scholarly journals Accountability as a Virtue

2021 ◽  
pp. 095394682110097
Author(s):  
Andrew Torrance
Keyword(s):  

This opening article will offer a brief introduction to what it means to understand accountability as a virtue. To do so, I first propose a definition of the condition of accountability, which I go on to distinguish from responsibility. Based on this definition, I then present an account of the corresponding virtue of accountability.

Entropy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 829
Author(s):  
J. Acacio de Barros ◽  
Federico Holik

In this paper, we examined the connection between quantum systems’ indistinguishability and signed (or negative) probabilities. We do so by first introducing a measure-theoretic definition of signed probabilities inspired by research in quantum contextuality. We then argue that ontological indistinguishability leads to the no-signaling condition and negative probabilities.


1980 ◽  
Vol 20 (219) ◽  
pp. 287-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ionel Gloşcă

One of the principles underlying international law applicable in armed conflicts is that no act of war is permitted against the civilian population, consisting, by definition, of persons who take no part in the hostilities.Until the holocaust of 1939–45, international law gave practically no real protection to the civilian population in the event of war, and was not even intended to do so since up to that time war was considered to be a State activity from which civilians remained aloof. There were, nonetheless, general principles and rules in various international treaties which, in one way or another, related also to the civilian population.


1902 ◽  
Vol 48 (202) ◽  
pp. 434-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. S. Clouston

Dr. Clouston said that when he suggested toxæmia to the secretary as a suitable subject for a discussion at this meeting he had not intended to be the first speaker, because his object was to bring out more fully the views of the younger members who had recently committed themselves so strongly to the toxæmic and bacterial etiology of insanity, and so to get light thrown on some of the difficulties which he and others had felt in applying this theory to many of their cases in practice. It was not that he did not believe in the toxic theory as explaining the onset of many cases, or that he under-rated its importance, but that he could not see how it applied so universally or generally as some of the modern pathological school were now inclined to insist on. He knew that it was difficult for those of the older psychological and clinical school to approach the subject with that full knowledge of recent bacteriological and pathological doctrine which the younger men possessed, or to breathe that all-pervading pathological atmosphere which they seemed to inhale. He desired to conduct this discussion in an absolutely non-controversial and purely scientific spirit. To do so he thought it best to put his facts, objections, and difficulties in a series of propositions which could be answered and explained by the other side. He thought it important to define toxæmia, but should be willing to accept Dr. Ford Robertson's definition of toxines, viz., “Substances which are taken up by the (cortical nerve) cell and then disorder its metabolism.” He took the following extracts from his address at the Cheltenham meeting of the British Association (1) as representing Dr. Ford Robertson's views and the general trend of much investigation and hypothesis on the Continent.


2019 ◽  
Vol 278 (3) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Francisco Sérgio Maia Alves

<p>The new paradigm of decision based on art. 20 of the LINDB: analysis of the text according to the theories of Richard Posner and Neil MacCormick</p><p> </p><p>O presente trabalho visa analisar o art. 20 da Lei de Introdução às Normas do Direito Brasileiro (LINDB), introduzido pela Lei nº 13.655/2018. Para tanto, será mostrado como os valores jurídicos foram excluídos e novamente reintroduzidos na prática jurídica e como essa reintrodução gerou preocupações quanto ao aumento da discricionariedade da aplicação do direito. O artigo apresentará as teorias pragmática e consequencialista, segundo a doutrina de dois de seus principais expoentes, Richard Posner e Neil MacCormick. No afã de cumprir o objetivo central do artigo, serão delimitados os conceitos de valores jurídicos abstratos e consequências práticas da decisão, no contexto do art. 20 da LINDB, e, por fim, definido o espaço de aplicação do dispositivo.</p><p> </p><p>This work aims to analyze art. 20 of the Law of Introduction to the Rules of Brazilian Law (LINDB), or Law No. 13.655/2018. To do so, it will be shown how legal values were excluded and reintroduced in legal practice and how this reintroduction raised concerns regarding the increase of discretion in the application of the law. The article will present pragmatic and consequentialist theories, in line with the doctrine of two of its main exponents, Richard Posner and Neil MacCormick. In order to meet the key objective of the article, the concepts of abstract legal values and practical consequences of the decision will be described in the context of art. 20 of the LINDB, concluding with a definition of the area in which the law is applied.</p>


2021 ◽  
pp. 557-573
Author(s):  
Nicholas Birns

If the Bolívar novel embodies the collective memory of a region in a manner spare yet ingenious, the novelist’s other major late work tends toward personal memory. In Of Love and Other Demons, García Márquez comes as close to magical realism as in any work since the short stories and One Hundred Years of Solitude and reaffirms the multiracial and Caribbean character of the author’s own definition of Spanish America. In News of a Kidnapping, García Márquez ventures onto the territory of drug cartels and violence, which became the preoccupation of the next generation of Colombian writers, relating this material from the deadpan, appalled stance that is as characteristic of his viewpoint as the mesmeric incantations so commonly associated with him. In Memories of My Melancholy Whores, a late in life moral transformation redeems a lifetime of iniquity and testifies to the strangeness of the new territory of extreme old age, in a sense as unexplored a country as Macondo once was. In Living to Tell the Tale, García Márquez reflects upon the first half of his own life. Unlike in the case of Bolívar, García Márquez did not get to tell the ending of the story, leaving later writers and readers to do so in their own minds, as the great master had done for the General.


Author(s):  
Allyn Fives

Are parents caretakers or liberators? Is the role of parents to act in a paternalistic fashion so as to take care of their children or is it instead to set their children free? In this chapter, I argue that those who defend the caretaker thesis do so on the basis of assumptions characteristic of the liberal view on paternalism. It is assumed that paternalism entails interfering with another’s liberty, that it does not involve moral conflicts, and that it is justified treatment of those who lack the qualities of an agent. In addition, no clear distinction is made between children who lack the qualities of an agent and children who are merely incompetent. What is more, the same assumptions underlie the liberation thesis. Indeed, both the caretaker thesis and the liberation thesis are questionable because they operate with a definition of paternalism that is highly problematic. I also want to make one further argument here. Namely, even an adequate conceptualisation of paternalism is insufficient as a general account of parental power, as there are non-paternalistic forms of parental power as well.


Author(s):  
Brian Leiter

This chapter reviews the textual evidence that Nietzsche retains a positive conception of “freedom.” Interpretive proposals due to Gemes and Poellner are shown not to be borne out by the texts. The chapter concludes that Nietzsche offers a “persuasive definition” of freedom, attaching the term’s positive valence to a sense of freedom unfamiliar in the modern Humean or Kantian traditions, but having echoes in Spinoza: “freedom” as acting from one’s inner nature rather than from external influences, something one can only do if fated to do so. The Spinoza-type view is shown not to be a kind of Control view of free will, so not one that vindicates moral responsibility.


2004 ◽  
Vol 60 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Buitendag

“Genes Я us” – or not? About human determinism and voluntarism, with reference to homosexualityThis article has as its departure point the conviction of some that human genome mapping predisposes human beings genetically and as a consequence, the homosexual person becomes a mere victim of circumstances. Biological determinism and social construc-tionism are not mutually exclusive and although a person is orientated within a web of boundary matters, the depiction of a human being as imago Dei still prevails. A person has the freedom to choose and the responsibility to do so. One’s understanding of reality provides a frame of reference from which a definition of morality is derived. The suggestion of Nancey Murphey to understand reality as a “nonreductive physicalism” is followed. Reductionism in any form is subsequently avoided. A holistic view of humankind in terms of which religious experience is seen as more than some brain functions and people are embedded in a “sacred canopy”, is therefore advocated.


2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 316-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
PIERRE-ÉVARISTE DAGAND ◽  
CONOR McBRIDE

AbstractProgramming with dependent types is a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing to be able to bake invariants into the definition of datatypes: We can finally write correct-by-construction software. However, this extreme accuracy is also a curse: A datatype is the combination of a structuring medium together with a special purpose logic. These domain-specific logics hamper any attempt to reuse code across similarly structured data. In this paper, we capitalise on the structural invariants of datatypes. To do so, we first adapt the notion of ornament to our universe of inductive families. We then show how code reuse can be achieved by ornamenting functions. Using these functional ornaments, we capture the relationship between functions such as the addition of natural numbers and the concatenation of lists. With this knowledge, we demonstrate how the implementation of the former informs the implementation of the latter: The users can ask the definition of addition to be lifted to lists and they will only be asked the details necessary to carry on adding lists rather than numbers. Our presentation is formalised in the type theory with a universe of datatypes and all our constructions have been implemented as generic programs, requiring no extension to the type theory.


Entropy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 434
Author(s):  
F. Hadi Madjid ◽  
John M. Myers

Entangled states of light exhibit measurable correlations between light detections at separated locations. These correlations are exploited in entangled-state quantum key distribution. To do so involves setting up and maintaining a rhythm of communication among clocks at separated locations. Here, we try to disentangle our thinking about clocks as used in actual experiments from theories of time, such as special relativity or general relativity, which already differ between each other. Special relativity intertwines the concept of time with a particular definition of the synchronization of clocks, which precludes synchronizing every clock to every other clock. General relativity imposes additional barriers to synchronization, barriers that invite seeking an alternative depending on any global concept of time. To this end, we focus on how clocks are actually used in some experimental situations. We show how working with clocks without worrying about time makes it possible to generalize some designs for quantum key distribution and also clarifies the need for alternatives to the special-relativistic definition of synchronization.


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