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Topic Review
Perfectionism
In ethics and value theory, perfectionism is the persistence of will in obtaining the optimal quality of spiritual, mental, physical, and material being. The neo-Aristotelean Thomas Hurka describes perfectionism as follows: The perfectionist does not necessarily believe that one can attain a perfect life or state of living. Rather, a perfectionist practices steadfast perseverance in obtaining the best possible life or state of living.
  • 1.4K
  • 13 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Ethical Arguments Regarding Torture
Ethical arguments have arisen regarding torture, and its debated value to society. Despite worldwide condemnation and the existence of treaty provisions that forbid it, some countries still use it. The ethical assertion that torture is a tool is at question.
  • 1.4K
  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Ethics in the Bible
Ethics in the Bible refers to the system(s) or theory(ies) produced by the study, interpretation, and evaluation of biblical morals, (including the moral code, standards, principles, behaviors, conscience, values, rules of conduct, or beliefs concerned with good and evil and right and wrong), that are found in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. It comprises a narrow part of the larger fields of Jewish and Christian ethics, which are themselves parts of the larger field of philosophical ethics. Ethics in the Bible is unlike other western ethical theories in that it is seldom overtly philosophical. It presents neither a systematic nor a formal deductive ethical argument. Instead, the Bible provides patterns of moral reasoning that focus on conduct and character in what is sometimes referred to as virtue ethics. This moral reasoning is part of a broad, normative covenantal tradition where duty and virtue are inextricably tied together in a mutually reinforcing manner. The ethics of the Bible have been criticized with some calling it immoral in some of its teachings. Slavery, genocide, supersessionism, the death penalty, violence, patriarchy, sexual intolerance, colonialism, and the problem of evil and a good God, are examples of criticisms of ethics in the Bible. Conversely it has been seen as a cornerstone of both Western culture, and many other cultures across the globe. Concepts such as justice for the widow, orphan and stranger provided inspiration for movements ranging from abolitionism in the 18th and 19th century, the civil rights movement, the Anti-Apartheid Movement, and liberation theology in Latin America.
  • 1.3K
  • 30 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Codes of Conduct at Zoos
Zoos consistently implement codes of conduct in efforts to manage visitor behaviour. Zoos worldwide have implemented the use of codes of conduct to regulate and manage the activities and actions of visitors. Zoos have been an ethical ground for negotiating the relationship between people and animals. Codes of conduct in zoos are uniquely placed, manifesting this ethical dialogue between species.
  • 1.1K
  • 27 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Ethics of Vaccination in Childhood
Although vaccination is recognised as the top public health achievement of the twentieth century, unequivocal consensus about its beneficence does not exist among the general population. In countries with well-established immunisation programmes, vaccines are “victims of their own success”, because low incidences of diseases now prevented with vaccines diminished the experience of their historical burdens. Increasing number of vaccine-hesitant people in recent years threatens, or even effectively disables, herd immunity levels of the population and results in outbreaks of previously already controlled diseases. We aimed to apply a framework for ethical analysis of vaccination in childhood based on the four principles of biomedical ethics (respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence and justice) to provide a comprehensive and applicable model on how to address the ethical aspects of vaccination at both individual and societal levels. We suggest finding an “ethical equilibrium”, which means that the degree of respect for parents’ autonomy is not constant, but variable; it shall depend on the level of established herd immunity and it is specific for every society. When the moral obligation of individuals to contribute to herd immunity is not fulfilled, mandatory vaccination policies are ethically justified, because states bear responsibility to protect herd immunity as a common good.
  • 1.1K
  • 08 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Social Entrepreneurs for Innovative Professional Career Developments
Social impact and innovation are crucial aspects of any social entrepreneurship project. There are some fundamental common factors as critical determinants of the final social entrepreneurial decision and result: (i) motivations such as emotional connection, moral judgment, personal dissatisfaction, purpose achievement and change, and social needs; (ii) personal internal resources such as connection skills, conviction, creativity, efficiency skills, and learning orientation; (iii) facilitating external factors such as financial and social support, higher and social education, relevant past events, and previous professional experience. Putting together all these factors, there is a theoretical framework that can explain social entrepreneurship as an alternative career option and connect it with a dominant social entrepreneur’s narrative and profile.
  • 1.0K
  • 13 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Veritatis Splendor
Encyclical Veritatis splendor (Latin: The Splendor of the Truth) is an encyclical by Pope John Paul II. It expresses the position of the Catholic Church regarding fundamentals of the Church's role in moral teaching. The encyclical is one of the most comprehensive and philosophical teachings of moral theology in the Catholic tradition. It was promulgated on 6 August 1993. Cardinal Georges Cottier, Theologian emeritus of the Pontifical Household and Cardinal-Deacon of Santi Domenico e Sisto the University Church of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas was influential in drafting the encyclical, as was Servais-Théodore Pinckaers, a professor of moral theology at the University of Fribourg, while others stress its lasting validity and importance.
  • 999
  • 02 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Perceptions, Attitudes, and Knowledge toward Advance Directives
Advance directives are an expression of a person’s autonomy regarding end-of-life care. An advance directive (AD) is a tool that enables the exercise of prospective autonomy. It serves as instructions for the care a person wishes to receive or refuses in the event they become incapable of expressing their preferences at the end of life. 
  • 902
  • 01 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Like Sheep to the Slaughter
"Like sheep to the slaughter" (Hebrew: כצאן לטבח‎) is a phrase which refers to the idea that Jews went passively to their deaths during the Holocaust. It derives from a similar phrase in the Hebrew Bible which positively depicts martyrdom in both the Jewish and Christian religious traditions. Opposition to the phrase became associated with Jewish nationalism due to its use in Josippon and by Jewish self-defense groups after the 1903 Kishinev pogrom. During the Holocaust, Abba Kovner and other Jewish resistance leaders used the phrase to exhort Jews to fight back. In postwar Israel, some demonized Holocaust survivors as having gone "like sheep to the slaughter" while armed resistance was glorified. The phrase was taken to mean that Jews had not tried to save their own lives, and consequently were partly responsible for their own suffering and death. This myth, which has become less prominent over time, is frequently criticized by historians, theologians, and survivors as a form of victim blaming.
  • 857
  • 30 Nov 2022
Topic Review
School Closure on Adolescents’ Wellbeing
Close to 200 countries have implemented school closures to decrease the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Though the closures have seemed necessary, their effects on the wellbeing of children and adolescents have raised serious concerns. To truly understand the impact of such disruption on young people’s wellbeing, and their views on how to move towards a new normal, we must adopt different approaches to gather the data to secure children’s and adolescents’ rights to be heard in the issues that concern their lives.
  • 813
  • 08 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Gender Differences in Judging Tax Evasion
Tax morale—an individual’s intrinsic motivation to pay their taxes and/or avoid tax evasion—is a topic of growing interest in behavioral finance and accounting research as well as the literature on taxation and law.
  • 409
  • 11 Mar 2024
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Navigating the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
This entry delineates artificial intelligence (AI) ethics and the field’s core ethical challenges, surveys the principal normative frameworks in the literature, and offers a historical analysis that traces and explains the shift from ethical monism to ethical pluralism. In particular, it (i) situates the field within the trajectory of AI’s technical development, (ii) organizes the field’s rationale around challenges regarding alignment, opacity, human oversight, bias and noise, accountability, and questions of agency and patiency, and (iii) compares leading theoretical approaches to address these challenges. We show that AI’s development has brought escalating ethical challenges along with a maturation of frameworks proposed to address them. We map an arc from early monisms (e.g., deontology, consequentialism) to a variety of pluralist ethical frameworks (e.g., pluralistic deontology, augmented utilitarianism, moral foundation theory, and the agent-deed-consequence model) alongside pluralist governance regimes (e.g., principles from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Asilomar AI principles). We find that pluralism is both normatively and operationally compelling: it mirrors the multidimensional problem space of AI ethics, guards against failures (e.g., reward hacking, emergency exceptions), supports legitimacy across diverse sociotechnical contexts, and coheres with extant principles of AI engineering and governance. Although pluralist models vary in structure and exhibit distinct limitations, when applied with due methodological care, each can furnish a valuable foundation for AI ethics.
  • 7
  • 02 Dec 2025
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