scholarly journals Spunti di riflessione bioetica dalla letteratura

2010 ◽  
Vol 59 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona Giardina ◽  
Vincenza Mele
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Great Level ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Face ◽  
Human Side ◽  
And Function

L’articolo focalizza l’importanza di un dialogo tra bioetica e letteratura. Entrambe rivendicano ciò che manca o è andato perduto nella pratica medica e che riguarda soprattutto la relazione medico-paziente. L’intento è quello di far emergere il ruolo attivo della letteratura nella riflessione biomedica. L’introduzione nei curricula delle Facoltà di Medicina di speciali moduli didattici dedicati alle Scienze Umane non ha come fine solo l’arricchimento intellettuale della professione ma persegue una finalità rigorosamente operativa. Il vantaggio della letteratura è quello di trasmettere informazioni in forma umana, di farci avvicinare all’umanità degli altri, diminuendo la distanza tra noi e l’altro. La letteratura tocca i nostri cuori e allo stesso tempo le nostre menti. Dialogare con la letteratura e con le Scienze umane in genere può aiutare a sviluppare capacità quali l’osservazione, l’analisi, l’empatia, lo spirito critico, fondamentali nella pratica medica. Attraverso la lettura di testi significativi il futuro medico incontrerà il lato umano della medicina: la comprensione del malato nella sua unicità, la dimensione esistenziale della malattia, l’importanza del recupero di un dialogo profondo tra medico e paziente. ---------- The aim of this work is to highlight the importance of the dialogue between very different disciplines trying to bring to light the value and function of literature vis-à-vis bioethical concerns. One of the main areas where literature and bioethics coalesce in important literary texts is the relationship between humankind and sickness (with particular regard on doctor-patient relationship). This paper focalizes the anthropological and ethical aspects of this relationship. The intention is to encourage not just aesthetic experience but human experience of this relationship. The way in which literature deals with these aspects shows a great level of humanity and empathy. It is just by this way that the reader is fully immersed in that specific problem. Literature has a great power to awaken us to the humanity of others decreasing the distance between them and us. Literature can touch our hearts at the same time our heads. Literature provides insight into the human condition, suffering, personhood and offer a historical perspective on medical practice. Attention to literature and the arts helps to develop and nurture skills of observation, analysis, empathy and self-reflection - skills that are essential for human medical care. Through the poems, stories and essays, students will appreciate their roles not just as healers or caregivers but as compassionate human beings. They will see the importance of fostering the human side of medicine: understanding the needs of patients as unique individuals, expressing compassion and empathy in the face of tragedy and grief and making judgments in complex ethical situations.

scholarly journals El reconocimiento de la dignidad humana ante los avances de la genética

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gisela Giner Rommel
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Scientific Explanation ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Reality ◽  
The Face ◽  
One Step

La llamada era o siglo de la biotecnología, y con ella, una nueva realidad genética artificial, va abriéndose camino inexorablemente. La misma supone nuevas formas de dominio de la vida natural y humana sin precedentes. El hombre puede ya alterar nada menos que el curso de la evolución de las especies. Es fácil adivinar entonces por qué la genética traspasa su propio ámbito científico: se encuentra ineludiblemente cargada de dilemas éticos de toda índole, y unida al mundo filosófico y moral por su urgente necesidad de respuestas. La primera gran reflexión que la genética plantea a la ética es de tal calibre, que zozobra los cimientos de la propia tradición filosófica occidental y su concepción de la dignidad humana. Si el hallazgo del genoma humano lleva consigo una propensión de la visión de la realidad humana exclusivamente cientificista y biológica, procediendo a realizar una verdadera «sacralización de la ciencia» ¿Supone ello el derrumbe, la invalidación de la condición ética y libre del hombre? ¿Debemos renunciar a una visión del mismo como un ser digno y reducirlo a un animal más? ¿Debemos, en definitiva, dar carpetazo al humanismo, poniendo en tela de juicio la calidad moral del hombre? ¿Cerrar entonces los espacios de la ética o la filosofía, declarando que todos los aspectos que encierran la condición humana se consumen en una explicación científica? ¿Cómo afrontar otros posibles ataques a dimensiones de la dignidad humana como la libertad, la igualdad, la intimidad? ¿Precisan de disciplinas distintas, como la filosofía y el derecho, en busca de soluciones que exceden del campo científico y a los que éste no puede dar respuestas? Ante los nuevos poderes y responsabilidades que trae consigo el progreso científico, la explicación ética y la científica no deben sino reencontrarse. Apostar por el control ético del rumbo del proceso científico y tecnológico a través del paradigma de la dignidad humana se torna imprescindible. En definitiva, tratar de llevar a cabo el sueño del progreso universal, real, en el que la genética constituya un eslabón, un peldaño más en su consecución efectiva no puede darse sin intervención de la reflexión ética.This is definitely the age of biotechnology and with it comes a new artificial genetic reality. Biotechnology gives us never seen before control over plant, animal and human life. Mankind may now even be able to change the course of evolution in all living creatures, no less. That is why it is easy to understand that the science of genetics transcends its own domain; it is unavoidably confronted with ethical dilemmas of all kind and it is compelled to turn to philosophy and morality because of its need to find answers urgently. The first question raised by genetics is of such a magnitude that it overturns the basis of the Western philosophical tradition and its concept of human dignity. If the decoding of the human genome leads to an exclusively scientific and biological vision of human reality, to what you could call a «sacralisation of science», then what happens to free will, to man as an ethical being? Should we henceforth refuse to consider Man as a creature of Dignity and reduce him to just another animal? Should we, in short, abandon all humanistic idealism and question even the morality of human beings? Should we forget about ethics and philosophy and agree that all the aspects, implicit in the human condition, can find a scientific explanation? But how then should we deal with other attacks that may be made against such dimensions of human dignity as liberty, equality and privacy? Will there be no need for other disciplines, such as philosophy and law, to find solutions to problems which exceed the field of science and for which science has no answers to give?. In the face of all the new powers, potential and responsibilities brought about by scientific progress, ethics and science should not become adversaries. Ethical control over the course of scientific and technological progress based on the paradigm of human dignity is becoming essential. To summarise, it will be impossible to realise the dream of true progress, in which the science of genetics is but one step, without answering ethical questions.

Essays in Analytic Theology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Rea
Keyword(s):  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Divine Hiddenness ◽  
The Problem Of Evil ◽  
The Face ◽  
Part Deal ◽  
The Human Condition

This book is the second of two volumes collecting together the most substantial work in analytic theology that I have done between 2003 and 2018. The first volume contains essays focused, broadly speaking, on the nature of God; this second volume contains essays focused more on doctrines about humanity, the human condition, and how human beings relate to God. The essays in the first part deal with the doctrines of the incarnation, original sin, and atonement; the essays in the second part discuss the problem of evil, the problem of divine hiddenness, and a theological problem that arises in connection with the idea God not only tolerates but validates a response of angry protest in the face of these problems.

Great Freedom and the Concept of Awareness

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-181
Author(s):  
Alex Norman
Keyword(s):  
Human Condition ◽  
The Self ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Modern Life ◽  
Great Freedom ◽  
True Location ◽  
The Face ◽  
Individual Existence ◽  
Short Courses

Great Freedom is new socio-religious movement centring on the teachings of American Candice O’Denver. It teaches that Awareness – the space of individual existence observable between thoughts and emotional responses – is the true location of individual identity for all human beings, and the beginning point for acceptance of the self. The group, which was founded in 2003, conducts meetings and short courses at which the teachings are promoted and described in detail. The group’s website (www.greatfreedom.org) also hosts many written publications, audio, and video teachings free to the public. The core of the Great Freedom teaching revolves around the explanation that the human condition is one of frustration, angst, and constant searching for psychological and emotional relief, though not because such things have become ‘uncoupled’ or ‘free floating’. Instead, Great Freedom argues that these sensations arise in the face of a lack of knowledge about the permanent comfort available in Awareness. Modern life is understood to have become saturated and overly self-improvement oriented, implying that happiness and wellbeing are states to be searched for. The realisation of the nature of Awareness is believed by the group to bring psychological relief. This belief is examined in light of David Lyon’s (2000) argument of a shift in the parameters of religious thinking and engagement towards ‘secularised’, individuated, and highly subjective modes, and that modern religiosity is bricolage in response to the postmodern fragmentation of identity. Following from this, Great Freedom is read as a response to an understanding that modern life is highly saturated, in Kenneth Gergen’s (1991) sense, and, as Anthony Giddens’ (1991) notion of a ‘project of the self’ intimates, overly self-improvement oriented.

scholarly journals Effects of Literature on Empathy and Self-Reflection: A Theoretical-Empirical Framework

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Maria (Emy) Koopman ◽  
Frank Hakemulder
Keyword(s):  
Reader Response ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Literary Reading ◽  
Role Taking ◽  
Time Activity ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Aesthetic Distance

AbstractVarious scholars have made claims about literature’s potential to evoke empathy and self-reflection, which would eventually lead to more pro-social behav­ior. But is it indeed the case that a seemingly idle pass-time activity like literary reading can do all that? And if so, how can we explain such an influence? Would the effects be particular to unique literary text qualities or to other aspects that literary texts share with other genres (e. g., narrativity)? Empirical research is necessary to answer these questions. This article presents an overview of empirical studies investigating the relationship between reading and empathy, and reading and self-reflection. We reveal those questions in the research that are not addressed as of yet, and synthesize the available approaches to literary effects. Based on theory as well as empirical work, a multi-factor model of literary reading is constructed.With regard to reading and empathy, the metaphor of the moral laboratory (cf. Hakemulder 2000) comes close to a concise summary of the research and theory. Being absorbed in a narrative can stimulate empathic imagination. Readers go along with the author/narrator in a (fictional) thought-experiment, imagining how it would be to be in the shoes of a particular character, with certain motives, under certain circumstances, meeting with certain events. That would explain why narrativity can result in a broadening of readers’ consciousness, in particular so that it encompasses fellow human beings. Fictionality might stimulate readers to consider the narrative they read as a thought experiment, creating distance between them and the events, allowing them to experiment more freely with taking the position of a character different from themselves, also in moral respects. Literary features, like gaps and ambiguous characterization, may stimulate readers to make more mental inferences, thus training their theory of mind. However, apart from literature possibly being able to train basic cognitive ability, we have little indication for the importance ofRegarding self-reflection, while there is no convincing evidence that literary texts are generally more thought-provoking than non-literary texts (either narrative or expository), there is tentative indication for a relation between reading literary texts and self-reflection. However, as was the case for the studies on empathy, there is a lack of systematic comparisons between literary narratives and non-literary narratives. There are some suggestions regarding the processes that can lead to self-reflection. Empirical and theoretical work indicates that the combination of experiencing narrative and aesthetic emotions tends to trigger self-reflection. Personal and reading experience may influence narrative and aesthetic emotions.By proposing a multi-factor model of literary reading, we hope to give an impulse to current reader response research, which too often conflates narrativity, fictionality and literariness. The multi-factor model of literary reading contains (our simplified versions of) two theoretical positions within the field of reader response studies on underlying processes that lead to empathy and reflection: the idea of reading literature as a form of role-taking proposed by Oatley (e. g., 1994; 1999) and the idea of defamiliarization through deviating textual and narrative features proposed by Miall and Kuiken (1994; 1999). We argue that these positions are in fact complementary. While the role-taking concept seems most adequate to explain empathic responses, the defamiliarization concept seems most adequate in explaining reflective responses. The discussion of these two theoretical explanations leads to the construction of a theoret­ical framework (and model) that offers useful suggestions which texts could be considered to have which effects on empathy and reflection.In our multi-factor model of literary reading, an important addition to the previously mentioned theories is the concept »stillness«. We borrow this term from the Canadian author Yann Martel (2009), who suggests reading certain literary texts will help to stimulate self-contemplation (and appreciation for art), moments that are especially valuable in times that life seems to be racing by, and we are enveloped by work and a multitude of other activities. Other literary authors have proposed similar ideas. Stillness is related to, or overlaps with the more commonly used term »aesthetic distance«, an attitude of detachment, allowing for contemplation to take place (cf. Cupchik 2001). Stillness, we propose, allows a space in which slow thinking (Kahneman 2011) can take place. Stillness is not reflection itself, but a precondition for reflection. In our model, stillness is an empty space or time that is created as a result of reading processes: the slowing down of readers’ perceptions of the fictional world, caused by defamiliarization. Our multi-factor model suggests that while role-taking can take place for all types of narratives, literary and fictional narratives may evoke the type of aesthetic distance (stillness) that leads to a suspension of judgment, adding to a stronger experience of role-taking and narrative empathy.

The Contribution of Painting to Children's Cognitive Development

1982 ◽  
Vol 164 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elliot W. Eisner
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The World ◽  
Qualitative Changes ◽  
The Human Condition

This article explores the grounds for the belief generally held that there are benefits to be derived by children from art activity. It describes nine consequences or potential consequences of art activity which lead to qualitative changes in the child's ability to think and perceive. Through art children learn that the world itself can be regarded as a source of aesthetic experience and as a pool of expressive form. The author concludes that since some aspects of artistic thinking are inherent in the human condition whereas others are culturally determined, education in the arts is one vehicle through which culture is brought to nature. Through this wedding, children's cognitive development will be enhanced.

scholarly journals Puebla: The Start of a Path Towards a More Audacious and Prophetic Theology in Latin America

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Víctor Martínez Morales, S. J.
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
American People ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
The Face ◽  
American Method ◽  
The Church

40 years ago, the Latin American bishops convened in Puebla to reflect upon and point towards new pastoral horizons and theological construction. This article conveys the dynamism, strength, and vigor of the message emanating from that meeting. Puebla gave clues of a new theology that, adhering to the Latin American method, can respond to the problems that question us with unprecedented vigor and invite us to envision new routes, fields of new approaches, and ways yet unpaved. The message arising from Puebla continues to be current. It opens up hope of new theological construction seeking to give a new dimension to its task, understand God’s action in history differently, as well as the human condition and its relation to nature. We live in a plural context, broad and open to the construction of theologies able to offer new interpretations of God’s revelation and action, a propitious moment to rethink theological efforts, regarding the challenges presented by Puebla. In this horizon, theological work should be understood from the experience of faith and fundamental openness of the being to God’s creative and salvific action, in the gratuity of filiation in the Son and not as a mere intellective obligation of the Christian faith. Puebla presents, not only for the Latin American people, but for the church in general, a reflection in which we are constantly reminded that human beings can transform situations of injustice into opportunities for liberation, forgiveness and mercy. It is up to every Christian to undertake a path of trustful commitment, marked by a spirit of solidarity and responsibility towards his or her neighbour. In this way one can make known the face of God of whom Puebla speaks and who cries out for justice.

scholarly journals Public self-reflection in the context of the European migrant crisis: Towards a new transdisciplinary model of discourse analysis in politics, media and the arts

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 336-353
Author(s):  
Florian Lippert
Keyword(s):  
Literary Texts ◽  
Ethical Challenge ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Political ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Development Policies ◽  
Filmic Framing ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

While the European migrant crisis is omnipresent in political and medial discourses, two of its key causes are only seldom addressed by politicians and journalists: mistakes in Europe’s domestic, foreign and development policies; and Eurocentric, clichéd or ill-informed press coverage on migration. What impedes such political and medial self-criticism? What happens if politicians or journalists publicly address their own mistakes? Creative culture, in turn, has a long tradition of public self-reflexivity. In the wake of the crisis, many literary texts and films self-critically reflect on the literary and filmic framing of migrants, and challenge the political and medial ‘externalization’ of the crisis. Building upon these observations, this contribution suggests a new direction for discursive research: the analysis of self-criticism as an ethical challenge for public communication. It highlights research desiderata, discusses the theoretical foundations for comparing self-reflexivity across discourses, and outlines a transdisciplinary terminology and exemplary methods for future research.

scholarly journals A Slap in the Face of Socialist Taste: The Novel "Nikolai Nikolaevich" by Yuz Aleshkovsky As a Contestation of the Rules of Socialist Realism

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Tyszkowska-Kasprzak
Keyword(s):  
Socialist Realism ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Sperm Donor ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Socialist Realist ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Face ◽  
First Time

Yuz Aleshkovsky wrote the novel „Nikolai Nikolaevich” in the 1970s. For a long time, the work was disseminated in samizdat and it appeared in print for the first time only in 1980. Composed under the censorship conditions of socialist realism dominant in the arts, this work violates strict taboos imposed on subjects related to sexuality and stylistic solutions which exclude sub-normative vocabulary. In many aspects, the composition of the novel resembles the pattern of the production novel. At the same time, the writer negate the values propagated in the art of socialist realism: the main character is a former pickpocket, who built a comfortable life for himself as a sperm donor in a laboratory and talks about his professional achievements in a language saturated with profanity and elements of criminal jargon. The plot of the work is based on an amalgamation of components characteristic of ideologized literary texts with elements that were unacceptable in such texts. The introduction into the novel of the theme of corporality, and human sexuality, which was a taboo topic in socialist realist literature, introduces a major dissonance and induces produces a comic effect.

Tantangan Pondok Pesantren dalam Menghadapi Era Bonus Demografi

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 409-434
Author(s):  
Ibnu Chudzaifah
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Boarding School ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Current Development ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Times

Pondok Pesantren is one of the Islamic educational institutions that aim to form human beings who have noble character, so that created a human who has a balance between physical and spiritual. Some educational institutions offer various models of learning to balance the current development so that its existence is still recognized by the community. While boarding school in dealing with the development of the times, has a commitment to make new innovations by presenting the pattern of education that can give birth to a reliable Human Resources. Especially pesantren currently has a challenging enough weight in facing the era of "Demographic Bonus". Demographic bonus is a phenomenon in which the structure of the population greatly benefits the community from the side of development in various sectors, because the productive age is more than the non productive age. This means that the dependency burden will decrease with the ratio of 64 percent of the productive age population to bear only 34 percent of the nonproductive age population. With all kinds of scholarships and skills given to students, students are expected to compete in all fields, especially in the face of Indonesia gold in 2020 to 2035.

Challenging Gender Hierarchies in Narratives of the Nation: Representations of Women in Zintgraff and the Battle of Mankon and Hard Choice

Imbizo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Epongse Nkealah ◽  
Olutoba Gboyega Oluwasuji
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Gender Differentiation ◽  
Hard Choice ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Gender Hierarchies ◽  
The Face ◽  
The One ◽  
Representations Of Women ◽  
Do So

Ideas of nationalisms as masculine projects dominate literary texts by African male writers. The texts mirror the ways in which gender differentiation sanctions nationalist discourses and in turn how nationalist discourses reinforce gender hierarchies. This article draws on theoretical insights from the work of Anne McClintock and Elleke Boehmer to analyse two plays: Zintgraff and the Battle of Mankon by Bole Butake and Gilbert Doho and Hard Choice by Sunnie Ododo. The article argues that women are represented in these two plays as having an ambiguous relationship to nationalism. On the one hand, women are seen actively changing the face of politics in their societies, but on the other hand, the means by which they do so reduces them to stereotypes of their gender.

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