Reflection has been proclaimed as a means to help physicians deal with medicine’s inherent complexity and remedy many of the shortcomings of medical education. Yet, there is little agreement on the nature of reflection nor on how it should be taught and practiced. Emerging neuroscientific concepts suggest that human thought processes are largely nonconscious, in part inaccessible to introspection. Our knowledge of the world is fraught with uncertainty, ignorance and indeterminacy, and influenced by emotion, biases and illusions, including the illusion (...) of not having illusions. Neuroscience also documents that lifelong learning processes may hone nonconscious cognition to high levels of sophistication, allowing rapid and precise perceptions, judgments and actions in complex situations. We argue that knowledge of mechanisms underlying human thought may be useful in designing educational programs to foster desired attributes such as curiosity, critical self-awareness and intuitive acumen in medical professionals. The juxtaposition of neuroscientific insights with ideas from Kant on reflective judgement, van Manen on tact, and Aristotle on phronésis, supports a concept of reflection that manifests as wise practice. We suggest that reflection in medical education should be an imperative for educators seeking to guide learners to manage the complexity and “messiness” of medical practice, and a role-modelling mode of medical practice characterized by self-correcting behaviors that culminate in good and right professional actions. An example illustrates reflective practice in the teaching and learning of physicianship. (shrink)

Background: When healthcare personnel take part in military operations in combat zones, they experience ethical problems related to dual loyalties, that is, when they find themselves torn between expectations of doing caring and military tasks, respectively. Aim: This article aims to describe how Swedish healthcare personnel reason concerning everyday ethical problems related to dual loyalties between care and military tasks when undertaking healthcare in combat zones. Design: Abductive qualitative design. Participants and research context: Individual interviews with 15 registered nurses and (...) physicians assigned for a military operation in Mali. Ethical considerations: The participants signed up voluntarily, and requirements for informed consent and confidentiality were met. The research was approved by the Regional Ethics Review Board in Gothenburg (D no. 816-14; 24 November 2014). Findings: Three main categories emerged: reasons for not undertaking combat duties, reasons for undertaking combat duties and restricted loyalty to military duties, and 14 subcategories. Reasons for not undertaking combat duties were that it was not in their role, not according to ethical codes or humanitarian law or a breach towards patients. Reasons for undertaking combat duties were that humanitarian law does not apply or has to be treated pragmatically or that it is a case of force protection. Shortage of resources and competence were reasons for both doing and not doing military tasks. Under some circumstances, they could imagine undertaking military tasks: when under threat, if unseen or if not needed for healthcare duties. Discussion/conclusion: These discrepant views suggest a lack of a common view on what is ethically acceptable or not, and therefore we suggest further normative discussion on how these everyday ethical problems should be interpreted in the light of humanitarian law and ethical codes of healthcare personnel and following this, further training in ethical reflection before going on military operations. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Giving an Account of OneselfChris LundbergGiving an Account of Oneself. Judith Butler. New York: Fordham University Press, 2005. Pp. x + 149. $18.95, softcover.Giving an Account of Oneself, Judith Butler's recent foray into moral philosophy, is a lucid interrogation of the problem of responsibility in the wake of contemporary critiques of the subject. In it, Butler moves beyond her concern with the conditions of subjectivity and its performances (...) towards a fuller consideration of life with others. Butler proffers an answer to the problem of post-subjective responsibility that resonates with the best elements of the rhetorical traditions, [End Page 329] though perhaps Butler's project might also benefit from a more thorough engagement with the problem of rhetoric in its specificity.Though works such as Gender Trouble earned a reputation (perhaps unfairly) for being theoretically dense to the point of obscurity, Giving an Account of Oneself is clearly and elegantly argued. Butler's argument is that moral philosophy relies on the ability of subjects to give an account of themselves and their actions. Such an account seems difficult in the face of blistering critiques of an autonomous, self-possessed, transparent, and naturally given subject of intention. How can one affirm responsibility in the post-subjective moment? As Butler puts it: "does the postulation of a subject who is not self-grounding … whose conditions of emergence can never fully be accounted for, undermine the possibility of responsibility and, in particular, of giving an account of oneself" (19)? What are the assumptions latent in critiques of the humanist subject that might deny the possibility of giving an account of oneself? Inspired by Foucault's interrogation of a naturalized truth of the subject, Lacan's account of a subject produced and dispossessed by the Symbolic Order, and Derrida's critique of presence, such critiques locate the subject as an effect of the operations of discourse, conceived broadly. Despite the force of these critiques, Butler claims that a view of the subject nested in and dispossessed by discourse provides possibilities for ethics. Butler's reframing of ethics draws on two assumptions that underwrite "post" accounts of the subject: that the subject is both an effect of discourse and of differential relation to others.The first assumption is that a subject produced within discourse is also a subject that is dependent on and interpenetrated by others. Drawing on her continuing engagement with Hegel, the work of Adriana Cavarero, Levinas's conception of alterity and Laplanche's theory of seduction, Butler argues that the subject is endowed with a "fundamental sociality" (33). The markers of fundamental sociality differ for each of these theorists: Hegel relies on the concept of recognition; Cavarero appropriates Arendt's space of appearance; Levinas argues for the priority of an ethical relation to the other over ontology; and Laplanche conceives of the emergence of subjectivity as a primal seduction of a child by the adult world. But each of these framings of the subject is united by a basic commitment that subjects are produced in relation to others both as a generative point and as a horizon.The second assumption is that when a subject dependent on other subjects attempts to give an account of itself, it does so within a structure of address. A subject makes a claim for itself only in the presence of others—an account of oneself both aims at the self but also simultaneously aims at presenting the self to another. On this reading, accounts of oneself are not transparent descriptions [End Page 330] of a subject's interiority: rather, an account of oneself must be a narrative, a discursive gathering of the self that can never fully recover the conditions of its emergence. Narrative is not simply a mode of communicating the content and intentions of a self to the other. Narrative is simultaneously the precondition for a subject naming and providing retroactive order to its own subjectivity. But where there are narratives, there is always the risk of narrative closure, or that the narrative is repeated without interruption. Put in terms of Butler's concern with ethics, is there not always a risk that a narrative becomes a self... (shrink)

In the closing moments of Phaedrus, Socrates announces rhetoric's last gasp: "And now the play is played out; and of rhetoric enough" (2006, 69). Of course, news of rhetoric's death has been greatly exaggerated. Indeed, the death and subsequent rebirth of rhetoric have been declared countless times, and debates surrounding the nature and character of rhetoric— from antiquity through the renaissance and even into the modern day— seem to continue almost interminably. In the contemporary context, such debates often flow inexorably (...) from a constitutive indecision that marks rhetorical studies's complicated relationship to a foundational definition of rhetoric. More often than not, after a brief foray into debates .. (shrink)

Despite medical leaders’ increasing acceptance of the idea that the whole person should be the focus of care, empirical studies show clinicians generally remain focused on narrower goals: disease categories, standardized treatment procedures, and objective measurements of health improvements. We assume doctors want to do a good job, consistent with their perception of the goals and norms of their profession, so they practice medicine based on the illusion that clinical medicine is “knowledge treating disease,” not people treating people. We believe (...) that doctors’ seeming reduction of patients to clinical objects results from not seeing themselves as leaders for their patients or accepting their constructive power in clinical encounters. (shrink)

In the article, I argue that teachers can promote their students’ audial attention, in general education as well as in science education, by drawing on musicians’ and composers’ refined listening skills. I investigate the act of listening phenomenologically by exploring listening in its multiple forms. With reference to Heidegger’s philosophy of existence, I further explore how listening constitutes our Being-in-the-world. The question whether listening to music might increase a more general readiness to audial attention is of educational interest: how can (...) the ability of audial attention be taught and reinforced and which role does careful listening play in learning? I discuss whether teaching about sound in science class promotes students’ skills of audial experience and whether attentive listening trained in music education is applicable in general education or in science education. Promoting listening skills in science education is discussed in four themes: learning from listening to sound phenomena, listening possibilities in science curriculum, cooperation between science education and music education, and teaching listening for openness. I conclude that there are no direct connections between training attentive listening skills in music education and employing them in science learning. However, fruitful conjunctions might be found when listening is regarded in a broader sense, as tuning in to each other and as awareness of the world’s own musicality. I suggest that a variety of modes of listening should form the foundation for promoting audial attentiveness in learning. Further, to include openness in science education, we need to liberate the training of listening abilities from a mere utilitarian approach. (shrink)

Two of the most influential works of the Western nineteenth century were completed in 1859: Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species and Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde. Although created within very different cultural traditions, these works show some striking similarities: both brought about a critical, long-lasting debate and caused conflicting reactions after their publications, and both had fundamental and compelling impact on their disciplines. The perspective discussed in this paper, however, is that both works address the notion of evolutionary (...) thought. In 2009 we could have thus celebrated a double anniversary: it was 150 years since the manifestation of the evolutionary idea in such different .. (shrink)

In this article, Music-in-Becoming, I explore the integrative practices of composing music and researching its emergence. The article reports from an artistic research project on composition as lived experience. The music that serves as the raw material for my inquiry consists of four pieces for three overtone-skilled singers and one double bass player for the concert Ørenslyd, all performed in Berlin in October 2019. My intention is to show how composing music takes place in a phenomenological in-between of composer and (...) work that is driven by attentive listening and the complementary skills of activeness and receptiveness. In this in-between, the skill of listening plays a crucial role as it is both participatory and receptive. I further examine and discuss the methods I use during this exploration, influenced by both artistic research and phenomenological research. The two methodological approaches are compared regarding their characteristic differences and their potential kinships. My presumption is that the active-receptive act of composing at its core is a phenomenological-hermeneutic practice. I conclude that artistic research seems to be profoundly influenced by phenomenology, whereas not all phenomenological research is influenced by art as practices or as a research approach. (shrink)

In this article, I explore the music-in-becoming as a dialogue. The thesis of my inquiry is that during musical composition, the composer’s listening is marked by both activeness and receptiveness; actively structuring the sounding work, and receptively letting the work express itself as it takes its form. Composer and work merge in sudden moments of attunement, the sensation of coherence between the so-fare completed and the anticipation of the as-of-yet unformed work. Composition is all about balancing writing as a handicraft (...) with those rare, unexpected moments of attunement. I discuss the emerging work’s invitational character and the fact that during composition, the piece seems to request the composer’s attention. The audibility of the work’s voice depends on the composer’s ability to listen. Finally, the methodological considerations concerning sonic-artistic research show that researching sonic experiences requires competencies of being attentive, responsive, and reflective. Attentiveness is related to thorough listening experiences of the emerging music, responsiveness appears as a vital skill in a composer’s dialoguing with the music-in-becoming, and reflectiveness is associated with empirically documenting the processes. At the heart of this sonic research project, I place my lived experience of composing and the intimate relation between sound and listening. (shrink)

We explored the relationship between materialism, awareness of environmental consequences and environmental philanthropic behaviour with a web survey (n=2,079) targeted at potential donors living in Finland. Environmental philanthropic behaviour comprise of donations of money and/or time to environmental charities. The awareness of environmental consequences was divided into egoistic, altruistic and biospheric concerns. Biospheric and egoistic concerns were positively, while materialism was negatively related to environmental philanthropic behaviour. Materialism was related to preference of charismatic species when choosing a target for donation. (...) The results have implications for conservation marketing emphasising the importance of taking the different donor segments into account. (shrink)

Historians often compare the relationship between humanists and scholastics in the early sixteenth century to a battle. In such accounts, the Parisian Faculty of Theology plays the role of a major combatant keeping humanists away from religious studies. This article paints a different and more harmonious picture of humanists and scholastics in the decade before the Reformation. It draws on hitherto little explored evidence from manuscripts authored by official orators at the University of Paris: their speeches to graduating students at (...) the Faculty of Theology in 1510 and 1512. It will be argued that the speakers celebrated both humanist and scholastic competences and the speeches themselves demonstrate that eloquence had a role to play within the institution. In this way, the article adds nuance to our understanding of how the Faculty of Theology viewed humanists and introduces important new sources to the history of universities. (shrink)

Deepfakes are synthetic media, such as pictures, music and videos, created with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools, a technique that builds upon machine learning and multi-layered neural networks trained on large datasets. Today, anyone can create deepfakes online, without any knowledge about the underpinning technology. This fact opens up creative opportunities at the same time as it creates individual and societal challenges. Some identified challenges are fake news, bullying, defamation, media manipulation and democracy damage. The aim of this study was (...) to analyse and discuss how deepfakes could affect entertainment, education and digital news media in positive and negative ways. The chosen research strategy was a qualitative cross-sectional study to create a snapshot of current attitudes in blogs, online discussion fora and from a selected expert panel. Firstly, blogs and internet discussion fora on deepfakes and AI were analysed inductively. Secondly, results from the previous step were used to create a question scheme for semi-structured interviews with some selected experts that have relevant knowledge in the field of AI and deepfakes. Finally, interviews answered were analysed thematically using the Technology Affordances and Constraints Theory as an analytical lens. Findings show that deepfakes at the same time have a wide variety of affordances, but also some critical constraints to consider. In the affordance part, there are the potential use of deepfakes for speculative and provoking concepts, not only as entertainment, but also to illustrate educational scenarios that are hard or impossible to capture in traditional videos, images or sound recordings. Furthermore, there are many affordances for entertainment and the creation of environments where realism is not an important condition. Some examples are video game graphics, animated film background music in games and music videos. However, the conclusion is that the findings comprise more of constraints than of affordances, where the serious negative aspect of deepfakes can lead to psychological, financial and social harm. Many images and videos in news media have already been manipulated during the last decades, but deepfakes can take this to a new and more problematic level where the overall trust might disappear. The author’s recommendation is to further increase the focus on source criticism and that discussions on which sources to trust should be an early introduced part of educational programmes. (shrink)

In recent years, the concept ‘post‐feminism’ and its links to neoliberal economic structures and to the extreme reinforcement of individualization as raison d'etre of Western civilization have been discussed at length by numerous distinguished scholars in feminist cultural studies and feminist philosophy. This article takes its point of departure in this discussion. Drawing on Wendy Brown, Elizabeth Grosz, Angela McRobbie, Wendy Larner, and others, the text is examining the discourse of post‐feminism and neoliberalism, and its effects on overarching political scenarios, (...) as well as on everyday life: What happens to feminist politics when the collective, both as figuration and as virtual political platform, is deemed to be something situated in the discursive outskirts? By drawing on examples form the contemporary cultural imaginaries, from popular culture, economic structures, and public debate, and by pointing out the links between the micro‐perspective of our everyday living and overarching political structures, this article aims at bringing to the fore and critically discuss these issues, and the ways in which they intersect with contemporary Western feminism. The article ends with a discussion of possible points of exit or paths to follow in order to find alternatives. (shrink)

_Arne Næss and Ingemar Hedenius as Dramatic Intellectuals: A Case Study for a Shared Theory of the Sociology of Knowledge and the History of Knowledge_ In terms of their substantive research interests and their epistemological approach, the sociology of knowledge and the history of knowledge show significant enough similarities to allow shared theory development. In this article, I argue that the recent work by Jeffrey C. Alexander on ‘dramatic intellectuals’ can offer a useful point of departure for such an undertaking. (...) Alexander’s interest in the way intellectuals provide meaning-making narratives for their audiences can be seen as not unlike the interest of historians of knowledge in examining how knowledge circulates in society. Indeed, one can go as far as to claim Alexander’s postulates about dramatic intellectuals to constitute a theory of knowledge circulation. To demonstrate the point and the relevance of his work to the sociology and history of knowledge more in general, two brief case studies are presented: that of the Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss and that of the Swedish philosopher Ingemar Hedenius. Many of their activities in the early post-war period, it is shown, can be viewed as attempts at meaning-construction through narratives formulated to help the broader public orient itself in the world in difficult times. The argument is made that the sociology of knowledge and the history of knowledge need, accordingly, to pay more attention to the central category of meaning in the study of intellectuals and their audiences. This can be profitably done by departing from the observation of Alexander’s that what enables knowledge to circulate in society is its dramatic conveyance through well-formulated meaning-making narratives that help social actors make sense of their circumstances. (shrink)

I am greatly obliged to Mr. Williams and the editor for the republication of numerous passages from my recent book. I especially appreciate Mr. Williams' contribution of a magnificent answer to those of my critics who contend that my book is largely devoted to belaboring a straw man because our generation no longer holds any of the views I attack. Even though my views are both misquoted and out of context in his presentation, I must say that they never looked (...) better to me than in the light of his criticism. On the other hand, it would certainly never have occurred to me to reply to an effusion of this sort except for the editors' request for comment. If I failed in my little book to make clear my position, as I obviously did in the case of Mr. Williams, I see small prospect of doing so in the few paragraphs here at my disposal. Since the essays to which he objects originally appeared in a popular magazine which, I believe, is known for the rigor of its editorship, at least so far as clarity is concerned, Mr. Williams' inability to understand them are the more disturbing. I will give only a few examples. (shrink)

These lectures are concerned with the origins of the distinctive policies of the Stockholm School of Economics, of which Erik Lundberg was a leading member. Lundberg explores the historical development of the Stockholm School and considers its place in the wider Keynesian tradition which dominated macroeconomic thinking in the West from the 1930s till the 1970s. The author examines the failure of Keynesian policies both in Sweden and internationally, and offers some tantalising and provocative remedies for future policy-makers (...) to ponder. (shrink)

It is the thesis of this paper that the term scientific law can and should mean in the social sciences exactly what it means in any of the other sciences. There seems to be considerable agreement among scientists as well as others that a scientific law is a generalized and verifiable statement, within measurable degrees of accuracy, of how certain events occur under stated conditions. If I were to attempt a more specific statement I would say that a law is (...) a group of verbal or mathematical symbols designating an unlimited number of defined events in terms of a limited number of reactions so that the performance of specified operations always yields predictable results within measurable limits. (shrink)

Religion and spirituality are integral to the philosophy of palliative care, shaping its approach to spiritual care. This article aims to examine the discourses within palliative care research to illuminate prevailing assumptions regarding spiritual care. Eighteen original articles were analyzed to examine how spiritual care is understood within palliative care. The analysis, informed by Foucault, aimed to identify recurring discourses. The finding reveals that, in palliative care research, spirituality is viewed as enigmatic yet inherently human and natural, assuming that every (...) individual has a spiritual dimension. The analysis points to healthcare professionals being expected to hold certain qualities to put spiritual care into practice. The analysis also reveals that in the analyzed articles, the concept of spiritual care is rooted in a Christian context, with the belief that all individuals possess inherent spirituality or religiosity, a concept often associated with Christian theology. The included articles often utilize theological terms and emphasize a monotheistic viewpoint. Spirituality is articulated as a complex, distinct concept, challenging clear definitions and professional responsibilities. Further, a moral formation of healthcare professionals is described, interpelling and ascribing qualities that healthcare professionals need to provide spiritual care. (shrink)

In the past decades a large number of students have taken courses and degrees in Gender Studies around Europe and proceeded to find employment. This article is based on a quantitative and qualitative study carried out in 2012 of Gender Studies students in Sweden, their education and employment. The design of the study was inspired by a large European research project investigating Women’s Studies in Europe and concerned with the motives for doing Gender Studies among Swedish students, as well as (...) who the students were, how they evaluated their Gender Studies education and what work they proceeded to after they left the university. In this article the results are discussed in terms of dilemmas: between Gender Studies’ critique of neoliberalism, employability and the former students’ wishes to be employed, and their evaluation of their studies and employment. The Swedish study is also compared with previous research in order to understand general and particular traits in Swedish Gender Studies education and employment. Analysis points to interesting contradictions within Gender Studies in relation to the labor market, student groups and employability. (shrink)

This essay explores ethical foundations for meeting the digital challenge via a case study of the work, life, and virtues of the greatest mathematician and natural scientist of the eighteenth century, Leonhard Euler. By biography and history one can learn of the gifts of human strength, practices, good will, dependence on others, and friendships which made possible Euler’s own astonishing corpus of work and that of many other scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technologists. Digital technology results from a combination of science (...) (demonstrable knowledge and method), technology, engineering, and art (forms and artifacts of making and expressing), and mathematics (abstract numerical, algebraic, geometrical, formal, and digital concepts, rules, representations, and logics). Joint reflection on the biographical, historical, and natural sources of mathematics and the digital is essential for any humanization or ascesis in response to the perils and promises of digital technology for human thriving. As ethics enable and embody an ethos, so technologies are means and manifestations of a telos. Thus, thought and action for thriving through the digital needs to contemplate and conciliate the ends of humans and of the digital. (shrink)

Cet article aborde la façon dont les employeurs qui privilégient, lors de l’embauche, l’expérience spécifique du handicap et les compétences liées à la déficience redéfinissent le handicap, transformant en ressource humaine créatrice de valeur la capacité limitée d’une personne à travailler. L’article se base sur l’analyse de quatorze entretiens approfondis avec des employeurs norvégiens – ayant un handicap ou non – qui privilégient l’embauche de personnes handicapées. Il est avancé, en application de la théorie de la justification de Boltanski et (...) Thévenot, que les récits des employeurs s’appuient sur plusieurs ordres de valeur pour légitimer les stratégies et décisions d’embauche. Pour les employeurs, la productivité valorise le citoyen travailleur. Sur la base de valeurs de collectivité, les employeurs font appel à la promotion des idées civiques et des droits des personnes handicapées, tandis que les récits de loyauté valorisent le sens du devoir et les employés qui restent à leur poste. En accordant de la valeur à la loyauté, de tels récits pourraient présenter les employés en situation de handicap comme particulièrement serviles et leur emploi comme une forme de charité. Le contexte politique mettant en valeur la participation des personnes handicapées au marché du travail semble jouer un rôle important dans l’élaboration des récits des employeurs. (shrink)

In this article, we present the results of an original study identifying the perceptions of beginning philosophy students at the start of their first introductory course. We surveyed over 1,100 students representing over 40 universities and colleges in the United States regarding their initial perceptions of gender bias, inclusivity, value, understanding, similarities, and enjoyment of philosophy. We analyzed the results based on gender, first-generation status, and student of color status. This work represents the perspectives of a more diverse range of (...) students, reflecting far more first-generation college students (40 percent) and students who identify as people of color (43 percent) than in previous work. Additionally, this study provides novel data as we were able to collect data on the first day of classes, in most cases before students were exposed to syllabi or content that could inform their views about philosophy. Understanding what beginning students think about philosophy before formal exposure to the field might help us to identify concerns, misconceptions, and areas for improvement. Many results are striking, and our project offers insight into the initial perspectives of philosophy students. (shrink)

Adjustments of everyday life in order to prevent disease or treat illness afflict partly unconscious preferences and cultural expectations that are often difficult to change. How should one, in medical contexts, talk with patients about everyday life in ways that might penetrate this blurred complexity, and help people find goals and make decisions that are both compatible with a good life and possible to accomplish? In this article we pursue the question by discussing how Habermas’ theory of communicative action can (...) be implemented in decision-making processes in general practice. The theory of deliberative decision-making offers practical guidelines for what to talk about and how to do it. For a decision to be rooted in patients’ everyday life it has to take into consideration the patient’s practical circumstances, emotions and preferences, and what he or she perceives as ethically right behaviour towards other people. The aim is a balanced conversation, demonstrating respect, consistency and sincerity, as well as offering information and clarifying reasons. Verbalising reasons for one’s preferences may increase awareness of values and norms, which can then be reflected upon, producing decisions rooted in what the patient perceives as good and right behaviour. The asymmetry of medical encounters is both a resource and a challenge, demanding patient-centred medical leadership, characterised by empathy and ability to take the patient’s perspective. The implementation and adjustments of Habermas’ theory in general practice is illustrated by a case story. Finally, applications of the theory are discussed. (shrink)