Ramon Llull Journal of Applied Ethics only publishes original articles that are aimed at relating ethics to the different areas of public life.

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The Globethics library contains articles of Ramon Llull Journal of Applied Ethics as of vol. 1(2010) to current.

Recent Submissions

  • The implementation of Health Passports to foster tourism: An Applied Ethics approach

    Arcos-Pumarola, Jordi; Guitart Casalderrey, Núria (Universitat Ramon Llull, 2023)
    Abstract: The need to comprehend tourism activity from an ethical perspective became particularly relevant in the context posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has profoundly impacted the sector. That is so because it has disclosed multiple social consequences for the tourism industry. Therefore, focusing on health passports, the present article focuses on how international mobility restrictions and initiatives aiming to restart tourism challenge the idea of justice. This way, through a theoretical framework based on Rawlsian distributive justice and Nussbaum’s capabilities approach, this article provides conceptual tools to identify potential unfair factors disclosed by tourism policies. At the same time, the capabilities approach also allows for the transformation of the comprehension of tourism activity beyond a mere economic sector. On the one hand, it allows presenting tourism as an agent for social transformation. And, on the other hand, it also permits identifying and sketching potential strategies to transform tourism into an agent for better societies. Thus, the present work aims to increase awareness of the political dimension of tourism.
  • Gabriel, Markus (2020). Moral progress in dark times (Wiley)

    Lorenzo, David (Universitat Ramon Llull, 2023)
  • Four questions for techno-ethics

    Quintana, Oriol; Menacho, Joaquin; Casanovas, Xavier; Puig, Llorenç (Universitat Ramon Llull, 2023)
    Abstract: There are four basic techno-ethical questions that are often overseen in discussing the application of technologies. They are often taken for granted, for Modernity seemed to already have an answer for them. This oblivion, we claim, is at the root of certain disfunctions of the current discussions of techno-ethics, like their excessive sectionalization and frequent overlapping, their confusion, and their short-sightedness. This could be avoided by focusing on the questions of human dignity, biophysical limits of the earth, progress, and happiness. These, we propose, are far more relevant in judging technologies than the ones that often put today.
  • On the idea of transitional justice: reflections on Kuti family versus Federal Government of Nigeria at Oputa Panel

    Opeyemi Balogun, Noah; Johnson Ademowo, Adeyemi (Universitat Ramon Llull, 2023)
    Abstract: This piece examines the case of Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s family Versus Federal Government of Nigeria on the issue of human rights abuse done by “Unknown Soldiers” with a view to provoke discourse on the contemporary notion of transitional justice. The injustice against the Kuti Family culminated in an unlawful arrest, detention and torturing of Nigerian Afrobeat artiste/human rights crusader, Fela Anikulapo Kuti. The study focuses on the effects of his properties destruction, rape of girls and women that inadvertently arrested in his apartment, and the death of the matriarch of Anikulapo Kuti’s family during raid at the Kalakuta Republic (the sobriquet of his home) in the early 80s. The work argues that while Truth Commission Panels such as the Oputa Panel tried to create safe, non-partisan and compassionate space to address the justice question, the honesty and true intent of the political gladiators for setting up the Commission was doubtful, ab nitio; hence this created an atmosphere of impunity with glaring trivialisation of violations and abuses done to the family, and at the end it becomes doubtful if the justice for which the Truth Commission was set-up, was ever addressed. It also questioned how truth commissions should be established and operated so as to deliver justice- an aspect of peace studies that scholars have completely overlooked. It concludes that as people reconfigure social relations from one stage to another in their lives, their engagement with the state and the social meaning attributed to social justice, which the people emphasised, are most likely to be affected, and thus change especially within their spatial context.
  • Reconsidering Alasdair Macintyre’s and Martha Nussbaum’s accounts of Human vulnerability, dependence and independence, and their ethical significance

    Llobera Trias, Ignasi (Universitat Ramon Llull, 2023)
    Abstract: Putting forward a synthesis between MacIntyre and Nussbaum’s Aristotelian accounts of human beings, this article argues that human beings’ intrinsic and comprehensive vulnerability and dependence are undeniable facts, and that when these facts are acknowledged by moral philosophers, they cannot but recognize the existence and importance of the ‘virtues of acknowledged dependence’. The first part of the article, “Human Vulnerability, Dependence and Independence”, deals with their complementary accounts of human beings as intrinsically and comprehensively vulnerable and dependent animals. In the second part, “Their Ethical Significance”, MacIntyre’s and Nussbaum’s accounts of the ethical significance of human vulnerability and dependence will be reconsidered. The discussion necessitates distinguishing between ‘material needs’ and ‘social needs’, focusing on key concepts like ‘flourishing’ and ‘virtue’, and considering MacIntyre’s distinction between ‘virtues of independent rational agency’ and ‘virtues of acknowledged dependence’. Note: A previous Spanish version of this paper has been posted within a report titled “Aristóteles: revision contemporánea de una ética clásica” (https://hdl.handle.net/2445/122422)
  • Integral Human Development as a challenge for corporations: an analysis from the Catholic Social Teaching perspective

    Alcañiz, Leire; Aguado, Ricardo; Retolaza, Jose Luís (Universitat Ramon Llull, 2023)
    Abstract: The concept of Integral Human Development (IHD) was presented by Pope Paul VI in the encyclical Populorum Progressio, proposing a development of the person that incorporates not only economic, but also cultural, social and transcendental aspects. The aim of this article is to propose and develop the plausibility that for-profit corporations can be organizations that contribute to achieving the IHD of their workers. On this path, this work specifies the dimensions (economic, social and transcendent) and factors (physical, education, activity, family, community, freedom, solidarity, environment and transcendence) that promote this IHD inside businesses, focusing mainly on employees. This research has been developed incorporating the point of view of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) applied to the management of corporations and their role in society.
  • An exploratory study on ethical aspects in participatory research on renewable energy

    Sainz Salces, Fausto Javier (Universitat Ramon Llull, 2023)
    Abstract: In this paper an approach to understand ethical issues in green energy innovation actions among participants in a research programme in a small island is presented. Issues related to the participation of citizens in research activities carried out under the frame of energy transition are explored directly with participants thru interviews performed at the beginning of the research project. All island’s participants on the project produced their opinions about communication in the project, implications for participating, responsibilities as volunteers, expectations. Also, insights about volunteers’ perceptions on the project’s management of privacy, personal data handling, social implications, ecological meanings, and engagement are explored. The paper highlights some different ethical issues not covered (or covered to an inadequate degree) in the academic literature which are facing stakeholders (specially volunteers) in the renewable energy sector.
  • Ethical aspects in the use of genetic tests

    Vila, Martí; Garriga, Martina; Lorenzo Izquierdo, David; Cusi, Victoria; Esquerda, Montse (Universitat Ramon Llull, 2023)
    Abstract: Genetics has been one of the scientific disciplines that has undergone the greatest development, achieving great goals in a short period of time, and developing different instruments for diagnosis, screening, or research. One of the most widely used of these tools is genetic testing. Today it has become easy, for example, for anyone to request a test that allows them to know the probability of suffering from a certain disease in the future. However, the use of genetic testing also raises some profound ethical questions and dilemmas. This article aims to present and discuss the ethical issues of genetic testing in clinical practice, individual use, and research.
  • An ethico-theological assessment of in-vitro meat in human society

    O. O. Ottuh, Peter; O. Ihwighwu, Jonathan (Universitat Ramon Llull, 2023)
    Abstract: In-vitro meat is a novel biotechnology. Some religious devotees object to in-vitro meat because of its unnaturalness and detrimental effects on human health as well as its economic and environmental impact. The religious and ethical status of in-vitro meat has been a topic of discussion in a number of religious communities along with broader societal issues. Using a critical-literary review of linked literature, descriptive, and comparative methodologies, the paper examined in-vivo meat and its economic, environmental, ethical, religious, and theological attendant implications for human society. Findings reveal that in-vivo meat is compatible with the religious ethics of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism, depending on the situation. We posit that biotechnologists and people who support in-vivo meat technology should think about a wide range of things, such as consumer acceptance, safety, and religious beliefs, in order to move the technology forward and make it more acceptable to a wider range of people.
  • Contractarian business ethics: A rational morality approach

    Chiotis, Vangelis (Universitat Ramon Llull, 2023)
    Abstract: Contractarian business ethics approaches are dominated by the application of Rawlsian premises to practical, business-related issues, where moral principles serve as constraints on firm behavior and its attempts to maximize profit. A contractarian theory of business ethics that is based on rationality addresses the tension between moral premises and self-interested profit maximization by showing that moral principles can be the outcome of rational interactions. In the present paper, I examine the extent to which rational morality can reinforce business ethics by incorporating moral considerations in the corporation’s profit maximization functions and thus, strengthen the argument for business ethics as complimentary, not constraining, to business operations. The sole responsibility of a business is indeed to maximize its profits.
  • Enhancing responsibility and responsible enhancement: Moral Bioenhancement and the Actual-Sequence Accountability of Moral Responsibility

    Conradie, Niël (Universitat Ramon Llull, 2020)
    In this paper I investigate the relationship between moral bioenhancement and the actual-sequence account of moral responsibility (AS). I first provide definitions of the notions of moral bioenhancement and moral responsibility that I use in this paper, where these notions are based on the capacity definition put forward by DeGrazia (2012) and the guidance theory account of responsibility developed by Fischer and Ravizza (1998) respectively. I then address some shortcomings in these accounts and offer improvements. Thereafter, I explore the relationship between them along two dimensions: backward-looking and forwardlooking responsibility. On the backward-looking path I contend that, when assessed through the lens of the AS, moral bioenhancement is permissible only provided that it does not override or degrade the reasonsresponsiveness of the enhanced agent. However, if these conditions are met, such enhancement will in many cases be normatively desirable, and in perhaps some cases –when the foreseen threat of harm resulting from the absence of enhancement is sufficiently great– even obligatory. Along the forward-looking track, I argue that moral bioenhancement is permissible, ceteris paribus, and normatively desirable given there is a pro tanto reason to pursue promotions of reasons-responsiveness. Finally, I argue that the demands of moral responsibility do not –on their own terms– rule out the possibility that moral bioenhancement can sometimes be obligatory.
  • Alasdair MacIntyre: Person, community and tradition against individualism

    Lorenzo, David (Universitat Ramon Llull, 2020)
    Alasdair MacIntyre is one of the most important authors in contemporary Ethics and Political Philosophy. Regarding his political thought, he was a key figure in the Liberalism-Communitarianism debate, one of the most important and fruitful in the field of Moral and Political Philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. An important point of Communitarianism is its critique of the liberal view of the self and of Ethics and Politics, that is to say, a critique of an individualistic view of the human being (an idea maintained by MacIntyre throughout his intellectual evolution). MacIntyre’s thought has been studied from many points of view, but there is no research on his global critique and alternative to Individualism. For that reason, the aim of this paper is to studyand analyze such an alternative. It is worth analyzing it although over the last few years the Liberalism-Communitarianism debate has lost importancein Philosophy. This alternative is based on the concepts of ‘person’, ‘community’ and ‘tradition’.
  • Moral distress in Healhcare Professionals

    Bertran Muñoz, Joan; Cambra Lasaosa, Francisco José; Carrera i Carrera, Joan; Esquerda Aresté, Montse; Illa Mestre, Marc; Lorenzo Izquierdo, David; Roig Carrera, Helena (Universitat Ramon Llull, 2021)
    Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has generated, because of its disruptive, exceptional and sudden character, great changes in the attention, planning and organization of healthcare systems, bringing about scenarios for which nobody was prepared, especially healthcare professionals. In these scenarios moral distress, affecting mainly healthcare professionals, comes into place. The goal of this article is to analyse and describe the roots of moral distress, the areas in which it has appeared during the pandemic and, lastly, to offer a proposal to combat its appearance.

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