The diffusion of technology in the US has taken place in an environment of both regulation and free enterprise. Each has been subject to manipulation by doctors and medical administrators that has fostered unprecedented ethical dilemmas and legal challenges. Understanding these developments and historical precedents may allow a more rational diffusion policy for medical technology in the future.

Multilingual dictionary of philosophical terms.

The idea that crimes can usefully be understood as ‘public wrongs’, and that this can generate a plausible principle of criminalisation, has found some support in recent years; it has also been subjected to some sharp criticism. This paper aims to sketch the most plausible version of that idea, and to show how, once properly explained, it is not vulnerable to those criticisms. After a brief defence of the negative principle, that we may not criminalise conduct that does not constitute (...) a public wrong, it explains the positive principle, that we have reason to criminalise conduct if it constitutes a public wrong, by drawing an analogy between criminal law and codes of professional ethics, and by appealing to the idea of civil order, as the normative structure of a polity—a structure that criminal law helps both to constitute and to sustain. Four objections are then met: that this account implies an unacceptable relativism; that it distorts the reasons that bear on criminalisation; that it cannot make room for those who do not identify themselves with the polity in which they live; and that it implies an unrealistically demanding conception of what is required for a polity to exist. (shrink)

Selected research articles on business ethics in Mongolia.

Musically trained and untrained listeners were required to listen to 27 musical excerpts and to group those that conveyed a similar emotional meaning (Experiment 1). The groupings were transformed into a matrix of emotional dissimilarity that was analysed through multidimensional scaling methods (MDS). A 3-dimensional space was found to provide a good fit of the data, with arousal and emotional valence as the primary dimensions. Experiments 2 and 3 confirmed the consistency of this 3-dimensional space using excerpts of only 1 (...) second duration. The overall findings indicate that emotional responses to music are very stable within and between participants, and are weakly influenced by musical expertise and excerpt duration. These findings are discussed in light of a cognitive account of musical emotion. (shrink)

Morals of 13th-20th century Mongolian Moral Doctrines.

In five brief chapters the author presents Unamuno's theories of language and truth, his epistemological views, and what the author terms his "Quixotic" existentialism. None of the problems alluded to are discussed in any depth, but the brevity of the book recommends it to those seeking an introduction to the main lines of Unamuno's thought.—S. A. E.

Gurwitsch's concern in this book is with the doing of phenomenology rather than the explication of what other phenomenologists have done. His analyses of Husserl's views, with whom he appears to be in close agreement, are in the service of the concrete phenomenological analyses Gurwitsch himself undertakes. His remarks on William James serve as a further corroboration of the interest practicing phenomenologists are taking in James' thought and the phenomenological strains which run through it. What emerges in Gurwitsch's own thought (...) is a view of consciousness and its objects which parallels in large measure Husserl's middle period investigations, in particular those appearing in the Ideen. Gurwitsch's work is to be praised as an attempt to introduce concrete and sometimes original phenomenological insights into the American philosophical scene.—S. A. E. (shrink)

Kwant carefully outlines what he takes to be Merleau-Ponty's most basic discovery, the body-subject, detailing the French philosopher's approach to this phenomenon. The author relates Merleau-Ponty to Marxism, phenomenology and Sartre, as well as to the sciences and scientism. The critical remarks offered at the end of the book are a bit sketchy, but on the whole Kwant shows himself to be a careful and faithful renderer of Merleau-Ponty's thought.—S. A. E.

The essays collected together in this volume, many of them written by leading scholars in the field, explore the commonsensical fact that our presence as..

The underlying assumption of this book is that "speeding up the process of securing maximal contributions from ethical theory for solving moral problems involves the fullest self-conscious focusing on method." With clarity and insight the author explores various ethical theories and their relationships to one another, trying always to bring about an understanding of what is truly at stake in various theoretical controversies and to relate ethical theory to the business of morality itself.—S. A. E.

The authors' intention is to explore themes of related interest to both psychological and ethical disciplines. Their treatment of the problems in the twilight zone between these disciplines is insightful. The underlying theme is that a psychology of personality fails to articulate its subject matter if it reduces the ought to the is but that a theory of the good must take cognizance of the manner in which the ought finds its roots in the is.—S. A. E.

This selection includes Spinoza's interpretation and comments on Descartes writings, together with Spinoza's Thoughts on Metaphysics. The translation reads easily and the introduction is genuinely useful.—S. A. E.

This represents the first modern translation of any of the writings of von Humboldt and the only introduction to his works in English. Included are many of his reflections on history, religion and politics, the latter being of special interest. On the whole, the translation is readable and the problems discussed, though somewhat dated, are of interest to those concerned with the perennial problems of the philosophies of man and culture.—S. A E.

The article presents the main results of theoretical review on the study of the phenomenon of affect and definition, classification, legal aspects of affective states, as well as the results of statistical processing of data on crimes in the state of affect are provided in Kazakhstan for the last 5 years according to the provided statistical data from the database of the General Prosecutor's Office of the CLSaSA (Committee on Legal Statistics and Special Accounts) of the RK. The relevance of (...) this study is the study of the phenomenon of affect in Kazakhstan, as well as the processing of statistical data on affective suicide, as little-studied and not sufficiently developed phenomena. It is important to note the difference in approaches to understanding the term physiological affects (PA), which actually has no direct analogue in the English-language bibliography. In some respects, the concept of an "irresistible impulse" based on passion corresponds to it. Both conditions can significantly affect a person's behavior and their ability to control their actions, while both can serve as mitigating circumstances in law. At the same time, physiological affect is usually short-lived and characteristic of sane individuals, while an irresistible impulse can be a chronic condition associated with a mental disorder. Subsequent research may be devoted to the issues of comparing the two above concepts from a forensic perspective. (shrink)

A continuation of some of the lines of thought developed in his earlier work, Concerning Human Understanding. Here Banerjee tries to make out a case for metaphysics by showing philosophy as an independent discipline concerned with the analysis of the human situation. Of special interest is the author's effort to understand language in terms of the person and his concern with the nature of man as a being who is with others. Many insights of phenomenological philosophy are mirrored in this (...) work, though in a different terminology.—S. A. E. (shrink)

Contains articles and excerpts from such writers as Urmson, Tomas, Stevenson, Ziff and Black, and offers an opportunity for the reader to assess the recent contributions of analysis to aesthetics.--S. A. E.

The main divisions of this collection are concerned with knowledge, rationalism and empiricism, truth, induction and perception. The selections tend toward the British tradition, though there are selections from such thinkers as Plato and Kant.—S. A. E.

The translation is a careful one and the introduction by Warner Wick will prove helpful to students beginning their study of Kant's ethical writings.—S. A. E.

An introduction, designed for the lay reader, developing four central issues with as little technical language as possible.—S. A. E.

BackgroundKeeping the patients well and fully informed about diagnosis, prognosis, and treatments is one of the patient’s rights in any healthcare system. Although all healthcare providers have the same viewpoint about rendering the truth in treatment process, sometimes the truth is not told to the patients; that is why the healthcare staff tell “white lie” instead. This study aimed to explore the nurses’ experience of white lies during patient care.MethodsThis qualitative study was conducted from June to December 2018. Eighteen hospital (...) nurses were recruited with maximum variation from ten state-run educational hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Purposeful sampling was used and data were collected by semi-structured interviews that were continued until data saturation. Data were classified and analyzed by content analysis approach.ResultsThe data analysis in this study resulted in four main categories and 11 subcategories. The main categories included hope crisis, bad news, cultural diversity, and nurses’ limited professional competences.ConclusionResults of the present study showed that, white lie told by nurses during patient care may be due to a wide range of patient, nurse and/or organizational related factors. Communication was the main factor that influenced information rendering. Nurses’ communication with patients should be based on mutual respect, trust and adequate cultural knowledge, and also nurses should provide precise information to patients, so that they can make accurate decisions regarding their health care. (shrink)

These essays do a rather thorough and sometimes exciting job of articulating the encounter between Christianity and contemporary philosophies of existence. Earle, representing the "opposition," puts the case for Nietzsche and Sartre quite convincingly. Edie's treatment of Heidegger might have been more subtle and suffers from the closeness with which Edie links Heidegger with Tillich. Wild's essays, without a doubt the most interesting but most perplexing in the collection, appear to be at once orthodox and revolutionary, with an overall Bultmannian (...) cast.—S. A. E. (shrink)