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Ethical Action (ethical + action)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences57%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting28%

Selected Abstracts

Virtuous Viragos: Female Heroism and Ethical Action in Shakespearean Drama

LITERATURE COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 6 2010
Unhae Langis
Virtue, from the Latin vir for manly courage and strength, was the mark of male excellence in Renaissance culture. Embodying both physical and moral strength through the famous figure of Hercules, virtue took on other values of courtly gentility and political prudence as the medieval warrior society was gradually transformed into the modern state. In inverse proportion to the expansion of male virtue, the conception of the virago underwent a corresponding constriction and decline from a manlike, heroic woman to a scold. Encompassing both physical and moral excellence (OED 2a, 7), male virtue came to appropriate the heroic definition of virago, and female virtue, by Shakespeare's time, became confined to chastity (OED 2c). Challenging the traditions of male virtue and female monstrosity in Renaissance drama, this essay examines the virtuous viragos populating the Shakespearean canon, who present themselves as better models of ethical action than men, with whom virtue is etymologically and historically associated. This study examines two nuanced conceptions of female heroism and ethical action centering on the erotic and politic Cleopatra and the chaste, self-affirming Desdemona as virtuous viragos. Moreover, the notion of heroism, traditionally associated with tragedy, translates to the less exalted but more prudentially successful ethical action of viragos in Shakespeare's comedies such as The Taming of the Shrew. I argue that virtuous viragos attain their ethical stature against this male-inflected standard of tragic heroism even while calling for its dismantling and replacement with the more discerning framework of neo-Aristotelian virtue grounded on practical wisdom. [source]

Responsible business decisions: an over-arching framework

JOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Issue 3-4 2006
Alan Gully
Contemporary businesses face increasing pressures on formulating, implementing and monitoring their strategic policies. Their long-term success in attaining these strongly relies on developing a proactive two-way, or even multi-way, stakeholder dialogue to become aware of the moral aspects of decisions. Openness and transparency should help to provide stakeholders with information on how and why particular courses of action have been adopted. In order to be effective and efficient, responsible business decision-making requires the willpower and commitment by management to implement, monitor and evaluate the ethical action which ought to be based on the organisation's evolving values and priorities. Although inclusive relationships may be accomplished in several ways, the normative interpretation of stakeholder theory is the most appropriate methodology to enable moral judgement to be made. An over-arching framework is presented to assess, review and re-balance the different techniques for any business to achieve its intended outcomes through the triple bottom line. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Virtuous Viragos: Female Heroism and Ethical Action in Shakespearean Drama

LITERATURE COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 6 2010
Unhae Langis
Virtue, from the Latin vir for manly courage and strength, was the mark of male excellence in Renaissance culture. Embodying both physical and moral strength through the famous figure of Hercules, virtue took on other values of courtly gentility and political prudence as the medieval warrior society was gradually transformed into the modern state. In inverse proportion to the expansion of male virtue, the conception of the virago underwent a corresponding constriction and decline from a manlike, heroic woman to a scold. Encompassing both physical and moral excellence (OED 2a, 7), male virtue came to appropriate the heroic definition of virago, and female virtue, by Shakespeare's time, became confined to chastity (OED 2c). Challenging the traditions of male virtue and female monstrosity in Renaissance drama, this essay examines the virtuous viragos populating the Shakespearean canon, who present themselves as better models of ethical action than men, with whom virtue is etymologically and historically associated. This study examines two nuanced conceptions of female heroism and ethical action centering on the erotic and politic Cleopatra and the chaste, self-affirming Desdemona as virtuous viragos. Moreover, the notion of heroism, traditionally associated with tragedy, translates to the less exalted but more prudentially successful ethical action of viragos in Shakespeare's comedies such as The Taming of the Shrew. I argue that virtuous viragos attain their ethical stature against this male-inflected standard of tragic heroism even while calling for its dismantling and replacement with the more discerning framework of neo-Aristotelian virtue grounded on practical wisdom. [source]

Research and Moral Law: Ethics and the Social Science Research Relation

POLAR: POLITICAL AND LEGAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW, Issue 2 2007
Amy Swiffen
This paper explores the ethics of social science research by taking the Canadian context as a case study of the increasing formalization of ethics review procedures in North America. Based on a biomedical model of harm prevention, all university research involving humans in Canada, regardless of discipline, must pass through an ethics board review. I read the official ethics policy document governing review procedures for human research in Canada and use two examples of criticism of such policy as entry points to identify and explore a limit in understandings of social research ethics. This limit is reached when ethics policy is criticized on the basis of the incompatibility of a general rule applied to a particular research situation. Using concepts from the ethical philosophies of Kant and Lacan, I move beyond the question of the application of general rules to particular research situations and push research ethics into different territory, where neither general rules nor the notion of particularity can be relied on to ground ethical action. In this other terrain, radical responsibility and unguaranteed decision are the only signposts. [source]

Promoting ethical reflection in the teaching of business ethics

BUSINESS ETHICS: A EUROPEAN REVIEW, Issue 4 2008
Howard Harris
A case study provides the basis for consideration of the purpose of business ethics teaching, the importance of reflection and the evaluation of ethics teaching. The way in which personal reflection and an increased capacity for ethical action can be encouraged and openly identified as aims of the course is discussed. The paper considers changes in the design and delivery of the international management ethics and values course taught at the University of South Australia as part of the undergraduate management degree in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. As a result of student and teaching staff responses, and course evaluations, the course design, teaching and assessment has moved steadily toward an aim which explicitly refers to behaviour, without losing the significant conceptual base. Ways in which opportunities can be provided to enhance the development of a reflective capability are considered, including narrative, role models, ethical reflection, journal-keeping and practice. The changes required a change in assessment practice. The difficulties of assessing intention and commitment to ethical action, whether in an individual course or across the curriculum, are discussed. [source]

Beyond a code of ethics: phenomenological ethics for everyday practice

PHYSIOTHERAPY RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL, Issue 2 2010
Bruce Greenfield
Abstract Physical therapy, like all health-care professions, governs itself through a code of ethics that defines its obligations of professional behaviours. The code of ethics provides professions with a consistent and common moral language and principled guidelines for ethical actions. Yet, and as argued in this paper, professional codes of ethics have limits applied to ethical decision-making in the presence of ethical dilemmas. Part of the limitations of the codes of ethics is that there is no particular hierarchy of principles that govern in all situations. Instead, the exigencies of clinical practice, the particularities of individual patient's illness experiences and the transformative nature of chronic illnesses and disabilities often obscure the ethical concerns and issues embedded in concrete situations. Consistent with models of expert practice, and with contemporary models of patient-centred care, we advocate and describe in this paper a type of interpretative and narrative approach to moral practice and ethical decision-making based on phenomenology. The tools of phenomenology that are well defined in research are applied and examined in a case that illustrates their use in uncovering the values and ethical concerns of a patient. Based on the deconstruction of this case on a phenomenologist approach, we illustrate how such approaches for ethical understanding can help assist clinicians and educators in applying principles within the context and needs of each patient. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]