Business Ethics: A European Review, EarlyView.

This research examines the necessary condition of emotions in predicting consumer ethical decision-making, using a new multiplicative method for identifying and measuring the necessary condition in data sets—Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA). Based on a sample of over four hundred individuals, and combining three different consumption scenarios involving ethical issues, our findings demonstrate that emotions are a necessary condition for consumer ethical decisions and behaviours. In addition, the results show that higher levels of consumer ethical decisions can only be achieved if (...) happiness, gladness and satisfaction increase towards a minimum level of necessity. The findings provide empirical support for the essential role of emotions in predicting consumer ethical decision-making. Furthermore, this research identifies the emotional thresholds without which ethical choices cannot occur and then explains why individuals sometimes behave ethically but other times do not. In addition, this is a first contribution applying NCA to consumer ethics. (shrink)

After some conceptual elaboration on the topic of the Dialogue among Civilizations, this article will give some examples of UNESCO’s contribution in this domain. DAC is intrinsically bound to the questions of identity and otherness through the role culture and civilization play in composing our identity. We forge our own identity through our culture; those who share this identity are insiders, and those who do not are outsiders. Some understandings of identity conclude in a lack of appreciation for the Others’ (...) identity, which is necessary to being a genuine partner in dialogue. At one extreme personal identity is not conceived as being subject to any changes during an individual’s lifetime; while at the other extreme, post-modernism perceives a person or a social group simply as a node in a network of relations. These definitions both suffer from the lack of a historical dimension and are based on a unitary conception of identity. The solution, as the reality of history also demonstrates, comes with a pluralistic view of identity, which not only solves some theoretical issues but also forms the only framework within which the possibility of dialogue can be assured. The wonderful consequence will then be that if absolute identity does not exist, neither can absolute otherness. We should then search for the shared roots between different cultures. It was a common scientific and philosophical culture, for example, that united Avicenna in Iran with St. Thomas Aquinas in the West; a culture going back to the Greek and Hellenistic thinkers. Globality should be understood as a visionary search for the discovery of the common roots of different cultures, rather than the dominance of any one particular culture or value system. The ethnocentric concept of culture and history can then be overcome. A genuine dialogue comes with the soul’s particular willingness to “convert” itself, to expose and risk one’s own ideas and positions. It brings us the possibility of overcoming trans-cultural dissensus on whether a particular practice violates one or another human right. And as we know from Averroes, the human soul comes from a unified universal soul. Finally, there is an inter-conceptual linkage among cultural diversity, tangible and intangible cultural heritage, sustainable development, human rights and cultural rights. UNESCO, by preserving and protecting cultural heritage, safeguarding cultural diversity, and promoting dialogue among cultures and civilizations, is contributing to its axiomatic constitutional goals, namely the construction of the defenses of peace in the minds of people through moral and intellectual solidarity. (shrink)

In the course of human civilization, religion has underpinned the development of values of human respect, tolerance, peace, and the culture of peace. Unfortunately, at the same time, religion has also played the opposite role during some periods of history. Therefore, it is important to investigate how and to what extent religious faiths, or if I may say more accurately religious paradigms, have been and are ready to educate their believers in the above-mentioned value support system, and how they could (...) set about so doing. How can religion provide us with an ambiance and a paradigm within which we can create an atmosphere of dialogue among different value systems? In this brief article, I try to seek light from the teachings of the great Persian thinker and poet, Jalaluddin Mowlavi Rumi, to be able to elaborate on this topic. (shrink)

In this article, I will offer some remarks on and analysis of the epistemic approach to understanding dialogue and difference of its nature to negotiation. My conceptual deliberations on dialogue have been influenced by two contemporary European philosophers, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Karl Raimund Popper, as well as by the mystical and visionary elaborations of the Persian Islamic thinker, Jalaluddin Rumi of the thirteenth century. I will elaborate on the topics of dialogue and the arts of questioning and listening; dialogue and (...) the issue of language and being; and dialogue and its conduct. I will then address the socio-political conditions necessary for a genuine dialogue; and finally, I will briefly review UNESCO’s raison d'etre and conclude with a discussion of dialogue’s relevance to UNESCO’s mission. (shrink)

Source: Author: Marjan Khodamoradpour, Alireza Anushiravani Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has been adapted many times by different directors. However, the two prominent adaptations standing out throughout history are Jay Clayton’s 1974 adaptation as the most sincere rendering of the book, and the recently adapted movie by the Broadway director, Baz Luhrmann. The latter adaptation is important in that it has been accomplished in the age of technology, in 3D format, and at the time of the new readings, i.e. (...) cultural or new historical readings, of the novel. This paper is an endeavor to analyze the movie through John Fiske’s theory on media studies. Also, an effort has been made to see whether in this new adaptation, the idea of the new studies of the novel have been shown by the director, or else the movie is a mere representation of struggle for money discussed by the traditional Marxist scholars, metaphorically playing the old tunes. ]]>. (shrink)

L’article traite des différents rôles de l’identité dans l’enseignement de la philosophie. La première partie de l’examen se concentre sur l’identité en tant que matière à apprendre, c’est-àdire l’identité en tant que contenu des théories philosophiques enseignées à l’école. La deuxième partie traite de l’identité en tant qu’objet de recherches, ce qui a trait avant tout au quotidien des élèves et aux identités qu’ils s’assignent ou qu’on leur assigne. La troisième partie examine l’identité qui n’est pas là – une identité (...) absente, qui laisse un vide à combler. Tous ces différents aspects soulignent une nature à multiples facettes du concept d’identité ; c’est pourquoi l’un des objectifs de cet examen est d’offrir une réponse à la question de savoir si l’identité peut encore être considérée aujourd’hui comme l’un des concepts clés de la philosophie ou s’il a été réduit à un aspect marginal de la compréhension de la condition humaine actuelle. (shrink)

The paper considers the possibility of detecting points of contact between Michel Foucault’s theory of power and the theory of communicative agency formed by Jurgen Habermas. In the beginning, the development of the philosophical discourse of modernity, which Habermas analyzes in his work bearing the same title, is laid out, with the aim to gain insight into the nature of Habermas’s critique of Foucault. After having reviewed some of the basis of Foucault’s theory, the author points out Habermas’s depiction of (...) the theory of power as the pinnacle of Nietzschean, anti - modernist stream of the philosophical discourse. The critique is based on Habermas’s assumption that Foucault’s analyses of power fails to comprehend the complexity of modernity. Foucault, according to Habermas, over - emphasizes one dimension of the process of modernization - gradual strengthening of the disciplinatory power based on the "control of the spirit". The author, however, wishes to point out the importance the theory of power ascribes to the preservation of insight into the complexity of history. Through the insight into multiple and divergent nature of historical processes that are responsible for the formation of modern society, the individual becomes historically self - conscious and able to step out of the paradigm of self - relating subject. As the theory of communicative agency also tends to transcend the "limits of the subject - philosophy", the author concludes that Foucault’s work is, to the same extent as Habermas’s, imbued with the idea of "modernity as an unrealized undertaking". Towards the end of the paper the author analyzes Foucault’s relation to Enlightenment, in order to show the essentially modern nature of his thought. (shrink)

This paper analyzes two contemporary,?third-generation? perspectives within critical theory - Nancy Fraser?s and Axel Honneth?s - with the aim of examining the degree to which the two authors succeed in grounding the normative criteria of social critique in the perspectives of?ordinary? social actors, as opposed to speculative social theory. To that end, the author focuses on the influential debate between Fraser and Honneth Redistribution or Recognition? which concerns the appropriate normative foundations of a?post-metaphysical? critical theory, and attempts to reconstruct the (...) fundamental 29 disagreements between Fraser and Honneth over the meaning and tasks of critical theory. The author concludes that both critical theorists ultimately secure the normative foundations of critique through substantive theorizations of the social, which frame the two authors??reconstructions? of the normativity of everyday social action, but argues that post-metaphysical critical theory does not have to abandon comprehensive social theory in order to be epistmologically?non-authoritarian?. (shrink)

The text questions the idea of transgenderism, or more specifically, the positioning of the androgynous paradigm that is ecological , as a possible Utopian projection into the future; as a radical NO to the present that still has not, regardless of whether we like it or not, fulfilled the possibility of legal and political status for all forms of life.Naturally enough, apart from an interpretation of the androgyne as the archetype of the unity of oppossing energies , I also take (...) into account Kari Weil’s interpretation of the androgyne,according to whose unmasking the androgyne also figures as the misogynous ideal, a construct of the patriarchal ideosphere. Or, as Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar have proposed – the alternative term gynandrous , since the very structure of the lexeme androgyny reflects the power of the male symbolic vision over the female view of the Universe.Considering the circumstances in Croatia, transgenderism is perceived in the text as an ignored state of affairs, since intersexuals are not categorised in the »Statute on the Structure and Method of Work of the Expert Opinion Component in Implementing Rights from Social Welfare and Other Rights According to Specific Regulations«, which simply means that they have no specific rights under the present social welfare system.By way of the identity of the androgyne as a third gender, which unifies the categories of masculinity and femininity, or, more specifically, by the ecological androgynous paradigm, I consider the attempt to delete the dichotomy of neglected Nature versus culture, as explicated, for example,by the feminist biologist Lynda Birke, and the attempt to achieve a bioethical encounter between the human animal and the ‘nonhuman’ animal, which I define conditionally with the term transspeciesism, which covers the ethical negation of speciesism.Namely, within the framework of eco/feminist theory, the socio-cultural anthropologist Barbara Noske was one of the first to put forward the question of the human relation towards other animals, demanding the establishment of an anthropology of animals, since – even now – only an anthropology of humans exists in relation to animals. (shrink)

The high turnover of nurses has become a universal issue. The manner in which nurses view their organization’s ethical climate has direct bearing on their organizational commitment. The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between nurses’ perception of ethical climate and organizational commitment in teaching hospitals in the southeastern region of Iran. A descriptive analytical design was used in this study. The sample consisted of 275 nurses working in four teaching hospitals in the southeastern region of Iran. (...) The instruments used in this study included a demographic questionnaire, Ethical Climate Questionnaire, and Organizational Commitment Questionnaire. Data analysis was carried out using Pearson’s correlation, t-test, and descriptive statistic through Statistical Package for Social Science, version 16. The result of this research indicated a positive correlation among professionalism, caring, rules, independence climate, and organizational commitment. Therefore, findings of this study are a guideline for researchers and managers alike who endeavor to improve organizational commitment. (shrink)

The author attempts at questioning Habermas’ and Honneth’s claim that the linguistic turn within Critical Theory of society represents a way out of the “dead end” of the first generation of Frankfurt School theorists, who were unable to formulate an action-theoretic understanding of social conflicts. By presenting a view that Adorno, in his “Negative dialectic”, develops an insight into a crucial characteristic of the conflict nature of modern societies, which eludes the lingustic-pragmatist Critical Theory, the author tries to defend and (...) reactualize Adorno’s perspective. The paper analyzes some key aspects of the original idea of Critical Theory, and the “negativistic turn” that Adorno and Horkheimer made with the writing of “Dialectic of Enlightenment”. Having considered the central arguments of the “Negative Dialectic”, the author presents his understanding of Adorno’s concept of social conflict, which is then being contrasted with Habermas’ understanding of social conflict, formulated in terms of a systemic colonization of the lifeworld. Pointing out the weaknesses of Habermas’ concept, the author aims at sharpening the image of the conflict nature of modern societies that Adorno sketches, concluding that his perspective is able to question the framework of intersubjectivity that Habermas and Honneth take for granted. (shrink)

This paper presents three interconnected examinations of Asger S?rensen?s arguments in Capitalism, Alienation and Critique, which thematize S?rensen?s overarching understanding of the relationship between theory and practice: his general methodological perspective on critical theory, its distinctive epistemology and its anchoring in the empirical world. The paper authors each try to push S?rensen on these crucial points by considering how S?rensen?s variant of critical theory actually operates, scrutinizing in more detail the particular relationship between the?experience of injustice?, which for S?rensen constitutes (...) the empirical foothold for critical theory, and the theoretical diagnosis of social reality which the critical theorist should formulate against the backdrop of this experience. (shrink)

Graphical AbstractBy now it is well known that the SARS-COV-2 virus can affect and harm various organs of the body. However, the exact mechanisms for this phenomenon are still unknown. In article 2000198 Fatemeh Aliabadi et al. hypothesize that the body's secretion of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), a molecule that is involved in several inflammation and immunity pathways, may lead to a cytokine storm causing a variety of side effects.

The outbreak of a new, potentially fatal virus, SARS‐COV‐2, which started in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and since developed into a pandemic has stimulated research for an effective treatment and vaccine. For this research to be successful, it is necessary to understand the pathology of the virus. So far, we know that this virus can harm different organs of the body. Although the exact mechanisms are still unknown, this phenomenon may result from the body's secretion of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), (...) which is involved in several inflammation and immunity pathways. Noticeably, the expression of this molecule can lead to a cytokine storm causing a variety of side effects. In this paper, we discuss those side effects in SARS‐COV‐2 infection separately to determine whether PGE2 is, indeed, an important causative factor. Lastly, we propose a mechanism by which PGE2 production increases in response to COVID‐19 disease and suggest the possible direct relation between PGE2 levels and the severity of this disease. Also see the video abstract here: https://youtu.be/SnPFAcjxxKw. (shrink)

Background: Plagiarism is an ethical and academic issue, which is affected by several factors. Objectives: This study is an attempt to introduce a model for elaborating on the causes of plagiarism in Iran. Research design: The study was carried out as a grounded theory study. Participants and research context: Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 32 university professors and postgraduate students at Iranian universities of medical sciences. The participants were selected through purposeful and theoretical sampling. Data analysis was (...) done following Strauss et al.’s work. To ensure study rigor, Lincoln and Guba’s measures were used. Ethical considerations: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Results: A conceptual model of the causes of plagiarism was developed based on analyzing and coding the data. The main core of the model was the emergence of plagiarism, and other cores were (1) causal condition: lack of skills, pressure by education system, and lack of awareness; (2) intervening factors: technological advances, legal gaps, and lack of efficient supervision; (3) ground factors: personal traits and attitudes of the academic community; (4) strategy and interventions: role model, supervision, national/international coordination, and higher awareness; (5) outcomes: regeneration of plagiarism and negative attitudes toward Iranian authors in the world academic communities. Conclusion: Several factors affect plagiarism. Among the approaches to attenuate plagiarism in Iranian academic communities are improving self-esteem and self-efficacy in Iranian researchers, emphasizing on quality rather than quantity of published works, discouraging boasting attitudes in the practitioners, denouncing intense competition among researchers, and introducing clear laws and severe punishments for plagiarism. (shrink)

There are many studies conducted on recommendation systems, most of which are focused on recommending items to users and vice versa. Nowadays, social networks are complicated due to carrying vast arrays of data about individuals and organizations. In today’s competitive environment, companies face two significant problems: supplying resources and attracting new customers. Even the concept of supply-chain management in a virtual environment is changed. In this article, we propose a new and innovative combination approach to recommend organizational people in social (...) networks based on organizational communication and SCM. The proposed approach uses a hybrid strategy that combines basic collaborative filtering and demographic recommendation systems, using data mining, artificial neural networks, and fuzzy techniques. The results of experiments and evaluations based on a real dataset collected from the LinkedIn social network showed that the hybrid recommendation system has higher accuracy and speed than other essential methods, even substantially has eliminated the fundamental problems with such systems, such as cold start, scalability, diversity, and serendipity. (shrink)

BackgroundOrgan donation following brain death has become an important way of supplying organs for transplantation in many countries. This practice is less common in Iran for different reasons. Therefore, this study aims to explore the obstacles to organ donation following brain death in Iran.MethodsThis qualitative research was conducted following the conventional content analysis method. The study population consisted of individuals with a history of brain death among their blood relatives who refused to donate the organs. Snowball sampling was employed to (...) select the participants. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted for data gathering. Theoretical saturation was achieved through 20 interviews. Data analysis was done following the steps proposed by Graneheim and Lundman. Lincoln and Guba’s criteria were used to ensure data rigor and transferability of the study.ResultsData analyses revealed 185 codes, 23 categories, and seven themes including, poor knowledge about brain death and organ transplantation from a dead body, cultural beliefs, religious beliefs, deficiencies of requesting process, fear and concerns, inability to make a decision, and social learning.ConclusionThere were several factors in families’ reluctance to donate organs of a brain-dead patient. Through improving knowledge and changing cultural beliefs in society, it is possible to take large steps towards promoting organ donation from brain-dead patients. (shrink)

ObjectivesThe breast cancer stigma affects Health-related quality of life, while general resilience resources, namely, sense of coherence, social support, and coping skills, are thought to alleviate this effect. The study aimed to explore the mediating/moderation role of GRRs in the relationship between stigma and HRQoL and its dimensions in Iranian patients with breast cancer.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, Stigma Scale for Chronic Illness 8-item version, SOC-13, Medical Outcome Survey- Social Support Scale, Brief COPE, and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast were investigated (...) in a convenience sample of Iranian women with confirmed non-metastatic breast cancer. Following the establishment of correlations using Pearson’s correlation, single and parallel mediation analysis and moderation analysis were conducted to determine the extent to which each GRR might be impacted by stigma or decrease the adverse impact of stigma on HRQoL.ResultsAn analysis of 221 women with the mean age of 47.14 showed that stigma was negatively correlated to all HRQoL’s dimensions, SOC, social support, and the bulk of coping skills. In the single mediation analysis, stigma affected all facets of SOC, all subscales of social support, and positive reframing, which partially reduced breast cancer HRQoL. Stigma affects general HRQoL through damaging meaningfulness, social support, and positive reframing. Meaningfulness was marked as the most impacted GRR in terms of all domains of HRQoL. In parallel mediation, reduced meaningfulness, total social support, and positive reframing were highlighted as the pathways of diminished breast cancer HRQoL. Moderation analysis indicated the higher levels of humor, behavioral disengagement, and use of instrumental support behaviors to be functional in protecting different dimensions of HRQoL, while the results were mixed for venting, especially in patients with mastectomy surgery.ConclusionWhile GRRs may be impacted by stigma, they exert a relatively small protective effect against the impact of stigma on HRQoL. This study provides some novel findings, but longitudinal studies are needed to further verify these before any causal conclusion or recommendations for health policy can be drawn. (shrink)

A Dutch medical student has the potentially more virulent Panton-Valentine leukocidin form of MRSA colonization yet shows no signs or symptoms of infection. More than a year ago, a routine MRSA screening of health care personnel providing care for MRSA-positive patients detected the colonization. Since then, the student has been treated intensively but unsuccessfully in an attempt to decolonize her. During this decolonization period, the medical student was barred from performing patient-related interventions, temporarily interrupting her medical residency. After initial treatment (...) with mupirocin nasal ointment and antibiotics proved ineffective, a more stringent hygiene regime was added that included hand, nose, hair, and body scrubbing with disinfecting soap. Additional precautions included simultaneous treatment of household members and disinfection of the family home. Despite these efforts, her MRSA status has remained positive. WIP guideline s bar any health care worker diagnosed with MRSA from performing patient-related interventions. Unable to complete the residency requirement of at least 1 year of patient care, the medical student was advised to pursue a career in another profession. (shrink)

Working memory, an important posit in cognitive science, allows one to temporarily store and manipulate information in the service of ongoing tasks. Working memory has been traditionally classified as an explicit memory system – that is, as operating on and maintaining only consciously perceived information. Recently, however, several studies have questioned this assumption, purporting to provide evidence for unconscious working memory. In this paper, we focus on visual working memory and critically examine these studies as well as studies of unconscious (...) perception that seem to provide indirect evidence for unconscious working memory. Our analysis indicates that current evidence does not support an unconscious working memory store, though we offer independent reasons to think that working memory may operate on unconsciously perceived information. (shrink)

Alessandro Ferrara, Rousseau and Critical Theory, Leiden, Brill, 2017 Marjan Ivković.

Our visual systems account for stimulus context in brightness perception, but whether such adjustments occur for stimuli that we are unaware of has not been established. We therefore assessed whether stimulus context influences brightness processing by measuring unconscious priming with metacontrast masking. When a middle-gray disk was presented on a darker background, such that it could be consciously perceived as brighter via simultaneous brightness contrast , reaction times were significantly faster to a bright annulus than to a dark annulus. We (...) further show that context-dependent brightness priming does not correlate with visibility using an objective measure of awareness and that context-dependent, but not context-independent brightness priming, occurs equally strongly for stimuli below or above the subjective threshold for awareness . These results suggest that SBC occurs at early levels of visual input and is not influenced by conscious perception. (shrink)

The concept of national security belongs to the so-called old, traditional approachesto security. Its focus is on the survival of the sovereign state, which is its territorialintegrity and political independence (sovereignty) protected by diplomatic, intelligenceand military capacities, which is ability to repel military aggression or respond successfully.It is therefore justifiably called the concept of state security. In the real socialist countries,state security meant the state of protection of the state from political crime, as wellas the security of the (socialist, communist) (...) regime. Therefore, national or state securitywas in principle divided into so-called external (security from armed aggression) and internal(security of the regime and the state from the internal enemy).The primary bearers of the fight against all occurrences of security threats, as well as thefunctioning of the security function of the state, are the institutions, organizations andsecurity services. The intelligence and security services as an integral part of the securityand intelligence system work to detect, prevent and suppress any occurrence of securitythreats to a particular country or social union. Through the establishment and organizationof a security system or security-intelligence system, the state strives to achieve itsvital interests, to preserve its sovereignty, territorial integrity, constitutional order and thefreedoms and rights of its citizens, in order to achieve the strategic goals of the state -membership in NATO and the European Union, which will bring even greater regional andcontinental security and stability. The focus of the modern concept of national security isthe security of the state, society and the individual. Our country must strive for internalreforms, in terms of restoring the criteria of the rule of law, freedom of the media, controlover the executive branch, which have long been considered unfulfilled. (shrink)

This book presents a multi-faceted reconsideration of dominant approaches to violence and social critique. Its unifying thread is a dedication to overcoming violence and domination on a scale larger than individual micro-resistances, even as many contributors reject programmatic thought and “self-possessed” political action.

This article assesses the relationship between propaganda and nationalism as an ideology in the Serbian massmedia. Serious analysis of contemporary propaganda is a complex discipline, primarily because of the use of the mass media. The issue is further complicated by the fact that the introduction of ever new technologies results in new channels of public media, which demand specific and new methods of propaganda and manipulation. In the study of propaganda in Serbian media as it affects the war in Bosnia (...) Herzegovina, the following elements were found to be of particular interest : propaganda and ideology ; the use of language for propaganda purposes; the context of propaganda; propaganda organization and propagandists; the public; the level of source criticism; and the iconography. (shrink)