This article investigates different acts of political protests currently floating from unemployed citizens who are being affected by recent retrenchment policy reforms. Whereas most of the existing literature tends to portray political protest as either collective and public or individual and private, this article attempts instead to shed light on the plurality of normative resources activated by the unemployed in a highly critical situation. Thereby the analysis moves between the collective and the individual as well as between the public and (...) the private. Using the theoretical framework developed by Laurent Thévenot and Luc Boltanski in their joint work on justification, the article analyses a specific case, namely unemployed Danish recipients of social assistance who are affected by a new policy initiative meaning that their income has been lowered. Drawing on newspaper articles and qualitative in-depth interviews with affected citizens, the analysis unfolds and theorizes upon three very different forms of protesting: a civic, an industrial and a domestic form of resistance. (shrink)

In this paper, we introduce the Societal Readiness Thinking Tool to aid researchers and innovators in developing research projects with greater responsiveness to societal values, needs, and expectations. The need for societally-focused approaches to research and innovation—complementary to Technology Readiness frameworks—is presented. Insights from responsible research and innovation concepts and practice, organized across critical stages of project-life cycles are discussed with reference to the development of the SR Thinking Tool. The tool is designed to complement not only shortfalls in TR (...) approaches, but also improve upon other efforts to integrate RRI, sustainability, and design thinking in research and innovation cycles. Operationalization and early-stage user tests of the Tool are reported, along with discussion of potential future iterations and applications. (shrink)

BackgroundDecision-making in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest should ideally include clinical and ethical factors. Little is known about the extent of ethical considerations and their influence on prehospital resuscitation. We aimed to determine the transparency in medical records regarding decision-making in prehospital resuscitation with a specific focus on ethically relevant information and consideration in resuscitation providers’ documentation.MethodsThis was a Danish nationwide retrospective observational study of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests from 2016 through 2018. After an initial screening using broadly defined inclusion criteria, two experienced (...) philosophers performed a qualitative content analysis of the included medical records according to a preliminary codebook. We identified ethically relevant content in free-text fields and categorised the information according to Beauchamp and Childress’ four basic bioethical principles: autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice. ResultsOf 16,495 medical records, we identified 759 (4.6%) with potentially relevant information; 710 records (4.3%) contained ethically relevant information, whereas 49 did not. In general, the documentation was vague and unclear. We identified four kinds of ethically relevant information: patients’ wishes and perspectives on life; relatives’ wishes and perspectives on patients’ life; healthcare professionals’ opinions and perspectives on resuscitation; and do-not-resuscitate orders. We identified some “best practice” examples that included all perspectives of decision-making. ConclusionsThere is sparse and unclear evidence on ethically relevant information in the medical records documenting resuscitation after out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. However, the “best practice” examples show that providing sufficient documentation of decision-making is, in fact, feasible. To ensure transparency surrounding prehospital decisions in cardiac arrests, we believe that it is necessary to ensure more systematic documentation of decision-making in prehospital resuscitation. (shrink)

Economic theory teaches that it is in every country’s interest to trade. Trade is a voluntary activity among consenting parties. On this view, considerations of justice have little bearing on trade, and political philosophers concerned with global justice should stay largely silent on trade. According to a very different view that has recently gained prominence, international trade can only occur before the background of an international market reliance practice shaped by states. Trade is a shared activity among states, and all (...) participating states have in principle equal claims to gains from trade. Trade then becomes a central topic for political philosophers. Both views are problematic. A third view about the role of trade in a theory of global justice is then presented, which gives pride of place to a notion of exploitation. The other two views should be abandoned. (shrink)

Abstract2020 saw the rapid onset of a global pandemic caused by the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus. For healthcare systems worldwide, the pandemic called upon quick organization ensuring treatment and containment measures for the new virus disease. Nurses were seen as constituting a vital instrumental professional component in this study. Due to the pandemic's unpredictable and potentially dangerous nature, nurses have faced unprecedented risks and challenges. Based on interviews and free text comment from a survey, this study explores how ethical challenges related to (...) “being a nurse” during the COVID‐19 pandemic was experienced and understood by Danish hospital‐based nurses. Departing from anthropologist Jarett Zigon's notion of moral breakdown, the study demonstrates how the rapid onset of the pandemic constitutes a moral breakdown raising ethical demands for nurses. Analytically we identify three different ethical demands experienced by the nurses. These ethical demands are Nursing and societal ethical demands, Nursing and personal ethical demands, and Nursing and conflicting ethical demands. These demands represent not only very different understandings of ethical demands but also different understandings of ethical acts that are seen as necessary to respond to these demands. (shrink)

Das kosmologische Denken Eugen Finks verabschiedet sich vom europaischen Verstandnis eines Herrschaftsverhaltnisses des Geistes uber die Natur. Demgegenuber bestimmt Fink im Ruckbezug auf die antike Physis das welthafte Sein des Menschen, sein Wohnen, als eine Existenzweise, die Naturbezug und Dimensionen der Freiheit in sich schliesst. Demzufolge existiert der Mensch als ein Verhaltnis, das sowohl im Einverstandnis mit Elementarvorgangen lebt als auch offen fur seine Selbstgestaltung ist. Die Beitrage klaren diese Neubestimmung des Menschen in der Spannung von Natur und Freiheit und (...) schlagen einen Bogen von Finks fruhem Werk bis hin zu seinen spateren Schriften. (shrink)

In this paper we aim to discuss a theoretical explanation for the positive relationship between patients’ knowledge and their trust in healthcare personnel. Our approach is based on John Dewey’s notion of continuity. This notion entails that the individual’s experiences are interpreted as interrelated to each other, and that knowledge is related to future experience, not merely a record of the past. Furthermore, we apply Niklas Luhmann’s theory on trust as a way of reducing complexity and enabling action. Anthony Giddens’ (...) description and analysis of the high modern society provides a frame for discussing the preconditions for patient-healthcare personnel interaction. High modernity is dominated by expert systems and demands trust in these. We conclude that patient knowledge and trust in healthcare personnel is related because both knowledge and trust are future- and action-oriented concepts. The traits of high modernity provides opportunities and challenges as the personnel can and must perform discretion. This discretion must be made in a context where knowledge is considered uncertain and preliminary. (shrink)

The overarching aim of this article is to scrutinize how severity can work as a qualifier for the moral impetus of malady. While there is agreement that malady is of negative value, there is disagreement about precisely how this is so. Nevertheless, alleviating disease, injury, and associated suffering is almost universally considered good. Furthermore, the strength of a diseased person’s moral claims for our attention and efforts will inevitably vary. This article starts by reflecting on what kind of moral impetus (...) malady incites. We then analyze how severity may qualify this impetus. We do so by discussing the relationship between severity and need, well-being and disvalue, death, urgency, rule of rescue, and distributive justice. We then summarize our thoughts about severity as a moral qualifier. We conclude that severity is, and should continue to be seen, as a morally significant concept that deserves continued attention in the future. (shrink)

Organizational ethics and institutional theories are extended by recovering Weberian and Pre-Weberian theorizing that emphasized the joining of ethics and institutional theories. Understanding how ethics and institutional systems influence each other can advance our understanding of the nature and causes of structural organizational ethics issues and help guide potential reforms. We consider the interplay of these elements during the recession of 2008–2009, highlighting how structural ethics problems may have to be addressed at the institutional levels and not solely the individual (...) or organizational levels. (shrink)

On the basis of the Weber, Jaspers, and Arendt style ‘ideal types’ of the manager as Eichmann, Richard III, and Faust it is explained how under strong organizational pressures to obey orders and further organizational ends, different types of managers cooperate with organization behavior that harms people. On the basis of Arendt's and Tillich's action philosophies, the manager as Institution Citizen with the courage to be both as oneself and as a part is presented as alternative, contrast, and resistance model (...) to the other ‘ideal types’, particularly to the Eichmann ‘ideal type’. (shrink)

O diálogo Teeteto sempre ocupou lugar de destaque, compreendido geralmente como pertencente à fase mais madura de Platão. Uma inquietação, quase nunca analisada a fundo, está na conversa entre Euclides de Mégara e seu companheiro Térpsion que abre o Teeteto, caracterizando-o como um escrito pertencente ao filósofo megárico, cuja tradição de ensino era denunciada por sua dialética erística. Por que então Euclides, autor do Teeteto? Nossa hipótese pretende, em vista da filosofia formulada pelo socrático de Mégara, demonstrar que Platão procurou (...) reproduzir em proveito próprio o método euclidiano, orientado por uma escrita que põe ao centro a questão da fixidez almejada pela epistéme como uma questão de discurso, apenas resolvida no âmbito das ações. As refutações das opiniões de Teeteto se tornam a demonstração negativa da impossibilidade de o lógos fixar aquilo que procede do acontecimento educativo da verdade, positivamente indicado pela arte da maiêutica e pelo modelo divino descrito na digressão. Sob essa perspectiva, o louvor à memória de Teeteto, que abre o texto platônico, aparecerá como uma homenagem a Sócrates, através da moldura do texto megárico que nos situa diante do valor inescapável do discurso dialógico como instrumento educativo. Palavras-chave: Escrita; Conhecimento; Ética; Educação; Euclides de Mégara. The megarian frame in Plato’s Theaetetus Abstract: The Theaetetus has always occupied a prominent place, generally understood as belonging to Plato's more mature period. A concern is found, almost never analyzed in depth, in the conversation between Euclid of Megara and his companion Terpsion that opens Theaetetus, characterizing it as a writing belonging to the Megarian philosopher, whose teaching was denounced as eristic dialectic. Why then Euclid, author of Theaetetus? Our hypothesis intends, in view of the elaborated philosophy by the Socratic of Megara, to demonstrate that Plato sought to reproduce the Euclidean method for his own benefit, guided by a writing that puts at the center the issue of fixity desired by the episteme as a matter of discourse, only surpassed within the scope of actions. The refutations of Theaetetus' opinions become the negative demonstration of the impossibility of logos to fix what proceeds from the educational event of truth, positively indicated by the art of maieutics and by the divine model described in the digression. From this perspective, the praise to Theaetetus' memory, which opens the Platonic text, will appear too as a homage to Socrates, through the framework of the Megarian text that situates us before the inescapable value of dialogic discourse as an educational instrument. Keywords: Writhing; Knowledge; Ethics; Education; Euclides of Megara. El cuadro megárico del Teeteto de Platón Resumen: El diálogo de Teeteto ha ocupado siempre un lugar destacado, generalmente entendido como perteneciente a la fase más madura de Platón. Una inquietud, casi nunca analizada en profundidad, se encuentra en la conversación entre Euclides de Megara y su compañero Terpsion que abre el Teeteto, caracterizándolo como un escrito perteneciente al filósofo megárico, cuya tradición docente fue denunciada por su dialéctica erística. ¿Por qué entonces Euclides, autor de Teeteto? Nuestra hipótesis pretende, a la luz de la filosofía formulada por el socrático de Mégara, demostrar que Platón buscó reproducir el método euclidiano en beneficio propio, guiado por una escritura que pone en el centro la cuestión de la fijeza deseada por la episteme, como una cuestión de discurso que sólo se resuelve en el ámbito de las acciones. Las refutaciones de las opiniones de Teeteto se convierten en la demostración negativa de la imposibilidad del logos de fijar lo que procede del acontecimiento educativo de la verdad, señalada positivamente por el arte de la mayéutica y por el modelo divino descrito en la digresión. Desde esta perspectiva, el elogio de la memoria de Teeteto, que abre el texto platónico, aparecerá como un homenaje a Sócrates, en el marco del texto megárico que nos sitúa ante el valor ineludible del discurso dialógico como instrumento educativo. Palabras clave: Escritura; Conocimiento; Principio moral; Educación; Euclides de Megara. Data de registro: 01/08/2023 Data de aceite: 31/07/2024. (shrink)

Organization ethics praxis is theory and method of appropriate action for addressing ethics issues and developing ethical organizations. The perspective of praxis (theory and method of action) is important and different from the perspectives of theoria (theory of understanding), epistemology (ways of knowing), and ontology (ways of being/existing). Praxis is the least developed area within the field of organization ethics. Differences between theoria and praxis are considered within the context of Kohlberg—Gilligan developmental ethics where part of the controversy may be (...) unnecessary due to Kohlberg’s concentrating on epistemology and theoria, but not praxis; and, Gilligan’s considering aspects of praxis with epistemology and theoria. Differences between epistemology and praxis perspectives are considered in the contexts of two cases: Socratic “double-loop” action-learning conversations the night before the Challenger explosion; and, “triple-loop״ action-learning in a cross-cultural Boston—Indonesia child worker safety, acid-washed jeans case. (shrink)

My aim in this paper is to examine Aristotle's puzzling and contentious claim inPolitics1.13 that the deliberative faculty in women is ‘without authority’ :The freeman rules over the slave after another manner from that in which the male rules over the female, or the man over the child; although the parts of the soul are present in all of them, they are present in different ways. For the slave lacks the deliberative faculty altogether; the woman has it, but it is (...) without authority, and the child has it, but it is immature. (shrink)

Telomeres, the ends of chromosomes, shorten with each cell division. To expand their replicative potential, various cell types use the ribonucleoprotein telomerase, which lengthens telomeres by its reverse transcriptase activity. Because of its ability to immortalize cancer cells, telomerase also plays a significant role in tumor growth. However, in recent years, a wide variety of non‐canonical effects of telomerase that are independent of telomere lengthening have been discovered, and even the notion that telomerase is restricted to very few cell types (...) has been questioned. These effects also seem to be important in carcinogenesis and might explain the tumor‐promoting effects of telomerase independently of telomere elongation. Here, the current understanding of the extratelomeric roles of telomerase and their physiological and pathological significance is reviewed. BioEssays 30:728–732, 2008. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Through an international case study, this paper illustrates how a conversation method was used effectively to address a cross-cultural ethics problem. The method included as moments in one continuous process three different dimensions of postmodernism-Gadamer reconstruction, Derrida deconstruction, and Rorty neopragmatism. In addition to including different dimensions of postmodernism, the method combines effective mutual learning and effective action. Strengths and limitations of the approach are discussed. The article demonstrates how it can be beneficial to build bridges between and within the (...) postmodernism and organization ethics literatures. Also, the article demonstrates how postmodernism can be positively ethical and not necessarily aethical or nihilistic. (shrink)

There are perennial disputes about the scope of reason in human affairs. Some say we can never reason about ends; we can reason only about means. Others argue that this Humean view is mistaken. Still others claim that the crucial and typical use of 'reason' in moral contexts is both moralistic and somehow illusory. It seems to me that there are serious confusions in all these traditional contentions. Reason is not the slave of the passions, and although there is a (...) distinctive use of 'reason' in moral contexts there is nothing moralistic or illusory about it. The temptation to think there is is dispelled once proper note is taken of 1) the distinction between causes and reasons, 2) the proper context of causal explanations and explanations and justifications by reasons, 3) the distinctive roles of 'I want...' and 'I wish...' and 4) the diverse, context-dependent, uses of 'reason'. (shrink)

Eukaryotic mRNAs are monocistronic, and therefore mechanisms exist that coordinate the synthesis of multiprotein complexes in order to obtain proper stoichiometry at the appropriate intracellular locations. RNA‐binding proteins containing low‐complexity sequences are prone to generate liquid droplets via liquid‐liquid phase separation, and in this way create cytoplasmic assemblages of functionally related mRNAs. In a recent iCLIP study, we showed that the Drosophila RNA‐binding protein Imp, which exhibits a C‐terminal low‐complexity sequence, increases the formation of F‐actin by binding to 3′ untranslated (...) regions of mRNAs encoding components participating in F‐actin biogenesis. We hypothesize that phase transition is a mechanism the cell employs to increase the local mRNA concentration considerably, and in this way synchronize protein production in cytoplasmic territories, as discussed in the present review. (shrink)

John Rawls’s recommendation that political philosophy should be kept free of metaphysics has recently come under attack by Jean Hampton. According to her philosophy as a Socratic quest has to orient itself by radical probing and that unavoidingly involves us in metaphysical commitment. Non-Socratic philosophy in the later Rawls, she claims, reduces itself to a mere ‘modus vivendi’. In defending Rawls the article makes clear how Hampton underrates the method of reflective equilibrium. Rawls makes a rationally reconstructed use of the (...) Socratic ideal, that can be turned not only against Hampton’s critique of Rawls, but also against its relativist appropriation by Richard Rorty. (shrink)