Meaningfulness,Volunteering and Being Moved: The Event of Wit(h)nessing

This paper draws on an in-depth phenomenological analysis of some interviews taken from volunteers, inviting them to reflect on their lived experiences of meaningfulness in the context of volunteering and citizenship. It is found that while some testimonies reinforce the standard conceptions of meaningfulness, other testimonies vary from it. The main challenge of this contribution consists in phenomenologically describing this alternative picture of meaningfulness, depicted as the event of wit(h)nessing. In a final part, the authors consider how volunteering is at times especially prone to further experiences of wit(h)nessing.     

Civic Meaningfulness

This paper starts from qualitative research on volunteering and citizenship, with a special focus on volunteering within a setting of restorative justice and mediation. In a first stage, the author reconstructs two models of meaningfulness as hermeneutical lenses to better understand how volunteers see their engagement and experiences as a source of meaningfulness. The paper argues that a biographical model of meaningfulness (Wolf’s theoretical framework) is in need of a complementary approach to meaningfulness (an existential model of meaningfulness), which focuses on transformational experiences with a strong existential depth. In a second stage, the paper dialogues with the experiences and narratives of the volunteers, and shows how their understanding of citizenship informs, and transforms their ideas of meaningfulness. Both the biographical and the existential approach to meaningfulness appear to be deeply influenced by the volunteers’ civic imaginaries.     

Different Perspectives on Meaning and Meaningfulness

In this comment on Johan Von Essen’s contribution on the meaning of volunteering we make some remarks about Von Essen’s starting point, which reveals a particular perspective on meaningfulness, namely that people perceive reality as meaningful when their actions and the things they encounter are part of a meaningful whole. By introducing another perspective on meaningfulness, namely that the shattering of a meaningful whole is full of meaning, we question if practices of volunteering which occur in face-to-face situations—and thus outside the public realm—can be fully captured by the five predicates that make up the phenomenological structure of volunteering.     

Introduction. Meaningfulness,Volunteers, Citizenship

This introductory article starts by describing the genesis of this special issue and the interconnection of its topics. The editors offer a variety of reading entries into the key-note articles and responses. The article reconstructs the research interests underpinning the idea of integrating meaningfulness, volunteers and citizenship. It highlights the explicit interdisciplinary design of the special issue, and shows how the key-note authors, and their respondents, weave connections between meaningfulness, volunteering and citizenship. And, finally, the editors bring the background understandings of the key-note papers to the foreground, and reconstruct a non-intentional meta-level discussion on two fundamental concepts and their interplay: self and world.     

Meaningfulness: A Third Dimension of the Good Life

This paper argues that an adequate conception of a good life should recognize, in addition to happiness and morality, a third dimension of meaningfulness. It further proposes that we understand meaningfulness as involving both a subjective and an objective condition, suitably linked. Meaning arises when subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness. In other words one’s life is meaningful insofar as one is gripped or excited by things worthy of one’s love, and one is able to do something positive about it. The paper concludes with some speculations about how this conception of meaningfulness might help to explain the conditions under which social volunteering can be especially rewarding.     

The Meaning of Volunteering: The General and Constant Versus the Differentiating and Shifting

This comment concerns a two-fold phenomenon, namely differentiations within the wide array of what is called civic engagement, including voluntary action; and shifts that sometimes blur the demarcation lines between the worlds of voluntary action and working life. How do these two developments affect the meaning of volunteering both on an analytical and on a public discourse level?     

工程活动的自然伦理诉求与工程师的自然伦理责任

工程具有自然属性,自然是工程活动赖以进行的前提和基础。尊重自然、保护自然、顺应自然规律、促进人与自然和谐发展是工程活动基本的自然伦理诉求。工程师因其特殊的角色和地位,在工程活动中担负着重要的不可替代的自然伦理责任,这种自然伦理责任贯彻在工程师工程决策、实施及管理的全过程。     

科学与控制自然的伦理透视——莱斯科学伦理观述评

本文首先从莱斯阐释的科学与控制自然的关系中揭示了其中蕴涵的多重复杂的伦理关系与伦理内涵；其次，阐述了控制的伦理本性；丙者，从分析科学和控制自然内在悖论的伦理关系入手，阐述了莱斯关于人的活动的两个领域，生活世界和科学世界，进而揭示了科学对控制自然的伦理意义。     

论工程师的伦理困惑及其选择

工程师的公司雇员身份及其在现行企业组织层次中的位置决定了"伦理困惑"问题是困扰绝大多数工程师心灵的重要问题.而这种普遍化的伦理困惑又直接影响着工程师在公众利益与雇主利益发生冲突时的选择.工程师能否很好地摆脱伦理困惑将决定工程活动能否确保公众和社会的利益.本文分析了工程师的伦理困惑的构成要素及表现形式,从工程师个人、社会及公司的角度分析了解决工程师伦理困惑的必要性,最后为解决工程师的伦理困惑指明了三种途经.     

福特的伦理自然主义及其批判

福特的伦理自然主义主张把道德的基础最终建立在人类生命的自然-历史判断或自然善之上。然而,福特的生物世界图景与进化生物学南辕北辙,引来了各方尖锐批评。汤普森-赖特方案试图通过强调规范性来避免这些经验性批评,却没有提供一种足以容纳这种规范性的自然概念。麦克道威尔通过把自然区分为第一自然和第二自然更好地调和了现代科学与伦理自然主义的冲突。     

On the Meaning of Volunteering: A Study of Worldviews in Everyday Life

This article is intended to contribute to the discussion on the meaning of volunteering by investigating voluntary work from the viewpoint of volunteers active in Swedish civil society organizations.Meaning refers both to the cognitive meaning of concepts and to the perceived meaning in life. The aim to uncover the predicates that people attribute to the concept is an attempt to anatomize volunteering as a social construct. Five predicates emerged and they make up the phenomenological structure of volunteering. By contextualizing this structure in contemporary Swedish society, it is demonstrated that the conceptual meaning of volunteering has significance for its existential meaning. The volunteers say that their authenticity is confirmed through the voluntary work since they are making themselves manifest in public. Following Hannah Arendt, the reasons for this is that authenticity demands that the volunteers conduct their actions in a public realm where their actions acquire an intrinsic value as neither coerced nor instrumental.     

代孕的伦理争议

代孕是争议最大的一种辅助生殖技术,其争议的焦点集中在以下几个伦理难题:谁是母亲?如何确定代孕中的亲子伦理关系?代孕将子宫工具化、生殖商业化,是贬低了女性的尊严还是促进了女性的独立自主?代孕会不会造成一种阶级压迫、剥削?代孕应该无偿还是有偿?     

纳米武器的伦理反思

纳米武器是纳米技术军事应用的必然产物,它对战争伦理会产生深远的影响。纳米武器研发和运用,可能消解正义战争的标准,使战争手段更不人道,降低军人的伦理水准,浪费大量的资源,造成生态灾难。与其他高技术武器一样,纳米武器的研发与运用应该遵循后果可控、生态、人道等原则,以保持战争伦理的底线。     

海洋科技的伦理审视

海洋科技是21世纪人类最有可能取得重大突破的领域之一;是世界各海洋大国激烈竞争的战场;也是我国科技未来发展极具潜力的研究领域,应当给予深切的伦理关怀。本文从伦理学的视角审视海洋科技的历史发展、当代展现及未来憧憬,分析海洋科技发展的正负面效应,培养公众海洋科技伦理意识。     

网络空间治理及其伦理秩序建构

随着以互联网为主体的网络空间成为人类生活新空间,国家治理面临前所未有的压力与挑战。作为现实社会的重要组成部分,网络空间治理是国家治理的重要领域,推进国家治理现代化必然要求加强网络空间治理,而网络空间伦理治理则是创新网络空间治理的新视域。网络空间伦理治理旨在建构网络空间的良性伦理秩序,着力营造风清气正的网络空间。     

空间技术的伦理考量

空间技术是一个发展非常迅速的领域,在寄托着人类的梦想的同时,已经展现出了它的广泛影响力及其社会风险,因此进行空间技术的伦理研究很有必要。空间伦理是发展空间技术和进行空间探索活动时“我们应该做什么、不应做什么”的伦理规则,主要包含两个基本问题,即如何不伤害他国（人）和下代人的利益。基于此,我们需要将空间技术的发展置于整个公共空间,使空间技术在公共伦理的考量下得到与公共价值一致的健康、有序的发展。     

游戏设计中的伦理考量

电子游戏已成为当今时代主流的娱乐休闲方式,游戏产业也为经济增长做出了极大贡献。但一些游戏在开发过程中缺乏道德伦理层面上的考量,对于玩家受众尤其是心智不成熟的青少年玩家的道德观有着相当的负面影响。我们尝试从游戏的本源出发,审视游戏的自身属性,考量其伦理道德观念的传播功能,并对如何加强游戏伦理建设进行思考。     

网络伦理难题和网络道德建设

网络社会一方面为人类展现了美好的“数字化生存”的前景；另一方面，由于网络社会结构缺陷，社会规范脱节以及经济利益的驱动，导致了观念的、规范的和行为的三个层面的伦理难题，与此相适应，网络首先建设必须从道德观，道德规范和道德行为入手，惟其如此，网络社会才能在有序中实现发展。     

基因专利的伦理审视

随着基因技术的迅猛发展，人们对基因专利的争论日趋激烈。从哲学伦理学的角度对基因专利的合理性进行探讨，基因专利很难得到伦理辩护。为了维护公共利益的发展和促进利益的公正分配，我们应该采取各种措施规范基因专利的审查。     

自然价值的伦理精神

本文概括地介绍了传统价值哲学对价值的讨论。从自然界的外在价值到自然界的内在价值，全面论述了自然价值的内涵，进而揭示出自然价值的伦理精神。