Ethics of Responsibility

In this study, we investigate morality in relation to the public good in post-socialist Europe. Public good morality is defi ned as the (non)acceptance of behaviour that contravenes the law and harms society and the greater good of the collective, such as cheating on taxes if one has the chance, paying cash to avoid taxes, not paying one's fare in public transport, and claiming state benefi ts one is not entitled to. Using data from the European Values Study in 2008 on more than 30,000 respondents in 23 post-socialist states, we fi nd that on average the level of public good morality is quite high: 8.4 on a ten-point scale. However, there are marked diff erences between individuals and between countries, which we attempt to explain by looking at the legacy of communist rule, processes of democratization and compliance attitudes. We fi nd that individuals living in former Soviet states are more 'lenient' when it comes to actions that harm the collective. However, those who lived under communist rule for a longer time display higher (and not lower) levels of public good morality. The level of democracy in a country does not seem to add any explanatory power, but individuals who hold more democratic values appear to be morally less strict. Finally, compliance attitudes such as interpersonal trust and confi dence in government do not seem to mediate the observed relationships between communist rule and democracy on the one hand and public good morality on the other hand.

The Astroethics of Responsibility proposed here is founded on a substructure of quandary-responsibility ethics, supported by a theological notion of the common good plus a naturalistic justification for response and care. Within the sphere of the solar neighborhood ten already articulated quandaries are addressed: (1) planetary protection; (2) intrinsic value of off-Earth biospheres; (3) application of the Precautionary Principle; (4) space debris; (5) satellite surveillance; (6) weaponization of space; (7) scientific versus commercial space exploration; (8) terraforming Mars; (9) colonizing Mars; and (10) anticipating natural space threats. Within the sphere of the Milky Way Metropolis in which the galactic common good becomes the astroethical norm, engagement with intelligent extraterrestrials are analyzed within three categories: ETI (1) less intelligent than Earth’s Homo sapiens; (2) ETI equal in intelligence; and (3) ETI superior in intelligence. Superior ETI may come in both biological and postbiological forms. Our ethical mandate: respond with care.

The present article is published in Urbanities-Journal of Urban Ethnography, 13(2), November 2023. Open-access, available at: https://www.anthrojournal-urbanities.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/4-Prato.pdf
The original chapter was published as: Prato, Giuliana B., 2000, “The Cherries of the Mayor - Degrees
of Morality and Responsibility in Local Italian Administration”, in I. Pardo (ed.), Morals of Legitimacy:
Between Agency and System, Oxford: Berghahn Books, pages 57-82
(https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/PardoMorals).

Anaesthesiologists are well trained and equipped to practise a high standard of care and contribute significantly to positive perioperative outcomes. Professionalism is characterised first by expertise in the clinical skills, capabilities, knowledge and experience internal to the practice of anaesthesiology (or a sub-specialty), and the knowledge, understanding and practice of the professional duties associated with anaesthesiology. Relatively recently it has been realised that more than good training and clinical expertise are required if anaesthesiologists want to practise as true professionals. This requirement relates to personal behaviour and attitudes that can loosely be labelled as moral attributes. The article argues that these moral attributes may best be understood with reference to Aristotle's notion of virtue ethics-the idea that character and virtue are important in ethics. Though this is the central theme of the article, a more comprehensive picture is provided of what it means to be a professional.

Заклик М. Вебера до поєднання етики відповідальності та етики переконання зберігає своє кардинальне значення. Найоптимальнішим є підхід, згідно з яким у державно-політичній сфері слід орієнтуватися на максими етики переконання, однак лише тією мірою, якою вони не суперечать засадам етики відповідальності, що має відігравати роль регулятора, обмежувача та гальма свободи дій, наснажених абсолютним переконанням. Не варто також забувати, що у ставленні до соціальних питань максими етики переконання сягають корінням таких джерел, як Нагірна проповідь, що мали радикальне егалітерне забарвлення.

La responsabilité collective dans la presse « Éthique de conviction » et/ou « éthique de responsabilité » Tenants et aboutissants du concept de responsabilité collective dans le discours de trois quotidiens nationaux français "Ethics of conviction" and\or "ethics of responsibility". The ins and outs of the notion of collective responsibility in the discourse of three French national daily papers

In recent years, the Czech Republic has seen the largest changes in media ownership since the early 1990s. Most striking was the purchase of one of the largest publishing houses Mafra by the tycoon Andrej Babiš in June 2013, followed by the takeover of the Czech branch of Ringier by other Czech businessmen later that year. The first case in particular instigated immense discussion about the economic and ethical crisis facing Czech journalism since Babiš is also a powerful political figure (currently the Minister of Finance). In response, a significant number of leading, well-known journalists left media owned by big business and launched projects of quality or “slow” journalism which had until that point been merely discussed theoretically. This paper—based on the results of the Czech part of the Worlds of Journalism Study project—addresses the shift in the ways journalists perceive their roles and ethical responsibilities before and after the 2013 ownership changes. We also present...

Published in 1726, the novel Gulliver’s Travels emblematizes life’s venture marked by an endless series of trials where exposing the faults, frailties and fragility of human life, Swift’s social project seeks to offer a response to the Aristotelian scholastic philosophy of Man depicted as rational animal which is projected in his deep satirical exploration of human nature. Intended primarily as a satire of the British monarchy and Imperialism, Gulliver’s Travels shows the various shapes that corruption can take, whether it’s corruption of the thought, political, religious or scientifical emphasizing the negative effects that emerge from the individual’s distorted relationship with the state influencing his position in society. Consequently, many critics of Gulliver’s Travels have been focusing on exploring Swift’s representation of human nature revealed in Lemuel Gulliver’s naivete portrayed as a symbol of the human mind who fails to see beyond humankind’s immorality impersonated under the simulacrum of rectitude. But no comparable attention has been given toward understanding human experience’s integrality expressed in Gulliver’s moral conundrums conceived in the way the duplexity of Good and Evil, the polarity of Honesty and Dishonesty intertwine with modern transcendental philosophical perspectives about the Individual nor with how some of the most fundamental ethical questions concerning personal identity intersperse with the boundaries of human ethics and responsibility that emanates from the phenomenological universe arising from interpersonal experience. With that in mind, this thesis seeks to scrutinise human ethical dualism highlighting the pluri-perspectivism of correctness and morality doubled by the ambivalence of Truth depicted in Swift’s dystopic and utopic societies revealing Reason’s equivocation by choosing an essentially phenomenological approach.

The article takes a stance in the Weber reception which tries to see him mainly as a forerunnerof an empirical social science and a causal conception of power as in the Dahlian tradition.It will argue and confirm Raymond Aron’s take that, to the contrary, his social scienceis profoundly imbued by philosophical aims: ‘This interpretation of the relation betweenscience and politics leads to a certain philosophy which at the time was not yet called“existential[ist]”, but which belongs to this current so named today.’ Hence, rather than onlyseeing his sociology as a way to demarcate the specificity of the social investigation fromboth normative theory and the natural sciences –which it certainly did – the following articlefollows those who see his methodological and sociological decisions as part of a political andethical endeavour.

Responsibility is often defined in terms of accountability for actions based on ethical and legal norms. However, the concept is multidimensional and is relevant to many disparate disciplines. The concepts of responsibility and responsibility ethics are central to the context of disease/healthcare and the delivery psychiatric care services. The vulnerability of the patient as well as legal and institutional factors contribute to a variety of potential ethical dilemmas for caregivers. A thorough understanding the concept of responsibility and its ethical dimensions is very important to providing psychiatric care of high quality that protects patients and healthcare providers. This review examines the definition, application, and effects of the concept of responsibility and the ethics of responsibility in the practice of psychiatric nurses.

Most scientists agree that, at least for the time being, unquantified uncertainties are inevitably connected to predictions of climate models. Uncertainties, however, do not justify political inaction. This paper addresses the question of how epistemic uncertainties are of relevance for practical decision making. It is shown how common decision approaches based on the precautionary principle fail to adequately deal with uncertainties as they arise in climate modeling. I argue that with regards to climate change, unquantified uncertainties can neither be ignored in decision making nor be reduced to quantified ones by assigning subjective probabilities. This distinguishes the ethical problems associated with climate change from other problems regarding energy supply and demand like, for example, those associated with nuclear power.

The purpose of this work is to contribute to the educational process of children and young people from emotional intelligence and the consensus of universal ethical principles. A transdisciplinary approach is used that brings together three diverse but convergent sources: Goleman's proposal of the paradigm of emotional intelligence, which starts from philosophy and experimental psychology; the ethics of joint responsibility jointly developed as a complement to Karl-Otto Apel's discursive ethics, and to this is added the normative framework of international law and the United Nations, in particular, the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Finally, and taking into account the situation given by the COVID19 pandemic, some final reflections are offered on the importance and convenience of a transdisciplinary and cross-cultural proposal, which allows an understanding that starts from the local to the planetary.

Intergenerational justice not only requires the adoption of best practices and policies, but also the prevention and repression of deleterious and morally blameworthy human behaviour which have severe impacts on the long-term health, safety and means of survival of groups of individuals. While many international crimes have indirect consequences on the well-being of present and future generations, it cannot be said that existing international criminal law is currently well-placed to directly and clearly protect intergenerational rights. As such, the development of a new type of international crime, crimes against future generations, may be a promising avenue for implementing intergenerational justice. Such a crime would penalise acts or conduct that amount to serious violations of existing international law regarding economic, social and cultural rights or the environment.

The rise of new powers and attendant shifts in the global balance of power have led to calls for UN Security Council reform. Established powers have often responded by linking increased influence in the international system with the assumption of more international responsibility by aspirant powers. Based on ethical and philosophical approaches from the individual and state levels, and a case study of Brazil, this article analyses the way in which the notion of responsibility is discursively constructed, demonstrating the manner in which it has been used as an ever-shifting goalpost to deny emerging powers participation at the highest levels of global strategic decision-making. Most often, this is done by equating "responsibility" with the ability and willingness to use robust military force.

In face of the epochal and lasting changes with regard to earth’s ecosystem, among other things, both the modern understanding of an open future and the intergenerational fabric of society is put into question—and with it our understanding of education. By assessing the basic problem of any emergency pedagogy for the endangered future, this paper is pointing out that these developments will have to lead to a fundamentally different way of thinking about education. Especially in view of the urgency needed because of the limited time left to prevent the worst consequences of human impact on our habitat, it is questionable whether the time frame of education and the modern emphasis on emancipation can be fitted into that.

This agenda setting text explores a broad range of value perspectives and their impact on and contribution to social work thinking on ethics. Including new perspectives, such as Islam, and drawing on international contributors, this is essential reading for all social work students studying ethics and values.

CONTENTS
Introduction: Ethics and Value Perspectives in Social Work; M. Gray & S.A. Webb

PART I: PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES
Codes of Ethics; E. Congress
Codes of Conduct; P. Webster
Ethical Decision Making; D. McAuliffe
Ethical Dilemmas in Practice; S. Borrmann
Faith-based Practice; P. Gilligan

PART II: MORAL PERSPECTIVES
Ethic of Care; B. Featherstone
Ethic of Responsibility; S. Tascón
Discourse Ethics; S. Houston
Virtue Ethics; S.A. Webb
Postmodern Ethics; M. Gray

PART III: SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES
Anti-Racist Practice; H. Soydan
Human Rights and Social Justice; J. Ife
Anti-Oppressive Practice; L. Dominelli
Citizenship and Participation; A. Matthies

PART IV: SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVES
Islam and Ethics; T. Lovat
Christianity and Ethics; R. Whiting
New Age Ethics; D. Houtman& S. Aupers
Conclusion: Practising Values in Social Work; M. Gray& S.A. Webb.

Myanmar's civil servants have responded to the February 2021 military coup with a resistance movement that seems globally unprecedented in intensity and scale. For the ongoing debate about responsibility, disobedience, and resistance in the public sector, this is a crucial case in that it demonstrates how far civil servants can go to resist the hostile takeover of a government. This article describes the coup and its background in general and the civil disobedience movement and the Myanmar civil service in particular, and it uses Hannah Arendt's framework to place them within the theory debate.

IMPACT The question of civil service responsibility and possible disobedience is of fundamental importance for the public sector, and the more government legitimacy is publicly doubted, the more relevant it becomes. The reaction of Myanmar civil servants via a large-scale, fundamental disobedience movement is noteworthy in its own right as a real-life case of what is possible, regionally in SouthEast Asia, and globally in that it renews and sharpens the question civil servants must continuously ask themselves regarding what their responsibility vis-à-vis government and citizens actually is.

The purpose of this essay is to engage Michael Fishbane’s reflections on the meaning and task of theological ethics. Fishbane’s lecture, “Ethics and Sacred Attunement,” published in this issue of the Journal of Religion, enacts a conception of theological ethics even if it seems to be presented without explicit definition or dialectically considering alternate conceptions. One task in engaging Fishbane’s work, then, is to tease out what he might mean by “theological ethics.” Accordingly, in this essay I am attempting to engage his argument in ways that illuminate agreements and disagreements about the meaning and task of theological ethics and also indicate where further reflection is needed. On my reading, theological ethics on Fishbane’s account entails a specific kind of experience of the vitality of life that is interpreted within vectors of reflection streaming out from the biblical texts and down through the rabbinic tradition. The focus of my reflections, accord- ingly, is on the connections among ontological, hermeneutical, and theo- logical reflection within an ethics of attunement.

This article identifies the assumption of responsibility as a basic need of human beings and applies the concept specifically to older people with dementia or Alzheimer's disease. It suggests a two-level concept of responsibility, based on the approach of discourse ethicist Karl-Otto Apel, as a promising approach to recognizing human diversity while at the same time respecting people's equal rights to participate in discourse. This concept can serve as a theoretical starting point for the construction of individually adapted types of responsibility. Furthermore, the article describes practical ideas (primarily the practice of doll therapy) that can enable people with dementia or Alz-heimer's disease to assume responsibility. Direct communication and a reflective, sensitive consideration of each individual case are identified as important prerequisites for the inclusion of elderly people with dementia.

Se realizó un breve repaso al pensamiento ambientalista jonasiano, de inspiración aristotélica y kantiana, pero con novedosos aportes. El fin fue demostrar la utilidad (y actualidad) de la teleología de Hans Jonas en el desarrollo de las éticas ambientales; finalidad ésta, de especial importancia para el mundo iberoamericano debido a la aún poca difusión de su obra y a la no pérdida de vigencia. Para el efecto, presentamos los temas núcleo de su ética ambiental de manera analítica y crítica, a través de una lectura lógica especulativa de sus principales textos y de algunas interpretaciones actuales de reconocidos autores. Recorrimos desde la cuestión de la «irrupción» de las generaciones futuras en el horizonte teórico, anterior a él pero de poco desarrollo en el ámbito de la ciencia; la necesidad de una nueva ética, de carácter ambiental, a la cual desarrolló «actualizando» la propuesta kantiana; el papel de la técnica moderna (tecnología) y el poder enorme que deriva de la misma, a pesar de su ligazón al cortoplacismo; y, finalmente el teleologismo, una manera original de abordar la cuestión ambiental y que situó al autor en la frontera entre el antropocentrismo y el ecocentrismo. Como resultado, su filosofía apostó por conceder valores intrínsecos a la Naturaleza y estableció un principio de responsabilidad, el cual que resultará en un importante fuente teórica para el principio de precaución hoy tan vigente en la legislación europea y de otros países, con sus aplicaciones medioambientales y para la salud humana. Palabras clave: ética ambiental; principio de precaución; antropocentrismo débil; valores intrínsecos; ética de la responsabilidad.

This paper made a brief review of Jonasian environmental thought (that was inspired by Aristotle and Kant but with novel contributions). The aim was to demonstrate the usefulness (and actuality) of Hans Jonas's teleology in the development of environmental ethics; an important purpose for the Ibero-American world due to the still little diffusion of its work and to that it did not lose validity. For this purpose, in an analytical and critical manner, we presented the main themes of its environmental ethics, through a logical and speculative reading of its main texts and some current interpretations of recognized authors. We start from the topic of the "irruption" of future generations in the theoretical field, previous to the author, but with low development in the science; the need for a new ethic, of an environmental nature, to which he developed "updating" the Kantian proposal; the role of modern techniques and the great power that derives from it, despite its link to short-termism; and, finally, teleologism, an original way of approaching the environmental issue, that placed the author on the border between anthropocentrism and ecocentrism. As a result, his philosophy chooses to recognize intrinsic values to Nature and established an “imperative of responsibility”, which will result in an important theoretical source for the “precautionary principle”, today so current in European legislation and other countries, with its applications environmental and for human health.

For European literati of the early twentieth century, Fyodor Dostoevsky represented a mythically-Russian spirituality in contrast to a soulless, rationalized West. One such enthusiast was Georg Lukács, who in 1915 began a never-completed book about Dostoevsky's work a model of spiritual community that could redeem a fallen world. Though framing his analysis in the language and themes of broader Dostoevsky reception, Lukács used this idiom innovatively to go beyond the reactionary implications this model might connote. Highlighting similarities with Max Weber's account of political ethics, I argue that Lukács developed an ethic derived from his reading of Dostoevsky, which focused on the idea of a hero defined by an ability to resolve the specific ethical dilemma of adherence to duty and moral law on the one hand, and the need to restore spontaneous human community at a time when the social institutions embodying such laws had fallen into decay on the other. Crucially, he deployed the same framework after his conversion to Marxism to justify revolutionary terror. However different his position from Dostoevsky's, it was through engagement with these novels that Lukács not only clarified his thought but also came to identify Lenin as a Dostoevskyan hero figure.

In this review I show how Hans-Peter Schwarz, a famous German historian and biographer, analyses the policies of the European Union in the context of the refugee crisis that started in September 2015. He shows how moral claims endanger sober solutions in this ongoing political process.

This paper aspires to shed light on the correlation between partisanship and the forces that dictate the resignation of party leaders. First, we ask what kind of partisanship favors the replacement of a popular leader. Second, we ask whether a leader’s decision to resign can be dictated by concerted partisan and political pressures or it demonstrates a thoughtful decision based on loyalty to the party and the country. According to our findings, relevant data and memoirs, partisanship pressure in the form of strong intra-party opposition and allegiance to nepotism narrowed down the leaders’ organizational and policy-making options. In the end, Simitis’ exit was a calculated exercise of systemic “loyalty” to the party and an exercise of personal responsibility.

The relationship shared by the philosophy of Hans Jonas and that of Emmanuel Kant is ambiguous. On the one hand, we can say that Hans Jonas criticizes quite vigorously the Kantian conception of causality in the Phenomenon of Life and the anthropocentric dimension of his morals in das Prinzip Verantwortung but, on the other hand, we are obliged to recognize that the type of questions that Hans Jonas tackles and the way with which he answers to them are rather Kantian. Then we could say that Jonas deals with Kantian topics but, as we will see, with his own instruments. Nevertheless, to justify the rapprochement between both philosophers which gives this article its meaning, it is necessary to identify a common ground of investigation. And I think that anthropology is such a ground. Kant and Jonas both focus on what the human being can know, what he must do and what he can hope for 1 . Both authors try to fix the extent of our knowledge, to define the nature of our duty and to evaluate the possibility of the immortality from the human structure. The answers to such questions help them determine what mankind is from a radical point of view. Indeed, Kant and Jonas share a common concern for the human finitude. Both pretend, to a certain extent, to break with a metaphysical feature, that is to say, its tendency to define the human being from the perspective of a certain conception of the absolute. For them, for example, Man must not be defined from God's point of view but God from the point of view of the human subject as an Idea for Kant and as a coherent myth for Jonas . 275-281, Lories Danielle 2010 But it is also necessary to cast light on the difference between both philosophies to evaluate the originality of the Jonasian approach. I would like to propose the following hypothesis. It is because Kant does not see the true root of our finitude that Jonas criticizes him from a theoretical and practical point of view. Indeed, human finitude is due to the finitude of life according to Jonas and that is the reason why morals and epistemology have to be founded in an ontology of life that reveals its mode of being. The Jonas' critique of Kant does not mean however that we have to forget the lessons of criticism about the limits of our knowledge and the possibility to found the morals. On the contrary, it deals with the necessity to justify in a radical way our limitations thanks to an ontological thought which does not fall into dogmatism as it tries to take into account the lessons of criticism. Then Jonas'

Este trabajo es una reflexión sobre la principal obra del filósofo alemán contemporáneo, Hans Jonas. Muestra la trayectoria intelectual de Jonas hasta llegar al rescate de la ética de la responsabilidad, que Max Weber sugiere en obras de comienzos del siglo XX. El Principio Responsabilidad de Jonas es una evaluación sumamente crítica de la ciencia moderna y de su "brazo armado", la tecnología. El filósofo muestra la necesidad que el ser humano tiene de actuar con cautela y humildad frente al enorme poder transformador de la tecnociencia. PALABRAS LLAVE: Ética de la responsabilidad. Bioética -Hans Jonas. Tecnociência.

The article takes a stance in the Weber reception which tries to see him mainly as a forerunner of an empirical social science and a causal conception of power as in the Dahlian tradition. It will argue and confirm Raymond Aron’s take that, to the contrary, his social science is profoundly imbued by philosophical aims: ‘This interpretation of the relation between science and politics leads to a certain philosophy which at the time was not yet called “existential[ist]”, but which belongs to this current so named today.’ Hence, rather than only seeing his sociology as a way to demarcate the specificity of the social investigation from both normative theory and the natural sciences – which it certainly did – the following article follows those who see his methodological and sociological decisions as part of a political and ethical endeavour.

Raymond Aron acomete en este texto un repaso critico de las concepciones nacionales e imperiales de Max Weber, presentándolas como típicas de su época y de su generación, moderadas en su propósito y concisas en su formulación. Emerge de ellas, según Aron, la figura de la traición que Weber se hizo a si mismo en su teoria de la política, al escoger como valor postrero el poder del Estado nacional cuando ajamás el poder ha sido su dies)>. Esta opción errónea de Weber se fundamenta para Aron en la oposición extrema planteada entre la ética de la convicción y la ética de la responsabilidad. Aron presenta a un Weber complejo estimulado por d u e ncias daministas, nietzscheanas, económicas, nacionalistas y, paradójicamente, marxistas. (1981)