Patriotic Virtue

Some philosophers argue that the state and its citizens stand in a morally privileged position vis-à-vis one another, but not towards other states or citizens. However, many of those people, particularly philosophical liberals, also hold that morally insignificant differences, such as place of birth, sex or ethnicity, should not affect rights, liberties and life prospects. On the face of it, these two sets of ideas appear incompatible and point to a conflict in some liberal thought. Liberal philosophers, like John Rawls, have attempted to reconcile these conflicting ideas. His attempt has attracted a great deal of criticism, especially from those liberals attracted to a more cosmopolitan point of view. In this article, we use Aristotelian virtue ethics as the basis upon which to reconcile liberalism and patriotism. We argue that the state should be understood as an agent that stands in a special relationship to its citizens (of philia ). The state's virtue depends, in part, on it giving those citizens preferential treatment with regard to justice compared to citizens of other countries. Similarly, if citizens are to be just in their relations with their own state, they must behave in special ways towards that state as compared to other states. Certain forms of justice only arise in relationships of particular kinds.     

Correlates of loneliness in midadolescence

The present study was designed to assess the relationship between adolescent loneliness and the following factors commonly associated with adult loneliness: attributional style, self-esteem, social anxiety, and social skills. Subjects were 186 ninth-grade students (107 males and 79 females) who were asked to complete seven different paper-and-pencil measures. Data were analyzed by calculating separate stepwise multiple regression equations for the total sample, males and females. Three significant predictors were found for the total sample: student social skills rating scale, self-esteem, and the perception of stability in interpersonal situations (attributional style). A different pattern of predictors emerged for males and females. Loneliness could be predicted for males from three variables: low self-esteem, the perception of uncontrollability in noninterpersonal situations, and self-perceptions of poor social skills. The best multiple predictors of loneliness for the females were self-perceptions of poor social skills, high social anxiety, and stable attributions for interpersonal situations.This study is based on a master's thesis submitted by the first author to Wake Forest University, May 1986. A portion of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, Maryland, April 1987.Received Ph.D from West Virginia University. Current interests include social competence and social skills of adolescents and the adjustment of sexually abused children and adolescents.Received Ph.D from University of Illinois. Currently studying the friendships and peer relations of children and adolescents.Received Ph.D from Johns Hopkins University. Currently studying loneliness and close relationships.     

Simulating Globalization: Oil in Chad

The conflicting interests that underlie globalization can be difficult to grasp in a traditional classroom setting. The simulation presented here challenges students to examine the many different actors operating in the international system today. The focus is the Chad–Cameroon oil pipeline—a landmark example of cooperation and conflict between international institutions, non-governmental organizations and business interests. Given a scenario, students assume these roles and negotiate for the continued success of the pipeline. All the materials to run this exercise are included and if utilized, can provide a positive active learning experience.     

Carbon monoxide poisoning from indoor barbecues--incidents reported to the German-speaking Poison Information Centers and the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) in Berlin

From 2008 to the end of 2009 the Joint Poison Information Center (PIC) in Erfurt observed 7 incidents involving 17 persons (1 fatality) with signs of carbon monoxide poisoning from indoor barbecues (COFIB). To find out whether COFIB is a regional or a general phenomenon in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, all information about COFIBs recorded by the 11 German-speaking Poison Information Centers and the BfR Berlin were retrospectively analyzed for the period 2000 to 2009. In all, 60 COFIBs (accidental: 90.0 %, suicidal: 8.3%, reason unknown: 1.7%) involving 146 individuals were reported. The number of incidents increased from one case with 2 persons in 2000 to 18 cases involving 34 persons in 2009. The 146 victims (female 26.7%, male 27.4%, gender unknown 45.9%; adults 58.2%, children 24.7%, age unknown 17.1%) lived in 15 of the 16 federal states of Germany and in Switzerland. The highest number of victims was found in Bavaria (23), Brandenburg (18), and Baden-Wuerttemberg (18). The symptoms according to the Poisoning Severity Score were none to mild in 60.3%, moderate in 13.7%, severe in 11.6%, fatal in 6.9% and unratable in 7.5%. No clear correlation was found between the carboxyhemoglobin concentration and the severity of the symptoms. As a rising number of COFIBs often involving several individuals was observed from 2000 to 2009, the general public was informed about the risks of indoor barbecues.     

Punishing the Awkward, the Stupid, the Weak, and the Selfish: The Culpability of Negligence

Negligence is a problematic basis for being morally blamed and punished for having caused some harm, because in such cases there is no choice to cause or allow—or risk causing or allowing—such harm to occur. The standard theories as to why inadvertent risk creation can be blameworthy despite the lack of culpable choice are that in such cases there is blame for: (1) an unexercised capacity to have adverted to the risk; (2) a defect in character explaining why one did not advert to the risk; (3) culpably acquiring or failing to rid oneself of these defects of character at some earlier time; (4) flawed use of those practical reasoning capacities that make one the person one is; or (5) chosen violation of per se rules about known precautions. Although each of these five theories can justify blame in some cases of negligence, none can justify blame in all cases intuitively thought to be cases of negligence, nor can any of these five theories show why inadvertent creation of an unreasonable risk, pure and simple, can be blameworthy.     

Adapt or Die? The Biopolitics of Indigeneity—From the Civilising Mission to the Need for Adaptation

Indigenous peoples and indigenous lives have historically been the targets of colonial practices. In current politics, the brutal actions these entailed have changed into more subtle forms of governing. Drawing on the context of international politics (the Arctic Council and the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues), we argue that the demand/need for adaptation is one of the rationalities by which power is exercised over indigenous peoples and indigeneity today. We view this as a form of biopower that fosters and steers indigenous life. The paper highlights three concurrent and overlapping strands of the vocabulary of adaptation: a call for agency, a sustaining of authenticity and a politics of placation. Together, these signal what the adaptive indigenous subject should be like, an unceasing demand for adaptation that is subtler but no less colonial than exercises of power past.     

Institutionalising Chineseness: Legacies of Chinese Commercial Hegemony in the Cambodian Silk Industry

The Cambodian silk weaving industry shows a remarkable pattern of ethnicised positions interlocked in processes of production and trade stretching beyond Cambodia into the Southeast Asian region and into Europe and the United States. Key commercial positions in the Cambodian silk trading networks are dominated by the Chinese, at least so it seems. In contrast to the bulk of literature on Chinese capitalism, the current study addresses a situation in which the commercial positions are identified as Chinese regardless of the ethnic background of the people who occupy them. While subscribing to the institutional perspective on Chinese capitalism, this article aims to take the debate one step further by arguing that – while a particular institutional embedding is conducive to Chinese proliferation in the business sector – Chinese business practices and representations are themselves subject to processes of institutionalisation. The paper explains how they may develop into an institution that is both a model of and for conducting business.     

Patterns of Psychological Aggression, Dominance, and Jealousy within Marriage

Few empirical studies with representative samples have focused on the gendered aspect of psychological aggression and its sub-constructs of dominance and jealousy. Those that do report on gender differences, often fail to report on important dyadic factors such as whether the aggression is unilateral or bilateral in nature. Differences in psychological aggression, dominance, and jealousy constructs were assessed in a representative sample of 453 married parents. Overall, women had significantly higher dominance, jealousy, and psychological aggression scores. Both male and female respondents in relationships where there was bi-directional severe psychological aggression demonstrated higher mean levels of severe psychological aggression, dominance, and jealousy than did their counterparts who were unilaterally severely aggressive. This is the first study to demonstrate that bilateral psychological aggression is associated with higher mean levels of psychological aggression, dominance, and jealousy scores for both male and female partners than unilateral aggression. Contrary to our hypothesis, there was no differential impact of severe psychological aggression by gender.