Zusammenfassung In diesem Aufsatz wird erstens der Frage nach den gesellschaftlichen Umgangsweisen von europäischen Gesellschaften der Neuzeit mit religiös gerahmter, weiblicher Nahrungsabstinenz nachgegangen. Zweitens werden Überlegungen dahingehend angestellt, welche Bedingungen und Faktoren für die Persistenz dieser relativ marginalisierten Praxis im untersuchten Zeitraum ausgemacht werden können. Dabei wird in der Argumentation für einen wissensgeschichtlichen Ansatz plädiert. Mit diesem Instrumentarium können u. a. auch hybride Erklärungsweisen der historischen Akteure rekonstruiert werden, die nicht einfach den Kategorien „natürlich“ bzw. „übernatürlich“ zugeordnet werden können. Der (...) Gegenstand der Fallstudie sind nahrungsabstinente Katholikinnen Westeuropas im Zeitraum von 1780 bis 1980. Nahrungsabstinenz hat dabei auf der objektsprachlichen Ebene sowohl die Bedeutung von Nicht-essen können oder wollen bis hin zur völligen Abwesenheit des Bedürfnisses nach „irdischer“ Nahrung. (shrink)

Moral distress is a phenomenon of increasing concern in nursing practice, education and research. Previous research has suggested that moral distress is associated with perceptions of ethical climate, which has implications for nursing practice and patient outcomes. In this study, a randomly selected sample of registered nurses was surveyed using Corley’s Moral Distress Scale and Olson’s Hospital Ethical Climate Survey (HECS). The registered nurses reported moderate levels of moral distress intensity. Moral distress intensity and frequency were found to be inversely (...) correlated with perceptions of ethical climate. Each of the HECS factors (peers, patients, managers, hospitals and physicians) was found to be significantly correlated with moral distress. Based on these findings, we highlight insights for practice and future research that are needed to enhance the development of strategies aimed at improving the ethical climate of nurses’ workplaces for the benefit of both nurses and patients. (shrink)

L’itinéraire de Jeanne Kœhler-Lumière l’a conduite de la philanthropie à la collaboration avec les pouvoirs publics pour la réalisation d’une politique sociale à Lyon après la Première Guerre mondiale. Fille et sœur d’industriels, elle participe aux œuvres mises en place pour le personnel de l’usine familiale, puis élargit son action en faveur de l’enfance à l’échelle de la ville. Cependant, l’ancrage de la famille Lumière dans le camp de la République laïque isole Jeanne Kœhler-Lumière des milieux traditionnels de la philanthropie (...) conservatrice et catholique. La guerre constitue un tournant durant lequel elle s’engage dans les services de santé, travaillant avec des sommités du monde médical lyonnais. Son expérience et sa notabilité lui valent dans les années 1920 d’être sollicitée par la municipalité radicale en quête de compétences pour impulser une politique sociale. Dame d’œuvres puis ambassadrice du social, Jeanne Kœhler-Lumière illustre une forme originale de participation des femmes à la vie politique. (shrink)

Religious actors are often called to take an active part in initiatives promotedby European Institutions because of their potential to prevent conflict and ease socialtensions that can arise among people of different religions. Member States are called tosupport a sustained, open and transparent dialogue with the different religions communitiesas a tool for peacekeeping and promoting social cohesion in Europe and at its borders.The role of local authorities is crucial in this process; virtuous cases are the Italianmunicipalities of Novellara and Reggio (...) Emilia, whose abilities to value the presence ofSikh and Hindu communities in their territories led to the publication of a Handbook forLocal Authorities, titled “Valuing religious communities as key actors of social cohesion”,with the patronage of the Council of Europe: an example of how local best practices caninfluence European principles from the bottom up. The paper aims to explore in detail thedifferent ways in which these religious actors and local governments collaborate and cooperate:the enhancement of places of worship, the promotion of interfaith dialogue andthe shared participation in religious festivities. These are policy strategies aimed towardsa collective education for plural and inclusive citizenship. (shrink)

This paper, conceptually mainly informed by Michel Foucault’s notion of morality, ethics, and ethical practice, illustrates the power program and the moral codes which currently govern the professional field of the arts. Building on empirical material from the field of theatre, the paper discusses how the moral codes and subject ideals that are promoted through the ‘culturepreneurial’ program affect and shape the subjectivity of artists and their specific modes of organizing ethical relations to self and others (Foucault 1984, 1986). The (...) insights of the study emphasize that subjectification presents a dynamic and precarious process. Discursively promoted moral codes are used by the artists in a variety of ways; they are accepted, undermined, and re-created. While doing so, artistic professionals contribute to both their own subjection and in-subordination. (shrink)

Most people do their utmost to avoid any and every type of suffering; yet, as this experience-based article shows, Newman, early in life, came to realize from his own illnesses that physical suffering can bring the sufferer to an awareness of the presence of God and so be an important part of personal spiritual development.

„On 23rd February 2022, when the editors had worked out topical issues of dispute relating to politics, ethics, technology and religion for a Hans Jonas Centre conference on responsibility for the future and discourse ethics, it was suddenly foreseeable that Russia would invade the core area of Ukraine the next night. We immediately informed our Ukrainian colleagues that we would allow them asylum, if desired, and invite them to the conference in Bad Kissingen as keynote speakers. In no time at (...) all, the new programme for the confer-ence was ready: After commemorating Hans Jonas' honorary doctorate in Berlin under the motto ‘Fatalism would be a mortal sin’ exactly 30 years ago, we now focus on ‘Discourse despite war’. After that, we discuss digitalisation as well as theology, philosophy and commitment". With contributions by Prof. Dr. Claus Altmayer; Harald Asel, M.A.; Dorothee Bär, MdB; Dr. Thomas Bausch; Prof. Dr. Dietrich Böhler; Prof. Dr. Michael Bongardt; Wolfgang Freese; Bernadette Herrmann, M.A.; Sebastian Höpfl; Bischof em. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang Huber; Dr. Grigori Katsakoulis; Pfarrer Wolfgang Klein; Wolfgang Korb; Dr. Lena Kornyeyeva; Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Klaus Leisinger; Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Hans Lenk; Prof. Dr. Ulf Liedke; Prof. Dr. Alfons Matheis; Dr. Olaf Meyer; Dr. Jürgen Naeher-Zeiffer; Stephanie von Dallwitz; Dr. Marianne Rabe; Dr. Manuela Rottmann, MdB; PD Dr. Dr. Thomas Rusche; Prof. Dr. Johann Michael Schmidt; Dr. Eva-Maria Schwickert; Maritta Strasser, M.A.; OB Dr. Dirk Vogel and Prof. Dr. Anatoliy Yermolenko. (shrink)

Bernadette M Tobin; Development in Virtues, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 20, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 201–214, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9.

Bernadette M Tobin; An Aristotelian Theory of Moral Development, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 23, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 195–211, https://doi.

Approaches to business ethics can be roughly divided into two streams: ‹codes of behavior’ and ‹forms of subjectification’, with code-oriented approaches clearly dominating the field. Through an elaboration of poststructuralist approaches to moral philosophy, this paper questions the emphasis on codes of behaviour and, thus, the conceptions of the moral and responsible subject that are inherent in rule-based approaches. As a consequence of this critique, the concept of a practice-based ‹ethics of responsiveness’ in which ethics is never final but rather (...) always ‹to come’, is investigated. In such an approach the ethical self is understood as being continuously constituted within power/knowledge relations. Following this line, we ask how one can become a responsible subject while also acknowledging certain limits of full responsibility. We thereby explore responsibility as a considered but unconditional openness in response to the other. (shrink)

Bernadette M Tobin; Richard Peters's Theory of Moral Development, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 23, Issue 1, 30 May 2006, Pages 15–27, https://doi.

All articles in May 2019’s special issue of Bioethics offer profound insights into the issue of “being a burden to others” in relation to wishes to die, which are highly relevant for ethical debates about end‐of‐life care and physician‐assisted dying. In this reply, we wish to stress the importance of acknowledging and analyzing the sociopolitical context of the phenomenon “being a burden” in relation to wishes to die and we will show how this analysis could benefit from a care ethical (...) approach. As discussions in care ethics have made clear, caring practices are both social and political practices. An empirical and ethical analysis of “being a burden” therefore needs to take institutional and societal norms and structures into account, in addition to first‐person experiences and concepts such as caring needs, relational autonomy, and interdependency. Besides the relevance of the sociopolitical context for the phenomenon “being a burden” as such, the sociopolitical context also seems relevant for the investigation of the phenomenon, which we will illustrate by reflecting on “being a burden” in relation to the practice of physician‐assisted dying in the Netherlands. (shrink)

Summary With regard to the dynamics of human experience and behavior, Gestalt theoretical psychotherapy (GTP) relies mainly on Kurt Lewin’s dynamic field theory of personality. GTP is carried out by including a re-interpretation of Lewin’s theory in some aspects of psychotherapeutic practice in relation to critical realism. Human experience and behavior are understood to be functions of the person and the environment (including the other individuals therein) in a psychic field (life space), which encompasses both of these mutually dependent factors. (...) The anthropological model of this approach is, therefore, not mono-personal but, a priori, structural and relational in nature. It does not one-sidedly focus on the “inner components” of a person, but on the interrelation of the individual and a given environment, which affects experience and behavior. After a brief introduction of these basic concepts, this lecture will focus especially on Lewin’s concept of tension-systems, which may be considered as the Gestalt theoretical counterpart of Freud’s drive theory. Further, we define the basic assumptions which underlie GTP and explain how the person moves through her/his life experience in terms of Gestalt psychology. (shrink)

This book examines how the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program, the world's largest private fellowship program in higher education, has succeeded in fostering social justice leadership over the past ten years. Top scholars from Asia Pacific, Latin America, the US, Africa, and Europe inquire into the program's development, implementation, and outcomes in their regions. They analyze the program's background, its effects on institutions, its effects on students' learning environments, and how well changes toward social justice worked. Through in-depth studies of (...) leadership, diversity, social inclusion, and social justice in regional context, this book provides a wealth of comparative information on social justice in higher education worldwide. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:ABORTION AS A SACRAMENT: MIMETIC DESIRE AND SACRIFICE IN SEXUAL POLITICS Bernadette Waterman Ward SUNY-Oswego "If men got pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament." That familiar taunt is mostly aimed at Roman Catholics to humiliate them for their purportedly religious and anti-rational opposition to abortion. It is conventional to sniffthat the "religious assumptions" on which disapproval of abortion is "typically based" are "highly questionable" (Chambers 1). But the cultural (...) theories of René Girard suggest that it is because men don't get pregnant that abortion already is a sacrament. The key elements of sacrificial religion, as Girard defines it, are the presence of intolerable tension that must lead to social disruption; the choice of a victim who cannot strike back to absorb the community's violence; and the concealment ofthe function ofthe sacrifice, which employs actual violence for the purpose of stabilizing institutional violence. Abortion in America is upheld not as medical or even political policy, but as, in fact, a religious sacrifice. Girard's definition ofreligion requires neither a moral code nor a divinity nor a metaphysical grounding. The cult of Dionysus, to name only one example, evidently endorsed nothing we would recognize as a general code of morality; Buddhism, a far more august example, does not focus on a divinity; animism proposes no universal metaphysics. As to sacraments, Bernadette Waterman Ward19 Thomas Aquinas, following St. Augustine, did not scruple to call nonChristian sacrifices sacraments oftheir religions, "Whether true or false."' Scapegoating defines religious sacrifice. It protects the sacrificing community and promotes its unity—so long as all believe that the scapegoat must suffer. Often the victim is called an enemy to some established order; sacrifice is always conservative, even if it upholds an inherently unstable system. Because powerlessness, not real disruptive power, is the criterion for becoming a scapegoat, sacrifice requires a strong shared illusion. Classical religions provide unopposable gods to choose the tragically necessary victims, allowing strong ambivalence to surround the sacrifice itself. Ifthis is not present, the death or banishment takes on a different character—more political than religious, though Girard notes a fundamental unity between those two methods ofcontrolling mimetic violence. Mimetic violence originates in illusion surrounding a rivalry. Often there is an object involved, such as territory or wealth or political rank, but the object, which seems important, is actually irrelevant. The rivalry can continue, seeking new objects, whatever concrete acquisitions either party makes or loses. General, aimless rivalry dominates a social world of fragile, undefined selves in which anyone can be a model for imitation, and therefore anyone can be a threat to one's sense ofself. What an imitator actually seeks is to have whatever is desirable; most desirable ofall, perhaps, is the ability to know what is desirable, a mysterious quality that is constantly attributed to others; Girard calls this quality "being." From the nursery we are each other's disciples, wanting each other's toys not because of their inherent virtue so much as because someone else has seen some virtue in them. As human desire has no real single object, it has no closure; envy and revenge threaten others in a widening net of destruction. In the classic scenario, the model whose "being" has become matter for imitation finds himself in competition for the object, and attacks the rival, who returns in kind. A disciple who can rally aspire to the model's status can become a dangerous, even a deadly rival; in imagination, and sometimes in reality, they turn each other intp monsters. Yet as the desire has no single object, neither has the rage: the violence can be easily transferred to another object than one's rival. Sometimes those who are uneasy about their status in relation to one another can cement a powerful unity by focusing blame on some common target: a scapegoat. The Orwellian scenario is in fact the normal scenario: individuals caught in the maelstrom of social instability 'Summa Theologiae, 3a.61.1 31. 20Abortion as a Sacrament seek to avoid victimization by diverting the violence into blame and destruction directed, first of all, against someone else—and, if possible, against someone who cannot strike back: a sacrifice. Not all sacrificial religious... (shrink)

La notion de médiation culturelle s'est institutionnalisée dans le monde culturel et dans le monde universitaire. Son analyse concerne la situation de médiation et le système de médiations comme répertoire d'actions, ce qui engage deux dimensions: la dimension historique et la dimension politique. Il est donc nécessaire, tant dans la recherche que dans les formations, de maintenir une distance critique envers certaines conceptions mythiques de la notion.The concept of cultural mediation has become an institutionalized part of the worlds of both (...) culture and the university. Analysis of the concept covers the context of mediation and the general system of mediations, understood as a repertoire of actions. This brings into play two dimensions, historical and political. It is therefore necessary to maintain a critical distance from certain mythologizing versions of this notion, as much in research as in education and training. (shrink)

Les événements culturels internationaux constituent-ils un système symbolique indépendant des médias? Le propos de cet article s'inscrit dans une théorie générale de la trivialité, c'est-à-dire de la circulation des concepts entre la sphère de la production culturelle et celle des médias. Sans remettre en cause l'apport fondamental de Davidson à la théorie de l'événement - à savoir qu'un événement existe indépendamment de toute reconstruction ultérieure notamment par les médias - et, au contraire, en soulignant les apports d'une sémantique de l'histoire (...) pour comprendre une production culturelle, il cherche à mettre en évidence les interactions entre ces deux sphères, notamment les rôles du dispositif et du répertoire d'actions dans la pré-construction de l'information et l'incorporation de certains éléments du débat mené dans les médias par la sphère culturelle. S'il ne peut pas proposer une définition arrêtée de l'événement culturel international, en revanche, le chercheur peut observer le travail permanent de reconfiguration que couvre la catégorisation de ces événements.The international cultural events they are a symbolic system independent media? The purpose of this article is part of a general theory of triviality, that is to say, the circulation of concepts between the sphere of cultural production and the media. Without jeopardizing the fundamental contribution of Davidson's theory of the event - ie an event exists independently of any subsequent reconstruction by the media - and, instead, highlighting the contributions of the semantics history to understand cultural production, it seeks to highlight the interactions between these two spheres, including the roles of the device and directory actions in the pre-construction information and the incorporation of some elements of the debate conducted in the media by the cultural sphere. If they can not provide a conclusive definition of the international cultural event, however, the researcher can observe the work of permanent reconfiguration covers the categorization of these events. (shrink)

According to evolutionary theory, emotions are psychological mechanisms that have evolved to enhance fitness in specific situations by motivating appropriate (adaptive) behavior. Taking this perspective, a previous study examined the relationship between mood and preference for natural environments. It reported that participants’ anxiety level was associated with a preference for landscapes offering what Appleton called "refuge," while participants’ anger and cheerfulness were both associated with a preference for landscapes offering what Appleton called "prospect." We attempted to replicate these results and (...) to improve on the study by experimentally manipulating mood. Using a between-subjects design, 80 participants were instructed to self-induce one of four moods: anger, sadness, anxiety, or joy. After the mood induction, they viewed fourteen landscape photographs and recorded the seven most preferred. It was hypothesized that subjects experiencing anger or joy would prefer landscapes rich in "prospect" features, whereas participants experiencing sadness or anxiety would prefer landscapes rich in "refuge" features. In contrast to the previous study, the predictions were not supported: artificially induced moods may not provide ecological validity as a test of the "mood as motivator" model; alternatively, the first study may have reported an alpha error. To see whether the model has practical value, we recommend a study of landscape preference using participants with clinically significant levels of mood dysphoria. (shrink)