Moral Challenges in a Pandemic Age

The COVID-19 pandemic, whose consequences will be felt in the long term, can be interpretedas 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, whileeach 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 researchersengaged in understanding the ethical dimension of theage we are experiencing. The problems addressed in this collection transcend the boundaries of thephilosophical field, offering an innovative approach to individualskeen ondiscussing the pandemic from a moral point of view. Such a discussion encompasses the philosophicalinquiry 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

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).