Empathy is a fundamental concept in health care and nursing. In academic literature, it has been primarily defined as a personal ability, act or experience. The relational dimensions of empathy have received far less attention. In our view, individualistic conceptualizations are restricted and do not adequately reflect the practice of empathy in daily care. We argue that a relational conceptualization of empathy contributes to a more realistic, nuanced and deeper understanding of the functions and limitations of empathy in professional care (...) practices. In this article, we explore the relational aspects of empathy, drawing on sources that offer a relational approach, such as the field of care ethics, the phenomenology of Edith Stein and qualitative research into interpersonal and interactive empathy. We analyse the relational aspects of three prevalent components of empathy definitions: the underlying ability or act (i.e. the cognitive, affective and perception abilities that enable empathy); the resulting experience (i.e. empathic understanding and affective responsivity) and the expression of this experience (i.e. empathic expression). Ultimately, we propose four inter‐related understandings of empathy: (a) A co‐creative practice based on the abilities and activities of both the empathizer and the empathee; (b) A fundamentally other‐oriented experience; (c) A dynamic, interactive process in which empathizer and empathee influence each other's experiences; (d) A quality of relationships. (shrink)

Este artículo trata de la posmodernidad como estilo cultural que influye, desde todos los espacios sociales, en el individuo. Analizada como límite extremado de la modernidad, la posmodernidad se ha descrito como la base teórica de la revolución de las tecnologías que han modificado el mundo radicalmente en los últimos veinte años. La economía sigue ocupando un lugar fundamental en esta nueva sociedad, como en todas las anteriores. Pero, ahora el consumo se ha convertido en la variable más importante, y (...) condiciona la vida de los individuos afectando a su propia identidad.This article treats of the postmodern era as cultural style that influences, from all the social spaces, the individual. Analyzed as extreme limit of the modernity, the postmodern era has been described as the theoretical base of the revolution of the technologies that have modified the world radically in the last twenty years. The economy continues occupying a fundamental place in this new society, ,like in all the previous ones. But, now the consumption has turned into the most important variable, and determines the life of the individuals concerning his own identity. (shrink)

Cesario's analysis has three key flaws. First, the focus on whether an effect is “real” overlooks the importance of theory testing. Second, obsession with effects sidelines theoretically informed questions about when and why an effect may arise. Third, failure to take stock of cultural and historical context strips findings of meaning.

Starting from the Friday woman lead prayer held in 2005 in New York, I focus in this paper on the role Muslim contemporary women play in shaping Muslim societies and communities to assert their authoritative role “in the mosque”. I begin by setting the scene of the event and, after a brief discussion of its symbolic meaning, I address two main questions: first, how the debate which followed the event contributed and contributes to promote a change inside the Muslim world (...) and outside it, letting emerge some leading figures in the struggle for justice and equity in contemporary Islam; and second which are the theological and legal basis for the role of woman as imāma. Although the issue of women leadership in prayer is far from finding a unanimous consent, the debate demonstrates that some issues can and must be discussed, and that a change is possible only when Muslim women question the male elite power. (shrink)

If one of the most important aims of education on military ethics is to strengthen moral competence, we argue that it is important to base ethics education on virtue ethics, the Socratic attitude and the process of ?living learning?. This article illustrates this position by means of the example of a ?train the trainer? course on military ethics for Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs), which is developed at the Netherlands Defence Academy, and uses a number of examples both from its structure and (...) from experiences from its actual use. (shrink)

In the current era, building more innovative teams is key to organizational success, yet there is little consensus on how best to achieve this. Common wisdom suggests that positive reinforcement through shared positive rewards builds social support within teams, and in turn facilitates innovation. Research on basic group processes, cultural rituals, and the evolution of pro-group behavior has, however, revealed that sharing adverse experiences is an alternative path to promoting group bonding. Here, we examined whether sharing an adverse experience not (...) only builds social support within teams, but also in turn enhances creativity within novel teams. Drawing on behavioral observation of an experimental group interaction we find evidence that sharing an adverse (vs. non-adverse) experience leads to increased supportive interactions between team members and this in turn boosts creativity within a novel team. These effects were robust across different indicators of creativity: objective measures of creativity, third party ratings of the creativity of group products, and participants’ own perceptions of group creativity. Our findings offer a new perspective from which to understand how best to boost innovation and creative output within teams. (shrink)

To explore whether market reforms in a health care system affect medical professional ethics of hospital-based specialists on the one hand and physicians in independent practices on the other. Qualitative interviews with 27 surgeons and 28 general practitioners in The Netherlands, held 2–3 years after a major overhaul of the Dutch health care system involving several market reforms. Surgeons now regularly advertise their work (while this was forbidden in the past) and pay more attention to patients with relatively minor afflictions, (...) thus deviating from codes of ethics that oblige physicians to treat each other as brothers and to treat patients according to medical need. Dutch GPs have abandoned their traditional reticence and their fear of medicalization. They now seem to treat more in accordance with patients’ preferences and less in accordance with medical need. Market reforms do affect medical professional principles, and it is doubtful whether these changes were intended when Dutch policy makers decided to introduce market elements in the health care system. Policy makers in other countries considering similar reforms should pay attention to these results. (shrink)

Throughout the years, care ethicists have raised concerns that prevalent definitions of empathy fail to adequately address the problem of otherness. They have proposed alternative conceptualizations of empathy that aim to acknowledge individual differences, help to extend care beyond one’s inner circle, and develop a critical awareness of biases and prejudices. We explore three such alternatives: Noddings’ concept of engrossment, Meyers’ account of broad empathy, and Baart’s concept of perspective-shifting. Based on these accounts, we explain that care ethics promotes a (...) conceptualization of empathy that is radical in its commitment to engage otherness and that is characterized by being: (1) receptive and open, (2) broad and deep in scope, (3) relational and interactive, (4) mature and multifaceted, (5) critical and reflective, (6) disruptive and transformative. This type of empathy is both demanding and rewarding, as it may inspire health professionals to rethink empathy, its challenges, and its contribution to good care and as it may enrich empathy education and professional empathy practices in health care. (shrink)

The intrinsic dialectic in Gabriel Marcel’s thought seems to be describable in terms of alteration and doubling. That dialectic arises from the experience of wonder and of emotion; it articulates itself within a doubled consciousness which is both exclamative and interrogative. This consciousness perpetuates the original moment of alteration and doubling in the pairs characterizing Marcel’s speculative proposal: being-having, mystery-problem, transcendence-immanence, infinite-finite.

The article attempts to raise a question and give an answer to it regarding the evaluation of the philosophical creativity of Hermann Cohen, the German-Jewish thinker of the late XIX - early XX century. Moreover, following the philosophical style of Cohen himself, the question posed and discussed in the article is not idle, but it contains a hypothesis that forms our answer in a certain way. It is important to identify the difficulties and intellectual determinants that prevent the formation of (...) a clear and unambiguous answer. At the same time these difficulties contain an initiating moment for opening a philosophical debate. The historical and philosophical reasons that make the very beginning of the discussion of the question more complex, are considered. The article, of course, cannot claim to be an exhaustive answer on such a fundamental topic, which is contained in the designated question. But the article itself, and the articles following it in the section devoted to the work of Herman Cohen, may be indicate that the time for this discussion has come. (shrink)

La guérison prouve-t-elle l’effectivité d’une théorie médicale ? Après avoir suivi un traitement médical, suffit-il d’« aller mieux » pour conclure que le médicament a été efficace ? En posant un regard épistémologique sur l’histoire de la cure à distance des blessures par l’unguentum armarium, nous analysons la manière dont la médecine philosophique des XVIe et XVIIe siècles a traité ces questions. Chez Andrea Libavius la réflexion concernant les pouvoirs de l’imagination sur le corps et sur les mécanismes naturels d’autoguérison (...) s’avère être particulièrement féconde à ce sujet. Elle souligne la différence entre les plans physiologique et fictionnel d’un traitement, tout en admettant leur complémentarité.Does the healing prove the effectiveness of a medical theory ? After completing a medical treatment, may we conclude that the remedy was effective just because we « get better » ? An epistemological approach upon the history of the magnetic treatment of wounds by the weapon salve shows how some doctors and philosophers of the 16th and the 17th centuries deal with these issues. Andrea Libavius’ reflection on the powers of imagination on the body and on the natural mechanisms of healing is particularly fruitful in this regard. It stresses the difference between the physiological and fictional plans of a treatment, while acknowledging their complementarity. (shrink)

Hermann Cohen afirma, em uma conferência, que a aversão à religião se deve à desconfiança da filosofia, uma vez que esta oferece à religião seu fundamento crítico e autoconsciência. Ele formula três postulados religiosos. O primeiro é a ideia da unicidade de Deus, como fundamento da moralidade do homem. O segundo postulado é o messianismo, como fundamento da ideia de humanidade universal. O terceiro postulado é a promoção do estudo da Wissenschaft des Judentums. Este texto enfoca três temas: a relação (...) entre a tradição monoteísta judaica e a tradição filosófica grega; a questão do humanismo; a diferença entre monoteísmo e religiões. (shrink)