La politique comme le lieu de l’universalisation de l’exigence éthique chez Levinas

Levinasian philosophy is characterized as a philosophy of ethical subjectivity and asymmetrical responsibility. Ethics is understood as the subject that gives itself entirely to the Other. However, the Other is never alone. His face attests to the presence of a third party who, looking at me in his eyes, cries for justice. There is no longer any question for the subject to devote himself entirely to the Other (ethical justice), to give everything to him at the risk of appearing empty-handed before the third party. How then to serve both the Other and the third party? The question of the political appears in the thought of Levinas with the emergence of the third party who, like the Other, challenges me and commands me (social justice). The third party establishes a political space. Politics is in the final analysis the place of the universalization of the ethical requirement born from face-to-face with the face of the Other.

ETHICS: THE JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF A SATISFYING LIFE.

Background: Health professionals must change the ethics of the "third person", where moral actions carried out by other people are judged as correct / incorrect, for the ethics of the first person oriented to personal excellence, vocation to good and to dignity of a person. Objective: To explore the knowledge and ethical training of health professionals working in the field of Nephrology. Method: A survey of 37 items on the basic notions of ethics was applied to the participants of the annual IMIN Meeting. Results: 85 surveys were obtained, 79% think that the laws enacted today respond to economic interests; 82% express that we cannot accept moral absolutes, however, 89% think that practical reason that directs our behavior recognizes human good in search of plenitude. 44% feel that it is not possible to act according to justice on a regular basis, and 94% express that virtue ethics look to the integral good of the person. Conclusions: The philosophical reflection, so typical of the human being, constitutes an ethical requirement in search of the truth of the good that must be chosen to achieve fullness, in the work of health agents in the field of Nephrology. Keywords: bioethics, nephrology, personal autonomy.

HONOUR OF THE SOLDIER

In the Republic of Latvia, a soldier performs public service in the field of national defence and his/her legal status is a right guaranteed by the state, statutory duties, restrictions, and disciplinary liability, which are currently regulated by military law, administrative law and administrative procedure law. In addition to the regulation of special and general legal norms, a soldier also has important and binding moral values, because in Latvia "honour" is a characteristic of a soldier, which is inextricably linked to the soldier's profession both historically and of military service. Within the framework of the paper, the author has studied the concepts, essence, genesis and development of such values of a soldier as "honour" and "dignity", from the historical and modern point of view, both in civil life and military science. The author has also clarified their role in the legal status of a soldier and concluded that the existing legal status of a soldier should be elaborated and can be defined as a right guaranteed nowadays. Although not explicitly defined, it should be included in the legal status of a soldier as a military ethical requirement for his dignity and trust, integrity and duty in the performance by the state, statutory duties and restrictions, disciplinary liability and honor as a military ethical requirement.

Responsibility

Public health policy requires decisions about how to distribute the burdens and benefits of reducing health-related risks. This chapter argues that responsibility should be assigned on the basis of the values that the health system is aiming to promote or respect, rather than by treating personal responsibility as an extrinsic ethical requirement on health system design. A health system’s answer to the question of whom to hold accountable, and how to do so, should be framed within the context of the right to public health. Where claims of irresponsibility are levelled, these should in the first instance be directed towards those who violate the right to public health, either through government or corporate agency, rather than at isolated individuals.

The Kierkegaardian Existentialism of Richard Linklater's Before Trilogy

This article examines the Kierkegaardian existentialism set in motion by Richard Linklater's Before trilogy: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013). In doing so, it asserts the efficacy of cinema as a medium of existential import, one that is particularly suited to give form to Søren Kierkegaard's project. The identification of three existential stages of life – the aesthetic, ethical, and religious – is perhaps Kierkegaard's most notable contribution to philosophy. This article contends that Linklater's aesthetic strategy – namely, his distinctive use of long dialogic takes and open endings – grapples with these existential categories: the aesthetic and ethical existence-spheres, as well as the border zone of irony that rests between them. By mapping the shifting utility of the long take and open endings throughout the trilogy, the article charts the differing existential states of the trilogy's enduring couple, Jesse and Céline, as well as the ensuing complications that arise from their clash. In particular, the Before trilogy demonstrates the difficulty of reconciling aesthetic desire and ethical responsibility. Focusing on this dilemma, the article goes on to discuss how the differing existential states of Jesse and Céline prevent a proper appropriation of the ethical requirement into their lives, and that this existential disparity is what eventually surfaces the dysfunction of their romantic union.

Corporate ethics

This chapter aims to bring order to the multitude of different concepts that are discussed within corporate ethics. In the first part, compliance as a minimum ethical requirement is presented. Compliance risks are illustrated by examples from the fields of corruption, antitrust violations, and data privacy. Afterwards, the key tasks of compliance management are explained. In the second part, different perspectives on corporate responsibility are discussed: Friedman’s view, the honorable merchant, and the management of moral risks. In the third and largest part, different approaches to corporate social responsibility and their respective criticisms are presented. The chapter closes with some thoughts on corporate social irresponsibility and on the experimental approach to CSR.

Death as an Aesthetic Experiment

The more intensely a person thinks about the final nature of life, the more he is bound to a moment in life that is limited in time. Death is a very personal and intimate process, which in most cases is not «beautiful». The reality of death in clinics, intensive care units and operating theatres is, by its human nature, cruel. The body at the «end of the road» is captured by funeral homes. Thus, death today is identical to a long path of suffering. The article is dedicated to the author's reflection on a project by the German artist Gregor Schneider, which caused sensation and fierce reaction in Western art circles and beyond the art scene, creating him a reputation as «the most terrible contemporary artist» who has violated «existing» restrictions that cannot be exceeded if we do not want to question our civilization. The artist's vision is to allow a terminally ill person to die as part of an art project that represents a confrontation with death and that can remove the horror of death. As part of the project, the dying person defines everything in advance. Instead of a mass medical procedure of the same type, death, modeled on the artist's skill, Schneider argues, will create humane places for death and contribute to the creation of a space where people can die with dignity, creating personal protection and ensuring the ethical requirement of free will and self-determination.

Normative Theory

The ultimate ground of Bentham’s normative philosophy was the principle of utility. It functioned for Bentham as the fundamental evaluative and decision principle and principle of institutional design. The principle combines universal consequentialism (the ultimate aim of morality is to promote the overall good of the community) with impartial hedonism (that the good of the community must be understood in terms of the subjective well-being or happiness of each considered impartially). Bentham maintained that at bottom moral judgments are expressions of approval or disapproval that appeal beyond themselves to some public matters of fact and that appeal to pleasures and pains can only serve this purpose. This essential meta-ethical requirement of publicity of moral judgment supplied the basic elements for an indirect argument for the principle of utility and the foundation of his critique of natural rights. Justice, he argued, is not opposed to utility so understood, but rather is a species of utility.

Descartes, Politics, and “True Human Beings”

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Descartes wrote nothing that resembles a political treatise. However, to think about the relations between human beings, he employs a mechanist anthropology. And in tandem with this, Descartes theorizes about what, in these human beings, is a high political and ethical requirement. In the Passions of the Soul, this requirement is conceived as both a passion and a virtue: generosity. So it is precisely because Descartes was compelled to reflect on the “true human being” in all his complexity that he provides us with a politics that is both demanding and realist.