Natural Catastrophes and Forms of Catastrophism. A New Ethical and Moral Framework Leading Towards the “Responsible Catastrophism Model”

Author(s):  
Marco Ettore Grasso
2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauris Christopher Kaldjian

The communication of moral reasoning in medicine can be understood as a means of showing respect for patients and colleagues through the giving of moral reasons for actions. This communication is especially important when disagreements arise. While moral reasoning should strive for impartiality, it also needs to acknowledge the individual moral beliefs and values that distinguish each person (moral particularity) and give rise to the challenge of contrasting moral frameworks (moral pluralism). Efforts to communicate moral reasoning should move beyond common approaches to principles-based reasoning in medical ethics by addressing the underlying beliefs and values that define our moral frameworks and guide our interpretations and applications of principles. Communicating about underlying beliefs and values requires a willingness to grapple with challenges of accessibility (the degree to which particular beliefs and values are intelligible between persons) and translatability (the degree to which particular beliefs and values can be transposed from one moral framework to another) as words and concepts are used to communicate beliefs and values. Moral dialogues between professionals and patients and among professionals themselves need to be handled carefully, and sometimes these dialogues invite reference to underlying beliefs and values. When professionals choose to articulate such beliefs and values, they can do so as an expression of respectful patient care and collaboration and as a means of promoting their own moral integrity by signalling the need for consistency between their own beliefs, words and actions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabor Csikos ◽  
Krisztina Dr Törő ◽  
Judit Mokos ◽  
Sandor Rozsa ◽  
Hadházi Éva ◽  
...  

Intensified anxiety responses and even symptoms of post-traumatic stress are commonly observed under quarantine conditions. In this study, the effects on fear, anxiety and wellbeing of the recent pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 were investigated in a sample of otherwise healthy Hungarians. Taking the family as a microsystem, differences in gender, age, family relationships and time spent in isolation were the main focus of this investigation. 346 parent-child dyads were examined; the children were 11-17 years of age. Standard psychological questionnaires (Perceived Stress Scale, WHO Wellbeing Index), and an open question test (the Metamorphosis test) were used, and the results analysed with the aid of basic statistical methods. Stress levels and wellbeing displayed a significant negative correlation with each other in both parents and children. Parental stress and levels of wellbeing had a weak but significant impact on the wellbeing of their children. Among the demographic variables examined, none of them was found to explain the wellbeing or stress level of parents. Natural catastrophes, such as pandemics, create a stressful social environment for parents, and therefore directly impact the psychological wellbeing of all family members.


2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 813-820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara K Redman

Although patient education is central to the ethical practice of nursing, it can be practiced in an ethically contested or unethical way. It is sometimes used to: forward a societal goal the individual might not have chosen; assume that patients should learn to accommodate unjust treatment; exclude the views of all except the dominant health care provider group; limit the knowledge a patient can receive; make invalid or unreliable judgments about what a patient can learn; or require a patient to change his or her identity to meet a medical ideal. Both health promotion education and manipulating patient beliefs in situations of uncertainty are ethically contested. Nussbaum's capabilities approach is used here as a moral framework through which to view the goals and practice of patient education. This provides better guidance than the current conception of patient education as an instrument to carry out the directives of medical practice.


2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (25n26) ◽  
pp. 4482-4494 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. V. KUSMARTSEV ◽  
KARL E. KÜRTEN

We propose a new theory of the human mind. The formation of human mind is considered as a collective process of the mutual interaction of people via exchange of opinions and formation of collective decisions. We investigate the associated dynamical processes of the decision making when people are put in different conditions including risk situations in natural catastrophes when the decision must be made very fast or at national elections. We also investigate conditions at which the fast formation of opinion is arising as a result of open discussions or public vote. Under a risk condition the system is very close to chaos and therefore the opinion formation is related to the order disorder transition. We study dramatic changes which may happen with societies which in physical terms may be considered as phase transitions from ordered to chaotic behavior. Our results are applicable to changes which are arising in various social networks as well as in opinion formation arising as a result of open discussions. One focus of this study is the determination of critical parameters, which influence a formation of stable mind, public opinion and where the society is placed “at the edge of chaos”. We show that social networks have both, the necessary stability and the potential for evolutionary improvements or self-destruction. We also show that the time needed for a discussion to take a proper decision depends crucially on the nature of the interactions between the entities as well as on the topology of the social networks.


Think ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (16) ◽  
pp. 69-73
Author(s):  
Luke Pollard

In this article Luke Pollard examines and expounds the integrity objections to Utilitarianism. He argues for their veracity, and concludes that any ethical theory, such as Utilitarianism, which makes itself impossible for humans to follow, is not what may be considered as a ‘valid moral framework’.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo Vincent De Boni

I review perspectives on Ethics in psychology and offer a more masculine paradigm for male counsellors. My experience as a 46-year-old male psychology student brings me in contact with the current basic ethics proposed by registration bodies. Our ethics may miss the mark for many people as they list noble efforts at prosocial norms yet don't culminate in a moral framework for the younger students. I propose the catalytic dynamic of respect, power, love which utilises and "respects the dynamism theorised by Maslow in the client’s needs status, harnessing the libido of Jung to create the ‘healthy individualism’ of May".


Author(s):  
Fiona Robinson

This chapter builds a picture of a critical, feminist ethics of care as a feminist practical ethics for international relations. It focuses on care ethics as a moral framework for addressing the challenges of humanitarianism—in a manner that foregrounds human needs while not depoliticizing or taking for granted the category of “human.” A care ethics approach furthers the transformative aims of feminism, while refusing to cast “women-and-children” as vulnerable victims in need of protection. The ethics of care also offers a substantive focus for policy and practice around diverse and competing needs for care. Far from confining women to their roles as carers, this approach exposes patterns of gender inequality in care practices, while retaining a focus on the contribution of the voice and labour of care—in multiple and diverse forms—for all social groups and communities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-299
Author(s):  
Urte Undine Frömming

This article is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Indonesia and will raise questions about the meaning that cultures ascribe to potentially dangerous natural spaces. By tracing the mythological and ritual life of the local clans of the Lamaholot and Ngada people, one can note that the entire cosmology and belief system of the people of Flores is tightly interwoven with the religious perception of space and place. Volcanoes play a key role in this belief system because the different clans see volcanoes as places of origin, though they also have a practical social function This article emphasizes the importance of volcanoes for individual and clan identity, and their function in the ideology of association and spiritual linkage between people, ancestors, and natural features. It furthermore examines the phenomenon of public confessions of guilt. These coincide with local interpretations of natural catastrophes as a result of the failure to respect local social values and norms and to fulfil religious duties. Consequently, the article argues, the idea of a dualism between humans and nature becomes irrelevant. Within this context, their reciprocal relationship with volcanoes enables clan groups in Flores to reconcile the unpredictability of nature with the dangerous and sometimes violent aspects of society.


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