现代公共生活伦理建设的基本路径

现代公共生活需要公共生活伦理调适,公共生活伦理建设已成为伦理道德建设的重要主题。加强公共生活伦理建设,一是要以现代性"公众"的成长作为主体基础;二要丰富公德的社会性;三要加强公共生活伦理的制度规约;四要倡导公共反腐,营造公共生活伦理的优良环境;五要彰扬公共生活伦理的价值以实现普遍的公共关怀。     

公共利益:公共伦理的价值基础

公共伦理是公共管理行为应遵循的准则与规范体系,其功能在于有效调节、规范和引导公共管理行为,促进公共管理目标的实现,公共伦理必须寻找到合理的价值基础。本文认为,公共利益既是公共伦理建设的出发点,又是公共伦理致力于实现的目标,理应成为公共伦理的价值基础。同时,以公共利益作为公共伦理的价值基础,实现了义务论与目的论的统一,使公共伦理具备了很强的实践品质。     

公共伦理与公共秩序 ——基于当前政府行政伦理状况的理论思考

现代社会公共秩序的核心是个体自由,而其价值表现则是公民伦理。我国公民伦理思想的历史积累并不丰厚,与此相关的公民社会亦不成熟,因而现实公共秩序及其规则的形成主要依靠传统习俗与权力意志,这导致现代公民伦理成长的孱弱性和漫长性。在现阶段,消费政治欲望的增长给公共秩序的结构转型带来了双重任务:社会重建与权力重建,两者并无先后轻重之分,只有如何应对之别。     

公共伦理研究的系统力作——评《公共伦理丛书》

公共领域的扩展已经成为现代社会的主要特征之一.对于公共权力的支配、公共资源的分配和公共规范的建立与遵守都成为人们所关注的焦点.在价值多元的现代社会中,由于人们在观点、理念上的相互差异,为公共生活提供应然性基础就变得尤为困难.另一方面,商品经济对于经济效率、经济理性的片面强调和追求,又使公共观念面临着被平整化的巨大压力.商业平整化的结果之一,便是道德似乎正渐渐远离人们日常生活的视阈.但是这种远离仅仅是一种现象,并不能改变社会对于伦理、道德的内在期盼与需要.在现代社会中,以家族为基本单位的传统社会逐渐退缩,以个体为单位的公共领域日渐膨胀.探寻公共领域的合理性基础,为公共生活提供道德价值的引导,成为当代社会的急迫需求.     

中国的现代性启蒙:在传统伦理和现代市民社会之间

启蒙就是要促使人类摆脱“不成熟状态”,激发人的无穷想象力和无限创造力,真正确立起独立人格和主体意识。目前中国的现代性启蒙就是要在扬弃传统的基础上,参照西方社会的现代化模式,确立社会成员个体独立的法权状态,促使传统伦理社会向现代市民社会转变,从而为人的进一步发展与完善创造条件。     

艾滋病高危行为的伦理分析与公共伦理政策选择

艾滋病迅速蔓延与高危行为有着密切的直接关联。艾滋病高危行为的产生与行为者的伦理态度、社会伦理态度又有着深刻的关联。从伦理学角度分析艾滋病高危行为,可以从源头上了解高危行为产生的内在动因。由此,从公共伦理政策构建的层面上对艾滋病高危行为提出干预,是有效预防艾滋病的重要途径和措施。     

国外公共健康伦理研究的新进展

近五年来国外公共健康伦理始终围绕公共健康、公民权利、政府责任及其相互关系这一主线展开探讨,而公共健康伦理原则的价值排序、公共健康伦理的分析方法与公共健康伦理的教育普及则是其中的理论热点。关于公共健康伦理原则的价值排序问题有特定原则、中层原则和主导原则等排序主张。公共健康伦理的基本分析方法有美德伦理方法、公共善方法和罗尔斯主义方法等。让公共健康专业人员理解公共健康伦理知识,提高道德能力和培养职业道德情操则是公共健康伦理教育的重要目标。     

论我国公共伦理研究的三个向度及其基本范式

我国学界关于公共伦理的研究存在三个既相互区别又相互联系的研究向度,即公共管理伦理的向度、市民社会伦理的向度、政治伦理的向度,与之相应的基本理论范式是公共利益范式、公共领域范式以及公共性范式.厘清三个向度及其基本理论范式之间的区别和联系,是公共伦理学研究的基础理论问题.     

乡村公共伦理建设的难题解析

乡村现代化运动提出了建设支持“人的普遍联系”和公共生活的公共伦理的历史性要求、致力于乡村公共伦理建设,必须寻求解决三类难题,即基础难题、结构难题、操作难题。     

市场经济社会中的个人权利与公共伦理

在市场经济社会中,由于个人权利的充分张扬,私人利益和公共伦理之间显示出深刻的矛盾。早期经济自由主义者将这一矛盾的解决归于市场过程,黑格尔主义则寄望于国家权力。二者都忽视了公共交往在伦理建构中的作用。公共领域中的公共交往所形成的公共伦理,是市场经济社会在自身发展中产生出来的理性力量。它克服了市场交换原则和政治强制原则的局限性,为这一矛盾不断的解决提供了动力。     

Between private and public: Towards a conception of the transitional subject

Elaborating upon Winnicott’s seminal contributions on the transitional object, the author proposes a conception of a transitional subject in which the patient comes into being simultaneously between private and public, subjective creation and material life, me and not‐me. By anchoring subjective creation in the real world (including the body), the patient creates a basis for authentic psychesoma as well as for both personal and symbolic contributions to the world beyond omnipotence, including the world of other subjects. In this sense, intersubjective life is seen as predicated upon transitionality, with the patient seen as simultaneously coming into being as a distinctly personal subject and, in part, as a symbol. Clinical phenomenology is described and is interpreted with respect to the need within psychoanalysis itself for a third, and for a realm of meaning‐creation that lies beyond privacy, omnipotence, and the dyad.     

儒学的一种缺弱:私德与公德

In a society dominated by Confucian ethics, a spirit of Confucian public morality can be seen in the Confucian debate over publicness and privateness, but it is usually activated in circumstances of large ethical crisis. Confucian theory mainly uses ethical relationships to create self and social identities, causing problems of identification in the public life and hindering the expression of moral feelings and actions, thus revealing a weakness in public morality. This is a space that Confucianism has not yet been able to cover, and also where it has room for growth. Translated by Huang Deyuan from Wen Shi Zhe 文史哲 (Journal of Literature, History and Philosophy), 2006, (1): 30–36     

The relationship of environmental concern with public and private pro-environmental behaviours: A pre-registered meta-analysis

Previous meta-analyses identified a gap between environmental concern and pro-environmental behaviours. However, the failure to differentiate these behaviours and the influence of contextual factors may limit understanding of the gap. This pre-registered meta-analysis evaluated the magnitudes of the correlations of environmental concern, as measured by the New Environmental Paradigm of thinking, with public and private pro-environmental behaviours and investigated the moderating roles of sociocultural contexts. Environmental concern was found positively correlated with public pro-environmental behaviour (k = 10, N = 4636; r = 0.27) and private pro-environmental behaviour (k = 31, N = 20,907; r = 0.35). These two pooled correlations did not differ significantly. Institutionalization of environmental protection did not moderate these correlations, while cultural factors, including individualism, long-term orientation, and external control, did. These findings maintain the utility of environmental concern in facilitating different pro-environmental behaviours and highlight the lack of research attention on public pro-environmental behaviour.     

Lying and deceiving--moral choice in public and private life

Suppose that there are good or morally defensible reasons for not responding truthfully to a question or request for information. Is a lie or a deception better as a means to avoid telling the truth? There are many situations in public and private life in which the answer to this question would serve as a useful moral guide, for instance, clinical situations involving dying patients, educational situations, involving young children and personal situations involving close friends. Intuitively, we feel that there is a moral asymmetry in favor of deceiving over lying. However, doubts have been cast on such intuition. The aim of this paper is to bolster this intuition. It will be argued that the claim of moral asymmetry in favor of deception can be supported on a consideration of the different degrees of expectation involved in communicative ethics. Two other objections to the claim of asymmetry will also be considered.     

The Australian Psychology Workforce 3: A national profile of psychologists in salaried employment or in independent private practice

A detailed analysis of the different sectors of the psychology workforce was conducted as part of the National Psychology Workforce Survey: Independent Private Practice (IPP), Employed in Public Sector (EPuS) and Employed in Private Sector (EPrS). A total of 11,897 psychologists responded to the workforce survey, a response rate of 48%. Of these 8,086 were fully registered and currently working in a psychology role. Sectors were compared on a range of practice characteristics and differences were explored using a series of ANOVAs and post‐hoc analyses. Results of analyses revealed qualitative differences between the three sectors. Strategies for maintaining the employed workforce were also collected and are reported to be as much about increasing work satisfaction and support for professional and development opportunities as about salary.     

Rorty's Dewey: Pragmatism,education and the public sphere

In Habits of the Heart and The Good Society, Bellah et al. diagnose our loss of public life in areas such as education and relate this loss both to flaws in moral ecology and to our institutions. Their opposition to the Lockean metaphysic of self and community and to objectivist epistemology as a way of understanding schools is helpful in that it naturally suggests the kind of piecemeal, contextualized change that we locate within Dewey's viewpoint. But, I argue, Bellah et al.'s penchant for first philosophy ultimately taints their work. While I applaud their turn to Dewey, I find their choice of a metaphysical, rather than a Rortyan reading of Dewey misguided. The proper alternative to a Lockean metaphysics is not a communitarian/Aristotelian one; the proper corrective to objectivist epistemology is not Deweyan epistemology or critical theory. We need to see, as in Rorty (1991b), that democracy exists prior to normative philosophy just as it has priority over substantive religion. To think otherwise would lead to a loss of contact with the ordinary, specific, ever-changing realms where our lives, and our democratic institutions — including the university — must either thrive or flounder. Finally, there is no epistemology or metaphysics that will adequately ground the university's workings. Instead, there is only, as Dewey put it, growth or failure to grow, guided by hints and resonances that arise in evolving circumstances.     

Neither public nor private religion: the Russian Orthodox Church in the public sphere of contemporary Russia

Cross-country comparative studies of religion (e.g. the Religion Monitor) do not cover some important issues regarding the religious situation in Russia. The problem of contemporary Russian religiosity is beyond individual religiosity or religiosity as a spiritual phenomenon. In Russia—one of the countries which experienced Communism as a period of enforced secularization, there are very few people who have had any religious socialization or who have the experience of belonging to the Christian Church or to any religion. The main point of this article is that what is happening with religion in post-Soviet Russia cannot be adequately explained by the concept of ‘public religion’ and the dichotomy of public vs. private religion, due to the practices of private religion manifesting at a very low level among the Russian population, despite the fact that a large number of Russians consider themselves to be Orthodox Christians. However, the representation of the Church in the public sphere has little to do with what concerns Russians who are in some way involved in parishes. As an alternative tool we propose to describe the religiosity of Russians through the methods of network analysis. Results of a content analysis of contemporary Russian and Soviet media, survey data of the Russian population, and data obtained in a network analysis of parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church are used for substantiating this conclusion.     

Public and private schoolteachers' differences in terms of job attitudes in Albania

In the present study, the attitudinal differences between public and private schoolteachers in Albania were investigated. Since the type of the organization varies, one would expect different climates for the emergence of job attitudes--mainly job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment, the most frequently studied job attitudes in the industrial and organizational psychology literature. It was hypothesized that the private schoolteachers would be more satisfied than public schoolteachers, especially due to high levels of payment and other desirable conditions. However, the public schoolteachers will be more involved than the private schoolteachers since they have to justify their continued work under the undesirable conditions. The commitment level of the private schoolteachers will be higher than the public schoolteachers since there is usually high correlation between job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Data were gathered from a total of 429 teachers working in public (n = 254) and private (n = 175) schools in Albania, in high and middle schools. The data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance with age as a covariate. The results indicated that the private schoolteachers were more satisfied, as expected, revealed a weaker job involvement and were more committed to their school than their colleagues in the public sector. The results were found to be in line with previous studies conducted in the west. However, this study is believed to have a potential contribution to the literature in general, and to the Albanian local literature in particular. To the knowledge of the authors, there has been no similar study in Albania. Discussion is provided along with the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research.     

Patient experiences with treatment in private practice compared with public mental health services

The study compared patient experiences with psychiatric treatment provided by private practitioners and public outpatient clinics. Questionnaires were completed by 642 outpatients in private practice and 6,677 outpatients in public clinics. The questionnaire included a measure of patient experiences comprising six items: treatment outcome, enough time for contact and dialogue with clinician, clinicians' understanding of patient's situation, suitability of therapy and treatment, clinician follow-up of planned actions, and influence on treatment. Patients in private practice had generally better experiences than patients in public outpatient treatment. The difference between private and public patients was largest for patients with poor self-evaluated mental health or those who had just one consultation in the previous three months. Private practitioners appear to have an important role in mental health services delivery, and patients have relatively good experiences with services. Further studies that assess the patient - clinician interaction in different mental health services may give further insights into potential service improvements.     

Teaching ethics in engineering and computer science: A panel discussion

At a conference, two engineering professors and a philosophy professor discussed the teaching of ethics in engineering and computer science. The panelists considered the integration of material on ethics into technical courses, the role of ethical theory in teaching applied ethics, the relationship between cases and codes of ethics, the enlisting of support of engineering faculty, the background needed to teach ethics, and the assessment of student outcomes. Several audience members contributed comments, particularly on teaching ethical theory and on student assessment. This panel discussion took place at a mini-conference, Practicing and Teaching Ethics in Engineering and Computing, held during the Sixth Annual Meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, Washington, D.C., March 8–9, 1997. Biographical information on panelists: Charles Glagola is an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of Florida. He is a registered professional engineer in the states of Florida and Alabama. Before coming to academia, he had extensive industry experience culminating with his owning and operating a construction and engineering firm in Pensacola, Florida. He currently teaches engineering ethics as part of a professional issues course in the Department of Civil Engineering, and a one-hour engineering ethics course that is offered to all engineering students through the College of Engineering. Moshe Kam is professor of electrical and computer engineering at Drexel University. He heads Drexel’s Data Fusion Laboratory which specializes in multisensor systems and robot navigation. His professional interests include detection and estimation, distributed decision making, forensic applications of image processing, and engineering ethics. Michael Loui is professor of electrical and computer engineering and associate dean of the Graduate College at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. From 1990 to 1991, he served at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. His scholarly interests include computational complexity theory, theory of parallel and distributed computation, fault-tolerant software, and professional ethics. Caroline Whitbeck is a philosopher of science, technology and medicine and is the Elmer G. Beamer-Hubert H. Shneider Professor in Ethics at Case-Western Reserve University. She also directs the WWW Ethics Center for Engineering & Science— http://ethics.cwru.edu— under a grant from the National Science Foundation. The focus of her current work is practical ethics, especially ethics in scholarly and scientific research. Her book, Ethics in Engineering Practice and Research, will appear from Cambridge University Press in winter 1997–98.