When Artists Fall: Honoring and Admiring the Immoral

Is it appropriate to honor artists who have created great works but who have also acted immorally? In this article, after arguing that honoring involves identifying a person as someone we ought to admire, we present three moral reasons against honoring immoral artists. First, we argue that honoring can serve to condone their behavior, through the mediums of emotional prioritization and exemplar identification. Second, we argue that honoring immoral artists can generate undue epistemic credibility for the artists, which can lead to an indirect form of testimonial injustice for the artists’ victims. Third, we argue, building on the first two reasons, that honoring immoral artists can also serve to silence their victims. We end by considering how we might respond to these reasons

Celebrity, Democracy, and Epistemic Power

What, if anything, is problematic about the involvement of celebrities in democratic politics? While a number of theorists have criticized celebrity involvement in politics (Meyer 2002; Mills 1957; Postman 1987) none so far have examined this issue using the tools of social epistemology, the study of the effects of social interactions, practices and institutions on knowledge and belief acquisition. This paper will draw on these resources to investigate the issue of celebrity involvement in politics, specifically as this involvement relates to democratic theory and its implications for democratic practice. We will argue that an important and underexplored form of power, which we will call epistemic power, can explain one important way in which celebrity involvement in politics is problematic. This is because unchecked uses and unwarranted allocations of epistemic power, which celebrities tend to enjoy, threaten the legitimacy of existing democracies and raise important questions regarding core commitments of deliberative, epistemic, and plebiscitary models of democratic theory. We will finish by suggesting directions that democratic theorists could pursue when attempting to address some of these problems

Schottky-based band lineups for refractory semiconductors

An overview is presented of band alignments for small-lattice parameter, refractory semiconductors. The band alignments are estimated empirically through the use of available Schottky barrier height data, and are compared to theoretically predicted values. Results for tetrahedrally bonded semiconductors with lattice constant values in the range from C through ZnSe are presented. Based on the estimated band alignments and the recently demonstrated p-type dopability of GaN, we propose three novel heterojunction schemes which seek to address inherent difficulties in doping or electrical contact to wide-gap semiconductors such as ZnO, ZnSe, and ZnS

Admiration Over Time

In this paper, we investigate the diachronic fittingness conditions of admiration – that is, what it takes for a person to continue or cease to be admirable over time. We present a series of cases that elicit judgements that suggest different understandings of admiration over time. In some cases, admirability seems to last forever. In other cases, it seems that it can cease within a person's lifetime if she changes sufficiently. Taken together, these cases highlight what we call the puzzle of admiration over time. We then present a potential solution to this puzzle

Honouring and Admiring the Immoral

"Is it appropriate to honour and admire people who have created great works of art, made important intellectual contributions, performed great sporting feats or shaped the history of a nation if those people have also acted immorally? This book provides a philosophical investigation of this important and timely question. The authors draw on the latest research from ethics, value theory, philosophy of emotion, social philosophy and social psychology to develop and substantiate arguments that have been made in the public debates about this issue. They offer a detailed analysis of the nature and ethics of honour and admiration, and present reasons both in favor and against honouring and admiring the immoral. They also take on the important matter of whether we can separate the achievements of public figures from their immoral behavior. Ultimately, the authors reject a ""one-size-fits-all"" approach and argue that we must weigh up the reasons for and against honouring and admiring in each particular case. Honouring and Admiring the Immoral is written in an accessible style that shows how philosophy can engage with public debates about important ethical issues. It will be of interest to scholars and students working in moral philosophy, philosophy of emotion, and social philosophy.

Searching for Sharp Drops in the Incidence of Pandemic A/H1N1 Influenza by Single Year of Age

BACKGROUND During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic (pH1N1), morbidity and mortality sparing was observed among the elderly population; it was hypothesized that this age group benefited from immunity to pH1N1 due to cross-reactive antibodies generated from prior infection with antigenically similar influenza viruses. Evidence from serologic studies and genetic similarities between pH1N1 and historical influenza viruses suggest that the incidence of pH1N1 cases should drop markedly in age cohorts born prior to the disappearance of H1N1 in 1957, namely those at least 52-53 years old in 2009, but the precise range of ages affected has not been delineated. METHODS AND FINDINGS To test for any age-associated discontinuities in pH1N1 incidence, we aggregated laboratory-confirmed pH1N1 case data from 8 jurisdictions in 7 countries, stratified by single year of age, sex (when available), and hospitalization status. Using single year of age population denominators, we generated smoothed curves of the weighted risk ratio of pH1N1 incidence, and looked for sharp drops at varying age bandwidths, defined as a significantly negative second derivative. Analyses stratified by hospitalization status and sex were used to test alternative explanations for observed discontinuities. We found that the risk of laboratory-confirmed infection with pH1N1 declines with age, but that there was a statistically significant leveling off or increase in risk from about 45 to 50 years of age, after which a sharp drop in risk occurs until the late fifties. This trend was more pronounced in hospitalized cases and in women and was independent of the choice in smoothing parameters. The age range at which the decline in risk accelerates corresponds to the cohort born between 1951-1959 (hospitalized) and 1953-1960 (not hospitalized). CONCLUSIONS The reduced incidence of pH1N1 disease in older individuals shows a detailed age-specific pattern consistent with protection conferred by exposure to influenza A/H1N1 viruses circulating before 1957.The project described was supported by the National Institute Of General Medical Sciences [Award Number U54GM088558], http://www.nigms.nih. gov/. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute Of General Medical Sciences or the National Institutes of Health. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Searching for Sharp Drops in the Incidence of Pandemic A/H1N1 Influenza by Single Year of Age

Background: During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic (pH1N1), morbidity and mortality sparing was observed among the elderly population; it was hypothesized that this age group benefited from immunity to pH1N1 due to cross-reactive antibodies generated from prior infection with antigenically similar influenza viruses. Evidence from serologic studies and genetic similarities between pH1N1 and historical influenza viruses suggest that the incidence of pH1N1 cases should drop markedly in age cohorts born prior to the disappearance of H1N1 in 1957, namely those at least 52–53 years old in 2009, but the precise range of ages affected has not been delineated. Methods and Findings: To test for any age-associated discontinuities in pH1N1 incidence, we aggregated laboratory-confirmed pH1N1 case data from 8 jurisdictions in 7 countries, stratified by single year of age, sex (when available), and hospitalization status. Using single year of age population denominators, we generated smoothed curves of the weighted risk ratio of pH1N1 incidence, and looked for sharp drops at varying age bandwidths, defined as a significantly negative second derivative. Analyses stratified by hospitalization status and sex were used to test alternative explanations for observed discontinuities. We found that the risk of laboratory-confirmed infection with pH1N1 declines with age, but that there was a statistically significant leveling off or increase in risk from about 45 to 50 years of age, after which a sharp drop in risk occurs until the late fifties. This trend was more pronounced in hospitalized cases and in women and was independent of the choice in smoothing parameters. The age range at which the decline in risk accelerates corresponds to the cohort born between 1951–1959 (hospitalized) and 1953–1960 (not hospitalized). Conclusions: The reduced incidence of pH1N1 disease in older individuals shows a detailed age-specific pattern consistent with protection conferred by exposure to influenza A/H1N1 viruses circulating before 1957

Public spaces protection orders and the policing of sub-criminal behaviour

Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) are civil powers used to regulate anti-social behaviour in England and Wales. Since their introduction in 2014, concerns have persisted about their disproportionate application against vulnerable populations, particularly people experiencing street homelessness. Drawing on qualitative interviews with practitioners, this article draws on procedural justice and responsive regulation theories to examine how statutorily designated policing bodies enforce PSPOs. The findings reveal that while policing bodies portray enforcement as incremental and fair, this framing serves to legitimise inconsistent application, discriminatory targeting, and the use of punitive sanctions. In doing so, this article contributes to the growing literature on PSPOs and has relevance to wider debates about how municipalities utilise a variety of tools to govern public spaces

Shakespeare Through Stanislavski: Creating an Accessible Toolkit for Performing Shakespeare

In the United Kingdom, current approaches to teaching learners to perform Shakespeare have faced criticism and calls for reform due to their reliance on verbal reasoning. At present the dominant approaches in Further and Higher Education engage learners in extensive textual analysis as the primary means of encountering the text. This later progresses to the development of character and performance based on learners understanding of the text’s rhythm, form, structure and literary devises such as metaphor and simile. These text-first approaches to performing Shakespeare can create accessibility issues for learners, especially those from non-academic backgrounds. Through my Practice as Research, I have developed The Shakespeare Toolkit, a new and accessible pedagogy for engaging with Shakespeare’s plays rooted in a practice first, character-driven approach to developing performances which meet the demands of the verse drama. To address the inherent issues in text-first approaches to working with Shakespeare’s plays, this Practice as Research PhD study adapts and combines aspects of Stanislavski’s ‘system’ with Elizabethan acting practices and First Folio technique to create a novel, practice first approach to performing – and understanding – Shakespeare’s text. This was achieved through the development, application, and refinement of twenty exercises, or ‘tools’, to approach and interpret Shakespeare’s plays by means of a character-driven, practice-centric methodology – The Shakespeare Toolkit. These tools can be used holistically in succession as a complete ‘toolkit’ in order to stage a production of Shakespeare’s text with actors and/or acting students or can be individually incorporated with other practices. This research will provide those facilitating acting classes or directing Shakespeare in the United Kingdom with a new means of approaching the plays through practice and character. In doing so, creating a more accessible means for learners and professional actors to engage with Shakespeare’s writing performatively