This essay offers a critique of the nonfoundational theoretical framework which undergirds a number of approaches to contemporary missiology. In its place, it proposes a particularist approach to the study of Christian mission. On this approach, we do not try to glue our missiological reflection on the top of a theory such as Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm shifts. On the contrary, this epistemological orientation requires us to begin with what we think we already know about both (a) the context and (b) (...) the gospel before (c) evaluating how all that knowledge fits together. (shrink)

In recent years, William J. Abraham has suggested the creation of a new subdiscipline for examining the epistemology of theology. This article provides an overview of this proposal, highlighting some of the philosophical concepts, such as ‘Aristotelian epistemic fit’ and particularism, that Abraham drew upon when formulating this approach. It then proceeds to an examination of Abraham’s application of these ideas to his preferred theological scheme, canonical theism. Limitations and challenges to Abraham’s position are discussed as well as ways in (...) which weaknesses in his approach might be addressed. (shrink)

It is a privilege to be invited to contribute to the Festschrift dedicated to Professor Johan Buitendag, Emeritus Dean, Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. While his own work often examined the relationship between theology and natural science, he was also passionate about ecumenism and, in that spirit, the present essay utilised what might be described as an inductive approach to an important ecumenical question, the unity between Methodists and Catholics. Ecumenical dialogue is often (...) undertaken from a theological and dogmatic perspective. This essay took a different approach in that it sought to inductively examine what might be described as the inner logic of two ecclesial systems (Methodist and Catholic). In doing so, it was premised upon an Aristotelian philosophical principle, epistemic fit, in that it presupposed that both these ecclesial bodies possess an intrinsic logic that can be brought to the surface in order to exhibit parallel contours in the wider ecclesial terrain.Contribution: This article fits well within the scope of HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies in that it contributed to a new subdiscipline in epistemology, which explores the conceptual and epistemological dimensions of ecclesiology. Using the concept of epistemic fit, the article offered an inductive approach to some of the practical issues that emerge in ecumenical dialogue. (shrink)

Background: The Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 passed into law in Victoria, Australia, on the 29 November 2017. Internationally, nurses have been shown to be intimately involved in patient care throughout the voluntary assisted dying process. However, there is a paucity of research exploring Australian nurses’ perspectives on voluntary assisted dying and, in particular, how Victorian nurses anticipate the implementation of this ethically controversial legislation will impact their professional lives. Objectives: To explore Victorian nurses’ expectations of the ethical and practical (...) impacts the voluntary assisted dying legislation will have on their professional lives. Research design: This qualitative study analysed nurses’ free text responses collected as part of a larger mixed methods online survey investigating staff views on the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act. Data were collected during the period between the passing of the voluntary assisted dying legislation and the start date and were analysed using inductive content analysis. Participants and research context: Free text survey responses were analysed from 1873 nurses employed across seven Victorian health services located in both metropolitan and regional areas of the state. Ethical considerations: The study obtained research ethics approval and all participants were informed of the voluntary and anonymous nature of their participation. Findings: This study identified three broad areas of Victorian nurses’ professional lives that they expected to be impacted by the implementation of voluntary assisted dying: professional identity, career development and workplace relationships. Conclusion: Participants anticipate diverse and nursing-specific impacts of the implementation of voluntary assisted dying in Victoria. Their insights can inform health services in jurisdictions considering or already implementing voluntary assisted dying, to develop policies, procedures and staff training programmes that safeguard the well-being and legal rights of their nursing staff. (shrink)

Most of the literature on teaching within nursing education presents teaching and learning strategies as unproblematic and widely generalized across contexts, content, learners, and educators. We argue that to be truly effective, teaching strategies must be harmonious with instructor’s beliefs, intentions, and actions. In this paper, we introduce the notion of a plurality of effective teaching based on five different ‘perspectives on teaching’– each composed of different beliefs, intentions, actions, and strategies and illustrated by cases from nursing education. We propose (...) that this foundational conceptualization provides a base from which nurse educators can (1) communicate across differences of philosophical perspective and intent; and (2) critically reflect on their educational practices. (shrink)

Many writers have sought to outline Wesley’s conception of how human beings obtain revelational knowledge. In this regard, the use of what has been dubbed the Wesleyan quadrilateral continues to remain widespread in both the academy and the pulpit. However, this presentation of Wesley’s thought has received severe criticism from the late William Abraham, philosopher of religion and Methodist commentator. He has proposed the creation of a new subdiscipline in epistemology for examining theology. This view has prompted a handful of (...) attempts to extrapolate John Wesley’s epistemology of theology from his various writings. The present essay will contribute to this discussion by examining Wesley’s approach to these questions. In doing so, it explores mainly the function and place of nature in Wesley’s theological reflections. Drawing mainly upon Wesley’s A View of the Wisdom of God in Creation, this essay shows that the natural world played an important, neglected role in Wesley’s epistemology of theology.Contribution: This article contributes to a new subdiscipline in epistemology for examining theology by presenting a new perspective on John Wesley by exploring the role of nature in his thought. Offering an epistemological–theological interpretation of John Wesley, this article fits well within the scope of HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies, particularly this subsection. (shrink)

The last 3 years have witnessed a period of substantial volatility in Cameroon. In 2016, protests within the minority Anglophone regions against the obligatory use of French in schools triggered a period of considerable unrest, in which hundreds of people have been incarcerated and killed. Following an increased security presence in the English-speaking regions, armed groups have surfaced calling for secession – the creation of an independent nation of Ambazonia. In view of this escalating crisis, this article will investigate how (...) the ‘Anglophone problem’ in Cameroon might be brought to bear upon the African theological debate by examining issues of violence, marginalisation and fragmentation within the two English-speaking areas of Cameroon. (shrink)

ObjectivesThis paper aims to identify potential areas for refinement in existing theoretical models of suicide, and introduce a new integrative theoretical framework for understanding suicide, that could inform such refinements.MethodsLiterature on existing theoretical models of suicide and how they contribute to understanding psychological processes involved in suicide was evaluated in a narrative review. This involved identifying psychological processes associated with suicide. Current understanding of these processes is discussed, and suggestions for integration of the existing literature are offered.ResultsExisting approaches to understanding (...) suicide have advanced the current knowledge of suicide in various ways. They have guided valuable research in the following areas: motivations for suicide and the psychological distress which influences suicide attempts; ambivalence about suicide; suicidal individuals’ focus of attention; and ways in which individuals who contemplate suicide differ from individuals who attempt suicide. We outline a new theoretical framework as a means to integrating all of these concepts into the three principles of control, conflict, and awareness. Within this framework, suicide is regarded as occurring due to a long standing conflict between an individual’s personal goals, culminating in an episode of acute loss of control. The new framework posits that the individual then strives to regain control through the means of suicide because of a narrowed awareness of consequences of their actions on other valued goals. This psychological mechanism of limited awareness is posited to be the common pathway by which individuals make a suicide attempt, regardless of which risk factors are present.ConclusionThis article introduces a theoretical framework that generates several hypotheses for future research, and focuses on psychological processes occurring during immediate crisis. One of the key hypotheses resulting from our predictions on how individuals progress from contemplating to attempting suicide will be tested in an ongoing program of research: Individuals who attempt suicide have a significantly reduced awareness of consequences of suicide, which would negatively impact on their important life goals, values, principles, or ideals, compared to individuals who contemplate suicide. Therapy guided by the new framework may be more flexible, immediate, and client-focused than other therapies for suicidal individuals. (shrink)

There is growing evidence that some individuals engage in both self-harm and aggression during the course of their lifetime. The co-occurrence of self-harm and aggression is termed dual-harm. Individuals who engage in dual-harm may represent a high-risk group with unique characteristics and pattern of harmful behaviours. Nevertheless, there is an absence of clinical guidelines for the treatment and prevention of dual-harm and a lack of agreed theoretical framework that accounts for why people may engage in this behaviour. The present work (...) aimed to address this gap in the literature by providing a narrative review of previous research of self-harm, aggression and dual-harm, and through doing so, presenting an evidence-based theory of dual-harm – the cognitive-emotional model of dual-harm. This model draws from previous studies and theories, including the General Aggression Model, diathesis-stress models and emotional dysregulation theories. The cognitive-emotional model highlights the potential distal, proximal and feedback processes of dual-harm, the role of personality style and the possible emotional regulation and interpersonal functions of this behaviour. In line with our theory, various clinical and research implications for dual-harm are suggested, including hypotheses to be tested by future studies. (shrink)

Pratt, Zion, and Loff (2012) correctly point out that most international clinical research (ICR) is not intended to address the vast inequities in access to health care between developed and develo...

in their book American Philosophy: From Wounded Knee to the Present, contemporary philosophers Erin McKenna and Scott Pratt identify "living in a context of difference" as the central philosophical issue in the history of the United States. They credit W. E. B. Du Bois with having identified racial difference as one particular version of this general issue: "Du Bois once declared that the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line—the problem of the coexistence of (...) differences that figure in our existence as members of communities". For McKenna and Pratt, this continues to be the central philosophical problem in the United States, and perhaps globally, today: "From the... (shrink)

Fleming, Daniel J; Ryan, Thomas Three recent phrases of Pope Francis warrant attention and guide this article. First, there is his call for 'witnesses of God's love' in his tribute to modern martyrs. The second is 'the pedagogy of grace' and the work of the Spirit explained in 'Amoris Laetitia'. Third, from the same document, we find his discussion of accompaniment in the process of moral discernment within the church. With these as guideposts and drawing on recent studies in (...) moral philosophy and psychology, this article unfolds in five steps: setting the scene; witness in relation to moral understanding and intersubjectivity; intersubjectivity and conscience; a pedagogy of grace: Holy Spirit and nonbelievers; and a pedagogy of grace in relation to moral development. (shrink)

La mort de Michel Foucault en 1984 a coïncidé avec l'évanouissement des espoirs de transformation sociale qui avaient caractérisé l'après-guerre. Dans les décennies qui ont suivi sa mort, le néolibéralisme a triomphé et les attaques contre la sphère publique se sont amplifiées. Si Foucault n'a pas été un témoin direct de ces années, ses travaux sur le néolibéralisme n'en sont pas moins prémonitoires : la question du libéralisme occupe une place importante dans ses dernières œuvres. Depuis sa mort, l'appareil conceptuel (...) de Foucault a acquis une position centrale, voire dominante, pour une partie importante de la gauche intellectuelle mondiale. Cependant, comme le montrent les contributions à ce volume, l'attitude de Foucault à l'égard du néolibéralisme était pour le moins équivoque. Loin de mener une lutte intellectuelle contre l'orthodoxie du marché libre, Foucault a semblé y voir une opportunité pour inventer de nouvelles subjectivités. Un espace libéré du pouvoir pastoral de l'Etat social. Comment comprendre sa critique radicale de ce dernier, comprise comme un instrument du biopouvoir? Ou son soutien à l'anti-marxisme des nouveaux philosophes? Est-il possible que Foucault ait été séduit par le néolibéralisme? Cette question n'a pas qu'un intérêt biographique : elle nous oblige à nous confronter plus généralement aux mutations de la gauche depuis mai 1968, aux désillusions des années qui ont suivi et aux transformations profondes du champ intellectuel français depuis trente ans. Comprendre les années 1980 et le triomphe néolibéral, c'est explorer les recoins les plus ambigus de la gauche intellectuelle à travers l'une de ses figures les plus importantes. Ce livre est édité par Daniel Zamora et M.0 Behrent Daniel Zamora est professeur de sociologie à l'Université Libre de Bruxelles. Il travaille sur les conceptualisations de la pauvreté au XXe siècle, sur les inégalités et sur l'histoire moderne des idées. Il a écrit pour Le Monde Diplomatique, Jacobin, la Los Angeles Review of Books, Dissent, et ses textes ont été traduits dans une quinzaine de langues."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

The neurophysiological evidence from the Miyashita group's experiments on monkeys as well as cognitive experience common to us all suggests that local neuronal spike rate distributions might persist in the absence of their eliciting stimulus. In Hebb's cell-assembly theory, learning dynamics stabilize such self-maintaining reverberations. Quasi-quantitive modeling of the experimental data on internal representations in association-cortex modules identifies the reverberations (delay spike activity) as the internal code (representation). This leads to cognitive and neurophysiological predictions, many following directly from the language (...) used to describe the activity in the experimental delay period, others from the details of how the model captures the properties of the internal representations. (shrink)

Should we research, develop, and deploy climate engineering technology? Drawing upon contemporary moral and political theory, this book offers a normative perspective on such questions, ultimately making the case in favor of research and regulation guided by norms of legitimacy, distributive justice, and procedural justice.

In short, he is known in a discipline in which he did not teach for a book he did not write. In Becoming Mead, Daniel R. Huebner traces the ways in which knowledge has been produced by and about the famed American philosopher.

What does the history of Christian views of economic life mean for economic life in the twenty-first century? Here Daniel Finn reviews the insights provided by a large number of texts, from the Bible and the early church, to the Middle Ages and the Protestant Reformation, to treatments of the subject in the last century. Relying on both social science and theology, Finn then turns to the implications of this history for economic life today. Throughout, the book invites the (...) reader to engage the sources and to develop an answer to the volume's basic question. (shrink)

The author confronts the idea of responsibility by mapping the work of J. L. Austin onto the criminal law. Doing so entails considering the extent to which the language of criminal law can be reconciled with ordinary language, a project that entails considering whether the language of criminal law is ordinary language.

Aristotle’s classification of ideal number in Metaphysics M 6 has often been considered an unfair presentation of Plato’s actual views. I take another look at the passage and argue that Aristotle is a more careful critic than has been usually recognised. In particular, I argue that much of the scholarly discussion on the passage has failed to take account of Aristotle’s deeper concern, namely, the conditions necessary for numbers to be ordinal. I then set Aristotle’s critique within the broader context (...) of his concern to separate Form from Number, and thus to separate metaphysical questions from mathematical ones. The latter half of the article shows some of the consequences of mixing mathematics with metaphysics from a systematic and historical point of view. (shrink)

If rhetoric is the art of speaking, who is listening? In Being-Moved, Daniel M. Gross provides an answer, showing when and where the art of speaking parted ways with the art of listening-and what happens when they intersect once again. Much in the history of rhetoric must be rethought along the way. And much of this rethinking pivots around Martin Heidegger's early lectures on Aristotle's Rhetoric, where his famous topic, Being, gives way to being-moved. The results, Gross goes on (...) to show, are profound. Listening to the gods, listening to the world around us, and even listening to one another in the classroom-all of these experiences become different when rhetoric is reoriented from the voice to the ear. (shrink)

In Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Daniel Mahoney presents a philosophical perspective on the political condition of modern man through an exegesis and analysis of Solzhenitsyn's work. Mahoney demonstrates the tremendous, yet often unappreciated, impact of Sozhenitsyn's writing on twentieth century thinking through an examination of the writer's profoundly important critique of communist totalitarianism in a judicious and original mix of western and Russian, Christian and classical wisdom.

Des origines à la fin du cinquième siècle. Les Présocratiques -- La période classique. Socrate ; Platon ; Aristote et l'école péripatéticienne -- Les philosophies hellénistiques. La critique de la religion populaire à l'âge hellénistique et la philosophie épicurienne de la religion ; La religion des Stoïciens.

La dixième (et dernière) des études qui composent en 1990 le livre de Paul Ric?ur, Soi-même comme un autre , met vigoureusement l?accent sur l?altérité dans son lien intrinsèque à la passivité. Selon l?expression de Ric?ur, la passivité offre « le répondant phénoménologique » 1 de la méta-catégorie spéculative de l?altérité. Dans Soi-même comme un autre , l?attes­tation phénoménologique de l?altérité dans l?expérience de la passivité prend trois figures que Ric?ur énumère : en premier lieu, celle du corps propre ou (...) de la chair ; celle de la passivité dans la relation à autrui, ensuite ; celle, enfin, « la plus dissimulée », du rapport de soi à soi-même corres­pondant à la conscience au sens de Gewissen . Mon exposé sera centré sur la deuxième de ces figures. Il rapportera à la constitution d?autrui dans la V e Méditation cartésienne de Husserl, la lettre que celui-ci, quelques années plus tard, adressa à Lucien Lévy-Bruhl. Il y va en effet dans cette lettre de l?extension à d?autres sociétés de ce que Natalie Depraz a judicieusement cerné, à propos de la V e Méditation cartésienne , comme « la dynamique passive du couplage originaire » 2 . Paul Ric?ur et la V e Méditation cartésienne de Husserl Le pari que Husserl relève dans sa V e Méditation cartésienne est de chercher à constituer autrui à partir de la sphère du moi. L?altérité d?autrui se constitue. (shrink)