FOUNDATIONS OF THE NOVEL WORLD OF IRIS MURDOCH

Iris Murdoch enters the wide space of literature and culture, conducts intertextual roll-over with various proto-texts, modalities, archetypes, philosophical concepts that have developed in literature, seeking to penetrate into the essence of man and the world. As a writer of the “transition”, Iris Murdoch’s work is not associated with an outright deformation of the world in its spatial and temporal coordinates, with the hypertrophy of conventional elements, with demonstrative deconstructive game stylization, with a violation of lifelikeness and ethical relativism inherent in “mature” postmodernism. An important feature of the poetics of “transition” in Murdoch turns out to be organic, devoid of contrast, both because of the objectively established relationship between modernism and postmodernism, and because of the subjective nature of her artistic thinking, marked by the gift of contamination.

Liberalism and Code of Ethics in Local Self-Government and Management

The roots of ethical relativism in philosophy of liberalism is in the growing radicalness of anthropocentrism being characteristic of modern thinking. The scientific intellect applying itself to external objective phenomena and based on a very narrow empiricist-analytical conception of science contains man’s desire for emancipation. The central question of liberalism is the fundamental emphasis on individualism and liberty. In such society is much more urgent to create the code of ethics in modern society in very differente level of society and modern life. Philosophical foundation of code of ethics in local Self-Government and management at all levels of social and personal life is more urgent and necessary than ever, if we want to preserve the basic dignity of human life, the fact that man respects himself, keeps his word, does not manipulate others nor allows being manipulated, keeps his personal freedom and self-confidence, self-respect and integrity. In Slovenia, management is responsible for preparation and fair presentation of financial statements in accordance with accounting standards, and within the requirements of the Slovenian Companies Act and in accordance with the code of ethics.

Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior: A Moderated Mediational Model of Its Transmission From Managers to Employees

This study explores the psychological mechanism underlying and the boundary conditions affecting the relationship between managers’ unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) and subordinates’ willingness to engage in UPB. Drawing upon social learning and social cognitive theories, employee moral disengagement was predicted to mediate the relationship between managers’ UPB and employees’ UPB willingness; in addition, the moderating roles of both leader–member exchange and ethical relativism were investigated within this relationship. The results, based on 29 managers and 200 subordinates in Vietnam, supported the proposed mediation model. The findings further indicated that leader–member exchange augmented the positive relationship between managers’ UPB and employee moral disengagement, whereas employee ethical relativism weakened the positive relationship between moral disengagement and employees’ UPB willingness. By elucidating the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions, our findings offer an empirical basis for considering managers’ UPB as a critical antecedent to employees’ willingness to engage in UPB and also inform effective intervention approaches for organizations to constrain UPB.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL CONCEPT OF MAN AS AN INTEGRATED PERSONALITY IN THE CATHOLIC TRADITION OF BIOETHICS

In modern bioethical research and the practice of their implementation, two opposite directions can be traced: ethical absolutism in Christian philosophy and ethical relativism in utilitarianism and pragmatism. Christian bioethics is based on the anthropological concept of man as integrated personality and social being. The thesis of the dignity of the human person is contained in the biblical concept of the creation of man in the image and likeness of God. The Christian anthropological concept is based on the perception of the individual as an inseparable unity of the physical and the spiritual. Christian moral norms should be seen in the context of the phenomenon of the gift.

postmodern Post-feminism without Women

This article aims at showing the way in which the discursive constructivism and ethical relativism characteristic of postmodern feminism and post-feminism leads to a neo-liberal and conservative political agenda that threatens women’s sex-based rights. The article will especially focus on the thought of Paul-B Preciado as a post-feminist activist. It draws a comparison also with the work of Saba Mahmood. In such a context, we will point out the necessity of a neo-material and realist framework able to account for the ontological reality of women, and their irreducibility to social hetero-norms. Keywords: Constructivism, nominalism, embodiment, sexual difference, human rights, materialism.

Benedict de Spinoza’s Virtue

Benedict de Spinoza (1632–1677) was about the most radical of the early modern philosophers who developed a unique metaphysics that inspired an intriguing moral philosophy, fusing insights from ancient Stoicism, Cartesian metaphysics, Hobbes and medieval Jewish rationalism. While helping to ground the Enlightenment, Spinoza’s thoughts, against the intellectual mood of the time, divorced transcendence from divinity, equating God with nature. His extremely naturalistic views of reality constructed an ethical structure that links the control of human passion to virtue and happiness. By denying objective significance to things aside from human desires and beliefs, he is considered an anti-realist; and by endorsing a vision of reality according to which everyone ought to seek their own advantage, he is branded ethical egoist. This essay identified the varying influences of Spinoza’s moral anti-realism and ethical egoism on post-modernist thinkers who decried the “naïve faith” in objective and absolute truth, but rather propagated perspective relativity of reality. It recognized that modern valorization of ethical relativism, which in certain respects, detracts from the core values of the Enlightenment, has its seminal roots in his works.

Ethics without theory? On advantages of the Pyrrhonian over the dogmatic way of life.

The paper discusses two interrelated problems pertaining to the Pyrrhonian way of life. We try to rise to the challenge and play devil’s advocate, arguing from the skeptical point of view. The first part portrays a reconstruction of central skeptical arguments against the dogmatic ethics that attack some epistemological, metaphysical and ethical issues of the central dogmatic concept “the good by nature”. The second part considers the arguments suggested by G. Striker and R. Bett who claim that the sceptic cannot have ethics nor be an ethical agent. Against it, we try to formulate minimal conditions for ethics without theory, namely, the conceptual ability to distinguish between “right” and “wrong” actions grounded upon the notion of “private good” and the skeptical criteria for actions. This is made possible by relativizing the criteria of the ethical and connecting it with the customs and traditions of a given community. Though Pyrrhonism is quite different from ethical relativism or ethical realism, a striking comparison to H. Putnam’s ethical approach is drawn at the end of the paper.