The COVID-19 pandemic, whose consequences will be felt in the long term, can be interpreted as a signal that we have been living in a pandemic age. A pandemic is humanity's common ground, so the moral problems inherent in it are of interest to everyone from now on. It brought a set of moral challenges that cannot be ignored.
This book – which emerged amid the novel coronavirus crisis – is designed to fill the gap in the current literature on the topic, offering an original approach to its moral implications. It can be taken as a guide in the face of these pandemic-age challenges for human relations.
The pandemic is a multifaceted phenomenon, and its debate involves a wide variety of practical philosophical concerns. All the chapters of this book, divided into four sections, aim to clarify its central aspects, while each chapter provides an original approach to the debate’s leading issues and relies on each most significant collaborator’s expertise. Also, they reflect their unique pandemic experiences under the scrutiny of philosophical unrest.
Since the pandemic is an ongoing event, Moral Challenges in a Pandemic Age will be of interest to professors, students, and researchers engaged in understanding the ethical dimension of the age we are experiencing. The problems addressed in this collection transcend the boundaries of the philosophical field, offering an innovative approach to individuals keen on discussing the pandemic from a moral point of view. Such a discussion encompasses the philosophical inquiry but is not restricted to it. Those interested in related areas such as psychology, sociology, biology, public health, education, anthropology, and cultural studies – to name a few – will find connections with parallel themes in this book. In addition, the collection brings a theoretically supported approach to several related debates in a language accessible to anyone who wants to know more about the topic.
Foreword Maxwell J. Smith
1. The pandemic age: An overview Evandro Barbosa
Part 1: Rationality and moral emotions
2. On the moral psychology of the pandemic agent Anneli Jefferson and Lisa Bortolotti
3. Feeling lonely: Toward a phenomenological account of loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic Flavio Williges
4. From fear to anger: An investigation of the relationship between negative emotions and populism in the context of COVID-19 Matheus Mesquita Silveira
5. "Nobody makes it alone": Toward a relational view of resilience Martina Orlandi
Part 2: Virtues and traits of character
6. The COVID-19 pandemic and the language of virtues Denis Coitinho
7. An alternative model of ethics for global crises: Confucian relationism Jana S. Rošker
8. Danse macabre: Levity and morality in a plague year Simone Gubler
9. Well-being in the time of COVID-19 Mauro Rossi
Part 3: Social arrangements and moral conflicts
10. Delving into denialism: Rationality, emotion, value, and trust in social context Leonardo de Mello Ribeiro
11. COVID rule breakers and the social contract Peter R. Anstey
12. Chance, consent, and COVID-19 Ryan Doody
13. Allocation of scarce intensive care units in COVID-19 and ageism Alcino Eduardo Bonella
Part 4: After COVID-19 life: Some moral issues
14. Faces of responsibility and moral agency in a pandemic age Evandro Barbosa and Thaís Alves Costa
15. Community, care, and social recognition in a post-COVID world of work Joshua Preiss
16. The emerging field of pandemic ethics Marcelo de Araujo
Biography
Evandro Barbosa is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil, and a visiting scholar in the Department of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq) Fellow, leading the project Pandemic and Human Relations: Moral Considerations in the Time of COVID-19. He also has received financial support from Brazilian research funding agencies to develop pandemic ethics-related projects (www.pandemiclives.com).
