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Selfishness
Like any other sort of human vice, selfishness -- or the excessive concern with one's own individual desires and appetites -- can be threatening to the established social order if it slips out of control. Our own definition of selfishness takes into account its social effects: we establish selfishness as a vice by emphasizing not only the excessive self-regard it demonstrates, but also the excessive disregard for the well-being of others that accompanies it. Selfishness can thus be considered as an active potential threat to the established order under certain circumstances, but here we reach a paradox. The structure of American society is such that the economic and ideological system which serves as its underpinning, and which we may loosely define as "capitalistic," to a certain degree presents selfishness as a virtue, or at least regards it as an amoral process with no...
I hope to indicate, with reference to examples from both literature and life in America, that selfishness poses a distinct problem to our established social order. But to the extent that selfishness poses us with a problem, I hope to demonstrate that it might also indicate the way forward toward some solution.
Let me begin by posing a hypothetical scenario: an individual finds his own desires or appetites come into conflict with those of the state. Now of course it is not literarally possible for a social construction such as "society" or the "state" to have desires and appetites of its own: we are engaged in a form of rhetorical personification, in which the collective will which finds its expression in official state policy is conceived to have the same modus operandi as the individual will. Yet this is a false equivalency, as…
motivates people or corporations to partake in enterprise crime? Among the peculiar aspects that come with business ethics, as in comparison with other domain names of applied ethics, is it handles a wide array of human matters which are more often than not stricken by serious criminality, as well as an institutional structure and atmosphere that is also oftentimes noticeably criminally inclined (Hilts, 2003). The oddity of the situation may
Human Development Operant conditioning could be used to get my roommate to make his bed by providing negative reinforcement every time he fails to make his bed. I could tell him that he is not allowed to use the TV. This should reinforce the idea that he must not fail to make his bed. Classical conditioning could be used to get my roommate to make his bed by providing an unconditioned
This apathetic sentiment even envelops the narrator, as the following quotation demonstrates by showing that Eliezer knew that "the child was still alive when I passed him." Despite this fact, the narrator does nothing to help the child due to his extreme apathy. However, the narrator's apathy is proven most effectively by his silent answer to the question as to God's presence, which the subsequent quotation suggests. "Where is
Union Trends Such as Consolidation of Unions Through Mergers, or the Development of a Competing Labor Federation The topic of unions in the United States is truly a significant one, given the fact that trends and defining characteristics which impact unions have been so mercurial of late. "Union membership in the United States has declined significantly in recent decades. The number of union members peaked in 1979 at an estimated
John Rawls / Mencius John Rawls's A Theory of Justice is concerned with distributive rather than retributive justice: there is precious little discussion of crime and punishment in Rawls's magnum opus, but plenty of discussion about equality and fairness. Rawls seems to be embarked on a Kantian ethical project of establishing universal principles, but his chief concern is to establish his principles without requiring, as Kant does, an appeal to God
Moral Criticisms of the Market Moral Criticisms Market This assignment requires read article Ken S. Ewert (found Reading & Study folder). Note article, Ewert defending free market "Christian Socialists." He states position a rebuttal Moral criticisms of the market: A critique of Ewert's analysis It is interesting to read Ken S. Ewert's 1989 criticisms of 'Christian socialists' in light of current debates on other types of economic policies today. Ewert portrays Christian, leftist