1. Jean-Paul Sartres Existentialist approach to ethics can be seen through the advice given to his student. The latter had a dilemma of choosing between his mothers feelings and his contribution to the fight against the Nazis. Sartre regards this as the morality of sympathy and the patriotic morality in his work Existentialism is a Humanism.
Sartre considers the student as a leader of his life and states that he has a plurality of choices which have to be made by himself. Existentialism attributes the abandonment and hesitation in decision-making to the negation of God. People are held responsible for all their choices. Sartre refuses to give an unambiguous response letting the man decide independently. Therefore, according to Sartres existential approach, ethical decisions depend on the person making those decisions. Even while searching for an advice-giver, people choose a person who would give recommendations aligned with their underlying thoughts.
2. Virginia Held considers the history of ethics and philosophy to be built on male assumptions and concepts and underlines the importance of reconsidering moral theories from a more gender-neutral perspective. Held criticizes the male direction of social development since current ethics rests upon the values of people distant from care, feelings, and emotions. On the contrary, female ethics would imply caring for suffering children in Africa, for example, which would demonstrate greater commitment to fairness.
3. Wendell Berry emphasizes the unconscious attitude of most people to the origin of food. Even when a person realizes the way food gets to the plate, he or she does not usually perceive oneself as a participant in that process but rather as a consumer. Consumer laziness prevents people from evaluating the actual quality and appropriate cost of food, so consumers take the cost of food at face value.
By stating that eating is an agricultural act, Berry underlines the importance of every participant of that act including the final consumer. While business works on separating consumers from food, land, and nature, indulging their laziness, Berry opposes such state of affairs and calls these unconscious consumers the ideal industrial eater. Moreover, every purchase adds value to the product and supports or changes the balance of supply and demand. Furthermore, Berry considers freedom of choice as vital in all spheres of life. Freedom to choose the food and its sources is one of the democratic rights of a citizen. People must realize the correlations and see themselves as integral parts of the agricultural cycle. Thus, Berry encourages eating sensibly and reasonably. In addition, he encourages consumers to grow food themselves or eliminate the number of participants in the agricultural cycle.
4. West puts his idea of a democratic project to an existentialist level. People have to realize their significance in the overall development of the society. Public responsibility must be put to the foreground, and no global attitude like that of corporations applies to the democratic way of social development. The issue of race is essential but not the only. West indicates the social decadence by providing the example of terms hood and neighborhood, with the latter being more universal and involving various social, racial, professional groups of the community.
A democratic sensibility implies the responsibility of every citizen of a democratic society for critical assessment of the state of affairs with power and race. When citizens stop thinking critically, the ruling class undermines the middle class and encourages discrimination against the most vulnerable layers of society. West emphasizes the importance of being a conscious citizen who participates in the life of the community. Thus, a democratic sensibility requires citizens to be integrated into the society at every stage of its development and be responsible for maintaining the democratic values.
5. According to Hubert Dreyfus, Nihilism is a philosophical perspective which negates some issues crucial to human existence. Existential nihilism refutes the presence of any purpose in human life and does not assign any value to it.
Dreyfus provides an example of Kierkegaards presumable attitude to the Internet. Since Kierkegaard considered press as the media which eliminates the responsibility for ones expression, the Internet, as Dreyfus indicates, bears a much greater risk of nihilism development. The Internet anonymity allows people to express their views freely but also pushes the limits of expression. Dreyfus considers the Internet as a risk-free and intrinsically unethical environment. People making commitments on the web would find it much easier to terminate these connections abruptly without any remorse. The ways to escape nihilism imposed by the Internet as the condition of our Age involve conscious realization of what attracts us in the web and successful opposition to it as the environment of irresponsible actions inhibiting and undermining the essence of a sensible society. Moreover, Dreyfus considers the religious sphere and an unconditional commitment to be a sufficient measure against spreading the nihilistic attitudes. Thus, a person would express oneself freely and responsibly without hiding behind the curtains of Internet anonymity.
6. The article What is Sustainable Development? by Kates, Parris, and Leiserowitz aims at outlining the concept of sustainable development. The concept is rather wide and all-embracing. The authors start with the history of the term and link it to four major issues including peace, development, environment, and freedom (Kates et al. 10). However, they emphasize the integrity of these issues. Their association creates the fundamental culture which enables the balanced development of all four and, thus, benefits communities, societies, and humanity in general.
Although the concept of sustainable development may seem infinite, it is restricted by the existing social and technological advances. Moreover, the ability of nature to cope with this development through biological adaptation to human activities is essential. In addition, Kates et al. outline different dimensions to define sustainable development including scopes, achievements or goals, indicators or measures, values, and practice.
Consequently, the concept of sustainable development implies the achievement of goals and values which unite and align different viewpoints and stakeholders for the benefit of the entire system. This benefit is potentially possible only through the alignment, coordination, and reconciliation of the opposing goals of these stakeholders. Therefore, synergy at all levels which allows for simultaneous change of goals with the growth of the whole system could explain the concept of sustainable development.
About author
Monica is the author and she is woriking on cheap paper online now. She always dreamed of working in this position, working with texts and new information. After all, her credo in life is to develop daily in different fields and be an interesting person. She is fluent in three languages and holds a Masters Degree in Philology and Translator, and is also trying to master new fields in order to be knowledgeable in everything.
