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This book is intended for the highly intelligent reader, who is interested in considering the difficulties, problems, and challenges of understanding and writing about the human past. It is popularly enough written, hopefully, to be a joy to read, and scholarly enough to be seriously instructive. The book has two major purposes, first, to give a reader an extensive, detailed overview of the field as it currently exists, and, second, to considerably enlarge the field itself, as it is the first book in the area to consider not only the epistemology of the field, but, in detail, its logic and sem

Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Editor's Preface -- Editor's Introduction -- Preface-and Confession -- Essay 1. Introduction: About Philosophy in General and Ethics in Particular -- 1. Ethics: Its Immediacy and Importance -- 2. Ethics: Its Legitimacy and Autonomy -- 3. Some Hints as to Horizons to Come -- Essay 2. The Good and Bad in Experience: Prolegomena -- Essay 3. The Good and Bad in Experience -- Essay 4. Semantics of the Imperative -- Essay 5. Ethics and the Logical -- Essay 6. Deliberate Acts -- Essay 7. Right Acts and Good Acts -- Essay 8. Right Doing and the Right to Do -- Essay 9. We Approach the Normative Finalities -- Phase I -- Phase II -- Phase III -- Phase IV -- Phase V -- Phase VI -- Phase VII -- Appendix

Abstract Background The Italian Protective Maternity Legislation allows a woman to apply for early maternity leave from work during pregnancy if she is affected by health problems (option A) or if her working conditions are incompatible with pregnancy (option B). A community based health education program, implemented between 1995 to 1998 in North Eastern Italy, provided counseling (by a team of gynecologists, pediatricians, geneticists, psychologists and occupational physicians), and an information leaflet detailing the risks during pregnancy and the governmental benefits available to expectant mothers. This leaflet was distributed to women who were under occupational medical surveillance and to women attending any healthcare office and outpatient department and was also mailed to women working at home as shoemakers. The effectiveness of this intervention has been evaluated in this investigation using an evidence based approach. Methods A quasi-experimental design was adopted, applying several outcome measurements before (1989 to 1994) and after (1999 to 2005) the intervention. The outcome (ratio B/A) is the number of women receiving approval for B (circumstance where the pregnant woman is employed to undertake activities forbidden under the Article 7 of Law 151/2001, and it is impossible to change her duties) to those receiving approval for A (risky pregnancy due to personal medical conditions, Article 17 of the same Law). A linear regression coefficient (for B/A against years) was obtained separately for time periods "before" (1989-94) and "after" (1999-2005) the intervention program. The two regression coefficients were compared using a t-test. Results The trend over-time for the ratio B/A was steady before the initial intervention (y = 0.008x - 16.087; t = 2.09; p > 0.05) then increased considerably (y = 0.0426x - 84.89; t = 19.55; p < 0.001) in coincidence with the start of the education campaign. There was a significant difference between the two regression coefficients (t = 7.58; p < 0.001). Conclusion From a bureaucratic perspective Option B is far more complicated than A. In fact it implies an active approach involving an arrangement between the claimant and the employer, who has to certify to the relevant Authority that the woman's working conditions are incompatible with pregnancy. The increasing number of women availing of option B, as recommended, therefore suggests the suitability of such educational campaign(s).