The Indiana Court of Appeals, in JKB, Sr. v. Armour Pharmaceutical Co. ), held that the state's Blood Shield Act does not protect pharmaceutical companies that produce blood-derived products from product liability suits based on injuries attributable to tainted blood supplies. Blood shield statutes help to guarantee adequate blood supplies by limiting the liability of blood banks. This holding limits the defenses available to pharmaceutical companies sued under product liability theory.The defendant, Armour Pharmaceutical, produces and sells clotting factor agents, which (...) are derived through plasmapheresis. Plasmapheresis is a costly and complex donation process through which the plasma and red blood cells of a donor's blood are separated. After separation, the process returns the red blood cells to the donor but retains the plasma. (shrink)

Three experiments explore the role of working memory in motor skill acquisition and performance. Traditional theories postulate that skill acquisition proceeds through stages of knowing, which are initially declarative but later procedural. The reported experiments challenge that view and support an independent, parallel processing model, which predicts that procedural and declarative knowledge can be acquired separately and that the former does not depend on the availability of working memory, whereas, the latter does. The behaviour of these two processes was manipulated (...) by providing or withholding visual (and auditory) appraisal of outcome feedback. Withholding feedback was predicted to inhibit the use of working memory to appraise success and, thus, prevent the formation of declarative knowledge without affecting the accumulation of procedural knowledge. While the first experiment failed to support these predictions, the second and third experiments demonstrated that procedural and declarative knowledge can be acquired independently. It is suggested that the availability of working memory is crucial to motor performance only when the learner has come to rely on its use. (shrink)

Topics discussed in these three lectures range from the purpose and methodology of history to the place of history in the College curriculum. The presentation is clear, and several interesting bibliographies are included.--J. P.

Building on a well-developed philosophy of language, Shibles proposes a theory of metaphor. Whereas one philosophy of language may regard metaphor as an inadequate or fallacious form of reasoning, another may consider it to be the very foundation of language. Shibles’ views lie in the latter direction, and he employs Wilbur Urban’s philosophy of language, presented in his Language and Reality, to develop his theory. Urban’s importance lies in his avoidance of reducing the philosophy of language to symbolic logic and (...) recognition of the importance of metaphor, symbol, and analogy. Also significant for a theory of metaphor is the fact that Urban saw a "high evaluation" of language as being more adequate than a "low evaluation" of language. (shrink)

An effort to distinguish and describe some forty fundamental categories for understanding man and the universe. Sample categories: Unity-teamwork, Intangibility. Gravitation, Infinite Negligibility.--J. P.

The principal aim of this work, which is a combination of revised versions of essays that have appeared elsewhere together with some new material, is considerably broader than the title might suggest. Rather than specifically focusing upon Hegel’s relation to romanticism or the vicissitudes of his Grecophilia, the real thrust is nothing less than an attempt to place Hegel’s theory of the state within its historical and systematic context, to rescue it from the many misappropriations and misinterpretations which it has (...) suffered, and to sound out its implications for contemporary political theory and practice. If one were to single out a limited number of the most important themes that serve to unify this collection of essays, at least the following would have to be mentioned. First, Kelly insists at the outset that Hegel’s political philosophy can only be adequately understood within the context of his broader systematic project. Specifically, Hegel’s theory of the state must be approached from out of the more general problematic of his views on the systematic interrelationships between philosophy, politics, history, and religion. Though the author’s discussion of the complex issues lurking in the interstices here will seem to many Hegel scholars much too brief and superficial, particularly given Kelly’s own insistence upon their crucial importance, his discussion at least suffices to allow him to make the point that Hegel’s theory of the state cannot be easily assimilated into either the liberal, conservative, or radical traditions, as understood either in the pre- or post-Hegelian context. Rather, Hegel’s thought contributed to an important shift in the fundamental conceptual constellations which governed political discourse in his own time and which formed the bridge to our epoch. On this basis, Kelly proposes to examine Hegel’s theory of the state, both on its own terms and with an eye to the implications which it might yet have for understanding political phenomena. In both respects, the key notion is that of ‘the neutral state’ which knows "how to compose man’s spiritual strivings and intellectual curiosity... in a stable social whole", a dialectical ‘unity-in-diversity’ "checked by the monarchy from above and the people organized in corporations from below", and ballasted by an impartial legal system and a dedicated phalanx of educated civil servants. For Kelly, Hegel’s idea of the ‘neutral state’ was too soon "buried" in the post-Hegelian reaction, with the result that an original source of insight into the modern political problematic, if not of answers to contemporary political conundrums, was unfortunately and unfairly discredited. Kelly carries through with this idea by showing how Hegel’s theory of the state can serve to shed light on the history and current state of American politics and how it can lead to a renewed reflection upon the meaning and significance of history for contemporary thought. Kelly is at his best at those points where he contrasts Hegel’s political thought to other positions in the context of the modern intellectual and political milieu but is a bit weaker when issues arise which seem to require a shift from political theory to philosophical presuppositions. Nonetheless, especially when read together with the contributions of Avineri and Shklar, this work is helpful in the current re-evaluation of the importance and contemporary relevance of Hegel’s political thought.—J.P.S. (shrink)

Basing his detailed exposition of Barth's understanding of our knowledge of the divine existence chiefly on volume II, part 1 of the Church Dogmatics, this American Catholic scholar exhibits the thorough-going consistency of Barth's exclusively a prioristic approach, while indicating some fundamental difficulties for it, and arguing the superiority of the Thomist position. One of the fundamental issues discussed is whether God discloses himself only through special, "vertical" acts of grace, or whether, as the Thomists affirm, the abstractive power of (...) the intellect, itself a gift of God, may not apprehend the radical dependence of all finite things on a first, unique, cause. The critical problem is whether or not the perfect certitude of faith demands a "sacrifice of the intellect," as Barth seems to contend.--P. K. J. (shrink)

In his last major work, the posthumously published Crisis of European Sciences, Husserl presented what he described as a new path into transcendental phenomenology: the path through the "life-world" on which objective science is founded. To make objective science intelligible, Husserl held, we must inquire back into the world of everyday involvement and experience from which it emerges; this inquiry leads in turn to a thematization of the subjective structures through which the always "pre-given" life-world is itself constituted. Husserl’s demand (...) for a return to the life-world has been the subject of much discussion in the twenty-five years since the publication of the Crisis. Yet debate over the precise sense and ultimate significance of the demand continues. In this most recent contribution, E. Ströker has gathered ten essays originally presented at a 1978 conference of prominent German and American scholars. At least some of the essays should prove helpful to Husserl specialists and others interested in Husserl’s concept of the life-world. (shrink)

A clearly written book by an accomplished teacher. Though obviously published as a textbook, it contains a kind of learning which can only be possessed by a mature philosopher, and perhaps appreciated in full only by a peer. The book is an introduction to philosophy, philosophy broadly and classically conceived, encompassing metaphysics, a theory of knowledge, and philosophical reflections on science, man, nature, and art. The ten chapters devoted to knowledge present to the beginner, simply and lucidly, a review of (...) some of the best work published in the fields of epistemology and the philosophy of science in recent decades. Abel’s approach is both systematic and historical. He allows philosophers to speak to each other across the ages where they have addressed common problems, but the focus is on the problems. His own viewpoint has obviously been shaped by the naturalism of Dewey and Woodbridge, but the book has the merit of being temperate and fair to other fundamentally different metaphysical positions. Throughout his presentation, the philosophical enterprise is seen, not as a critical one of tearing down, but as a collaborative effort in which the best minds of the past, through their various insights, have contributed to the solution of ancient problems relating to man and knowledge. In effect, the book is a refreshing synthesis, and is apt to be far more valuable as a teaching instrument than the usual heterogeneous anthology published for the same purpose.—J.P.D. (shrink)

A collection of essays on theological topics: e.g., Creation, Divine Omnipotence and Human Freedom, Miracles, Visions, Death, The Existence of God. Both Christian and non-Christian views are simply and clearly examined in the philosophic style characteristic of contemporary British analysis. Apart from the editors, contributors include J. J. C. Smart, A. N. Prior, C. B. Martin, and D. M. Mackinnon.--J. P.

Physics and Philosophy is a collection of essays previously published in sources as diverse as Philosophy of Science and Yale Alumni Magazine. Margenau has appended to these essays a brief autobiography, a bibliography, and an apology for a "redundancy of emphasis" in the collection.