At a historic dialogue convened at the University of Richmond, Virginia, Baptist and secular humanist scholars in theology, history, philosophy, and the social sciences, came together to define shared concerns and common values. The dialogue focused on major areas of concern: academic freedom; social, political, and religious tolerance; biblical scholarship; separation of church and state; the social agenda of the Christian Coalition and the Southern Baptist Convention; the danger of militant fundamentalism; freedom of conscience and the historic and current (...) role of American Baptists; as well as the plight of pluralistic democracy. (shrink)

Humans experience a profound and indescribable emotion when they unearth artifacts from ancient times. Scientific disciplines like paleontology and archaeology reflect our curiosity and desire to understand the natural world’s past and evolutionary history. Physics also invests significant effort in exploring the origin and evolution of the universe. In social life, the study field of humanities also has journals about art history, such as the Art History or Journal of Art History. Through our shared thoughts and efforts to restore humanities (...) for the cause of ecological and biological conservation, we have discovered a picture of a kingfisher taken nearly a century ago by A. F. Skutch in The Condor. Obtaining such a vivid, genuine, and emotionally evocative image was no easy task. This image has the power to stir the thoughts and awaken the conscience of the viewer, emphasizing the importance of a vibrant environment. (shrink)

Background: Troubled conscience among nurses and other healthcare workers represents a significant contributor to healthcare worker moral distress, burnout and attrition. While research in this area has examined critical care in hospitals, less knowledge has been obtained from long-term care contexts such as nursing homes, despite widely recognised challenges with regard to vulnerable patients, increasing workload and maintaining workforce sustainability among nurses. Objective: The aim of this study was to illuminate and interpret the meaning of the lived experience of (...) troubled conscience among registered nurses (RNs) working in nursing homes. Research design: This qualitative research employed narrative interviews with eight nurses to obtain essential meanings of their lived experiences of troubled conscience. The interview texts were analysed using a phenomenological hermeneutic approach. Ethical considerations: Participation was voluntary, informed and was conducted with written consent. The Norwegian Centre for Research Data approved the data processing of personal data. Findings: The analysis uncovered two themes: (1) troubled conscience means abandoning ideals, with the subthemes: failing dependent patients; being disloyal to colleagues; being inadequate in the performance of work tasks and (2) troubled conscience means facing realities, with the subthemes: accepting being part of the system; responding to barriers. Discussion: Troubled conscience meant experiencing continuous and simmering tension between one’s ideals and realities and feeling a drive to preserve accountability and one’s moral integrity. Endangered ideals were often under cross-pressure and included humanistic values, professional values, working life values and the values of the organisation. Conclusion: Nurses’ troubled conscience refers to a struggle, but also a force that plays out at various levels and arenas in long-term care. Openness and dialogue about how professional values and the welfare state’s intentions can be realised within the given framework are important for individual nurses’ occupational health as well as the quality of care provided to patients. (shrink)

Written originally as part of a Common Knowledge symposium responding to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s homily against relativism, which was delivered immediately before his election as pope, this essay describes a reactionary German intellectual current that includes not only Ratzinger and the conservative jurist E.-W. Böckenförde but also the more liberal philosopher Jürgen Habermas. What the three share, according to Kristeva, is their assessment of “rationalist humanism” as incapable of sustaining constitutional democracies, which by nature “need ‘normative presuppositions’ [on which] to (...) found rational law.” In an effort to “counterbalance this hypothesis,” she argues that “we are already confronted with... experiences that render obsolete any appeal for a normative conscience.” These experiences comprise discoveries of the modern human sciences above all psychoanalysis and literary theory, which “are likely to found the ‘unifying bond’ that secular, political rationality has until now lacked.” Thus, she concludes, “modern thought, which is neither hostile nor indulgent toward religion, may be our one good option as we face, on the one hand, mounting obscurantism and, on the other, the technological management of the human species.”. (shrink)

Kaplan simulates the response to a long visit to the new Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C., which, crucially for Kaplan, is sited in direct view of the Jefferson and Lincoln monuments, powerful symbols of humanist democracy.

We live with the legacy of injustice, political as well as personal. Even if our governments are now democratically elected and governed, our societies are scarred by forms of power and privilege accrued from a time in which people’s race, sex, class and religion were grounds for denying them a role in government, or in the selection of those who governed them. What does that past imply for the treatment of religion in democratic states? The problem is particularly pressing once (...) one accepts that religious freedom is not just a matter of individuals’ freedom of conscience and worship, but of people’s claims to associate with others through institutions whose powers, status and commitment to equality are very different (Laborde, 2015). If this means that churches pose some of the same philosophical and practical problems as families, from a democratic perspective, the fact that churches have no obvious point or justification, beyond being the repository of the claims to conscience of their members, appears to distinguish them from the former. In principle, this should make it easier to think about the claims of government, as compared to those of churches. In practice, however, it may simply bring into sharper focus philosophical and political challenges to equality that contemporary democracies now face. (shrink)

An outstanding feature of the study of nursing ethics is that it raises questions concerning moral virtue, conscience, consistency and character. A considerable section of the literature is devoted to ideas of how best to teach ethics to health professionals. It has been shown that when faced with ethical dilemmas nurses tended to rely on intuition and instinct to resolve them, with little systematic analysis to help the process. Nurses who have been in practice for a number of years (...) may experience particular difficulties in resolving ethical dilemmas, for although they may be able easily to identify ethical problems they may feel powerless to behave appropriately through lack of theoretical background and/or confidence in participating in informed debate. An educational programme was designed to meet the needs of mature registered nurses who were undertaking a post-qualification part-time honours degree in nursing studies. A variety of teaching methods were employed in teaching the nurses. These included discussion, student-led seminars, structured debate and role play. A session which dealt with sudden death and organ donation is described in some detail. Because the topic involved communication between professionals and patients and/or relatives and was linked with ethics, role play was used to explore the dynamics in these areas. The participants were invited to act out the situation as they felt it might occur. Role play highlighted the stress and shock attached to such an experience. Before working through the dynamics of a situation the nurses were conscious of being part of decision-making 'in the cold' and 'in isolation'. As a result of the experiential learning they felt more able to reflect analytically and to participate in discussions in an informed and articulate way. (shrink)

Dostoevskij’s underground parody of confession paradoxically recovers an Orthodox morality by constructing an unorthodox model of authority and authorship. The authenticity and authority of underground discourse are both contingent on self-conscious parody, which also mediates Orthodox community or sobornost’. This essay critically reconsiders ethical, aesthetic and cultural dimensions of the self-conscious interpolation of literary and religious discourses in Dostoevskij’s Notes from Underground. Arguing with and against Bakhtinian readings, it re-examines the underground narrator’s secularized, Romanticized sensibilities, cynical critique of humanism, sacrilegious (...) modes of laughter, usurpation of authority, internalization of dialogue, literary stylization and parody, aesthetic and moral self-critique, and, finally, insistence on “a new word.”. (shrink)

The shape of theological humanism -- Ideas and challenges -- The humanist imagination -- Thinking of God -- The logic of Christian humanism -- On the integrity of life -- The task of theological humanism -- Our endangered garden -- A school of conscience -- Masks of mind -- Religion and spiritual integrity -- Living theological humanism.

On September 12, 2000, in Kyiv, an international scientific and practical seminar "Humanism and Democracy of Legislative Initiatives in the Sphere of Freedom of Conscience: International and Ukrainian Context" was organized by the International Academy of Religious and Religious Belief, the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Culture and Spirituality, the Department of Religious Studies at the Institute of Philosophy named after GS Skovoroda of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Center for Religious Information and Freedom (...) of the Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies. (shrink)

First of all - about the connections of culture and religion. This question is one of those who, in the recent past, was subjected to all kinds of distortions. Consequently, our contemporary Ukrainian society needs a true meeting of religion and culture. The attempt of Marxism to create a new humanism, which completely rejects religion and is based only on atheism, and even that which was given a militant character, proved to be insolvent. Even now we understand that it is (...) impossible to build a culture denying the close connection between religion and culture. (shrink)

This book analyzes the moral confusion of contemporary society, relating rival conceptions of morality with a wide variety of views about the nature and predicament of man. Mitchell argues that many secular thinkers possess a traditional "Christian" conscience which they find hard to defend in terms of an entirely secular world-view, but which is more in line with a Christian understanding of man.

The article starts by arguing that seeing the firm as a mere nexus of contracts or as an abstract entity where different stakeholder interests concur is insufficient for a “humanistic business ethos”, which entails a complete view of the human being. It seems more appropriate to understand the firm as a human community, a concept which can be found in several sources, including managerial literature, business ethics scholars, and Catholic Social Teaching. In addition, there are also philosophical grounds that (...) support the idea of business as a human community. Extending this concept, and drawing from some Phenomenological-Personalist philosophers, we propose that the firm should be seen as a particular “community of persons” oriented to providing goods and services efficiently and profitably. Being a “community of persons” emphasizes both individuals and the whole, and makes explicit the uniqueness, conscience, free will, dignity, and openness to human flourishing. This requires appropriate communication about and participation in matters which affect people’s life, and makes it essential to cooperate for the common good of the business firm and the society. (shrink)

Ce livre montre comment, à partir du néant, Sartre a radicalisé la conception husserlienne de l'intentionnalité comme rapport de la conscience au monde, transcendance, c'est-à-dire ouverture vers l'extérieur, à la rencontre des autres humains. C'est pourquoi, si la pensée de Sartre tourne principalement autour de la liberté décrite avant tout individuellement, elle a aussi une dimension collective et historique qui l'a conduite à une intersubjectivité humaniste.

Au-delà des frontières des langues, des cultures juridiques et systèmes de droit, conciliant synchronie et diachronie, le Professeur Mattila nous offre une oeuvre riche en couleurs, rencontres illustres et cas d’espèce. Nul doute qu’il s’agit là d’un ouvrage de référence, à la fois au regard de l’introduction d’une approche heuristique et de la cartographie d’un champ de connaissances commun au juriste et au linguiste. Sa vaste étude des interactions terminologiques et conceptuelles des langues et traditions juridiques européennes propose un tableau (...) minutieux, systématique et argumenté de la situation du langage juridique dans cinq langues. Elle offre une réflexion sur le développement de ces langues, notamment sur le plan international. Travail herculéen s’il en est, il ne pouvait être réalisé que par un humaniste accompli. Heikki Mattila, professeur émérite de jurilinguistique à l’Université de Lapland en Finlande, est juriste, spécialiste multilingue du langage juridique, linguiste .. (shrink)

Nous vivons une période étrange, probablement même périlleuse à bien des égards. Les avancées de la science, de la médecine et des technologies sont telles qu'elles posent désormais la question de l'avenir de notre commune humanité. Mon corps est-il ma personne ou est-il une chose? S'agit-il simplement d'un ensemble de pièces que l'on peut remplacer, ou d'une enveloppe que l'on pourrait changer? Notre destin est-il, tout entier, inscrit dans nos gènes? Avec le développement des techniques de procréation médicalement assistée, l'enfant (...) demeure-t-il un sujet de droit ou devient-il un objet auquel on aurait droit? L'aventure humaine est-elle réellement menacée par le posthumanisme? Que penser enfin des promesses d'un homme manipulé et amélioré par le transhumanisme, grâce aux nanotechnologies, aux biotechnologies, à l'informatique et aux sciences cognitives... Jean-François Mattei nous propose un retour à une culture du doute, nécessaire pour armer notre pensée face aux défis à venir. Nous invitant à une réflexion éthique, philosophique et politique, il nous amène à nous demander si, modifiant notre humanité, nous pourrions néanmoins rester humains... (shrink)

Não há dúvida de que uma intenção moral presidiu ou, no mínimo, acompanhou grande parte da arte do passado. Esquecemos suficientemente de falar da arte, em geral, como um domínio em que as considerações éticas não têm lugar e em relação a qual seria inconveniente falar em moral, isso porque belo e bom são valores não apenas distintos, mas independentes, e dentre esses importa conservar-lhes essa independência. Uma visão sensata do estado histórico da questão supõe, no entanto, que tomemos consciência (...) da historicidade dessa posição separatista, ou seja, que, por um lado, esqueçamos por um instante a autonomia e a autotelia da arte ensinada no século XIX e, por outro lado, que nos lembremos da maneira com que os artistas e os pensadores da arte, anterior à invenção moderna das belas-artes, concebiam a prática artística. Nessa longa história pré-moderna da arte, gostaria de examinar mais precisamente aqui as intenções éticas da teoria humanista da pintura e de submeter a um exame crítico a eficácia dessas intenções.Palavras-chave: Efeitos Éticos da Pintura. Teoria Humanista da Pintura. Efeitos Estéticos e Cognitivos da Arte. Résumé:Qu’une intention morale ait présidé ou au moins accompagné une grande partie de l’artdupassé, c’estcequi ne fait aucundoute. Nous l’avons suffisamment oublié pourparler de l’art, engénéral, comme d’un domaine où les considérations éthiques n’ontpasleurplace et à propos duquel il serait déplacé de parler de morale, aumotif que beau et biensont desvaleurs non seulement distinctes mais indépendantes et dontqu’il importe de leur conservercette indépendance. Une visionsaine de l’état historique de la question suppose pourtant que nous prenions conscience de l’historicité de cette position séparatiste, autrementdit, que d’une part nous ou blions pour un temps l’autonomie et l’autolélie de l’artenseignée par le XIX èmesiècle et d’autrepart, que nous nous rappelions la manière dont artistes et penseurs de l’art d’avant l’invention modernedes beaux-art sont conçula pratique artistique. Dans cette longue histoire prémoderne de l’art, on considérera plus précisément ici les intentions éthiques de la théorie humaniste de lapeinture et l’onsoumettra à unexamen critique lesmoyens de cesintentions.Mots-Clés: ÉffetsÉthiques de laPeinture. ThéorieHumaniste de laPeinture. ÉffetsEsthétiques et Cognitifs de l’art. (shrink)

This Festschrift in Professor Kristeller’s honor consists of contributions by scholars who have had some connection with Columbia University, his "intellectual home in the United States for three decades." It also includes a Tabula Gratulatoria listing many other friends from the United States and Europe. The editor’s opening essay provides an interesting and informative account of this scholar’s academic career, and should be read together with the complete annotated bibliography of his publications through 1974. The latter lists 149 "major publications" (...) and 220 "minor publications." Kristeller’s contributions to the history of Renaissance philosophy are well known to historians of philosophy, and deservedly so. Here reference should be made to his groundbreaking studies on Marsilio Ficino and Pomponazzi, and on others such as Pico della Mirandola and Petrarch, as well as on Renaissance Platonism, Aristotelianism in the Renaissance, Thomism in the Renaissance, Paduan Averroism, and Alexandrism. But he has also contributed greatly to the fields of medieval and Renaissance history, and especially to our understanding of Renaissance humanism, Renaissance music, and Renaissance art. He is universally recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on manuscript research, as is witnessed, for example, by the cooperative project, Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum, which he founded, and by his Iter ltalicum. In all of these enterprises he has set an enviable example for other scholars by the exacting standards and the breadth of his expertise. It is only fitting, then, that the many essays in this Festschrift should reflect the breadth and depth of the scholarship so evident in the man to whom they are dedicated. Limitations of space will only permit us to list them here, with a few remarks reserved for those of more special interest to philosophers and historians of philosophy: Eugene F. Rice, Jr., "The De magia naturali of Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples" ; Donald R. Kelley, "Louis Le Caron Philosophe", on Le Caron’s effort to bring together jurisprudence and classical, especially Platonic, philosophy; Richard H. Popkin, "The Pre-Adamite Theory in the Renaissance", with fascinating material about theories concerning men before Adam in La Peyrère and widely scattered earlier sources; Richard Lemay, "The Fly against the Elephant: Flandinus against Pomponazzi on Fate", on an unedited attack by an Augustinian Bishop against Pomponazzi’s espousal of the Stoic doctrine of fate; Martin Pine, "Pietro Pomponazzi and the Medieval Tradition of God’s Foreknowledge", on Pomponazzi’s solution to the problem of divine foreknowledge and human freedom inlight of his familiarity with earlier discussions by Boethius, Aquinas, Scotus, and Ockham; F. Edward Cranz, "Editions of the Latin Aristotle Accompanied by the Commentaries of Averroes", helpful to all who wish to consult late fifteenth- and sixteenth-century versions of the Latin Aristotle and especially the Latin Averroes; Josef Soudek, "A Fifteenth-Century Humanistic Bestseller: The Manuscript Diffusion of Leonardo Bruni’s Annotated Latin Version of the Aristotelian Economics" ; Edward P. Mahoney, "Nicoletto Vernia on the Soul and Immortality", which details a radical shift on Vernia’s part from an earlier Averroistic reading of Aristotle; Joan Kelly-Gadol, "Tommaso Campanella: The Agony of Political Theory in the Counter-Reformation", which attempts to account for some of the shifts and inconsistencies in Campanella’s political writings by placing them within the troubled personal and political circumstances of his life; Charles Trinkaus, "Protagoras in the Renaissance: An Exploration" ; Maristella de Panizza Lorch, "Voluptas, molle quoddam et non invidiosum nomen: Lorenzo Valla’s Defense of voluptas in the Preface to his De voluptate" ; Neal W. Gilbert, "Richard de Bury and the ‘Quires of Yesterday’s Sophisms"’, with much interesting material on the medieval tradition of sophismata, especially at Oxford; Malcolm Brown, "A Pre-Aristotelian Mathematician on Deductive Order" ; John H. Randall, Jr., "Paduan Aristotelianism Reconsidered", on evidence for influence of the Italian Aristotelian tradition on Galileo; William F. Edwards, "Niccoló Leoniceno and the Origins of Humanist Discussion of Method" ; C. Doris Hellman, "A Poem on the Occasion of the Nova of 1572" ; Edward Rosen, "Kepler’s Mastery of Greek" ; W. T. H. Jackson, "The Politics of a Poet: The Archipoeta as Revealed by his Imagery" ; John Charles Nelson, "Love and Sex in the Decameron" ; George B. Parks, "Pico della Mirandola in Tudor Translation" ; Richard Harrier, "Invention in Tudor Literature: Historical Perspectives" ; Helene Wieruszowski, "Jacob Burckhardt and Vespasiano da Bisticci " ; Morimichi Watanabe, "Gregor Heimburg and Early Humanism in Germany" ; Raymond de Roover, "Cardinal Cajetan on ‘Cambium’ or Exchange Dealings" ; and a series of text editions with introductions including Julius Kirshner, "Conscience and Public Finance: A Questio disputata of John of Legnano on the Public Debt of Genoa" ; John Mundy, "The Origins of the College of Saint-Raymond at the University of Toulouse" ; Charles B. Schmitt, "Girolamo Borro’s Multae sunt nostrarum ignorantionum causae " ; Guido Kisch, "An Unpublished Consiliumof Johannes Sichardus" ; Patricia H. Labalme, "The Last Will of a Venetian Patrician " ; Felix Gilbert, "The Last Will of a Venetian Grand Chancellor" ; Herbert S. Matsen, "Giovanni Garzoni to Alessandro Achillini : An Unpublished Letter and Defense" ; Theodore E. James, "A Fragment of An Exposition of the First Letter of Seneca to Lucilius Attributed to Peter of Mantua". The editor, his collaborators, and the contributors are all to be commended for the high quality of this volume.—J.F.W. (shrink)

Wallace, Meg The words we use in everyday language are loaded with images and emotion. Words can be used to deliberately manipulate language to 'frame' ideas to fit vested interests. When a term is used often enough in this way, the emotional connotations become part of how people conceive a particular set of facts. George Lakoff explains the politically motivated use of framing in his book 'Don't think of an Elephant'.

RésuméOn prend comme point de départ la crise actuelle de l'idée de raison, en envisageant la possibilité de son dépassement au moyen d'une reposition de cette idée, pour arriver ainsi à un rationalisme nouveau que l'on peut appeler » humaniste «. Ce rationalisme doit prendre conscience, tout d'abord, de la condition strictement humaine de notre savoir en tant que différente d'une connaissance intellectuelle absolue, dans un sens tout à fait opposé à la vision rationaliste de l'époque moderne. Dans cette (...) ligne, l'on fait remarquer l'aspect » compositif « et » divisif « de notre démarche rationnelle et son caractère dynamique, en exposant les possibilités explicatives de cette compréhension dynamique en face des mathématiques et des sciences de la nature. Il faut aussi donner raison du fait métaphysique dans lequel naturellement débouche le rationnel. Le kantisme est considéré dans sa position programmatique et historique, en soulignant chez lui la forte empreinte rationaliste, qui amène à une fermeture à l'égard du dynamisme propre de la science. L'on constate, enfin, les limitations épistémologiques du réalisme aristotélicien, entraǐnant une certaine absolutisation de l'immédiat sensible, qu'un réalisme actuel pourrait bien dépasser par la noétique dynamique et humaniste.ZusammenfassungDer Verfasser geht von der heutigen Krisis der Vernunftidee aus, um durch eine Wiederherstellung derselben Idee, die zu einem neuen Rationalismus, als humanistischer Humanismus gedacht, leiten muss, eine mögliche Überwindung dieser Krisis anzuzeigen. Dieser Rationalismus soll, im Gegensatz zur modernen intellektualistischen Anschauung, das spezifisch Menschliche unserer Erkenntnis als etwas Verschiedenes von einem rein intellektuellen Wissen darlegen. In diesem Sinne merkt man das » compositive « und » divise « Verfahren unserer Vernunft und ihren eigenartigen Dynamismus vor, um die erklärenden Möglichkeiten dieser dynamischen Auffassung in Verbindung mit der mathematischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Tatsache vorzustellen. Auch die Metaphysik soll als natürliche Vollendung des rationalen Strebens erkannt werden. Der Kantismus wird in seiner programmatischen und geschichtlichen Lage betrachtet, um seine mächtige rationalistische Prägung, in eine gründliche Blindheit vor der dynamischen Gestait der Wissenschaft leitend, zu bemerken. Endlich werden die episte‐mologischen Mängel des aristotelischen Realismus festgestellt, die ein heutiger Realismus durch eine dynamische und humanistische Erkenntnislehre überwinden kann.The critical attitude actually taken towards the idea of reason supplies the starting point; it is considered possible to overcome the resulting crisis by positing this idea anew, in order to establish a new rationalism which might be termed » humanist «. That rationalism should first of all duly record the fact that our knowledge is strictly human and differs as such from an absolutely intellectual knowledge, in a sense which contrasts with the present rationalist outlook. Following that line, the writer stresses the » compositive « and » divisive « aspects as well as the dynamic character of our rational activity, in the process of presenting the explicative possibilities of this dynamic understanding with reference to mathematics and natural science. The metaphysical fact into which the rational is bound to flow must be accounted for. Kantism is examined in its historical and programmatical position, stressing how deep the rationalist imprint is there, making it a blind alley as far as scientific dynamics are concerned; it is held that they could be overcome by present day realism, thanks to a dynamic and humanist noetic doctrine. (shrink)

The military-industrial complex, military operations, and wars are major contributors to exacerbating both climate change and biodiversity crises. However, their environmental impacts are often shadowed due to national security reasons. The current paper aims to go through the devastating impacts of military operations and wars on climate change and biodiversity loss and challenges that hinder the inclusion of military-related activities into environmental crisis mitigation efforts. The information blind spot induced by concerns about national security reasons jeopardizes the efforts to involve (...) the military-industrial complex and military operations in the global climate and biodiversity agendas. Besides that, many military-related challenges, such as specificity of operational requirements and lifecycles, dependence on fossil fuels, complex supply change, inadequate civilian technologies and innovations, and requirements of structural changes, can hinder emission reduction. Meanwhile, wars and conflicts not only threaten to drain all human and material resources available to tackle environmental problems but also inflict long-lasting destructions, pains, and trauma that can lead to hatred and distrust among nations and parties. With the rising hatred and distrust, global agreement and commitment to address climate change and biodiversity will hardly be achieved. Thus, promoting peace is the humanistic and planetary conscience. (shrink)

Kimberley Brownlee’s Conscience and Conviction offers a powerful defence of civil disobedience as a conscientious and communicative mode of protest. The overall argument of the book is important and compelling, but this critical commentary explores certain aspects of Brownlee’s view that warrant further consideration and clarification. Those aspects relate to her suggestion that civil disobedience is a dialogic mode of communication, her attempt to ground a moral right of civil disobedience in a principle of humanism, and her belief that (...) the right establishes a defeasible moral claim against all forms of interference. (shrink)

The Austrian writer Stefan Zweig was a staunch cosmopolitan who, after the catastrophe of World War I, campaigned for peaceful cooperation between the peoples of Europe. He considered the biography of Erasmus of Rotterdam, a definite enemy of every kind of fanaticism, to be exemplary. In his novel “Triumph und Tragik des Erasmus von Rotterdam” (1934) he portrayed him as an antithesis to Luther, whose religious radicalism combined with nationalistic tendencies he detested. Zweig contrasted the cosmopolitan humanism of Erasmus with (...) the German Reformation of Luther. Under the impression of the political seizure of power by the National Socialists, which forced him to emigrate, Zweig's interest in the history of the Reformation in Europe grew. After “Maria Stuart” (1935) he saw in his novel “Castellio against Calvin” (1936) in Castellio an heir to Erasmus, who defended human freedom of conscience against the repressive theocratic Geneva regime. For Zweig, Calvin became a tyrant who in many ways resembled Hitler. (shrink)

Humanism, neo-humanism, third humanism – all of these are noble but unsuccessful attempts to overcome a problematic and critical spiritual situation of the times through a new actualization of Hellenic values of antiquity which are, in the attempt itself, viewed as ideal and self-sufficient. Christianity, which in many ways represents the realisation and completion of classical Hellenic culture, should no more be regarded as an injustice to that culture, since the encounter of Hellenism and Christianity is precisely the event which (...) produced European culture. Apart from a culturological meaning, that may bear a meaning of principle too: we need a new rationality which may acquire salvific meaning today through the Hellenic idea of Logos (not only as cognitive and demonstrative reason, but also as capacity for discerning good from evil) and through the Christian idea of Logos as sacrifice for the other. We need a rationality which will not be of an order of nought, that is, an extended self-survival instinct – which will not be interested in usefulness only but also in goodness, not in legality only but in justice as well. Namely, the problem is that contemporary culture is forgetful both of Socrates and of Christ. That is not to mean that a civilisation which forgets Christ may by the same token appease its conscience by not forgetting Socrates. (shrink)

Il est urgent de réinvestir l'humanisme, ce mouvement d'émancipation culturelle, né à la Renaissance et fondé sur l’élan de l’esprit critique, sur le retour aux sources antiques et sur le développement des universités – notion qui paraît à certains désuète, voire politiquement «récupérée». Des chercheurs et des enseignants disent ici en quoi la formation universitaire, au-delà des sept arts libéraux qui assurent la maîtrise des chiffres et des lettres, ne peut qu’être humaniste, aujourd’hui comme hier: son objectif est de forger (...) des citoyennes et des citoyens qui mettent leurs talents et leurs compétences au service des autres et chez qui l’intelligence va de pair avec la conscience éthique. La bulle d’institution de l’Université de Louvain, en 1425, exprimait déjà en des termes étonnamment simples et actuels les principes fondateurs d’une université, sa vocation, son enracinement dans la cité et les liens privilégiés qui unissent ses étudiants, ses docteurs et ses professeurs. On trouve dans le présent petit livre une traduction française inédite de ce document essentiel de la fin du Moyen Âge, due à Lambert Isebaert. Cet ouvrage est une boussole pour l’esprit, de ceux qu’on garde à portée de main pour tenir le cap. (shrink)

Levinas is a thinker for the future, concerned with the future. He inverts the priority of the declaration of the French Revolution "Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood", by designating "brotherhood" first among modern European society's most cherished values. Levinas sees brotherhood as the fundamental condition of our shared humanity and as the foundation of freedom and equality. Thus, he presents himself as a Western thinker who sets modern thought on its head and at the same time enriches it. His radical view of (...) the other, responsibility, subjectivity and the Infinite remains a challenge, today more than ever. Calling out to both religious and secular seekers alike, Levinas asks for an alert and critical dialogue of the ethical and metaphysical meaning of our inter-human and social relationships. In this work, a new generation of philosophers, ethicists and theologians embark on a conversation with Levians, with due appreciation for his genius and uninhibitedness in their questioning. The intermediaries in this provocative dialogue are: Hannah Arendt, Henri Bergson, Anders Nygren, Paul Ricoeur and Hans Urs von Balthasar. The following themes are thus treated: - ethics as liberation and redemption beyond the self - time, duration and alterity - freedom, society and politics - desire between eros and agape - 'good enough' parenting and family ethics - conversational processes and pastoral counselling - asymmetry and reciprocity between the self and the other - modern humanism vs. post-modern anti-humanism as an inspiration for a renewed secular humanism - suffering, death and euthanasia - perspectives and boundaries of interreligious dialogue - the (im)possibility of a Christian interpretation of Levinas' Jewish-inspired thought - a new Christian theology of Trinitarian praxis. This volume likewise includes contributions by: Roger Burggraeve, W. Wolf Diedrich, Annemie Dillen, Thomas Folens, Glen Morrison, Marianne Moyaert, Marina Riemslagh, Anya Topolski, Emilie Van Daele, Jean Vanheessen, Sophie Veulemans and Torben Wolfs. In this book Levinas is presented as an 'extra-ordinary' other who awakes into vigilance the conscience of not only the contributors, but the readers as well: one speaks and the other responds differently. (shrink)

This article is devoted to the “Orthodox intelligentsia” project by N.A. Berdyaev. The question of the possibility of its existence was raised by Berdyaev in the article “Does Freedom of Thought and Conscience Exist in Orthodoxy?” (1939), published in defense of G.P. Fedotov in the situation of his conflict with the St. Sergius Institute. The aim of the paper is to identify what ideological foundations underlie Berdyaev’s project of a new spirituality, the bearer of which should be the intelligentsia. (...) The author of the paper applies the methodology of intellectual history, which allows considering Berdyaev’s “Orthodox intelligentsia” project as a way of substantiating the creative meaning of Orthodoxy and the need to reform the church community on a different meaning of sobornost, which should include the values of Christian humanism. The article examines Berdyaev’s historiosophic arguments that allow him to affirm the spiritual and cultural significance of the phenomenon of the intelligentsia as the true bearer of humanized creative Orthodoxy. The author concludes that Berdyaev brings the idea of creativity in Christ closer to the cultural tasks of the intelligentsia and insists that an Orthodox intelligentsia is possible only through an inner spiritual reform of Orthodoxy as a religious tradition and the church as a social institution. (shrink)

This article responds to the four contributors to the book symposium on Conscience and Conviction: The Case for Civil Disobedience. Those four contributors are Thomas Hill Jr, David Lefkowitz, William Smith, and Daniel Weinstock. Hill examines the concepts of conviction and conscience ; Smith discusses conviction and then analyses the right to civil disobedience and my humanistic arguments for it ; Weinstock explores democratic challenges for civil disobedience ; and Lefkowitz assesses the merits of a legal demands-of-conviction (...) excuse for civil disobedience. This ‘Reply to Critics’ addresses them in turn. (shrink)

A comparative discussion on "Spiritual Health", as one of the most imperative health fundamentals was initiated. This concept has recently been added to the previous health constituents including physical, psychological and social aspects by the World Health Organization. The words "spiritual" and "health" for many people are two separate and independent issues, while they are inextricably linked. Spirituality in health is not material in nature but belongs to the realm of ideas that have arisen in the minds of human beings, (...) particularly ennobling ideas. Considering the important role which spiritual health plays in our overall sense of happiness and fulfillment as well as the direct connection between spiritual wellness and physical health, the perspectives adopted by Rene Descartes, as the "father of philosophy and modern Humanism" and Allameh Tabatabaee, as the "representative of Islamic philosophy" were compared in the present study. Due to his humanistic perspective, Descartes holds that spiritual health is of an abstract nature and is solely connectedwith human's conscience and intellectual insight indication of a naturalistic (materialistic) interpretation of humans,but it is not concerned with humans' desires, behavior and ultra-humanistic realm. Tabatabaee believes that spiritual health depends on humans'ultra‐naturalistic realm and meaning‐seeking nature, i.e. the acceptance of absolute reality principle (God) as the meaning of life that aside from correcting humans' insight and outlook assigns direction to his behavior and attitude. (shrink)

In showing how the bureaucratic space negatively influences the moral conscience of managers, Robert Jackall’s sociological writings have pointed up one of the darkest sides of organizations. In fact, in the business ethics literature there is much to support Jackall’s pessimistic contentions, suggesting that bureaucracy can rob individual managers of their sense of responsibility. How then can this space for individual freedom, so essential in re-establishing responsible management, be recreated? In order to answer this question, we propose to interpret (...) Jackall’s Moral Mazes ( 1988 ) from the standpoint of Blaise Pascal’s Jansenist ethics and conception of humankind. Our discussion here of Pascal’s “reason of effects,” his theory of “double thought” and his distinction between respect and esteem takes Jackall’s analysis forward and opens new lines of thought about managerial responsibility. The article concludes with some thoughts on further research in the field of business ethics arising from Pascalian anthropology or what we call here “skeptical humanism.”. (shrink)

The rediscovery of the silver-backed chevrotain, an endemic species to Vietnam, in 2019, after almost 30 years of being lost to science, is a remarkable outcome for the global conservation agenda. However, along with the happiness, there is a tremendous concern for the conservation of the species as eating wildmeat, including chevrotain, is deeply rooted in the socio-cultural values of Vietnamese. Meanwhile, conservation plans face multiple obstacles since the species has not been listed in the list of endangered, precious, and (...) rare wildlife prioritized for protection and is still classified by the IUCN as lacking data. Given the limited effectiveness of conservation measures, this essay discusses the determining roles of local actions, community cooperation, and humanistic values oriented toward eco-surplus culture in addressing the global biodiversity conservation agenda, specifically the conservation of the silver-backed chevrotain. Local actions and community cooperation for conservation can be actualized to achieve conservation goals through citizen and community sciences, integration of modern technologies (e.g., Internet, crowdfunding platforms, social media, AI, etc.), and the bonding capability of humanistic values that prioritize environmental healing. Communicating conservation information to the community, especially the children, has to stimulate their thinking and imagination about nature, develop their curiosity and desire to protect wildlife, and eventually build eco-surplus core values in their mindsets. To successfully awaken the humanistic values within the community and incorporate them into conservation endeavors, the conservation message with the name “mouse-deer”, “chevrotain”, or scientific name (Tragulus versicolor) is largely insufficient as they show an unfamiliar feeling. Therefore, we suggest calling the mouse-deer “cheo cheo”, a local name that can create familiarity and closeness, awaken the environmental conscience and humanistic values, and stimulate thinking and imagination. All these factors are essential for conservationists, scientists, and the government to support the community in building the eco-surplus culture. (shrink)

Penser l'humanisme comme fondement philosophique et éthique du vivre ensemble constitue un choix engagé pour le devoir d'humanité. A l'heure des intégrismes, des replis identitaires, des sectarismes et de la haine de soi et de l'autre, l'engagement signifie d'abord et avant tout penser que la dignité humaine ne peut faire l'objet d'aucune forme de confiscation identitaire, culturelle, religieuse, politique et idéologique. Le respect de la vie et la promotion de la dignité humaine sont des valeurs fondatrices de l'éthique de l'humanisme (...) universel, dont la gouvernante politique est la démocratie. C'est elle, la démocratie, à travers le paradigme de l'Universel qui constitue l'enjeu majeur de la civilisation du vivre ensemble rationnel fondé sur la reconnaissance de la citoyenneté universelle. L'épuisement de la citoyenneté représentative exige de repenser les fondations de la démocratie par l'éducation à la singularité universelle. Du Contrat social de Rousseau, en passant par le devoir d'humanité kantien, de l'éthique de la rencontre du visage de l'autre de Lévinas au penser global d'Edgar Morin, l'humanité universelle est un appel à la prise de conscience de la reconnaissance de notre appartenance à une commune humanité. Il ne saurait y avoir de dérogation à l'impératif du respect du paradigme de l'universalité de la dignité humaine comme valeur fondatrice de l'idée démocratique. C'est l'énoncé de ce principe qui constitue le fil conducteur de cet ouvrage. Défendre et préserver le vivre ensemble démocratique est la seule forme de résistance contre tous les chantres et les agitateurs de la négation de la dignité humaine, de la liberté et de la fraternité universelle. (shrink)

Souvent, la science est associée à l'idée de progrès et d'émancipation des peuples. Il en fut ainsi au temps des Lumières, puis sous la Révolution française. Elle est parfois aussi contestée en raison même du progrès et de ses conséquences: destruction de la nature, productivisme à outrance... Les scientifiques sont alors considérés comme indifférents aux valeurs humanistes, acteurs d'une " science sans conscience " au service des pires projets, totalitaires, racistes, brutalement colonisateurs. A quelles conditions la science peut-elle aujourd'hui (...) avancer et faire avancer l'homme? Faut-il généraliser le principe de précaution? Dans un monde où la science est financée, organisée ou stimulée d'une part par la puissance publique et d'autre part par le marché, qui décide in fine? Comment faire vivre le lien entre liberté des scientifiques et progrès social? Quels sont les rapports entre démocratie et science? Et, si la science a encore un avenir, quel est-il? (shrink)

The contemporary world is witness to an intense, sometimes violent controversy about secularism. These trends have been exacerbated by the emergence of fundamentalism, which challenges the secular society and the secularization of philosophical ideas and ethical values. Paul Kurtz has been personally involved in the campaign for secularism throughout his career as a philosopher. This book reflects his participation in this battle and extends his thinking to new areas. Secularists maintain that the state should not impose a religious creed on (...) its citizens and that it should respect freedom of conscience, the right to believe or disbelieve in the prevailing orthodoxy. This right is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Rights of Man enunciated in the French Revolution. Many powerful religious institutions including Islam, Hinduism, Protestant Fundamentalism, conservative Roman Catholicism or Orthodox Judaism, and others do not accept this principle. And many totalitarian countries that claim to be secular nevertheless seek to impose a kind of doctrinaire ideological uniformity, often equivalent to a religious creed. Kurtz is perhaps best known for his Humanist Manifesto II. Here he takes it to a new level, arguing that secularism today needs to be allied to the emergence of democratic institutions that respect individual freedom andthe pluralistic society. He argues that a defense of secularism entails a defense of the civic virtues of democracy, which include the toleration of dissent and alternative lifestyles and the willingness to negotiate differences.Naturally how this develops is relative to the socio-cultural context in which it emerges. Consequently, secularism will take different forms in different societies, and the term multi-secularism best describes that. Many people believe that it is impossible to maintain a moral order without the support of religion. Kurtz vigorously denies that, and this volume attempts to explicate the values and principles of secular morality, which he sees as the cornerstone of the open democratic society. (shrink)

This is a critical study of the philosophies of Jan Patocka and Vaclav Havel, as leading to, and flowing from, Charter 77. In part one, Patocka's philosophy is presented as between Platonic-humanistic and Heideggerian poles. In his Heideggerian moments, Patocka looked for a way to transcend productionist metaphysics and return to unspecified authenticity. In his Platonic-humanistic moments, Patocka found authenticity in "care for the soul" and "life in truth," the practice of the Socratic method. For these basic human (...) rights, the necessary preconditions for life in truth, Patocka chose to write Charter 77 and eventually to sacrifice himself. ;In part two, I examine the influence of Patocka on the philosophy of his fellow Charterist, the dissident Vaclav Havel, who attempted to apply Patocka's thought to the situation in post-totalitarian societies. ;In part three, I examine to what extent did president Havel adapt or change his positions through the practice of his new responsibilities, and confrontation between his conscience directed consciousness with Czechoslovak being. (shrink)

Spiritualist ethics: The problem of evil, by L. Lavelle. On conscience, or On the pain of having-done-it, by V. Jankélévitch. Value and immortality; and, Dangerous situation of ethical values, by G. Marcel. The concept of fallibility, by P. Ricoeur.--Axiological ethics: Ethics and metaphysics, by R. Le Senne. Good and evil, by H. Reiner. Values and truths, by R. Polin. Values as principles of action, by G. Gusdorf.--Three contemporary conceptions of humanism: Jean-Paul Sartre: Sartre on humanism, by J. J. Kockelmans. (...) Moral perspectives in Sartre's thought, by F. Jeanson. Ambiguity, by S. de Beauvoir. Albert Camus: Albert Camus and the ethic of absurdity, by H. Hochberg. On humanism, by M. Heidegger. Existentialism's basic ethical position, by O. Bollnow.--Situation ethics: Systematic essentialist ethics and existential situation ethics, by T. Steinbüchel. The question of the Single One, by M. Buber. What is a Christian ethic? By D. Bonhoeffer. Meaning and analysis of the borderline situation, by H. Thielicke. (shrink)

Contemporary bio-ethics shares with the ancient tradition of natural theology the characteristic of assuming, in the face of the advances of a fundamentally materialist science, an opportunistic function, which is that of the adaptive rescue of spiritual values. Bioethical humanism exists only in the process of this perpetual movement of repossession, and its effort, established to this effect, leads back incoherently to the interminable dualistic confrontation between science and conscience, having failed to take upon itself the task of constructing (...) a rationally-informed thinking on the relationships between the order of development of positive knowledge and the order of development of moral feelings, both in human evolution and in the history of societies. These matters hardly concern today's fashionable philosophers, whose dominant preoccupation seems to be to find a still-unfilled job - something between an esoteric magus and a preacher in vogue - on the great stage of the inessential upon which inconsequential thought is exhibited. (shrink)

En 1534, le grand chancelier d'Angleterre, sir Thomas More, refuse de prêter serment à l'Acte de Suprématie par lequel Henri VIII d'Angleterre, s'opposant à l'Eglise de Rome, se proclame chef de l'Eglise anglicane. Condamné par le tribunal royal à la décapitation publique, Thomas More demeure pourtant fidèle : fidèle au roi, fidèle à la foi, et fidèle à sa conscience au prix de sa vie. En effet, s'il ne reconnaît pas le roi comme chef de l'Eglise nationale, il n'a (...) jamais remis en cause son autorité temporelle. Sir Thomas More, humaniste, juriste, théologien, diplomate, homme d'Etat et finalement martyr, est devenu un modèle pour ceux qui se dévouent au bien commun. L'Europe troublée du XVIe siècle n'est pas sans rappeler notre époque soumise à la difficile gestion des affaires publiques, aux scandales financiers et à l'avidité de quelques puissants. Ce livre, qui présente la vie de Thomas More et les valeurs fondatrices de son action, peut nous aider à trouver de nouveaux repères pour devenir ferment dans la pâte du monde. Le lecteur saisira alors toute la vérité des paroles adressées par l'humaniste anglais Roger Ascham à la petite- fille de More : "Par cet homme seul, c'est toute l'Angleterre qui s'est trouvée anoblie.". (shrink)

Humankind evolved through three psychological stages - subconscience, conscience and supraconscience. Ritual and myth, cosmology and theism marked phases of psychic integration, initiating our supraconscience evolution. Secular and humanistic developments reveal themselves to be the primary powers accelerating human evolution. Together, they have nurtured humankind's ever-evolving supraconscience.

Le projet de Jean Piaget ne se réduit pas à son œuvre épistémologique. Il prend sa source, dès l'adolescence, dans une volonté de réconcilier la science et la foi. C'est de cette source-là, morale et humaniste, que lui vient son intérêt pour l'éducation. Sa pensée éducative se fonde sur la ferme conviction que la morale est une logique de l'action comme la logique est une morale de la pensée. Il s'ensuit qu'éducation morale et éducation intellectuelle doivent être menées de front, (...) et donc, qu'il faut éduquer la personne entière. Mais l'éducation est ambiguë par essence, selon qu'elle enferme l'enfant dans son égocentrisme intellectuel et la morale conventionnelle ou, au contraire, qu'elle stimule, par une pédagogie appropriée, sa marche vers une plus grande rationalité et une éthique personnelle. Dans de nombreux textes, Piaget explique comment l'école peut aider l'élève, citoyen de demain, à construire sa liberté intérieure, liberté de jugement autant que liberté de conscience. Humaniser l'humanité par l'éducation grâce à l'école, tel est le sens de son engagement - pendant trois décennies - à la tête du Bureau international d'éducation et à l'Unesco. (shrink)

"Aujourd'hui, toute doctrine qui se refuse à envisager les conséquences du progrès, soit qu'elle proclame ce genre de problèmes secondaires (idéologie de droite), soit qu'elle le divinise (idéal de gauche), est contre-révolutionnaire". Visionnaires, Charbonneau et Ellul rejetèrent dos à dos les voies libérales, soviétique et fascistes. Dès les années 1930, ils ouvrirent une critique du "Progrès" et du déferlement de la technique et de la puissance au détriment de la liberté. La solution : une révolution contre le nouvel absolutisme du (...) triptyque Science-Etat-Industrie ; une insurrection des consciences ; un projet de civilisation ancré dans un nouveau rapport à la nature. Ce recueil rassemble quatre textes sources de l'écologie politique, inédits pour trois d'entre eux. Contemporains de la Grande Dépression, d'Auschwitz et d'Hiroshima, ces textes incisifs offrent une clé de lecture très actuelle, humaniste et libertaire, de nos sociétés contemporaines, productivistes, consuméristes et techniciennes. (shrink)

In this paper, the ethics of otherness of Emmanuel Levinas, for whom the nudity of the Face (visage) is never a matter of style but moral conscience, encounters the theory of (cultural) dialogical action, foundation for Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed and its denunciation-enunciation of dehumanization and oppression. For both authors, violence gets the meaning of possession, way throughout an entity, although existing, is partially negated. Such partiality, when negating the independence of the entity, states oppression, as it (...) negates the oppressed vocation to be more. Oppression kills life. Whereas, it is through the conscience of such condition of beingfor-other that the proper possibility of humanity can be thought, because the relation to the other or to the collective is our relation, irreducible to understanding. To recognize such subversion, therefore, is to recognize that as the oppressed free themselves, they avoid to get back to an oppressive regime. In doing so, they free their prior oppressors, they inaugurate love. Is it not to assume, in essence, that ethics is a construction of sense of life since the encounter with the Other? KEY WORDS – Humanism. Freedom. Ethics of otherness. Pedagogy of the oppressed. Social transformation. (shrink)

Essays in radical empiricism: Does "consciousness" exist? A world of pure experience. The thing and its relations. How two minds can know one thing. The place of affectional facts in a world of pure experience. The experience of activity. The essence of humanism. La notion de conscience.--A pluralistic universe: The types of philosophic thinking. Monistic idealism. Hegel and his method. Concerning Fechner. The compounding of consciousness. Bergson and the critique of intellectualism. The continuity of experience. Conclusions. Notes. Appendix: On (...) the notion of reality as changing. (shrink)

La crise contemporaine des valeurs crée un vide éthique dans un contexte-mêlé, dénué des valeurs et repères transcendants. Notre ouvrage est une réflexion sur la fondation d'une nouvelle humanité dans ce contexte de mise en demeure. L'humanisme valadiérien atteste que le modelage de la physionomie de nos sociétés modernes et l'avènement d'un monde plus humain se feront par un humanisme nouveau. Cet humanisme se définit par le respect de la personne humaine et de ses droits, l'amour du prochain, la (...) class='Hi'>conscience, l'égalité et la prise en compte de la vulnérabilité de l'altérité. Toutefois, l'humanisme valadiérien présente des déficits qui font penser à l'humanisme universaliste progressiste qui cadre avec notre contexte sociétal actuel en affirmant l'égalité de tous les êtres humains au-delà des cultures et des aires géographiques. L'humanisme universaliste progressiste est un héritage du père latino-américain Marsilo Ficino, une grande figure de la Renaissance italienne. L'humanisme universaliste décentre l'homme du cosmos en le plaçant au début et à la fin de toutes les entreprises humaines. Il s'emploie à créer une communauté de destin de l'humanité : cadre pratique des valeurs référentielles, de dialogue interculturel et de solidarité transmondiale. Son intégration holistique dans la mondialisation néo-libérale garantira la valorisation de l'humain universel et la reliance homme/nature. Pour son effectivité, il a recours à la pensée élargie, aux hommes de pensée de tous bords et aux médias. (shrink)

This volume brings together a collection of essays that explore in a new way how unacknowledged moral concerns are integral to debates in the philosophy of mind.The radical suggestion of the book is that we can make sense of the internal dynamics and cultural significance of these debates only when we understand the moral forces that shape them. Drawing inspiration from a variety of traditions including Wittgenstein, Lacan, phenomenology and analytic philosophy, the authors address a wide range of topics including (...) the mind/body-problem, the problem of other minds, subjectivity and objectivity, the debates on mindreading, naturalism, reductive physicalism, representationalism and the ‘E-turn’; Dennett’s heterophenomenology, McDowell’s neo-Kantianism, Wittgenstein’s ‘private language’ considerations and his notion of an ‘attitude towards a soul’; repression, love, conscience, the difficulties of self-understanding, and the methods and aims of philosophy. Through a combination of detailed, immanent criticism and bold constructive work, the authors move the discussion to a new level, beyond humanistic or conservative critiques of naturalism and scientism. (shrink)

What the philosophy of medicine is -- Philosophy of medicine: should it be teleologically or socially construed? -- The internal morality of clinical medicine: a paradigm for the ethics of the helping and healing professions -- Humanistic basis of professional ethics -- The commodification of medical and health care: the moral consequences of a paradigm shift from a professional to a market ethic -- Medicine today: its identity, its role, and the role of physicians -- From medical ethics to (...) a moral philosophy of the professions -- Moral choice, the good of the patient, and the patient's good -- The four principles and the doctor-patient relationship: the need for a better linkage -- Patient and physician autonomy: conflicting rights and obligations in the physician-patient relationship -- Character, virtue, and self-interest in the ethics of the professions -- Toward a virtue-based normative ethics for the health professions -- The physician's conscience, conscience clauses, and religious belief: a Catholic perspective -- The most humane of the sciences, the most scientific of the humanities -- The humanities in medical education: entering the post-evangelical era -- Agape and ethics: some reflections on medical morals from a catholic christian perspective -- Bioethics at century's turn: can normative ethics be retrieved? -- Hippocratic tradition -- Toward an expanded medical ethics: the Hippocratic ethic revisited -- Medical ethics: entering the post-Hippocratic era. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Hume's Knave and the Interests of JusticeJason Baldwin, doctoral student in philosophyHume's account of the artificial virtues of justice and promise-keeping developed in Book III, Part ii of the Treatise is among the most provocative elements of his ethics. His goal there is to tell a naturalistic story of the origin and moral standing of these virtues, a story that makes no appeal to any irreducibly moral motives or (...) properties but instead grounds even our most basic and apparently binding obligations in the same thoroughly human passions and sentiments with which Hume explains all our actions. Several modern critics, including David Gauthier and Stephen Darwall, have claimed that Hume's story of the artificial virtues is inconsistent with his account of natural human motivations, and have further claimed that Hume himself became aware of this problem in the second Enquiry, where he discussed it in the famous "sensible knave" passage in the last paragraphs of the "Conclusion." They therefore claim that Hume abandoned in the Enquiry what is usually taken to be his official Treatise account of justice and promise-keeping, and may also have intended a different account in the Treatise itself.This paper argues that the sensible knave passage neither signals nor requires any significant change in Hume's official Treatise story of the artificial virtues. Part 1 summarizes this official account, Part 2 explains the challenge Gauthier and Darwall believe the sensible knave poses to this account, and Part 3 defends the standard Humean account from this challenge. Whatever other problems Hume's account of justice and promise-keeping may have, the free rider problem, as developed by Gauthier and Darwall through the character of the sensible knave, is not among them.1. The Interest Account of Artificial Virtues1.1 Hume's Predecessor TraditionsHume makes few explicit references to the English-speaking predecessors whose work informs his thinking about the artificial virtues, and I shall follow his example. [End Page 277] But without pretending to survey that rich and varied history, we may usefully think of Hume's approach to justice and its allied virtues as an attempt to preserve the strengths of two opposed predecessor traditions.1 The first tradition, represented most prominently by Hobbes but also by Mandeville, explains the origin of virtues generally, including Humean artificial virtues, in purely naturalistic terms, without any appeal to divinely ordained ends or observer-independent moral facts. Hume shares this humanistic aspiration, but he disavows the cynical skepticism and crude egoism which are usually taken to accompany it. He wants to tell a story about justice which will allow us to admire its genuine moral worth even as we acknowledge its human pedigree.The second tradition, a reaction to the first, is the moral sense school represented by Shaftesbury, Butler, and especially Hutcheson. This tradition insists, against the cynical egoists, on a moral reality to which our sentiments or consciences give us immediate access, an access secured by God's design. Also characteristic of the moral sense theorists is the claim that human nature contains benevolent motives which are the objects of the moral sense's approval and which are just as basic to our constitution as are selfish motives. Hume avails himself of both moral sense strands, albeit in attenuated form. He agrees that justice and injustice are known by the sentiments, and he also believes that benevolent first-order motives are a part of human nature. But Hume rejects the moral sense tradition's Christian teleology, and he is also less optimistic about the potential of benevolence to explain such complex moral behaviors as are involved in our institutions of justice and promise-keeping.Hume's standard Treatise story of the origin of justice and promise-keeping, which we may call the "interest account," has two stages. In the first stage, Hume explains how the practices which constitute justice and promise-keeping arise through the working of our natural interests; in this stage Hume might be seen as working in the broadly naturalistic-egoist tradition. In the second stage, Hume explains how these practices and the motives which underlie them become the objects of moral evaluation, i.e., why... (shrink)