Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) regime is starting to be publicly called into question. Scholars such as Daryl Pullman (2023), for example, have questioned the moral grounds that justif...

This article aims to highlight St John’s peculiar perspectives on the meaning and the consequences of Christ’s sacrificial death for our apparently evil-dominated history and to bring a new light on the mystery of evil the Book of Revelation speaks about. My analysis begins with St John’s Christocentric perspective on history, continues with the significance of its driving forces revealed in the vision of the seals and ends with an evaluation of the evil triad, which tries to stop the unfolding (...) of the salvific work of God. Alongside Christ, Christians play an essential role in the conflict with these powers and, thus, in transforming the world according to God’s plan. The outcome of this conflict does not depend on which side has more power, as one may conclude under the effect of the violent imagery of the book, but on the Lamb’s blood’s lasting effects, which enable each Christian to become a conqueror, sharing in his Lord’s victory. Contribution: This article highlights some of the contributions of the Book of Revelation to a Christian theology of history and argues that the main point is the overwhelming value of Christ’s blood and its reception for the much expected victory over evil. To transform the world, the victory won by Christ has to be actualised by each of his followers. (shrink)

This book is one of a growing number on the Anglo-American scene devoted to attacking the empiricist or foundational model of knowledge. Those sympathetic to the Hegelian tradition should welcome such a change in the prevailing Zeitgeist. In this spirit, several writers have compared or connected Hegel and Marx to the language philosophy of the “later” Wittgenstein. Inspired in part by an article of Charles Taylor, David Lamb undertakes to elaborate upon “the considerable convergence of the later Wittgenstein, as (...) commonly understood, and the Hegelian understanding of language.” “It is striking,” he continues, “that the two philosophers argued very similarly against what might be called the empirical account of the relation between language and reality.” The core of this five-chapter book is devoted to highlighting this convergence, primarily between the sections on Sense-Certainty and Perception in the Phenomenology of Spirit and Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations. The final two chapters deal with similarities between Hegel and Wittgenstein on a much broader scale. (shrink)

Russell’s theory of descriptions in “On Denoting” has long been hailed as a paradigm of the sort of analysis that is constitutiue of philosophical understanding. It is not the only model of logical analysis available to us, however. On Frege’s quite different view, analysis provides not a reduction of some problematic notion to other, unproblematic ones -- as Russell’s analysis does -- but instead a deeper, clearer articulation of the very notion with which we began. This difference, I suggest, is (...) grounded in their two very different conceptions of the nature of language / thought; and it grounds in turn two very different conceptions of the nature of philosophical understanding. (shrink)

If bioethics should care about the environment, this could be, among other ways, by reflecting on certain radical solutions, such as biomedical human engineering. In a recent article, Liao, Sandberg and Roache consider reducing human size through biomedical treatments in order to mitigate climate change. In this viewpoint, we point out that the various methods used to reduce human height, be they sophisticated tech­ nologies or mere undernutrition, seem all subject to highly undesirable consequences. This is to show that one (...) of the problems with Liao et al.’s account is that it does not provide us with an ethical framework com­ prehensive enough to balance these consequences with the problematic effects of climate change. In sum, we wish to draw from the discussion of this specific example a more general claim. This claim is that, even if we accept that human engineering per se is not problematic, we nevertheless need a more comprehensive ethical theory than the mere claim that climate change should be mitigated in order to assess the desirability of human engineering. (shrink)

This paper aims to provide autonomy-based reasons in favour of limitarianism. Limitarianism affirms it is of primary moral importance that no one gets too much. The paper challenges the standard assumption that having more material resources always increases autonomy. It expounds five mechanisms through which having too much material wealth might undermine autonomy. If these hypotheses are true, a theory of justice guided by a concern for autonomy will support a limitarian distribution of wealth. Finally, the paper discusses two issues (...) autonomy-based limitarianism would raise. First, insofar as coercion invades autonomy, do autonomy-based reasons legitimate coercive measures to secure a limitarian distribution of wealth? Second, is a limitarian ethos consistent with the incentive to produce enough wealth to secure distributive justice? (shrink)

According to Agenda 21, the United Nation’s action plan for sustainable development, ‘Governments and private sector organisations should promote more positive attitudes towards sustainable consumption through education, public awareness programmes and other means’. But some could wonder whether the cultivation of frugal consumption habits in schools is compatible with basic liberal principles. This article argues that, in societies like ours, liberal egalitarian theories of justice should permit and even advocate teaching frugality in educational institutions. Liberal egalitarianism expects educational institutions to (...) equip children with the abilities and virtues needed to live well by their own judgment and in compliance with just institutions. The article examines how frugality could be one of these virtues. First, frugality is conducive to better compliance with our distributive obligations towards the current poor and future generations. Second, frugality enables prospective adults to live well with their fair share of scarce resources, and even with less. Third, frugality increases autonomy and facilitates its exercise. The article thus concludes that liberal egalitarian institutions should encourage schools to teach frugality. (shrink)

Dans les sociétés occidentales contemporaines, l’autonomie est devenue la valeur privilégiée entre toutes. Elle fonde la possibilité même de la pensée, et, de là, la dignité spécifique des êtres humains. Les personnes en perte d’autonomie, les aînés notamment, se retrouvent dès lors dans une position dévalorisée. Au-delà des enjeux éthiques soulevés par les questions d’inaptitude, acharnement ou abandon thérapeutiques et justice dans l’allocation des ressources, il importe de revenir à une préoccupation fondamentale : comment pouvons-nous préserver la dignité des aînés (...) en perte d’autonomie et promouvoir leur qualité de vie ? Une analyse des approches juridiques, médicales et sociales permettra d’identifier la conception anthropologique des aînés dans les sociétés occidentales développées, puis identifiera les enjeux et dilemmes éthiques qui en découlent pour, finalement, orienter la réflexion vers une perspective plus inclusive de l’être humain à chaque étape de son existence et en relations avec les autres. (shrink)

Determining the agency-status of machines and AI has never been more pressing. As we progress into a future where humans and machines more closely co-exist, understanding hallmark features of agency affords us the ability to develop policy and narratives which cater to both humans and machines. This paper maintains that decision-making processes largely underpin agential action, and that in most instances, these processes yield good results in terms of making good choices. However, in some instances, when faced with two (or (...) more) choices, an agent may find themselves with equal reasons to choose either - thus being presented with a tie. This paper argues that in the event of a tie, the ability to create a voluntarist reason is a hallmark feature of agency, and second, that AI, through current tie-breaking mechanisms does not have this ability, and thus fails at this particular feature of agency. (shrink)

This book discusses the Apostolic Letter Novo millennio ineunte , wherein John Paul II outlined the path the Church should adopt in the third millennium. Peters highlights the Blessed Virgin Mary as educator from the teachings of John Paul II and Father Joseph Kentenich, founder of the Schoenstatt Movement.

We present two studies that examine the effects of guanxi on multiple social groups from the perspective of Chinese business people. Study 1 (N = 203) tests the difference in perceived effects of six guanxi contextualizations. Study 2 (N = 195) examines the duality of guanxi as either helpful or harmful to social groups, depending on the contextualization. Findings suggest guanxi may result in positive as well as negative outcomes for focal actors and the aggregate.

Motivational internalism is the thesis that captures the commonplace thought that moral judgements are necessarily motivationally efficacious. But this thesis appears to be in tension with another aspect of our ordinary moral experience. Proponents of the contrast thesis, motivational externalism, cite everyday examples of amoralism to demonstrate that it is conceptually possible to be completely unmoved by what seem to be sincere first-person moral judgements. This paper argues that the challenge of amoralism gives us no reason to reject or modify (...) motivational internalism. Instead of attempting to diagnose the motivational failure of the amoral agent or restrict the internalist thesis in the face of these examples, I argue that we should critically examine the assumptions that underlie the challenge. Such an examination reveals that the examples smuggle in substantive assumptions that the internalist has no reason to accept. This argument has two important implications for the debate in moral motivation: first, it reveals that the motivational externalist needs a new argumentative strategy; and second, it shows that there is nothing especially problematic about a formulation of the thesis that captures the core internalist intuition that first-person moral judgements are necessarily accompanied by motivation. (shrink)

Advances in medicine in the latter half of the twentieth century have dramatically altered human bodies, expanding choices around what we do with them and how they connect to other bodies. Nowhere is this more so than in the area of reproductive technologies. Reproductive medicine and the laws surrounding it in the UK have reconfigured traditional boundaries surrounding parenthood and the family. Yet culture and regulation surrounding RTs have combined to try to ensure that while traditional boundaries may be pushed, (...) they are reconstructed in similar ways. This paper looks at the most recent RT to be permitted in the UK, mitochondria replacement therapy. Despite controversial media headlines surrounding the technique, MRT is in fact an example of how science and regulation seek to expand models of traditional relatedness in a way that doesn’t challenge the existing order. Yet, like other RTs, while attempts are made to ensure it doesn’t push traditional boundaries too far, fissures and inconsistencies appear in law and culture, which give interesting insights into how genetics, parentage and identity are being mediated in new but familiar ways. (shrink)

Danielle Macbeth offers a new account of mathematical practice as a mode of inquiry into objective truth, and argues that understanding the nature of mathematical practice provides us with the resources to develop a radically new conception of ourselves and our capacity for knowledge of objective truth.

The term “medium independence” has different meanings. One sense maps onto “abstract-as-abstracta” descriptions while the other maps onto “abstract-as-omission” descriptions. Both senses have been deployed when it comes to understanding the nature of physical computation. However, because medium independence is a polysemic term, the sense being used should be clearly stated. If the sense is not clearly stated, then those who wish to engage in debates regarding medium independence and physical computation run the risk of conflating different but related issues (...) which can have consequences when it comes to thinking about physical computation across contexts. (shrink)

Curren and Metzger develop a normative account of sustainability without prejudging the relationships between sustainability and global justice. This commentary propounds an alternative methodology...

Poor ethical decision–making costs industry billions of dollars a year and damages the images of corporations. Thus, by answering the question ‘Why do individuals behave as they do when confronted with ethical issues?’ ethical theory can provide businesses with a means to create a more ethical climate and a more successful operation. This study tested the Ethical Decision–Making Model with accountability (Beu & Buckley 2001), which uses theory that suggests that ethical behavior is influenced by the individual, the issue, social (...) relationships (accountability), and the organization in which the employee is embedded (Brass, Butterfield & Skaggs 1988; Frink & Klimoski 1998). The results showed that individuals’ thought processes (cognitive moral development), personalities (locus of control, hostility and aggression, Machiavellianism), and gender influence how they respond to ethical dilemmas, as well as the salience of the moral issue (moral intensity) and the environmental context (work/school). (shrink)

ABSTRACT:U.S. Organizational Sentencing Guidelines provide firms with incentives to develop formal ethics programs to promote ethical organizational cultures and thereby decrease corporate offenses. Yet critics argue such programs are cosmetic. Here we studied bank employees before and after the introduction of formal ethics training—an important component of formal ethics programs—to examine the effects of training on ethical organizational culture. Two years after a single training session, we find sustained, positive effects on indicators of an ethical organizational culture (observed unethical behavior, (...) intentions to behave ethically, perceptions of organizational efficacy in managing ethics, and the firm’s normative structure). While espoused organizational values also rose in importance post-training, the boost dissipated after the second year which suggests perceptions of values are not driving sustained behavioral improvements. This finding conflicts with past theory which asserts that enduring behavioral improvements arise from the inculcation of organizational values. Implications for future research are discussed. (shrink)

_Axel Honneth: Critical Essays_ brings together critical interpretations of the work of Axel Honneth, from his earliest to his most recent writings, together with a comprehensive reply by Honneth that provides significant insights and clarifications into his project overall.

Trials with highly unfavourable risk–benefit ratios for participants, like HIV cure trials, raise questions about the quality of the consent of research participants. Why, it may be asked, would a person with HIV who is doing well on antiretroviral therapy be willing to jeopardise his health by enrolling in such a trial? We distinguish three concerns: first, how information is communicated to potential participants; second, participants’ motivations for enrolling in potentially high risk research with no prospect of direct benefit; and (...) third, participants’ understanding of the details of the trials in which they enrol. We argue that the communication concern is relevant to the validity of informed consent and the quality of decision making, that the motivation concern does not identify a genuine problem with either the validity of consent or the quality of decision making and that the understanding concern may not be relevant to the validity of consent but is relevant to the quality of decision making. In doing so, we derive guidance points for researchers recruiting and enrolling participants into their HIV cure trials, as well as the research ethics committees reviewing proposed studies. (shrink)

Este estudo teve como objetivo estimar a Qualidade de Vida (QV) em pacientes com transtorno depressivo maior antes e após tratamento antidepressivo eficaz. Participaram do estudo 26 indivíduos (18 a 65 anos) com episódio agudo de Transtorno Depressivo Maior, segundo critérios do DSM-IV. A duração do..

Kant est un interlocuteur fréquent et majeur de Hans Jonas. Il l?est assurément en philosophie pratique. Il lui est à la fois un repoussoir et un modèle à cet égard. Le Kant de la première Critique n?est pas non plus absent de l??uvre de Jonas, et il ne l?est pas, en particulier, du Phénomène de la vie , même s?il y est présent de manière assez sporadique. Mais un Kant dont l?absence est notable dans ce projet de biologie philosophique qui (...) entend rétablir, contre les sciences modernes, les droits du concept de finalité, c?est le Kant de la troisième Critique et singulièrement celui qui s?attelle à l?étude du jugement téléologique. Le titre de la Critique de faculté de juger n?est pas mentionné. Cette absence peut faire question et elle donne un angle d?attaque pour interroger le statut du projet jonassien dans le Phénomène de la vie . De manière abrupte : cette absence n?autorise-t-elle pas à penser que le projet est simplement précritique ? Quel autre sens pourrait-on donner à cette absence, et de quels indices dispose-t-on à cet égard ? Détecte-t-on, à seconde vue, une présence implicite de Kant ? On se contentera de poser ici quelques jalons dans l?instruction de ce dossier. Et l?on se gardera bien de prétendre à quelque démonstration que ce soit. Retournons donc à l?énoncé du projet de Jonas, et d?abord, inévitable­ment, à un très bref rappel des thèses kantiennes, pour baliser. (shrink)

A principal aim of Chateaubriand’s Logical Forms II: Logic, Language, and Knowledge is to clarify and defend what Chateaubriand describes as the ontological conception of logic against the standard model-theoretic or “linguistic” view. Both sides to the debate accept that if logic is a science then there must be logically necessary facts that this science discovers, Chateaubriand arguing that because logic is a science, there must be logically necessary facts, and his opponent that because there are no logically necessary facts, (...) logic cannot be a science. I argue that we can go between the horns of this dilemma by showing that, although logic is a science, it does not follow, as Chateaubriand assumes, that there are logically necessary facts. There are truths of logic; there are no “logical truths”.Um dos objetivos principais de Logical Forms II: Logic, Language and Knowledge de Chateaubriand é clarificar e defender o que ele descreve como a concepção ontológica da lógica, contra a visão predominante, modelo-teórica ou “lingüística”. Os dois lados do debate aceitam que, se a lógica é uma ciência, então deve haver fatos logicamente necessários que esta ciência descobre; Chateaubriand argumenta que, porque a lógica é ciência, deve haver fatos necessários que ela descobre, enquanto seus oponentes argumentam que, porque não há fatos logicamente necessários, a lógica não pode ser uma ciência. Eu argumento que podemos tomar uma via intermediária entre estes dois lados do dilema mostrando que, ainda que a lógica seja uma ciência, não se segue, como Chateaubriand assume, que existem fatos logicamente necessários. Existem verdades da lógica; não existem “verdades lógicas”. (shrink)