A timely call for a new ethic of journalism engagement for today's troubled media sphere, Objectively Engaged Journalism argues that media should be neither neutral nor partisan but engaged in protecting egalitarian democracy. It shows how journalists, professional or citizen, can be both objective in method and dedicated to improving a global public sphere toxic with disinformation, fake news, and extremism. Drawing from history, ethics, and current media issues, Stephen Ward rejects the ideals of neutrality and "just the facts" objectivity, (...) showing how they are based on invalid dualistic thinking with deep roots in Western culture. He presents a theory of pragmatic objectivity and applies it to journalism. Journalism's role in interpreting culture, he argues, needs a form of objectivity that embraces human strengths and limitations. Defining responsible journalism as situated, imperfect inquiry, Objectively Engaged Journalism is one of the first systematic studies of the ethical foundations of engaged journalism for a media that is increasingly perspectival and embedded in society. (shrink)

The problem of how the brain produces consciousness, subjectivity and "something it is like to be" remains one of the greatest challenges to a complete science of the natural world. While various scientists and philosophers approach the problem from their own unique perspectives and in the terms of their own respective fields, Biophysics of Consciousness: A Foundational Approach attempts a consilience across disparate disciplines to explain how it is possible that an objective brain produces subjective experience. This volume unites the (...) cr me de la cr me of physicists, neuroscientists, and psychiatrists in the attempt to understand consciousness through a foundational approach encompassing ontological, evolutionary, neurobiological, and Freudian interpretations with the focus on conscious phenomena occurring in the brain. By integrating the perspectives of these diverse disciplines with the latest research and theories on the biophysics of the brain, the book tries to explain how what John Searle calls a "conscious field" can be an adaptive and causal element in the natural world. (shrink)

This handbook is one of the first comprehensive research and teaching tools for the developing area of global media ethics. The advent of new media that is global in reach and impact has created the need for a journalism ethics that is global in principles and aims. For many scholars, teachers and journalists, the existing journalism ethics, e.g. existing codes of ethics, is too parochial and national. It fails to provide adequate normative guidance for a media that is digital, global (...) and practiced by professional and citizen. A global media ethics is being constructed to define what responsible public journalism means for a new global media era. Currently, scholars write texts and codes for global media, teach global media ethics, analyse how global issues should be covered, and gather together at conferences, round tables and meetings. However, the field lacks an authoritative handbook that presents the views of leading thinkers on the most important issues for global media ethics. This handbook is a milestone in the field, and a major contribution to media ethics. (shrink)

This article proposes an eclectic and holistic model of ethics and ethical thinking. It uses this tripart model to show how partialities can be integrated into impartial moral reasoning. Ethical reasoning is divided into three problem areas or "levels" - cases, frameworks, and ultimate ethical goals. Each level employs its own form of reasoning. For evaluating cases, the author advocates an eclectic application of principles; for evaluating frameworks of principles, the author advocates contractualism; for evaluating ethical theory as a whole, (...) the author advocates a notion of the human good inspired by Aristotelian perfectionism. This article argues that utilitarianism, which is one part of eclectic deliberation, is hampered by the idea that ethical reasoning must be based on a single moral criterion or "master" principle. The article concludes by showing how this eclectic model, supplemented by "mitigated impartialism," provides a systematic method for assessing partialities, with reference to the problem of patriotism in journalism. (shrink)

This study on the reception of Cartesianism is the result of a four-year fellowship as assistant-in-training at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Groningen. Zie: Preface.

This study investigated the perceptions and attitudes of ICU nurses towards the ‘do not resuscitate’ (DNR) decision and changes in their nursing activities after implementation of the DNR decision in South Korea. A data survey was conducted in South Korea between August and October 2008, with a convenience sample of 252 ICU nurses who had more than one year of clinical experience. The data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire. Most of the nurses perceived the necessity of the DNR decision (...) in cases where there would be no chance of patient recovery despite massive efforts. Very few of the nurses' activities changed, either passively or actively, after implementation of the DNR decision. Moreover, the findings of this research provide suggestions for the future direction of the DNR decision and ethical nursing guidelines in South Korea. Further investigations are needed for the development of decision-making skills and intervention guidelines for end-of-life nursing. (shrink)