Integrity and Cynicism: Possibilities and Constraints of Moral Communication

Paying thorough attention to cynical action and integrity could result in a less naive approach to ethics and moral communication. This article discusses the issues of integrity and cynicism on a theoretical and on a more practical level. The first part confronts Habermas’s approach of communicative action with Sloterdijk’s concept of cynical reason. In the second part, the focus will be on the constraints and possibilities of moral communication within a business context. Discussing the corporate integrity approach of Kaptein and Wempe will provide this focus. Their approach can be considered as a valuable contribution to the question of how to deal with (dilemmas of) conflicting interests, open discussion, fairness, and strategic decision-making in the context of stakeholder dialog. However, it is concluded that Kaptein and Wempe seem to overstretch the concept of corporate integrity by their inclination to make it an all-purpose remedy for corporate dilemmas.     

当代大学生就业难的道德困境

在当前社会主义市场经济环境下，如何引导好大学毕业生树立正确的就业观，如何平衡功利主义与责任意识、享乐思想与奉献精神之间的关系，如何在企业需求与学校人才培养模式之间形成良性互动，是当前大学教育工作面临的重要课题。充分调动政府、社会、企业、学校各自资源的力量，是解决当代大学生就业困境的重要出路。     

德育方法探究

德育方法的正确实施，是提高德育效果的重要环节。在对学生进行品德教育的过程中，教师可通过综合教育法、精讲教学法、互动式教学法和实践教学法的有效实施，来提高学生学习的积极性，提高学生的表达能力和自我教育能力，并实现促进学生知行统一的教育教学目标。     

Degradation of a chiral nonylphenol isomer in two agricultural soils

The degradation of a chiral nonylphenol isomer, 4-(1-ethyl-1,4-dimethylpentyl)phenol (NP₁₁₂), in two agricultural soils from Monheim and Dortmund, Germany has been studied. The degradation of NP₁₁₂ and the formation of a nitro-nonylphenol metabolite were determined by means of GC-MS analysis. The degradation followed bi-exponential order kinetics, with half-life of less than 5 days in both soils. The nitro-metabolite was found at different concentration levels in the two soils. The nitro-metabolite of NP₁₁₂ was more persistent than its parent compound. After 150 days about 13% of the initially applied NP₁₁₂ remained in the Monheim soil as its nitro-metabolite. Results of the E-screen assay revealed that the nitro-NP₁₁₂ has oestrogenic potency of 85% of that of NP₁₁₂. Furthermore, the results of chiral GC-MS analysis revealed that no chiral degradation of NP₁₁₂ occurred in this study.     

精神支持与物质支持对建筑工人不安全行为影响对比

为向建筑工人提供更具针对性的支持,对比分析精神支持和物质支持的影响效果,分别构建精神支持和物质支持对建筑工人不安全行为的影响机理,基于351名建筑工人调查数据,采用结构方程模型展开实证研究.研究结果表明:精神支持和物质支持对建筑工人安全意识的提高和工作压力的降低都具有显著影响;相较于物质支持,精神支持影响效果更好,更能...     

On ethical leadership impact: The role of follower mindfulness and moral emotions

With the present paper, we aim to provide new conceptual insights and empirical evidence on ethical leadership contingencies: we analyze under what conditions ethical leadership can positively impact follower discretionary work behaviors (extra effort and helping). We argue that followers vary in terms of their sensitivity toward and processing of moral information, as conveyed by ethical leaders, and that these individual differences determine the strength of the link between ethical leadership and follower discretionary work behaviors. In a multisource study with 135 leader–follower dyads, we examine two prototypical examples of affective and cognitive individual differences that involve a heightened inclination toward morality: follower moral emotions and follower mindfulness. Our findings indicate that ethical leadership is more strongly related to follower extra effort and helping at higher levels of follower moral emotions and higher levels of follower mindfulness. We discuss the implications of this moral information processing perspective on ethical leadership for research and managerial practice. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Conservation as Virtue: a Scientific and Social Process for Conservation Ethics

Abstract:  Most scientists take ethical arguments for conservation as given and focus on scientific or economic questions. Although nature conservation is often considered a just cause, it is given little further consideration. A lack of attention to ethical theory raises serious concerns for how conservation scientists conceive and practice ethics. I contrast two common ways scientists approach ethics, as demonstrated in the writings of Stephen Jay Gould and E. O. Wilson. Gould casts severe doubt as to whether any ethics are possible from science, whereas Wilson proposes science as the only path to ethics. I argue these two methods ultimately limit popular support for conservation and offer Alasdair MacIntyre's "virtue ethics" as an alternative. Unlike Gould and Wilson, MacIntyre provides an ethical theory that reconciles scientific inquiry and social traditions. Recent studies of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States affirm MacIntyre's claims and provide important insights for conservation today. These accounts argue that social solidarity and political success against segregation were possible only as rooted in the particular language, logic, and practices of a robust cultural tradition. If correct, conservation science should attend to several questions. On what basis can conservation achieve widespread cultural legitimacy? What are the particular social currencies for a conservation ethic? What role does science play in such a scheme? MacIntyre's careful positioning of scientific and social traditions provides a hopeful ethical direction for conservation.     

Public views about editing genes in wildlife for conservation

Developments in CRISPR-based gene-editing technologies have generated a growing number of proposals to edit genes in wildlife to meet conservation goals. As these proposals have attracted greater attention, controversies have emerged among scientists and stakeholder groups over potential consequences and ethical implications of gene editing. Responsible governance cannot occur without consulting broader publics, yet little effort has been made to systematically assess public understandings and beliefs in relation to this new area of applied genetic engineering. We analyzed data from a survey of U.S. adults (n = 1600), collected by YouGov, and that examined respondents’ concerns about gene editing in animal and plant wildlife and how those concerns are shaped by cultural dispositions toward science and beliefs about the appropriateness of intervening in nature at the genetic level. On average, respondents perceived more risk than benefit in using these tools. Over 70% agreed that gene editing in wildlife could be “easily used for the wrong purposes.” When evaluating the moral acceptability of gene editing in wildlife, respondents evaluated applications to improve survival in endangered wildlife as more morally acceptable than applications to decrease abundance in a population or eliminate a population. Belief in the authority of scientific knowledge was positively related to favorable views of the benefits, risks, and moral acceptability of editing genes in wildlife. The belief that editing genes in wildlife inappropriately intervenes in nature predicted relatively more concern about risks and moral acceptability and skepticism about benefits. Given high levels of concern and skepticism about gene editing in wildlife for conservation among the U.S. public, a take-it-slow approach to making decisions about when or whether to use these tools is advisable. Early opinions, including those uncovered in this study, are likely to be provisional. Thus, consulting the public should be an ongoing process.     

Naturalness: Beyond Animal Welfare

There is an ongoing debate in animalethics on the meaning and scope of animalwelfare. In certain broader views, leading anatural life through the development of naturalcapabilities is also headed under the conceptof animal welfare. I argue that a concern forthe development of natural capabilities of ananimal such as expressed when living freelyshould be distinguished from the preservationof the naturalness of its behavior andappearance. However, it is not always clearwhere a plea for natural living changes overinto a plea for the preservation of theirnaturalness or wildness. In the first part ofthis article, I examine to what extent theconcerns for natural living meet ``theexperience requirement.' I conclude that someof these concerns go beyond welfare. In thesecond part of the article. I ask whether wehave moral reasons to respect concernsfor the naturalness of an animal's living thattranscend its welfare. I argue that the moralrelevance of such considerations can be graspedwhen we see animals as entities bearingnon-moral intrinsic values. In my view the``natural' appearance and behavior of an animalmay embody intrinsic values. Caring for ananimal's naturalness should then be understoodas caring for such intrinsic values. Intrinsicvalues provide moral reasons for action iffthey are seen as constitutive of the good lifefor humans. I conclude by reinterpreting,within the framework of a perfectionist ethicaltheory, the notion of indirect dutiesregarding animals, which go beyond andsupplement the direct duties towardsanimals.     

安全道德素质:缺失与建设

分析了安全道德素质缺失的含义,指出缺失的3个主要原因:对人的生命关怀的伦理意识淡漠;缺少尊重生命健康价值的安全道德责任感;行为者无视法律和道德规范等安全行为准则;指明了安全道德素质必须具备的3个定性特征或关键"三要素":尊重生命的道德意识成为安全观念的基本成分,形成尊重生命的安全道德行为,自觉遵守安全道德规范或安全主体自律;阐明了安全道德素质是安全发展不可缺少的因素,以及企业负责人与安全管理者的安全道德素质对解决中国安全问题有着特殊的意义;提出关于建设安全道德素质的基础性、自觉性和制度性有机统一的理论框架,以适应我国社会"安全发展"的急迫性。