• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.134-150
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• 2021

Dominant approaches to designing morally capable robots have been mainly based on rule-based ethical frameworks such as deontology and consequentialism. These approaches have encountered both philosophical and computational limitations. They often struggle to accommodate remarkably diverse, unstable, and complex contexts of human-robot interaction. Roboticists and philosophers have recently been exploring underrepresented ethical traditions such as virtuous, role-based, and relational ethical frameworks for designing morally capable robots. This paper employs the lens of ethical pluralism to examine the notion of role-based morality in the global context and discuss how such cross-cultural analysis of role ethics can inform the design of morally competent robots. In doing so, it first provides a concise introduction to ethical pluralism and how it has been employed as a method to interpret issues in computer and information ethics. Second, it reviews specific schools of thought in Western ethics that derive morality from role-based obligations. Third, it presents a more recent effort in Confucianism to reconceptualize Confucian ethics as a role-based ethic. This paper then compares the shared norms and irreducible differences between Western and Eastern approaches to role ethics. Finally, it discusses how such examination of pluralist views of role ethics across cultures can be conducive to the design of morally capable robots sensitive to diverse value systems in the global context.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.120-133
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• 2021

This paper proposes an interpretation of Charles Ess's pros hen pluralism, especially concerning what constitutes the single end point (hen) toward which the pluralistic viewpoints converge (pros). The single end point, I argue, is constituted by an empirical social reality that obtains in the world at a particular period. In other words, it is the fact that we happen to agree largely and broadly on several ethical issues that serves as the end point in Ess's theory. The reason is that humans happen largely to share the same goals and values qua human beings, such as the desire for communication and cooperation with one another. It is not their rationality, or any other permanent and ideal characteristic, that serves as the source of normativity for human beings, but rather the contingent facts that obtain at a particular place and time, facts that humans happen to agree on. This raises an obvious objection of what to do with those who might cherish a very different set of values. The answer is that the globalized nature of the world today, especially deepened by information technology, makes it increasingly difficult for any groups to remain isolated. This does not imply, however, that disagreements are not possible. On the contrary, disagreements are a part of the whole process from the beginning. At the theoretical level, there is always a need for those who disagree on the theoretical issues rationally to persuade one another. This is also part of the empirical reality referred to earlier.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.102-119
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• 2021

Social credit rating in China (SCRC) has been criticized as "dystopian" and "Orwellian," an attempt by the Communist Party to hold onto power by exerting ever greater control over its citizens. To explain such measures, value differences are often invoked, that Chinese value stability and cooperation over privacy and freedom. However, these explanations are oversimplifications that result in ethical impasses. This article argues social credit rating should be understood in terms of the commonly human problem of large-scale cooperation. To do so, this paper relies on a cultural evolutionary framework and is an exercise in interpretive pros hen ethical pluralism, attempting to understand how apparently irresolvable cultural differences stem from common human concerns. Wholesale condemnation of SCRC fails to acknowledge the serious, intractable nature of problems resulting from a lack of trust in China. They take for granted the existence of institutions ensuring largescale, anonymous cooperation characteristic of - but somewhat unique to - Western Educated Industrialized Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) cultures. Because of its history and rapid development, China lacks the institutions necessary to ensure such cooperation, and because of anti-social punishment, social credit rating might be one of the few ways to ensure cooperation at this scale. The point is not to defend social credit rating in general, but to raise the possibility of its defense in China and show one way this would be done.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.57-66
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to elucidate the perception differences between CEOs and employees, and to derive a plan for improving performance by using theory of planned behavior (TPB) to enhance the competitiveness of SMEs exposed to various difficulties until recently. Research design, data and methodology - A total of 238 valid questionnaires were collected for CEOs and members of SMEs. In order to clarify the difference of perception, independent sample t-test and multi-group analysis using AMOS were conducted. Simple regression analysis and structural equation were used to confirm whether the theory of planned behavior was applied at the level of SME. Results - The CEO group is more aware of company's ethical responsibility activities and organizational support than the group of employees, and collectivism contributes more to organizational development than individualism tendency. Also, the theory of planned behavior is applied to the SME level as well. Conclusion - This study suggest that CEOs need to accept the pluralism of their members for the development of SMEs. In addition, it is necessary to form a consensus on ethical responsibility activities that corporations are performing by supporting diverse strategies and members' participation in management decision-making.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.151-168
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• 2021

Misguided use, manipulation, misappropriation, disruption and mismanagement of Information deeply affects the infosphere as well as the social and moral fabric of a society. Information ethics is an attempt to bring the creation, organization, dissemination, and use of information within the ambit of ethical standards and moral codes. The diverse and inherently pluralistic nature of societies however puts forth an additional demand on us - to come up with an intercultural information ethics. An intercultural ethics which is other-centric, context sensitive and workable without being homogenizing, patronizing and colonizing. An endeavor in that direction has already been made by proponents of intercultural information ethics like: Charles M. Ess, Fay Sudweeks, Rafael Capurro, Pak-Hang Wong, Soraj Hongladarom et al. In our paper, we propose that the kind of ethical pluralism being sought in the domain of information ethics can be attained by having a reappraisal of the current methodological strategies, by casting a critical relook at the Eurocentric ethical model. This paper analyses the current framework of Intercultural Information Ethics. And in an endeavour to move towards an all-encompassing, other-centric, workable, intercultural, harmonious and compassionate model of 'Pluralistic Information Ethics', it proposes the Indian / Asian philosophical method of 'Samvāda' to the current inventory which includes methods like: 'parrhesia/free speech' and 'interpretive phronēsis.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.446-453
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• 2021

This paper deals with two methods regarding fact and value. One is the method of H. Putnam, which is to break the boundary between fact and value and to make a world where the two have an inherent connection. The other is the method of J. Habermas, which regards fact and value as the product of an intersubjective agreement based on argumentation. Putnam, through his position of internal realism, moves from realism to pragmatism, especially by combining the rationalist tradition of Kant and Dewey's pragmatic views. Habermas also stands in the tradition of rationalism and universalism in Kant, at the same time emphasizing the practicability of truth in Hegel's tradition of historical reason. The significance of the strategy of Putnam and Habermas is that they have attempted to revive the realm of value against the strict dichotomy of facts and values and the subsequent devaluation of rationality in the realm of value. The starting point of this attempt is that the practical foundation of rationality is laid on life and practice. This could provide the room for escaping from rationality, which prioritizes only truths that reveal facts, that is, instrument-reduced rationality, the room for the revival of practical rationality through reflection on what is the purpose of life, and, in turn, the room for resisting to pass the realm of values and norms to the logic of habitual routines or customs. However, despite such common goal, there are clear limitations to Putnam's approach due to the differences in the strategies taken on facts and values. Putnam's method can demolish the whole universal framework that is the foundation where pragmatic pluralism will be fostered, eliminating the difference between the specificity of values and the universality of norms and shaking up the status of universal ethics. Therefore, Habermas' ethical theory is proposed as an alternative to establish a basis for universal ethics by relying on communication rationality and to secure the coercion of norms and blossom cultural pluralism as a diverse lifestyle based on this coercion.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.44
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• pp.141-175
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• 2023

This comparative study combines the methodologies of comparative research and literature review to examine Daesoon Thought. Comparative religious analysis in the social sciences, does not presuppose an a priori framework of the essence of religion because it targets various aspects of religion which are revealed within a historical field. However, it does not decompose and return to psychological or social phenomena like social sciences. In addition, with the emergence of religious pluralism, the climate of focusing on similarities between religions has already been accomplished to some degree. Furthermore, it is worth noting that many spiritual movements in modern spirituality reveal mixed or amorphous characteristics without being restricted by specific religious membership. It is time to overcome instrumentation and restore the transcendence of its original appearance even in secular humanist reasoning. It can be said that this reveals the perception that the ills and crises of modern civilization should be overcome in connection with the opening of the acquired world of Daesoon Thought. It could further be said that the main culprit of evil behavior is instrumental reason or degenerated reason rather than spirituality. Religion is the intellectual crystalline body of humankind and aims at human perfection and salvation. However, extremists in previous times amplified conflicts between religions and formed ideas suitable for their specific regions through different experiences. This generated mental rifts that proved greatly influential. At the time of initial inception, each religion confronted and fought other ideologies, but when the era of religious pluralism began, the necessity for inter-spiritual communication became urgent. It could be said that happiness is the realization of human spirituality by exploring the vision of humanism. In that case, the combined methodologies of comparative research and literature review reveal that the spirituality of Daesoon Thought would enable a humanism based on human dignity. This would be a path for seeking spirituality through human life and living as a true human being. Spiritual humanism as discussed through this study aims to share the problems of modern civilization and provide a critical view of modern civilization that shows the roots of prevailing thought are stuck in a Cartesian dualistic view of humanity and the world. The type of spiritual humanism to examined here focuses on a cosmotheandric vision by considering the spiritual return to Daoism via Daesoon Thought. This would treat human beings like heaven in alignment with Donghak ideology and honor the human dignity proposed by Daesoon Thought. It would also deliver sentient beings from suffering and to bliss in accordance with the aims of faith in Maitreya Buddha, and it would implement the Resolution of Grievances for Mutual Beneficence in fulfillment of Daesoon Thought.

• Women's Studies Review
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.73-109
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• 2010

The cultural pluralism on which more and more emphasis is put in the globalized cultural environment, takes local identity as a crucial index for the cultural exchange on the global level, but at the same time it results in transforming individual regions/places into a homogeneous space, as it forces the local identity itself to fit into the standardized global perspective. In this context I focus on two art projects that are related to 'Dongducheon', a town that houses the U. S. Second Infantry Division. These projects attract specific attention due to the fact that Dongducheon is a significant place with very 'thick' cultural identity: it reveals that modernization in Korea took place in intersection of nationalism, patriarchy and gender/sexuality postcolonial (military) culture. With these two Dongducheon related art projects (Donglyung Kim) and (Eunyoung Jeong) as excellent examples of site-specific art practice, this paper asks what it means to keep the historicity of disappearing local space/place in the global era. And how is it possible to 'represent' an extremely gendered/sexualized place like Dongducheon. This should be examined from a postcolonial feminist perspective. Since emancipation from Japanese occupation Dongducheon has been an island or an outside space in the nation-state Korea. This becomes more complicated, as now mostly women from the Philippines or former Soviet countries are working in the nightclubs in Doungducheon. and are feminist activist experiments to make the place with its residents to be seen and heard in proper a way of mourning, recognition and communication. shows the 'new' kijich'on women as those who are daring to be on an 'Odyssey' for a better life as they run everyday life in Dongducheon, working in clubs, doing laundry, bearing children, going to mass; tries to help them to be heard and felt, while it gathers sounds on the street or at mass and shows the doors or narrow alleys which lead to the their rooms. It aims to mourn the dead kijich'on women and to represent the precarious life of the present migrant kijich'on women, as it shows no faces.