Background: Advances in biomedical sciences, technologies and care practices have resulted in an increase in ethical problems and a resulting growth of difficulties encountered by health workers in their professional activity. Objective: The main objective of this study was to analyse knowledge in the ethical field and experience with and the propensity for using ethics consultations by nurses and physicians. Methods: Between March and June 2014, a cross-sectional observational study was conducted on a sample of 351 nurses and 128 physicians (...) in four central Italian hospitals. For data collection, a semi-structured questionnaire was used, consisting of 21 items divided into four sections exploring demographic and occupational characteristics, knowledge in the ethics field, experience with ethical issues and the propensity to use ethics consultation. Ethical considerations: Research ethics approval was obtained from the Italian Nurses Professional Board. Results: The results show that both nurses and physicians are faced with ethically sensitive situations. Nurses were found to have better judgement concerning their own knowledge than physicians, but more physicians were found to have a deeper level of specific training in ethics issues. The propensity to ask for ethics consultations to address ethical issues was found to be significantly associated with the degree to which ethical issues have deepened. Conclusion: The presence of a consulting service that can lead to shared choices may represent, together with basic and continuing education, a valid support for professional growth in the ethical field for both physicians and nurses. (shrink)

Sustainable investment, which integrates social, environmental and ethical issues, has grown from a niche market of individual ethical investors to embrace institutional investors resulting in £764 billion in assets under management in the UK alone [Eurosif, 2008: ‘European SRI Study 2008’ ]. Explaining this growth is complex, involving shifts in personal and collective values, reactions to corporate scandals, scientific and media pronouncements about climate change, Government initiatives, responses from financial markets and the influence of SI innovators in The City of (...) London. The article examines the influence of human agency through interviews with 14 SI champions who have variously been responsible for launching SI funds and changing investment processes and organisational structures in order to enhance SI. Interviewees were asked about their motivations and persuasive strategies, the obstacles they faced and how they overcame them as well as broader implications of SI for financial markets. The following key categories inform the results and the discussion: Values; Conservatism, Antipathy and Incredulity; Optimism and Sympathy from Insiders; The Social and Political Context; The Business Case; Organisational Constraints; Inappropriate forms of Remuneration; Short-termism; The Nature of Capitalism. Three discourses were also identified. The first is the necessity to make a business case for SI; the second is the benefits that SI can bring to the quest of overcoming short-termism; the third is a belief that for SI to have a significant influence, greater government intervention is required. (shrink)

Sustainable investment (SI), which integrates social, environmental and ethical issues, has grown from a niche market of individual ethical investors to embrace institutional investors (e.g. pension funds) resulting in £764 billion in assets under management in the UK alone [Eurosif, 2008 : ‘European SRI Study 2008’ (Eurosif, Paris)]. Explaining this growth is complex, involving shifts in personal and collective values, reactions to corporate scandals, scientific and media pronouncements about climate change, Government initiatives, responses from financial markets and the influence of (...) SI innovators in The City of London. The article examines the influence of human agency through interviews with 14 SI champions who have variously been responsible for launching SI funds and changing investment processes and organisational structures in order to enhance SI. Interviewees were asked about their motivations and persuasive strategies, the obstacles they faced and how they overcame them as well as broader implications of SI for financial markets. The following key categories inform the results and the discussion: Values; Conservatism, Antipathy and Incredulity; Optimism and Sympathy from Insiders; The Social and Political Context; The Business Case; Organisational Constraints; Inappropriate forms of Remuneration; Short-termism; The Nature of Capitalism. Three discourses were also identified. The first is the necessity to make a business case for SI; the second is the benefits that SI can bring to the quest of overcoming short-termism; the third is a belief that for SI to have a significant influence, greater government intervention is required. (shrink)

Returning genomic research results to family members raises complex questions. Genomic research on life-limiting conditions such as cancer, and research involving storage and reanalysis of data and specimens long into the future, makes these questions pressing. This author group, funded by an NIH grant, published consensus recommendations presenting a framework. This follow-up paper offers concrete guidance and tools for implementation. The group collected and analyzed relevant documents and guidance, including tools from the Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research Consortium. The authors then (...) negotiated a consensus toolkit of processes and documents. That toolkit offers sample consent and notification documents plus decision flow-charts to address return of results to family of living and deceased participants, in adult and pediatric research. Core concerns are eliciting participant preferences on sharing results with family and on choice of a representative to make decisions about sharing after participant death. (shrink)

Research on deviant organizational practices has demonstrated that normative and cognitive institutional forces contribute to making deviance acceptable. Data from a survey of 3,751 Chinese firms were applied to test the idea that a clearly articulated alternative identity is necessary if a firm is to resist the normalization of deviance. Widespread acceptance of delinquency in repaying loans was shown to make it more likely that a firm adopts that practice, but this normalization process is less likely for firms with a (...) stronger anti-deviance identity. (shrink)

En este artículo interpretamos textos neurálgicos de Husserl y Merleau-Ponty siguiendo la obra de Iribarne, principalmente Fenomenología y Literatura, articulando la diversidad de sus temas en torno a la explicitación de la intersubjetividad trascendental, sobre la cual la filósofa nunca dejó de pensar. Paralelamente a nuestros propios estudios de las relaciones intersubjetivas, la temporalidad vivida, la identidad y la diferenciación, la dialéctica entre la memoria y el olvido, la esperanza y la finitud o el sueño, continuamos pensando estos fenómenos-límite desde (...) la fenomenología genética y generativa, concebida como una investigación retrospectiva que considera esencial para la constitución tanto la relación entre actividad y pasividad como entre el yo y los otros. El estudio de estos fenómenos, relegados generalmente a la literatura, desvelará finalmente el sentido de la reflexión fenomenológica literaria en clave intersubjetiva y repercutirá en una fenomenología de la alteridad.This article interprets crucial texts of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty by following to Iribarne, mainly Phenomenology and Literature, articulating the diversity of its issues around the explication of transcendental intersubjectivity, on which she never stopped thinking. In parallel to our own studies of the inter-relationships between the lived temporality, identity and differentiation, the dialectic between memory and forgetting, hope and finitude or the dream, I continue to think about these phenomena-limit from genetic and generative phenomenology conceived as a retrospective research that considers essential to constitution both the relationship between activity and passivity as between self and other. The study of these phenomena, usually relegated to literature, will reveal the phenomenological meaning of literary reflection as central to intersubjectivity and it will have implications for a phenomenology of alterity. (shrink)

ResumenLa autora introduce al lector en la sociofenomenología de la vida cotidiana de A. Schütz desde una lectura hermenéutica de “El Quijote”. Se detiene en el análisis schütziano de las estructuras de relevancias presentes en el universo quijotesco, ilustrando con citas de la obra de Cervantes y comentarios de las mismas las diversas construcciones sociales de los mundos de la vida habitados por los diferentes personajes, principalmente por Don Quijote y Sancho. Las articulaciones de estas realidades múltiples van aclarando el (...) sentido del subuniverso quijotesco y el lugar del mismo en el seno del mundo de la vida compartido. Esas articulaciones se traducen en diferentes relaciones intersubjetivas que van reconfigurando el mundo social de don Quijote. A modo de conclusión, la autora reinterpreta la “locura” quijotesca de acuerdo con la estructura de relevancias.Palabras clavesociofenomenología, Schütz, mundo de la vida, D. QuijoteAutor initiates reader into A. Schütz´s Sociophenomenology of the daily life by means of the phenomenological hermeneutics of “The Quixot”. She focusses on the schützian analysis of the structures of relevances in the quixotic universe. The different social constructions of the lifeworlds are illustrated through Cervantes book´s quotations and comments, mainly by the D. Quixot and Sancho inhabited worlds. The articulations of these multiple realities go clarifying the sense of the quixotic subuniverse and its place in the common lifeworld´s bossom. Such articulations are translated into different intersubjetive relationships which reshape the Quixot´s social world. As a conclusion, author reinterpretes the quixotic “madness” in line with the structure of the relevances.KeywordsSociophenomenology, Schütz, Lifeworld, D. Quixot. (shrink)

RESUMENFrente a las concepciones reduccionistas de la historia de la filosofía, la filosofía hermenéutica respeta la tensión dialéctica entre la filosofía y su historia. De ahí que, en este artículo, analicemos algunas aplicaciones de la hermenéutica de Gadamer y de Ricoeur para la compresión de la historia de la filosofía y de la interpretación de textos. Ambos pensamientos subrayan la relación esencial, constante entre la filosofía y su historia; ahora bien, la hermenéutica de Gadamer tiene como objeto prioritario la apropiación (...) de la tradición a la que pertenece el intérprete, mientras que la de Ricoeur completa esta tarea con una hermenéutica de la sospecha. De ahí que Ricoeur no se limite a la relación de la filosofía con su historia e intente completarla con el psicoanálisis, el análisis del lenguaje o la crítica de las ideología. A pesar de que algunos filósofos se han propuesto deconstruir los conceptos claves de la filosofía hermenéutica, nosotros consideramos que ella nos ofrece un paradigma adecuado para la historia de la filosofía, cuyo objeto es interpretar la tradición dotándola de sentido y creando nuevos significados válidos para el presente.PALABRAS CLAVESHISTORIA – FILOSOFIA – HERMENEUTICAABSTRACTAs contrasted with the reductionist ideas in the history of philosophy, hermeneutic philosphy respects the dialectical tension between philosophy and its history. This is the reason why in this article we analyse some applications of Gadamer’s and Ricoeur’s hermeneutics in order to understand the history of philosphy and the interpetation of texts. Both ideas empahise the essential, constant relation between philosophy and its history. Now then, the prior aim of Gadamer’s hermeneutics is the appropiation of the tradition the interpreter belongs to; on the other hand, Ricoeur’s hermeneutics compeltes this task with a suspicion hermeneutics. From this, we deduce that Ricoeur doesn’t limit himself to the realtion of philosophy with its history and he tries to complete it with psycoanalysis, language analysis and the critique of ideologies. In spite of the fact that some philosophers have tried to deconstruct the key concepts of hermeneutic philosophy, we consider that it offers us a relevant paradigm for the history of philosophy, whose aim is to interpret tradition, endowing it with sense and creating new useful meanings for the present.KEYWORDSHISTORY – PHILOSOPHY – HERMENEUTICS. (shrink)

RESUMENCon ocasión del centenario del filósofo H. Marcuse, la autora reflexiona sobre el pensamiento del mismo tomando como hilo conductor su teoría estética tal y como se plasma a lo largo de su obra. la estrecha relación entre la concepción marcusiana del arte y la liberación humana es lo que hace que la comprensión de aquella resulte imprescindible para interpretar el proyecto filosófico de Marcuse. este artículo valora la paradójica propuesta de Marcuse de un arte autónomo y, a la vez, (...) transformador de la realidad y de la conciencia, con objeto de oponerse tanto al esteticismo, que amenaza con dominar al arte y a la sociedad actuales, como a la subordinación del arte a fines heterónomos.PALABRAS CLAVEMARCUSE-ESTÉTICA-TEORÍA CRÍTICA-LIBERACIÓNABSTRACTOn the occasion of H.Marcuse's centennary, the paper reviews Marcuse's writings on aesthetics. To interpret his philosophical project, it is necessary to combine his concept of art with his idea of human liberation. The paper assesses Marcuse's paradoxical claim for an autonomous art, wich transforms both reality and consciousness, that opposes aestheticism and the subordination of art to heteronomous ends.KEYWORDSMARCUSE-AESTHETICS-CRITICAL THEORY-LIBERATION. (shrink)

The perception of sensory effects generated by one’s own actions is typically attenuated compared to the same effects generated externally. However, it is unclear whether this specifically relates to self-generation. Recent studies showed that sensory attenuation mainly relies on action preparation, not actual action execution. Hence, an attenuation of sensory effects generated by another person might occur if these actions can be anticipated and thus be prepared for.Here, we compared the perceived loudness of sounds generated by one’s own actions and (...) actions of another person that either could or could not be anticipated. We found an attenuation of the perceived loudness for self- as compared to other-generated sounds. This difference was independent of whether the sound-eliciting actions of the other person could be anticipated or not. Thus, sensory attenuation seems to be specifically tied to self-generation instead of being a secondary effect of agent-independent preparation for an upcoming action. (shrink)

Data are lacking with regard to participants' perspectives on return of genetic research results to relatives, including after the participant's death. This paper reports descriptive results from 3,630 survey respondents: 464 participants in a pancreatic cancer biobank, 1,439 family registry participants, and 1,727 healthy individuals. Our findings indicate that most participants would feel obligated to share their results with blood relatives while alive and would want results to be shared with relatives after their death.

Drawing on stakeholder theory and the evolutionary approach to institutions, this paper investigates the channels through which corporate social responsibility (CSR) is developed in post-communist economies by focusing on the employee background factors that shape the employees' expectations with regard to corporate socially responsible behaviour. We identify three channels through which exogenous and endogenous CSR are developed: employees with work experience in multinational enterprises (MNEs) (leading to exogenous CSR), employees with CSR knowledge (leading to exogenous CSR) and employees with experience (...) of the socialist system (leading to endogenous CSR). Furthermore, we argue that the interactions between these channels lead to hybrid CSR in transition economies. We use a questionnaire-based survey with employees of domestic and MNEs in Romania and we conduct regression analysis. We find that employees with work experience in MNEs act as channels for exogenous CSR, while employees with experience of the socialist system act as channels for endogenous CSR. Furthermore, employees with experience of the socialist system and CSR knowledge or work experience in an MNE act as channels for hybrid CSR in transition economies. Based on our results, we put forward implications for theory, managers and policy makers. (shrink)

Drawing on stakeholder theory and the evolutionary approach to institutions, this paper investigates the channels through which corporate social responsibility (CSR) is developed in post‐communist economies by focusing on the employee background factors that shape the employees' expectations with regard to corporate socially responsible behaviour. We identify three channels through which exogenous and endogenous CSR are developed: employees with work experience in multinational enterprises (MNEs) (leading to exogenous CSR), employees with CSR knowledge (leading to exogenous CSR) and employees with experience (...) of the socialist system (leading to endogenous CSR). Furthermore, we argue that the interactions between these channels lead to hybrid CSR in transition economies. We use a questionnaire‐based survey with employees of domestic and MNEs in Romania and we conduct regression analysis. We find that employees with work experience in MNEs act as channels for exogenous CSR, while employees with experience of the socialist system act as channels for endogenous CSR. Furthermore, employees with experience of the socialist system and CSR knowledge or work experience in an MNE act as channels for hybrid CSR in transition economies. Based on our results, we put forward implications for theory, managers and policy makers. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse the presence of Pascal’s thought in the work of the Spanish writer José Jiménez Lozano (1930-2020). In fact, it could be considered that this writer is almost a kind of Pascal come alive, especially in terms of understanding and experiencing Christianity, since, for both Pascal and Jiménez Lozano, the orientation of the human soul towards God is not only a part of the essence of man but also is his most (...) definitory anthropological constituent. (shrink)