You have lied! You are a liar! This is one of the most serious moral offences one can be blamed for. Augustine even regards lying as the fundamental moral offence and identifies it with sin and evil in general. For Augustine and Kant, lying is in itself morally reprehensible and not justifiable at all.

This paper investigates whether gender affects ethically sensitive decisions of a personal or business nature. Data from 51 practicing accountants from both public accounting and private industry suggest that while differences exist between female and male accountants in responses to specific situations, overall responses are quite similar. Statistically significant differences were found for only five of the sixteen ethically sensitive situations. Further, when personal and business situations of a similar nature were paired together, two of the eight differences between personal (...) and business responses were significantly different between females and males. Taken as a whole, the results refute the suggestion that the ethical decision making of organizations may be enhanced as more women enter the business field. (shrink)

Role morality can be defined as “claim(ing) a moral permission to harm others in ways that, if not for the role, would be wrong” (A. Applbaum: 1999, Ethics for Adversaries: The Morality of Roles in Public and Professional Life (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ) p. 3). Adversarial situations resulting in role morality occur most frequently in the fields of law, business, and government. Within the realm of accounting, professional obligations may place the accountant in a situation where he/she is susceptible (...) to the pressures of role morality. If the accountant engages in acts consistent with role morality, significant harm to others may result. The current study represents an initial investigation into role morality in accounting and includes survey data from three samples of professionals: accountants, physicians, and attorneys. Results suggest that accountants generally do not agree that role morality is acceptable. Additionally, when compared to the groups of physicians and attorneys, physicians agree the least with role morality, while attorneys agree the most. Implications for practicing accountants and suggestions for future research into the theory of role morality are offered. (shrink)

The paper tries to defend the Augustinian and Kantian position on the moral problem of lying against the popular opinion that this position must be rejected as an inhuman rigorism. The first part argues that Augustine and Kant do not intend to condemn entirely any kind of lying in any single case, which would be the task of judgment . Rather, they strive for a clarification of lying as a fundamental moral concept of language. Those concepts are not morally neutral, (...) as consequentialist positions hold, but function rather as a kind of conceptual measure or compass for moral judgment. That means that single lies can be excusable or an inevitable evil. But under no circumstance do we have a right or even an obligation to lie. The second part shows how the moral prohibition against lying as a linguistic act can be argued for – as Augustine and Kant do – by reflection on the anthropological meaning of language for human existence. For this purpose, following the phenomenological tradition three meanings of language are distinguished: 1. language as object, 2. language as practice, 3. language as “Sinnhorizont”. (shrink)

Given the importance of the Machiavellianism construct on informing a wide range of ethics research, we focus on gaining a better understanding of Machiavellianism within the whistle-blower context. In this regard, we examine the effect of Machiavellianism on whistle-blowing, focusing on the underlying mechanisms through which Machiavellianism affects whistle-blowing. Further, because individuals who are higher in Machiavellianism (high Machs) are expected to be less likely to report wrongdoing, we examine the ability of an organization’s ethical environment to increase whistle-blowing intentions (...) of high Machs. Results from a sample of 116 MBA students support our premise that Machiavellianism is negatively related to whistle-blowing. Further, we find that Machiavellianism has an indirect effect on whistle-blowing through perceived benefits and perceived responsibility. Finally, we find that a strong ethical environment, relative to a weak ethical environment, increases whistle-blowing intentions incrementally more for individuals who are higher in Machiavellianism. Taken together, these findings extend our understanding of how Machiavellianism and an organization’s ethical environment impact whistle-blowing. (shrink)

In biomedical ethics the principle of autonomy is closely connected with the moral and legal claim to informed consent. After World War II and the dramatic misuse of medicine in Nazi Germany, informed consent regulations were expected to help avoid similar misuse in the future, to help overcome the traditional medical paternalism, and to advance the liberty rights of patients and human subjects of research. With the rise of the new field of bioethics in the 1970s, the traditional beneficence-based model (...) of medical ethics shifted in the direction of an individual autonomy model. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungIst Achtung der Autonomie in der Medizin gleichbedeutend mit der Achtung autonomer Entscheidungen? Ist sie nur gegenüber entscheidungsfähigen Patienten möglich? Der Artikel kritisiert diese in der Medizinethik verbreitete Meinung. Sie wird der Problematik des Paternalismus in der modernen Medizin nicht voll gerecht und verkennt den Primat der moralischen gegenüber der psychologischen Bedeutung des Autonomiebegriffs sowie den engen Zusammenhang zwischen Autonomie und Fürsorge. Durch eine Reflexion anthropologischer Grundbedingungen der Moral zeige ich diesen Zusammenhang auf und skizziere Konsequenzen für die Praxis nicht-paternalistischer (...) Fürsorge, die den Willen auch nicht-kompetenter Patienten achtet. (shrink)

The evolutionarily conserved Notch signaling pathway regulates a broad spectrum of cell fate decisions and differentiation processes during fetal and postnatal life. It is involved in embryonic organogenesis as well as in the maintenance of homeostasis of self‐renewing systems. In this article, we review the role of Notch signaling in the hematopoietic system with particular emphasis on lymphocyte development and highlight the similarities in Notch function between Drosophila and mammalian differentiation processes. Recent studies indicating that aberrant NOTCH signaling is frequently (...) linked to the induction of T leukemia in humans will also be discussed. BioEssays 27:1117–1128, 2005. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The fiftieth anniversary of the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt arrived only months after the 1994 U.S. elections brought to power conservative Republican congressional majorities determined to reverse key legacies of Roosevelt's New Deal. At this juncture of special poignancy for many of those assembled at the “Little White House” in Warm Springs, Georgia on April 12, 1995, President Bill Clinton offered remarks on “Remembering Franklin D. Roosevelt.” “Like our greatest presidents,” Clinton eulogized, Roosevelt “showed us how to be (...) a nation in time of great stress” and “taught us again and again that our government could be an instrument of democratic destiny.”. (shrink)

The social ecological model (SEM) is a conceptual framework that recognizes individuals function within multiple interactive systems and contextual environments that influence their health. Medical Legal Partnerships (MLPs) address the social determinants of health through partnerships between health providers and civil legal services. This paper explores how the conceptual framework of SEM can be applied to the MLP model, which also uses a multidimensional approach to address an individual’s social determinants of health.

ZusammenfassungAm Beispiel der ethischen Hirntoddiskussion wird die Notwendigkeit einer philosophischen Reflexion und Kritik der Medizin und der Medizinethik aufgezeigt, wodurch die anthropologischen Bedingungen medizinischen Handelns und ethischer Theorie expliziert werden. Ohne eine solche kritische Reflexion bleiben sowohl naturwissenschaftliche Aussagen als auch ethische Prinzipien zu abstrakt und realitätsfern, die ethischen Probleme bleiben so unlösbar. Nur im personalen Sinnhorizont menschlicher Lebenspraxis, so die These, lassen sich physiologische Befunde wie die Hirntodfeststellung und ethische Prinzipien wie Autonomie und Würde angemessen verstehen und anwenden. Für (...) die Situation des Todes und des Hirntodes bedeutet das, dass auch hirntote wie tote Menschen als Person mit dem Anspruch auf Achtung ihrer Autonomie und Würde zu betrachten sind. (shrink)

The article starts from the observation that lying or rather the absence of truth- ful communication is still a common practice within modern medicine, and that medical ethics lacks moral arguments sufficient to serve as an efficient therapy of this illness. With regard to the problem of paternalistic justifications of emergency lies, I defend the classical definition and position regarding lying of Augustine and Kant, along with an uncommon interpretation of it. Thus, their aim is not to inhumanely condemn every (...) single merciful lie but to make clear that every attempt to justify lies based on beneficence or »Menschenliebe« (Kant) has to be rejected, because it gives rise to a general praxis of untruthful behaviour. In order avoid this consequence, one must be aware of what makes lying as such morally wrong. This has to be clarified by referring to the ethical-existential Sinnhorizont of truth and truthfulness within the entire context of personal human existence. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie Jahrgang: 65 Heft: 1 Seiten: 144-162.

Auf dem Wege zu einer aufgabenzentrierten Professionstheorie pädagogischen Handeins I. Die Verberuflichung des Erziehens ist historisch weitgehend abgeschlossen. In den modemen Industrie-und Dienstleistungsgesellschaften hat sich ein eigenständiger Sektor der institutionalisierten Erziehung ausdifferenziert, der mittlerweile zu einem der größten Teilsysteme der Gesellschaft geworden ist und immer größere Gruppen der Bevölkerung durch alle Lebensphasen hindurch erfaßt. In diesem Sektor ist eine Vielzahl von Berufen entstanden, zu der die Kindergärtnerin, die Lehrerin, die Sozialpädagogin, die Erziehungsberaterin, die Erwachsenenbildnerin und bald auch die Gerontagogin rechnet. (...) Sie decken ein weites Spektrum von erzieherischen Tätigkeiten ab und sind - gemessen an der Ausbildungsart und -dauer -auf ganz unterschiedlichen Qualifikationsniveaus angesiedelt: von der Erzieherin mit Fach schulausbildung über Fachhochschulabsolventinnen z. B. der Sozialpädagogik, über Lehrer verschiedener Schulstufen mit akademischer oder universitärer Ausbildung bis zu Diplom-Pädagoginnen mit und ohne Promotion. Sie alle erziehen - sei es der Absicht nach, sei es beiläufig oder verschämt. Unerledigt ist die Frage der Professionalisierung des Erziehens. Die Formulie rung und die Institutionalisierung pädagogischer Berufsbilder und ihre Legitimation durch entsprechende Zertifikate stellen keine Garantie für Professionalität dar. Dies gilt jedenfalls dann, wenn unter Professionalisierung nicht nur der historische Prozeß gemeint ist, in dem sich eine Gruppe von Berufen etablieren konnte, sondern auch die Ausbildung einer spezifischen Handlungskompetenz, die von der Struktur der professionellen Handlung erfordert wird. (shrink)

Development and homeostasis of the haematopoietic system is dependent upon stem cells that have the unique ability to both self‐renew and to differentiate in all cell lineages of the blood. The crucial decision between haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) self‐renewal and differentiation must be tightly controlled. Ultimately, this choice is regulated by the integration of intrinsic signals together with extrinsic cues provided by an exclusive microenvironment, the so‐called haematopoietic niche. Although the haematopoietic system of vertebrates has been studied extensively for many (...) decades, the specification of the HSC niche and its signals involved are poorly understood. Much of our current knowledge of how niches regulate long‐term maintenance of stem cells is derived from studies on Drosophila germ cells. Now, two recently published studies by Mandal et al.1 and Krezmien et al.2 describe the Drosophila haematopoietic niche and signal transduction pathways that are involved in the maintenance of haematopoietic precursors. Both reports emphasize several features that are important for controlling stem cell behavior and show parallels to both the vertebrate haematopoietic niche as well as the Drosophila germline stem cell niches in ovary and testis. The findings of both papers shed new light on the specific interactions between haematopoietic progenitors and their microenvironment. BioEssays 29:713–716, 2007. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)