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Although recognizing its importance for the global economy, and despite the positive examples within the textile and clothing industry, fashion's environmental and social impact is indeed highly negative. Even so, technological innovations in materials, processes, design, production, and distribution of fashion products, combined with changing in consumption habits are slowly transforming the sector, with designers and brands adopting more sustainable, environmental and ethical practices, and opposing the planned obsolescence principle, formerly associated with it. However, these changes concentrate in highly developed regions, where influential fashion companies have the resources and knowledge to investigate and implement sustainable innovations. Furthermore, these changes take too long to be disseminated worldwide, especially in those regions where the fashion sector contributes to economic development and represents a way to participate in the global economy. This paper analyzes sustainable initiatives in fashion design sector that are already in place and presents the relation between fashion and sustainability in fashion design higher education programs and courses, delivered online by fashion design higher education in Europe. The results demonstrated that sustainability is nearly absent in the accredited online offer, but indicated it was present in non-traditional, open models of education. This paper considers that, without geographical limitations, online learning presents a huge opportunity to educate about current and future issues on fashion and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines such modern philosophical movements as transhumanism and posthumanism. The central issue of these concepts is “What is Posthuman?”. The twentieth century is marked by a contradictory understanding of the role and status of human. On the one hand, following the understanding of the onset of the new geological epoch of the Anthropocene, some rejection of the Anthropos figure comes. Such categories of agency as historicity, sociality, subjectivity are no longer so anthropocentric On the other hand, there is a concentration of understanding of human hegemony over the whole world: humanity not only began to conquer Cosmos, invented nuclear weapons, made many amazing discoveries, but shifted the focus of its attention to itself, or rather, its “deification”. Reflection on the subject of human and his future puts into space the philosophical concepts working with human, technological, chimerical. Very often we can find a synonymous understanding of transhumanism and posthumanism. Due to the fact that these philosophical directions work with modern constructs, they use similar terminology, however, they understand it in fundamentally different ways. The unfolding discourse of transhumanism refers to the Cartesian opposition of body and soul. Despite the sacralization of technology and the desire to purify Posthuman from such seemingly permanent attributes of human as aging and death, transhumanism in many ways continues the ideas of the Enlightenment. Posthumanism turns out to be in the field of revision of the status of subject, which becomes nomadic, and therefore includes, in addition to digital, chimerical and inhuman. Thus, the main maxim of humanism about man as the highest value is violated; man ceases to be "the measure of all things". The task of this paper is to clarify some similarities and differences of these concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethics and economics are scientific disciplines that we generally consider to be both independent and equivalent. Although at first glance it seems to be logically impossible to connect ethics and economics in any way, distinct attempts to integrate these two academic fields have been made over the course of the historical development of humanity. Interest in this problematic can be seen on many levels - from purely theoretical (research in the area of integrating ethical and economic thinking) to entirely practical (implementing ethical principles into daily economic practice). Distortion when dealing with the relationship between morality and actual economic life had already been inscribed in the human mind when the theoretical perception of the relationship between ethics and economic theory occurred. And, it is precisely economists who tend to be blamed for the substantive underestimation of economics' moral dimension. Therefore, let us ask precisely why should ethics have something in common with economics and contemporary economics with ethics? Is it at all possible to speak of the presence of ethics in economics? Where is interdisciplinarity implicated? The concept of our paper is based on a positive answer to these questions. Although these sciences traditionally differ in their subject matter and research methods, there are a number of crossover points that entitle us to perceive these disciplines as mutually related. The goal of this paper is to document the significance and influence of ethics during the period of the formation of economics as an independent scientific discipline on the basis of qualitative analysis derived from literary sources and by comparing and reconstructing the findings that were acquired. By working through the literature, we concluded that ethics codetermines a cognitive foundation - the paradigm of economic science - and represents an important source of their internal divergence in the historical development of economic theory. From the methodological perspective, solving the problem as defined presumes that an interdisciplinary approach, including philosophic and historical arguments, is a necessary tool for revealing the ethical sources of economics, their nature, significance, and the practical scope of their expression within economic theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalizing of the world brings new challenges that must respond to both private and public sectors. Private but also public organizations are looking for ways to become more efficient, to gain competitive advantage, to reduce costs but the fact is that terms like ethics, morality, justice or solidarity are becoming increasingly discussed by both practitioners and scholars. The paper deals with ethics in the Czech Republic, history of which contains a number of historical periods that must have negatively affected the perception of ethics by the Czech society. The aim of this paper is to determine current state of awareness of ethics and find out how approaches to ethics differ among organizations in the Czech Republic. In a questionnaire survey, respondents representing major private organizations, companies with a state share and Regional Offices were contacted. Subsequent comparative analysis provides a comprehensive look at the issue of factors which influence ethical behavior of employees, ethical dilemmas of employees, opportunities to educate employees in ethics or influencing ethical behavior of employees by working environment itself. The paper thus becomes not only theoretical view of ethics across private and public sectors, but also a tool that can establish the base for the way to cultivate environment that would encourage ethical norms and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays Czech society is often considered to be atheist, anti religious and, in the attitudes to the solidarity and social role of state, very little sympathetic. In the large research more than 3800 respondents were asked to share their attitudes to the role of state in the question of social support and solidarity, to the general ethical beliefs about the validity of the common values, faith in God and the religious beliefs. Their answers were correlated with other demographical and personal indicators such as sex, age, education, population of residence, personal situation, professional orientation and economical situation of their families. The correlations were calculated using χ2 statistics and also the standard residuals for individual correlated items were detected. Discovered general correlations and especially their inner structures were researched and widely discussed. The results of this research and discussions we present in this paper and we believe that they shall be helpful for deeper understanding of the society in which we live. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper interprets the contents of family education, investigated through a historic analysis, written in discussions of annual reports of folk schools. Many authors refer to the period from the middle of the 19th century until 1918 as the "golden age" for their generation. The reports of folk schools dating from that period were analyzed, and in 40 of them, texts were found relating to the field of family education. This paper analyzes the contents of family education with which authors wish to act on raising the public awareness and pedagogic culture of parents in all fields of education. The lack of knowledge and practical reflections within the field of physical-health and moral education are especially pointed out, while the working, intellectual and aesthetic education are less emphasized. The contents of family education of those times have their bases in a strong moral action and influence of religious contents in observing God's commandments, i.e. they are in complete correlation with the official pedagogic attitudes. The contents which are recommended for application in family education have to find their objectives within Christian moral values. By observing the analyzed period of time, we can conclude that many basic notions have not changed significantly until the present, but the patterns in their approach and evaluation have changed, as well as expressing judgements of values on the personal scale of individual families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University teacher is a factor which determines the level of the educational process, but also the level of scientific and research activities. Recently, there can be permanently witnessed the efforts at the national level by stressing the importance of the project and research activities in higher education institutions. In the process of quality assessment are mostly preferred quantitative indicators. The development of personality of students, however, contributes significantly to the level of teaching activity and personality traits, ethics of university teachers, the level of development of their communication and social skills, but those are paradoxically not the subject of quality assessment at universities. These areas may be developed through lifelong learning of university teachers. This lifelong learning may include courses in higher education pedagogy. The paper briefly describes an example of pedagogical and psychological training of university teachers at the Slovak University of Agriculture. In line with the current trends in the education of engineers in the international context, this type of training also includes a newly designed course Ethics and intercultural competences. In this paper we briefly present the content, organization and experience in teaching this course. The need for such type of education is also explained in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional skepticism of auditors is considered one of the most important factors of auditing and audit quality. Auditing standards describe requirements to evaluate audit evidence with an attitude of skepticism. Professional skepticism is the crucial element which is missed when audit failures occur. This paper examines academic research related with the auditors' skeptical judgement and decisions. The main purpose of the research is to provide conceptual description of the professional skepticism, emphasize issues related with level of scepticism, list main factors, and evaluate the materiality of ethical principles influencing the activities of auditors. Literature review method is used to examine scientific issues discussed in the international leading scientific journals of the last decade. Inductive and deductive methods of analysis provide opportunity to analyse recent academic and regulatory framework of understandings related to the ethical principles and professional skepticism level and their implementation issues. The sources of the research are international and domestic scientific business, economics and management journals. The author investigates the professional codes of ethics of international organizations (IIA, IFAC, IFRS, AICPA), a set of regulations and standards of provision with a focus on the practical application. The article compiles definitions of the professional skepticism in academic literature and in the professional regulatory documents; provides discussions on how the problem solving ability is related to the ethics or moral judgements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethics in general is very, up to date issue, which is being researched worldwide. Especially young generation todays have to deal with numerous dilemmas on daily basis. Similarly, like generation Y, these people have access to wide range of information, which they have to deal with. Ethical or moral dilemma presents a situation in which there is not an option of right or wrong choice. The individual must choose between two, similarly undesirable alternatives. Many ethical theories and models of ethical decisions can help to decide. To make complicated ethical decisions in problematic or dilemmatic situations is not easy and there always are some risks, such as feeling guilty, failure, incompetency, even immorality. Therefore, the author concentrated on this area within her research activity. Main aim of this paper is to find out how the representatives of generation Z, meaning people born after the year 1991, make decisions while dealing with ethical dilemmas. Based on this pilot research, the author will set hypotheses that will be statistically evaluated by Chi-square test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to redefine the concept of ethics in the ancient Greece and Rome, by using thoughts of the late Michel Foucault. When dealing with the question of how one transforms oneself into the subject, Foucault proceeds by moving to the causes of the present. The paper argues that philosophy was developed as an art, as a form of self-care, already in ancient polis. In the ancient times, writing still was one of the technologies of self-care. Foucault also uses the terms self-writing. Self-writing has always been tightly connected to the need for self-questioning and self-control, which were later accepted and modified by the Christian tradition. That is why Foucault sets thoughts about self-writing in the broader concept of ethics. Foucault sees connection between the modern day subject and its ancient roots in the early written literature, correspondence and the so-called hypomnemata. Whereas correspondence means to open oneself to the gaze of the other, hypomnemata were meant to capture what had been said, record what people had heard, thought or read. In his article Technologies of the Self (1982), Foucault points out an important turning point, roughly, that self is not something given, but rather a constant process of reading and writing which forms our identity and enables us to share our worldview with others. It is evident that this practice has more in common with what is considered art and ethics than with typical scientific knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to point out the social need to elevate the ethical culture through knowledge, development of ethical skills and professional ethics, which exists over higher education. The evolution of an ideal professor guided in all the fields of culture constitutes a challenge for university teaching, with a peculiar emphasis on professional ethics. This research offers a conceptual theoretical approach concerning the development of applied ethics. It includes the explanation of two forms of these type of ethics: "business ethics and the involvement in teaching regarding professional ethics." Other include the methodological explanation of the research process and the investigation of the results. Ethical culture, as an object of study in qualified careers, is gaining strength in the faculties of the most prestigious universities worldwide. Ethics’ research in different Universities of the world has had its limitations, both in Europe and Latin America. Moreover, authors such as Ildefonso Camacho and Francois Vallaeys, seriously debate and argue, at the same time, on the importance and effects of this subject in academic environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work in the Slovak Republic is mainly focused on helping people who find themselves in various forms of need and need help. The paper analyzes the basic philosophical ethical bases of social work on the basis of which concrete assistance is realized. It outlines the basic principles of social work as a helping profession. It applies these principles to the attitudes of particular institutions to the arrival of migrants in Slovakia and describes specific cases in which the principles of social work in the approach to this vulnerable and disadvantaged group are absent. The situation that occurred in the territory of the Slovak Republic suggests the absence of a number of basic principles that form the pillar of the legal system as well as social work, which is the basis for the functioning of the welfare state to which Slovakia should be. As stated above, the basis of social work is human rights and social justice. The basic concept of the Constitution is respect for human rights, the right of a person to self-determination and dignity. However, these rights are flagrantly violated due to the refusal of migrants. The migrant person was not treated as a human person but as a really dangerous person who is not a potential but real risk. Likewise, the principle of social justice was violated because migrants were denied any form of assistance that would allow them to achieve at least a minimum level of a dignified life. The principles of social work also include the removal of obstacles that would prevent a person from satisfying his basic needs. It follows from the above description of the situation that the opposite process took place in Slovakia, which meant that migrants were challenged to exercise their basic human rights. In a situation where basic principles of social work are denied by the state power, it is not logically possible to apply the above-mentioned methods. In our opinion, it is the duty of politicians and the media to respect fundamental human rights and the principles of social work. All the more so if politicians adhere to the principles of social democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a long time, corporate governance has been presented as a universal solution for all problems. Economic and financial disasters have been a cold shower for the global society, showing that the mere statement of leadership based on corporate governance principles does not award objectivity and professionalism to activities by itself. Much has been said and little has been implemented along the times, so that the global society has had to accept that a correlation is needed between what is declared and what is implemented, as a single way to ensure a desirable outcome. At the same point, it was established that some other aspects should be taken into account when appraising entities, additionally to the assessment of economic performance: transparency, equity, relations with individuals, a focus on overall good results. Genuine corporate governance is designed as a construction, as a part of a development process, able to overcome as many obstacles as possible, by striking a balance between integration, diversity and unity. This paper deals with a topic that has been widely debated in scientific literature, by means of objective study and thorough investigation, objective observation and comparative analysis. It aims at starting from the importance of corporate governance and the need to discourage unprofessional approaches aimed at achieving one's own interest, even causing general harm, as well as analysing the means that may support genuine corporate performance. At the same time, we shall try to come up with some original conclusions on the possibilities to reconfigure corporate governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before being subjected to ethnological, historical and psychosocial research, religion - in this case the issues regarding its essence, origin and development - represented a subject of reflection for generations of thinkers, with inherent oscillations and inconsistencies, which could be called the philosophy of religion. [9] In this paper, we discussed the connection between God and the human being, we talked about the human soul that can relate to God through religious feelings and worship. This relationship differs from one person to another, from one civilization to another, from the first religious forms that the history of religion can find to Christianity. [6] This study aims at highlighting the intensity of the religious feeling and at identifying the moral values of the participants in the study. 100 subjects, i.e. 50 women and 50 men of Christian religion from Romania, participated in this study. It is noteworthy that between the religious feeling and the moral values there is a direct and reciprocal relationship, i.e. a religious feeling of medium to high intensity leads to the adoption of moral values that involve some general exigencies, imposing certain patterns of behavior to the participants, by virtue of their orientation towards the human ideal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern society, the trend toward the spiritual impoverishment of a person, indifference, lies is firmly established. Meanwhile, it is well known the word has a moral nature. As a consequence, the study of language units with the projection on the moral principle is associated with the idea of the necessity of strengthening the spiritual foundations of the modern person, of a native speaker. Language, in turn, determines a person belonging to a particular national culture, which is reflecting his mental and moral characteristics. The culture verbalizes in the language and accumulates key categories (concepts), representing them in a symbolic incarnation. These key concepts determine the language picture of the writer, being realized in the artistic continuum of the texts of his works, so the study of the ways of verbalization of category of "morality" based on the texts of works of Russian writers can help to clarify the ideas about the basic elements of the language world picture of the iconic representatives of the Russian linguistic culture. The category of "morality" and mechanisms of its descriptions have always been the subject of scientific papers in psychology, philosophy and other sciences. Currently, the study of "morality" and its representation in language is becoming popular in linguistics. This article discusses verbalization of the category of "morality" by means of nouns and their paradigm relationships in the Russian language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays the need to create (or construct) new ethical norms emerges constantly in the spheres of politics, medicine, ecology, demography etc. But can we call normative ethics (i. e. ethics which not only describes and explains facts of the society's moral life but also postulates certain moral norms and principles) a science? The majority of contemporary logicians will answer negatively. According to them normative ethics cannot be a science since it is impossible to give scientific (logically correct) proof of its judgments. This paper makes an attempt to offer a logically correct basis for moral norms. To achieve this goal, I'll use the methods proposed within the frameworks of intuitionistic and constructive mathematics of the XX century. The concept of feasibility should play in ethics the role similar to which of the concept of possibility of object's construction (constructability) in mathematics. The existence of a moral norm depends on its implementation: that is why feasibility should be viewed as a proof of a norm. Moreover, we should speak not only about our physical capacity to implement an action prescribed but also about its coherence (consistency) with already existing moral prescriptions. We should regard as unfeasible any norm whose implementation excludes implementation of a norm already well-established. Any moral code containing such a norm should be regarded as inconsistent. As a result of application of these methods a new constructive ethics will emerge, which could be employed in different spheres of the contemporary social life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computer games are bright example of the evolution of digital media and modern audiovisual technologies. Extremely popular now, computer games have come a long way from the primitive arcade games to full virtual worlds like "Fallout 3" with millions details and moral dilemmas. This paper devoted to the research of ethical issues of modern computer games. In terms of methodology, we can identify two main problematic aspects in the study of the ethical dimension of computer games: external and internal. First, the external aspect include the problem of computer game addiction. It traditionally marked negatively both in secular ethical systems (game addiction as a form of drug addiction), and in religious ethics (computer games distract from the spiritual life). Second, the problem of the influence of game violence on human behavior in society (direct connection between game violence and asocial actions is not proven). The inner aspect of ethical research methodologically more linked with the phenomenology of computer games. Here, in the view of heterogeneity and genre differentiation of computer games ethical issues are considered within the virtual worlds of computer games. In simple arcade and action genres (shooters, slashers, fightings) there are no complicated ethical dilemmas, because the main task of the player is to perform a specific mission. The more complicated role-playing games involve not only the creation of the "character" and his internal and external development, but also exploration of the virtual world, where the player constantly faced a variety of ambiguous situations that suggests moral choices. Despite the widespread representation of the elements of religious ethics (such as Christian charity) in role-playing games prevail ethical systems of pseudo-pagan cults ("Cults of Tamriel" in the "The Elder Scrolls") or even anti-Christian motives ("Diablo", "Dungeon Keeper"). The historical strategies represent specific historical elements of religious ethics (jihad or auto de fe). The real-time or turn-based strategies use the concept of morality as a fixed level of combat readiness of virtual forces. If the majority of simulators are ethically neutral (as their opposite, arcade games), the economic simulators actualize moral dilemmas and concept of responsibility in making of decisions ("SimCity"). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is defining the concept of collective responsibility based on the analysis of the current social practice. Generally, responsibility is defined as a relationship of dependence of man and his actions on the values that are considered the decisive basis for making decisions and realizing an act directly or indirectly aimed at the preservation and promotion of these values. In the case of moral responsibility, the value of good becomes this value, i.e. the object of responsibility. Consequently, the moral duty of man is to enforce the value of good by his actions. In accordance with the tradition of humanism, full and dignified human life is considered the highest good. A higher moral obligation is to fulfil such life. In accordance with the tradition, the problem of personal responsibility is analysed, but the complexity of the current social practice requires to analyse the social dimension of responsibility first. It is a general trend of the development of the civilized society that the activities that are considered desirable and important in the society become organized or institutionalized. Therefore, besides individual persons, social institutions are becoming an increasingly significant subject of morality as well. This leads to the need to rehabilitate the concept of the "collective responsibility", and also to introduce the concept of the "social evil" and the "banality of evil" into moral philosophy. These arise from the fact that in a complex institutionally determined social reality, the evil can no longer be derived from a purely personal failure of an individual, and therefore, a moral responsibility cannot be reduced just to its personal level. The concept of the collective responsibility is analysed, because it allows to assess the responsibility for the acts that are carried out by specific individuals, but whose nature is determined by belonging to a certain community or institution, whether it is a manufacturing, economic, political, or spiritual institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ethical and moral considerations in communication process in Latvian organisations. Awareness of ethical principles and observance of moral laws will ensure optimal development of society. The concept of morality is often used in parallel with ethics. By the concept of moral, in contrast with ethics, we understand the regulatory and institutionalised structures included into organisational or professional codes and practical conduct; habitually, these manifestations, such as codes of conduct - are referred to as an entirety of ethical principles, standards and values. By morality sometimes social standards are meant, and by ethics - individual virtues and an entirety of values. Tasks of the study were to research the basis of the review of scientific sources regarding the principles of ethics and morality, as well as to evaluate the opinions of Latvian businessmen regarding ethical and moral principles in the social communication process. For this particular study, the focus group is selected as the most appropriate data collection method for high-quality research. To find out individuals' opinions and attitudes, the focus group discussion was carried out. Members from various organisations were included in discussion group. In aggregate, opinions of the 27 members were summarised regarding the ethical and moral aspects affecting the process of communication. The results of the study revealed that communication process is affected by such topical categories and critical aspects of ethics as trust and loyalty, conflict of interests, selection and use of tools for influencing, responsibility, transparency and truth as actual information. They are ethical guidelines, which according to public opinion comply with the universal ethical categories and which have been chosen by a separate group of people as the values to identify themselves with. Communications principles are summarised in both a written and unwritten form. It is conventional in society to rely on such moral aspect as fairness believing that the majority of professionals carry out their work in good faith, even if there are cases which confirm the opposite. The internal communication of the organisation is determined by ethical and moral assumptions of general communication culture. Communication ethics will largely depend on the company's self-perception, on the accepted views on communication and on the types of affecting people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is defining the role and place of charity in the contemporary society based on the value analysis. Charity is considered an important aspect of the principle of humanism. At the same time, however, attention is drawn to the impossibility of its absolutism. Charity is unfair because it goes beyond the principle of "rendering to each his due". In accordance with the categorization of moral standards, charity is generally classified as "morally possible", but at the same time, a certain degree of philanthropy ensuring a minimum standard of living is also classified as "morally necessary". The definition of morally possible and morally necessary changes, because it depends partly on the objective possibilities of the particular society, but also on the subjective willingness to share the wealth with those who need it. On one side, it is morally desirable to expand charity because it is not right to accept passively the presence of human distress and suffering, but at the same time, charity should not interfere with the functioning of the society as a whole. There is a definition of the idea of a good society, which should become a higher criterion of moral goodness. The absolute moral requirement on a man, which is, in accordance with the principle of humanism, is the requirement to participate in creating a "good society", i.e. a society that not only ensures the highest possible living standard, but also meeting the highest standard of fulfilling moral values. The important moral values include charity. Based on the analysis, charity is defined as an activity through which partial resources are voluntarily and selflessly distributed by their owners to support the needy, to solve social problems, and also to improve the conditions of social life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The just war tradition is a set of criteria stemming from moral philosophy. It is a normative approach which aims to determine the rules of proper conduct. Although the idea of just war has a long tradition, the just conclusion of war has received little attention. The jus post bellum principles have developed only over the last three decades. The paper uses Brian Orend's set of criteria, as he has dealt with the issue of jus post bellum most profoundly and systematically. Out of the principles of the just termination of war laid out by Orend, the UK did not meet the rehabilitation criterion, as it did not have a sound plan for the situation in post-war Iraq, and thus it made some mistakes that could have been avoided. Furthermore, it did not meet the principle of proportionality and publicity either. Based on available resources, it cannot be ruled out that the disarmament and respecting the armament sanctions imposed on Iraq by the SC UN could have been accomplished without the regime change. Hence, on the whole, the UK did not act in compliance with all of the principles of jus post bellum in Iraq. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically analyses the theory of French philosopher, sociologist, and literary theorist J. F. Lyotard. Jean-Francois Lyotard remains best known for his 1979 study La Condition postmoderne. Lyotards central concern in the text, the crisis of legitimation, comes to define the postmodern condition. His declared war on "grand narratives" initiates a critical reappraisal of knowledge, aesthetics, and politics in a post- Enlightenment era. Postmodernism, as described by Lyotard, involves a challenge to universality and a rejection of exclusive claims to univocal authority. The "postmodern," as Lyotard contends, encompasses more than an historical period or a style; it refers to a philosophy that recognizes that narrative function is losing its functors, its great hero, its great dangers, its great voyages, its great goal. Dissensus, rather than consensus, is configured as the condition for new possibilities for thinking and living, free from the limits of operational criteria that place thinking and living under an obligation to the status quo. Postmodern knowledge is not simply a tool of the authorities, it refines our sensitivity to differences and reinforces our ability to tolerate the incommensurable. It is in Le Differend where Lyotard more fully articulates this philosophical notion of judgment as phrases in dispute. The concept of the differend allows Lyotard to join two concerns, art and politics. Lyotard's contributions to contemporary continental philosophy are many, with the concept of the differend, metanarratives, little-narratives, pagan aesthetics, and paralogy becoming permanent entries in the postmodern lexicon. Absence of pre-established rules, in aesthetics, politics, and ethics, and the obligation to honour the differend are Lyotard's most profound contributions to the field of thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a comparative analysis between ethics management in Romania and Italy. Its focus is on public sector and the methodology used was analysis, synthesis and comparison of the two systems. The paper presents similarities and differences in ethics management of Romania and Italy and tries to place them in the cultural and economical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethics is an important ability in any profession but, considering the spectrum of responsibilities of the certified accountants, ethics should be even more important. The research concerning ethical issues related to accountants’ profession has increased in the last years. Those studies highlight mostly the nature and extent of ethical problems. This study aims to validate the different importance given to ethical behavior in accountants’ profession in Portugal, for men and women, and to understand how they also feel differently when in self-evaluation. The study allows comparing different generations in the profession. Hence, the research questions this study aims to respond are: (1) Who considers ethic ability more important to the accountants’ profession, men or women? (2) Is there a different sense of ethical behavior when in self-evaluation in both genders? (3) Does the accountants' age influence their sense of ethics? The methodological approach is a prior literature review about ethical issues in accountants’ profession, followed by an empirical study based on a questionnaire fulfilled by 628 accountants. It is expected that findings confirm hypotheses. It is expected to find out a different level of given importance and even self-evaluation to ethical behavior depending on gender. It is also expected to find out different values of ethical behavior depending on age. The main contribution of this study is to better understand the importance of an ethical behavior according to gender and age in Portuguese accountants’ profession. These results can be used by the accountants’ order in the conditions to access the profession and by the Higher Education Institutions with degrees leading to the profession to adjust their learning outcomes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does social justice in postmodern societies exists and how it is implemented? This is an issue which worries not only sociologists, lawyers, journalists, politicians, but most of all citizens. In Macedonia we are witnessing a continuous process of issuing the laws, regulations, guidelines, codes of ethics, etc. But all this is not enough to reduce crime and often what writes in the law is inconsistent with the basic needs of man and his expectations. Sociologists often defend the position that we are often faced with two extreme realities. A reality promoted by the government and the other extreme is the one that we often suffer over our shoulders. The next imposed question is whether laws act equally - is there another state of law for the rich and another completely different for the poor. Laws should treat all equally. This is the principle of equality of citizens [1]. Unlike, Hegel admires living in a state with good laws and approved by the people. But, our daily shows growing trends that judges and courts to treat different the rich, experts, athletes, doctors, people of show business otherwise villagers, workers, homeless people, drug dealers and petty thieves. Does neoliberalism promotes these social differences? The theoretical definition that we have learned in the books of sociology and law of State and the right are social phenomena created at the same level of social development; they are interdependent and cannot exist without each other and that the state should protect public order, the interests of the ruling class, today in a so wild way, protects only this class? In Macedonia seems it does. By collecting the first and second hand material we will do some analysis which will be based on two main issues; 1. Legal Norm and Values. 2. Social aspect- its public perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to outline a generic framework for dealing with acts and facts of corruption within the structures with control responsibilities. We propose, integrating past findings and combining existing approaches, to present a two-way analytical view of the phenomenon of corruption manifested in such structures. Thus, our research has led us to a conceptual model that also aims to integrate empirical knowledge on the vulnerability to corruption of investigating agents and which is able to outline a significant image of the risk of their corruption. The research methods used to carry out this study involved an experimental investigation to assess the prevalence of the main forms of corruption at institutional level. The opportunities identified by our study can provide a useful outlook for academics as well as for practitioners / investigators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses publication ethics in the contemporary world. The first part of the article is devoted to the scientific ethics. Publication ethics is a part of scientific ethics and should be considered in the context of history of science and the development of moral principles in this field. The authors describe the main issues of scientific ethics in the second part of the 20th century. Many moral problems and dilemmas in this field were caused by the development of science and technology. Mass destruction weapons and the invention of nuclear bombs have made scientific community and government officials recognize the possible negative impact of the modern science and technology on humankind and the environment. At the same time, medical science began to contradict medicine as the profession. The main scientific aim is new scientific knowledge whereas human health and life are professional goals of medicine. The researches that Nazi scientists conducted were crimes against humanity. Since then research ethics has attracted public's attention to experiments involving humans. Today many international and governmental documents protect human participants and animals. The rapid development of science has made research ethics and then publication ethics very topical. The Committee on Publication Ethics, one of the most important organizations in the field of publication ethics, was founded by the editors of medical journals. The authors describe the concepts of scientific ethics and sociology of science by R. Merton, S. Fuller and J. Ziman. According to these concepts, publication activity of scientists is one of the most important factors that influence scientists' wages and funding their projects. That is why there are too many violations of publication ethics. The second part of the article analyses main violations of publication ethics and among them are 1) conflict of interests; 2) data fabrication; 3) plagiarism; 4) self-plagiarism, duplicated publications and "salami slicing"; 5) violations of authorship; 6) violations of journals' policies, criteria of publication, publication fees and others. The authors concluded that violations of publication ethics are very widespread in the world scientific community and sometimes it is very difficult to detect the violations and punish the guilty. At the same time, violations of publication ethics can prevent the violations in research ethics and other important fields of scientific ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the pilot study of the research focused on ethical values, virtues and character values of students. The main purpose is explain research aimed at investigating university students' perceptions of ethical values, including their importance, application, usefulness, origin, benefits and need for education. For students is necessary to accept ethical values benefits in all aspects of their life and then, to be aware of these advantages and to start applying and developing them in our daily activities in order to find more quality in life, success, harmony and joy. Knowing what ethical values guide students' decisions and actions is knowledge that educators and society should possess. Through this study, we would like to introduce a research given to the identification of the ethical values of students preparing for professions based on areas involving work with people and help. It would therefore be expected due to its ethical values later transform into their daily work activities. It is therefore necessary to know the ethical values, or adjust how their positive development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The twenty-first century has brought about a new type of society, the information-based society. Although this type doubtless provides a lot of opportunities for development and self realization, which are the top needs, according to Maslow hierarchy, we cannot but notice the existing downside as well. What is being promoted as a life motto worldwide is the combination of pragmatism and hedonism, which especially appeals to the youth. Such a combination presupposes that young people faced with overload of available information prove to be unwilling to memorize this information or make sure that they understand it, since they can gain access to it whenever and wherever they want or need. On the other hand, the information-based society requires a change in the existing educational paradigm, which means that the main focus of educators is shifting towards the development of higher order thinking skills (HOTS) while ignoring lower order thinking skills (LOTS). The second stage of our ongoing project deals with the distinction between lower order and higher order thinking skills with a special focus on the former [8]. We regard LOTS as an indispensable part of the development of sophisticated thinking. To prove our hypothesis we have conducted a qualitative study. Two groups of second-year bachelor students of the Higher School of Economics, who participated in the first stage of our project devoted to the development of a disposition towards critical thinking, continue to be involved in it. It is vital to note that these students are learning English as their second language. Having received the results of the first phase we thought it necessary to adjust the key concepts emphasizing the significance of LOTS and step-by-step process of developing them. For that purpose, during the first three-month cycle the students of both control and experimental groups worked with the book by John Grisham "The Pelican Brief" while for the second cycle we chose short stories by Alice Munro. The text-based approach was applied to teaching the students of both groups (ex-control and experimental). Special techniques were used to measure the students' level of understanding and the ability to apply the given information. In the course of the experiment we have found out that the more advanced the students' comprehension level became the better their ability to remember new words got. However, in the experimental group LOTS proved to be deeper and more logically developed. Whereas in the control group, despite a significant shift, LOTS remained more shallow and context-based. The development of HOTS and the influence of LOTS on this process will be the focus of the third stage of our project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]