Bioethics: from Enlightenment to return

Based on the concept adopted by the Russian legislator in the field of bioethics, the articleanalyzes aspects of the formation of moral and ethical regulations as a subject of legal regulation, a historical review of the features of the perception by the individual and society of ethical norms as criteria for self-restraint of the possibility of choosing options for lawful or unlawful behavioris given. The transformation of law from the age of enlightenment to the era of return to ethical institutions is shown both in the historical periods of the outgoing era and in the examples of negative law-making of contemporaries, in order to leave the norms of ethics outside the national order.The traditional explanation of the dominance of such an approach to the legal regulation of ethical institutions is reduced to the absence of objects of legal support due to the fact that ethics is not a legal, but a moral one. De facto ethical norms are introduced into the modern legal order of the Russian Federation at the level of law enforcement activities, for example, through the adoption of Codes of Professional Ethics. The expediency of formation in Russia of the National Council on Bioethics and Biosafety is substantiated.

National Ethical Institutions and Social Entrepreneurship

Using insights from institutional theory, the chapter proposes understanding ethics as national institutions that deeply influence social entrepreneurship. Moreover, the chapter proposes that low behavioral ethical standards (normative ethical institutions) provide opportunities for individuals to establish social enterprises. Furthermore, it proposes that high public-sector ethical standards (regulatory ethical institutions) and values of unselfishness (cognitive ethical institutions) facilitate and motivate individuals to establish social enterprises. The chapter also explores the combined effects of public-sector ethical standards and low behavioral ethics, public-sector ethical standards and societal unselfishness, and low behavioral ethics and unselfishness, on the creation of social enterprises. The chapter contributes to cross-cultural comparative entrepreneurship by suggesting, through a multilevel framework, the effects of societal-level ethical institutions on the creation of social enterprises.

National Ethical Institutions and Social Entrepreneurship

Using insights from institutional theory, the chapter proposes understanding ethics as national institutions that deeply influence social entrepreneurship. Moreover, the chapter proposes that low behavioral ethical standards (normative ethical institutions) provide opportunities for individuals to establish social enterprises. Furthermore, it proposes that high public-sector ethical standards (regulatory ethical institutions) and values of unselfishness (cognitive ethical institutions) facilitate and motivate individuals to establish social enterprises. The chapter also explores the combined effects of public-sector ethical standards and low behavioral ethics, public-sector ethical standards and societal unselfishness, and low behavioral ethics and unselfishness, on the creation of social enterprises. The chapter contributes to cross-cultural comparative entrepreneurship by suggesting, through a multilevel framework, the effects of societal-level ethical institutions on the creation of social enterprises.

Right and Trust in Hegel’sPhilosophy of Right

According to Hegel, true freedom consists not just in arbitrariness, but in the free willing of right. Right in turn is fully realised in the laws and institutions of ethical life. The ethical subject, for Hegel, is a practical subject that acts in accordance with ethical laws; yet it is also a theoretical, cognitive subject that recognizes the laws and institutions of ethical life as embodiments of right. Such recognition can be self-conscious and reflective; but it can, and indeed must, also be a felt recognition and as such it takes the form of trust. In Hegel’s view, therefore, the proper stance to adopt towards ethical institutions is that of trust; moreover, there is a distinctive freedom to be found in trust itself. Trust is appropriate, however, only when the institutions of ethical life are themselves worthy of it. Hegel is well aware that not all states and their institutions merit trust, but in his view a life without trust in institutions is a life without true freedom.

La Universidad desde una Perspectiva Cosmopolita

The aim of this paper is to show why the humanities are more necessary than ever as part of the university education in our contemporary cosmopolitan age. We need the humanities if our educational institutions are to overcome the threats from narrow-minded politicians and business people to reduce education in schools and universities to simple instruction in management without guidance from the cultures of the world as expressed in art and literature, knowledge of languages, history and philosophy. Therefore, I use the theoretical work of Paul Ricœur in just and ethical institutions of education, as a starting point of these arguments.