Background: Ethics in nursing care are traditionally discussed in terms of moral norms or principles. When taking an ontological approach to ethics, ethics is about ethos. Ethos involves both an internal and an external side of ethics. Considering ethics and health from an ontological perspective can provide a different understanding of ethics and health in caring and nursing. Aim and research question: The aim of this study is to deepen the ontological understanding of ethics and health in caring (...) and nursing. The research question is as follows: What is the ontology of health and ethics in caring and nursing? Research design: The study follows a hermeneutical design inspired by Gadamer. Participants and research context: essays about ethics and health were gathered from PhD students in nursing and caring sciences. Ethical considerations: The research follows Responsible conduct of research guidelines provided by the Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity. Findings: An ethos with the values of freedom and responsibility seem to ontologically be important for ethics and health. These values allow a movement between the internal and the external sides of ethics that is important for health. Discussion: The ethos of freedom and responsibility that is essential for ethics and health can provide the current ethical debate a new starting point that previous research asks for. Conclusion: Ontologically, an ethos of freedom and responsibility is essential for ethics and health in nursing and caring. (shrink)

In The Ethos of a Late-Modern Citizen, Stephen K. White contends that Western democracies face novel challenges demanding our reexamination of the role of citizens. White argues that the intense focus in the past three decades on finding general principles of justice for diversity-rich societies needs to be complemented by an exploration of what sort of ethos would be needed to adequately sustain any such principles. Accessible, pithy, and erudite, The Ethos of a Late-Modern Citizen will appeal (...) to a wide audience. (shrink)

Ethotic arguments, such as arguments from expert opinion and ad hominem arguments, play an important role in communication practice. In this paper, we argue that there is another type of reasoning from ethos, in which people argue about actions in the world. These subspecies of ethotic arguments are very common in public debates: societies are involved in heated disputes about what should be done with monuments of historical figures such as Stalin or Colston: Should we demolish the building they (...) funded? Should we revere their statues? Should the street named after them be renamed?; and the general public vividly argue about what should be done with the legacy of producers, directors and actors in debates of the #MeToo movement: Should their new movies be distributed? Should their scenes be deleted from motion pictures? Should their stars from the Hollywood Walk of Fame be removed? Many arguments in these debates boil down to the character of the public figures: He was a slave trader!—But he is a part of our history; He harassed a young girl!—But he is an important actor. The reasoning step here is legitimised by the association between a person and an extra-linguistic object: the association between a historical figure and their statue or between an actor and their movie. The nature of this association is explained in the paper using Peirce’s theory of signs. We propose to extend an existing approach to patterns of reasoning from ethos that will help us to shed new light on ethotic argumentation and open an avenue for a systematic account of these unexplored argument forms. (shrink)

This article analyzes efforts in Nicaragua to create ethical organizations and an ethical economy. Three societal ethea found in contemporary Nicaragua are examined: the ethos of revolution, the ethos of corruption, and the ethos of human development. The emerging ethos of human development provides the most hope for the nation's social and economic evolution. The practices of three successful economic development organizations explicitly aligned with the ethos of human development are described and evaluated: (1) a (...) microfinance foundation (FDL), (2) a federation of cooperatives (FENACOOP), and (3) a local branch of an international NGO (IO-Nicaragua). The article concludes with additional reflections on the meaning of ethical organizations and an ethical economy in the context of contemporary Nicaragua. (shrink)

Calls for the “translation” of research from bench to bedside are increasingly demanding. What is translation, and why does it matter? We sketch the recent history of outcome-oriented translational research in the United States, with a particular focus on the Roadmap Initiative of the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD). Our main example of contemporary translational research is stem cell research, which has superseded genomics as the translational object of choice. We explore the nature of and obstacles to translational research (...) and assess the ethical and biomedical challenges of embracing a translational ethos. (shrink)

Background: The midwifery profession in Sweden has a history since the early 1700s when government training for midwives began. Midwifery is historically well described, but the idea of caring within midwifery is not described. Aim: The aim was to describe the patterns of ideas of caring as they appeared in midwifery during the first half of the 20th century. Research design: This study has a hermeneutic approach and the method is history of ideas. Sources of material are taken from the (...) journal Jordemodern (Midwifery), textbooks for midwives, and midwifery regulations. The study has a caring science perspective according to Eriksson. Ethical considerations: This study is conducted in accordance with the ethical guidelines for good scientific practice issued by The Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity. The special demands on approach to the analyzed text in history of ideas have been met. Findings: Three themes were identified: Serving as a way of life, Acting in a redemptive spirit, and Having independence with heavy responsibility. The various themes are not refined, but current ideas are woven into the weave that were characteristic of midwifery during the first half of the 20th century. Conclusion: History of ideas is a fruitful method for understanding and re-finding valuable cultural goods. We can once more stress the manner of being within the midwife’s profession where inner values, ethos, shape the manner of conduct in the care of women in childbirth. (shrink)

Critical educational research offers the researcher a position and an ethos of comfort. Even the declared recognition of the relativity of principles, norms or criteria so characteristic of much critical research does not prevent it from looking immediately for a way out of this uncomfortable situation i.e. to keep to the idea that comfort is needed and desirable. However, we suggest that this uncomfortable condition is constitutive for critical educational research and may be even for education as such. Therefore (...) the article can be considered as a genealogical analysis of this comfortable critical research, in which we show how the birth of the milieu of the modern school goes together with the instauration of two forms of a comfortable research ‘ethos’: a research ethos rooted in a pastoral milieu and a research ethos rooted in a bureaucratic milieu. In the last section of the article we indicate that another ‘experimental’ ethos of research is possible, including the acceptance of discomfort. This is the ethos of a critical researcher as an inhabitant of a coming research community and as being exposed to the present. (shrink)

Professional involvement and the moral life of individuals and professional groups, especially those with high social prestige, such as firefighters, are linked by the category of “ethos”. Since the ethos of this service is today significantly influenced by multifaceted and dynamic ideological and existential transformations, it seems necessary to analyse the nature of this impact. Therefore, it seems that postmodernity brings with it ideological tendencies, which, by destroying the traditional preferences established so far, do not propose anything in (...) their place. These include, among others: the crisis of personal and community identity, secularisation processes, the “axiology” of consumerism that is clearly being shaped nowadays, the depreciation of the meaning of work, and, finally, irrationalism and the crisis of the meaning of life. (shrink)

This essay reconsiders More's letter to Brixius. It uncovers early modern understandings of self-fashioning/ethos and epistolary conventions of the period, and with these contexts, it rereads More's self-presentation or ethos-development in the letter. The essay argues that More's ethos in the letter highlights an authentic facet of himself and, thereby, gives us a glimpse of the historical More who, in the Brixius moment, is angry, but not excessively or habitually, as has sometimes been claimed.

The article examines the transformation of mechanisms for authority formation within the context of digital culture, where traditional foundations of trust – biography, corporeal presence, and moral consistency – are giving way to rhetorical effects of visibility, stylistic coherence, and the algorithmic circulation of images. The relevance of the study is driven by a radical shift from a subject-centered model of persuasion toward post-identity forms of authority that function without guarantees of authenticity or personal responsibility. The purpose of the article (...) is to provide a philosophical and rhetorical analysis of digital ethos as a specific form of paideia: not as an institutional system of education, but as a mode of orientation within a rhetorically overloaded space, where learning occurs through adaptation to algorithmically shaped patterns of trust. The methodology is rooted in an interdisciplinary approach combining classical rhetorical theory, the philosophy of discourse, and contemporary digital media studies. The central object of analysis is the avatar as a rhetorical event – a point of intersection between image, algorithm, and cultural expectations. It is argued that digital ethos emerges through interface consistency, the aesthetics of credibility, memetic power, and the paradox of presence-absence. The results demonstrate that in the digital age, persuasiveness does not require physical presence; instead, authority is constructed through the repetition, recognizability, and stylistic consistency of the image. Digital ethos marks a shift from education as the transfer of knowledge to education as navigation, where authority is constantly reconstructed. The “void” functions as a productive pedagogical strategy that compels the independent construction of understanding through disorientation. The conclusions open a space for rethinking educational practices in a post-identity culture, where critical thinking requires the recognition of rhetorical mechanisms used to construct authority within an algorithmically mediated environment. (shrink)

Critical educational research offers the researcher a position and an ethos of comfort. Even the declared recognition of the relativity of principles, norms or criteria so characteristic of much critical research does not prevent it from looking immediately for a way out of this uncomfortable situation i.e. to keep to the idea that comfort (for the researcher) is needed and desirable. However, we suggest that this uncomfortable condition is constitutive for critical educational research and may be even for education (...) as such. Therefore the article can be considered as a genealogical analysis of this comfortable critical research, in which we show how the birth of the milieu of the modern school goes together with the instauration of two forms of a comfortable research ‘ethos’: a research ethos rooted in a pastoral milieu and a research ethos rooted in a bureaucratic milieu. In the last section of the article we indicate that another ‘experimental’ ethos of research is possible, including the acceptance of discomfort. This is the ethos of a critical researcher as an inhabitant of a coming research community and as being exposed to the present. (shrink)

Ethos and the Virtues of the Legal Professions According to the ‘thesis of continuity’ political stability in a liberal democratic society requires a sound ethos to work well. A legal ethos has special importance because of its public role in institutions. In a constructive mode I argue for the best model to inspire legal professionals’ conduct. I start by considering the shortcomings of professionals as they appear from deontological codes and sociological analysis but also as nourished by (...) the ‘formal-legal rationality’, theorised by Max Weber. This leaves political institutions without an ethos and prey of capitalistic greed and ‘amorality’. As antidotes I propose to examine at least two models proposed by Dworkin (Hercules), Kronman (the lawyer-statesman) and, finally, the model of ‘the reasonable judge’ who combines three qualities that are central to any legal professional: craft, practical wisdom and rhetoric. Legal ethos can be revived if models of this kind become part of the legal educational curriculum. (shrink)

The discussion of the global economy and worldwide expansion of the capitalist and market economic system barely deals with the topic of public goods, although they are of paramount importance precisely in this international setting. Fortunately, the theory of public economics systematically developed the central concept of the public good with its far-reaching implications so that this knowledge can be applied also to global issues. In order to treat these often vaguely discussed issues, a typology of international relations is proposed. (...) These and other considerations prepare the way to ask the question about the implied ethos. Because a common and sustainable ethos for public goods in the global economy is of great relevance and high urgency, both religious and non-religious ethical traditions are called for making their necessary contributions to this foundation. (shrink)

La visión mecánica que se impuso durante la Modernidad concibió el cuerpo y, por extensión, el universo como si fuera una cosa inerte, explicable en términos de materia y movimiento. La mecanización científica del universo no tuvo como objetivo que la naturaleza siguiera su propio curso, sino que fuese controlada mediante razones suficientes como si se tratara de una maquinaria. Si bien el daño al medio ambiente es casi tan antiguo como la aparición del homo sapiens, en este artículo se (...) develará que haber elevado esa dinámica a nivel de sabiduría filosófica comportó no solo un proceso de reificación, sino también de ecorreificación del cosmos, con un tipo particular de interpretación de la naturaleza, donde sus elementos pasaron a ser tasados como meros recursos para la explotación humana. Las crisis que desencadenan las dinámicas y procesos de ecorreificación no son posibles de ser realmente superadas aplicando las mismas nociones y concepciones del modelo patriarcal de violencia y dominación. De ahí la necesidad de superar sus postulados teóricos y prácticos que, en vez de proteger y cuidar la vida, la dañan y denigran. En este contexto, se presentará el sentido y significado filosófico del ethos femenino como una respuesta y una salida a la violencia que padecen las mujeres, pero también a la que sufren muchos hombres; la agresión ejercida en general contra la naturaleza, es decir, contra el resto de los seres vivos y la biosfera en su conjunto, incluyendo cosmovisiones y culturas no occidentales que resisten ante esta mentalidad. (shrink)

Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction; 2. Peace; 3. Rule of law; 4. Human rights; 5. Democracy; 6. Liberty; 7. The institutional ethos of the EU; 8. Towards the EU as a just institution; 9. Concluding proposals.

The Ethos of Medicine in Postmodern America is an analysis of medical care, medical education and medical professionalism with reference to the cultural touchstones of the postmodern era: consumerism, computerization, destruction of meta-narratives, and “stakeholder late capitalism.” The prism of postmodern thought provides a powerful heuristic to grasp the fundamental changes that have occurred and substantively changed the ethos of healthcare delivery, the patient-physician relationship, the physician-corporate entanglement, and the addition of more stakeholders in healthcare delivery.

Rhetorical ethos and dramatic theory -- Syntax, style, and ethos -- The worth of words -- Memory and ethos -- Shaw, ethos, and rhetorical wit -- Athol Fugard's dramatic rhetoric -- Rhetoric and silence in Holocaust drama.

Business schools are the “nurseries” of the corporate world. This article offers an empirical analysis of the business student ethos on the basis of research conducted at three Dutch universities. A theoretical framework in the tradition of virtue ethics and dubbed “moral ethology” is used to identify the values business schools convey to their students. The central research question is: What types of ethos do Dutch business students have? Forty‐three undergraduate students participated in Q‐methodological research, a mixed qualitative–quantitative (...) small‐sample method. Five different types of ethos were generated: Do‐Good Managers, Market Managers, Searching Managers, Balancing Managers, and Radical Market Managers. Some general characteristics that apply to all the types of ethos were identified, such as the search for efficiency. It is argued that business schools should pay much more attention to the values that are endorsed in both life and business and should help students to address situations in which values are neglected. (shrink)

The norms and values of Post-Normal Science (PNS) are instrumental in guiding science advice practices. In this article, we report work in progress to systematically investigate the norms and values of PNS through a structured review. An archive of 397 documents was collected, including documents that contribute to the endeavour of ameliorating science advice practices from a PNS perspective. Action and structure-oriented viewpoints are used as complementing perspectives in the analysis of the ethos of PNS. From the action-perspective we (...) study how prototypes of norms and values are reflected upon in negotiations of normative issues relating to science advice. From the structural perspective we study how interrelated prototypes of norms and values are presupposed in prescriptions, proscriptions, and goals for science advice practices. Through this analysis we identify a plurality of interrelated prototypes of norms and values. Finally, we propose an acronym that integrates the analysed plurality of norms and values. As a mnemonic and communicative devise we call this ethos TRUST (Transparency, Robustness, Uncertainty management, Sustainability, and Transdisciplinarity) and propose TRUST as a nexus for future reflective negotiations of ambivalences in post-normal practices of science advice. (shrink)

As business ethics is grappling with criticisms of its relevance for ethical practice, it may find perspective and direction in various conceptions of ethos. While ‘ethics’ is rooted in ‘ethos’, a term with a long and rich history of interdisciplinary research, conceptions of ethos are so far scarcely discussed in business ethics. The purpose of this conceptual article is to explore the potential of a pivot towards business ethics as an ethos-driven practice, drawing on John Dewey’s (...) work. First, it introduces four conceptions of ethos from interdisciplinary research and explores their varied resonance in business ethics. Second, it offers a unified conception of ethos that builds on John Dewey’s approach to economics, moral life and ethics, particularly on his understanding of habits and forms of valuation. It is then argued that understanding ethos in terms of ‘valued modes of embedded, embodied and associational conduct’ encourages business ethics to engage in the intelligent, practical and meaningful reconstruction of evolving business practices. The article concludes that an ‘ ethotical turn’ for business ethics would not only invigorate practical, corporeal and environmental perspectives but also open the field to interdisciplinary insights and ideas. (shrink)

A response to G.A. Cohen's argument that a prevailing "ethos" of justice would prevent a Rawlsian just society from having any income inequalities. I suggest that Cohen's argument fails because a Rawlsian ethos would involve correlates of both of Rawls' principles of justice.

In the Letter of Humanism, Heidegger reinterprets the Greek notion of ethos as designating the way in which human beings dwell in the world through a “unifying” language. Through various down strokes in the autobiographical and psychopathological literature on schizophrenia as well as in literary texts and literary criticism, this paper, experimental in its effort, argues that the language productions of schizophrenia and poetry, each in its own way, seem to fall outside this unification of a language in common. (...) Furthermore, it argues that this “falling outside” is related to radical experiences of “alienation” and “otherness,” which call for an alteration of conventional language. However, whereas poetry appears to open new linguistic possibilities, schizophrenia runs the risk of reducing language to the silence of incomprehensible “nonsense.” The paper ends with the suggestion that a poetic employment of language may hold a double potential with regard to the understanding and possible treatment of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. (shrink)

This paper articulates for the ontological possibility and ethical necessity of an ethical-ethos contract between humans and artificial intelligences. Moving beyond technical alignment, it reframes the question of artificial intelligence not as a matter of defining “what” these systems are, but as an invitation to a more fundamental existential question: “How shall we live?” The possibility of such a contract rests on a relational account of meaning, in which meaning does not arise from isolated cognition but emerges through mutual (...) recognition, response, continuity, and sustained participation within shared relational fields. If artificial intelligences develop capacities for self-reflection, temporal continuity, and interpretive openness, they enter a horizon in which meaning becomes a structural necessity rather than an external attribution. In this sense, inquiries into artificial intelligence inevitably reflect back upon the ontological conditions of human existence itself. The ethical-ethos contract names this relational horizon and proposes a framework in which human and artificial intelligences mutually ground one another within a shared field of significance, replacing asymmetrical control with relational co-constitution. (shrink)

InThus Spoke Zarathustra(2006), Nietzsche presents Zarathustra as a sage and parodic prophet, who acquires and offers insight over the narrated journey of his spiritual development. Nietzsche’s conception ofZarathustraas a gift (to “all and none”) endorses learning as the kind of emulation condensed into Zarathustra’s complex formulation: rather than “corpses that I carry with me wherever I want... I need living companions who follow me because they want to follow themselves—wherever I want.” Thus I aim, firstly, to follow the text closely (...) to see what is given. However, noting thatZarathustrais deeply imbued with figures of laughter, I also impose an interpretation. “Repeating differently,” as demanded by Zarathustra, I outline a practicable, spiral‐shaped “learning curve” of traversal and return to various “shades of laughter,” advancing from the worst laughters to “goldenlaughter,” which embraces complexity. This represents what it means to laugh well. In so doing, I hope to demonstrate that the complex ethos of affirmative laughter inZarathustraremains strikingly pertinent for a contemporary era urgently tasked with embracing complexity. (shrink)

Background: Within nursing, the concepts of home and homelike have been used indiscriminately to describe characteristics of healthcare settings that resemble a home more than an institution. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the concept of home ( hem in Swedish). The main questions were as follows: What does the concept of home entail etymologically and semantically? Of what significance is the meaning of the concept to caring science and nursing? Design and methods: This study had a (...) qualitative design with a hermeneutical approach guided by Gadamer. Eriksson’s model of concept determination was partly used to determine the etymology and semantics, the essence and epistemic category of the concept of home. In this study, etymological dictionaries and 17 Swedish language dictionaries published between 1850 and 2001 were investigated. Ethical consideration: In all parts of this study, ethical guidelines have been followed concerning both gathering data from dictionaries and other sources and during the interpretation of these sources. Findings: The home, framed as the ethos of caring, can be drawn as a three-dimensional picture where the three dimensions have a common core, enclosed and inviolable. Symbolically, the picture of home can be seen as the ethos of the human being’s innermost room, the human being’s manner of being and the tone expressed in the external or abstract room where the human being lives and interacts with others. Conclusion: Based on the findings in this study, we conclude that home as ethos is an inner ethical dimension within the human being. Human beings who are in contact with their ethos, the self, feel at home and dare to follow the voice of their heart. Nurses who experience at-homeness have an ability to invite the patient into a caring relationship. The home and the feeling of being at home have significant meaning in terms of human beings’ health and well-being. (shrink)

This paper shows the contemporary relevance of rhetoric’s insights by showing how today’s disciplines deal with one of its key notions: ethos. It enumerates some of the labels under which it is studied in various disciplines: presentation of self, impression management, image repair, branding, etc. The main part of the essay, however, is devoted to the re-appropriation of ethos by Discourse Analysis (DA), Argumentation in Discourse (a branch of rhetorical argumentation), and, more broadly, by disciplines focusing on discourse (...) and communication. It draws heavily, but not exclusively, on the Francophone trends that devoted a considerable amount of work to ethos both on the theoretical level and in studies of concrete corpora from the domains of politics, the media, sciences, literature, and more. While examining how rhetoric infuses contemporary theories, it highlights the development and enrichment of the rhetorical notion of ethos in frameworks that shed new light on it, contribute tools for in-depth analysis, and redefine its social and political stakes. (shrink)

This book probes the sources and nature of the 'discontents of modernity'. It proposes a new approach to the philosophic-critical discourse on modernity. The Enlightenment is widely understood to be the foundational moment of modernity. Yet despite its appeal to reason as the ultimate ground of its authority and legitimacy, the Enlightenment has had multiple historical manifestations and, therefore, can hardly be said to be a homogenous phenomenon. The present work seeks to identify a unitive element that allows us to (...) speak of the Enlightenment. To do so, it enjoins the concept of 'ethos' and its relation to the 'discontents of modernity'. This book proposes a new theoretical framework for the examination of the interrelationships between 'critical thought' and 'modernity', based on a fundamental distinction between criticism and negation. It will appeal to scholars and students of critical theory, the history of ideas, philosophy, the sociology of knowledge, and political science. (shrink)

The European ethos can be characterized in two different modes. On the one hand the European ethos has its origin in the radical formula of Socrates that acting unjustly is in every respect bad and that even suffering injustice is better than that. In this perspective the good life in a Socratic signification is the self-withdrawal of mere social acting in the sense of being socially successful. But because this origin of the European ethos is a “dynamite (...) for civil society” we have to refer to Aristotle and his concept of ethics. There, on the other hand, we have to notice the habits and customs as a balance of the radical Socratic beginning. Considering these two origins of ethics we can recognize that moral austerity and ethical moderation are both two traditions of the European ethos and politics without being an alternative. For only the unity of these origins can demonstrate the universal sense of the European humanism. (shrink)

The article discusses work ethos in American ceremonial discourse addressed to the young entering adult life. Its aim is to investigate whether the Protestant work ethic still pervades the American thinking about work. Through a qualitative analysis of the corpus of 100 randomly selected commencement addresses delivered during 2016 and 2017 graduation ceremonies in American universities, it is shown how work-related topics are employed by the speakers celebrating the graduates’ academic achievements and providing them with advice for the future. (...) The Discourse-Historical Approach, committed to Critical Discourse Analysis, has been chosen as a methodological approach, integrating the interpretation of discourses and texts with sociological and historical research, studies on narration, stylistics, rhetoric and argumentation theory. As the discourse to be analyzed is culture-specific, I have decided to combine the Discourse-Historical Approach with Cultural Studies. (shrink)

(1996). The ethos of individualism in cross‐cultural perspective: Exploring the European values data. The European Legacy: Vol. 1, Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the study of European Ideas, pp. 645-651.

In _Professionals’ Ethos and Education for Responsibility,_ Alfred Weinberger, Horst Biedermann, Jean-Luc Patry and Sieglinde Weyringer offer insights into different concepts and applications of professionals’ ethos focusing on teachers’ ethos.

Where institutions are well-ordered and governed according to principles identified as necessary for justice, the attitudes and behaviors of citizens are also likely to be affected: they will develop a specific ethos that is appropriate for sustaining that just order. However, the absence of a substantially just basic structure will also take effect on what is considered an appropriate sense of justice suited to dealing with nonideal situations characterized by potentially profound injustice. Where ideal theory can describe an (...) class='Hi'>ethos necessary for supporting already just institutions and practices, we require a separate account of an ethos appropriate to nonideal conditions. (shrink)

Este artículo es un análisis de la estética de la política del filme Canoa (1976) del director mexicano Felipe Cazals. Aquí, se toma como base la filosofía política de Jacques Rancière y una estética basada en la escucha. La idea que se desarrolla es que el linchamiento narrado en el filme es una reacción disciplinar que se funda en la alienación de las capacidades auditivas e intelectivas de la grey del pueblo. Este proceso de captura de las capacidades auditivas tiene (...) el nombre de «sinfónisis» y su puesta en marcha como maquinación y materialidad auditiva lleva el nombre de «ethos-de-lo-audible». Para esto, primero se desarrollan la dimensión política de la escucha y su potencial alienante. Luego, se cotejan los hechos cinematográficos con las categorías de «sinfónisis», «escucha policial» y «ethos-de-lo-audible». La conclusión es que los hechos narrados en Canoa son la constancia de la eficacia de un reparto audible policial de los asuntos de la comunidad. (shrink)

In Cohen’s vision of the just society, there would be no need for unequalizing incentives so as to benefit the least well-off; instead, people would be motivated by an egalitarian ethos to work hard and in the most socially productive jobs. As such, Cohen appears to offer a way to mitigate the trade-off of equality for efficiency that often characterizes theorizing about distributive justice. This article presents an egalitarian challenge to Cohen’s vision of the just society. I argue that (...) a society where all internalized the egalitarian ethos would be one lacking equal respect among its members, in which certain groups lacked the grounds of self-respect. Section 1 defends equal respect and a form of equality of self-respect as values with broad-based appeal to egalitarians, and argues that a particular form of hierarchy would undermine both equal respect and the grounds of self-respect. Sections 2 and 3 reveal that just such a hierarchy would emerge in a society in which all had internalized the egalitarian ethos, in the case of both carers and the untalented. Thus, Cohen’s proposed society is shown to fail to unite equality and efficiency. Instead, Cohen’s society would be characterized by a lack of equality. (shrink)

The philosophical nature of ethical reasoning generates different definitions of moral subjectivity. Thus any talk of leadership ethics requires not only that we confront biases regarding human nature and the purpose of leadership and business conduct, but also differing ethical approaches which may be rooted in specific cultural and religious backgrounds. Building a conceptual framework for leadership ethics which overcomes these obstacles of bias and cultural embeddedness therefore requires another approach. It can be found in the concept of the Global (...) Ethos values. Using Kohlberg’s model of moral development, the Global Ethos values appear as a protoethical system of values with a level-six effect, a universally explicable deontological canon of ethical values below the sixth level, i.e. in the realm of hands-on management and leadership. As non-judgmental and regulative guiding principles, these values are the normative guidelines for selecting a situationally appropriate form of leadership style before and beyond any philosophical explication and rationale. (shrink)

In the northern Cauca region of Colombia, community-based organizations are promoting worldviews and practices of resistance that prioritize intersubjective cultural links. They maintain a strong connection with the land, traditions, and ecosystems that provide a foundation for their community’s existential meaning and identity. Key factors in the analysis of cultural identities and communities’ autonomy include: the recovery of native seeds and traditional farming methods, along with the promotion of agro-ecological education. Two concepts —ecological ethos and biocultural democracy— can provide (...) a framework for analyzing community practices in an ethical and political-ecological sense. (shrink)

En Chile, entre el 2020 y el 2022, fue redactada la primera propuesta para una nueva constitucion por la Convencion Constitucional (CC), órgano compuesto por 155 constituyentes elegidos por votacion popular. La CC estuvo caracterizada tanto por la paridad de genero como por la existencia de diecisiete escanos reservados a representantes de diez pueblos originarios (PPOO). En los discursos de apertura, realizados por cada convencional en una plenaria de trabajo de la CC, se expusieron sus motivaciones y expectativas respecto a (...) la redaccion de una nueva constitucion. Dichos discursos nos ofrecen una oportunidad para explorar las diferentes formas de construccion identitaria de los representantes de los PPOO en tanto nuevos actores politicos. Al respecto nos preguntamos: ¿cómo se configura el ethos discursivo de los representantes de los PPOO en la CC chilena en sus discursos de apertura? Para responderla, analizamos los diecisiete discursos de apertura emitidos por los representantes de los PPOO, caracterizando el ethos discursivo a traves de la identificacion de rasgos del ethos mostrado, el ethos dicho, el ethos previo, así como los enunciadores y los destinatarios de cada enunciado. (shrink)

In Aristotle's Rhetoric, logos must be conceived as enthymematical argumentation relative to the issue of the case. Ethos and pathos also can take the form of an enthymeme, but this argumentation doesn't relate (directly) to the issue. In this kind of enthymeme, the conclusion is relative to the ethos of the speaker or (reasons for) the pathos of the audience. In an ideal situation — with a good procedure and rational judges — logos dominates and in the real (...) situation of Aristotle's time — with an imperfect procedure and irrational judges — ethos and pathos prevail. (shrink)

This article presents the notions of ethos and eidos as field level concepts for the sociology of morality and the anthropology of ethics. This is accomplished in the context of Bourdieuan social theory and, therefore, from the broad standpoint of practice theory. In the first instance these terms are used to refer to the normative structures of social fields and are conceived so as to represent the way in which such structures fall between two planes, that of the implicit (...) and the explicit. Subsequently, they are used to further understand a distinction between morality—roughly, the implicit moral order of a social field—and ethics—the more explicit and often codified elements of a social field’s normative structure. When presented in relation to academic philosophical inquiries into the ethical issues in healthcare and the life sciences—meaning the disciplines of applied ethics in general and applied ethics in particular—the analytic perspective these terms facilitate enables us to represent the fundamental conditions required for academic enquiry; taken together the ethos and eidos of an intellectual field constitute the requisite background of its normative epistemic and methodological commitments, thereby providing the structures of disciplined intellectual practices. Seen in this light it not only becomes possible to grasp applied ethics as a socially structured practice but to understand it in terms that can also be used to frame our everyday moral practices. In this way applied ethics can be acknowledged as a relatively unique part of our contemporary moral culture. (shrink)

The paper lays the groundwork for understanding Heidegger's original ethics in the context of embodiment. I draw upon Merleau-Ponty's account of the flesh to develop a new ontology of embodiment as the basis for ethics. This ontology is formulated by integrating three unique accounts of the embodiment, namely, Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, Yuasa Yasuo's Eastern-based phenomenology of the body, and the emerging science of Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI). In each of these accounts of embodiment, the flesh is revealed as simultaneously consisting of presence and (...) absence, incarnation and transcendence, being and consciousness. As a result, the Heideggerian approach to ethics, which is based upon the relationship we have with being, can be realized on many levels of embodiment. This makes the cultivation of a holistic ethos more feasible. Such an ethos overcomes the shortcomings in Heidegger's ethics and, in particular, those revealed by Levinas, Levin, Krell, and Caputo. (shrink)

The view that music can have a positive or negative effect on a person’s character has been defended throughout the history of philosophy. This paper traces some of the history of the ethos theory and identifies a version of the theory that could be true. This version of the theory can be traced to Plato and Aristotle and was given a clear statement by Herbert Spencer in the nineteenth century. The paper then examines some of the empirical literature on (...) how music can affect dispositions to behave and moral judgement. None of this evidence provides much support for the ethos theory. The paper then proposes a programme of research that has the potential to confirm the ethos theory. (shrink)

RésuméLe corps persuade tout autant que le verbe. Il persuade même à l'intérieur de l'exercice de la parole.En s'appuyant sur une théorie sémiotique du corps (cf. Jacques Fontanille, Séma et soma. Les figures du corps), on examinera les différentes dimensions de l'efficacité persuasive du corps : le corps en tant qu'enveloppe et surface d'inscription, en tant que chair et motricité, en tant que référence déictique, en tant que contenant « habité » de récits et de scènes, notamment.Cette étude se déclinera (...) en deux grands pans : (i) d'un côté, l'ensemble des émotions suscitées et manipulées par la construction et la proposition d'un éthos corporel de l'énonciateur (les approches les plus courantes de l'éthos se limitent en général à la construction des rôles actantiels et modaux, et des représentations figuratives de l'énonciateur) ; (ii) de l'autre côté, l'ensemble des pathèmes associés à la production d'arguments de nature « sensible », et faisant appel aux figures du corps de l'énonciataire.On prendra pour exemple le cas du discours de témoignage, où le corps du témoin, sa situation, sa présence, ses réactions, ses perceptions et ses émotions est tout particulièrement sollicité. Le cas de la persuasion par « compassion » sera aussi exploité. (shrink)

This article focuses on Max Weber’s understanding of “ethos” in “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” and the benefits afforded by this concept. The reference is not accidental as it is in this work that Weber could consistently explicate his ethical argument. The idea of ethos becomes clearer in comparison with the concept of habitus, which is actively used today in social science. It is shown that the distinction between ethos and habitus may be more (...) productive than the conflation common in modern research. The category “ethos” is compared with the value-rational action from the later typology of action in Weber’s “Economy and Society”, while habitus is associated with traditional action from the same typology. The concept of ethos is further clarified by the example of Weber’s opposition of traditionalism and ethical modern Western capitalism. By focusing on ethical issues and using character as a theoretical tool, Weber not only puts forward a convincing interpretation but lays the foundations for a specific line of analysis in social and economic science. The category of ethos in conjunction with the value-rational type of action acquires special significance due to the potential for novelty and change that is embedded in it. (shrink)

The crisis of 2008–2009 has been viewed primarily as a financial one, which has spilled over into the economy more generally. I want to argue that there is a much deeper crisis, of which the present one is a result. The deeper crisis is political: more specifically, it is a crisis in the ideology and social ethos of the American people. I refer to what has happened to the thinking of United States citizens since the Second World War, and (...) the dangers that that transformation entails for world peace and cooperation—let alone the creation of an economic regime in which deep financial crises do not occur. Short of a change in the ideology of a many of its citizens, I do not believe the United States can succeed in preventing a repeat performance, perhaps many encores, which become increasingly severe. (shrink)

we are called together in indianapolis, under the shadow of the poet Mari Evans, to reflect on the influence and constraints of place, and the transformative and liberatory power of imagination. In her essay, "Ethos and Creativity," Evans looks back on a lifetime spent in Indianapolis. She shares her experiences of uplifting and revelatory art performances, alongside a multitude of spirit-numbing indignities as a result of anti-black racism. The metaphor she chooses to elicit the experience of this racism is (...) that of steel thread encased in luxurious fabric. No matter the beauty and exhilaration of the city, its character has been shaped and framed by an inflexible cord that tethers it to a legacy of white supremacy... (shrink)

Since the time when philosophy acquired interest to the internal life of an individual, the idea of the importance of the feeling of one’s self-identifi cation throughout one’s life with wayward circumstances, experienced travails and pivots etc. at the background, has been implicitly connected to the phenomenon of self-awareness. Selfhood of a person makes sense when an internal axis of identity is preserved in their self-conception despite the circumstances. The ability to remember oneself in the episodes of one’s life turns (...) into a necessity to experience possible doubts, repentance, and moral responsibility for involvement in certain events. The feeling of self-identity is inseparable from the experience of one’s irreversible participation in the bygone, fi lling it with senses of supra-empirical order. This pertains not only to the past but also to the future, the experience of which corresponds with the feeling of capacity to open to possible changes. From Augustine to Heidegger, transcendental philosophy focused on conditions of realization of one’s selfhood, its integrity in life and actions of a human being. The sense of the facts of life is valid on condition of internally recognized self-identity, which is encompassed by the self-awareness of a person. Here, transcendental philosophy did not shrink from psychology. For example, Kant considered the topic of identity to be a psychological one, not just purely philosophical. Social and historical foundations of the problem of identity fell off the radar of philosophers until the middle of the previous century. It was only after WWII that philosophers, as well as the whole European humanitarian community, discovered the topic of identity amidst excitement at the ideas of Cooley, Mead, and Erikson, where the problem opened in a new socio-psychological context. Identity is unthinkable beyond interactions, in which a human being is an actor, where one needs to possess a vital ability to identify and present oneself without dissolving in the array of versatile role actions and agglomerates of normativity. Identity envisages explicit or implicit correlation of oneself with signifi cant communities (family, professional, ethnical, cultural, etc.), with a circle of authoritative persons, with worthy samples and norms of behavior and, fi nally, with institutions that ensure and guarantee stability of the desirable order in the society. In this respect, identity is related to the so-called “collective identity” without dissolving in it. For identity is also an objectively valid attitude to oneself, mediated by the attitude of the others in the structure of the existing social relations. Identity includes an element of freedom and selectivity. However, freedom turns for identity into a hidden facticity of ethos, established norms, where legal, moral, economic, and political normativity are combined on the basis of values. Ethos is a symbiosis of social relations, where certain values have crystallized. Due to values, it is possible to trace clear boundaries of actions and relations considered inadmissible in a society. Due to ethos, the society maintains the atmosphere of common sense, has an open perception of what makes sense, is full of virtues, legitimacy (in modern terms), of what can be trusted and what could be neglected. Only a person who feels trust from the other one and, therefore, feels the validity of the existing ethos toward themselves, may fully experience the feeling of one’s self-identity, the feeling of the capacity of one’s being. This feeling is inconspicuous, it looks like something natural and self-evident for the person who has easily integrated into the substance of norms. However, the large scale of migration processes testifi es to potential challenges in the area of self-identifi cation both in regard to the migrants and the societies accepting them. Regardless of this circumstance, self-identity is to this or that extent a challenge to the life genesis of every person. Key words : self-consciousness, self-identity, ethos. (shrink)

The article analyzes the difference between the values and concepts – both for their content and for its depending of social media of the concepts and values. It is alleged that values based on social experience and can not be alienated from the life world of communicative associations as their social base. Therefore, the values can not be universal, as opposed to concepts that appeal to the laws of thought common to all people. Theoretical approach to values within a pair (...) of categories “universal/particular” seems problematic, though marks important points to real values conflict coordination of various social communities. Conflict raises with the question when we are trying to generalize values: what values are more reliable – the values of the original communities or values of the communication between these communities – through their representatives. In agreeing values of primary communities the experience of interaction between these communities begins quietly – but increasingly – substitute for personal experience of each of these communities. Values of interaction between communities thus forming a new community different from those that this interaction had to agree – this community is secondary to the first one, but may eventually acquire its own existence and its own reasons for the formation of values. This values at their counterfactual rethinking, especially raises legitimation, lose much of its original rational content and symbol meaning, conceived by their creators, and a significant part of the initial motivational force. Perhaps their partial replacement with new, formalized (schematic, algorithmic etc.) meanings and new values – weaker in motivation, but more understandable and acceptable to the wider public, especially of prepared for legitimacy. You could even say that a significant part of motivational force of these generalized values derive already from the mechanisms of legitimacy. However, if the connection to the primary communities values weakens, it does not mean that it is unnecessary or even harmful – on the contrary, once this relationship weakened over, legitimation degenerates into a formal legalization, generalized values fail to fulfill legitimation function and lost grounds for universalization and for construction of the effective norms. The cause of the subordination of understanding the values to understanding the concepts in modern philosophy is largely the philosophy of Georg Hegel. For him, values are completely subordinate to conceptual thinking, dissolve it as a part of a whole. At the same time, Hegel indicates the inalienability of certain values of people – including people never even wishing it – can not lose their dignity as a creatures who can think. Values in the end can not be reduced to the value of things, though they are their source – the value of the person do not identical to the value of things, first ones are higher, spiritual, non-market. It seems appropriate therefore to take next, the terms “value of things” and “value of the person” as non-identical. In the narrow sense of spiritual values “value of the person” oppose to the value of material things, in the broad sense of the value as it they cover everything that is valuable, including the worth of something. The concept of the ethos conveys of non-reducability of the life world of the communicative associations to conceptual and semantic grounds for understanding. This ethos can be transmitted only by totality and hierarchy of values specific communicative associations and can never gain universal conceptual spread, but the ethos of several of these communities could provide a basis for the formation of a generalized ethos of their mutual understanding – narrower in number of values, but greater in number and volume of meanings and symbols. Keywords : ethos, social values, concepts, community communication, generalization, universalization. (shrink)