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Sissela Bok

Sissela Bok Biography

Philosopher

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“The television screen is the lens through which most children learn about violence. Through the magnifying power of this lens, their everyday life becomes suffused by images of shootings, family violence, gang warfare, kidnappings, and everything else that contributes to violence in our society. It shapes their experiences long before they have had the opportunity to consent to such shaping or developed the ability to cope adequately with this knowledge.”

ChildrenLongOpportunityAbilityViolenceTelevisionShapesEverydayScreensShootingOur SocietyWarfareConsentEveryday LifeLensesGangKidnappingMagnifyingFamily Violence
Author:Sissela Bok
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“Much as being active in the antislavery movement of the last century involved more than not engaging in slavery oneself, so joining in an antiviolence movement has to go beyond opting for nonviolence in one's personal life. It calls for engaging in imaginative and forceful practices of nonviolent resistance to violence, including taking a stand toward entertainment violence.”

LastsPracticeViolenceCenturyMovementInvolvedSlaveryIncludingOneselfEntertainmentActiveResistanceNonviolencePersonal LifeEngagingImaginativeJoiningNonviolent ResistanceJoining In
Author:Sissela Bok
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“Regardless of how often the appetite for entertainment violence becomes addictive, increased exposure does risk further desensitizing viewers. And the element of pleasure that they derive may lead them to regard violence as a more acceptable way of dealing with problems, and victimization as more tolerable so long as it befalls others, not themselves.”

WayMayLongDoeProblemPleasureViolenceRiskElementsRegardEntertainmentAppetiteAcceptableViewersExposureTolerableVictimizationDealing With Problems
Author:Sissela Bok
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“Confidentiality refers to the boundaries surrounding shared secrets and to the process of guarding these boundaries. While confidentiality protects much that is not in fact secret, personal secrets lie at its core. The innermost, the vulnerable, often the shameful: these aspects of self-disclosure help explain why one name for professional confidentiality has been "the professional secret." Such secrecy is sometimes mistakenly confused with privacy; yet it can concern many matters in no way private, but that someone wishes to keep from the knowledge of third parties.”

WayHas BeensSelfSometimesMatterFactsHelpingLyingNamesWishProcessPartySecretProtectConcernAspectThirdsCoreBoundariesVulnerableConfusedPrivacySecrecyShamefulDisclosureGuardingThird PartiesConfidentialitySelf Disclosure
Book:Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation
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“Empathy and fellow feeling form the very basis of morality. The capacities for empathy, for feeling responsibility toward others and for reaching out to help them can be stunted or undermined early on, depending on a child's experiences in the home and neighborhood. It becomes too easy to turn our backs on fellow human beings... to have 'compassion fatigue.' Technology, we are learning, is not neutral.”

HumansChildrenHelpingFeelingsHomeFormTurnsLanguageEasyHuman BeingsResponsibilityCompassionTechnologySocietyCommunicationMoralityEmpathyCapacityBasesFellowsReachingNeighborhoodReach OutFatigueFellow Feeling
Author:Sissela Bok
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“Three sorts of goods, Aristotle specified, contribute to happiness: goods of the soul, including moral and intellectual virtues and education; bodily goods, such as strength, good health, beauty, and sound senses; and external goods, such as wealth, friends, good birth, good children, good heredity, good reputation and the like.”

ChildrenSoulHappinessThreeSoundWealthMoralVirtueBirthIntellectualIncludingSensesReputationGoodsGood HealthHeredityGood ReputationHealth Beauty
Author:Sissela Bok
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“I believe that a guarantee of public access to government information is indispensable in the long run for any democratic society.... if officials make public only what they want citizens to know, then publicity becomes a sham and accountability meaningless.”

IfsKnowsWantBelieveLongGovernmentRunningI BelieveInformationCitizensDemocraticAccessOfficialsGuaranteesAccountabilityMeaninglessLong RunsIndispensablePublicityDemocratic Society
Book:Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation
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