway south of the city, and the S variant which would go through protected land, and would have negative impacts on rural areas as opposed to the city. This event began environmental movements in the Czech Republic that protested the S variant. In previous years, Czechoslovakia had been focused on the soviet model of industrial expansion which lacked environmental regulation. This had effects on the environment, such as low-grade coal used in houses and by industries as well as lead gasoline used in automobiles. In the 1980s environmental activists protested the governments lack of environmental regulation. Political campaigns thereafter became increasingly anti-environmental through media outlets and newspaper coverage. Media coverage shared statements such as "Environmentalists believe that bugs are more important than people" and "Beware of environmentalists – they are extremists." These statements created fear of environmental causes in the population.
Since the early 1990s, key issues across the world regarding how nations should address the concept of climate change have created several tensions. As a result, from these tensions, global relations (specifically between developed and developing nations) have diminished in quality. For example, the Kyoto and Copenhagen Conferences in the late 2000s brought up issues revolving nuclear power energy use in Japan and the nuclear radiation detected on the coast of other countries of the Pacific. Eventually the argument was settled between Japan and its oppositional forces of the United Nations, led by key large nations of the West such as the United States, in the Copenhagen Accord. The Copenhagen Accord itself hosts large controversy, headed by promises of both developed and developing nations to mitigate advocations for action against climate change. In other words, in an attempt to create a regime that complements the United Nation's core beliefs that often correlate to Western society's beliefs, attitudes of past imperialism were implemented on a global scale. An earlier occurrence reflects the same concept, when Indonesia experienced widespread drought between the years 1993 and 1997. During this time period, rice, Indonesia's staple crop and food source, experienced major detriment in its production, causing riots resulting from a dramatic increase in price of rice and political instability.
China played a key part during this period, being that the country made settlements on subsidies for rice, as China experienced an abundance of rice yield during the same period. This furthered Indonesia's debt to China, cancelling out any progress made by the two nations during the Settlement of Indonesia's Debt Obligation to China conference of 1990. China, being a country seeking development is the world's second largest economy has grown 10% annually for a decade, which allowed for people to no longer living in poverty, is due to China's overall sentiment in the past of focusing on development now and later caring about the environment. Pro-Environmental policies criticize China's economic development as causing "air, water and soil pollution". Chinese industry utilizes the cheapest methods of production and labour to advance their economy which in turn impacts the environment and environmental policy can impose restriction's on the advancement of china's economy and industry.
The Paris Agreement was an international legal agreement implemented December 2015, for states to take collective action against climate change by working towards decreasing the globe's average temperature and make countries financing consistent with that goal. The United States - under the Obama Administration - agreed upon the Paris Agreement. When Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, he pulled out of the agreement due to his major concern for its restrictions on building industry in the United States despite the pressures from allies and lobbying groups.
In 2014, Environment Canada released its annual emissions trends report, which showed that Canada was not going to meet emission reduction targets as was promised in 2009. In fact, Canada is on track to increase its emissions up until 2020. Harper's government, while originally committed to reducing emissions, also disapproved of limiting oil and gas emissions as the price of oil rose higher.
This was consistent with Harper's decision to withdraw Canada from the Kyoto Protocol in 2011. The main reason given for this by Harper was that Canada was not having success in meeting the protocol's targets. In the following years, Harper's administration made it difficult for environmental groups to operate in Canada. Environmental charities experienced frequent audits by the federal government which resulted in less productivity and being at risk of losing their charitable status. In addition; scientific institutions were eliminated, or were faced with obstacles such as reduced government funding, and rules put into place which made it increasingly difficult for government scientists to discuss their work with media outlets. Scientific positions including the National Science Advisor who is the point-person between the scientific community and the government, were phased out in 2008. Harper also repealed a significant environmental policy which had previously been in place; the "Canadian Environmental Assessment Act". Later, a new version of the act was created, which critics argue allows the government to select which projects are assessed for their ecological impact and which are not. In 2015, with the election of Justin Trudeau, the environment became one of Canada's main concerns, with Trudeau eventually signing the Paris Agreement in 2016.
Former President Barack Obama promised to make the United States more environmentally conscious, and implemented the Clean Power Plan, invested significantly in clean energy, and improved standards for fuel economy of our vehicles; this reduced pollution and was also economical. Obama also made a joint agreement with China to reduce the emissions of both countries, and to reduce emissions in the United States by 27% by 2025. The current state of environmental affairs in the United States has changed drastically once again with the new Donald Trump administration. Trump has been open about his plans to alter or withdraw entirely from many climate change and environmental agreements the United States is currently involved in, such as the Paris Agreement. As this agreement is voluntary, the United States would face no penalty if they declined to participate. However, as the United States is the second largest emitter of carbon after China, their lack of participation in the agreement would greatly impact global efforts to reduce carbon emissions. While in 1999, President Bill Clinton announced that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would enforce the toughest standards to date, Trump's administration recently instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the climate change page from its website. EPA employees have stated that if the page is taken down, years of research on global warming will be gone, as well as detailed data on emissions and links to scientific global warming research. On June 1, 2017, Trump announced that the U.S. would cease all participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation. Trump stated that "The Paris accord will undermine (the U.S.) economy," and "puts (the U.S.) at a permanent disadvantage."
In Mexico, the economy and population are putting a strain on the environment which has led to increased pollution and natural resources being depleted. Mexico has implemented an environmental, legal and institutional framework to minimize their negative impact on the environment, and it is now commonplace for sustainable development to be incorporated into policymaking. This has resulted in improvements in air quality in urban areas, where previously many more individuals were seeing the negative impacts of pollution on their health. As well, water management has become more decentralized, which has assisted municipalities in developing their own water and waste water infrastructure. This has also resulted in safer drinking water for residents of Mexico.
However, there are challenges that persist for Mexico in trying to become more sustainable. One of these challenges is that policymaking needs to be accompanied by capacity building within communities to be able to put policy into practice. Deforestation is also still rampant in Mexico, occurring at one of the highest rates in the world. The OECD recommends strengthening the implementation of legislation concerning nature conservation and reducing pollution using inspections. OECD also recommends increasing the funding Mexico receives from private, public and international sources so that infrastructure, mainly concerning waste water, can be more effectively implemented. Investment in water infrastructure makes up approximately 50% of what Mexico requires, as only one quarter of urban waste water is treated.
A recent collaborative development between all three North American countries is that of the North American Climate, Energy, and Environment Partnership. The partnership was announced by Justin Trudeau, President Barack Obama, and President Enrique Peña Nieto on June 29, 2016, at the North American Leaders Summit in Ottawa, Canada. The central pillars to this partnership include; advancing clean and secure energy; reducing climate pollutants; promoting clean and efficient transportation; protecting nature and advancing science and showing global "leadership in addressing climate change."
Maoming China has been a city of local environmental dispute, surrounding the municipal government sponsored Para-Xylene (PX) Industry, which is a chemical used in manufacturing plastics, such as those in water bottles and polyesters. The industry has been promoted in Maoming for its economic benefits due to the jobs provided by the factories. Despite the industry's economic benefits, citizens began to protest in 2014 as there was increasing concern for the chemical's environmental and health risks to the citizens of the city. To counteract the environmentalist social movement, the government took action by creating an agreement that all civilians must sign stating they will not engage in protests or speak of the industry negatively, which high school students had to sign in order to graduate, as well as implementing an education campaign by providing lectures to the citizens on PX project.
In Poland, various methods of mosquito controlling through the use of chemicals have been in practice since World War II. The motive originally was to aid in the elimination of potential carriers of diseases such as malaria, tularaemia, and encephalitis, which were creating epidemic outbreaks. Today, the same method of elimination is being used in order to diminish the mosquito population in major tourist areas throughout Poland. Biocides are commonly used and regulated through municipality staff and officers of city councils. As well, several product's active ingredients, such as Cybermethrin, Ecofenprox, Deltamethrin, and Bendiocarb, type of use varies on the place of application. Typical warning labels caution negative impacts of these products towards natural water and bees are accompanied by another warning label stating "dangerous for the environment." The current expectations towards pest control companies in Poland are that there is a need for environmental consideration through scientific studies. These expectations do not include areas that have a city permit to use products containing biocides.
Increased deforestation in the Amazon rainforest has led to fires in areas where deforestation has increased.
| 8149492 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8149492 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Dual loyalty (ethics)
In ethics, dual loyalty is loyalty to two separate interests that potentially entails a conflict of interest.
A frequently cited example of the term "dual loyalty" is used in connection with physicians who must balance, on the one hand, the physician's loyalty to a patient (and/or the regulations that govern the physician-patient relationship), and on the other hand, the institution or country for which the physician serves.
For example, a doctor who is asked by a government to assess a prisoner's fitness to withstand torture faces an enormous ethical dilemma because of the competing loyalties of the doctor to the state versus the physician's code of ethics and his/her commitment to a patient's human rights.
| 8174936 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8174936 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | HLSL2GLSL
HLSL2GLSL is a command line tool and a library that translates shaders written in High Level Shader Language (HLSL) for Direct3D 9 into the OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL).
HLSL2GLSL was originally released by ATI Technologies under a BSD License. The last release was v0.9 from 2006. HLSL2GLSL is not part of GPUOpen.
The project was forked in 2010 to fix issues and add features like OpenGL ES support. It is now used by Unity and OGRE to translate Cg/HLSL shaders into GLSL for mobile platforms.
The project has been criticized for generating low-quality, bloated code. At the XDC2014, Matt Turner pointed out that many benchmark examples in Mesa's shader-db are generated by conversion and of poor quality.
| 8191286 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8191286 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Humanist celebrant
A humanist celebrant or humanist officiant is a person who performs humanist celebrancy services, such as non-religious weddings, funerals, child namings, coming of age ceremonies and other rituals. Some humanist celebrants are accredited by humanist organisations, such as Humanists UK, Humanist Society Scotland (HSS), and the Humanist Association of Canada (HAC).
Humanist ceremonies are conducted in every part of the world by humanist organisations, although the legal status of non-religious ceremonies of different kinds varies from place to place. In general, funeral ceremonies are not typically regulated by states, but many countries with a religious history have stricter guidelines on who can perform legal marriages. Naming ceremonies, similarly, can be held anywhere without legal implications. In countries where legal marriages can only be performed by religious institutions or the state (such as England), humanist weddings are often performed before or after a civil legal proceeding, but presented as the more meaningful or significant of the two events.
As of 2018, humanist celebrants can conduct legally binding marriage ceremonies in Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Norway, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and the United States.
The charity Humanists UK (formerly the British Humanist Association) pioneered the practice of offering humanist ceremonies, and today organises a network of celebrants or officiants across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A similar network exists in Scotland, where, following a June 2005 ruling by the Registrar General, celebrants belonging to the Humanist Society Scotland have been permitted to conduct legal wedding ceremonies. Humanists UK celebrants in Northern Ireland were given the same rights in 2017 following a court case supported by Humanists UK.
In England and Wales the current legal position is that a humanist wedding or partnership ceremony must be supplemented by obtaining a civil marriage or partnership certificate through a Register Office. In December 2014 it was reported that the Prime Minister's Office was blocking the implementation of a change to give legal force to humanist weddings in England and Wales. That same year in Scotland, when same-sex marriage was legalised, the First Minister of Scotland attended the legal humanist marriage of a same-sex couple. In 2015, humanist weddings became more popular in Scotland than Church of Scotland weddings, or those of any religious denomination. The Humanist Society Scotland's status as a one of a number of trusted providers of humanist marriages in Scotland was written into Scots law in February 2017.
Non-religious funerals are legal within the UK. Humanist celebrants are familiar with the procedures of cremation and burial, and are trained and experienced in devising and conducting suitable ceremonies. The British Humanist Association has in the past described officiants as follows:Officiants are generally at least 35 years old, have experience of public speaking, and have probably had paid or voluntary experience in a caring/supporting profession – such as nursing, teaching, police or social work, for example. They must be able to cope with the emotional burden of regularly meeting and working with bereaved people - often in relation to particularly difficult or unexpected deaths, such as the death of a child in a road accident. Funeral directors are able to make arrangements with trained officiants in their local area.
Humanist funerals have reportedly been held in recent years for Claire Rayner, Keith Floyd, Linda Smith, Ronnie Barker, Lynsey de Paul, and Terry Jones, Victoria Wood, Doris Lessing, John Noakes, David Nobbs, Cynthia Payne, Dale Winton, and Bob Monkhouse, among others. The humanist funeral for former First Minister of Wales Rhodri Morgan in 2017 was the first national funeral in the United Kingdom to be led by a humanist celebrant, former AM Lorraine Barrett, as well as the first national funeral held in Wales.
Celebrants also undertake humanist baby namings as a non-religious alternative to ceremonies such as christenings. The purpose is to recognise and celebrate the arrival of a child, and welcome him or her in the family and circle of friends.
In Ireland, the Humanist Association of Ireland manages its own network of humanist ceremonies. Since 2012, these have been legally recognised, as in Scotland. In 2015, humanist marriages accounted for 6% of all marriages in Ireland, making them six times more popular than the Church of Ireland's weddings.
Laws in each state of the United States vary about who has the right to perform wedding services, but humanist celebrants are usually categorized as "clergy" and have the same rights and responsibilities as ordained clergy. Humanist celebrants will perform both opposite-sex and same-sex marriage ceremonies. The Humanist Society, an adjunct of the American Humanist Association, maintains a list of humanist celebrants.
Humanists conduct wedding ceremonies across Canada. These typically happen under the auspices of the national Humanist Canada group or through one of the province-level groups such as the British Columbia Humanist Association.
Humanist weddings, funerals, and naming ceremonies are popular throughout Scandinavia, where humanist groups tend to be well-established. Humanist coming of age ceremonies are also popular in these countries, and in particular Norway, where humanists also conduct legally binding weddings. In Norway, coming of age ceremonies are a cultural norm dating back to when it was a legal requirement for young people to have a church-led confirmation ceremony. In an increasingly secular population, many Norwegians turn to the Norwegian Humanist Association (NHA) instead for a 'confirmation' that reflects their values. In 2017, 11,000 Norwegian young people registered for their ceremony with the NHA, representing nearly one in five young Norwegians.
Humanist groups providing ceremonies as part of Humanistischer Verband Deutschlands are well-established across Germany and are particularly prominent in many of Germany's cities, where majorities of residents are non-religious. As in Scandinavia, humanist coming-of-age ceremonies are very popular, due to secularisation and a pre-existing tradition of religious confirmation. "Jugendweihe" ceremonies have been on offer since at least 1852, although these days they are more likely to be referred to as "Jugendfeier" (youth celebration, as opposed to youth ordination). 8,500 young Germans took part in these ceremonies in 2015.
Humanist weddings are not legally recognized in Italy but, by law, civil weddings can be officiated by the mayor, or anyone delegated by the mayor, as long as they have active and passive suffrage. With the mayor’s permission, then, the couple can choose an independent celebrant who can marry them legally within a humanist ceremony.
Even though they are not legally recognized in their own right, humanist or symbolic weddings have been celebrated in Italy for years, usually as an add-on to the registrar marriage. The first was celebrated in 2002 at Burio Castle in Asti, by Vera Pegna, deputy secretary of the Italian organization UAAR (Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics). This organization was also the first to promote training courses for humanist celebrants in Italy, and has recently increased the number of courses it offers and fully subsidizes. Other bodies and individuals are now beginning to charge trainee celebrants for their courses.
As far as funerals are concerned, there is no official civil ceremonies in Italy, which means that humanist or independent celebrants can be called upon to officiate a funeral with no legal impediments. The main problem is that only some larger towns and cities provide an appropriate, officially recognized, well-equipped venue where a secular funeral can be held. Where this is lacking, non-religious ceremonies must be held outdoors, at the burial or scattering site, or in cramped, unbefitting environments.
| 8198900 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8198900 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Mid-twentieth century baby boom
The middle of the 20th century was marked by a significant and persistent increase in fertility rates in many countries of the world, especially in the West, helping create the baby boomer generation. Although the baby boom is traditionally considered to be the post-war phenomenon started immediately after World War II, some demographers place it earlier, at the increase of births during the war or the late 1930s.
The boom coincided with the marriage boom, a significant increase in nuptiality. The increase in fertility was driven primarily by decrease in childlessness and increase in parity progression to a second child. In most of the Western countries, progression to a third child and beyond declined which, coupled with aforementioned increase in transition to first and second child, resulted in higher homogeneity in family sizes. The baby boom was most prominent among educated and economically active women.
The baby boom ended with the significant decline in fertility in the 1960s and 1970s which was later called by demographers the baby-bust.
Economist and demographer Richard Easterlin in his "Twentieth Century American Population Growth" (2000), explains the growth pattern of the American population in the 20th century by examining the fertility rate fluctuations and the decreasing mortality rate. Easterlin attempts to prove the cause of the baby boom and baby bust by the "relative income" theory, despite the various other theories that these events have been attributed to. The "relative income" theory suggests that couples choose to have children based on a couple's ratio of potential earning power and the desire to obtain material objects. This ratio depends on the economic stability of the country and how people are raised to value material objects. The "relative income" theory explains the baby boom by suggesting that the late 1940s and the 1950s brought low desires to have material objects, because of the Great Depression and World War II, as well as plentiful job opportunities (being a post-war period). These two factors gave rise to a high relative income, which encouraged high fertility. Following this period, the next generation had a greater desire for material objects, however, an economic slowdown in the United States made jobs harder to acquire. This resulted in lower fertility rates causing the Baby Bust.
Jan Van Bavel and David S. Reher proposed that the increase in nuptiality (marriage boom) coupled with low efficiency of contraception was the main cause of the baby boom. They doubted the explanations (including the Easterlin hypothesis) which considered the post-war economic prosperity that followed deprivation of the Great Depression as main cause of the baby boom, stressing that GDP-birth rate association was not consistent (positive before 1945 and negative after) with GDP growth accounting for a mere 5 percent of the variance in the crude birth rate over the period studied by the authors. Data shows that only in few countries there was significant and persistent increase in the marital fertility index during the baby boom, which suggests that most of the increase in fertility was driven by the increase in marriage rates.
Jona Schellekens claims that the rise in male earnings that started in the late 1930s accounts for most of the rise in marriage rates and that Richard Easterlin's hypothesis according to which a relatively small birth cohort entering the labor market caused the marriage boom is not consistent with data from the United States.
Matthias Doepke, Moshe Hazan, and Yishay Maoz all argued that the baby boom was mainly caused by the alleged crowding out from the labor force of females who reached adulthood during the 1950s by females who started to work during the Second World War and did not quit their jobs after the economy recovered. Andriana Bellou and Emanuela Cardia promote a similar argument, but they claim women who entered the labor force during the Great Depression crowded out women who participated in the baby boom. Glenn Sandström disagrees with both variants of this interpretation based on the data from Sweden showing that an increase in nuptiality (which was one of the main causes of an increase in fertility) was limited to economically active women. He pointed out that in 1939 a law prohibiting the firing of a woman when she got married was passed in the country.
Greenwood, Seshadri, and Vandenbroucke ascribe the baby boom to the diffusion of new household appliances that led to reduction of costs of childbearing. However Martha J. Bailey and William J. Collins criticize their explanation on the basis that improvement of household technology began before baby boom, differences and changes in ownership of appliances and electrification in U.S. counties are negatively correlated with birth rates
during baby boom, that the correlation between cohort fertility of the relevant women and access to electrical service in early adulthood is negative, and that Amish also experienced the baby boom.
Judith Blake and Prithwis Das Gupta point out the increase in ideal family size in the times of baby boom.
Peter Lindert partially attribute the baby boom to the extension of income tax coverage on most of the US population in the early 1940s. The latter actualize already existed and newly created tax exemptions for children and married couples creating the new incentive for earlier marriage and higher fertility. It is proposed that because of the fact that the taxation was progressive the baby boom was more pronounced among the richer population.
In the United States and Canada the baby boom was among the highest in the world. In 1946, live births in the U.S. surged from 222,721 in January to 339,499 in October. By the end of the 1940s, about 32 million babies had been born, compared with 24 million in the 1930s. In 1954, annual births first topped four million and did not drop below that figure until 1965, when four out of ten Americans were under the age of 20. As a result of the marriage boom getting married immediately after high school was becoming commonplace and women were increasingly under tremendous pressure to marry by the age of 20. The stereotype developed that women were going to college to earn their M.R.S. (Mrs.) degree.
The baby boom was stronger among American Catholics than among Protestants.
The exact beginning and end of the baby boom is debated. The U.S. Census Bureau defines "baby boomers" as those born between mid-1946 and mid-1964, although the U.S. birth rate began to shoot up in 1941 and to decline after 1957. Deborah Carr considers baby boomers to be those born between 1944 and 1959, while Strauss and Howe place the beginning of the baby boom in 1943. In Canada, the baby boom is usually defined as occurring from 1947 to 1966. Canadian soldiers were repatriated later than American servicemen, and Canada's birthrate did not start to rise until 1947. Most Canadian demographers prefer to use the later date of 1966 as the boom's end year in that country. The later end than the US is ascribed to a later adoption of birth control pills.
In the United States more babies were born during the seven years after 1948 than in the previous 30, causing a shortage of teenage babysitters. Madison, New Jersey, for example, only had 50 high-school girls to babysit for a town of 8,000, and any sitter could have had two sitting jobs at once if desired. $5 of the $7 that a California couple spent to go to the movies in 1950 went to the babysitter.
The volume of baby boom was the largest in the world in New Zealand and second-largest in Australia. Like the US, the New Zealand baby boom was stronger among Catholics than Protestants.
The author and columnist Bernard Salt places the Australian baby boom between 1946 and 1961.
In the United Kingdom the baby boom occurred in two waves. After a short first wave of the baby boom during the war and immediately after, peaking in 1946, the United Kingdom experienced a second wave during the 1960s, with a peak in births in 1964.
The baby boom in Ireland began during the state of emergency which existed in the country during the Second World War. Laws on contraception were restrictive in Ireland and the baby boom was more prolonged in this country. Secular decline of fertility began only in the 1970s and particularly after the legalization of contraception in 1979. The marriage boom was even more prolonged and did not recede until the 1980s.
France and Austria experienced the strongest baby booms in Europe. In contrast to most other countries, the French and Austrian baby booms were driven primarily by an increase in marital fertility. In the French case, pronatalist policies were an important factor in this increase. Weaker baby booms occurred in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Baby boom was absent or very strong in Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain. There were however regional variations in Spain with a considerable baby boom occurring in such regions as Catalonia.
There was a strong baby boom in Czechoslovakia, but it was weak or absent in Poland, Bulgaria, Russia, Estonia and Lithuania.
The baby boom was very strong in Norway and Iceland, significant in Finland, moderate in Sweden and relatively weak in Denmark.
Along with the developed countries of the West, many developing countries (among them Morocco, China and Turkey) also witnessed the baby boom. The baby boom in Mongolia, one of such developing countries, is probably explained by improvement in health and living standards related to the establishment of a socialist society.
The baby boom also occurred in most Latin American countries (with the exception of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay). An increase in fertility was driven by a decrease in childlessness and, in most nations, by an increase in parity progression to second, third and fourth births. Its magnitude was largest in Costa Rica and Panama.
| 8210419 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8210419 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Source protection
Source protection, sometimes also referred to as source confidentiality or in the U.S. as the reporter's privilege, is a right accorded to journalists under the laws of many countries, as well as under international law. It prohibits authorities, including the courts, from compelling a journalist to reveal the identity of an anonymous source for a story. The right is based on a recognition that without a strong guarantee of anonymity, many would be deterred from coming forward and sharing information of public interests with journalists.
Regardless of whether the right to source confidentiality is protected by law, the process of communicating between journalists and sources can jeopardize the privacy and safety of sources, as third parties can hack electronic communications or otherwise spy on interactions between journalists and sources. News media and their sources have expressed concern over government covertly accessing their private communications. To mitigate these risks, journalists and sources often rely on encrypted messaging.
Due to the centrality of communication between journalists and sources to the daily business of journalism, the question of whether or not sources can expect to have their identity protected has significant effects on the ability of media to operate and investigate cases. If a potential source can expect to face legal retaliation or other personal harm as a result of talking to a journalist, they may be less willing to talk to the media.
In Africa, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights has adopted a "Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa" which includes a right to protection of sources under Principle XV.
In Europe, the European Court of Human Rights stated in the 1996 case of "Goodwin v. United Kingdom" that "[p]rotection of journalistic sources is one of the basic conditions for press freedom ... Without such protection, sources may be deterred from assisting the press in informing the public on matters of public interest. As a result the vital public-watchdog role of the press may be undermined and the ability of the press to provide accurate and reliable information may be adversely affected." The Court concluded that absent "an overriding requirement in the public interest", an order to disclose sources would violate the guarantee of free expression in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
In the wake of "Goodwin", the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers issued a Recommendation to its member states on how to implement the protection of sources in their domestic legislation. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has also called on states to respect the right.
In Bulgaria, Poland, and Romania unauthorized access to information by government entities were identified in several cases. In those political regions, policies such as mandatory registration of pre-paid SIM mobile phone cards and government access to CCTV make hacking tools and surveillance a lot easier.
In the Netherlands, a 2006 case ruled that in cases of minimal national security interest do not supersede source confidentiality. Bart Mos and Joost de Haas, of the Dutch daily "De Telegraaf". In an article in January 2006, the two journalists alleged the existence of a leak in the Dutch secret services and quoted from what they claimed was an official dossier on Mink Kok, a notorious criminal. They further alleged that the dossier in question had fallen into the hands of Kok himself. A subsequent police investigation led to the prosecution of Paul H., an agent accused of selling the file in question. Upon motions by the prosecution and the defence, the investigative judge in the case ordered the disclosure of the source for the news story, on the grounds that it was necessary to safeguard national security and ensure a fair trial for H. The two journalists were subsequently detained for refusing to comply with the disclosure order, but were released on appeal after three days, on November 30. The Hague district court considered that the national security interest served by the order was minor and should not prevail over the protection of sources.
In the Americas, protection of sources has been recognized in the "Inter-American Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression", which states in Principle 8 that "every social communicator has the right to keep his/her source of information, notes, personal and professional archives confidential."
In the United States, unlike doctor-patient or lawyer-client confidentiality, reporters are not afforded a similar legal shield. Communications between reporters and sources have been used by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies as an avenue to information about specific individuals or groups related to pending criminal investigations.
In the 1971 case of "Branzburg v. Hayes" the court ruled that reporter's privilege was not guaranteed by the First Amendment, but the publicity surrounding the case helped introduce the concept of reporter's privilege into public discussion. As a result of the case, Branzburg"," a Kentucky reporter, was forced to testify about his sources and story to a grand jury.
A University of Montana student, Linda Tracy, was issued a subpoena for video she took of a violent encounter between police officers and a group of residents. The case, which was ultimately dismissed, involved attaining unedited footage of the encounter which part of was used in a documentary Linda Tracy made as for an undergraduate journalism class. Although she won the case, her status as a real journalist was called into question. Even with the victory, the court did not specifically address if protections and privacy extended to student journalists, but because of the nature of her intent and the project she could not be coerced to releasing the footage. The case helped help further battles in student journalism and press freedoms at an educational level.
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act passed in 1986 and protects bank transactions, telephone digits, and other information. The act also encompasses what organizations must provide to law enforcement with a subpoena, such as name, address, durations of services used, type of device used, and source of payment. This is known as “required disclosure” policies. It later included provisions to prohibit access to stored electronic devices.
Former CIA employee Edward Snowden further impacted the relationship between journalism, sources, and privacy. Snowden's actions as a whistleblower at the National Security Agency drew attention to the extent of US government surveillance operations. Surveillance by network administrators may include being able to view how many times a journalist or source visits a website per day, the information they are reading or viewing, and online applications they utilize.
In Mexico, it is reported that the government there has spent $300 million during one year to surveil and gather information from the population with specific interest in journalists to get access to their texts, phone calls, and emails.
Newsrooms rely on end-to-end encryption technologies to protect the confidentiality of their communications. However, even these methods are not completely effective.
More schools of journalism are also beginning to include data and source protection and privacy into their curriculum.
Technologies used to protect source privacy include SecureDrop , GlobaLeaks , Off-the-Record Messaging, the Tails operating system, and Tor.
| 8216055 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8216055 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Homophobic propaganda
Homophobic propaganda (or anti-gay propaganda) is propaganda based on homonegativity and homophobia towards homosexual and sometimes other non-heterosexual people. Such propaganda supports anti-gay prejudices and stereotypes, and promotes social stigmatization or discrimination. The term "homophobic propaganda" was used by the historian Stefan Micheler in his work "Homophobic Propaganda and the Denunciation of Same-Sex-Desiring Men under National Socialism", as well as other works treating the topic.
In some countries, some forms of homophobic propaganda are considered hate speech and are prohibited by law.
Political attitudes towards homosexuals in Nazi Germany were based on the assumption that homosexuals were destroying the German nation as "sexual degenerates". Historian Erwin J. Haeberle dates the first appearance of this political attitude to 14 May 1928.
Categorized as a ‘biocracy’ by Maastricht University professor Harry Oosterheis, the Nazi regime was primarily concerned with the fact that homosexual men could not bear offspring—and therefore could not ultimately contribute to the spread of the Aryan race. Though homosexuals in Nazi Germany were not persecuted systematically, researchers estimate that around 50,000 homosexual men were convicted for ‘unnatural vice’, and between 10 and 30% of this proportion were ultimately sent to concentration camps.
In Russia, it is illegal to commit crimes against someone based on their social group, and LGBT people are considered a separate social group by law. Responsibility for it is established item 136 and item 282 of the criminal code of the Russian Federation.
However, on June 30, 2013, President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill banning the "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" among minors, and prohibits the equation of same-sex and straight marital relationships. "Vice News" claims that many LGBT rights groups have been transformed "from being a stigmatized fringe group to full-blown enemies of the state" in Russia following the introduction of this law, and that openly homophobic and neo-Nazi groups such as Occupy Paedophilia have been described by Russian authorities as "civil movements fighting the sins of society".
In 1981, Norway became the first country to establish a criminal penalty (a fine or imprisonment for up to two years) for public threats, defamations, expressions of hate, or agitation for discrimination towards the LGBT community.
On July 1, 1987 in the Netherlands joined the Dutch Penal code, which established punishment for public defamations on the basis of sexual orientation as fees or imprisonment for up to two years.
In 1989 in Ireland a resolution against anti-gay hate speech came into effect. It establishes penalty in the form of fees or imprisonment for up to two years for publication or distribution of materials which contain defamations, threats, hate speech or offenses for LGBT people. The law is occasionally taken into effect.
On 2 March 1993 in New South Wales, Australia, an amendment to the antidiscrimination law came into effect which prohibits public hate speech, despisement or ridiculing of homosexuals. A legal exclusion is any information which is distributed for educational, religious, scientific or social purposes.
On 10 December 1999 an analogous amendment was accepted by Tasmanian parliament, which permits no exclusion.
In February 2000 the South African Parliament enacted the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, which prohibits hate speech based on any of the constitutionally prohibited grounds, including sexual orientation. The definition of hate speech includes speech which is intended to "promote or propagate hatred".
Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 added section 2A to the Local Government Act 1986, which forbade local authorities from being allowed to "promote homosexuality", or "promote the teaching in any maintained school the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship".
It was repealed on 21 June 2000 in Scotland as one of the first pieces of legislation enacted by the new Scottish Parliament, and on 18 November 2003 in the rest of the United Kingdom by section 122 of the Local Government Act 2003.
Spain's antidiscrimination laws ban hate speech in regards to sexual orientation and gender identity since 1995. Discrimination, hate, or violence on the premise of either of the aforementioned factors is punishable by up to three years in prison.
Other countries which ban anti-LGBT discrimination include Albania, Andora, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Kosovo, Malta, Northern Cyprus, Portugal, Serbia, Belgium, France, Guernsey, Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Luxembourg, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Norfolk Island, New Zealand, Fiji, New Caledonia, Micronesia, Easter Island, French Polynesia, Pitcairn Islands, and Wallis and Futuna.
| 8216996 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8216996 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Heteronomy
Heteronomy refers to action that is influenced by a force outside the individual, in other words the state or condition of being ruled, governed, or under the sway of another, as in a military occupation.
Immanuel Kant, drawing on Jean-Jacques Rousseau, considered such an action nonmoral.
It is the counter/opposite of autonomy.
Philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis contrasted heteronomy with autonomy by noting that while all societies create their own institutions (laws, traditions and behaviors), autonomous societies are those in which their members are aware of this fact, and explicitly self-institute (αυτο-νομούνται). In contrast, the members of heteronomous societies (hetero = others) attribute their imaginaries to some extra-social authority (e.g., God, the state, ancestors, historical necessity, etc.).
| 8218816 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8218816 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Gloria Origgi
Gloria Origgi (born 1967) is an Italian philosopher at the CNRS in Paris (Institut Jean Nicod) who works on the theory of mind, epistemology and social sciences applied to new technology. She is the founder (in 2002) and director of the innovative project, a portal where many international virtual conferences in the social and cognitive sciences are being organized.
She is the author of the book 'Reputation', published by Princeton University Press in 2017.
Gloria Origgi has previously published a book on the American philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine, "Introduzione a Quine", Laterza, 2000. She has edited the collection of essays "Text-e. Text in the age of the Internet", Palgrave, 2006, based on a web conference that she co-organized with Noga Arikha and the research team of the library of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (contributors include Umberto Eco, Jason Epstein, Dan Sperber and Theodore Zeldin). She has published numerous articles on social epistemology and cultural issues in English, French and Italian. Among her books: "Qu'est-ce que la confiance?" VRIN, 2008; "La réputation", PUF 2015 (translated into Italian and into English)
Her first work in Italian, "La Figlia della Gallina Nera" was published in Italy by "Nottetempo" (2008). She also writes for various newspapers and cultural magazines such as Il Fatto Quotidiano, MicroMega, Il Sole 24 Ore.
| 8234546 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8234546 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Erazim Kohák
Erazim Kohák (21 May 1933 – 8 February 2020) was Czech philosopher and writer. His early education was in Prague. After communists took over Czechoslovakia in 1948, his family escaped to the United States. He died in February 2020 at the age of 86.
Kohák was born in Prague in May 1933. He studied at Colgate University, earning a B.A. in 1954, and then studied philosophy, theology and religious studies at Yale University (M.A. in 1957, PhD in 1958). He also worked at Gustavus Adolphus College and Boston University (Professor in 1977). After the Velvet revolution in 1989, he returned to Czechoslovakia to become a professor at Charles University in Prague. Since 2006, he has been a senior research fellow in the Centre of Global Studies in the Institute of Philosophy at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague.
He supported several non-governmental ecological organizations and was a member of the honorary board of Děti Země (Children of the Earth) and Společnost pro trvale udržitelný život (Society for Sustainable Living).
Kohak has said in 2007 for BBC: "We have nothing to fear from a Russia in the ascendant."
| 8240687 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8240687 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Al-Isra, 26
Quran 17:26 (also notated Al-Isra, 26) is the twenty-sixth verse of "Al-Isra", the seventeenth chapter of the Quran, which relates to the controversies of the land of Fadak in modern-day Saudi Arabia.
The verse is also known as the Verse of Dhul Qurba.
writes:
This hadith is also included by:
writes regarding this verse:
Refer to the commentary of "Anfal": 41 and "Nahl": 90.
Ibn Jarir reports that once Imam Ali bin Husayn al Zayn al Abidin said to a Syrian:
"We are the near of kin referred to in this verse."
Abd ibn Salih, a courtier, had reported that Mamun al Rashid wrote a letter to Abdullah ibn Musa to know his opinion about the issue of Fadak. Ibn Musa quoted the above noted tradition. Then Mamun returned the land of Fadak to the children of Fatimah. The land the Jews left without an heir was distributed by the Muhammad, as commanded by God (see Anfal: 1), with the consent of the "ansar" , among the "muhajirin" ( who had abandoned their properties in Mecca. Many gardens and tracts of land, Fatimah inherited from her mother, Khadijah, were in and around Mecca. Through this verse God directed Muhammad to give Fatimah her due rights. So he gave her the garden of Fadak in fulfilment of her share as a "muhajir" and also included his own share in it. During the lifetime of Muhammad, the land of Fadak was in the active possession of Fatimah, but after Muhammad's death, the first caliph, Abu Bakr, seized the land. The evidence of Ali, his sons Hasan and Husayn and Fatimah was rejected, notwithstanding their truthfulness according to the Quran (Al Imran Verse 61), (Al-Aḥzāb Verse 33). Her claim as the inheritor of Muhammad was also rejected. Sahih Muslim and Sahih Bukhari inform us that the caliph Umar used to point out Ali and Abbas as those who branded him and his predecessor as usurpers and liars in connection with the property of Fadak, and neither Ali nor Abbas ever denied it. Fatimah, after this incident, never spoke to Abu Bakr and Umar, and asked Ali not to allow them to attend her funeral prayers and burial. The confiscated property of Fadak was never used for the well-being of the people nor for the maintenance of the Muslim army.
Every Umayyid ruler treated the garden of Fadak as his personal property, except Umar II, who, after making a thorough examination of the case, returned it to the "ahl al-bayt" (, i.e. Muhammad's family). The Abbasid rulers again took it away from the "ahl al-bayt" and used it as their property, till Mamun al Rashid again conducted a thorough inquiry by a special court of jurists before which a follower of the "ahl al-bayt" advocated their case and the state attorney opposed his arguments. At the end Mamun wrote the judgement in the form of a royal edict, awarding the land to the "ahl al-bayt", a summary of which has been recorded by al-Baladhuri in his book, "Fath al-Buldan". Ibn Abi al-Hadid has also given a brief account of the arguments, for and against, in his commentary of the art of eloquence. Fatimah herself gave the strongest arguments in her favour in her address to the then-ruling party.
"Biography of Bibi Fatimah Zahra", published by Peermahomed Ebrahim Trust.
| 8241075 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8241075 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Personal alarm
A personal alarm is a small hand-held electronic device with the functionality to emit a loud siren-like alarming sound. It is activated either by a button, or a tag that, when pulled, sets the siren off.
It is used to attract attention in order to scare off an assailant. The sound emitted can also have the effect of distracting, disorienting, or surprising the assailant.
The volume varies from model to model, with some models having 130 decibels. Some personal alarms are also outfitted with an LED light for normal lighting purposes or to help deter an assailant. Due attention must be given to the fact that these devices can give a 'false sense of security' and therefore place the individual in danger.
Some personal safety apps emit a loud intermittent "shrill whistle", in the manner of a personal alarm.
According to the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, the best way to use a personal alarm is to activate it, to drop it on the floor near the assailant, and then to immediately run away.
| 8242443 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8242443 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Ezekiel Emanuel
Ezekiel Jonathan "Zeke" Emanuel (born September 6, 1957) is an American oncologist and bioethicist and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He is the current Vice Provost for Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy. Previously, Emanuel served as the Diane and Robert Levy University Professor at Penn. He holds a joint appointment at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Wharton School and was formerly an associate professor at the Harvard Medical School until 1998 when he joined the National Institutes of Health.
Emanuel is the son of Benjamin M. Emanuel and Marsha (Smulevitz) Emanuel. His father, Benjamin M. Emanuel, is a Jerusalem-born pediatrician who was once a member of the Irgun, a Jewish paramilitary organization that operated in Mandate Palestine. He provided free care to poor immigrants and led efforts to get rid of lead paint due to its negative consequences for children and as of 2010 lived in a suburb of Chicago. Emanuel’s mother, Marsha, a nurse and psychiatric social worker who was raised in the North Lawndale community on Chicago's West Side, was active in civil rights, including the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). She attended marches and demonstrations with her children. In a 2009 interview Emanuel recalled that in his childhood "worrying about ethical questions was very much part and parcel of our daily routine."
His two younger brothers are former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and Hollywood-based talent agent Ari Emanuel. He has an adopted sister, Shoshana Emanuel, who has cerebral palsy. His father’s brother, Emanuel, was killed in the 1936 Arab Riots in the British Mandate of Palestine, after which the family changed its name from Auerbach to Emanuel in his honor.
As children, the three Emanuel brothers shared a bedroom and spent summers together in Israel. All three brothers took ballet lessons in their childhood, which Emanuel says "hardened us and taught us that if you do something unusual, people will take potshots at you." Emanuel and his brother Rahm frequently argue about healthcare policy. Emanuel mimics his brother's end of the conversation: "You want to change the whole healthcare system, and I can’t even get SCHIP [State Children’s Health Insurance Program] passed with dedicated funding? What kind of idiot are you?"
Emanuel graduated from Amherst College in 1979 and subsequently received his M.Sc. from Exeter College, Oxford in Biochemistry. He simultaneously studied for an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Political Philosophy from Harvard University, receiving the degrees in 1988 and 1989, respectively. He was a member of the first cohort of Faculty Fellows at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard from 1987–88. Emanuel completed an internship and residency at Beth Israel Hospital in internal medicine. Subsequently, he undertook fellowships in medicine and medical oncology at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, and is a breast oncologist. Emanuel received dozens of honors and awards, including the Toppan Dissertation Prize, the Harvard award for best political science dissertation of 1988 and the Dan David Prize for his contribution to the field of bioethics in 2018.
Emanuel is a divorced father of three daughters. His daughter Gabrielle, a 2010 graduate of Dartmouth College, won a Rhodes scholarship in November 2010. His daughter Rebekah, a graduate of Yale University won a George J. Mitchell Scholarship in 2008. Another daughter Natalia, a 2013 graduate of Yale University, won a Marshall scholarship in November 2013, and is currently a Ph.D. student at Harvard University.
After completing his post-doctoral training, Emanuel pursued a career in academic medicine, rising to the level of associate professor at Harvard Medical School in 1997. He soon moved into the public sector, and held the position of Chief of the Department of Bioethics at the Clinical Center of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Emanuel served as Special Advisor for Health Policy to Peter Orszag, the former Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Obama administration. Emanuel entered the administration with different views from President Barack Obama on how to reform health care, but was said by colleagues to be working for the White House goals. Since September 2011, Emanuel has headed the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also serves as a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor, under the official title Diane S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor.
In articles and in his book "Healthcare, Guaranteed", Emanuel said that universal health care could be guaranteed by replacing employer paid health care insurance, Medicaid and Medicare with health care vouchers funded by a value-added tax. His plan
would allow patients to keep the same doctor even if they change jobs or insurance plans. He would reduce co-payments for preventive care and tax or ban junk food from schools. He criticized the idea of requiring individuals to buy health insurance. However, he supports Obama's plans for health care reform, even though they differ from his own.
In the article "Why Tie Health Insurance to a Job?", Emanuel said that employer based health insurance should be replaced by state or regional insurance exchanges that pool individuals and small groups to pay the same lower prices charged to larger employers. Emanuel said that this would allow portable health insurance even to people that lose their jobs or change jobs, while at the same time preserving the security of employer based health benefits by giving consumers the bargaining power of a large group of patients. According to Emanuel, this would end discrimination by health insurance companies in the form of denial of health insurance based on age or preexisting conditions. In "Solved!", Emanuel said that Universal Healthcare Vouchers would solve the problem of rapidly increasing health care costs, which, rising at three times the rate of inflation, would result in higher copayments, fewer benefits, stagnant wages and fewer employers willing to pay for health care benefits.
In an article co-written by Ezekiel Emanuel and Victor Fuchs, Emanuel co-wrote that employer-based health insurance has "inefficiencies and inequities", that Medicaid is "second-class" and that insuring more people without replacing those systems would be to build on a "broken system". He said, "in the short run they require ever more money to cover the uninsured, and in the long run the unabated rise in health costs will quickly revive the problem of the uninsured." He suggested that a federal agency be created to test the effectiveness of new health care technology.
As Emanuel co-wrote,
At $2 trillion per year, the U.S. health-care system suffers much more from inefficiency than lack of funds. The system wastes money on administration, unnecessary tests and marginal medicines that cost a lot for little health benefit. It also provides strong financial incentives to preserve such inefficiency.
By building on the existing health-care system, these reform proposals entrench the perverse incentives.
Moreover, even plans that reduce the number of uninsured today may find that those gains will disappear in a few years if costs continue to grow much faster than gross domestic product. As costs rise, many companies will drop insurance and pay the modest taxes or fees that have been proposed. States will find that costs exceed revenue and that cuts will have to be made.
Emanuel said that replacing employer-based health insurance and programs like Medicaid would "improve efficiency and provide cost control for the health-care system."
Emanuel and Fuchs reject a single-payer system, because it goes against American values of individualism. "The biggest problem with single-payer is its failure to cohere with core American values. Single-payer puts everyone into the same system with the same coverage and makes it virtually impossible to add amenities and services through the private market."
In his book "The Ends of Human Life" Emanuel used the AIDS patient "Andrew" as an example of moral medical dilemmas. Andrew talked to a local support group and signed a living will asking that life sustaining procedures be withdrawn if there is no reasonable expectation of recovery. The will was not given to anyone but kept in his wallet, and no one was given power of attorney. There were questions about his competence since he had AIDS dementia when he signed the will. Still, Andrew's lover said that he had talked about such situations, and asked that Andrew be allowed to die. Andrew's family strongly disagreed that Andrew wanted to die. Dr. Wolf previously saved Andrew's life, but promised to help him avoid a "miserable death". The ICU wanted guidance from Dr. Wolf as to how aggressively they should try to keep Andrew alive, as his chances of surviving a cardiac arrest were about zero. Two other critical patients were recently refused admission because of a bed shortage. There was a question as to whether Andrew's lover was representing Andrew's wishes or his own. There was also a question as to whether Andrew’s parents knew Andrew better than others, or whether they were motivated by guilt from rejecting Andrew's identification as a gay male. The cost of aggressive treatment was $2,000 per day.
This dilemma illustrates the ethical challenges faced by even the most conscientious physicians, in addition to patient confidentiality, the meaning of informed consent, and the ethics of experimental treatments, transplanting genes or brain tissue. Also, while many agree that every citizen should be given adequate health care, few agree on how to define what adequate health care is. Many of these issues have become almost insoluble moral dilemmas. Babies that would be born with serious birth defects pose a serious moral dilemma, and medical technology makes it sometimes difficult to define what death is in the case of permanently brain damaged patients on respirators. There are also ethical questions on how to allocate scarce resources. However, the Hippocratic Oath is proof that medical technology is not the cause of medical questions about ethics.
Emanuel said the Hippocratic Oath and the codes of modern medical societies require doctors to maintain client patient confidentiality, refrain from lying to a patient, keep patients informed and obtain their consent, in order to protect the patient from manipulation and discrimination. Emanuel said that a doctor’s oath would never allow him to administer a lethal injection for capital punishment as a doctor, although the issue would be different if he were asked to serve on a firing squad not as a doctor but rather as a citizen. He said that in the case of mercy killing there are rare cases where the medical obligation to relieve suffering would be in tension with the obligation to save a life, and that a different argument (an argument that intentional killing "should not be used to achieve the legitimate ends of medicine") would be required instead.
Emanuel believes that "liberal communitarianism" could be the answer. Citizens, according to this view, should be given rights needed to participate in democratic deliberations based on a "common conception of the good life". For example, vouchers could be granted through thousands of Community Health Programs (CHPs), each of which would agree on its own definition of the public good. Each CHP would decide which services would be covered as basic, and which services would not be covered.
Emanuel said that legalizing euthanasia, as was done in the Netherlands, might be counterproductive, in that it would decrease support for pain management and mental health care. However, Emanuel does support the use of Medical Directives to allow patients to express their wishes when they can no longer communicate. Ezekiel, and his former wife Linda Emanuel, an M.D. Ph.D. bioethicist and geriatrician, created the Medical Directive, which is described as more specific and extensive than previous living wills and is a third generation Advance Directive. He claims the Hippocratic Oath debunks the theory that opposition to euthanasia is modern. Emanuel said that for the vast majority of dying patients, "legalizing euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide would be of no benefit. To the contrary, it would be a way of avoiding the complex and arduous efforts required of doctors and other health-care providers to ensure that dying patients receive humane, dignified care." Emanuel said that a historical review of opinions on euthanasia from ancient Greece to now "suggests an association between interest in legalizing euthanasia and moments when Social Darwinism and raw individualism, free markets and wealth accumulation, and limited government are celebrated."
Emanuel said that it is a myth that most patients who want to die choose euthanasia because they are in extreme pain. He said that in his own experience, "those with pain are more likely than others to oppose physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia." He said that patients were more likely to want euthanasia because of "depression and general psychological distress ... a loss of control or of dignity, of being a burden, and of being dependent." He also said that the kind of legalized euthanasia practiced in the Netherlands would lead to an ethical "slippery slope" which would make it easier for doctors to rationalize euthanasia when it would save them the trouble of cleaning bedpans and otherwise caring for patients who want to live. He said that legalized euthanasia in the Netherlands did not adhere to all the legal guidelines, and that some newborns were euthanised even though they could not possibly have given the legally required consent. As Emanuel said, "The Netherlands studies fail to demonstrate that permitting physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia will not lead to the nonvoluntary euthanasia of children, the demented, the mentally ill, the old, and others. Indeed, the persistence of abuse and the violation of safeguards, despite publicity and condemnation, suggest that the feared consequences of legalization are exactly its inherent consequences." Emanuel also expressed the concern that budgetary pressures might be used to justify euthanasia if it were legal. As Emanuel said,
Emanuel said that claims of cost saving from assisted suicide are a distortion, and that such
costs are relatively small, including only 0.1 percent of total medical spending.
In 2016, Emanuel wrote in the article "Attitudes and Practices of Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide in the United States"", Canada, and Europe" that existing data on physician-assisted suicide does not indicate widespread abuse. This article also noted that physician-assisted suicide has been increasingly legalized while remaining relatively rare and largely confined to oncology patients.
The controversy surrounding Emanuel is due to claims by Betsy McCaughey and Sarah Palin accusing Emanuel of supporting euthanasia. Emanuel has opposed euthanasia. These claims have been used by Republicans opposing health care reform.
Betsy McCaughey described Ezekiel Emanuel as a "Deadly Doctor" in a "New York Post" opinion article. The article, which accused Emanuel of advocating healthcare rationing by age and disability, was quoted from on the floor of the House of Representatives by Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. Sarah Palin cited the Bachmann speech and said that Emanuel's philosophy was "Orwellian" and "downright evil", and tied it to a health care reform end of life counseling provision she claimed would create a "death panel". Emanuel said that Palin's death panel statement was "Orwellian".
Palin later said that her death panel remark had been "vindicated" and that the policies of Emanuel are "particularly disturbing" and "shocking". On former Senator Fred Thompson's radio program, McCaughey warned that "the healthcare reform bill would make it mandatory—absolutely require—that every five years people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner." She said those sessions would help the elderly learn how to "decline nutrition, how to decline being hydrated, how to go in to hospice care ... all to do what's in society's best interest or in your family's best interest and cut your life short." As "The New York Times" mentioned, conservative pundits were comparing Nazi Germany's T4 euthanasia program to Obama’s policies as far back as November 2008, calling them "America's T4 program—trivialization of abortion, acceptance of euthanasia, and the normalization of physician assisted suicide."
PolitiFact described McCaughey's claim as a "ridiculous falsehood." FactCheck.org said, "We agree that Emanuel’s meaning is being twisted. In one article, he was talking about a philosophical trend, and in another, he was writing about how to make the most ethical choices when forced to choose which patients get organ transplants or vaccines when supplies are limited." An article on Time.com said that Emanuel "was only addressing extreme cases like organ donation, where there is an absolute scarcity of resources ... 'My quotes were just being taken out of context.'" A decade ago, when many doctors wanted to legalize euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide, Emanuel opposed it. Emanuel said the "death panel" idea is "an outright lie, a complete fabrication. And the paradox, the hypocrisy, the contradiction is that many of the people who are attacking me now supported living wills and consultations with doctors about end-of-life care, before they became against it for political reasons." "I worked pretty hard and against the odds to improve end-of-life care. And so to have that record and that work completely perverted—it's pretty shocking."
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who sponsored the end-of-life provision in , said the measure would block funds for counseling that presents suicide or assisted suicide as an option, and called references to death panels or euthanasia "mind-numbing". Blumenauer said that as recently as April 2008 then-governor Palin supported end-of-life counseling as part of Health Care Decisions Day. Palin's office called this comparison "hysterically funny" and "desperate". Republican Senator Johnny Isakson, who co-sponsored a 2007 end-of-life counseling provision, called the euthanasia claim "nuts". Analysts who examined the end-of-life provision Palin cited agreed that it merely authorized Medicare reimbursement for physicians who provide voluntary counseling for advance health care directives (including living wills).
According to Emanuel, the most important life-saving cancer drugs are rationed not by "death panels" but by The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, signed by President George W. Bush. The act limits Medicare payments for generic cancer drugs, which cuts profits from producing them and results in shortages.
Emanuel's previous statements on rationing were about the "allocation of very scarce medical interventions such as organs and vaccines" such as who should get a "liver for transplantation". Ezekiel said that McCaughey's euthanasia claims were a "willful distortion of my record". Jim Rutennberg said that Emanuel's critics oversimplified complex issues, such as who should get a kidney. Such rationing was said to be unavoidable because of scarcity, and because a scarce resource such as a liver is "indivisible". Emanuel said that McCaughey took words out of context, omitting qualifiers such as "Without overstating it (and without fully defending it) ... Clearly, more needs to be done ..." Emanuel once compared the word "rationing" to George Carlin’s seven words you can't say on television. In 1994 Emanuel said in testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, "Just because we are spending a lot of money on patients who die does not mean that we can save a lot of money on end of life care."
Emanuel wrote "Where Civic Republicanism and Deliberative Democracy Meet" (1996) for the Hastings Center Report. In this article Emanuel questioned whether a defect in our medical ethics causes the failure of the US to enact universal health care coverage. The macro level of the issue is the proportion of total gross national product allotted to health care, the micro level is which individual patient will receive specific forms of health care, e.g., "whether Mrs. White should receive this available liver for transplantation." In between are the basic or essential health care services that should be provided to each citizen. The end-stage renal disease program is an example of a service that increases the total cost of health care, and reduces the amount that can be spent on basic or essential health care.
Emanuel distinguished between basic services that should be guaranteed to everybody from discretionary medical services that are not guaranteed. The result would be a two tiered system, where those with more money could afford more discretionary services. He saw a failure to define basic services as the reason attempts at universal health care coverage have failed. As a result, the belief that universal health care would require unlimited costs makes any attempt at providing universal health care seem likely to end in national bankruptcy. Instead of universal coverage of basic health care, those who are well insured have coverage for many discretionary forms of health care and no coverage for some basic forms of health care. Emanuel said that while drawing a line separating basic and universal health care from discretionary health care is difficult, the attempt should be made. Emaniel mentioned the philosophies of Amy Gutmann, Norman Daniels and Daniel Callahan when arguing that there is an overlap between liberalism and communitarianism where civic republicanism and deliberative democracy meet. According to The Atlantic, Emanuel is describing the philosophy of John Rawls in arguing that society is choosing one value (equality) over another (a healthy society), and this substitution may be responsible for limited choices in health care. PolitiFact says that Emanuel was describing the fact that doctors often have to make difficult choices, such as who should get a liver transplant. PolitiFact also said, "Academics often write theoretically about ideas that are being kicked around. And they repeat and explore those ideas, without necessarily endorsing them."
When asked if those who are not "participating citizens" should be denied health care, Emanuel said "No" and "The rest of the text around that quote made it made it pretty clear I was trying to analyze it and understand it, not endorse it."
In 2009, Govind Persad, Alan Wertheimer and Ezekiel Emanuel co-wrote another article on a similar topic in the journal The Lancet. Ezekiel was one of three authors who co-wrote "Principles for allocation of scarce medical interventions", which examines eight theoretical approaches for dealing with "allocation of very scarce medical interventions such as organs and vaccines." All eight approaches were judged to be less than perfect, and the Complete Lives system combines most of them.
Treating people equally could be accomplished by lottery or first come first served. A lottery system is simple and difficult to corrupt, but blind in that it would treat saving forty years of life the same as saving four months. A first come first served system seems fair at first, but favors the well off, those who are informed, can travel easily and who push to the front of a line.
Favoring the worst off could be accomplished by favoring the sickest first or by favoring the youngest first. Favoring the sickest appeals to the rule of rescue, but organ transplants don’t always work well with the sickest patients. Also, a different patient could become equally sick in the future. Favoring the youngest saves the most years of life, but a twenty-year-old has a more developed personality than an infant.
Maximizing total benefits or utilitarianism can be accomplished by saving the most lives or by prognosis (life years). While saving the most lives is best if all else is equal, all else is seldom equal. Going by prognosis alone might unfairly favor improving the health of a person who is healthy to begin with.
Promoting and rewarding social usefulness can be accomplished through instrumental value or by reciprocity. Social usefulness is difficult to define, in that going by conventional values or favoring church goers might be unfair. Instrumental value, such as giving priority to workers producing a vaccine,
cannot be separated from other values, like saving the most lives. Reciprocity (favoring previous organ donors or veterans) might seem like justice, but is backward looking and could lead to demeaning and intrusive inquiries into lifestyle.
When resources (organs, vaccines and so forth) are scarce, the Complete Lives systems blends five different approaches (excluding first come first served, sickest first and reciprocity) but is weighted in favor of saving the most years of life. However, it also emphasizes the importance of saving the large investment of nurture and education spent on an adolescent. It would not favor the young when the prognosis is poor and the number of years of life saved would not be great, when dealing with scarcity.
Emanuel said the Complete Lives system was not meant to apply to health care in general, but only to a situation where "we don’t have enough organs for everybody who needs a transplant. You have one liver, you have three people who need the liver - who gets it? The solution isn’t ‘We get more livers.’ You can’t. It’s a tragic choice."
Of the 1996 Hastings Center Report, Emanuel said, "I was examining two different, abstract philosophical positions to see what they might offer in the context of redoing the health-care system and trying to reduce resource consumption in health care. It's as abstractly philosophical as you can get on a practical question. I qualified it in 27 different ways, saying it wasn't my view." He also said, "As far as rationing goes, it's nothing I've ever advocated for the health system as a whole, and I've talked about rationing only in the context of situations where you have limited items, like limited livers or limited vaccine, and not for overall health care."
Emanuel said that his words were selectively quoted, and misrepresent his views. He said, "I find it a little dispiriting, after a whole career's worth of work dedicated to improving care for people at the end of life, that now I'm 'advocating euthanasia panels.'" Emanuel spent his career opposing euthanasia and received multiple awards for his efforts to improve end of life care. Emanuel said, "It is incredible how much one's reputation can be besmirched and taken out of context" and "No one who has read what I have done for 25 years would come to the conclusions that have been put out there."
Although Emanuel opposes legalized euthanasia, he believes that after age 75 life is not worth living, and the pursuit of longevity, not a worthwhile goal for U.S. health care policy. This is refuted by neurosurgeon and medical ethicist Miguel Faria, who in two articles in "Surgical Neurology International" claims that healthy lifestyles and brain plasticity can lead to the postponement of senescence and lead to happiness even as we age.
In the 2008 "Journal of the American Medical Association" article "The Perfect Storm of Overutilization" Emanuel said, "Overall, US health care expenditures are 2.4 times the average of those of all developed countries ($2759 per person), yet health outcomes for US patients, whether measured by life expectancy, disease-specific mortality rates, or other variables, are unimpressive." He said that expensive drugs and treatments that provide only marginal benefits are the largest problems. Fee-for-service payments, physician directed pharmaceutical marketing, and medical malpractice laws and the resultant defensive medicine encourage overutilization. Direct-to-consumer marketing by pharmaceutical companies also drives up costs.
According to "Time", Betsy McCaughey said that Emanuel "has criticized medical culture for trying to do everything for a patient, 'regardless of the cost or effects on others,' without making clear that he was not speaking of lifesaving care but of treatments with little demonstrated value."
Emanuel made a related comment during a "Washington Post" interview, when he said that improving the quality and efficiency of healthcare to avoid unnecessary and even harmful care would be a way to avoid the need for rationing.
One reason the high cost of health care yields disappointing results is because only 0.05 percent of health care dollars are spent on assessing how well new health care technology works. This is largely because health care lobbyists oppose such research. For example, when the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research found that there was little evidence to support common back operations, orthopedic and neurosurgeons lobbied to cut funding for such research.
Emanuel said that fee-for-service reimbursements encourage spending on ineffective health care. However, more should be spent on fraud detection, coordinating health services for patients with multiple doctors, and evaluating the effectiveness of new medical technologies such as genetic fingerprints for cancer and better ways of managing intravenous lines.
In a "Washington Post" article Emanuel co-wrote with Shannon Brownlee, they described the health care system as "truly dysfunctional, often chaotic", "spectacularly wasteful" and "expensive".
In a 2007 slideshow "Conflicts of Interest", Emanuel said that there were conflicts of interest between a physician's primary responsibilities (providing optimal care for patients, promoting patient safety and public health) and a physician's secondary interests (publishing, educating, obtaining research funding, obtaining a good income and political activism). Emanuel said that while it is difficult to know when conflicts of interest exist, the fact that they do is "the truth". When there is no doubt of a conflict, the issue is not a mere conflict of interest, but fraud.
In a 2007 article "Conflict of Interest in Industry-sponsored Drug Development" Emanuel said that there is a conflict between the primary interests of drug researchers (conducting and publishing good test results and protecting the patient) and secondary concerns (obligations to family and medical societies and money from industries). However, industry sponsored tests are more likely to use double-blind protocols and randomization, and more likely to preset study endpoints and mention adverse effects. Also, there is no evidence that patients are harmed by such studies. However, there is evidence that money influences how test results are interpreted. Emanuel mentioned the Selfox study on the use of calcium channel blockers in treating hypertension, in which authors with a financial interest in the results reported much better results than the rest. Worse yet, test results sponsored by industry are likely to be widely published only if the results are positive. For example, in a Whittington study for data on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, negative results were much less likely to be published than positive results. However, in "The Obligation to Participate in Biomedical Research" the authors Schaefer, Emanuel and Wertheimer said that people should be encouraged to view participation in biomedical research as a civic obligation, because of the public good that could result.
In a 2017 article "Conflict of Interest for Patient-Advocacy Organizations" Emanuel found that financial support of patient-advocacy organizations from drug, device, and biotechnology organizations was widespread (83% of reviewed organizations). Later that year, he argued in another article "Why There are No "Potential" Conflicts of Interest" that conflicts of interest exist whether or not bias or harm has actually occurred.
| 8243661 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8243661 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | William Wallace (philosopher)
William Wallace (11 May 184418 February 1897) was a Scottish philosopher and academic who became fellow of Merton College and White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford University. He was best known for his studies of German philosophers, most notably Hegel, some of whose works he translated into highly regarded English editions. While reputedly forbidding in manner, he was known as an able and effective teacher and writer who succeeded in greatly improving the understanding of German philosophy in the English-speaking world. He died at the age of 52 after a bicycle accident near Oxford.
Wallace was born at Railway Place in Cupar, Fife, the son of master-builder James Wallace and Jane Kelloch. He was the elder of two brothers and was educated at Madras Academy (now Bell Baxter High School) in Cupar before going on to St Andrews University to study arts. He developed a strong interest in the natural world, which led him to spend much time on walks in the countryside, cycling, botany and mountaineering.
Although his parents had encouraged him to take up the study of theology as a precursor to a career in the clergy, Wallace realised that this would not best suit him and chose instead to study the Classics. He was awarded an exhibition at Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied from 1864. In 1867 he became a fellow of Merton College. He gained his Bachelor of Arts the following year, gaining a first class in Moderations and in Literae Humaniores. He was also awarded the Gaisford Prize in 1867 for his work on Greek prose, becoming a tutor at Merton in the same year, and was elected as a Craven Scholar in 1869. His Master of Arts followed in 1871 and he was appointed as Merton's librarian.
Wallace married Janet Barclay, a childhood friend from Cupar, on 4 April 1872. The couple had three children, a daughter and two sons. His younger brother Edwin Wallace studied at Oxford's Lincoln College and later served as vice-provost of Worcester College between 1881 and his death in 1884. In 1882, Wallace became the successor to Thomas Hill Green as White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford, a position which he held along with the Merton tutorship until his death fifteen years later.
His "brusque and sarcastic" manner earned him the nickname "the Dorian", a nickname he acquired at Balliol, though this was said to conceal a "generous and affectionate" nature. He was described as a man of "much genuine nobleness and a staunch uprightness of thought and speech" whose "acquaintances were numerous and friendly, but his intimates few and attached."
Wallace's work focused primarily on the study and diffusion of the ideas of the German philosophers Kant, Fichte, Herder, and Hegel, of whom it was said that his knowledge was exceptional. He was highly regarded as a teacher and lecturer, usually speaking without notes in a style described as "humorous, elegant, and yet earnest" that "produced a unique impression of insight and sincerity upon his students." He sought to encourage his students to think critically and aimed to explain the sometimes arcane and technical nature of philosophical constructs in a way that was both readily understandable and expressed imaginatively, for instance commenting in one of his works that "the Absolute Idea [of Hegel] may be compared to the old man who utters the same creed as a child, but for whom it is pregnant with the significance of a lifetime".
His writings included "The Logic and Prolegomena of Hegel" (1873), a translation of Hegel's "Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences". It was still regarded as "the most masterly and influential of all English translations of Hegel" when it was republished in 1975. The translation was accomplished in a free and creative style accompanied by extensive explanatory notes on the text, drawing parallels between the philosophy of Hegel and classical figures such as Plato and Aristotle. He published "Epicurean Philosophy" in 1880, tracing the origins of Epicureanism and highlighting the links between the life of Epicurus and the philosophy that he espoused.
Wallace's "Kant" (1882), part of Blackwood's Philosophical Classics series, portrayed the German philosopher as engaged in a dialogue with John Locke and David Hume, two of the most influential British Empiricists. He published "The Life of Arthur Schopenhauer" in 1890 in which his biographical account was accompanied by a critique of the philosopher's rejection of empiricism and materialism. He attacked Schopenhauer's "unconquerable vanity" but praised his insight into the power of art and his belief that "the best life is one predicated on the underlying unity of all experience". He travelled extensively to research both works, touring Germany to learn about the cultural and geographical environment in which the German philosophers had lived and worked.
A second edition of "The Logic of Hegel" followed in 1892 and a third edition was published in 1893 with a lengthy analytical introduction. Wallace's work on Hegel focused on the themes that most resonated with a British audience, such as unity and community, while giving relatively less attention to more alien ideas such as the dialectic. In 1894 he published a translation of the last part of Hegel's "Encyclopaedia" under the title of "The Philosophy of Mind", accompanied by five essays commenting on questions such as the method of psychology and how it related to ethics and theology. His final work, published posthumously by Edward Caird, was his "Lectures and Essays on Natural Theology and Ethics" which he had delivered in 1892 at the University of Glasgow as part of the Gifford Lectures on the history of natural theology.
Wallace died on 19 February 1897 as a result of a bicycle accident. While descending a steep hill at Enslow Bridge at Bletchington near Oxford, he lost control of his bicycle and hit a parapet wall, fracturing his skull. He was found unconscious under his bicycle and was carried on a hurdle to The Rock of Gibraltar Inn, where he died early the next day without regaining consciousness. He is buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, with his wife and one of his sons.
| 8247041 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8247041 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Taboo on rulers
Taboos regarding rulers includes both taboos on people coming into contact with a ruler and the taboos regarding the ruler themselves.
Freud attributes the existence of such taboos to an unconscious current of hostility toward the king/ruler. In the following example the hostility toward the ruler is more obviously shown:
But even in such glaring instances, however, the hostility is not admitted as such, but masquerades as a ceremonial.
| 8259064 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8259064 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | ReliefWeb
ReliefWeb is the largest humanitarian information portal in the world. Founded in 1996, the portal now hosts more than 720,000 humanitarian situation reports, press releases, evaluations, guidelines, assessments, maps and infographics. The portal is an independent vehicle of information, designed specifically to assist the international humanitarian community in effective delivery of emergency assistance. It provides information as humanitarian crises unfold, while emphasizing the coverage of "forgotten emergencies" at the same time. Its vision and strategy aim to make ReliefWeb a “one-stop shop for the global humanitarian community."
ReliefWeb was launched in October 1996 and is administered by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The project began as the brainchild of the US Department of State, Bureau of International Organization Affairs, which had noticed during the Rwanda crisis how poorly critical operational information was shared between NGOs, UN Agencies and Governments. In 1995, the Department's Senior Policy Adviser on Disaster Management led a series of discussions at UN HQ in Geneva and New York City, as well as a conference on the project at the US Department of State in which both ReliefWeb as a product and the internet in general were touted as fresh tools for the humanitarian community. Its official launch was also the launch of the UN's first disaster website. Recognizing how critical the availability of reliable and timely information in time of humanitarian emergencies is, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the creation of ReliefWeb and encouraged humanitarian information exchange through ReliefWeb by all governments, relief agencies and non-governmental organizations in Resolution 51/194 on 10 February 1997. The General Assembly reiterated the importance of information sharing in emergencies and of taking advantage of OCHA's emergency information services such as ReliefWeb in Resolution 57/153 on 3 March 2003.
ReliefWeb maintains offices in three different time zones to update the website around the clock: Bangkok (Thailand), Nairobi (Kenya) and New York City (United States). Prior to 2011, the three offices were located in Geneva (Switzerland), Kobe (Japan), and New York (USA). The closing of the Geneva and Kobe offices were due to the higher costs associated with these locations.
ReliefWeb has seen steady growth in usage. In 2017, 6,8 million people visited ReliefWeb. In the same year, the website published more than 57,000 reports and maps, 39,500 jobs in the humanitarian sector, and 2,600 training opportunities.
A first major re-design effort was started in 2002 and completed in 2005, which focused on implementing a more user-centric information architecture.
In April 2011, ReliefWeb launched a new web platform based on open-source technology to offer a powerful search/filter engine and delivery system.
In 2012, ReliefWeb began to expand its focus to become the one-stop shop for critical information on global crises and disasters. In November 2012, ReliefWeb revamped the home page, the "About Us" section and the Blog and introduced "Labs", a place to explore new and emerging opportunities and tools to improve information delivery to humanitarian workers.
ReliefWeb disseminates humanitarian information by updating its website around the clock. In addition, ReliefWeb reaches more than 168,500 subscribers through its e-mail subscription services, allowing those who have low bandwidth Internet connections to receive information reliably.
ReliefWeb posts maps and documents daily from over 5,000 sources from the UN system, Governments, Inter-governmental organizations, NGOs, academia and the media.
In addition, a team of cartographers creates original maps focusing on humanitarian emergencies.
All documents posted on the site are classified and archived, allowing advanced searching of documents from past emergency responses. The database contains more than 720,000 maps and documents dating back to 1981.
ReliefWeb is also a major repository of humanitarian job postings and training announcements. In 2017, 1,605 organizations posted 39,336 job announcements on ReliefWeb. The job and training sources include Academic and Research Institutions, NGOs, International Organizations, Governments, Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement and the Media.
ReliefWeb also provides apps and tools for humanitarians, which enable more targeted personalised information search, with the aim to speed up the delivery of important information. The apps include functions to search ReliefWeb content, curate and access humanitarian data, and manage humanitarian personnel.
ReliefWeb has won the following awards:
| 8262468 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8262468 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | James Rest
James Rest was an American psychologist specializing in moral psychology and development. Together with his Minnesota Group of colleagues, including Darcia Narvaez, Muriel Bebeau, and Stephen Thoma, Rest extended Kohlberg's approach to researching moral reasoning.
James Rest was a professor at the University of Minnesota from 1970 until his formal retirement in 1994 and was a 1993 recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award at the University. Rest continued mentoring, researching, and writing until his death in 1999.
Rest's and the Neo-Kohlbergians' work included the Defining Issues Test (DIT), which attempts to provide an objective measure of moral development, and the Four Component Model of moral development, which attempts to provide a theoretical perspective on the subject. Rest and the Minnesota Group were unusually open to other approaches, new research, criticisms, and integrating their Neo-Kohlbergian approach with others.
There have been extensive criticisms of Rest's work in general and the DIT in particular. Testing by independent sources has tended to uphold the strength and validity of the test.
The 4 component model of James Rest involves 4 psychological processes:
1.Moral sensitivity - the individual must be able to interpret a particular situation in terms of possible courses of action, determine who could be affected by the action, and understand how the affected party would regard the effect
2.Moral judgement - the individual must be able to judge which action is right and ought to decide what to do in a particular situation.
3.Moral motivation - the individual must be able to choose moral values over personal values
4.Moral character - the individual must have sufficient ego, strength and implementation skills to follow his or her intentions.
| 8266721 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8266721 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Defining Issues Test
The Defining Issues Test is a component model of moral development devised by James Rest in 1974. The University of Minnesota formally established the Center for the Study of Ethical Development as a vehicle for research around this test in 1982.
The Defining Issues Test is a proprietary self-report measure which uses a Likert-type scale to give quantitative ratings and rankings to issues surrounding five different moral dilemmas, or stories. Specifically, respondents rate 12 issues in terms of their importance to the corresponding dilemma and then rank the four most important issues. The issue statements that respondents respond to are not fully developed stances which fall on one side or another of the presented dilemma. Rather, they are conceptualized as fragments of reasoning, to which respondents must project meaning. Meaning is projected by means of moral reasoning schemas (each of which is explained below). A schema is a mental representation of stimuli that has previously been encountered, which allows one to make sense of newly experienced, but related, stimuli. So, when a respondent reads an issue statement that both makes sense to them, as well as triggers a preferred schema, that statement is given a high rating and ranking. Conversely, when a respondent reads an issue statement that is either construed as nonsensical or overly simplistic, the item receives a low rating. Patterns of ratings and rankings reveal information about three specific schemas of moral reasoning: the Personal Interests Schema, the Maintaining Norms Schema and the Postconventional Schema.
The personal interests schema are regarded as the least developmentally advanced level of moral reasoning. In operating primarily at the Personal Interests level, the respondent takes into consideration what the protagonist of the story, or those close to the protagonist, has to gain or lose. The Maintaining Norms Schema is considered more advanced than the Personal Interests Schema, as it emphasizes more than the individual.
At the maintaining norms reasoning level, law and authority are important, as each of these helps to uphold social order, which is paramount to this schema. So, a respondent who is predominantly using this schema will take into consideration what needs to be done in order to be compliant with the social order of society. Finally, the Postconventional Schema is regarded as the most developmentally advanced.
At the postconventional reasoning level, laws are not simply blindly accepted (as with the maintaining norms schema), but are scrutinized in order to ensure society-wide benefit. So, a respondent who is primarily using this schema will focus on what is best for society as a whole. For example, the civil rights movement was a product of postconventional reasoning, as followers were most concerned with the society-wide effects of inequality.
Though an individual may rely more heavily on one of the aforementioned schemas, moral reasoning is typically informed, to varying degrees, by each of the schemas.
One of the Defining Issues Test's original purposes was to assess the transition of moral development from adolescence to adulthood. In 1999 the test was revised in the DIT-2 for brevity, clarity and more powerful validity criteria.
The Defining Issues Test has been dubbed "Neo-Kohlbergian" by its constituents as it emphasizes cognition, personal construction, development and postconventional moral thinking - reflective of the work by Lawrence Kohlberg and his stages of moral development.
| 8266740 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8266740 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Taboo on the dead
The taboo on the dead includes the taboo against touching of the dead, those surrounding them and anything associated with the dead.
A taboo against naming the dead is a kind of word taboo whereby the name of a recently deceased person, and any other words similar to it in sound, may not be uttered. It is observed by peoples from all over the world, including Australia, Siberia, Southern India, the Sahara, and the Americas.
After a Yolngu man named Bitjingu died, the word "bithiwul" "no; nothing" was avoided. In its place, a synonym or a loanword from another language would be used for a certain period, after which the original word could be used again; but in some cases the replacement word would continue to be used.
In some Australian Aboriginal cultural practices, the dead are not referred to by their name directly as a mark of respect. In Pitjantjatjara, for instance, it is common to refer to a recently deceased person as 'kunmanara', which means "what's his name". Often, the person's last name can still be used. The avoidance period may last anywhere from 12 months to several years, depending on how important or famous the person was. The person can still be referred to in a roundabout way, such as "that old lady" or by generic skin type but not by first name. Other reasons may include not making mockery of that person and keeping respect with regard to them. For this reason, the names of many notable Aboriginal people were only recorded by Westerners and may have been incorrectly transliterated.
R. M. W. Dixon has suggested, in reference to Australian Aboriginal languages, that the substitution of loanwords for tabooed words results in significant vocabulary replacement, hindering the application of the comparative method. Other linguists find the effects of the taboo on vocabulary replacement to be insignificant.
Goddard (1979) also suggests upon finding evidence of name-taboos of the deceased in Tonkawa similar to Australian languages, the languages of the North American Southeast may have resisted classification into language families so far due in part to vocabulary replacement (in addition to their already sparse documentation).
Sigmund Freud explains that the fundamental reason for the existence of such taboos is the fear of the presence or of the return of the dead person's ghost. It is exactly this fear that leads to a great number of ceremonies aimed at keeping the ghost at a distance or driving him off. In many cases the taboo remains intact until the body of the dead has completely decayed,
Psychologist Wilhelm Wundt associates the taboo to a fear that the dead man's soul has become a demon. Moreover, many cases show a hostility toward the dead and their representation as malevolent figures. Edward Westermarck notes that "Death is commonly regarded as the gravest of all misfortunes; hence the dead are believed to be exceedingly dissatisfied with their fate [...] such a death naturally tends to make the soul revengeful and ill-tempered. It is envious of the living and is longing for the company of its old friend."
| 8274026 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8274026 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Collective action problem
A collective action problem is a situation in which all individuals would be better off cooperating but fail to do so because of conflicting interests between individuals that discourage joint action. The collective action problem has been addressed in political philosophy for centuries, but was most clearly established in 1965 in Mancur Olson's "The Logic of Collective Action". The collective action problem can be observed today in many areas of study, and is particularly relevant to economic concepts such as game theory and the free-rider problem that results from the provision of public goods. Additionally, the collective problem can be applied to numerous public policy concerns that countries across the world currently face.
Although he never used the words "collective action problem," Thomas Hobbes was an early philosopher on the topic of human cooperation. Hobbes believed that people act purely out of self-interest, writing in "Leviathan" in 1651 that "if any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies." Hobbes believed that the state of nature consists of a perpetual war between people with conflicting interests, causing people to quarrel and seek personal power even in situations where cooperation would be mutually beneficial for both parties. Through his interpretation of humans in the state of nature as selfish and quick to engage in conflict, Hobbes's philosophy laid the foundation for what is now referred to as the collective action problem.
David Hume provided another early, more well-known interpretation of what is now called the collective action problem in his 1738 book "A Treatise of Human Nature". Hume characterizes a collective action problem through his depiction of neighbors agreeing to drain a meadow:Two neighbours may agree to drain a meadow, which they possess in common; because it is easy for them to know each others mind; and each must perceive, that the immediate consequence of his failing in his part, is, the abandoning the whole project. But it is very difficult, and indeed impossible, that a thousand persons should agree in any such action; it being difficult for them to concert so complicated a design, and still more difficult for them to execute it; while each seeks a pretext to free himself of the trouble and expence, and would lay the whole burden on others.In this passage, Hume establishes the basis for the collective action problem. In a situation in which a thousand people are expected to work together to achieve a common goal, individuals will be likely to free ride, as they assume that each of the other members of the team will put in enough effort to achieve said goal. In smaller groups, the impact one individual has is much greater, so individuals will be less inclined to free ride.
The most prominent modern interpretation of the collective action problem can be found in Mancur Olson's 1965 book "The Logic of Collective Action". In it, he addressed the accepted belief at the time by sociologists and political scientists that groups were necessary to further the interests of their members. Olson argued that individual rationality does not necessarily result in group rationality, as members of a group may have conflicting interests that do not represent the best interests of the overall group.
Olson further argued that in the case of a pure public good that is both nonrival and nonexcludable, one contributor tends to reduce their contribution to the public good as others contribute more. Additionally, Olson emphasized the tendency of individuals to pursue economic interests that would be beneficial to themselves and not necessarily the overall public. This contrasts with Adam Smith's theory of the "invisible hand" of the market, where individuals pursuing their own interests should theoretically result in the collective well-being of the overall market.
Olson's book established the collective action problem as one of the most troubling dilemmas in social science, leaving a profound impression on present-day discussions of human behavior and its relationship with governmental policy.
Public goods are goods that are nonrival and nonexcludable. A good is said to be nonrival if its consumption by one consumer does not in any way impact its consumption by another consumer. Additionally, a good is said to be nonexcludable if those who do not pay for the good cannot be kept from enjoying the benefits of the good. The nonexcludability aspect of public goods is where one facet of the collective action problem, known as the free-rider problem, comes into play. For instance, a company could put on a fireworks display and charge an admittance price of $10, but if community members could all view the fireworks display from their homes, most would choose not to pay the admittance fee. Thus, the majority of individuals would choose to free ride, discouraging the company from putting on another fireworks show in the future. Even though the fireworks display was surely beneficial to each of the individuals, they relied on those paying the admittance fee to finance the show. If everybody had assumed this position, however, the company putting on the show would not have been able to procure the funds necessary to buy the fireworks that provided enjoyment for so many individuals. This situation is indicative of a collective action problem because the individual incentive to free ride conflicts with the collective desire of the group to pay for a fireworks show for all to enjoy.
Pure public goods include services such as national defense and public parks that are usually provided by governments using taxpayer funds. In return for their tax contribution, taxpayers enjoy the benefits of these public goods. In developing countries where funding for public projects is scarce, however, it often falls on communities to compete for resources and finance projects that benefit the collective group. The ability of communities to successfully contribute to public welfare depends on the size of the group, the power or influence of group members, the tastes and preferences of individuals within the group, and the distribution of benefits among group members. When a group is too large or the benefits of collective action are not tangible to individual members, the collective action problem results in a lack of cooperation that makes the provision of public goods difficult.
Game theory is one of the principal components of economic theory. It addresses the way individuals allocate scarce resources and how scarcity drives human interaction. One of the most famous examples of game theory is the prisoner's dilemma. The classical prisoner's dilemma model consists of two players who are accused of a crime. If Player A decides to betray Player B, Player A will receive no prison time while Player B receives a substantial prison sentence, and vice versa. If both players choose to keep quiet about the crime, they will both receive reduced prison sentences, and if both players turn the other in, they will each receive more substantial sentences. It would appear in this situation that each player should choose to stay quiet so that both will receive reduced sentences. In actuality, however, players who are unable to communicate will both choose to betray each other, as they each have an individual incentive to do so in order to receive a commuted sentence.
The prisoner's dilemma model is crucial to understanding the collective problem because it illustrates the consequences of individual interests that conflict with the interests of the group. In simple models such as this one, the problem would have been solved had the two prisoners been able to communicate. In more complex real world situations involving numerous individuals, however, the collective action problem often prevents groups from making decisions that are of collective economic interest.
Scholars estimate that, even in a battleground state, there is only a one in ten million chance that one vote could sway the outcome of a United States presidential election. This statistic may discourage individuals from exercising their democratic right to vote, as they believe they could not possibly affect the results of an election. If everybody adopted this view and decided not to vote, however, democracy would collapse. This situation results in a collective action problem, as any single individual is incentivized to choose to stay home from the polls since their vote is very unlikely to make a real difference in the outcome of an election.
Despite high levels of political apathy in the United States, however, this collective action problem does not decrease voter turnout as much as some political scientists might expect. It turns out that most Americans believe their political efficacy to be higher than it actually is, stopping millions of Americans from believing their vote does not matter and staying home from the polls. Thus, it appears collective action problems can be resolved not just by tangible benefits to individuals participating in group action, but by a mere belief that collective action will also lead to individual benefits.
Environmental problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and waste accumulation can be described as collective action problems. Since these issues are connected to the everyday actions of vast numbers of people, vast numbers of people are also required to mitigate the effects of these environmental problems. Without governmental regulation, however, individual people or businesses are unlikely to take the actions necessary to reduce carbon emissions or cut back on usage of non-renewable resources, as these people and businesses are incentivized to choose the easier and cheaper option, which often differs from the environmentally-friendly option that would benefit the health of the planet.
Individual self interest has led to over half of Americans believing that government regulation of businesses does more harm than good. Yet, when the same Americans are asked about specific regulations such as standards for food and water quality, most are satisfied with the laws currently in place or favor even more stringent regulations. This illustrates the way the collective problem hinders group action on environmental issues: when an individual is directly affected by an issue such as food and water quality, they will favor regulations, but when an individual cannot see a great impact from their personal carbon emissions or waste accumulation, they will generally tend to disagree with laws that encourage them to cut back on environmentally-harmful activities.
| 8276451 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8276451 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Freedom and Culture
Freedom and Culture is a book by John Dewey. Published in 1939, the book is an analytical defense of democracy written in a time when democratic regimes had recently been replaced by non-democratic ones, and at a time when Marxism was considered a powerful political force.
According to Dewey, human nature is the result of many forces, many of which are culturally determined. Attempts have been made to explain human behavior as being primarily motivated by love of freedom, or by pursuit of self-interest, or by the pursuit of power, or being primarily determined by economic conditions. All of these are products of their times and their inevitable falsification results in a backlash, de-emphasizing the formerly over-emphasized factor.
According to Dewey, freedom had been associated with individuality by some people and with rationality, or law, by others. It has also been associated with the farming class by some people and with capitalists by others. Individualism (or liberty) and social control (or law) have been proposed as two extremes between which freedom has to navigate. In reality, the individual and the social forces interact in various ways, rather than being two distinct extremes.
Therefore, for individuals to be free, appropriate social conditions must exist. Democratic conditions do not automatically maintain themselves and they cannot be mechanically prescribed in a constitution. Dictatorships exist not only through coercion but also by appealing to certain idealistic elements in people, such as solidarity or the appeal of sharing in the creation of a new system.
Public education and press free from government control can be as much a tool for totalitarianism as they are a tool for democracy. They surround the citizens, who in a modern state do not have direct contact with the events that affect them, with "ready made intellectual goods", making them susceptible to propaganda.
According to Dewey, the leaders of the American rebellion against the British were motivated by restrictions placed on industry and trade and by high taxation. This was rationalized into the idea that all government not self-imposed is foreign to human nature and human rights. This simple theory of democracy was a product of the simple conditions under which it was formulated: There is a widespread desire in human nature for personal freedom - release from dominion over personal beliefs and conduct. The main threat to freedom is the tendency of government officials to extend their power. Therefore, guarantees against abuse of government power are enough to guarantee freedom. This idea is very influential in the U.S.
A view that economic development is having an anti-democratic effect and should be controlled by government is more modern and its existence is an indication that conditions have changed dramatically. Conditions have become more complex, and impersonal forces have been set in motion on unprecedented scale, resulting in loss of personal control over the personal situation. Modern conditions have rendered the assumed harmony between liberty and equality invalid. Also, the tendency toward organization by both labor and capital, that is inherent in economic development, was seen in the original democratic theory as an anti-democratic force.
The loss of control motivates both the working class and the capitalists to embrace totalitarian means in the hope of improving security, and distrust of organized labor and capital pushes the public to give more power, as a counterbalance, to a would-be dictator. Can existing institutions be used to cope with modern problems? Socialists who favor non-revolutionary means suggest regulation of industry or ownership of industry by government. Theory and practice, however, do not show that the resulting situation is essentially different from that of capitalism, leaving the question of how to reconcile modern conditions with democracy open.
This chapter is a critique of monistic Marxist theory in vogue at the time the book was written. Marxism asserts that social activities and relations are determined solely by economic conditions, rejecting other factors, associated with human behavior, as having any influence. Original Marxist qualification to this position, allowing that existing social structures can have influence on subsequent events, is removed.
Beyond economic determinism, Marxism states that all social change is the result of class warfare, which moves the workers toward liberation from past subjugation, and finally creates a classless society. This law is an economic paraphrase of the Hegelian dialectic idealism, in which conflict between ideas results in synthesis and harmony.
Marxist theory was a creature of its time, a time when intellectual thought was dealing with social development (or "evolution"), causal necessity, Hegelian philosophy, economically based ideologies and the search for social theories. Marxism is dated by its search for unifying causality, since while the idea of unifying causality was typical of mid 19th century science, it was abandoned in later scientific thought, to be replaced by the idea of invariance, which describes how different phenomena relate to each other, rather than ascribe a single cause for all phenomena.
"The inherent theoretical weakness of Marxism is that it supposed a generalization that was made at a particular date and place (and made even then only by bringing observed facts under a premise drawn from a metaphysical source) can for continued resort to observation, and to continual revision of generalizations in their office of working hypotheses."
Acceptance of Marxism was supported by its discussion of contemporary social phenomena - the struggle between capitalists and factory workers, and economic cycles and concentration. In both its structure and in its attraction based on addressing pressing social issues, Marxism is similar to a religious ideology.
In the USSR, monistic Marxist theory has been accompanied by the anti-scientific devices of one party control of all communications and persecution of dissenters. Power has been given to a small group to apply the theory in specific cases, giving that group absolute coercive power derived from the absolute principle.
This occurrence demonstrates that popular representation, multiple parties and constant criticism of government encourage freedom. Despite the influence of economic factors in politics, these formal devices allow interplay of various tendencies whose result is greatly better than that of a monistic idea.
"We cannot continue the idea that human nature when left to itself, when freed from external arbitrary restrictions, will tend to the production of democratic institutions that work successfully... We have to see that democracy means the belief that humanistic culture "should" prevail; we should be frank and open in our recognition that the proposition is a moral one- like any idea that concerns what "should" be."
"Science through its physical and technological consequences is now determining the relations between human beings. If it is incapable of developing moral techniques which will also determine these relations, the split in modern culture goes so deep that not only democracy but all civilized values are doomed. A culture that permits science to destroy traditional values but which distrusts its power to create new ones is a culture which is destroying itself."
| 8294130 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8294130 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Frenemy
"Frenemy" (also spelled "frienemy") is an oxymoron and a portmanteau of "friend" and "enemy" that refers to "a person with whom one is friendly, despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry" or "a person who combines the characteristics of a friend and an enemy". The term is used to describe personal, geopolitical and commercial relationships both among individuals and groups or institutions. This term also describes a competitive friendship.
The word originates from the aristocratic Mitford sisters, of literary and social fame. The American-based author and activist Jessica Mitford who circulated it, stated it was: "an incredibly useful word…coined by one of my sisters when she was a small child to describe a rather dull little girl who lived near us. My sister and the frenemy played together constantly…all the time disliking each other heartily."
"Frenemy" has appeared in print as early as 1953 in an article titled "Howz about calling the Russians our Frienemies?" by the American gossip columnist Walter Winchel in the "Nevada State Journal" From the mid-1990s it underwent a massive hike in usage.
A "Businessweek" article stated that frenemies in the workplace are common, even in business to business partnerships. Due to increasingly informal environments and the "abundance of very close, intertwined relationships that bridge people's professional and personal lives ... [while] it certainly wasn't unheard of for people to socialize with colleagues in the past, the sheer amount of time that people spend at work now has left a lot of people with less time and inclination to develop friendships outside of the office." Professional relationships are successful when two or more business partners come together and benefit from one another, but personal relationships require more common interests outside of business. Relationships in the workplace, in a sports club, or any place that involves performance comparing, form because of the commonalities between persons. Due to the intense environment, competitiveness can evolve into envy and strain a relationship. Frenemy type relationships become routine and common because of the shared interest of business dealings or competition.
Sigmund Freud said of himself that “an intimate friend and a hated enemy have always been indispensable to my emotional life…not infrequently…friend and enemy have coincided in the same person”.
Frenemies can be divided into different categories based on their behaviors:
needs help or a favor, then they can be considered as a one-sided frenemy to the latter person. This person doesn't care about the life of the other person and doesn't have any interest in what is going on with the other. Also, they do not show up in time of the other's need. So, it is a one-sided relationship.
friend, makes fun of them, cracks sarcastic jokes about them so frequently that it gets hard for them to tolerate. They discloses their secrets in public. So, that person will eventually start to hate this frenemy.
| 8301203 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8301203 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Right to petition
The right to petition government for redress of grievances is the right to make a complaint to, or seek the assistance of, one's government, without fear of punishment or reprisals.
In Europe, Article 44 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union ensures the right to petition to the European Parliament. Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany guarantees the right of petition to "competent authorities and to the legislature". The right to petition in the United States is granted by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (1791).
The prohibition of abridgment of the "right to petition" originally referred only to the Congress and the U.S. federal courts. The incorporation doctrine later expanded the protection of the right to its current scope, over all state and federal courts and legislatures, and the executive branches of the state and federal governments.
The right to petition includes, under its umbrella, the petition. For example, in January 2006, the U.S. Senate considered S. 2180, an omnibus "ethics reform" bill. This bill contained a provision (Section 204)
There are ongoing conflicts between organizations that wish to impose greater restrictions on citizen's attempts to influence or "lobby" policymakers. and the right of individuals, groups, and corporations (via corporate personhood), to lobby the government.
Another controversial bill, the Executive Branch Reform Act, H.R. 984, would require over 8,000 Executive Branch officials to report into a public database nearly any "significant contact" from any "private party", a term that the bill defines to include almost all persons other than government officials. The bill defines "significant contact" to be any "oral or written communication (including electronic communication) . . . in which the private party seeks to influence official action by any officer or employee of the executive branch of the United States." This covers all forms of communication, one way or two ways, including letters, faxes, e-mails, phone messages, and petitions. The bill is supported by some organizations as an expansion of "government in the sunshine", but other groups oppose it as an infringing on the right to petition by making it impossible for citizens to communicate their views on controversial issues to government officials without those communications becoming a matter of public record.
Ancient and Imperial Chinese dynasties recognised the right to petition for all subjects. Commoners could petition the Emperor to remove local officials. The Huabiao, a ceremonial column common in traditional Chinese architecture, is believed to have originated from signboards set up by ancient rulers to offer an avenue for the public to write petitions.
In modern China the use of local petitioning bureaus remains common, however, those who remain dissatisfied still travel to the capital as a last resort to appeal to the central government. The National Public Complaints and Proposals Administration () and local bureaus of letters and calls receive suggestions and grievances. The officers then channel the issues to respective departments and monitor the progress of settlement, which they feedback to the filing parties. If unsatisfied, they can move up the hierarchy to bring complaints to the next higher level.
| 8313678 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8313678 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Declaration of Tokyo
The Declaration of Tokyo is a set of international guidelines for physicians concerning torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in relation to detention and imprisonment, which was adopted in October 1975 during the 29th General assembly of the World Medical Association, and later editorially updated by the WMA in France, May 2005 and 2006. It declares torture to be "contrary to the laws of humanity", and antithetical to the "higher purpose" of the physician, which is to "alleviate the distress of his or her fellow human being." The policy states that doctors should refuse to participate in, condone, or give permission for torture, degradation, or cruel treatment of prisoners or detainees. According to the policy, a prisoner who refuses to eat should not be fed artificially against his will, provided that he or she is judged to be rational.
It is the privilege of the physician to practise medicine in the service of humanity, to preserve and restore bodily and mental health without distinction as to persons, to comfort and to ease the suffering of his or her patients. The utmost respect for human life is to be maintained even under threat, and no use made of any medical knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity.
For the purpose of this Declaration, torture is defined as the deliberate, systematic or wanton infliction of physical or mental suffering by one or more persons acting alone or on the orders of any authority, to force another person to yield information, to make a confession, or for any other reason.
| 8356507 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8356507 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Duality of structure
Duality of structure is one of Anthony Giddens' coined phrases and main propositions in his explanation of structuration theory. The basis of the duality lies in the relationship the Agency has with the Structure. In the duality, the Agency has much more influence on its lived environment than past structuralist theory had granted. The key to Giddens' explanation is his focus on the knowledgeability of the agent and the fact that the agency cannot exist or be analyzed separately from its structure. They can only exist as a duality. The structural properties which he calls modalities help illustrate the dimensions of the duality.
"By the duality of structure I mean that the structural properties of social systems are both the medium and the outcome of the practices that constitute those systems."
The Structure has both rules and resources or constraints and enabling qualities. Language is often used to exemplify these modalities. The system of interaction includes in itself "rules" of the language such as syntax but also leaves room for interpretations or the creation of completely new words. The system of interaction is responsible for maintaining a certain standard of consistency in order for the language to make sense to both the speaker and the interpreter. At the same time, the completeness of the language can always be manipulated and changed through interaction by the agent.
The phrase is used in Chomsky by John Lyons to illustrate the differences between human and animal communication. It is described there as "two levels of grammatical structure." The first being syntactic and the second being phonemes.
| 8369046 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8369046 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Social dominance theory
Social dominance theory (SDT) is a theory of intergroup relations that focuses on the maintenance and stability of group-based social hierarchies. According to the theory, group-based inequalities are maintained through three primary intergroup behaviors: institutional discrimination, aggregated individual discrimination, and behavioral asymmetry. The theory proposes that widely shared cultural ideologies (i.e., legitimizing myths) provide the moral and intellectual justification for these intergroup behaviors.
Social dominance theory was first formulated in 1999 by psychology professors and researchers, Jim Sidanius and Felicia Pratto. The theory begins with the observation that human social groups tend to be organized according to group-based social hierarchies in societies that produce economic surplus. These hierarchies have a trimorphic (3-form) structure. This means that these hierarchies are based on (1) age (i.e., adults have more power and higher status than children), (2) sex (i.e., men have more power and higher status than women), and (3) arbitrary-set, which are group-based hierarchies that are culturally defined and do not necessarily exist in all societies. Arbitrary-set hierarchies can be based on ethnicity (e.g., Whites over Blacks in the U.S.), religion, nationality, and so on.
Human social hierarchies consist of a hegemonic group at the top and negative reference groups at the bottom. More powerful social roles are increasingly likely to be occupied by a hegemonic group member (for example, an older white male). Males are more dominant than females, and they possess more political power (the iron law of andrarchy). Most high-status positions are held by males.
Social dominance theory is a consideration of group conflict which describes human society as consisting of oppressive group-based hierarchy structures. The key principles of social dominance theory are:
The reason that social hierarchies exist in human societies is that they were necessary for survival of inter-group competition during conflict over resources. Essentially, groups organised in hierarchies were more efficient at combat than groups who were organised in other ways, giving a competitive advantage to groups disposed towards social hierarchies.
Social dominance theory explains the mechanisms of group hierarchy oppression using three basic mechanisms:
These processes are driven by legitimizing myths, which are beliefs that justify social dominance:
Social dominance theory is a multi-level theory of how societies maintain group-based dominance. Proposed initially by Sidanius and Pratto (1999), the theory assumes that societies are based on social structures in which dominant groups have higher social status, political authority, power and wealth. Thus, a group-based hierarchy in which dominant groups secure a disproportionate share of the good things in life whiles subordinate groups receives a disproportionate share of the bad stuff. Over time, such structures incorporate into a legitimized myth that serves to perpetuate and maintain this form of group-based hierarchy and creates an ideology that strengthens social dominance, creates intergroup oppression, discrimination and supports prejudice (Pratto & Stewart, 2012).
Notably, social hierarchy is a universal feature that marks humanity. However, the nature of these hierarchical differences and inequality differs across cultures and societies.
The theory identifies two aspects of myth legitimization. Hierarchy enhancing legitimizing myth perpetuates inequality and maintains intergroup inequality, whereas hierarchy attenuating legitimizing myth decreases group-based inequalities and ensures equity. Myth legitimation has implications for human rights and social justice.
For instance, hierarchy attenuating myths argue for a reduction of the disparities that exist between social groups in their access to resources, power, and legitimacy. Whiles hierarchy enhancing legitimizing myths suggest that some rights and privileges are reserved only for certain groups, serving to increase group-based inequality and social hierarchy.
Scales measuring social dominance orientation correlate robustly across countries with a variety of kinds of group prejudices (including sexism, sexual orientation prejudice, racism, nationalism) and with hierarchy - enhancing policies (Pratto & Stewart, 2012). Social dominance orientation correlates negatively with tolerance, egalitarianism, universalism, humanitarianism, and support for hierarchy - attenuating policies such as human rights (e.g. Pratto, Sidanius, & Levin, 2006 ).
Researcher at University of Auckland, John Duckitt, accepts the concept of Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and attempts to pair it to a related set of beliefs, Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA). A scale was produced to measure RWA, and it was focused on conventionalism, authoritarian aggression and authoritarian submission. These three core authoritarian characteristics were identified in the sociology book, "The Authoritarian Personality".
Duckitt proposes a model in which RWA and SDO are produced by socialization in childhood, by personality, and by worldview beliefs. Punitive socialisation is hypothesised as a cause of social conformity. This conformity is predicted to lead to a view of the world as a dangerous, dog-eat-dog place. These correspond to high–RWA beliefs, and in turn influence ingroup and outgroup attitudes. Unaffectionate socialisation is hypothesised to cause tough-minded attitudes. This promotes a view of the world as competitive, similar to the jungle of the evolutionary past. The need to compete is aligned with high SDO, and, again, influences ingroup and outgroup attitudes.
These two streams of causation may co-occur. Parenting styles may be both punitive and unaffectionate, and a competitive-jungle worldview is compatible with world–as–a-dangerous-place. Once established, high–RWA beliefs are hypothesised to promote high–SDO beliefs and vice versa. This predicts high correlations between the two, with environmental origins. On top of this, outgroup and ingroup attitudes may reinforce each other.
Duckitt further examines the complexities of the interaction between RWA, SDO and a variety of specific ideological/prejudicial beliefs and behaviour. For instance:
Duckitt concludes that RWA and SDO have been well studied, and points out that this way of examining belief-paradigms and motivation-schemas could also be useful for examining anti-authoritarian-libertarian and egalitarian-altruistic ideologies.
SDT is influenced by Marxist and socio-biological ideas. Marx described the oppressive hierarchy of hegemonic group(s) dominating negative reference groups, in his examples the bourgeoisie (owning class) dominate the proletariat (working class) by controlling capital (the means of production), not paying workers enough, and so on. However Marx thought that the working class would eventually grasp the solution to this oppression and destroy the bourgeoisie in a revolution.
Legitimizing myths theory is about ideologies that explain and justify social systems. The term "myth" is meant to imply that everyone in society perceives these ideologies as explanations for how the world works, not whether or not they are true or false (indeed Sidanius and Pratto make no claims as to the truthfulness, morality or fairness of these ideologies). There are two functional types of legitimizing myths: (1) hierarchy-enhancing and (2) hierarchy-attenuating legitimizing myths. Hierarchy-enhancing ideologies (e.g., racism or meritocracy) contribute to greater levels of group-based inequality. Hierarchy-attenuating ideologies (e.g., anarchism and feminism) contribute to greater levels of group-based equality. People endorse these different forms of ideologies based in part on their psychological orientation toward dominance and their desire for unequal group relations (i.e., their social dominance orientation; SDO). People who are higher on SDO tend to endorse hierarchy-enhancing ideologies, and people who are lower on SDO tend to endorse hierarchy-attenuating ideologies. SDT finally proposes that the relative counterbalancing of hierarchy-enhancing and -attenuating social forces stabilizes group-based inequality.
Various processes of hierarchical discrimination are driven by "legitimizing myths" (Sidanius, 1992), which are beliefs justifying social dominance, such as paternalistic myths (hegemony serves society, looks after incapable minorities), reciprocal myths (suggestions that hegemonic groups and outgroups are actually equal), and sacred myths (the divine right of kings, as a religion-approved mandate for hegemony to govern). Pratto et al. (1994) suggest the Western idea of meritocracy and individual achievement as an example of a legitimizing myth, and argues that meritocracy produces only an illusion of fairness. SDT draws on social identity theory, suggesting that social-comparison processes drive individual discrimination (ingroup favouritism). Discriminatory acts (such as insulting remarks about minorities) are performed because they increase the actors' self-esteem.
Consistent with the observation that, in patriarchal societies, males tend to be more dominant than females, SDT predicts that males will tend to have a higher social dominance orientation (SDO). As such males will tend to function as hierarchy enforcers, that is, they will carry out acts of discrimination such as the systematic terror by police officers (Sidanius, 1992) and the extreme example of death squads and concentration camps. This is supported by evidence such as police officers possessing measurably higher levels of SDO. SDT also predicts that males that carry out violent acts have been predisposed out of a conditioning called prepared learning. This learned fear readily enables males to commit acts to groups they fear.
John C. Turner and Katherine J. Reynolds (2003) from the Australian National University published in the British Journal of Social Psychology a commentary on SDT titled "Why social dominance theory has been falsified" which outlined six fundamental criticisms based on internal inconsistencies:
1. That the supposed evolutionary basis of the social dominance drive is largely fantasy;
2. That the social and psychological substance of the theory does not follow from and indeed is at odds with the so-called ‘ubiquitous drive’;
3. The meaning and role of ‘social dominance orientation’ (SDO), the trait variable that dominates the research, are rendered problematic by a growing amount of evidence (see Schmitt, Branscombe, & Kappen, 2003, hereafter SBK; Wilson & Liu, 2003, hereafter WL);
4. The BA hypothesis (in which subordinate groups support the hierarchy which
oppresses them to the same extent as dominant groups) has already been demonstrably falsified (leading to the unacknowledged adoption of SIT to explain the conditions under which low-status groups will accept or reject the status quo and favour or derogate the dominant group);
5. The hypothesis of ‘ideological asymmetry’ (IA), supposedly an aspect of BA, is in fact patently inconsistent with it and illustrates that attitudes to dominance hierarchies and group inequalities are a function of one’s group identity, interests and position in the social structure rather than any invariant biological drive, just as realistic conflict and social identity theories would expect;
6. That SDT is both reductionist and philosophically idealist in that it seeks to derive all political ideologies, intergroup relations and indeed the whole social structure from one psychological drive or, in the theory’s weaker but no less implausible form, one attitude (SDO), abstracted, reified and distorted to stand for some hard-wired original sin of biology (‘the beast within’). Whereas, in fact, intergroup attitudes are not prior to but follow from social structure; they follow from the beliefs, theories and ideologies which groups develop to make sense of their place in the social structure and the nature of their relationships with other groups. SDO is a product of social life rather than an underlying cause.
Lui and Wilson (2010), conducted research to further examine the role of gender in comparison to levels of social dominance orientation. The study conducted two tests looking at the relationship between gender-social dominate orientation and if it's moderated by strength of gender group identification and found, "strength of gender identification was found to moderate the gender‐SDO relationship, such that increasing group identification was associated with increasing SDO scores for males, and decreasing SDO for females." Therefore this study raised questions about gender as group membership and if it's a different status compared to other group memberships, possibly undermining the theoretical basis of SDT.
| 8377605 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8377605 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Phone sex
Phone sex is a conversation between two or more people on the phone which is sexually explicit and is intended to provoke sexual arousal in one or more participants. As a practice between individuals temporarily separated, it is as old as dial telephones, on which no operator could eavesdrop (early 20th century). In the later 20th century businesses emerged offering, for a fee, sexual conversations with a phone sex worker. The remainder of this article deals with these paid phone sex services.
Phone sex takes imagination on both parties' part; virtual sex is difficult if the operator does not put the images in the head of the caller and the caller must be open to the pleasure as well. The sexually explicit conversation takes place between two or more persons via telephone, especially when at least one of the participants masturbates or engages in sexual fantasy.
Phone sex conversation may take many forms, including: guided fantasy, sexual sounds, narrated and enacted suggestions, sexual anecdotes and confessions, candid expression of sexual fantasies, feelings, or love, or discussion of very personal and sensitive sexual topics.
Once means of transmitting payment were developed, phone sex turned into primarily a commercial activity, with customers (overwhelmingly male) and sellers (overwhelmingly female).
Phone sex does not involve physical contact between those participating in it. Couples may choose to engage in phone sex when the inconvenience of distance makes physical intimacy impossible.
Due to the potential for emotional intimacy between those who have engaged in phone sex, it is a matter of some debate whether phone sex is to be considered infidelity when involving a person outside of a committed personal relationship. Nevertheless, phone sex should not be confused with prostitution wherein money is exchanged for in-person sexual services or physical interaction.
The editor of "High Society" magazine, Gloria Leonard, is credited with being one of the first people to use "976 numbers", then "900 numbers" for promotional purposes and soon as a revenue stream in the adult industry. Leonard recorded her own voice informing callers of the contents of the next issue of "High Society" magazine before its publication. Later she recorded others such as Annie Sprinkle "talking sexy". Leonard convinced magazine owner Carl Ruderman to purchase more of these numbers and the business began to be successful using the magazine to promote the service. Leonard herself was surprised at the success of these numbers.
Originally phone sex services consisted of a managed network of dispatchers (live or automated) and erotic performers. Performers would come to a studio where they received a cubicle, coaching, and cash incentives to keep callers on the line longer. This is the world portrayed in Spike Lee's movie about phone sex, Girl 6. At that time independent phone sex was more dangerous, as Lee's movie portrays.
With the progress of technology it became more practical, convenient, and economical for providers to work out of their homes. Human dispatchers — female, except for gay male phone sex — answered the advertised phone numbers, processed payment via credit card, chose who of the available performers in the dispatcher's judgment best matched the clients' fantasy (grandma, black girl, college girl, etc.), and connected the client with the provider. The caller could not see the performer's number. Either could hang up, though some services put economic pressure on providers not to do so.
Originally, per-minute billing was provided by phone companies (in the U.S., using 976, then 900 numbers). There was, from some services, an attempt to keep the caller aroused but short of orgasm, so he would spend more money. (This attitude still survives among some providers.) When public (mostly female) pressure forced the phone companies to stop providing this service to sex workers, a transition was made to a manual method: pre-paid blocks of time, 10, 30, 60 minutes, whatever the customer would pay for. The incentives for providers were then reversed; rather than earning money from keeping the customer on the line (orgasm delayed), they earned more from bringing the caller to orgasm quickly, so as to move on rapidly to another call. Unused minutes were rarely usable on a second call. The provider provided (say) 10 minutes of service, but got to keep all of the money (say 20 minutes).
When the Internet got relatively mature, sale of any sexual service not involving a minor could be made to anyone not a minor. Software platforms were custom written to handle money collection and transfer, connecting caller and sex worker though neither could see anything but the platform's phone number, and metering the connection. Details vary significantly from one platform to another, but the provider may be given a personal page on the platform to use however she (sometimes he) wishes. All have some way for a provider to post a picture and some text. Big platforms as of 2016 are Niteflirt, TalktoMe, and My Phone Site; the latter also includes provision by which a manager, with the consent of the providers, could have a virtual shop with many providers under them. Foreign (non-US) customers were courted. Customers had a variety of payment options, and pages of providers to choose from, sometimes with voice samples available. In concept they have a lot in common with platforms such as eBay: the seller provides the picture(s), description, and sets the price, a percentage of which is kept by the platform. In the sex industry, similar platforms emerged facilitating the selling of used panties and other odoriferous garments, and for "cam" video sessions, in which the customer, for a fee, can direct the woman on the video screen, and for a higher fee, have a private connection (no one can see caller or provider except each other).
By the end of the 1980s, nearly all of the major local phone companies in the United States, plus the major long-distance carriers, were actively involved in the adult chat line business. The telephone companies would provide billing services for chat line companies. Typically the telephone companies would bill callers to chat lines and then remit 45% of the money collected to chat line operators. The telephone companies placed the chat line charges on a customer's local phone bill. If a customer disputed a charge, the telephone company would usually “forgive” the charge but block the caller from calling any other chat lines. In 1988, the American phone sex industry generated an estimated $54 million annually (for both producers and telecommunications providers), according to the Information Industry Bulletin.
By 2007 only Verizon, Sprint and AT&T remained in the chat line business in the U.S. By 2007 Verizon and MCI had merged and only a few chat line companies remained active as a result. Verizon provided billing services to calls made in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine. AT&T and MCI offered nationwide collection services, with a cap of $50 per call.
In 2002 profits from phone sex were estimated at one billion dollars a year. In 2007 the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington estimated that phone sex earned U.S. telephone companies close to $500 million per year.
The vast majority of modern services in the United States use toll-free numbers whereby clients can dial up to request a call with a particular performer using credit cards, ACH Network systems, and a variety of other billing methods. There are still some services that rely upon premium-rate telephone numbers (e.g., 976 and 900 numbers) for billing purposes, although this practice has been largely abandoned due to the high rate of fraud associated with these lines and the inability to dial 900 and 976 lines from cellular phones. As a direct result, most telephone companies allow their customers to block outgoing calls to premium-rate telephone numbers. In 1996, the FCC changed regulations on 900 numbers to address abuse of these services by minors and fraud concerns.
Independent phone sex operators engage in self-promotion. This self-promotion can involve a personalized website where the phone sex performer lists their specialties and services, engaging prospects in social media, various methods of advertising (via the traditional methods listed below, or on organized third-party network sites that provide a basic level of privacy for performer and client alike) or surfing of sexually themed chat rooms for interested clients.
Phone sex service providers typically advertise their services in men's magazines, in pornographic magazines and videos, on late-night cable television, and online. Some phone sex services use state-of-the-art customer acquisition techniques such as active database marketing to reach potential clients. These advertising methods almost invariably target men, the primary consumers of phone sex services.
The major phone sex and adult chat lines spend millions of dollars in advertising every month. Thanks to technology, their marketing departments can track the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns by assigning unique phone numbers to each advertising campaign, regardless if it includes TV, print, online or a combination of all these. Unique numbers might either be toll-free 1-800 numbers or local access numbers in order to accommodate callers who have been targeted in a local advertising campaign. Phone sex services will usually list all the local numbers on their websites. Assigning unique phone numbers to each advertising channel allows phone chat companies to measure not only the number of calls that each channel generates but also the price per call, conversion rate, and return on investment. This information can be further analyzed to determine key insights such as the most and least profitable caller's demographics, best and worst times to advertise and ultimately which advertising channels to invest more in and which ones to cut.
Phone sex lines appeared in the UK in the 1980s using premium-rate telephone numbers for adult services with sexual content, with many of the lines playing tape recordings. The phone sex market in the UK is closely linked to the pornographic magazine market, and advertising for such services often provides a vital element of a magazine's revenue. Up to a quarter of the page length of some magazines may be devoted to such advertisements. Advertising in newspapers, which had been common in the 1980s, was ended as a result of regulatory changes in 1994 which restricted advertisements to top-shelf adult magazines. At the same time rules were introduced requiring the user to pro-actively opt-in by requesting a pin number. This dramatically reduced the number of calls, and the proportion of the income generated by premium-rate telephone numbers which was associated with adult services fell from 18% in 1992 to 1% in 1996. During the 1990s many companies began to re-route their traffic abroad in an attempt to circumvent the regulations. The industry took to operating from 40 countries worldwide, commonly Guyana and the Caribbean. In 1995 the income generated in this way was $2 billion. The regulations also led to an increase in the use of live call-back services paid by credit cards, which did not fall under the regulator's jurisdiction because they did not use premium-rate numbers. By 2009 the proportion of the UK population that had used phone sex lines was 45%, according to a survey by Durex. By 2013 there were over 2,000 phone sex companies in the UK. Most phone sex workers are recruited through word of mouth or the internet as the companies are widely forbidden from advertising in mass media. The number of female university students working for phone sex lines in the UK doubled between 2011 and 2013, according to a BBC-commissioned investigation. The industry's regulatory body Phone-paid Services Authority (formerly ICSTIC and PhonePayPlus) monitors and enforces specific community standards in terms of content and price for premium rate numbers.
The legality of phone sex businesses was challenged by the U.S. Federal government in July 1988 with the passage of the Telephone Decency Act, which made it a crime to use a "telephone ... directly or by recording device" to make "any obscene or indecent communication for commercial purposes to any person," punishable by a $50,000 fine or six months in prison." At the time the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was responsible for policing 900 numbers for obscenity and indecency.
Sable Communications of California filed suit against the FCC in federal court to overturn the Telephone Decency Act. On July 19, 1988, U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima ruled that "the prohibition against 'indecent speech' on 900-number recordings was unconstitutional, though its ban on 'obscene speech' could stand."
On June 23, 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that obscene speech, even in commercial telephone calls, was not protected, though indecent speech was. Justice Byron White wrote for the high court's majority
A phone sex worker is a type of sex worker, sometimes referred to as a "phone sex operator", "fantasy artist", "adult phone entertainer", "audio erotic performer", as well as various other monikers. The most valued attributes of a phone sex professional are his or her voice, acting and sexual roleplay skills, along with the experienced ability to discern and respond appropriately to a broad spectrum of customer requests.
Several online companies provide Internet-based phone sex lines. These services enable callers to post profiles of themselves and then engage in VOIP-based and other types of online sex.
| 8387128 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8387128 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Bernard Yack
Bernard Yack (born 1952) is a Canadian born American political theorist.
He received his B.A. from the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Harvard University, where he was a student of Judith Shklar. Yack has taught at numerous universities including Princeton University, & the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of works of political and social philosophy such as "The Problems of a Political Animal", and "The Longing for Total Revolution: The Philosophic Sources of Social Discontent from Rousseau to Marx and Nietzsche". His most recent book is entitled "Nationalism and the Moral Psychology of Community". He is currently the Lerman Neubauer Professor of Democracy and Public Policy at Brandeis University.
Yack, Bernard. Nationalism and the Moral Psychology of Community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.
Yack, Bernard. The Fetishism of Modernities: Epochal Self-Consciousness in Contemporary Social and Political Thought. University of Notre Dame Press, 1997.
Yack, Bernard. Liberalism without Illusions: Essays on Liberal Theory and the Political Vision of Judith N. Shklar. University of California Press, 1996.
Yack, Bernard. The Problems of a Political Animal: Community, Conflict, and Justice in Aristotelian Political Thought. University of California Press, 1993.
Yack, Bernard. The Longing for Total Revolution: Philosophic Sources of Social Discontent from Rousseau to Marx and Nietzsche. Princeton University Press, 1986.
| 8388234 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8388234 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Kavod HaBriyot
Kevod HaBeriyot (; literally in Hebrew: "honor [of/due to] the [God's] creations (human beings)" also variously translated as "individual dignity", "individual honor", or "human dignity" (in a specifically Talmudic sense which may or may not be the same as the secular concept of human dignity)) is a concept of Halakha (Jewish law) originating in the Talmud which permits exceptions to Rabbinic decrees under certain circumstances. This concept has been used in a number of contemporary Jewish religious-law decisions in Orthodox and Conservative Judaism.
The nature and scope of the concept is a matter of contemporary dispute.
Kevod HaBeriyot is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud in Berakhot 19b; Shabbat 81b, 94b; Eruvin 41b; and Megillah 3b. The term "Kevodo" (his dignity) is used in Beitzah 36b.
The Tannaim (rabbis of the Mishnah) and the Amoraim (rabbis of the Talmud) applied the concept of "Kevod HaBriyot" in their interpretations of and rulings on halakhah (Jewish law). The Mishnah explains the importance of the concept as follows:
The Rabbis of the Talmud, when they enacted rabbinic decrees, sometimes limited the scope of those decrees to avoid situations when complying with them might lead to a situation they considered undigified and referred to the concept of "kevod habriyot" as the basis for doing so. For example, carrying across a private property line is prohibited by a rabbinic prohibition (See eruv), but the Talmud records that the Rabbis created an exception for carrying up to three small stones if needed for wiping oneself in a latrine on the basis of "kevod habriyot" (Shabbat 81b, 94b). Similarly, the rabbis enacted a prohibition on a Kohen from approaching a coffin or graveyard to ensure that the Biblical prohibition on contact with the dead would not be inadvertently violated, but permitted a Kohen to violate this rabbinic prohibition in order to greet a king, again appealing to the principle of "kevod habriyot" as the basis of this exception (Berachot 19b). Tractate Beitzah records that the rabbis created an exception of the rabbinic prohibition on creating even temporary structures on Shabbat or major Jewish holidays (to safeguard the Biblical prohibition against building permanent structures) to permit a person alone in a field to align stones to create a temporary latrine, because of "kevodo" ("his dignity) (Beitzah 36b).
Although the Rabbis of the Talmud created limited exceptions to their own enactments to prevent indignities, they held that they do not have authority to create exceptions to Divine law recorded in the written Tanakh or received as Oral law in the form of Halakha LeMoshe MiSinai. Berachot 19b records a discussion in which a tradition that rabbis have such authority was explicitly considered but rejected.
The Shulkhan Arukh, a seminal code of Jewish law, used a dramatic example to illustrate its holding that "kevod habriyot" does not override Biblical prohibitions. It held that an observant Jew who becomes aware of Biblically prohibited clothing should remove it immediately even if it leaves a colleague naked in a public place, illustrating that biblical prohibitions trump even strong considerations of modesty and even great public embarrassment.
The Halakha in the Shulkhan Arukh goes according to Rav:
Shulkhan Arukh, Yoreh De'ah 303:1 "[That it is] Permissible to remove "kilayim" from [his] friend even in [the] marketplace:
Mishpat Ivri expert Menachem Elon, in his Encyclopaedia Judaica article on "Takkanot" emphasized the importance of Kevod HaBriyot:
In the Encyclopaedia Judaica article on "Honor" Rabbi Louis Isaac Rabinowitz wrote that "So great was 'the honor of God's creatures' regarded that 'God has regard to the dignity of His creatures' (Sif. Deut. 192) and honor annuls even a negative commandment of the Bible (Ber. 19b), especially the honor of the community (TJ, Ber. 3:1, 6a)."
Most classical poskim, however, maintained in accordance with the opinion in the Talmud that "Kevod HaBriyot" can only justify overriding rabbinic restrictions. The reference to "annulling a negative commandment of the Bible" refers only to the commandment "lo tasur", in other words the command to observe rabbinic restrictions, so the Talmud is in fact saying the same thing but in a deliberately paradoxical way.
Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits held that because the principle of "kevod habriyot" reflects a perspective on values requiring a respect for life, Jewish law prohibits euthanasia.
Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg held that wearing a hearing aid on Shabbat represents a modern analogy to classically permitted activities such as carrying stones and hence the principle of "kevod habriyot" overrides the rabbinic prohibitions involved and renders it permitted.
Modern Orthodox rabbi Daniel Sperber held that the principle of "kevod habriyot" permits women to be called to a Torah reading in a synagogue service (See support for partnership minyanim). R. Sperber's responsum addressed the traditional view that "halachah" in principle permits a woman to be called but the "honour of the congregation" forbids it. In R. Rabbi Sperber's view, "kevod habriyot", the "honour of the individual", can override the honor of the congregation in much the same way that it had been interpreted to override other rabbinic prohibitions. R. Sperber's view has been a controversial one within Orthodox Judaism and has not gained widespread acceptance.
Rabbi Aryeh A. Frimer, author of a number of scholarly works on the status of women in Orthodox halakha including "Women and Minyan", wrote a critique of Rabbi Sperber's arguments which he entitled ""Lo Zu haDerekh:" A Review of Rabbi Prof. Daniel Sperber's "Darka shel Halakha". In Rabbi Frimer's view, the concept of "kevod habriyot" can override rabbinic prohibitions under relatively narrow circumstances caused by external factors such as excrement or nakedness, but cannot override a rabbinic prohibition in its entirety. He argued that a rabbinic decree cannot itself be regarded shameful or embarrassing, and that to permit a rabbinic decree to be characterized as an embarrassment would give anyone carte blanche to abrogate any Rabbinic prohibition simply by saying "This offends me." He said "in those cases where acting according to "halakha"...creates the embarrassment, then kevod ha-beriyyot cannot set aside the Rabbinic prohibition. One should be proud to be fulfilling the "halakha".".
A more complete and extensively documented presentation of Rabbi Frimer's position has appeared.
In December 2006, Conservative Judaism's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards discussed the Conservative understanding of the concept of "kevod habriyot" as applied to the CJLS's decisionmaking in a series of decisions on the Conservative understanding of Jewish law on the subject of homosexuality. A majority of the Committee voted to adopt two very different responsa under its philosophy of pluralism. The two responsa based their different conclusions in part on different understandings of the concept of "kevod habriyot"
Rabbis Dorff, Nevins, and Reisner wrote a responsum which supported liberalizing Conservative Judaism's view of homosexual behavior. They held that rabbinic prohibitions against homosexual behavior are inconsistent with human dignity as society now understands it. They argued that the Conservative understanding of the principle of "Kevod habriyot" includes general society's evolving understanding of human dignity and that the rabbinic prohibitions involved were inconsistent with human dignity thus understood. Citing R. Daniel Sperber's view that rabbinic prohibitions can be negated by the "kevod habriyot" principle, the responsum declared all rabbinic prohibitions restricting homosexual activity lifted. Finding that the principle of "kevod habriyot" could only override rabbinic and not Biblically mandated restrictions, the responsum left in place what it found to be the only Biblically mandated restriction involved, a prohibition on male-male anal sex.
Rabbi Joel Roth wrote a responsum which supported maintaining traditional restrictions on homosexual behavior, which was also adopted by a majority of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. The responsum analyzed the principle of "kevod habriyot" and held that the rule only permits overriding rabbinic injunctions out of honor or respect for someone else, but not out of one's own honor. Rabbi Roth argued that the idea that a person's own honor (as distinct from giving honor to someone else) could justify overriding a rabbinic injunction was not only inconsistent with a fair reading of the history of the concept, but theologically unjustifiable. The responsum argued that the principle behind "kevod habriyot" is the idea that a person can honor God by honoring others, and that this principle does not apply in cases where one's own honor, as distinct from others' honor, is at stake. It held that overriding a rabbinic prohibition because of one's own sense of personal dignity or self-honor would be tantamount to considering one's own honor as more important than God's in matters between oneself and God. The responsum also found the Biblically mandated restrictions involved to be more extensive in scope.
| 8408785 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8408785 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | History of fair trade
The fair trade movement has undergone several important changes since its early days following World War II. Fair trade, first seen as a form of charity advocated by religious organizations, has radically changed in structure, philosophy and approach. The past fifty years have witnessed massive changes in the diversity of fair trade proponents, the products traded and their distribution networks.
Fair trade principles have deep roots in European societies long before the first structured alternative trading organizations (ATOs) emerged following World War II. Many of the fundamental concepts behind fair trade actually show a great resemblance with pre-capitalist ideas about the organization of the economy and society.
The notion of the ‘old moral economy’ is a fitting example of such conceptions. E. P. Thompson, in his work on 18th century England, described a society where "notions of common well being, often supported by paternalistic traditional authorities, imposed some limits on the free operations of the market". Farmers were then not allowed to manipulate prices by withholding their products to wait for price increases. The actions of the middlemen were always considered legally suspect, were severely restricted and the poor were provided opportunities to buy staple foods in small parcels. Fair trade was already seen as a way to address market failures; although the concept mainly revolved around consumer, rather than producer, rights.
In 1827 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a moral and economic boycott of slave-derived goods began with the formation of the "Free Produce Society", founded by Thomas M'Clintock and other abolitionist members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). In the Free produce movement, they sought to fight against slavery with a new tactic, one that emphasized the value of the honest labor of free men and women, and to try to determine the unseen added costs to goods such as cotton and sugar which came from the toil of slaves. In 1830, African Americans formed the "Colored Free Produce Society", and women formed their own branch in 1831. In 1838, supporters from a number of states came together in the American Free Produce Association, which promoted their cause by seeking non-slave alternates to products from slaveholders, forming non-slave distribution channels, and publishing a number of pamphlets, tracts, and the journal "Non-Slaveholder". The movement did not grow large enough to gain the benefit of the economies of scale, and the cost of "free produce" was always higher than competing goods. The national association disbanded in 1847, but Quakers in Philadelphia continued until 1856.
There have been a few instances in which fair trade in the 'old moral economy' was focused on producer rights: as early as 1859, Dutch author Multatuli (the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker) questioned the injustice of the colonial and capitalist system towards commodity producers in his novel "Max Havelaar". The fictional tale recounts the story of Max Havelaar, a Nederlandse Trade Company employee, who leaves everything to work in solidarity with local Indonesian workers. This account draws a direct correlation between the wealth and the prosperity of Europe and the poverty of the suffering of other parts of the world.
In 1897 The Salvation Army launched the Hamodava Tea Company. Hamodava pioneered a fair trade model which sought to pay fair prices to the tea farmers, whilst also offering a scheme by which they could purchase plantation land on a co-operative giving them financial independence.
The fair trade movement was shaped in the years following World War II. Early attempts to commercialize in Northern markets goods produced by marginalised producers were initiated by religious groups and various politically oriented non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and SERRV International were the first, in 1946 and 1949 respectively, to develop fair trade supply chains in developing countries. The products, almost exclusively handicrafts ranging from jute goods to cross-stitch work, were mostly sold by volunteers in 'charity stores' or 'ethnic shops'. The goods themselves had often no other function than to indicate that a donation had been made.
The modern fair trade movement was shaped in Europe in the 1960s. Fair trade during that period was often seen as a political gesture against neo-imperialism: radical student movements began targeting multinational corporations and concerns that traditional business models were fundamentally flawed started to emerge. The global free market economic model came under attack during that period and fair trade ideals, built on a Post Keynesian economics approach to economies where price is directly linked to the actual production costs and where all producers are given fair and equal access to the markets, gained in popularity. The slogan at the time, "Trade not Aid", gained international recognition in 1968 when it was adopted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to put the emphasis on the establishment of fair trade relations with the developing world.
In 1965 the first ATO was created: British NGO Oxfam launched "Helping-by-Selling", a program which later developed into Bridge. The scheme sold imported handicrafts in Oxfam stores in the United Kingdom and from mail-order catalogues with a circulation of almost 100,000 copies. The program was created to support the work of cooperatives and community enterprises in the developing world. The program was highly successful: it remained one of the largest and most influential in the sector and then changed in 2002 as more mainstream retailers were persuaded to carry fair trade products. Globally Oxfam still works in many countries on fair trade programs and runs hundreds of shops across Europe and Australia selling and promoting fair trade goods.
In 1969, the first Worldshop opened its doors in the Netherlands. The initiative aimed at bringing the principles of fair trade to the retail sector by selling almost exclusively goods such as handcrafts produced under fair trade terms in "underdeveloped regions". The first shop was run by volunteers and was so successful that dozens of similar shops soon went into business in the Benelux countries, Germany and in other Western European countries.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, important segments of the fair trade movement worked to find markets for products from countries that were excluded from the mainstream trading channels for political reasons. Thousands of volunteers sold coffee from Angola and Nicaragua in Worldshops, in the back of churches, from their homes and from stands in public places, using the products as a vehicle to deliver their message: give disadvantaged producers in developing countries a fair chance on the world's market, and you support their self-determined sustainable development. The alternative trade movement blossomed, if not in sales, then at least in terms of dozens of ATOs being established on both sides of the Atlantic, of scores of Worldshops being set up, and of well-organized actions and campaigns attacking exploitation and foreign domination, and promoting the ideals of Nelson Mandela, Julius Nyerere and the Nicaraguan Sandinistas: the right to independence and self-determination, to equitable access to the world's markets and consumers.
In the early 1980s, Alternative Trading Organizations faced a major challenge: the novelty of some fair trade products started wearing off, demand reached a plateau and some handicrafts began to look "tired and old fashioned" in the marketplace. The decline of segments of the handicrafts market forced fair trade supporters to rethink their business model and their goals. Moreover, fair trade supporters during this period became increasingly worried by the impact of the fall of agricultural commodity prices on poor producers. Many then believed it was the movement's responsibility to address the issue and to find innovative remedies to address the ongoing crisis in the industry.
In the subsequent years, fair trade agricultural commodities played an important role in the growth of many ATOs: successful on the market, they offered a renewable source of income for producers and provided Alternative Trading Organizations the perfect substitute to the stagnating handicrafts market. The collapse of the International Coffee Agreement in 1989 fueled the extraordinary growth of the fair trade coffee market, providing a powerful narrative for a new breed of fair trade brand that engaged producers directly in consumer operations. Cafédirect is a good example of this new thinking and was the first fair trade brand to be found in UK supermarkets. Dedicated to the mainstream, Cafédirect created focused on consumer engagement and language and built a reputation for quality, justifying its premium positioning with the tag-line "We pay more, so you get the pick of the crop".
The first fair trade agricultural products were coffee and tea, quickly followed by dried fruits, cocoa, sugar, fruit juices, rice, spices and nuts. Coffee quickly became the main growth engine behind fair trade: between 25 and 50% of the total alternative trading organization turnover in 2005 came from coffee sales.
While a sales value ratio of 80% handcrafts to 20% agricultural goods was the norm in 1992, in 2002 handcrafts accounted for 25.4% of sales while commodity food lines were up at 69.4%. The transition to agricultural commodities was further highlighted in 2002, when Oxfam decided to abandon its loss-making handcrafts trading program after 27 years of existence. Oxfam's move had significant consequences on the entire fair trade movement. Some ATOs saw this as an opportunity to restructure and partner up with mainstream businesses in an effort to find economic efficiencies and broaden their appeal, while others (such as Alternativ Handel in Norway), unable to adjust to the market and plagued by financial difficulties, were forced to close.
Today, many ATOs still exclusively sell handcrafts - which they judge culturally and economically preferable to agricultural commodities. While these are still considered fair trade flagship products, academics have described them as a niche market that now only appeals to relatively small segments of the population, mostly fair trade core supporters who buy products on the basis of the story behind the product.
"Note: Customary spelling of Fairtrade is one word when referring to product labelling"
Sales of fair trade products however only really took off with the arrival of the first Fairtrade labelling initiatives. Although buoyed by ever growing sales, fair trade had been generally contained to relatively small Worldshops scattered across Europe and to a lesser extent, North America. Some felt that these shops were too disconnected from the rhythm and the lifestyle of contemporary developed societies. The inconvenience of going to them to buy only a product or two was too high even for the most dedicated customers. The only way to increase sale opportunities was to start offering fair trade products where consumers normally shop, in large distribution channels. The problem was to find a way to expand distribution without compromising consumer trust in fair trade products and in their origins.
A solution was found in 1988, when the first Fairtrade label, Max Havelaar, was launched under the initiative of Nico Roozen, Frans van der Hoff and Dutch ecumenical development agency Solidaridad. The independent certification allowed the goods to be sold outside the worldshops and into the mainstream, reaching a larger consumer segment and boosting fair trade sales significantly. The labeling initiative also allowed customers and distributors alike to track the origin of the goods to confirm that the products were really benefiting the producers at the end of the supply chain.
On the producer end, the Max Havelaar initiative offered disadvantaged producers following various social and environmental standards a fair price, significantly above the market price, for their crop. The coffee, originating from the UCIRI cooperative in Mexico, was imported by Dutch company Van Weely, roasted by Neuteboom, sold directly to world shops and, for the first time, to mainstream retailers across the Netherlands.
The initiative was groundbreaking as for the first time Fairtrade coffee was sold in supermarkets and mass-retailers, therefore reaching a larger consumer segment. Fairtrade labelling also allowed consumers and distributors alike to track the origin of the goods to confirm that the products were really benefiting the farmers at the end of the supply chain.
The initiative was a great success and was replicated in several other markets: in the ensuing years, similar non-profit Fairtrade labelling organizations were set up in other European countries and North America, called "Max Havelaar" (in Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway and France), "Transfair" (in Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Italy, the United States, Canada and Japan), or carrying a national name: "Fairtrade Mark" in the UK and Ireland, "Rättvisemärkt" in Sweden, and "Reilu Kauppa" in Finland.
Initially, the Max Havelaars and the Transfairs each had their own Fairtrade standards, product committees and monitoring systems. In 1994, a process of convergence among the labelling organizations – or "LIs" (for "Labelling Initiatives") – started with the establishment of a TransMax working group, culminating in 1997 in the creation of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO). FLO is an umbrella organization whose mission is to set the Fairtrade standards, support, inspect and certify disadvantaged producers and harmonize the Fairtrade message across the movement.
In 2002, FLO launched a new International Fairtrade Certification Mark. The goals of the launch were to improve the visibility of the mark on supermarket shelves, facilitate cross border trade and simplify export procedures for both producers and exporters.
The Fairtrade Certification Mark harmonization process is still under way – today, all but two labelling initiatives (Transfair USA & TransFair Canada) have adopted the new International Fairtrade Certification Mark. Full transition to the new Fairtrade Mark should become reality as it gradually replaces the old certification marks at various speeds in various countries.
In January 2004, FLO was divided into two independent organizations: FLO International, which sets Fairtrade standards and provides producer business support, and FLO-CERT, which inspects and certifies producer organizations. The aim of the split was to ensure the impartiality, the independence of the certification process and compliance with ISO 65 standards for product certification bodies.
At present, over 20 Labelling Initiatives are members of FLO International. There are now Fairtrade Certification Marks on dozens of different products, based on FLO's certification for coffee, tea, rice, bananas, mangoes, cocoa, cotton, sugar, honey, fruit juices, nuts, fresh fruit, quinoa, herbs and spices, wine and footballs etc.
In an effort to complement the Fairtrade certification system and allow for example handcraft producers to also sell their products outside worldshops, the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), formerly the International Fair Trade Association (founded 1989), launched a new Mark to identify fair trade organizations in 2004 (as opposed to products in the case of Fairtrade). Called the FTO Mark, it allows consumers to recognize registered Fair Trade Organizations worldwide and guarantees that standards are being implemented regarding working conditions, wages, child labour and the environment.
The FTO Mark gave for the first time Fair Trade Organizations (including handcrafts producers) definable recognition amongst consumers, existing and new business partners, governments and donors.
Global fair trade sales have soared over the past decade. The increase has been particularly spectacular among Fairtrade labelled goods: In 2007, Fair trade certified sales amounted to approximately €2.3 billion (US$3.62 billion) worldwide, a 47% year-to-year increase. As per December 2006, 569 producer organizations in 58 developing countries were FLO-CERT Fairtrade certified and over 150 were WFTO registered.
| 8413804 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8413804 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Town Police Clauses Act 1847
The Town Police Clauses Act 1847 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (10 & 11 Vict c. 89). The statute remains in force and is frequently used by local councils to close roads to allow public events such as processions or street parties to take place. The Act is also used to regulate the local hackney carriage, taxi and private-hire trade in many areas. It deals with a range of street obstructions and nuisances, for example, it makes it illegal to perform certain actions in a public street or other thoroughfare, such as hanging washing, beating carpets, and flying kites. Historically, it was highly significant legislating against indecent exposure, indecent acts, obscene publications, and prostitution.
In 1847, the House of Commons Select Committee on Private Bills presented a report. In 1842 to 1843, the average number of private bills passed was 161, rising to an average of 347 from 1845 to 1846. By 21 July 1847, the House of Commons, 490 petitions for private bills were received that year. Already in place, resulting from early reports by the select committee, new mechanisms were in place to deal more efficiently with private bills.
Noting was that much of the business the House of Commons was dealing with were numerous private bills, which due to the clauses they contained, were essentially public bills. Drawing up private bills to deal with public functions had consequences. The select committee wrote:
To provide uniformity in legislation in different geographical areas, to reduce the number of private bills about public functions, and to reduce expense, the select committee proposed eight public acts, each dealing with a different topic:
The police legislation was enacted as the Town Police Clauses Act 1847.
The original Act covered six areas,
Many clauses of the act are still in force; these are provisions dealing with
The act is still relevant to policing the highway. Many offences in the act relating to nuisance and obstruction in the street, and the act is also a means of regulating road closures for special events.
The law controls the use of fireworks, and the wanton discharge of firearms in the street. A significant role is the licensing of hackney carriages. It also prohibits the wanton furious driving of a horse and carriage in the street. A role of the Act is to regulate peoples' behaviour. It remains an offence to be disorderly or insulting in a police station.
Until 2003, the Act was one piece of legislation against prostitution in a range of premises, including hotels. Although superseded by other laws a conviction for indecency, deriving from the Act, is on a list of offences which can be used to identify those who present a risk, or potential risk, to children.
Town Police Clauses Act 1847 (as enacted)
Town Police Clauses Act 1847 (as currently in force, published on legislation.gov.uk)
| 8420007 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8420007 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Perajurit Tanah Air
Perajurit Tanah Air or Inilah Barisan Kita is a patriotic Malaysian national song. Composed by Saiful Bahari. The song is remarkable for its impartial, egalitarian lyrics, which extols the soldiers' love and duty to the motherland without explicit reference to any particular race or religion.
"Perajurit Tanah Air" found renewed popularity among Malaysians in the wake of the 2013 Lahad Datu standoff.
| 8420435 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8420435 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Professional courtesy
Professional courtesy generally refers to the etiquette extended between members of the same profession. The concept of professional courtesy is believed to have originated within the ancient practice of medicine whereby physicians provided services to other physicians without charge. However, the philosophy does not necessarily involve the same courtesy across all professions, nor is professional courtesy a mandated privilege, but is freely given at the discretion of the party extending the courtesy.
While the etiquette is not limited to physicians, the medical profession is likely the oldest and best known one for having such a longstanding practice among its members. Some other well known groups that have some form of professional courtesy are attorneys, performing artists, and law enforcement officers.
The phrase may also describe the ethical conduct of lawyers towards each other.
In 1803, Thomas Percival wrote a classic essay on medical ethics that endorsed complimentary professional care to “All members of the profession, including apothecaries as well as physicians and surgeons, together with their wives and children, should be attended gratuitously.” In 1847, the American Medical Association's Code of Ethics similarly endorsed waiving charges for services to other physicians and their families, This is likely the first modern-day documentation of the philosophy.
Among physicians it has been historically traditional to provide medical care at no or reduced cost to physician colleagues and their immediate family members. The original purpose of this practice was to discourage physicians from treating themselves and members of their own family. The custom dates back to Hippocrates, well before physicians had attained middle-class incomes. However, physicians regularly providing free or reduced rate services as professional courtesy must remain mindful in an age of copays, insurance-only billing, and referrals, as the practice can run afoul of the law under some circumstances.
In 1994, the American Medical Association issued a Code of Medical Ethics Opinion advising that free-of-charge and reduced rate services were not an ethical requirement, and that physicians should use their own judgment when deciding to extend such professional courtesy.
The term has been used to refer to the practice by law enforcement officers allowing other officers to engage in traffic violations and some crimes without being reported or arrested.
Some US states (such as California) issue confidential license plates to employees in law enforcement, and other public officials. The plates keep identities and addresses anonymous, allowing employees the inadvertent ability to travel on tollways without charge. Even serious offenses such as drunk driving are subject to professional courtesy discretion, and federal law assists in the process by exempting police officers and firefighters from a federal law that requires truck drivers to be blood-tested after an accident.
There is a website offering law enforcement employees the purchase of a family card that they can give to friends and family to produce at a traffic stop to identify them as a family member. Critics of the ethical actions of police officers purport that where an ordinary member of the public would get a ticket, this notification card will lead the officer to overlook any violations of the law the person may have made and tell them to go on their way. The vendor of this card is explicit about the intention behind these cards.
Until the 1960s, it was customary for theater management to admit members of Actors Equity and other members of the profession to Broadway shows for free. This practice continues in the Off-Off-Broadway world, where members of Equity must be admitted free of charge to any Showcase production in which there is a member of the union in the cast if there are seats left at curtain time. This applies as well to "bona fide" producers, directors, and casting directors, who do not have to wait until showtime to be seated.
| 8428553 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8428553 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Modalities (sociology)
Modalities are fundamental to understanding the concept behind Structuration. According to Anthony Giddens, modalities explain the properties of the Structure. The structure is said to have both structural and individual qualities. Giddens refers to these structural modalities as 'rules' and 'resources' respectively. In application, Giddens is separating himself from other structuralists by acknowledging the enabling functions that the structure provides.
A case of a 'rule' is the act of obeying a law. That is, there are limits that the structure places on agency causing the agent to act in a certain way. In this respect the structure is imposing restrictions upon the agent in order to accomplish societal norms. Norms, however, have changed in the past and are under constant manipulation by the society through the use of structural 'resources'. Civil laws can and have been overturned or rewritten in the past. Laws that have limited human liberties, can be overturned as there exists 'resources', e.g. lawyers who can present a case for social reform. It could also be the process of judicial review itself.
Giddens suggests that it is these modalities that illustrate his reliance on the duality of structure because it presents a case where knowledgeable individuals can use the resources available to them to change policies, standards or norms that the structure imposes upon them.
| 8433573 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8433573 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Robot ethics
Robot ethics, sometimes known by the short expression "roboethics", concerns ethical problems that occur with robots, such as whether robots pose a threat to humans in the long or short run, whether some "uses" of robots are problematic (such as in healthcare or as 'killer robots' in war), and how robots should be designed such as they act 'ethically' (this last concern is also called machine ethics). Alternatively, roboethics refers specifically to the ethics of "human behavior" towards robots, as robots become increasingly advanced. Robot ethics is a sub-field of ethics of technology, specifically information technology, and it has close links to legal as well as socio-economic concerns. Researchers from diverse areas are beginning to tackle ethical questions about creating robotic technology and implementing it in societies, in a way that will still ensure the safety of the human race.
While the issues are as old as the word "robot", serious academic discussions started around the year 2000. Robot ethics requires the combined commitment of experts of several disciplines, who have to adjust laws and regulations to the problems resulting from the scientific and technological achievements in Robotics and AI. The main fields involved in robot ethics are: robotics, computer science, artificial intelligence, philosophy, ethics, theology, biology, physiology, cognitive science, neurosciences, law, sociology, psychology, and industrial design.
Some of the central discussion of ethics in relation to the treatment of non-human or non-biological things and their potential "spirituality". Another central topic, has to do with the development of machinery and eventually robots, this philosophy was also applied to robotics. One of the first publication directly addressing and setting the foundation for robot ethics was Runaround (story), a science fiction short story written by Isaac Asimov in 1942 which featured his well known Three Laws of Robotics. These three laws were continuously altered by Asimov, and a fourth, or zeroth law, was eventually added to precede the first three, in the context of his science fiction works. The short term "roboethics" was most likely coined by Gianmarco Veruggio.
An important event that propelled the concern of roboethics was the First International Symposium on Roboethics in 2004 by the collaborative effort of Scuola di Robotica, the Arts Lab of Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, and the Theological Institute of Pontificia Accademia della Santa Croce, Rome. "After two days of intense debating, anthropologist Daniela Cerqui identified three main ethical positions emerging from two days of intense debate:
These are some important events and projects in robot ethics. Further events in the field are announced by the euRobotics ELS topics group, and by RoboHub:
Computer scientist Virginia Dignum noted in a March 2018 issue of "Ethics and Information Technology" that the general societal attitude toward artificial intelligence (AI) has, in the modern era, shifted away from viewing AI as a tool and toward viewing it as an intelligent “team-mate”. In the same article, she assessed that, with respect to AI, ethical thinkers have three goals, each of which she argues can be achieved in the modern era with careful thought and implementation. The three ethical goals are as follows:
Roboethics as a science or philosophical topic has begun to be a common theme in science fiction literature and films. One film that could be argued to be ingrained in pop culture that depicts the dystopian future use of robotic AI is "The Matrix", depicting a future where humans and conscious sentient AI struggle for control of planet earth resulting in the destruction of most of the human race. An animated film based on "The Matrix", the "Animatrix", focused heavily on the potential ethical issues and insecurities between humans and robots. The movie is broken into short stories. Animatrix's animated shorts are also named after Isaac Asimov's fictional stories.
Another facet of roboethics is specifically concerned with the treatment of robots by humans, and has been explored in numerous films and television shows. One such example is , which has a humanoid android, named Data, as one of its main characters. For the most part, he is trusted with mission critical work, but his ability to fit in with the other living beings is often in question. More recently, the movie Ex Machina and TV show Westworld have taken taken on these ethical questions quite directly by depicting hyper-realistic robots that humans treat as inconsequential commodities. The questions surrounding the treatment of engineered beings has also been key component of Blade Runner (franchise) for over 50 years. Films like Her have even distilled the human relationship with robots even further by removing the physical aspect and focusing on emotions.
Although not a part of roboethics "per se", the ethical behavior of robots themselves has also been a joining issue in roboethics in popular culture. The "Terminator" series focuses on robots run by an conscious AI program with no restraint on the termination of its enemies. This series too has the same archetype as "The Matrix" series, where robots have taken control. Another famous pop culture case of robots or AI without programmed ethics or morals is HAL 9000 in the "Space Odyssey" series, where HAL (a computer with advance AI capabilities who monitors and assists humans on a space station) kills all the humans on board to ensure the success of the assigned mission after his own life is threatened.
With contemporary technological issues emerging as society pushes on, one topic that requires thorough thought is robot ethics concerning the law. Academics have been debating the process of how a government could go about creating legislation with robot ethics and law. A pair of scholars that have been asking these questions are Neil M. Richards Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis as well as, William D. Smart Associate Professor of Computer Science at Washington University in St. Louis. In their paper "How Should Robots Think About Law" they make four main claims concerning robot ethics and law. The groundwork of their argument lays on the definition of robot as "non-biological autonomous agents that we think captures the essence of the regulatory and technological challenges that robots present, and which could usefully be the basis of regulation." Second, the pair explores the future advanced capacities of robots within around a decades time. Their third claim argues a relation between the legal issues robot ethics and law experiences with the legal experiences of cyber-law. Meaning that robot ethics laws can look towards cyber-law for guidance. The "lesson" learned from cyber-law being the importance of the metaphors we understand emerging issues in technology as. This is based off if we get the metaphor wrong for example, the legislation surrounding the emerging technological issue is most likely wrong. The fourth claim they argue against is a metaphor that the pair defines as "The Android Fallacy". They argue against the android fallacy which claims humans and non-biological entities are "just like people".
| 8434470 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8434470 |
Religion&Philosophy&Ethics | Shaucha
Shaucha (Sanskrit: शौच, also spelled Saucha, Śauca) literally means purity, cleanliness and clearness. It refers to purity of mind, speech and body. Saucha is one of the Niyamas of Yoga. It is discussed in many ancient Indian texts such as the Mahabharata and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. It is a virtue in Hinduism and Jainism. In Hinduism purity is a part of worship, an attitude or purity of mind an important quality for salvation. Purity is a mind pure and free of evil thoughts and behaviors.
Saucha includes outer purity of body as well as inner purity of mind. The concept of "Saucha" is synonymous with "Shuddhi" (शुद्धि). LePage states that Saucha in yoga is on many levels, and deepens as an understanding and evolution of self increases.
Shaucha, or holistic purity of the body, is considered essential for health, happiness and general well-being. External purity is achieved through daily ablutions, while internal purity is cultivated through physical exercises, including asana (postures) and pranayama (breathing techniques). Along with daily ablutions to cleanse one's body, the concept of Shaucha suggests clean surrounding, along with fresh and clean food to purify the body. Lack of Saucha, such as letting toxins build in body are a source of impurity.
Shaucha goes beyond purity of body, and includes purity of speech and mind. Anger, hate, prejudice, greed, pride, fear, negative thoughts are a source of impurity of mind. The impurities of the intellect are cleansed through the process of self-examination, or knowledge of self ("Adhyatma-Vidya"). The mind is purified through mindfulness and meditation on one's intent, feelings, actions and its causes.
Teachers of the Vedanta path of yoga prepare to have holy thoughts and for performing holy actions students and the young help teachers prepare for worship, building self-control and selflessness. This is to offer a true gift - to offer something without expecting anything in return. Sarada Devi said "Pure mind begets ecstatic love (prema-bhakti)."
Saucha is included as one of five "Niyamas" in Yoga, that is activity that is recommended for spiritual development of an individual. Verse II.32 of Yogasutra lists the five "niyamas". In verse II.40, Patanjali describes outer purity, while verse II.41 discusses inner purity, as follows:
Saucha is one of the ten "Yamas" listed by Śāṇḍilya Upanishad, as well as by Svātmārāma. It is one of the virtuous restraints (yamas) taught in ancient Indian texts. The other nine yamas are Ahiṃsā (अहिंसा): Nonviolence, Satya (सत्य): truthfulness, Asteya (अस्तेय): not stealing, Brahmacharya (ब्रह्मचर्य): celibacy chastity and fidelity, Kṣamā (क्षमा): forgiveness, Dhṛti (धृति): fortitude, Dayā (दया): compassion, Ārjava (आर्जव): sincerity and non-hypocrisy, and Mitahara (मितहार): moderate diet.
The Epic Mahabharata mentions the virtue of purity ("Saucha") in numerous books. For example, in Book 14 Chapter 38, it lists "Saucha" as a high quality found in the liberated, happy and dharmic person,
Bhagavad Gita describes purity at three levels in Book 17, verses 14-16, namely body, speech and thoughts. Purity of body comes from cleanliness of body as well as from what one eats and drinks. Purity of speech comes from being truthful and through use of words that are not injurious, hurtful or distressing to others or self. Purity of thoughts comes from reflection, peace of mind, silence, calmness, gentleness and purity of being.
Purity of mind, speech and body has been one of the important virtues in Indian philosophy.
| 8455324 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8455324 |