Edmund D. Pellegrino and Richard A. Gray
Is there a sound philosophical foundation in the nature of professional activity for resolving the tension between altruism and self‐interest in favor of virtue and character? I…
Abstract
Is there a sound philosophical foundation in the nature of professional activity for resolving the tension between altruism and self‐interest in favor of virtue and character? I believe there is, and I ground my proposal in six characteristics of the relationship of professionals to those who seek their help. Considered individually, none of these phenomena is unique in kind or degree. They may exist individually in other human relationships and occupations. But as a moral cluster they are, in fact, unique; they generate a kind of “internal morality”—a grounding for the ethics of the professions that is in some way impervious to vacillations in philosophical fashions, as well as social, economic, or political change. This internal morality explains why the ethics of medicine, for example, remained until two decades ago firmly rooted in the ethics of character and virtue, as were the ethics of the Hippocratic and Stoic schools. It is found in the seminal texts of Moslem, Jewish, and Christian medical moralists. It persisted in the eighteenth century in the writings of John Gregory, Thomas Percival, and Samuel Bard, who, although cognizant of the philosophies of Hobbes, Adam Smith, and Hume, nonetheless maintained the traditional dedication of the profession to the welfare of the patient and to a certain set of values. Only in the last two decades has there been—to use Hume's terms—a “sentiment of approbation” regarding self‐interest.
Edmund D. Pellegrino and Richard A. Gray
A species of moral malaise afflicts the professions today, a malaise that may prove fatal to their moral identities and perilous to our whole society. It is manifest in a growing…
Abstract
A species of moral malaise afflicts the professions today, a malaise that may prove fatal to their moral identities and perilous to our whole society. It is manifest in a growing conviction even among conscientious doctors, lawyers, and ministers that it is no longer possible to practice their professions within traditional ethical constraints. More specifically, the belief is taking hold that unless professionals look out for their own self‐interest, they will be crushed by commercialization, competition, government regulation, malpractice actions, advertising, public and media hostility, and a host of other inimical socio‐economic forces. This line of reasoning leads the professional to infer that self‐interest justifies compromises in, and even rejection of, obligations that standards of professional ethics have traditionally imposed.
In April 1988, the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature (NRC) (see sidebar) published “AIDS: Law, Ethics and Public Policy.” As part of the NRC's Scope Note Series…
Abstract
In April 1988, the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature (NRC) (see sidebar) published “AIDS: Law, Ethics and Public Policy.” As part of the NRC's Scope Note Series, the paper offered a current overview of issues and viewpoints related to AIDS and ethics. Not meant to be a comprehensive review of all AIDS literature, it contained selected citations referring to facts, opinion, and legal precedents, as well as a discussion of different ethical aspects surrounding AIDS. Updating the earlier work, this bibliography provides ethical citations from literature published from 1988 to the present.
Since its creation in 2005, YouTube has become a site for significant community building, as the platform and its affordances encourage active audiences. One creator in the…
Abstract
Since its creation in 2005, YouTube has become a site for significant community building, as the platform and its affordances encourage active audiences. One creator in the YouTube wellness space is Abbey Sharp, a registered dietitian who reviews ‘What I Eat in a Day’ videos of popular YouTube creators. Sharp’s videos follow the traditional ‘reaction video’ format; she’s positioned as both viewer and consumer, providing commentary on dietary choices and wellness claims. The author investigates Sharp’s role in the spread of wellness misinformation through a life narrative lens as she participates in the wellness community while actively combatting misinformation. Sharp utilises trends and platform affordances to act against health and wellness misinformation. Sharp’s reaction video format creates a collaborative space, where the original creator is taken out of the context of their video and edited into a space where they are critiqued through the lens of a ‘professional’ other. The author argues that Sharp’s health professional status (and reach of over 570,000 subscribers) provides legitimacy to her critique and consequently alters how wellness narratives on YouTube are consumed.
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Edmund W. Gordon, Michael V. McGill, Deanna Iceman Sands, Kelley M. Kalinich, James W. Pellegrino and Madhabi Chatterji
The purpose of this article is to present alternative views on the theory and practice of formative assessment (FA), or assessment to support teaching and learning in classrooms…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to present alternative views on the theory and practice of formative assessment (FA), or assessment to support teaching and learning in classrooms, with the purpose of highlighting its value in education and informing discussions on educational assessment policy.
Methodology/approach
The method used is a “moderated policy discussion”. The six invited commentaries on the theme represent perspectives of leading scholars and measurement experts juxtaposed against voices of prominent school district leaders from two education systems in the USA. The discussion is moderated with introductory and concluding remarks from the guest editor and is excerpted from a recent blog published by Education Week. References and author biographies are presented at the end of the article.
Findings
While current assessment policies in the USA push for greater accountability in schools by increasing large scale testing of students, the authors underscore the importance of FA integrated with classroom teaching and learning. They define what formative classroom assessment means in theory and in practice, consider barriers to more widespread use of FA practices and address what educational policy makers could do to facilitate a FA “work culture” in schools.
Originality/value
The commentators, representing scholar and practitioner perspectives, examine the problem in a multi-faceted manner and offer research-based, practical and policy solutions to the observed issues in FA. Dialogue among stakeholders, as presented here, is a key first step in enacting assessment reforms in the directions discussed.
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The resurgence of interest in professionalism necessarily focuses us on the moral core of medicine and the character of the good doctor. While medical education reform projects…
Abstract
The resurgence of interest in professionalism necessarily focuses us on the moral core of medicine and the character of the good doctor. While medical education reform projects aimed at educating for professionalism are replete with lists of laudable virtues necessary for the doctor, we have made little progress in mapping those character traits, values and behaviors to admission procedures, curricular reform and faculty development. If educating for professionalism is to be effective, medicine must re-claim the moral core of professionalism and identify clearly the fundamental traits, values and virtues necessary for good medical practice in the twenty-first century.
Healthcare practitioners, according to legislations in most Western countries, may refuse to perform some medical activities that conflict with their moral and religious values…
Abstract
Healthcare practitioners, according to legislations in most Western countries, may refuse to perform some medical activities that conflict with their moral and religious values. The Roman Catholic Church has declared in official documents that doctors should not perform or facilitate activities considered immoral such as abortion and euthanasia. The goal of this paper is to suggest new options for regulating conscientious objection of Roman Catholic healthcare practitioners.
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Public and profession alike are troubled by what they perceive as a loss of professional status in medicine. Can it or ought it be retrieved? How? These questions cannot be…
Abstract
Public and profession alike are troubled by what they perceive as a loss of professional status in medicine. Can it or ought it be retrieved? How? These questions cannot be answered without understanding what a profession is, what professing medicine entails in the way of character traits, and whether, and how, these traits can be taught. Answers are sought in the phenomena of the physician–patient encounter, the theory of virtue ethics and its implication for character formation. In addition, the moral attitudes and practices must also be supportive of the idea of a profession. Courses in professionalism might help but the problem is first of all a moral one.
Sofia Baroncini, Bruno Sartini, Marieke Van Erp, Francesca Tomasi and Aldo Gangemi
In the last few years, the size of Linked Open Data (LOD) describing artworks, in general or domain-specific Knowledge Graphs (KGs), is gradually increasing. This provides…
Abstract
Purpose
In the last few years, the size of Linked Open Data (LOD) describing artworks, in general or domain-specific Knowledge Graphs (KGs), is gradually increasing. This provides (art-)historians and Cultural Heritage professionals with a wealth of information to explore. Specifically, structured data about iconographical and iconological (icon) aspects, i.e. information about the subjects, concepts and meanings of artworks, are extremely valuable for the state-of-the-art of computational tools, e.g. content recognition through computer vision. Nevertheless, a data quality evaluation for art domains, fundamental for data reuse, is still missing. The purpose of this study is filling this gap with an overview of art-historical data quality in current KGs with a focus on the icon aspects.
Design/methodology/approach
This study’s analyses are based on established KG evaluation methodologies, adapted to the domain by addressing requirements from art historians’ theories. The authors first select several KGs according to Semantic Web principles. Then, the authors evaluate (1) their structures’ suitability to describe icon information through quantitative and qualitative assessment and (2) their content, qualitatively assessed in terms of correctness and completeness.
Findings
This study’s results reveal several issues on the current expression of icon information in KGs. The content evaluation shows that these domain-specific statements are generally correct but often not complete. The incompleteness is confirmed by the structure evaluation, which highlights the unsuitability of the KG schemas to describe icon information with the required granularity.
Originality/value
The main contribution of this work is an overview of the actual landscape of the icon information expressed in LOD. Therefore, it is valuable to cultural institutions by providing them a first domain-specific data quality evaluation. Since this study’s results suggest that the selected domain information is underrepresented in Semantic Web datasets, the authors highlight the need for the creation and fostering of such information to provide a more thorough art-historical dimension to LOD.