Maria Russo

The purpose of this qualitative study was to analyse nurses’ professional dignity in their everyday working lives. We explored the factors that affect nursing professional dignity in practice that emerge in relationships with health professionals, among clinical nurses working in hospitals and in community settings in central Italy. The main themes identified were: (i) nursing professional dignity perceived as an achievement; (ii) recognition of dignity beyond professional roles. These two concepts are interconnected. This study provides insights into professional dignity in nursing being perceived as an achievement linked to the intrinsic dignity of every human being. The ‘nursing professional dignity perceived as an achievement’ was perceived as having declined in different social factors. Some factors of nursing professional dignity perceived as an achievement were attained more easily in community settings. ‘Recognition of dignity beyond professional roles’ underpins the intrinsic dignity as an expression of humanity, embedded in persons regardless of any profession, and values, such as: respect, moral integrity, humility, working conscientiously and kindness.

Sartre and Kant are not often compared, especially because the former is frequently considered a theorist of a totally arbitrary free will. Nevertheless, this is not a fair interpretation of Sartre. Starting already from Being and Nothingness, he conceived an ethical difference between bad faith and authenticity. More unequivocally, in Notebooks for an Ethics he developed an existentialist ethics, which is more Kantian than expected. In that text, the ethical ideal of authenticity is not so different from the ethical ideal of autonomy in Kant. The aim of this article is to characterize Sartrean authenticity as a radicalization of Kantian autonomy. In both cases, there is a normative criterion, which implies a correct exercise of freedom towards oneself and others. This correct exercise of freedom implies for Kant the exclusion of the will determined by material conditions. For Sartre, this correct exercise means the rejection of bad faith. There is also a similar connection between autonomy and respect in Kant, and between authenticity and generosity in Sartre. Highlighting this little‐known affinity between the two most radical philosophers of freedom could also reveal a non‐ideological Sartre, ready to dialogue with contemporary ethical debate.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to analyse nurses’ professional dignity in their everyday working lives. We explored the factors that affect nursing professional dignity in practice that emerge in relationships with health professionals, among clinical nurses working in hospitals and in community settings in central Italy. The main themes identified were: (i) nursing professional dignity perceived as an achievement; (ii) recognition of dignity beyond professional roles. These two concepts are interconnected. This study provides insights into professional dignity in nursing being perceived as an achievement linked to the intrinsic dignity of every human being. The ‘nursing professional dignity perceived as an achievement’ was perceived as having declined in different social factors. Some factors of nursing professional dignity perceived as an achievement were attained more easily in community settings. ‘Recognition of dignity beyond professional roles’ underpins the intrinsic dignity as an expression of humanity, embedded in persons regardless of any profession, and values, such as: respect, moral integrity, humility, working conscientiously and kindness

This article examines Sartre’s works in which his attempt to find an existentialist ethics is evident. Most of the clues to this project are to be found in texts published posthumously since during his lifetime he never managed to fulfil the promise he made at the end of Being and Nothingness. It will be argued that this existentialist ethics owes a strong debt to Kantian philosophy, even if it confronts more directly the historical dynamics of violence and oppression. Despite the fact that this project is unfinished and only sketched out, it is possible to ask what Sartre’s direction of development would have been, pointing to the outline of a normative theory, Critical Existentialism, that could have its place in contemporary ethical debate.

Julián Marías (1914-2005) è un pensatore ancora poco conosciuto al lettore italiano, spesso oscurato dall’ombra del suo celebre maestro, José Ortega y Gasset. Filosofo indipendente e coraggioso, offre una proposta più coerente rispetto a Ortega sul tema essenziale comune a entrambi: il poter “dare ragione” della vita evitando gli opposti scogli del razionalismo e del vitalismo. “Dare ragione” della vita significa comprenderla nella sua “condizione morale” che trova espressione nel desiderio di felicità, nell’esigenza di amore e di amicizia, nei differenti vissuti di ciascuna età. Significa riconoscerne la dimensione elettiva: vivere è preferire, saper fornire ragioni per l’opzione di qualcosa rispetto a qualcos’altro. Per questo motivo, più che alla categoria del bene, l’attenzione è rivolta a quella del meglio, fondamentale per comprendere il senso pieno delle proprie scelte e dell’intera trama della propria biografia.

In this article, I intend to propose an ethical model for digital solidarity. On the one hand, it emphasises the importance of adopting a solidarity model to escape the logic of surveillance capitalism and the race for profits typical of the digital giants’ business model. On the other, it is intended to point out that a model of solidarity embodied in the digital network may instead offer a more universalistic alternative to the types of solidarity that have often imposed themselves in our contemporary political landscape, namely solidarity limited to groups in opposition to others. In order to show what economic and political characteristics this model should respect, two case studies will be examined, namely Wikipedia and Occupy Wall Street.

This book offers a broad and timely perspective on research on olfaction and its current technological challenges. It specifically emphasizes the interdisciplinary context in which olfaction is investigated in contemporary research. From aesthetics to sociology, from bioengineering to anthropology, the different chapters discuss a wide variety of issues arising from olfaction research and its application in different contexts. By highlighting the overlaps between different areas of research, the book fosters a better communication between disciplines and leads towards a better understanding of the role of olfaction in human perception and cognition. This inspiring read is of interest to students, researchers and practitioners in psychology, philosophy, bioengineering, and cultural studies.

Abstract“Patient-centred care” is the recent response to the malaise produced in the field of health care from the point of view both of a technical mentality and the paternalistic model. The interest in the story-telling approach shown by both the humanities and the social sciences has favoured a “narrative turn” in medicine too, where the new ethics of therapeutic relationship consider the hermeneutic method a means by which to integrate evidence and subjectivity, scientific data and patient experience. The aim of this paper is to show how Ricoeur’s theory of “threefold mimesis” makes a conceptual contribution to the use of narrative interviews in nursing and also be successfully transferred into and applied in the field of healthcare in general. First, the paper examines how this narrative approach might open up new possibilities for the acquisition of in-depth knowledge of patients’ life experiences, a condition indispensable for the improvement of the quality of care. Secondly, it highlights how this Ricoeurian method seems capable of provide an opportunity for healthcare professionals to review their own understanding of the caregiver-patient therapeutic relationship, beginning with their confrontation with the patient’s world as revealed by the narrative they provide.

La figura de Concepción Arenal es poliédrica: periodista, filósofa, pedagoga, abogada penalista, poeta y activista de los derechos civiles y sociales, se caracteriza por una decidida independencia política e ideológica. Su propuesta educativa y reformista dirigida a las categorías más vulnerables -el niño, el indigente, el preso, la mujer- es animada por una visión donde la cuestión social es entendida siempre como cuestión moral e incluso religiosa. Por esto, en sus escritos y en su acción, los ideales de justicia siempre se acompañan con el rechazo de toda forma de violencia, con la necesidad de promover la mejora económica junto con la elevación moral, y con la exigencia de humanizar cualquier forma de asistencia con el calor de la caridad.

In the Critique of Dialectical Reason and in many interviews, Sartre upheld the proletariat’s attempts at emancipation in Western societies and their revolts in the developing world. In these texts, counter-violence is considered the only way to exercise concrete engagement, and a classless society is presented as the only possibility of reducing social inequalities. However, this radical point of view was not the only perspective he tried to develop. He also sought to elaborate an existentialist ethics, which does not correspond to the Marxist theory. This article aims to show that Sartre evoked Notebooks’ ideas in his last interview, Hope Now, in which he envisaged a different typology of democracy and society. This article will examine this new and last direction of Sartre’s political thought.

In this paper, I will present how film, and especially science fiction, illustrates and considers the theme of genetic engineering in its ethical implications. Drawing from the work of Thomas Wartenberg, I suggest that movies can be read as philosophy, since they present philosophical argumentations in the form of narrative. I will discuss popular science fiction films that address this theme, showcasing some of the most recurrent reflections and representations of future scientific and technological developments in the field of genetic engineering. Finally, I will focus on the movie Gattaca in an analysis that presents its philosophical argument. Quoting Wartenberg’s categories, I will argue that Gattaca is both a thought experiment, illustrating a possible society where it is possible to decide the genetic code of one’s children, and a critique of genetic determinism.

El médico gallego Juan Rof Carballo es un exponente significativode la así llamada medicina humanista que se desarrolla en la España de la primeramitad del siglo XX. Con sus ensayos de antropología y epistemología, él proporciona unaporte considerable y hasta anticipador de muchas cuestiones relativas a aquella comprensiónfilosófica del hombre, tan necesaria al ejercicio auténtico de la medicina. Siendo anatomopatólogoy bioquímico de formación, llega sucesivamente a la medicina psicosomática.Juan Rof Carballo tiene también el mérito de haber introducido el psicoanálisis en España,individuando sus tesis más equilibradas, pero también reconociendo sus límites, en favor deuna visión más completa del ser humano. El eje de su concepción del hombre es la originalnoción de urdimbre —literalmente cañamazo y troquelado— trama originaria de relacionesque preside a la estructuración del yo, en la que juega una importancia fundamental lanoción de ternura, que se manifiesta primariamente en la atención genitorial, especialmentematernal y sucesivamente en todos los gestos de cuidado.

This article analyses Sartre's conflicting interpretations of human relationality in Critique of Dialectical Reason and Hope Now in order to demostrate two things. First, that the social dynamics leading to the formation of what Sartre calls “fused groups” and “fraternity-terror” are still at play in current manifestations of exclusionary and antagonistic conceptions of identity politics, which we contend constitute a risk for contemporary democracy. Second, that an alternative conception of “fraternity-without-terror”, whose foundations can be found in Sartre's latest reflections upon the possibility of a normative ethics of reciprocity, can pave the ground to a fairer model of political solidarity.

A filosofia da técnica de Ortega y Gasset, desenvolvida sobretudo em Meditación de la técnica (1933), e, depots, em El mito del hombre allende la técnica (texto alemão de 1951; trad, castelhana de 1952), representa um contributo original para um debate que na primeira metade do século xx se tornou particularmente vivo na Europa. Segundo a autora do artigo, Ortega y Gasset, dialogando virtualmente com Henri Bergson e realmente com Martin Heidegger, está particularmente interessado na dimensão antropológica do problema da técnica. Porém, ao não conceber a possibilidade de se estudar a técnica independentemente de uma consideração do que seja a natureza do ser humano, Ortega y Gasset acaba por se distanciar da inquietude heideggeriana acerca da essência da técnica e revelar ser a sua uma sensibilidade intelectual bem mais próxima de Bergson do que, à primeira vista, se poderia pensar. Veja-se, como exemplo, a importância dada ao papel que uma sociedade aberta tem no desenvolvimento da inteligência humana. De facto, para o pensador espanhol, é a técnica que permite ao ser humano adaptar o meio e, dessa forma, construir para si uma nova natureza, ou seja, uma sobrenatureza humana, o seu verdadeiro mundo. A originalidade de Ortega, de resto, pode também ver-se no modo como evidencia estreita relação que existe entre a técnica e a estrutura do ser humano, especificamente no que se refere à dialéctica entre intimidade e projecto ou, ainda, em relação a importantes questões como as relativas ao sentido do trabalho e/ou dos tempos livres. Para além de tudo isso, porém, o artigo visa explorar o impacto de Ortega y Gasset no âmbito do pensamento italiano dos finais do século xx (1970-1996), pelo que nele se distinguem referências a pensadores como Luciano Pellicani, Gualtiero Cangiotti, Antimo Negri, Lorenzo Infantino, e se faz particular menção de categorias orteguianas como ensimismamiento, imaginação criadora, capacidade de autotranscendência, capacidade simbólica, capacidade de projecto. Ou seja, ao mesmo tempo que se evidencia a visão de Onega y Gasset acerca da especificidade ontológica do ser humano, o artigo aprofunda também o modo como os seus leitores italianos o recepcionam em consonância com o impacto que nele tem o pensamento de autores como Ernst Cassirer, Max Scheler ou Arnold Gehlen, por um lado, e, por outro, demarcam em relação ao estruturalismo de Claude Lévi-Strauss ou ao antihumanismo de Michel Foucault. Ortega y Gasset's philosophy of technology, developed mainly in his work Meditación de la técnica (1933), and, later, in El mito del hombre allende la técnica (German text from 1951; Spanish translation from 1952) represents an original contribution for a debate which, in the first half of the twentieth century, became particularly lively in Europe. According to the article's author, Ortega y Gasset, in virtual dialogue with Henri Bergson and in real dialogue with Martin Heidegger, is particularly interested in the anthropological dimension of the question pertaining to the meaning of technology. But by not conceiving the possibility of studying technology independently of considering what the nature of the human being is, Ortega y Gasset keeps himself away from the Heideggerian inquietude about the essence of technology and reveals that his intellectual sensibility is much nearer Bergson than one could think at first sight. See, for instance, the importance given by Ortega to the role which an open society plays in the development of human intelligence. In fact, to the Spanish thinker, it is technology which enables the human being to adapt the environment and, thus, to construct for himself a new nature, that is, a human supernature, her true world. Moreover, the originality of Ortega can abo be seen in the way in which he points out the close relation existing between technology and the structure of the human being as such, specifically when it comes to the consideration of interaction between intimacy and project or to questions like the ones related to the meaning of labor and free time. The main goal of the article, however, is to explore the impact of Ortega y Gasset in the Italian thought at the end of the twentieth century (1970-1996). Hence the references to authors like Luciano Pellicani, Gualtiero Cangiotti, Antimo Negri, Lorenzo Infantino, as well as the study of categories like ensimismamiento, creativity, self-transcendence, project and symbolic capacity, etc. In other words, the article not only pays special heed to Ortega's vision about the ontological specificity of man, but also studies how the reception of his thinking in Italy was done in consonance both with the impact (positive) of authors like Ernst Cassirer, Max Scheler or Arnold Gehlen, as well as with positions in relation to which a demarcation was asked for, as it was the case with Claude Lévi-Strauss' structuralism or Michel Foucault's anti-humanism

The great leap forward of medicine in the twentieth century contributed to the myth of the repression of vulnerability accompanied by the illusion of individual control and self-determination. However, epidemics, like major natural disasters, have continued to act as elements capable of upsetting scientific optimism. The Covid-19 pandemic, with its uncertain causes and unpredictable effects, has led to authentic demythologisation and caused a “return of the repressed”: a feeling of vulnerability along with dramatic awareness of our mortality. This phenomenon has been accompanied by a re-emerging demand for meaning, which has led to a more direct confrontation with the drama of suffering and the need for a personal relationship with the sacred, finally rediscovering the public dimension of prayer. Firstly, the article outlines in its essential features the ambiguity of the pre-pandemic cultural horizon. Secondly, it analyses the characteristics of the rise of a new sensibility, by referring also to the notion of prayer as a “political issue” coined by Jean Daniélou.

The discourse on the body today appears problematic because the uncertain and changing characteristics of our culture, whose postmodern title is by now insufficient and controversial, place it at the crossroads of ethical, political and biomedical issues. In this paper, the theme is articulated around the dissociation between body and freedom, indicated by several parties as one of the characteristics of the modern subject. This dissociation is at the root of the fundamental ambivalence with which one looks at the body: on the one hand it is exalted as an image of one’s own identity, on the other one attempts to control it in its dynamisms, in the name of individual self-determination. This ambivalence also concerns the progress of biomedical techniques: these are acclaimed if considered a resource for the management of one’s body or, on the contrary, rejected if considered an obstacle to self-affirmation. The positive proposal presupposes an integral anthropology, which overcomes both a naturalistic vision of the body and a purely symbolic vision.