Jacoby Carter, Wilberforce University
I will begin this paper by confessing that I have not as yet come to any concrete determination as to the axiology of death. Death, according to Thomas Nagel “…is the unequivocal and permanent end of our existence,…” properly understood, death, within the context of this discourse is not a transition from temporal human existe…
Nathan Jun, Loyola University Chicago
In the preface to his seminal work, Reason and Morality (1978), Alan Gewirth writes: “The most important and difficult problem of philosophical ethics is whether a substantial moral principle can be rationally justified.” Taking this problem as his point of departure, Gewirth proceeds to outline his own solution, one purp…
Kristin Pierce, Pacific Lutheran University
This paper developed in response to the promotion of certain “core values” by Pacific Lutheran University’s School of Nursing. It engages some of the epistemic problems raised by accepting those core values without exploring the implications of theory on practice. As a nurse, one is expected to “care&#…
Deborah Johnson, Georgia Institute of Technology
In this paper I use the concept of forbidden knowledge to explore questions about putting limits on science. Science has generally been understood to seek and produce objective truth, and this understanding of science has grounded its claim to freedom of inquiry. What happens to decision making about science when this claim to…
Lee Peck, Ohio University
Many journalists rely on a “quick-and-easy” formula for making ethical decisions. Based on Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean, it involves casting out the two extremes (vices) of an ethical dilemma and acting on a middle point in the ethics spectrum. This paper explores what Aristotle intended with his doctrine of the mean and sugge…
Wayne Waters, Ohio University
The ethics of journalism and mass communications are undergoing serious reevaluation these days. Concepts derived from three major phenomena — the social responsibility theory exemplified by the Hutchins Commission on Freedom of the Press, the developmental journalism brought out by the MacBride Commission on “Communication…
Presented at the 1999 Ohio University Student Conference on Applied Ethics. The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of Ohio University or the Institute for Applied and Professional Ethics.
Bradford Short — Carnegie-Mellon University
After speaking of metaphysics and the right-state of life-liberty as viewed by Rousseau, t…
Presented at the 1999 Ohio University Student Conference on Applied Ethics. The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of Ohio University or the Institute for Applied and Professional Ethics.
Matthew Ciske – Ohio University
The central question of my research this year is “Are police officers and other criminal investigators et…
Jessica Kapusta, Mercyhurst College
This paper deals with the kind of lying that every individual commits every day — the “little white lie.” Since there is very little material on this subject, I conducted some research of my own, asking about 15 subjects to define lying for me and to list any circumstance in which they felt lying would be necessary. I then ask…