Several contributions in the book show how these principles apply to contemporary problems and moral issues.

Issues such as abortion, embryo research and euthanasia have been discussed exhaustively from the standpoint of Western philosophy and religion, but so far the voice of Buddhism has been little heard in the debate. Although widely respected for its benevolent and humanistic values, Buddhism has not so far shown how its ethical principles can be applied in a consistent manner to contemporary moral dilemmas. Drawing on both ancient and modern sources, this book sets out the basis of a Buddhist response (...) to the major ethical questions posed by modern medicine. (shrink)

The latter half of the twentieth century witnessed a growing interest in Buddhism, and it continues to capture the imagination of many in the West who see it as either an alternative or a supplement to their own religious beliefs. Numerous introductory books have appeared in recent years to cater to this growing interest, but almost none devotes attention to the specifically ethical dimensions of the tradition. For various complex cultural and historical reasons, ethics has not received as much attention (...) in traditional Buddhist thought as it has in the West. Written by Damien Keown, one of the few experts worldwide who specializes in the area, Buddhist Ethics illustrates how Buddhism might approach a range of contemporary morals ranging from abortion to euthanasia, sexuality to cloning, and even war and economics. (shrink)

This paper reports on a rhetorical analysis of interviews with fifteen white Australian citizens who had undertaken offshore commercial surrogacy in India. Extending previous research, the findings suggest that genetic relatedness was valorized, and surrogacy constructed as a less tenuous route to family formation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the need for further research on 1) how the contentious nature of offshore commercial surrogacy may prevent full consideration of its ethical implications, 2) the differing belief systems between India (...) and Australia in terms of children as alienable objects, and 3) ongoing consideration of how and when genetic-relatedness is made to matter. (shrink)

Résumé La parution posthume des Inséparables invite à distinguer les deux modalités d’ écriture par lesquelles Beauvoir a fait revivre la figure majeure pour elle de Zaza (1907-1929), son amie d’ enfance et de jeunesse : la fiction puis l’ autobiographie ; et cela à la lumière des appréciations de l’ autrice et du pacte de lecture propre à chaque modalité d’ écriture. Ces approches successives sur plusieurs décennies témoignent de la fascination constante de Beauvoir pour Zaza et incitent le (...) lecteur à prolonger l’ exploration beauvoirienne par les écrits mêmes de Zaza. (shrink)

In this essay, Riggs demonstrates how heterosexism shapes foster-care assessment practices in Australia. Through an examination of lesbian and gay foster-care applicants’ assessment reports and with a focus on the heteronormative assumptions contained within them, Riggs demonstrates that foster-care public policy and research on lesbian and gay parenting both promote the idea that lesbian and gay parents are always already “just like” heterosexual parents. To counter this idea of “sameness,” Riggs proposes an approach to both assessing and researching lesbian and (...) gay parents that privileges the specific experiences of lesbians and gay men and resists the heterosexualization of lesbian and gay families by focusing on some potentially radical differences shaping lesbian and gay lives. (shrink)

Everyone has mixed feelings about the future, especially about the many powerful technologies changing our world – and us as well. Trash TV excites us with visions of bionic limbs for the helpless, robot puppies craving attention but never messing the carpet, painless laser dentistry, clones, and weird genetic hybrids.

Les politiques technologiques visant à mettre en relation les acteurs scientifiques et économiques se sont profondément transformées entre 1962 et 1988. Aux politiques technologiques prenant la forme de « grands programmes technologiques » succèdent des politiques dites « de soutien à l’innovation » caractérisées notamment par des dispositifs de soutien à l’investissement destinés aux entreprises ou la mise en œuvre de réseaux visant à accroître les synergies entre les mondes scientifiques et industriels. Cette inflexion s’accompagne d’une reconfiguration des temporalités de (...) ce secteur de l’action publique. Au caractère occasionnel de la mise en œuvre des programmes technologiques se substitue une réforme que nous qualifions de permanente, essentiellement orchestrée par les ministres de l’Industrie. En nous intéressant au travail réformateur de quatre d’entre eux, nous proposons dans cet article d’interroger le processus de construction d’une temporalité de la réforme autonome. Nous... (shrink)

This paper argues that econometricians' explicit adoption of identification conditions in structural equation modelling commits them to read the functional form of their equations in a strong, nonmathematical way. This content, which is implicitly attributed to the functional form of structural equations, is part of what makes equation structural. Unfortunately, econometricians are not explicit about the role functional form plays in signifying structural content. In order to remedy this, the second part of this paper presents an interpretation of the functional (...) form based on Herbert Simon 's definition of causal order. This begins to set out just what the functional form of structural equations represents. ‡I would like to thank Nancy Cartwright and attendants at UCSD Graduate Seminar 2006 for helpful comments. I also want to thank the AHRC for supporting the research for this paper. †To contact the author, please write to: Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom; e-mail: [email protected]. (shrink)

A Survey of Vinaya Literature. Charles S. Prebish. The Dharma Lamp Series 1, Jin Luen Publishing House, Taipei 1994. 157 pp. No price given.

The author had had a plan for a kind of melodrama constructed around two orders of motivation. In the foreground of the stage, there was to be a series of realistic incidents, dealing with typical human situations, such as family quarrels, scenes at a business office, lovers during courtship, a public address by a spell-binder, etc. In the background, like a set of comments on this action, there was to be a primeval forest filled with mythically prehistoric monsters, marauding and (...) fighting in silent pantomime. These two realms were to have no overt connection with each other. The monsters in the "prehistoric" background would pay no attention to the everyday persons of the... (shrink)

Introduction to “postcolonial Ricoeur”, French version.

The article starts by offering a definition of fake kindness focused on the dissociation between the behavioural components of kindness and the intent to sincerely pay some heed to the needs of others. Using the sociological theory of Pierre Bourdieu, this definition is then used to articulate how fake kindness can be conceptualized as a specific form of symbolic violence. Such a view allows explanations as to how and why the prevalence and effectiveness of fake kindness vary according to microsociological (...) norms and values. The generic definition and conceptualization of fake kindness as a form of symbolic violence are then used to discuss how nursing’s enthrallment with the concept of caring and its operationalization as a moral compass likely fosters the growth of fake kindness within the profession. In this view, the institutional enforcement of propriety and well-behaved professionalism is more likely to lead to toxic environments than to healthy workplaces. We hope that being able to understand how professional norms and institutional rules are sometimes turned into social tools to enforce obedience and existing hierarchies can empower victims of those phenomena to resist them more effectively. It might also contribute to increasing the awareness of well-meaning nurses or people in position of authority who have been socialized in environments where fake kindness is normalized. (shrink)

Damien Tissot | : Les mouvements féministes transnationaux se sont développés ces dernières décennies pour éviter les impasses des logiques de revendications nationales, internationales et pour combattre de manière générale la rhétorique de l’universel. Afin de lutter contre la mise en place de discours hégémoniques dont le pouvoir est souvent hérité d’une histoire coloniale et patriarcale, les théoriciennes des mouvements féministes transnationaux ont souvent cherché à définir les conditions d’une politique de la traduction qui permettrait de lutter contre la (...) mise en place d’un discours de l’universel, unifié et dominant. Une politique de la traduction semble alors recouvrir deux choses. Elle désigne tout d’abord les implications politiques de la pratique de la traduction. Elle désigne ensuite la traduction en tant que paradigme pour penser le politique, compris comme l’ensemble des implications politiques du rapport à l’autre. C’est dans ce cadre que l’oeuvre de Ricoeur propose des solutions théoriques importantes. Sans renoncer à la catégorie de l’universel, Ricoeur la pense « en traduction ». Ses propositions théoriques permettent ainsi de réconcilier les critiques théoriques qui ont été adressées à l’universalisme, notamment par les féministes, avec le projet d’une politique féministe de la traduction. Or cette réconciliation passe, dans l’oeuvre de Ricoeur, par la formulation d’une véritable éthique de la traduction, au coeur de laquelle se trouve une éthique de la sollicitude à rapprocher des éthiques du care. Cet article se propose de montrer comment la mise en oeuvre d’une éthique de la traduction fondée sur des valeurs de caring et de sollicitude permet de repenser une politique féministe de la traduction ouverte sur l’universel. Après avoir montré comment le féminisme transnational s’est construit contre l’universel, cet article explore la possibilité de penser celui-ci « en traduction », pour articuler une politique et une éthique de la traduction dont les termes peuvent être définis avec Ricoeur par un principe d’hospitalité qui trouve son complet déploiement dans une éthique du care. | : In the last few years, transnational feminist movements have developed considerably in order to avoid national and international political strategies and, more broadly, to challenge claims of universalism. In order to fight the hegemonic discourses that have been inherited from a colonial and patriarchal past, theorists of feminist transnational movements have accessed possibilities offered by the politics of translation. The politics of translation refers to the political implications of translating, but also to translation as a paradigm for conceiving of “politics”—namely, rights, policy, or institutions. Using translation as a paradigm would, according to this claim, put into question unified, dominant, and universalistic claims. In this context, Ricoeur provides us with important theoretical solutions. Not only does he maintain the concept of universality, but he moreover offers a useful framework in which to conceive of it as “in translation.” Therefore, Ricoeur reconciles the feminist critiques of the universal with the feminist project of thinking through of a politics of translation. In Ricoeur’s theory, this reconciliation is elaborated within an ethics of translation based on an ethics of care, or solicitude. This article explores the ways in which an ethics of translation based on the values of caring and solicitude allows us to conceive of a politics of translation that includes a renewed concept of the universal. First, I will show how transnational feminism has developed against the idea of the universal. Second, I will suggest that we can define the universal “in translation” to think through both a politics and an ethics of translation. Third, I will sketch the outlines of this ethics of translation, which, while maintaining the possibility of the universal, includes a principle of hospitality, which is fully developed through an ethics of care. (shrink)

In this book the author considers data from both early and later schools of Buddhism in an attempt to provide an overall characterization of the structure of Buddhist ethics. The importance of ethics in the Buddha's teachings is widely acknowledged, but the pursuit of ethical ideals has up to now been widely held to be secondary to the attainment of knowledge. Drawing on the Aristotelian tradition of ethics the author argues against this intellectualization of Buddhism and in favour of a (...) new understanding of the tradition in terms of which ethics plays an absolutely central role. In the course of this reassessment many basic concepts such as karma, nirvana, and the Eightfold Path, are reviewed and presented in a fresh light. The book will be of interest to readers with a background in either Buddhist studies or comparative religious ethics. (shrink)

This essay extends the observations made in E. Johanna Hartelius’ The rhetoric of expertise about the nature of expertise in digital contexts. I argue that digital media introduce a scale of communication—many-to-many—that reshapes how the invention of knowledge occurs. By examining how knowledge production on Wikipedia occurs, I illustrate how many-to-many communication introduces a new model of “participatory expertise.” This model of participatory expertise challenges traditional information routines by elevating procedural expertise over subject matter expertise and opening up knowledge production (...) to the many. Additionally, by hosting multiperspectival conversations on Wikipedia, the participatory model of expertise introduces epistemic turbulence into traditionally tranquil encyclopedia culture. (shrink)

Since the 1990s, there has been a growing tendency to interpret Diderot as a radical who first put into question absolutism in the Encyclopédie and then became a fierce opponent of any kind of ‘despotism’, even the ‘enlightened’ one, and a fervent partisan of democratic revolutions in the 1770s. It is argued here that the narrative that cuts Diderot’s life into different phases obscures continuities in his political thought, and misrepresents partly the political vision he had in the 1770s. Diderot’s (...) political thought may have been more coherent than usually acknowledged, and this coherence is to be found in his ideal of a paternalistic monarchy taking advice from its subjects and respecting their rights, that is the constitution of the realm. This idea is not to be mixed up with a democratic programme of government by the people, nor with the endorsement of political change via a revolution. Rather, when towards the end of his life Diderot lost hope that the constitutional order of the French monarchy would be respected, he both feared civil war and hoped that these tumults might bring about the regeneration of the French monarchy. This vision derived from a classical cyclic view of history. (shrink)

Thinking and acting in favor of sustainable development is internationally recognized; it is necessary but societies and individuals are slow to adopt an appropriate behavior. International organizations such as World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology recommend to opt for frugality, a principle emphasized to avoid over-consumption and consequently the depletion of natural resources. This article thus examines the principle of frugality by proving that it is not necessarily related to consumption as it is understood since the (...) Enlightenment: we have to take into account the Asian perspective that changes the relationship between humankind and nature, first taking into consideration the good of the whole community. I argue that frugality is not necessarily in conflict with economy but certainly challenging it as expressed by the Indian terms Jugaad or Gandhian: a way of thinking and creating new projects that lead to fruitful solutions for the majority. Therefore I intend to provide a positive definition of frugality as a way of creating new projects that lead to fruitful solutions for the majority. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage est une réédition numérique d’un livre paru au XXe siècle, désormais indisponible dans son format d’origine.

Part 1 What Do Teachers Need to Know? Part 2 What Makes a Good Teacher? Part 3 Being a Teacher?

That red boxer shorts and socks do just as well as fig leaves for concealing modesty in Tom de Freston's recent paintings demonstrates that modesty can also be a source of comedy. Monumental figures and poses that might otherwise inspire awe instead elicit a grimace. Perhaps this humor is not strictly an aesthetic virtue of de Freston's work. Even so, there are many genuinely aesthetically relevant features that we might attend to: representational properties, expressive properties, formal properties, and art-historical properties. (...) In this article, however, I wish to draw attention not to the aesthetic value of de Freston's work but to its educational value. Although these works might be experienced as part of a .. (shrink)

Difficult Beginnings. Three Works on the Bodhisattva Path. Candragomin. Translated, with commentary by Mark Tatz. Shambhala, Boston and London 1985. $22.50. 121 pp.