The following argument is presented and defended: We ought to aspire to become as good as we can be, and this requires that we do good deeds with not just any emotional attitude, but with joy (a lively, hopeful feeling), even in difficult circumstances. Theism (of the right sort) offers us the best prospects for achieving a fully joyful moral life. And so it is morally good for those of us who are not theists to undertake theism-to commit ourselves to (...) the religious project of coming to believe that God exists. (shrink)

God, a being who is good in the best possible combination of ways, loves us. But does he feel sorrow on our behalf? Thomas Aquinas argues that: every passion is specified by its object. That passion, therefore, whose subject is absolutely unbefitting to God is removed from God even according to the nature of its proper species. Such a passion, however, is sorrow or pain, for its subject is the already present evil, just as the object of joy is the (...) good present and possessed. Sorrow and pain, therefore, of their very nature cannot be found in God. (shrink)

The platonist who argues that the moral life has no religious implications is mistaken. If one ought to aspire to become as good as one can become, then, since the identity of this goal depends in part on whether or not it is possible to enter into a conscious, loving relation with God, one ought to try to figure out whether or not God exists. But then one needs to get a clearer understanding of what it is to be God. (...) So one ought to turn one's attention to what it is to be God. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Taste and Discernment Delicacy of Taste and the Supertasters Practices and Comparisons Who Are the True Judges of Wine? Experts and Projects Experts and Evaluation Ideal and Izeal experts ‐ And You The Canon and Ideal Critics: The Special Relationship Levinson's Problems The Canon and Wine Wine Canons and Ideal Wine Critics Taste, the Competencies and Trust Iconic or Iconoclastic Critics Conclusion Notes.

Nosso artigo visa um estudo sobre os cadernos intitulados como “Manuscritos econômico-filosóficos” de Karl Marx, do ano de 1844, tendo em vista a posição privilegiada que o texto ocupa no desenvolvimento do pensamento do autor. Do mesmo modo, os manuscritos guardam os primeiros estudos teóricos da economia política de um jovem Marx e seu pensamento precoce – anterior àquele de “O capital” –, ao mesmo tempo que também representou o aprimoramento das “armas da crítica” pela “crítica das armas” contra os (...) jovens hegelianos do grupo de Berlim (principalmente Bauer e Stirner) e o pensamento e herança deixada por Hegel. Tais estudos possivelmente também foram importantes para a edificação da amizade que ele também começaria poucos meses após os manuscritos serem “concluídos” – conclusão que só seria realizada com a publicação mas que nunca ocorreu durante a vida de Karl Marx, senão, ocorreria apenas em 1932 (integralmente) com a redescoberta dos mesmos alguns anos antes com o impulso da revolução bolchevique na Rússia. Por fim, buscaremos apontar em que medida as concepções e o pensamento do jovem autor se conservam ou se transformam – parcial ou completamente – nos anos imediatamente posteriores. (shrink)

O presente artigo busca analisar e compreender o legado deixado por uma das correntes políticas e intelectuais mais influentes do século 20, o marxismo. Em meio a um contexto histórico de crise do capitalismo, e do marxismo, tendo este perdido influência enquanto orientação política nos partidos e movimentos políticos contemporâneos, bem como nas ciências humanas e sociais, principalmente, buscamos reconstruir alguns aspectos que permitem compreender algumas particularidades e limites dessa corrente no século passado. Ainda, em meio a compreensão do desenvolvimento (...) do marxismo no século 20, também buscamos contribuir para deixar claro, em que medida, o pensamento de Marx ainda pode servir para contribuir para a compreensão crítica da sociedade moderna e suas lutas por emancipação. (shrink)

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is considered one of Nietzsche’s most important works, but for many readers it is often impenetrable. This guide provides readers with the tools they need to understand this key philosophical work. Douglas Burnham and Martin Jesinghausen offer a close reading, suggest alternative readings, break down difficult language, and show how the book fits within Nietzsche's larger philosophical project. No other guide deals as successfully with Zarathustra’s stylistic and conceptual challenges.

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Wine as a Moving Target Wine as a Vague Object 2030 ‐ A Thought Experiment Wine as “Pure Experience” or as “Rich Object”? The Taster of the Future Conclusions Notes.

This chapter contains sections titled: Canary Wine and Beyond Wine, the Analogy with Art, and Expression Dewey Seeing As and Seeing In Critical Rhetoric The Institutional Theories Attention, Attitude and Appreciation Aesthetic Attributes and Experiences Aesthetic Experience: What Is It? Functionalist Theories The Necessity of Aesthetic Competency Aesthetic Emergence Aesthetic Competency Notes.

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Hermeneutics of the Wineworld Wine and Its Effect on the Subject Experience and Its Effect upon Wine Wine, Food and the Wineworld(s) Terroir Notes.

John Stuart Mill worked for the East India Company in London for thirty-five years (1823-58), drafting many hundreds of dispatches for the guidance of British administrators in India. Historians have long been aware of Mill's involvement in British Indian government. This comprehensive effort brings together different strands of scholarship on Mill to determine the character of his role based on analyses of his draft despatches and comparisons of their practical and theoretical concerns with the broad themes of Mill's major writings (...) on political philosophy and economics. The essays in this collection explore specific aspects of Mill's approach to Indian issues, including religion, law, education, and security, and also place him within the broader currents of utilitarianism. The contributors present different perspectives on the ideology in Mill's pragmatic work for the Company and his personal philosophy. (shrink)

This book represents the first full-length study of the aesthetics of the appreciation of wine. It introduces and argues for the validity and significance of several new concepts: competency, project, and aesthetic practices. Using these concepts -- together with analyses borrowed from cognitive science, sensory science, Husserlian phenomenology and hermeneutics -- the case is made that wine can be a proper and indeed significant object of aesthetic attention. The implications of this are pursued in three ways: First, within the culture (...) of wine, with a sustained treatment of important concepts such as terroir; second, within philosophical aesthetics. The latter results in a position termed 'contextual aesthetics' that sees aesthetic acts as always situated within cultural practices, and given meaning thereby. The third implication is for the cultural and aesthetic value accorded to the various senses, and the kinds of underlying issues that might have led to, and might now lead away from, these values. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: The Cognitive Background to the Aesthetic Problem Wine, Cognition and Philosophy The Phenomenology of “Projects” The Aesthetic Project Notes.

O artigo tem como objetivo analisar alguns elementos da passagem do jovem Karl Marx, especificamente seus experimentos poéticos influenciados pelo romantismo, ao hegelianismo ainda em meados dos anos de 1837-38 até o início dos anos 40, ou seja, dois anos após ele entrar na universidade e um período pouco tratado pelos estudiosos apologistas ou críticos de sua obra. Buscaremos aqui investigar em que medida essa transição do jovem, a partir de seus 19 para 20 anos, para o hegelianismo – e (...) a forma como essa apreensão se deu – teve influência na constituição de sua concepção posterior, conjuntamente com Friedrich Engels, para a mesma crítica feita à filosofia de Hegel e os grupos pós-hegelianos nos anos seguintes. No final, evidenciaremos não apenas em que medida essa expressão romântica influenciou o modo como o jovem Karl Marx aderiu a filosofia hegeliana, senão também o que se conservou em sua crítica e concepção posterior. (shrink)

Biobanking, the large-scale, systematic collection of data and tissue for open-ended research purposes, is on the rise, particularly in clinical research. The infrastructures for the systematic procurement, management and eventual use of human tissue and data are positioned between healthcare and research. However, the positioning of biobanking infrastructures and transfer of tissue and data between research and care is not an innocuous go-between. Instead, it involves changes in both domains and raises issues about how distinctions between research and care are (...) drawn and policed. Based on an analysis of the emergence and development of clinical biobanking in the Netherlands, this article explores how processes of bio-objectification associated with biobanking arise, redefining the ways in which distinctions between research and clinical care are governed. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Competency Aesthetic Practices Inter‐Subjective Validity Project Conclusion Notes.

This chapter contains sections titled: Notes.

O presente artigo visa tratar do “novo materialismo” na filosofia de Karl Marx após 1845, com a produção das chamadas _Teses ad Feuerbach_. Nesse sentido, buscaremos expor essa nova concepção filosófica através da reformulação da relação sujeito-objeto levada a cabo por Marx, que levou o autor a uma noção crítica de ciência, distinta daquela que vigorava no pensamento europeu e posteriormente caracterizada como tradicional, bem como da crítica da metafísica da economia política. A partir dessas críticas, a concepção marxiana se (...) apresenta como uma continuação da chamada _deutsch Wissenschaft_, uma ciência filosófica, influenciada desde Hegel, que agora coloca o modo de produção capitalista como objeto crítico que constitui uma essência histórica específica e que deve ser conhecida enquanto tomada de consciência de si e por si apontando para a necessidade de rompimento com uma atividade científica instrumentalizada pelas necessidades do desenvolvimento das relações de produção e da valorização da riqueza capitalistas. Nesse sentido, a filosofia marxiana, tendo a negatividade como motor da razão, fundamenta uma teoria crítica e revolucionária da sociedade capitalista e reivindica uma práxis emancipadora e emancipada dos interesses e finalidades da produção capitalista estrita. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to explore the views of members of the general public regarding ethical issues in adult predictive genetic testing. The literature pertaining to ethical issues regarding to adult predictive genetic testing is largely restricted to the views of ‘experts’ who have emphasized informed consent, patent issues, and insurance discrimination. Occasionally the views of patients who have undergone genetic counselling and testing have been elicited, adding psychosocial and family issues. However, the general public has not had (...) the opportunity to contribute. In order to explore theatre as a health policy research tool, 1,200 audience members attended the play ‘Sarah’s Daughters’ in seven Canadian cities, following which audience discussions were audiotaped. This study performed a secondary qualitative analysis of the data to identify the ethical issues of adult predictive genetic testing important to members of the general public. The identified issues were: (1) need for public education; (2) choice to undergo genetic counselling and testing; (3) access to genetic counselling and testing; and (4) obligations regarding the handling of genetic information. Audience members emphasized public education and access to information regarding potential choices, which was different from the emphasis on informed consent and other ethical issues prominent in the literature. Members of the general public emphasized ethical issues that were different than those identified by experts and patients. It is essential that members of the public be included in complex and controversial public policy decisions. (shrink)

In his article “Category Independent Aesthetic Experience: The Case of Wine” in this journal, David Sackris presents arguments against Kendall Walton’s view in the famous article “Categories of Art.”David Sackris, “Category Independent Aesthetic Experience: The Case of Wine,” The Journal of Value Inquiry, 47 (2013), pp. 111–120; Kendall Walton, “Categories of Art,” in Steven M. Cahn and Aaron Meskin (Eds) Aesthetics: A Comprehensive Anthology. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007), pp. 521–537. [First published in The Philosophical Review, 79 (1970), pp. 334–367.] He claims, (...) with support in an argument about the immediate qualities of great wines, that for some kinds of aesthetic appreciation specific category knowledge is not necessary. We welcome the idea that wine appreciation is an aesthetic practice, and more importantly the view that the features of wine appreciation might shed light on, or even transform our understanding of aesthetic experience more generally. The article also draws welcom .. (shrink)

Commons enjoy recognition as an alternative to the dichotomy of state and market. In contrast to liberal market theorists who frame the commons as resource-based, we build on alternative and critical conceptions that describe the commons as processual, social, and inherently relational. Our analysis adds to these accounts an articulation of the contemporary commons as “social infrastructure” in the urban spatial conditions where the social processes of commoning take place. We argue that the relational features of urban commons depend on (...) social interactions and cross-sector partnerships in physical places that promote social cohesion, suggesting that the urban commons fold together the spatial and social in hitherto undertheorized ways. To theorize this relationship, we articulate the idea of the relational urban commons as sites of social interaction and relationship building—social infrastructure. This conceptualization suggests that the commons can be governed indirectly by enabling access, participation, and partnerships across sectors, fostering mixed uses and the provision of maintenance and repair. As a result, the commons are both maintained by and conducive to place-based cross-sector partnerships, anchored in place in ways that transcend resources, issues, and ownership. (shrink)

Recent research suggests that individuals with relatively weak global precedence (i.e., a smaller propensity to view visual stimuli in a configural manner) show a reduced face inversion effect (FIE). Coupled with such findings, a number of recent studies have demonstrated links between an advantage for feature-based processing and the presentation of traits associated with autism among the general population. The present study sought to bridge these findings by investigating whether a relationship exists between the possession of autism-associated traits (i.e., as (...) indicated by individuals’“autism quotient” [(AQ) and the size of the FIE. Participants completed an on-line study in which the AQ was measured prior to a standard face recognition task where half of the faces were inverted at test. The results confirmed that higher AQ levels were predictive of smaller FIEs. Implications for a common underlying factor relating to processing orientation are discussed. (shrink)

In this paper we investigate how knowledge and experience influence aesthetic perception. We begin with a discussion of recent evidence from perceptual research in wine tasting that turn out to have significant implications for aesthetic perception. We argue that these results suggest not only that knowledge and experience (what we call “competencies”) are central to determining what is tasted and how, but that this happens because such competencies are an important part of the type of “project” that is undertaken with (...) respect to the object. Our analyses suggest that there must be a distinct aesthetic project for wine tasting, and that this project must include specific competencies. We believe this conclusion holds also for aesthetic experience more generally. (shrink)

Because the demand for health services outstrips the available resources, priority setting is one of the most difficult issues faced by health policy makers, particularly those in developing countries. Priority setting in developing countries is fraught with uncertainty due to lack of credible information, weak priority setting institutions, and unclear priority setting processes. Efforts to improve priority setting in these contexts have focused on providing information and tools. In this paper we argue that priority setting is a value laden and (...) political process, and although important, the available information and tools are not sufficient to address the priority setting challenges in developing countries. Additional complementary efforts are required. Hence, a strategy to improve priority setting in developing countries should also include: (i) capturing current priority setting practices, (ii) improving the legitimacy and capacity of institutions that set priorities, and (iii) developing fair priority setting processes. (shrink)

Peter Abelard (1079–1142 ce) was the most wide‐ranging philosopher of the twelfth century. He quickly established himself as a leading teacher of logic in and near Paris shortly after 1100. After his affair with Heloise, and his subsequent castration, Abelard became a monk, but he returned to teaching in the Paris schools until 1140, when his work was condemned by a Church Council at Sens. His logical writings were based around discussion of the “Old Logic”: Porphyry's Isagoge, aristotle'S Categories and (...) On Interpretation and boethius'S textbook on topical inference. They comprise a freestanding Dialectica (“Logic”; probably c.1116), a set of commentaries (known as the Logica [Ingredientibus], c. 1119) and a later (c. 1125) commentary on the Isagoge (Logica Nostrorum Petititoni Sociorum or Glossulae). In a work Abelard called his Theologia, issued in three main versions (between 1120 and c.1134), he attempted a logical analysis of trinitarian relations and explored the philosophical problems surrounding God's claims to omnipotence and omniscience. The Collationes (“Debates,” also known as “Dialogue between a Christian, a Philosopher and a Jew”; probably c.1130) present a rational investigation into the nature of the highest good, in which the Christian and the Philosopher (who seems to be modeled on a philosopher of pagan antiquity) are remarkably in agreement. The unfinished Scito teipsum (“Know thyself,” also known as the “Ethics”; c.1138) analyses moral action. (shrink)

When the COVID-19 surge hit New York City hospitals, the Division of Medical Ethics at Weill Cornell Medical College, and our affiliated ethics consultation services, faced waves of ethical issues sweeping forward with intensity and urgency. In this article, we describe our experience over an eight-week period (16 March through 10 May 2020), and describe three types of services: clinical ethics consultation (CEC); service practice communications/interventions (SPCI); and organizational ethics advisement (OEA). We tell this narrative through the prism of time, (...) describing the evolution of ethical issues and trends as the pandemic unfolded. We delineate three phases: anticipation and preparation, crisis management, and reflection and adjustment. The first phase focused predominantly on ways to address impending resource shortages and to plan for remote ethics consultation, and CECs focused on code status discussions with surrogates. The second phase was characterized by the dramatic convergence of a rapid increase in the number of critically ill patients, a growing scarcity of resources, and the reassignment/ redeployment of staff outside their specialty areas. The third phase was characterized by the recognition that while the worst of the crisis was waning, its medium- and long-term consequences continued to pose immense challenges. We note that there were times during the crisis that serving in the role of clinical ethics consultant created a sense of dis-ease as novel as the coronavirus itself. In retrospect we learned that our activities far exceeded the familiar terrain of clinical ethics consultation and extended into other spheres of organizational life in novel ways that were unanticipated before this pandemic. To that end, we defined and categorized a middle level of ethics consultation, which we have termed service practice communication intervention (SPCI). This is an underappreciated dimension of the work that ethics consult services are capable of in times of crisis. We believe that the pandemic has revealed the many enduring ways that ethics consultation services can more robustly contribute to the ethical life of their institutions moving forward. (shrink)

Background: There is growing awareness that patient care suffers when nurses are not respected. Therefore, to improve outcomes for patients, it is crucial that nurses operate in a moral work environment that involves both recognition respect, a form of respect that ought to be accorded to every single person, and appraisal respect, a recognition of the relative and contingent value of respect modulated by the relationships of the healthcare professionals in a determined context. Research question/aim: The purpose of this study (...) was to develop better understandings of perceptions of nursing’s professional respect in community and hospital settings in England. Research design: The research design was qualitative. Focus groups were chosen as the most appropriate method for eliciting discussion about nursing’s professional respect. Participants and research context: A total of 62 nurses who had been qualified for at least a year and were working in two localities in England participated in this study. Methods: Data were collected using 11 focus group sessions. The data were analysed by means of an inductive content analysis, extracting meaning units from the information retrieved and classifying the arising phenomena into conceptually meaningful categories and themes. Ethical considerations: To conduct the research, permission was obtained from the selected universities. Results: Recognition respect of human beings was perceived as ingrained in the innermost part of nurses. Regarding appraisal respect, a great importance was placed on: the interactions among healthcare professionals, the time to build trust in these relationships, the influences of the workplace characteristics and nurses’ professional autonomy and decision-making. Conclusion: Recognition respect of persons was embedded in the inmost part of nurses as individuals. Concerning appraisal respect, it was thought to be deeply enshrined in the inter- and intra-healthcare professional interactions. The forging of trusting relationships over time was deemed to be strongly associated with good quality interactions with other healthcare professionals. (shrink)

Priority setting remains a big challenge for health managers and planners, yet there is paucity of literature on evaluating priority setting. The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for evaluating priority setting in low and middle income countries. We conducted a qualitative study involving a review of literature and Delphi interviews with respondents knowledgeable of priority setting in low and middle income countries. Respondents were asked to identify the measures of successful priority setting in low and middle (...) income countries. Responses were grouped as: immediate internal or external/delayed internal or external. We also identified some pre-requisites for successful priority setting. The immediate internal measures included increased efficiency in decision making, improved quality of decisions and fairer priority setting. Immediate External measures included—improved public understanding and acceptance of decisions, increased public participation, increased trust. Delayed Internal measures included increased satisfaction, understanding, compliance, balanced budget, achievement of organization goals, and improved internal accountability. Delayed External measures include impact on policy and practice, improved population health and reduction of health inequalities, achievement of health system goals and strengthening of health care systems. Identified pre-requisites for successful priority setting included; the presence of credible priority setting institutions, incentives for participation and implementation and resources, capacity and political will to implement. These would be augmented in a conducive political, social and economic context. This framework, although not exhaustive, provides a practical basis for planning and evaluating priority setting in low and middle income countries. (shrink)

In the conclusion to this multi-part article I first review the discussions carried out around the six essential questions in psychiatric diagnosis – the position taken by Allen Frances on each question, the commentaries on the respective question along with Frances’ responses to the commentaries, and my own view of the multiple discussions. In this review I emphasize that the core question is the first – what is the nature of psychiatric illness – and that in some manner all further (...) questions follow from the first. Following this review I attempt to move the discussion forward, addressing the first question from the perspectives of natural kind analysis and complexity analysis. This reflection leads toward a view of psychiatric disorders – and future nosologies – as far more complex and uncertain than we have imagined. (shrink)

This essay focuses on one aspect of the social thought of Martin Luther King, Jr.: his social ethics. Specifically, it poses the question whether, in what sense, and from what time it is correct to consider King a democratic socialist. The essay argues that King was in fact a democratic socialist and, contrary to the implications of some recent interpreters who have focused on transformation and radicalization in King's thought, that King's democratic socialism was rooted in his formative experience (...) of the black religious tradition and was manifested from his student days at Crozer Theological Seminary forward. The change that may be discerned in King's later years was only a refinement, not a transformation, of his basic orientation. (shrink)

In face of the multiple controversies surrounding the DSM process in general and the development of DSM-5 in particular, we have organized a discussion around what we consider six essential questions in further work on the DSM. The six questions involve: 1) the nature of a mental disorder; 2) the definition of mental disorder; 3) the issue of whether, in the current state of psychiatric science, DSM-5 should assume a cautious, conservative posture or an assertive, transformative posture; 4) the role (...) of pragmatic considerations in the construction of DSM-5; 5) the issue of utility of the DSM - whether DSM-III and IV have been designed more for clinicians or researchers, and how this conflict should be dealt with in the new manual; and 6) the possibility and advisability, given all the problems with DSM-III and IV, of designing a different diagnostic system. Part I of this article took up the first two questions. Part II will take up the second two questions. Question 3 deals with the question as to whether DSM-V should assume a conservative or assertive posture in making changes from DSM-IV. That question in turn breaks down into discussion of diagnoses that depend on, and aim toward, empirical, scientific validation, and diagnoses that are more value-laden and less amenable to scientific validation. Question 4 takes up the role of pragmatic consideration in a psychiatric nosology, whether the purely empirical considerations need to be tempered by considerations of practical consequence. As in Part 1 of this article, the general introduction, as well as the introductions and conclusions for the specific questions, are written by James Phillips, and the responses to commentaries are written by Allen Frances. (shrink)