2015

L'énigme Lafferière
(French only)
(Arol Pinder)

A certain propensity to read the works of Dany Laferrière, now Academician, has authorized me, not to interpret, but rather to share the tone, the inner tremors of the author’s voice. Indeed, Laferrière has created a polyphonic body of work. His voice is liana and transcontinental. It unravels in a thousand other branches and codes to share his spiritedly lived years. He claims, and I quote: "I am a being in three pieces."

Thus, I invited him at my table. I worked him inside out. I refused the author’s right way. I stitched together the crumbs of his disseminated writings to define him differently.

Pourquoi l’éthique militaire d’un pays démocratique devrait-elle tenir compte de la philosophie de Sénèque?
(French only)
(André Séguin)

This text aims to demonstrate that Seneca’s Letters to Lucilius may actually nurture military ethics. They prescribe a lifestyle conducting to happiness founded on an ataraxic state resulting from complete independence from the hazards of the material world. As such, the moral philosophy of Seneca captures the essence of military ethics paradigm whose main idea consists in working on the fine line between necessity and moderation. Moreover, Seneca’s work addresses with acuteness issues such as moral agency, cooperation between philosophy and natural science, as well as the issue of the moral feasibility of military ethics.

Achieving Inclusive Organizations: The Influence of Unconscious Biases
(Caterina Valentino)

Researchers are paying close attention to how unconscious biases influence behaviour and decisions. The purpose of this study was to assess the degree to which a group of students of health administration, informatics and alumni exhibit unconscious biases as well as to evaluate the use of an e-portfolio as a reflective tool to determine their awareness of their unconscious biases. The study utilized Pohan and Aguilar’s Personal Beliefs and Professional Beliefs About Diversity Scales. The results indicated that differences in one’s personal and professional beliefs with respect to retaining one’s mother tongue and learning English may contribute to delays in the translation of documents and in access to translators. Professional beliefs that segregate minorities on economic status and intellectual abilities may hinder supervisors from offering professional development and promotional opportunities to minority employees. Because of the pervasiveness, subtlety, and complexity of aversive racism, traditional techniques for eliminating biases that emphasize immorality of prejudice and illegality of discrimination are not effective. Although generalizations are limited by the study’s low response rate, this study is a starting point to reveal the reasons why aversive racism contributes to disparities in the workplace. In organizational decision-making processes, unconscious biases present a substantial challenge to the equitable treatment of members of disadvantaged groups.

Date modified:

2022-10-20