This paper explores how allegory served as a subtle yet powerful form of criticism in Romanian cinema during the 1980s, under Nicolae Ceauşescu’s authoritarian regime. The research focuses on selected films by directors such as Dan Pița, Alexandru Tatos, and Copel Moscu, who used metaphorical and indirect approaches to criticise the oppressive social and political climate. Through detailed content analysis, the study reveals how these filmmakers circumvented strict censorship by embedding criticism of societal conditions and governmental control in their works. (...) The paper also discusses the production and distribution challenges faced by these films, emphasising the filmmakers’ resistance to the regime’s constraints and their efforts to depict the harsh realities of life in socialist Romania. Ultimately, the paper contributes to the understanding of how Romanian artists used cinema as a medium of resistance and cultural expression in a repressive political environment. (shrink)

The economics profession has become a favourite punching bag in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Economists are widely reviled and their influence derided by the general public. Yet their services have never been in greater demand. To unravel the paradox, we need to understand both the strengths and weaknesses of economics. This book offers both a defence and critique of economics. Economists' way of thinking about social phenomena has great advantages. But the flexible, contextual nature of economics is (...) also its Achilles' heel in the hands of clumsy practitioners. (shrink)

The hypothesis of this article is that Sarah was the equal of Abraham in establishing the faith of the Hebrew nation, and therefore, she was also a party to a constitutive covenant that was most likely concealed and omitted from the canonical version of the Bible. First, this article introduces research claims regarding Sarah’s central role as a formative leading matriarch. The article then goes on to examine the significance of the tradition of the covenant with Abraham in terms of (...) cultural symbolism. And finally, the article tries to identify this symbolic significance in the Hebrew scriptures in a feminine context, assuming that ritual or ceremonial expressions may be associated with Sarah’s covenant as a founding matriarch in Israel’s religion and heritage. (shrink)

In this research, a sliding mode regulator with sine mapping is suggested for the stabilization of electricity generators being affected by magnet interaction nonlinearities and generator nonlinearities. To reach this goal, our suggested regulator has the following contributions: it starts from the sliding mode regulator with the modifications that the saturation mapping is used to reach a smoother performance instead of the signum mapping, and the sine mapping is applied to reach an upper bound in the proportional gain error, it (...) is used to reach some chosen constant behaviors for the angle position, angle speed, and current in the electricity generators, and its stabilization is ensured based on the Lyapunov approach. We show the simulation of the suggested regulator in two electricity generators. (shrink)

The present article focuses on the case of the 2012 hunger-strike of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. We analyze the ethical dilemma involved in the way the Israeli medical community reacted to these hunger-strikes and the question of force feeding within the context of the fundamental dual-loyalty structure inherent in the Israeli Prison Services—system. We argue that the liberal perspective that focuses the discussion on the dilemma between the principle of individual autonomy and the sanctity of life tends to be (...) oblivious to the asymmetrical relation of power that characterizes the prison system and to the socio-political context in which hunger-strikes take place. Emphasizing hunger-strikes as political acts implies that health practitioners’ conducts cannot be analyzed only through the prism of clinical medical ethics. It requires a public health ethics’ approach, an approach that understands health in the context of the complex relationship between society, state, organizations, communities and individuals. The authors are both academics and volunteers in Physicians for Human Rights—Israel thus our analysis is based both on sociological and public health ethics principles and on the continuous work and advocacy for the right to health of prisoners. (shrink)

Evoquant au passage l'axolotl, ce poisson mexicain qui nous ressemble, comme le jaguar de la brousse brésilienne ou le loup des contes enfantins, discutant avec Platon, Albert Einstein ou... Michael Jackson, se prenant à l'occasion pour Sherlock Holmes, le narrateur écrit dix lettres à sa " belle amie". Qui correspondent à autant de moments clés du " voyage" à travers le temps accompli par cette étrange espèce animale qu'on appelle les hommes. Contrairement à l'idée reçue, notre espèce se caractérise non (...) pas par sa supériorité sur le reste de la création mais par sa forme inachevée, sa faiblesse "naturelle" constitutive. Un "manque de nature ", donc, que seule peut compenser la culture, autrement dit les discours et récits comme les sciences et techniques qui permettent à l'être humain d'agir sur le monde pour mieux l'habiter. A moins qu'en voulant construire une " surhumanité " réservée à quelques-uns l'on ne mette en jeu la survie même de l'espèce... Peut-être n'est-il pas trop tard pour non seulement s'indigner mais aussi résister, nous dit Dany-Robert Dufour en conclusion de ce beau texte lisible par tout le monde. A travers lequel il poursuit en philosophe son travail de critique radicale mais constructive du monde contemporain. (shrink)

The problems of racism and racially motivated violence in predominantly African American communities in the United States are complex, multifactorial, and historically rooted. While these problems are also deeply morally troubling, bioethicists have not contributed substantially to addressing them. Concern for justice has been one of the core commitments of bioethics. For this and other reasons, bioethicists should contribute to addressing these problems. We consider how bioethicists can offer meaningful contributions to the public discourse, research, teaching, training, policy development, and (...) academic scholarship in response to the alarming and persistent patterns of racism and implicit biases associated with it. To make any useful contribution, bioethicists will require preparation and should expect to play a significant role through collaborative action with others. (shrink)

In this paper evidence will be provided that Wittgenstein’s intuition about the logic of colour relations is to be taken near-literally. Starting from the Aristotelian oppositions between propositions as represented in the logical square of oppositions on the one hand and oppositions between primary and secondary colors as represented in an octahedron on the other, it will be shown algebraically how definitions for the former carry over to the realm of colour categories and describe very precisely the relations obtaining between (...) the known primary and secondary colours. Linguistic evidence for the reality of the resulting isomorphism will be provided. For example, the vertices that resist natural single-item lexicalization in logic (such as the O-corner, for which there is no natural lexicalization *nall (=not all)) are not naturally lexicalized in the realm of colour terms either. From the perspective of the architecture of cognition, the isomorphism suggests that the foundations of logical oppositions and negation may well be much more deeply rooted in the physiological structure of human cognition than is standardly assumed. (shrink)

It is common to appeal to governing laws of nature in order to explain the existence of natural regularities. Classical theism, however, maintains the sovereignty thesis: everything distinct from God is created by him and is under his guidance and control. It follows from this that God must somehow be responsible for natural laws and regularities. Therefore, theists need an account of the relation between regularities, laws, and God. I examine competing accounts of laws of nature and conclude that dispositional (...) essentialism provides the most satisfactory explanation of the relation between, and. (shrink)

This study addresses the relationship between Japanese aesthetics and anime. There are three premises: (1) the abstract concepts promoted by Japanese aesthetics; (2) the abstract and the concrete coalesce in the visual domain; and (3) anime can help us appreciate many aspects of Japan's aesthetic legacy"--Provided by publisher.

Trois délires politiques mortifères hantent notre époque. Dans le premier, le délire occidental, la pléonexie (vouloir toujours plus) à l'oeuvre dans le néolibéralisme se transforme en risque de tout perdre (dislocation des subjectivités, déchirure du lien social, épuisement de la planète, destruction des bases mêmes de la vie sur terre). Le second, le délire théo fasciste de l'islamisme djihadiste prétend, contre l'égoïsme érigé en système et la démesure caractérisant l'Occident, restaurer une pureté absolue. Or, quand cette pureté originaire revendiquée se (...) réalise, elle se transforme en souillure et en horreur absolues. Le troisième, le délire identitaire néo-fasciste (qui monte aujourd'hui partout en Europe) se présente comme le seul rempart possible contre les deux premiers. Contre la mondialisation néo-libérale, il prône un retour à la patrie. Non pas une patrie fondée sur un principe universaliste (du type "liberté, égalité, fraternité"), mais une patrie refermée sur elle-même, désignant des boucs émissaires, les étrangers, pour que des acolytes réputés "amis" se regroupent et décrètent contre ces "ennemis" l'"état d'exception". Ces trois délires tendent de plus en plus à former système : on ne sort de l'un que pour entrer dans l'un des deux autres. Puisqu'aucun des garde-fous démocratiques (État, médias et université) ne fonctionne plus, il faut songer à tout refonder à partir des principes de dignité et de commune humanité, également bafoués par ces trois délires. Il se pourrait bien que le travail actuellement fourni par Les Convivialistes puisse fournir les bases de cette reconstruction probablement une des dernières possibles avant la catastrophe annoncée."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

This article examines the character of Miriam the prophetess and raises questions regarding the contradictions and contrasts in the way she is portrayed in the biblical text. Contrary to some researchers, who argued that Miriam was not actually a prophetess and did not deliver the word of God, this essay argues that Miriam was indeed equal to her brother Moses, both as a prophetess and as a messenger, equal in both essence and spiritual role. This essay aims to reveal, using (...) the approach of cultural symbolism, the female parts of the story and the tradition of Miriam, which were censored and silenced in the hegemonic text. The essay aims to prove that Miriam, like Moses, was present at moments of revelation and was sent on the mission of leading and delivering the Hebrew nation. (shrink)

The highly arcane 'wisdom' produced by the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan is either endlessly regurgitated and recited as holy writ by his numerous acolytes, or radically dismissed as unpalatable nonsense by his equally countless detractors. Contrary to these common, strictly antagonistic yet uniformly uncritical practices, this book offers a meticulous critique of some key theoretical and clinical aspects of Lacan's expansive oeuvre, testing their consistency, examining their implications, and investigating their significance. In nine interrelated chapters, the book highlights both the (...) flaws and the strengths of Lacan's ideas, in areas of investigation that are as crucial as they are contentious, within as well as outside psychoanalysis. Drawing on a vast range of source-materials, including many unpublished archival documents, it teases out controversial issues such as money, organisational failure, and lighthearted, 'gay' thinking, and it relies on the highest standards of scholarly excellence to develop its arguments. At the same time, the book does not presuppose any prior knowledge of Lacanian psychoanalysis on the part of the reader, but allows its readership to indulge in the joys of in-depth critical analysis, trans-disciplinary creative thinking, and persistent questioning. This book will appeal to researchers and students alike in psychoanalytic studies and philosophy, as well as all those interested in French theory and the history of ideas. (shrink)

The recent publication of a special number of the SAJP dedicated to a discussion of Samantha Vice’s thoughts on being a white South African prompted this reflection on justice, equity and the modern idea of the state – against the background of moral feelings of guilt and shame, cultural diversity and merging identities. Its aim is to provide a perspective on the unity of the public legal order of the state, the distinct meaning of citizenship and affirmative action in terms (...) of the distinction between constitutive and regulative legal principles also helping white South Africans to understand how affirmative action relates to injustices of the past. The classical understanding of equity will play a key role in this discussion, aimed at showing how we can avoid the apparent impasse of equality before the law and of “fair discrimination.”. (shrink)

"My plan in this book," writes Father Danielou, the eminent French theologian, "is not to record what I say of God, but what God has said of Himselfà to place religions and philosophies, the Old Testament and the New, theology and mysticism, in their proper relationship with the knowledge of God." God and the Ways of Knowing is a classic work of theology and spirituality that presents a subtle and penetrating interpretation of the ways by which man comes to the (...) knowledge of Godùeach form of knowledge carrying him both higher and deeper. (shrink)

Pretendemos comentar os primeiros quatro capítulos da segunda parte dos _Pensamentos Metafísicos_ de Espinosa, dedicados, respectivamente, à eternidade, à unidade, à imensidão e à imutabilidade de Deus; sugerindo, ademais, uma leitura geral para a obra em questão como um todo. Procuramos, desse modo, investigar o sentido das demonstrações espinosanas nesses capítulos, propondo hipóteses para a estruturação delas bem como a, por vezes, insuficiência – justificada – de algumas delas, enfatizando, nisso tudo e dentre outros aspectos, o caráter _polêmico_ da obra.

O percurso argumentativo do Discurso de Metafísica encontra um momento de tensão quando se atinge o artigo 13, pois, após abordar Deus e a substância individual com caracterizações que induzem ao fatalismo, Leibniz procura afirmar a contingência e a liberdade tanto divina quanto humana. O exame que se segue tem como objetivo a descrição dessa dificuldade, bem como a apresentação de tentativas de solucioná-la – articulando as noções e respostas dadas no Discurso de Metafísica e outros textos de Leibniz, e (...) buscando sempre manter uma coerência em relação à sua filosofia. (shrink)

In what follows, I wish to use the circumstances and dynamics of the nocturnalscene of destruction at the Old Mill and the subsequent scene of carnage at the house of Chuck and Vera in Dogville as a springboard for developing some reflections on the‘politics of gift-giving’, and the relationship between friendship and hostility in theexchange of social goods. The term ‘springboard’ is no doubt too vague, here, because Iintend to approach the two scenes, and the film as a whole, as (...) a radical provocation, thusdistinguishing my approach from the traditional methodology of ‘application’, in which awork of art is used in order to exemplify a certain theoretical construction. As it happens,‘provocation vs. illustration’ in itself constitutes one of the key ‘moral’ antagonisms of vonTrier’s film and, as I shall argue, it is the dogged determination of Tom Edison Jr. , the town’s amateur-philosopher, moral lecturer and self-crowned “miner of thehuman soul”, to illustrate the human problem and his failure to be provoked which bringsunrest to the township of Dogville and which finally makes it go to the dogs. (shrink)

Ce texte s’intéresse aux conditions de réussite des mécanismes de type commission de vérité et de réconciliation. Il présente deux grilles à partir desquelles il analyse et compare trois cas : la Truth and Reconciliation Commission d’Afrique du Sud, les tribunaux gacaca au Rwanda et la Commission de vérité et réconciliation du Canada sur les pensionnats indiens. La première grille évalue la capacité d’une CVR à promouvoir la justice et la responsabilité. La seconde, leur capacité à favoriser la réconciliation nationale. (...) La thèse défendue est que les CVR relèvent davantage de l’éthique que du droit et du politique. La première grille applique des critères qui relèvent de ces deux derniers registres. Ce faisant, elle ne prend pas en compte la finalité de réconciliation des CVR et faillit à les évaluer correctement. La seconde grille, qui emprunte aux modalités de la justice réparatrice et à l’éthique, corrige ces lacunes. (shrink)

Ignoring primitive terms leads to an infinite regress. The alternative is to account for an intuitive understanding into the meaning of such terms. The current investigation proceeds on the basis of an idea of the structure of the various modes of being within which concrete entities function. Examples of primtive terms are given from disciplines such as mathematics, physics and logic and they are related to the general idea of a modal aspect. It is argued that primitive terms are not (...) isolated but reveal their meaning only through their interconnections with other primitive terms that are embedded in other modal aspects. However, although primitive terms are found within the various aspects, the meaning of an aspect only comes to expression through its coherence with other aspects, evinced in modal analogies that are qualified by the core meaning of an aspect. There appears to be two options, either reduce what is irreducible or merely provide synonymous terms for given primitives. The former happens when other unique terms are used to define a specific one and the latter when the attempted ‘definitions’ revert to terms with which the original terms could be meaningfully replaced. It is been pointed out that the coherence between primitives invites every academic discipline to account for the meaning attached to the analogies of primitive terms it is employing, without exploring this additional theme any further. (shrink)

Studie over het verschijnsel helderziendheid waarbij de verschillende in de loop der tijden ontwikkelde theorieën en verklaringen in een logisch verband behandeld worden.

A 1999–2000 national study of U.S. hospitals raised concerns about ethics consultation (EC) practices and catalyzed improvement efforts. To assess how practices have changed since 2000, we administered a 105-item survey to “best informants” in a stratified random sample of 600 U.S. general hospitals. This primary article details the methods for the entire study, then focuses on the 16 items from the prior study. Compared with 2000, the estimated number of case consultations performed annually rose by 94% to 68,000. The (...) median number of consults per hospital was unchanged at 3, but more than doubled for hospitals with 400+ beds. The level of education of EC practitioners was unchanged, while the percentage of hospitals formally evaluating their ECS decreased from 28.0% to 19.1%. The gap between large, teaching hospitals and small, nonteaching hospitals widened since the prior study. We suggest targeting future improvement efforts to hospitals where needs are not being met by current approaches to EC. (shrink)

Events in the US in 2020 have laid bare the reality that racism and its effects continue to take a heavy toll on the lives of Black Americans. The three articles in this issue of AJOB each provide...

Neutralita siete a Ownership Unbundling v telekomunikáciách.

Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben presents an account of the political upheavals that ensued as the COVID-19 pandemic brought his country—and with it his countrymen's personal liberties—to a crashing halt. While controversial, Agamben’s reflections on the transformation of Western democracies hold implications far beyond any present crisis.

Research with Children is a unique resource book on the methodology of childhood research. Leading and new researchers within the social studies of childhood discuss central questions of epistemology and methodology, demonstrating the links between theory and practice. The theoretical and practical questions are set out in a clear and well-argued fashion and will therefore appeal both to the newcomer to childhood studies and to experienced researchers in the field.

C’est un vieux court-métrage en noir et blanc qui ne cesse de tressauter dans ma tête depuis mon adolescence. Cela débute généralement à l’aube, entre deux sommeils. Le film se termine par une scène en apparence banale : quelques secondes où l’on voit deux hommes se serrer la main. L’image est un peu floue du fait que la scène est filmée par une mémoire émue. * Quelques rapides traits pour situer l’événement. Les deux hommes vivent sur des continents séparés. L’un (...) est en Europe ; l’autre, en .. (shrink)

The specificities of mental health care combined with the contemporary context of health care make ethical issues particularly salient in psychiatry. Thus, residents in training in this medical discipline may be particularly exposed to difficult situations involving an ethical dilemma, which can be a cause of distress and moral suffering. Future physicians are equipped with knowledge and skills that should enable them to address the ethical issues inherent to clinical practice, as teaching of this discipline is now a requirement for (...) accreditation of residency training programs in Canada. However, many questions remain about the design of a valid and effective clinical ethics education for these young practitioners. In this essay, we attempt to sketch out possible answers to this wide range of questions, based on our experience as residents. After having examined some of the specificities of the ethics curriculum which we benefited from the psychiatry residency program at the University of Sherbrooke, we analyze how its structure can be a good example for ethics training of other young professionals, that is, residents. More specifically, we highlight how creating a space to acknowledge the suffering of the care giver in-training can have an impact on their own sensitivity to the suffering of the patient who they are treating. (shrink)