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Paper Raises Questions (paper + raise_question)
Selected AbstractsResponsibilities of Criminal Justice OfficialsJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHILOSOPHY, Issue 2 2010KIMBERLEY BROWNLEE abstract In recent years, political philosophers have hotly debated whether ordinary citizens have a general pro tanto moral obligation to follow the law. Contemporary philosophers have had less to say about the same question when applied to public officials. In this paper, I consider the latter question in the morally complex context of criminal justice. I argue that criminal justice officials have no general pro tanto moral obligation to adhere to the legal dictates and lawful rules of their offices. My claim diverges not only from the commonsense view about such officials, but also from the positions standardly taken in legal theory and political science debates, which presume there is some general obligation that must arise from legal norms and be reconciled with political realities. I defend my claim by highlighting the conceptual gap between the rigid, generalised, codified rules that define a criminal justice office and the special moral responsibilities of the various moral roles that may underpin that office (such as guard, guardian, healer, educator, mediator, counsellor, advocate, and carer). After addressing four objections to my view, I consider specific contexts in which criminal justice officials are obligated not to adhere to the demands of their offices. Amongst other things, the arguments advanced in this paper raise questions about both the distribution of formal discretion in the criminal justice system and the normative validity of some of the offices that presently exist in criminal justice systems. [source] Exploring the implications for health professionals of men coming out as gay in healthcare settingsHEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 1 2006Bob Cant MA Abstract Coming out as gay is a social process which redefines the relationship between the persons who have decided to disclose their homosexuality and their listeners. This paper, drawing upon Bakhtin's (1984) theories of dialogue, the coming-out literature of gay men and lesbians and contemporary literature on doctor,patient communication, explores the coming-out experiences of gay men with their general practitioners and sexual health clinic staff. The findings are based upon a study of 38 gay men and 12 health service managers in London. The informants were recruited purposively to reflect some of the diversity of the London setting; recruitment was carried out through the channels of gay voluntary organisations and through snowballing. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and a grounded-theory approach was adopted. It was found that coming out in general practice was often/mostly followed by silence/noncommunication on the part of the practitioner; coming out could, however, result in an improvement in communication if the patients were well supported and assertive. If coming out in sexual health clinics did not result in improved communication, the informants in this study were likely to change clinics until they did find improved communication. This paper raises questions about the communication and training needs of general practitioners. It also raises questions about inequalities of access to ,respectful' sexual health clinics; while men who are articulate about the narratives of their lives as gay men are able to exercise informed choices, there were grounds for concern about the choice behaviours of men who are less articulate about their life narratives. [source] Mechanisms Controlling Crystal Habits of Gold and Silver ColloidsADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS, Issue 7 2005C. Lofton Abstract Examples of gold and silver anisotropic colloids, such as prisms and rods, have appeared in the literature for many years. In most cases, the morphologies of these thermodynamically unfavorable particles have been explained by the particular reaction environment in which they were synthesized. The mechanisms used to explain the growth generally fall into two categories, one in which chemically adsorbed molecules regulate the growth of specific crystal faces kinetically, and the other where micelle-forming surfactants physically direct the shape of the particle. This paper raises questions about the growth of anisotropic metal colloids that the current mechanisms cannot adequately address, specifically, the formation of multiple shapes in a single homogeneous reaction and the appearance of similar structures in very different synthesis schemes. These observations suggest that any growth mechanism should primarily take into consideration nucleation and kinetics, and not only thermodynamics or physical constrictions. The authors suggest an alternative mechanism where the presence and orientation of twin planes in these face-centered cubic (fcc) metals direct the shape of the growing particles. This explanation follows that used for silver halide crystals, and has the advantage of explaining particle growth in many synthesis methods. In this mechanism, twin planes generate reentrant grooves, favorable sites for the attachment of adatoms. Shape and structural data are presented for gold and silver particles synthesized using several different techniques to support this new model. Triangular prisms are suggested to contain a single twin plane which directs that growth of the initial seed in two dimensions, but limits the final size of the prism. Hexagonal platelets are suggested to contain two parallel twin planes that allow the fast growing edges to regenerate one another, allowing large sizes and aspect ratios to form. Rods and wires were found to have a fivefold symmetry, which may only allow growth in one dimension. It is expected that a superior mechanistic understanding will permit shape-selective synthesis schemes to be developed. [source] The Short cut to international development: representing Africa in ,New Britain'AREA, Issue 1 2000Marcus Power Summary Under New Labour, the British Department for International Development (DFID) promises a radical and alternative new ,development agenda' and, more specifically, an end to ,development handouts'. The short cut to international development envisioned by Secretary of State Clare Short is explored in this paper, as is the ,messy' contextuality of writing about development in ,New Britain'. This paper raises questions about New Labour's discussion of the ,moral authority' for international development in ,post-colonial' Britain, particularly in light of the recent ,arms-to-Africa' affair involving Britain and Sierra Leone. The paper argues that Britannia's neoliberal vision of development is not so ,cool' and that, in ethical terms, the development of foreign policy toward Africa has not been consistent. In conclusion, the paper raises doubts about the likelihood of world poverty being halved by 2015 (as the DFID has confidently predicted). [source] Has the guest arrived yet?BUSINESS ETHICS: A EUROPEAN REVIEW, Issue 3 2007Emmanuel Levinas, a stranger in business ethics To what extent can business ethics be ,hospitable' to Levinasian ethics? This paper raises questions about how business ethics relates to its guests, in this case the guest called ,Levinas'; the idea of introducing or inviting the work of an author into a field, as its guest, is by no means a simple problem of transference. For Jacques Derrida, there is hospitality only when the stranger's introduction to our home is totally unconditional. Such a conceptualisation of hospitality becomes even more demanding when the ,stranger' that is near our ,home' is an ethics also demanding hospitality, such as the ethics proposed by Levinas. An invitation puts in place particular circumstances that allow only for an arrival of the one invited. These conditions precede the so-called stranger, thereby predetermining the route to be taken, the destination to be reached and the correct manner of self-presentation. An invitation already reduces the Other to that which is expected by the inviter, that is to the Same. The hospitality of the field of business ethics becomes an endorsement of a particular version of the stranger, therefore recognisable by the field. Perhaps conceptualising Levinasian ethics as an ethics that cannot be invited might protect it from procedures that reduce the ,strangeness' of the stranger, making it knowable. That is the argument presented in this paper. [source] | ||||||||||