ANTONIO SANDU: MEDICALIZATION OF SOCIAL LIFE (MEDICALIZAREA VIETII SOCIALE)
Descriere:
“Medicalization of Social Life in the Context of Covid-19 Pandemic” – Chapter # 3 of the volume “BIOETHICS IN CRISIS OR THE CRISIS OF BIOETHICS? An Anthropology of Pandemic in the Medicalized Society” published at Editura Științifică LUMEN, 2020. “The medicalization of society represents the effect of the “risk society” in practice, a society in which the individuals are readily aware of the various dangers that they feel threatened by. Sometimes we get to the idea of “medicalizing the human condition”, which is nothing than a treatable disorder. Under these conditions, a pandemic causes the entire society to become restricted, the social activity to be shrunk, and to talk of social distancing.”
ANTONIO SANDU: VIRTUALIZATION OF SOCIAL SPACE. FROM PANDEMIC TO INFODEMIC (VIRTUALIZAREA SPATIULUI SOCIAL. DE LA PANDEMIE LA INFODEMIE)
Descriere:
There are a number of contemporary cosmogonic theories, which we would introduce into what we have called quantum metaphysics, which holds that the current world we live in is actually a simulation. Technological globalization can be analyzed from the perspective of the mutations that occurred in the interpretation of the social space from the traditional one, limited to the geographical coordinates of the interaction, to a delocalized and universalizing one. The pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus has accentuated this trend. The digital revolution produces a phenomenon of virtualization of social space – in the sense of transferring socializing interactions to virtual environments – with special and somewhat unpredictable consequences for the evolution of being and even the human species. Next, we consider the identification of some constitutive dimensions of the phenomenon of the virtualization of the social space, of its evolutionary tendencies and of the eventual sociopathologies. The cultural space, being essentially cross-cultural, generates a continuous (re) negotiation of the interpretation of the social reality and of the construction of new interpretative models. Understanding the interpretive drift of the concept of social reality in the context of communication virtualization allows us to say that the virtualization of social space has led humanity to explore a sui generis additional dimensions of space, noetic in nature, experienced in the form of instantaneous communication and virtual ubiquity. In this lecture we will address the topic of fake news, which represents a real threat to society and could be considered a public health issue. The fake news campaign that accompanied public communications during the pandemic was named, by the Worls Health Organization, infodemic, considering that its purpose was to generate panic and create social and economic problems, which would seriously overcome the initial public health problem – namely that of the pandemic -, to destabilize both states and global alliances. From an ethical point of view, we must notice the negative impact of infodemic, both on public health and on humanity in general; this can lead to deviations from democracy and human rights and, ultimately, to the dehumanization of society through the emphasis on social anxiety and the exacerbation of desocializing fears, which increase social distancing far beyond the limit of the physical distancing necessary to combat the pandemic.
ANTONIO SANDU: THE PRINCIPLES OF BIOETHICS AND THEIR USE IN ETHICAL DECISION MAKING (PRINCIPIILE BIOETICE SI FOLOSIREA LOR IN LUAREA DECIZIEI ETICE)
Descriere:
Why is the study of bioethics necessary? […] At present, human society – due to the technological advance on the one hand, but also due to globalization – faces a unique situation from the perspective of its ability to do good or to do harm, due to its constructive or destructive capabilities. Humanity is therefore capable of self-destruction but also of destroying the entire planet. The current threat brought by the Covid-19 crisis reminds us that we are still a fragile humanity who, although it has, apparently, transcended nature, through numerous technological advances, is still vulnerable to such manifestations that nature makes humanity face, and that nature at the same time is vulnerable to the actions of humanity. Bioethics tries to answer the question: what are or what should be the behaviors, the desirable behaviors of humanity in general, but also of each one of us in particular, in front of situations that each of us has to confront, due to one’s state of health, the participation in health care, on the one hand, but also to the development of technologies which bring with them new threats to humanity, threats which are in addition to the old ones that humanity seeks to diminish or eliminate.
ANTONIO SANDU: PHILOSOPHICAL PRACTICE IN TIMES OF PANDEMIC (PRACTICA FILOSOFICA IN PANDEMIE)
Descriere:
Lecture on “Philosophical Practice in Times of Pandemic” held on the 28th of July 2020 within ICPP 2020 online Conference “Philosophical Practice for Self-knowledge by Means of Intellectual Creativity” Sankt Petersburg, Russia, organized by Russian Association of Philoshophical Practitioners, July, 28-31. The topics of my speech were on philosophical counseling, perspectives on bioethics and the crisis of bioethics, the medical society, and the role of philosophical counseling / philosophical practice in times of crisis, Virtual PhiloCafe (Virtual Philosophical Cafe) as a model of philosophical practice in times of crisis, the virtualization of social space and its philosophical meanings, as well as the possibilities of conducting online philosophical dialogue.
AUTONOMY AND INFORMED CONSENT IN THE CONTEXT OF PANDEMIC (AUTONOMIA SI CONSIMTAMANTUL INFORMAT IN CONTEXT PANDEMIC)
Descriere:
A lecture by Antonio Sandu on Autonomy and Informed Consent in the Context of Pandemic. This represents a chapter from the volume “Bioethics in Crisis or the Crisis of Bioethics? An Anthropology of Pandemic in the Medicalized Society” “It is important to emphasize that autonomy represents a key to modernity, a perspective on the world that is in fact one of the constitutive values of modern society. Respect for autonomy, as it appears in the Kantian tradition (Kant, 2007; 2010), is based on our confidence that the individual can decide for himself in a political, ethical, and cognitive sense. Of course, we are talking here about situations of autonomy in which the individual manifests himself as autonomous being. Autonomy is a birthright by the fact that we are human beings, but not all human beings have the same degree of autonomy.”
