Ethics in Progress, 2018, Volume 9, Issue 1
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Item Changes on the Qualities of University Counsellors in China(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2018) Wen, Lan; Zheng, Peijue; Yang, ShaogangCounsellors are important key members in Chinese universities. In this paper, on the one hand, we compared student affairs workers’ occupational characteristics, classification and development of western as well as Chinese university. On the other hand, Chinese university faculty members and students are our subjects. Of 800 pieces circulated, 537 pieces are found to be effective. We verified the reliability and validity of data, then conducted correlation analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The test has good reliability and validity. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and the split-half reliability coefficient are all above 0.9, indicating that the actual value is in good accordance with the true value. The internal alpha coefficient and the split-half reliability coefficient of each factor are all above 0.8. Χ2/df<5. GFI, AGFI, NFI, CFI, IFI,RMSEA and the other indicators are fitting, and this test meets measurement requirements. A 5-factor model is formulated based on the research results, including: moral quality; professional competence; political awareness; instructive ability; interpersonal skills. This 5-factor model reflects the evaluation of faculty members and students in universities on qualities of counsellors and transformation in their expectation for the role counsellors play as time goes by. So we summarize the qualities of counsellors are constantly changing. These changes have been constantly evolving in time, and their traits are such as: Objectivity of the times, Initiative of inner, Predictability of practice. Being well aware of the trend of this career is conducive to the formation of a sound relationship between counsellors and students, measurability for morality-oriented education, and improvement in counsellors’ overall qualities.Item An Empirical Study on Chinese and American College Students’ Moral Value Recognition(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2018) Hailong, ZhuThis study used a self-designed questionnaire to empirically evaluate Chinese and American undergraduate students’ recognition of moral values in six dimensions: honesty, civility & self-discipline, benevolence, unity & helping others, esteem, and filial piety. In total, 743 valid samples from 8 Chinese universities and 157 valid samples from 4 American universities were collected for an experimental comparison. Measurement results showed that the differences between Chinese and American college students were not significant in the dimensions of honesty, benevolence, esteem, and filial piety. These values, which originated in traditional Chinese culture, had the same priorities in both groups, confirming a certain degree of universality. However, significant intergroup differences existed in the civility and self-discipline dimension and the unity and helping others dimension. These results highlight the importance of enhancing Chinese college students’ moral consciousness, especially with esteem, and of enhancing American students’ consciousness of unity and helping others.Item Chinese Adolescents’ Conceptions of Teacher Authority and Their Relations to Rule Violations in School(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2018) Liu, JianjinBased on the Social Cognitive Domain Theory, the paper explored the adolescents’ conceptions of teacher authority in different domains and their relations to rule violations in school. The main results are: 1) Adolescents viewed moral, conventional, and prudential issues as legitimately subject to teachers’ authority and personal issues as under personal jurisdiction, but they were equivocal about contextually conventional issues. 2) Seventh graders judged all acts as more legitimately subject to teachers’ authority, all rule violations as more negative than did older students. 3) Compared with adolescents from big cities, adolescents from rural area viewed moral, conventional, contextually conventional, and personal issues as more legitimately subject to teacher authority, and endorsed less personal jurisdiction over those issues; but there were no significant differences in moral domain. 4) Male subjects reported more violations in conventional and prudential domain. 5）Adolescents’ older age, less endorsement of legitimacy of teacher authority, and greater dislike for school predicted more teacher- and self-reported misconducts. Implications for moral education from these results were also discussed.Item Why Can´t We Regard Robots As People?(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2018) Schmiljun, AndréWith the development of autonomous robots, one day probably capable of speaking, thinking and learning, self-reflecting, sharing emotions, in fact, with the raise of robots becoming artificial moral agents (AMAs) robot scientists like Abney, Veruggio and Petersen are already optimistic that sooner or later we need to call those robots “people” or rather “Artificial People” (AP). The paper rejects this forecast, due to its argument based on three metaphysical conflicting assumptions. Firstly, it is the idea that it is possible to precisely define persons and apply the definition to robots or use it to differentiate human beings from robots. Further, the argument of APs favors a position of non-reductive physicalism (second assumption) and materialism (third assumption), finally producing weird convictions about future robotics. Therefore, I will suggest to follow Christine Korsgaard’s defence of animals as ends in themselves with moral standing. I will show that her argument can be transmitted to robots, too, at least to robots which are capable of pursuing their own good (even if they are not rational). Korsgaard’s interpretation of Kant delivers an option that allows us to leave out complicated metaphysical notions like “person” or “subject” in the debate, without denying robots’ status as agents.Item Deliberation and Automaticity in Habitual Acts(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2018) Christos, DouskosMost philosophers and psychologists assume that habitual acts do not ensue from deliberation, but are direct responses to the circumstances: habit essentially involves a variety of automaticity. My objective in this paper is to show that this view is unduly restrictive. A habit can explain an act in various ways. Pointing to the operation of automaticity is only one of them. I draw attention to the fact that acquired automaticity is one outgrowth of habituation that is relevant to explanation, but not the only one. Habituation shapes our emotional and motivational make up in ways that affect deliberation itself. Hence mentioning a habit might be indispensable in explaining an act which nevertheless ensues from deliberation. The view that habitual acts are direct responses to the circumstances implies an impoverished conception of habit, which fails to do justice to its rich explanatory potential in theoretical and pre-theoretical contexts, as well as to its role in the history of philosophy.Item Reconstructive Habits: Dewey on Human Functioning(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2018) David, JaitnerThe academic strife to parse, investigate and adjust human functioning establishes varieties of at least three key concepts: behavior, action, activity. Depending on the general approach chosen, human functioning is therefore defined in a certain way and in a certain understanding of freedom. Within this paper, the pragmatist considerations of John Dewey (1859-1952) offer a sophisticatedly formulated theory of human functioning that, undoubtedly, takes action-theoretical paths but formulates underlying assumptions in a significantly unusual way. The main focus is to outline the theory in such a way that clearly shows the unusual as part of the usual and the usual as part of the unusual. For this purpose, the first section defines action as the basic category of Deweyan human functioning where sensory stimuli, registering elements and motor responses play a leading role, but according to Dewey questions the today still popular model of behaviorist psychology, that positions isolated and a-cultural stimulus-responseprocedures in the human organism. The second section affirms the theoretical inclusion of deliberative elements that constitute human action, but according to Dewey witnesses their substantial and rather sporadic significance in a predominantly habitual human functioning. The conclusive section outlines the possibilities and limits of transforming habitually inured patterns of human conduct by means of reconstructive habits.Item Spis treści(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2018)Item Über die Philosophie von Barbara Skarga – eine Anregung zur Auseinandersetzung mit ihrem Leben und Werk(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2018) Bogaczyk-Vormayr, MałgorzataBarbara Skarga (1919–2009) was one of the most important Polish Philosophers of 20th century. She was an expert in classical and contemporary French (e.g. Comte, Bergson, Lévinas) and German Philosophy (e.g. Kant, Hegel, Heidegger). In this paper I present some important biographical facts (participation in organized resistance in Vilnius, interments in Gulags) as well Skarga’s philosophical, mostly sociopolitical and ethical, ideas. I called its philosophical concept “philosophy of difference”.Item Imperatyw kategoryczny w obronie praw zwierząt. Ekstensjonizm etyczny Christine Korsgaard(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2018) Adamska, MałgorzataIn this paper, I present Christine Korsgaard’s style of building a conception of animal rights protection based on a concept of Kantian provenance, namely “end in itself”. Considering that an end in itself in Immanuel Kant’s philosophy includes only human beings, the American philosopher needed to modify (extend) the meaning of the abovementioned concept. This study aims at showing this change of the meaning in categories derived from Fregean semantics (sense and reference). Moreover, I will attempt to prove that by broadening the extension of “end in itself” Korsgaard uses a strategy called ethical extensionism and situates the revised (naturalized) categorical imperative ipso facto within environmental ethics. I start with elucidating Korsgaard’s views on the meaning of “end in itself” before she took interest in animal rights (set out mainly in Kant’s Formula of Humanity and The Sources of Normativity) and then I synthetically describe her animal rights philosophy with a special regard to the category of “natural good”. The second part of the article explains the methodology used in the paper, while the last part is intended to be an interpretation of Korsgaard’s thought.Item Uwagi o sytuacji prawnej zwierzęcia pokrzywdzonego czynem zabronionym w polskim procesie karnym(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2018) Mazur, PawełThe article is focused on the issues relating to a legal situation of an animal as a victim of a criminal offense. Currently, according to the rules of criminal procedure, an animal, as an entity, cannot be legally recognised a victim, which significantly lowers efficiency with which its interests can be protected. There are strong moral and pragmatic reasons to grant animals the status of a non-personal carrier of legal rights. Legal personality of animals as victims during a criminal trial should be of only passive nature, allowing recognition of legally-protected interests of the animal.Item Underclass i kultura ubóstwa w badaniach nad rozwojem kompetencji moralnych i społecznych w środowiskach ludzi ubogich(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2018) Kowalewska, KarolinaIn this paper, I consider whether a theoretically defined concept of underclass can be helpful in social scientific discourse. I analyze, review and categorize the concept of a underclass and I made some suggestions for a use of the concept application in the study of social, psychological and moral consequences of poverty. It begins with a discussion of the continuing and pervasive appeal of structural explanations as the root cause of poverty. Then are also examined cultural theories, which by contrast find explanation for poverty in various elements of culture (ex. cultural traits of poor are thought to be different from those of the rest society). A third, a synthetic review of the urban underclass concept is explored. The article also describes the concept of a „culture of poverty” (taking into account the context of the subculture) and „lower class value stretch” as influential concepts in analyses of contemporary poverty and in explanations of the behavior of the poor.