Masters Degrees (Philosophy)

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    Nowhere to hide: an ethical evaluation of how big data aggregation violates privacy (and what we should do about it)
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03) Smith, James Warren; de Villiers-Botha, Tanya; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Data aggregation involves merging different kinds of data into a single dataset and analysing this data together to retrieve patterns that might exist between this data and in so doing reveals novel information on the subjects of the data. Analysing aggregated data is referred to as aggregation-knowledge discovery in databases (A-KDD). Data aggregation has become popular in Big Data analysis as it allows for more and more complex information to be retrieved from otherwise innocuous data points. This thesis argues that data aggregation can result in unique violations of privacy that can have a negative impact on the individual and social wellbeing of a data subject. To make this argument, time is spent unpacking the concept of privacy and its value in liberal democratic societies. Following this, a description of big data and data aggregation is given. Once these terms are cashed out and understood, A-KDD is shown to result in violations of privacy on two accounts. In cases where the well-being of an individual is potentially decreased due to A-KDD revealing unknown information on a person, it is considered unjustifiable, and thus constitutes a (morally problematic) violation of privacy. In cases where A-KDD attempts to access unknown information without the consent of a data subject, it is also considered unjustifiable and thus constitutes a (morally problematic) violation of privacy. The thesis closes with suggestions on how A-KDD might be regulated to ensure the privacy violations of the practice are mitigated.
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    An analysis of ethics compliance challenges within strained healthcare systems: the case of South Africa
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03) Sehlabaka, Lietsiso Gertrude; Hall, Susan; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis explores ethics compliance challenges within strained healthcare systems in South Africa. Its chief aim is to examine the link between ethics compliance issues and strained healthcare systems in South Africa, and how these challenges can be dealt with. In order to achieve this aim, the study firstly traces the evolution and current status of healthcare systems in South Africa, from the apartheid years to the current time. Today the healthcare system in South Africa comprises of a two-levelled system consisting of the private and public sectors. The study documents how healthcare resources are allocated between the private and public health sector. The private healthcare sector is well funded and has a lot of resources as compared to the public health sector. As a result, strain is experienced within the public healthcare system as 81.2% of the population makes use of this system. The study goes on to investigate how ethical and compliance challenges facing the strained healthcare sector can be tackled. These ethical challenges include instances of malpractice, and a leadership or governance crisis, which is manifested through corruption in the form of the looting of public funds and health resources, and irregular awarding of managerial positions within the public healthcare sector. These ethical compliance issues continue to create significant delays in achieving the improvement of healthcare delivery, and it is therefore important to seek solutions to these problems. This thesis argues that there is an urgent need for an ethics of responsibility and ethics training within the health sector. The main conclusion of the study is that the integration of an ethics of responsibility into the South African healthcare system may be a useful supplement to existing ethical theories such as utilitarian or deontological moral frameworks, and hence argues for the need for an integrative ethics discourse.
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    A framework for compassionate clinical responses to addiction
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-01) Walter, Sheridan; Palk, Andrea; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Addiction is a particularly contentious issue, with discourses regarding, not only its definition but also the appropriate way of responding to and treating it, often framed in an uncompromising manner. This might come from the tendency to view drug use through a purely moral lens. This perspective, however, contributes substantially to addiction stigma, discrimination, and common misconceptions about addicts in society. It is also not uncommon for healthcare practitioners and institutions to espouse dominant social-moral norms of addiction, which add to the social exclusion, ostracization, and marginalisation of addicted people. As a result, addicts face significant obstacles in accessing health and social services, particularly if they are not yet ready to quit their substance use. This often leads to a denial of health care, or limited access to health care, based on certain preconditions. This is important as drug use can have adverse health and social consequences. For example, people who inject drugs are at significant risk of contracting blood-borne infections such as HIV and hepatitis C virus. In addition, deaths due to overdose have become increasingly alarming. Harm reduction strategies and programs that seek to minimise the harmful consequences of drug use do not require one to abstain from drug use. Abstinence often acts as a high threshold precondition to accessing essential treatment programs such as mental health care, TB care, and emergency services. Harm reduction proves to be a pragmatic, unbiased, more feasible and compelling response to addiction than abstinence-based treatment programs. Drawing from a South African, low-threshold opioid agonist therapy project, which is informed by salient features of the Southern African notion of ubuntu, I argue that social cohesion or group solidarity significantly improves retention in harm reduction programmes such as methadone maintenance treatment programmes. From this, I formulate my argument and I contend that ubuntu-related insights can serve as a framework informing clinical responses to addiction, in general. Specifically, this framework might augment harm reduction strategies, aid in providing non-punitive compassionate care, address the fundamental problem of social exclusion, isolation, and loneliness, and restore much-needed dignity and justice in responses to addiction.
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    Pornography conceptualised as an addictive substance
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03) Theron, Shirah; Palk, Andrea; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Since the dawn of the internet, pornography has effectively become ubiquitous, pervasive, and increasingly normalised. Study findings show remarkable similarities in how the brain reacts to pornography, and other known addictive substances, and indicate that consuming pornography is comparable to consuming other known addictive substances. Moreover, two of the biggest risk factors for addiction are the substance’s availability and its easy accessibility, particularly in the case of younger persons. To date, pornography addiction has been conceptualised as a behavioural addiction. However, the body of research data on pornography addiction does not provide conclusive support for behavioural addiction. The aim of this thesis is to put forward the idea that pornography can, and should, be conceptualised as an addictive substance, and, that when pornography is consumed, an addictive substance is consumed. In order to support this claim, there are many factors that must be addressed. I first clarify what pornography entails by exploring how it is conceptualised, what pornography ‘does’, and what it means to be a pornography consumer. Secondly, I examine the conceptualisations of substances, substance consumption and addiction, respectively, as well as the subsequent difference between substance and behavioural addiction. Thirdly, I give an inclusive overview of pornography addiction by not only examining the most recent perspectives of researchers, but also of pornography consumers. I conclude by suggesting how we should go about conceptualising pornography addiction, and then propose how the set of diagnostic criteria for pornography use disorder should be formulated for a future iteration of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. I argue that, given the abundance of academic research on substance addiction, compared to the scarcity of research on behavioural addiction, conceptualising pornography as an addictive substance is more likely to create a sense of urgency for the future research of pornography addiction than would be the case if it is considered a potential behavioural addiction. Furthermore, I argue that the classification of pornography as an addictive substance, and the inclusion of pornography use disorder in a future iteration of the DSM, will raise awareness of the potential adverse effects of pornography consumption and, therefore, the harmful consequences of pornography use disorder.
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    The impact of organisational culture, unconscious bias and person-organisation fit on employee selection decisions during recruitment
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03) Shapiro, Robyn Joan; Andrade, Julio A.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Many organisations affirm their commitment to organisational diversity; however, efforts to achieve it are often unsuccessful. As the recruitment process is the door through which employees enter an organisation, this process, in some way or another, plays a significant part in making selection decisions that determine the extent to which an organisation is regarded as diverse. Furthermore, limited research has focused on how selection-decisions are made in practice and what influences selection decision-making. The area of recruitment is subsequently identified as the focus for this study. Three concepts are identified as possible contributors to the lack of success of organisational diversity strategies: organisational culture, unconscious bias, and person-organisation fit (PO-fit). These three concepts are considered, in the recruitment selection decision-making process, through the lens of complexity thinking, to explore the possible dynamics that might contribute to the lack of success of diversity strategies. The findings of this study suggest that unconscious bias, through the workings of PO-fit, problematically influences recruitment selection decisions, thus leading to discrimination as an ethical risk. Due to the reflexive and non-linear nature of organisational dynamics, predictive outcomes of interrelations cannot be established, and therefore, the reflexive and non-linear interplay of the parts, rather than the parts themselves are the object of inquiry. Several strategies to mitigate the identified risks are presented. One such strategy is a concept developed by the researcher, namely PO-add which is based on the principles of inclusion and promoting difference in recruitment decision-making. The ethics of complexity is presented as a theoretical framework that provides guidance when ethical decisionmaking is the objective. This perspective requires a very specific position from decision-makers, namely, the provisional imperative. To show how the ethics of complexity could facilitate these aims, two processes supporting the provisional imperative of complexity theory are investigated: imagination and provisionality. These two processes are considered through the application of various strategies towards mitigating the risks arising at the intersection of PO-fit, organisational culture and unconscious bias.