All students and advocates of human rights will be interested in this concerted exploration of the human rights moral obligations that fall, not directly on states, but on private and public organisations. Such an approach to human rights opens up the possibility of holding corporations and bureaucracies to account for human rights violations even when they have acted in accordance with the law. This interdisciplinary and international project brings together eminent philosophers, lawyers, social scientists and practitioners to articulate theoretically and develop in practical contexts the...

What Is the Dual-Use Dilemma? The so-called dual-use dilemma arises in the context of research in the biological and other sciences as a consequence of the fact that one and the same piece of sci- tific research sometimes has the potential to be used for harm as well as for good. A dual-use dilemma is an ethical dilemma, and an ethical dilemma for the researcher (and for those who have the power or authority to assist or impede the researcher s work, e. g., governments). It is an ethical dilemma since it is about promoting good in the context of the potential for also causing harm, e. g., the...

Undoubtedly, the events of September 11, 2001 served as a wake-up call to the scourge of global terrorism facing twenty-first century societies. But was the attack on the World Trade Center a crime or an act of war? Is seemingly indiscriminate violence inflicted on civilians ever morally justified? And should society's response always be in kind--with blind, destructive violence? For that matter, are all civilians truly -innocent-? The answers are not always so simple.

Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism: Ethics and Liberal Democracy provides sobering analyses of the nature of...

Undoubtedly, the events of September 11, 2001 served as a wake-up call to the scourge of global terrorism facing twenty-first century societies. But was the attack on the World Trade Center a crime or an act of war? Is seemingly indiscriminate violence inflicted on civilians ever morally justified? And should society's response always be in kind--with blind, destructive violence? For that matter, are all civilians truly -innocent-? The answers are not always so simple.

Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism: Ethics and Liberal Democracy provides sobering analyses of the nature of...

Social action is central to social thought. This book provides philosophical analyses of fundamental categories of human social action, including cooperative action, conventional action, social norm governed action, and the actions of the occupants of organizational roles. These theories of social action categories are then applied to issues such as environmental pollution, humanitarian intervention and rights of minority groups. Avoiding both the excessively atomistic individualism of rational choice theorists and implausible collectivist assumptions, this important book will be widely read...

Social action is central to social thought. This book provides philosophical analyses of fundamental categories of human social action, including cooperative action, conventional action, social norm governed action, and the actions of the occupants of organizational roles. These theories of social action categories are then applied to issues such as environmental pollution, humanitarian intervention and rights of minority groups. Avoiding both the excessively atomistic individualism of rational choice theorists and implausible collectivist assumptions, this important book will be widely read...

In this book, Seumas Miller examines the moral foundations of contemporary social institutions. Offering an original general theory of social institutions, he posits that all social institutions exist to realize various collective ends, indeed, to produce collective goods. He analyses key concepts such as collective responsibility and institutional corruption. Miller also provides distinctive special theories of particular institutions, including governments, welfare agencies, universities, police organizations, business corporations, and communications and information technology entities....

Re-thinking Theory offers a bold approach to literary studies, itself explicitly theoretical and yet making a searching critique of the modes, concepts and movements which comprise literary theory. Discussing key concepts such as ideology, signification and discourse, and analysing schools including that of F. R. Leavis, Althusserian Marxism, Derridean and Foucaultian poststructuralism, and New Historicism, the authors argue that there are major deficiencies in the conceptual foundations and the literary and political implications of much literary theory. These deficiencies are ascribed...

Investigative Ethics: Ethics for Police Detectives and Criminal Investigators presents applied philosophical analyses of the ethical issues that arise for police detectives and other investigators in contemporary society.

• Explores ethical issues relating to investigative independence, rights of victims and suspects, use of informants, entrapment, privacy and surveillance, undercover operations, deception, and suspect interviewing
• Represents the first monograph providing a detailed consideration of ethical issues in police investigations
• Features...

This new collection is a contribution to the literature on police ethics, specifically the philosophical literature on ethical issues that arise in police enforcement of the law.