ethics

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• SOURCE: Science News
  5/16/2023
  

  Former East Germans Largely Eschewed Opportunity to Read their Stasi Files—What that Says about Ethics

  Few of the former residents of East Germany have chosen to view the files kept on them by the communist secret police; scholars have investigated this as an example of strategic ignorance that can help individuals function and preserve social harmony. 

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• SOURCE: Boston Review
  5/10/2023
  

  Forum: Is "Equal Opportunity" the Wrong Goal?

  by Christine Sypnowich

  A political philosopher introduces a forum on inequality and justice by arguing that the focus on opportunity at the expense of equalizing outcomes will inevitably allow significant inequality to continue. 

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• 5/14/2023
  

  Political Pundits, Apply the "Resentment" Label with Caution

  by Robert A. Schneider

  As the brief respite between two Trump-Biden races reaches its end, "resentment" is once again the go-to political explanation. But too often the term is used to describe voters as irrational and unhinged while obscuring some real causes of moral aggrievement in contemporary society. 

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• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  2/22/2023
  

  Drawing the Line between Assigning and Endorsing

  by Steve Mintz

  Controversies about recent books about the history and legacy of colonialism raise questions about what it means to assign – or refuse to – a book for students to read, discuss, and potentially critique, and how provocation works in the liberal model of inquiry. 

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• SOURCE: Noēma
  12/7/2021
  

  Michael J. Sandel on the Dark Side of Meritocracy

  by Nils Gilman

  "The growing awareness of the problems with meritocracy in recent decades is a direct result of the deepening divide between winners and losers. The divide has poisoned our politics and set us apart."

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• SOURCE: The Nation
  11/27/2021
  

  Selective Conscience: New Book Dissects Rawls's Theory of Fairness

  by Olúfémi O. Táíwò

  Katrina Forrester's book shows the influence of John Rawls on the study of ethics, but also reveals the limits of abstract theory for understanding historical injustice. 

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• SOURCE: The Nation
  2/23/2021
  

  The Broken System: What Comes After Meritocracy?

  by Elizabeth Anderson

  Philosopher Elizabeth Anderson reviews Michael Sandel's critique of meritocracy, a book that locates an explanation for the Trumpian moment in the rise of competitive individualism in the platforms of both major parties. 

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• 10/25/2020
  

  Reading Pope Francis's "Fratelli Tutti" through Carl Sandburg

  by Walter G. Moss

  The latest encyclical by Pope Francis, calling for recognition of the unity of humanity, echoes the egalitarian humanism of the poet and writer Carl Sandburg.

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• SOURCE: TIME
  10/20/2020
  

  We All Think History Will Be on Our Side. Here's Why We Shouldn't

  by Priya Satia

  We would do better to listen to today’s historians in order to understand how we got here and recover other guides to conscience, not just look to future historians for consolation.

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• SOURCE: Forbes
  8/26/2020
  

  Here's Why Trump Officials Rarely Face Penalties For Hatch Act Violations

  By hosting part of the GOP convention at the White House, the Trump administration is accused of violating the 1939 federal ethics law.

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• SOURCE: Gallup
  9-13-18
  

  Trump Rated Worse Than Other Modern-Day Presidents on Ethics

  A majority of Americans say President Donald Trump's ethical standards are lower than those of each of six U.S. presidents elected in the past 50 years.

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  7-3-18
  

  Genocide hoax tests ethics of academic publishing

  by Reuben Rose-Redwood

  An academic journal published a controversial article advocating for colonialism last fall. Would academic journals also publish an outrageous article advocating for genocide?

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• 6-17-13
  

  Canadian Historians: Come Clean About Your Relationship with Big Tobacco

  by Daniel J. Robinson

  Image via Shutterstock.Later this month, Acadia University historian and former Dean of Arts Robert Perrins will testify in a Montreal courtroom on behalf of the tobacco industry. There he will discuss his 400+-page expert witness report on the Canadian government’s handling of tobacco issues since the 1950s.  The year-long trial involves two class-action suits seeking to compensate Quebec smokers for nicotine addiction and disease caused by smoking. The combined claim at $27 billion is the largest in Canadian history.

• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Ed.
  3-25-13
  

  Mark Kingwell: The Barbed Gift of Leisure

  Mark Kingwell is a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto. His most recent book is Unruly Voices: Essays on Democracy, Civility, and the Human Imagination (Biblioasis, 2012).A magazine ad campaign running in my hometown quotes a youngster who wants to study computer science, he says, so he can "invent a robot that will make his bed for him." I admire the focus of this future genius. I, too, remember how the enforced daily reconstruction of my bed—an order destined only for destruction later that very day—somehow combined the worst aspects of futility, drudgery, and boredom that attended all household chores. By comparison, doing the dishes or raking the yard stood out as tasks that glimmered with teleological energy, activities that, if not exactly creative, at least smacked of purpose.