Background The prioritization protocols for accessing adult critical care in the extreme pandemic context contain tiebreaker criteria to facilitate decision-making in the allocation of resources between patients with a similar survival prognosis. Besides being controversial, little is known about the public acceptability of these tiebreakers. In order to better understand the public opinion, Quebec and Ontario’s protocols were presented to the public in a democratic deliberation during the summer of 2022. Objectives (1) To explore the perspectives of Quebec and Ontario (...) citizens regarding tiebreakers, identifying the most acceptable ones and their underlying values. (2) To analyze these results considering other public consultations held during the pandemic on these criteria. Methods This was an exploratory qualitative study. The design involved an online democratic deliberation that took place over two days, simultaneously in Quebec and Ontario. Public participants were selected from a community sample which excluded healthcare workers. Participants were first presented the essential components of prioritization protocols and their related issues (training session day 1). They subsequently deliberated on the acceptability of these criteria (deliberation session day 2). The deliberation was then subject to thematic analysis. Results A total of 47 participants from the provinces of Quebec (n = 20) and Ontario (n = 27) took part in the online deliberation. A diverse audience participated excluding members of the healthcare workforce. Four themes were identified: (1) Priority to young patients - the life cycle - a preferred tiebreaker; (2) Randomization - a tiebreaker of last resort; (3) Multiplier effect of most exposed healthcare workers - a median acceptability tiebreaker, and (4) Social value – a less acceptable tiebreaker. Conclusion Life cycle was the preferred tiebreaker as this criterion respects intergenerational equity, which was considered relevant when allocating scarce resources to adult patients in a context of extreme pandemic. Priority to young patients is in line with other consultations conducted around the world. Additional studies are needed to further investigate the public acceptability of tiebreaker criteria. (shrink)

Ethics is demanding by nature, telling us what we should or should not do. But one ethical theory in particular, utilitarianism, is more demanding than most, and is often criticized as requiring too much of us. Neither utilitarianism nor deontology requires Superman to care about truth, justice, or the American way. It might not be possible for Superman to be supererogatory since very little is above or beyond the call of duty for him, given our incredibly high expectations. Virtue ethics (...) has the best chance to explain how Superman can perform supererogatory acts, since it doesn't focus on good action as such, but rather good character. While people use the name “big blue boy scout” in a derogatory way with Superman, it is a nice way to capture an ethical theory that might grant Superman’s responsibilities while allowing him a chance to live his own life: virtue ethics. (shrink)

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is both a staple in the philosopher’s diet and the lesson that is often difficult to digest. In this paper, I describe one way to teach the Sun, Line, and Cave analogies in reference to students’ personal past experiences. After first learning about Plato’s metaphysics and epistemology through reading Republic VI-VII, students are asked to reflect upon a time in their lives when they emerged from a particular “cave of ignorance.” In reflecting on this experience, (...) students are encouraged to consider how each aspect of the line analogy might be represented in their own experience. Students also consider the epistemological experience turning towards that which is more real. In so doing, students gain a deeper understanding of these lessons by connecting new, abstract, and difficult information to information that is so familiar, it is remembered and not merely imagined. Putting Plato’s theories into the context of their own learning experiences facilitates students’ comprehension of the different levels of being and cognition, their interrelation, and the psychological process of increasing understanding. (shrink)

Aristotle maintains that vicious people are blameworthy despite their moral ignorance, since becoming vicious was up to them and whatever is up to us we are able to do or not do. However, one’s upbringing shapes one’s moral character. Together, these claims invite an objection I call the horrible childhood challenge. According to this objection, vicious adults who suffered horrible childhoods through which they were taught to adopt bad ends as though they were good should not be held accountable for (...) their vice. Aristotle’s likely answer to this challenge reveals that, for Aristotle, a minimal degree of rationality is necessary for moral responsibility. I argue that, for Aristotle, a vicious agent is responsible for her vice only if 1) she is rational, which implies 2) she grasps a specific basic principle, thus consenting to become a certain kind of person through action. The thoroughly bad who satisfy both claims are moral idiots; those who do not may be blameless brutes. (shrink)

Through critical examination of three main contemporary approaches to describing moral responsibility, this book illustrates why philosophers must take into account the relationship between retrospective moral responsibility and desert of praise or blame. The author advances the moral attitude account, whereby desert of praise and blame depends on the agent’s moral attitudes in response to moral reasons, and retrospective moral responsibility results from expressions of those attitudes in overt behavior.

Aristotle’s virtue ethics can teach us about the relationship between our habits and our actions. Throughout his works, Aristotle explains much about how one may develop a virtuous character, and little about how one might change from one character type to another. In recent years criminal law has been concerned with the issue of recidivism and how our system might reform the criminals we return to society more effectively. This paper considers how Aristotle might say a vicious person could change (...) and what a penal system could do to facilitate such a transformation. It discusses how previous attempts to rehabilitate criminals may have failed because they do not address habit in the way that Aristotle advocates. This paper concludes that a rehabilitative model that addresses habit more aggressively than previous methods might be required to soften the hardest criminals. (shrink)

Abstract The infantilization of older adults seems morally deplorable whereas very young children are appropriate recipients of such treatment. Children, we argue, are not mentally capable of acting autonomously and reasoning clearly. However, we have difficulty reconciling this justification with the fact that many of the elders whom we respect are mentally deficient in those very same ways. In this paper, I try to make sense of this asymmetry between our justifications for infantilizing the young and our conviction that our (...) elders ought to be respected. I argue that our intuitions against adult infantilization are non-consequentialist (i.e., deontic). I consider several candidates for the deontic factor that might explain the asymmetry of our judgments and practices. I argue that a very specific kind of dignity (one that is socially constructed and reified) grounds our disparate judgments and treatments of very young and very old persons with similar needs. (shrink)

In this essay, the general ideas of Peirce’s theories of logic are brought together in an attempt to show how the various aspects of logic were arranged to develop an objective representation of the universal forms of reasoning.

A rich literature examines human rights treaty commitment and compliance. A subset of this literature has begun to examine the international legal actions states make following treaty ratification. I argue that the ways that states legally engage with treaties following commitment to UN human rights treaties is much more nuanced and differentiated than scholars have thus far presented via Reservation, Understanding, and Declaration. I introduce a first descriptive analysis of what I term Post-Commitment Actions to UN human rights treaties and (...) generate varying hypotheses of why different PCAs have different relationships with expected human rights practices. I conduct a preliminary statistical analysis of the effect of PCAs on human rights practices and find that they are varied and important. Some PCAs result in improved human rights, while others result in worse human rights. I conclude by calling for further future study into these treaty actions. (shrink)

Julia Annas' book, Intelligent Virtue, provides the reader a novel account of the nature of virtue, practical reasoning, and flourishing. Throughout the book, Annas presents her account in a gradual manner with each chapter building on the next. Annas periodically presents and argues against potential objections to her view. Suitable for the interested undergraduate non-philosophy major, this book could also serve the curiosities of the most elite professors. While none of the chapters of the book stands well alone, the fluid (...) writing style and helpful examples make the 176-page work an easy read. At the end of each chapter, the reader finds herself happily continuing on to the next. (shrink)

Moral Psychology: Historical and Contemporary Readings is a much-needed collection of essays on issues of moral psychology. The aim of the book is to present the reader with a comprehensive view of both the history and foundations of moral psychology as well as the discipline's position in academia and its relationship with other disciplines, such as psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology, all of which involve empirical investigation of human capabilities and behavior. This collection is well organized into five distinct parts. (...) Each part has a helpful editorial introduction that not only summarizes the main themes of the debate assigned to that part, but also provides brief summaries of each of the subsequent essays in that section. The selected papers are presented in chronological order, thus illustrating the development of the debate. First, an historical piece of philosophy is presented to demonstrate the original questions of the section's theme. The historical pieces are followed by more-recent articles or selections written by scientists concerning similar topics. Finally, each part concludes with articles written by contemporary moral psychologists. These final articles often make mention of the historical texts or the scientific articles preceding those papers. This dialectic style of presentation successfully gives the reader the context and progression of the debate while still highlighting the "live" questions that are, in a sense, left as an exercise for the reader as well as future academics. (shrink)

David White’s Myth, Metaphysics and Dialectic in Plato’s Statesman is an ambitious work that aims not only to interpret the message of Plato’s Statesman, but also to situate the dialogue within Plato’s corpus as one that serves as a transition between Plato’s earlier metaphysics and his more mature views in later dialogues such as Philebus and Laws. White makes several adept observations of oddities sprinkled throughout Statesman, and he frequently connects these observations to thoughtful claims concerning possible motivations on the (...) part of Plato as well as possible revelations concerning Platonic metaphysics and philosophy. However, justifiably made inferences are difficult for the reader to discern, as White tends to obfuscate his message with difficult and wordy prose. In addition to these flaws, White makes frequent references to many other Platonic dialogues with little explanation in the way of contextualization. While I find this aspect of White’s thinking to be impressive and indicative of both extensive knowledge and great aptitude for synthesis in thought, readers are warned that novices of Plato scholarship might get lost in the copious references to dialogues beyond those central to the book. That being said, in most respects, White’s interpretation is both sound and refreshing. In my opinion, the virtues of this work heavily outweigh any imperfections. (shrink)

I argue that the two criteria traditionally identified as jointly sufficient for voluntary behavior according to Aristotle require qualification. Without such qualification, they admit troubling exceptions. Through minding these difficult examples, I conclude that a third condition mentioned by Aristotle – the eph' hēmin – is key to qualifying the original two criteria. What is eph' hēmin is that which is efficiently caused by appetite and teleologically caused by reason such that the agent could have, in theory, acted differently. I (...) propose that praise and blame are justified only when 1: the behavior is voluntary and 2: the agent is susceptible to the positive influences of appropriate praise and blame to help form, improve, or strengthen a good character. Through concentrating on the agent's affectability in morally salient situations, we may better understand the qualified criteria's role in voluntary human behavior in general. (shrink)

This book provides a contemporary overview of an age-old question in philosophy, namely the connection between intellectual and moral virtues. Ideal for courses in virtue ethics and virtue epistemology, the volume includes coverage of specific topics, such as vice, ignorance, hope, courage, patience, justice and mercy.

Members of the Ethics and Public Policy Committee of the International Society of Nurses in Genetics prepared this article to assist nurses in interpreting the American Nurses Association (2015) Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements (Code) within the context of genetics/genomics. The Code explicates the nursing profession’s norms and responsibilities in managing ethical issues. The nearly ubiquitous application of genetic/genomic technologies in healthcare poses unique ethical challenges for nursing. Therefore, authors conducted literature searches that drew from various professional (...) resources to elucidate implications of the code in genetic/genomic nursing practice, education, research, and public policy. We contend that the revised Code coupled with the application of genomic technologies to healthcare creates moral obligations for nurses to continually refresh their knowledge and capacities to translate genetic/genomic research into evidence-based practice, assure the ethical conduct of scientific inquiry, and continually develop or revise national/international guidelines that protect the rights of individuals and populations within the context of genetics/genomics. Thus, nurses have an ethical responsibility to remain knowledgeable about advances in genetics/genomics and incorporate emergent evidence into their work. (shrink)

Audrey Rousseau La recherche de formes de rétablissement à la suite d’événements difficiles, voire traumatiques, implique souvent de considérer la parole comme un moteur de transformation personnelle et sociale. À partir de préoccupations éthiques et épistémologiques d’une chercheuse non autochtone menant une recherche collaborative au sujet des disparitions et des assassinats de femmes et de filles autochtones en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, cet article interroge plus précisément l’association fréquente entre l’expression du souvenir et la recherche d’un « mieux-être ». Après avoir introduit (...) les assises de cette recherche, qui se fonde sur l’oralité comme mode de transmission des savoirs entre générations, j’explorerai certaines conceptions du mieux-être et de la guérison tirées de la littérature scientifique autochtone. Puis, à partir du postulat relationnel au fondement du pouvoir du storytelling chez les Premières Nations, je révélerai deux conceptions des récits-histoires : l’une les concevant comme des « médecines » qui rassemblent les forces des ancêtres, l’autre les traitant comme des enseignements valorisant l’identité culturelle et les savoirs traditionnels. En terminant, j’aborderai certaines tensions relatives à la volonté d’éclairer des problèmes complexes, tout en réfléchissant aux conditions de l’écoute de ces récits-histoires et aux défis de représenter et d’interpréter ces savoirs expérientiels. (shrink)

Erratum to: Int J Semiot Law DOI 10.1007/s11196-014-9376-7Dans la publication originale de cet article, l’auteur n’a pas cité le titre correct de la thèse de philosophie de Stefan Goltzberg.A la dernière phrase du premier paragraphe, il ne faut pas lire «il a écrit une thèse de philosophie intitulé Théorie et histoire de la philosophie du droit, philosophie du droit de Chaïm Perelman, de Theodor Viehweg, de Roscoe Pound» mais bien «il a écrit une thèse de philosophie intitulée Théorie bidimensionnelle de (...) l’argumentation. Définition, Présomption, Argument A fortiori». (shrink)

«Existe-t-il une argumentation juridique?», c’est la question à laquelle tente de répondre l’ouvrage de Stefan Goltzberg, intitulé explicitement L’argumentation juridique. Si l’auteur commence son ouvrage en posant directement la question, on en cherche aussitôt, par un réflexe de «juriste», la définition. Et il faut probablement lire l’intégralité de ce petit ouvrage pour voir se profiler une définition de l’argumentation juridique. Or, au cours de cette lecture Stefan Goltzberg nous montre en quoi chercher la définition, la poser, est déjà une marque (...) argumentative (p. 25) et certainement une marque de l’argumentation juridique. Or, Stefan Goltzberg n’est pas juriste de formation. Philosophe et linguiste, il est, notamment membre du Centre Perelman de philosophie du droit au sein duquel il a écrit une thèse de philosophie intitulé Théorie et histoire de la philosophie du droit, philosophie du droit de Chaïm Perelman, de Theodor Viehweg, de Roscoe Pound.Le droit est d’abord un objet d’ .. (shrink)

Nous proposons quelques remarques concernant la philosophie et son enseignement, en nous appuyant sur une conférence prononcée en 1975 par le philosophe tchèque Jan Patočka intitulée « L’homme spirituel et l’intellectuel », et dans laquelle Patočka décrit le genre de vie propre au philosophe par opposition à celui qu’il nomme « l’intellectuel » reprenant par là, et lui donnant toutefois un souffle nouveau, l’opposition platonicienne entre le philosophe et le sophiste. Nous approfondissons cette lecture par l’analyse d’un essai antérieur datant (...) de 1934, extrait du volume Liberté et sacrifice et intitulé « Remarques sur la position de la philosophie dans et en dehors du monde ». Nous souhaiterions montrer que dans ces deux textes, Patočka expose, partant de la figure de Socrate, le genre de vie du philosophe, faisant ainsi apparaître une figure de l’enseignement moins grecque que johannique. (shrink)

« Everyone knows what attention is », déclarait William James dans ses Principles of Psychology. De même, on pourrait dire que chacun sait ce qu’est l’implicite, ce qu’est « apprendre ». Les choses se compliquent lorsqu’il s’agit d’étudier le lien entre « attention » et « implicit learning ». À première vue, définir l’implicit learning comme un processus relativement indépendant de la conscience et de l’attention, éluderait la question sur un tel lien ; or, toute la problématique se centre pr...

Cet article, au titre de prolégomènes à toute recherche future, entend relever quelques paramètres de la recherche sur l'espérance dans toute la Bible, en la reconduisant à la condition anthropologique de l'humain. Parmi ces paramètres, sont retenus en particulier: la conception du temps supposée par l'espérance, l'espérance comme intentionnalité et comme objet ou terme de cette intentionnalité, l'espérance comme articulation entre temporalité et altérité, l'espérance vue au temps de son élan et au temps de sa vérification, la distinction entre espérance (...) et illusion, le rapport entre espérance et désespoir, l'espérance personnelle et communautaire, pour soi et pour autrui, les modes d'expression de l'espérance, par des mots, des symboles et des actes, les représentations de l'espéré, les raisons de l'espérance, la manière dont Dieu, et le Christ, modèlent l'espérance. (shrink)

L’article discute les conceptions respectives que le philosophe Ernst Cassirer et l’historien de l’art Erwin Panofsky se font de l’espace artistique. L’occasion en est donnée par une discussion lors du Kongress für Ästhetitk und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft (Congrès d’esthétique et de science de l’art) organisé à Hambourg en 1933 sur la question de l’espace et du temps artistiques. La perspective, considérée par Panofsky comme une forme symbolique, constitue un bon cas pour saisir les proximités et différences entre l’historien de l’art et (...) le philosophe des formes symboliques. L’espace de la perspective correspond-il à cet espace de l’art que le philosophe définit comme espace de la représentation (Darstellung)? À cet exemple de la perspective, exemple classique quoique souvent évoqué sans grande précision pour comparer les deux théoriciens, l’article en ajoute un autre, inédit, à savoir celui de la théorie des proportions. Peut-on dire que la théorie des proportions qui structure elle aussi la surface de l’image est, comme la perspective, une forme symbolique? La réponse permet de préciser la façon dont Cassirer et Panofsky construisent un lien entre art, représentation et subjectivité. À travers cette recherche des affinités et différences dans la conception de l’art, ce qui se joue en toile de fond, c’est, d’une part, la possibilité et les limites de l’interdisciplinarité et du dialogue fécond entre philosophie et histoire de l’art et, d’autre part, la question de savoir si une commune théorie de l’art était partagée à Hambourg dans ces années, autour de l’Institut Warburg. (shrink)

This article, based on a socio-cognitive approach, deals with the professional training of student teachers in French agricultural education during their practical work experience. The main objective is to demonstrate that the student teacher’s social interaction with his academic advisor allows him to use and develop his professional knowledge relating to practical matters. Based on a qualitative analysis this study presents the results of an investigation of seven students and six academic advisors. The article studies the interrelations between the nature (...) of the professional knowledges in question and the processes of construction in the work. (shrink)

Chez Narcisse est un débit de boissons situé à l’entrée des Vosges méridionales. Sa particularité tient au fait qu’il comprend, depuis le milieu des années 1980, au fond du jardin, une salle de concert dite « punk ». Associant ainsi un bistrot qui s’ancre dans le temps quotidien du village et des événementiels qui sont des temps festifs, Chez Narcisse apparaît comme un espace « double » qui met l’accent sur la recherche d’indépendance et la culture en milieu rural. Une (...) monographie ethnographique réalisée sur ce lieu permet de mettre en lumière les conceptions du temps en jeu dans la culture punk « narcissienne ». Formalisé sous forme de « bulles », oscillant entre présent festif du concert, passé idéalisé et futur incertain, le temps punk ne repose pas sur une conception linéaire des événements. La question qui se pose est donc de savoir de quelle manière ces bulles temporelles sont exprimées et, au-delà, comment elles invitent à penser l’utopie et, parfois, la mise en place d’alternatives. (shrink)

Cet article a pour but de réviser la lecture traditionnelle, (néo)kantienne de l’iconologie et de souligner sa dimension hégélienne. Certes Panofsky reprend la notion cassirerienne de « forme symbolique », mais il en fait un usage inédit en déplaçant la question de l’activité de l’esprit vers celle de son mode de signification. Quant au concept de « vouloir artistique » (Kunstwollen) qui semble renvoyer aux idées de noumène et de liberté transcendantale, il doit être compris de manière hégélienne comme la (...) mentalité de base propre à un cosmos culturel. Parmi les aspects anti-kantiens de l’iconologie, il faut également mentionner la critique du génie et celle de l’universalité du jugement esthétique. Enfin, si l’idée d’une dialectique historique rapproche une nouvelle fois Panofsky de Hegel, il y a néanmoins une spécificité de l’iconologie, y compris dans la conception de l’histoire. En posant en son centre le problème de la signification, elle écarte la question du beau, adopte une conception non normative de l’art et de l’histoire et plaide pour une vision humaniste de l’histoire de l’art. (shrink)

Several different evaluation issuesare perceived as important by people involved withinnovative projects intended to improve local food andnutrition systems; particularly the establishment oflocal food policy coalitions. Several such coalitionshave been formed in North America, Europe, andAustralia with the goal of improving community foodsecurity and promoting sustainable local food systems.Pioneer coalitions have served as models, yet therehas been little systematic evaluation of thesemodels. A qualitative study was conducted to identifyfactors that may hinder evaluation efforts. In grouptelephone interviews, we sought the views (...) ofacademics, project organizers, and funders, a total of24 key informants. Pressures to evaluate were assessed differently bythe three groups of key informants. Academics felt thefocus of evaluation should be on the effectiveness ofthe process used to discuss issues and formulatepolicies and plans. Project organizers and fundersperceived a need to assess project impact andoutcomes. A lack of suitable evaluation models andmethods was viewed as a formidable barrier. The use ofinappropriate methods and premature impact evaluationwere noted as potential threats to projectsustainability. External constraints and resourcelimitations were also said to inhibit evaluationefforts. It appears that several other factors may also beimpeding progress in conducting more (and more useful)evaluations including: (1) the apparent negativeconnotation of evaluation and the limited benefitsexpected from evaluation by stakeholders, (2) a lackof consensus about important evaluation questions,(3) insufficient evaluation expertise among projectorganizers, and (4) inadequate appreciation ofincreasing accountability pressures. (shrink)

La traduction, à partir de 1840, des Cours d’esthétique de Hegel par Charles Bénard joue un rôle de premier plan dans l’introduction de l’esthétique et, plus généralement, de la philosophie allemande en France. Pour éclairer le sens et la portée de ce transfert linguistique et théorique, on prêtera attention aux écrits de Bénard dans lesquels il expose quels sont, selon lui, les indispensables apports et aussi les limites de l’approche hégélienne du point de vue de l’esthétique métaphysique française. On s’intéressera (...) également à ses choix de traduction qui, parce qu’ils sont en même temps des choix théoriques, concernent directement la réception de la philosophie hégélienne de l’art et sa compréhension par le cercle de Victor Cousin. (shrink)

L'expérimentation animale n'existe pas: le tour de force des industries qui y ont recours consiste à l'avoir fait disparaître." Chaque année, en Europe, environ 12 millions d'animaux subissent des tests : un chiffre qui ne faiblit pas depuis vingt ans malgré une opposition citoyenne croissante et un discours scientifique qui vante la réduction des expériences. Rongeurs, poissons, chats, chiens ou singes sont utilisés dans les laboratoires, et pour des raisons parfois bien éloignées du cadre de la santé. Que vivent vraiment (...) ces animaux? Pourquoi le changement est-il si lent? Comment agir? En créant l'association Animal Testing, Audrey Jougla a pu recueillir des informations et des témoignages inédits. Des années d'enquêtes de terrain ponctuées de déceptions ou de victoires : l'auteur livre un panorama sans concession, aussi clair qu'édifiant. Un récit intime et engagé qui interroge notre humanité face à la condition animale.--Cover page 4. (shrink)

Comme son titre l’indique, l’ouvrage de Gérard Lalonde (G.L.) a pour ambition d’aborder les cultes d’Athéna Itōnia selon une approche spatiale. L’étude est divisée en quatre parties qui correspondent aux quatre régions étudiées — Thessalie, Béotie, Attique et Amorgos. Le cadre temporel s’étend de la préhistoire grecque jusqu’à l’époque romaine, ce qui permet à l’A. de poser la question de l’origine du culte et son évolution. Dans cette optique est convoqué un vaste corpus qui inclut les sourc...

Audrey Ghali-Lachapelle et Sabrina Maiorano.