Volume 20, Issue 4, May 2020, Page 118-120.

At the 2022 Clinical Ethics Unconference, the authors perceived a significant lack of racial and ethnic diversity, which was consistent with their experiences in other clinical ethics settings. As a result, they convened a working group to address the pervasive lack of diversity present in the field of clinical ethics and to propose strategies to increase the representation of people from racial and ethnic minority populations. This article identifies the harms associated with the lack of diversity in the healthcare setting (...) and translates these to the field of clinical ethics. The article then proposes a framework that may be used to help diversify the field of clinical ethics. Specifically, the authors identify existing barriers to appropriate diversity, actionable steps to increase diversity, and tools the field can utilize to systematically assess its progress with respect to achieving diversity. (shrink)

Heroes, villains, victims, and minions have been the building blocks of moral and political reputations throughout human history. In Public Characters, the authors look at visual images, music, and words to show the techniques by which these characters get constructed. They also trace the impact of these public characters in politics, including the 2016 triumph of Donald J. Trump through his ability to cast opponents as villains and minions.

A VISUAL GUIDE TO THE WORKS OF THE ULRICH DE BALBIAN FINE ART FOUNDATION au natural I am/was hardly known in my life time, apart from a few thousand on Linkedin, my 2 blogs, Facebook, Instagram - because I live as a hermit, removed from all social life, so that I can just paint, paint and paint - and reflect and write (philosophy and sociology of life, existence, culture, art). I create, as I live, as if there is no human (...) being who interferes, intervenes, creates (paints) - as if every- thing just happens, ‘just is’ - like water flows, the ocean, a tree grows (or dies) in the forest, like light creates colours, gravity and other natural forces. Like Zen Buddhists, Christian and other mystics, Jains, Sufis - we just leave everything as we find it. This is what all arts have ever attempted to do. But, especially and more specifically so-called modern, contemporary and (post-) post-modern art, Critical Theory, (post) deconstruction attempt to, and all philosophy tried to depict by means of reflection on first order existence - as if, it merely mirrors and reflects what it comes across. Nowadays many artist are aware of this, previously few reflected on this. All creatives are/were aware of this attitude, the state of mind, this style of conscious awareness, this way of 'just being', all mystics knew that - realizing the Buddha mind, being oned with Eckhart's Godhead, the one real self of Vedan- ta, the Father of Jesus, etc, etc. The human mind treats smaller paintings as if it is looking AT an object or a thing such as a table or chair , but larger works are experienced (like installations) as if one is part of them and participate in them. Now that you know this please do not treat these images as if they are just more objects or things you look AT, but experience and participate in them. (shrink)

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine whether Facebook use affects biological response to stress and to characterize participants’ use of Facebook during a stressful event. Methods: College students completed a modified Trier Social Stress Test including video recording. Participants were randomly assigned to the Facebook group or control group (no preparatory materials). Pulse and salivary cortisol were measured and compared using t tests. Trained coders assessed videos for 13 common Facebook actions and categorized them as purposeful (...) (tool based) or nonpurposeful (distraction); pulse was compared between groups using Fisher’s exact test. Results: Of 41 participants, 14 (36%) were male and 36 (88%) were Caucasian, mean age was 19.6 ± 1.4 years; 19 participants were randomized to the Facebook group. Comparing Time 1 and Time 3, there were no significant differences in cortisol or pulse change between the Facebook group and the control group. However, males in the control group had a mean pulse reduction of −3.5 ± 0.2 bpm between baseline and Time 3; males in the Facebook group had a mean pulse increase of 10 ± 8.6 bmp (p =.01). Overall, 58.8% of videos were categorized as primarily tool based. Participants who primarily demonstrated distracted use of Facebook had higher than average pulse rates at Time 3 (mean 85.1 vs. 73.6 bpm, p =.03). Discussion: Male Facebook users and participants who demonstrated distracted Facebook use showed increased biologic signs of stress during a stressful event. Some college students may find Facebook use detrimental to performance in stressful situations, but this may vary by gender and type of use. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Appropriation and the Distortion of Cultures Appropriation as Theft Offensive Appropriation of Religion Summary References.

In this commentary we suggest that asymmetries in reasoning associated with moral judgment do not necessarily invalidate a theory-theory account of naïve psychological reasoning. The asymmetries may reflect a core knowledge assumption that human nature is prosocial, an assumption that heightens vigilance for antisocial dispositions, which in turn leads to differing assumptions about what is the presumed topic of conversation.

This research examines how one’s construal level of a crisis differs by crisis type, and how the interplay of crisis type and apology appeal type impacts the effectiveness of apology messages in a corporate crisis context. Findings indicate that one’s mental construal toward a crisis varies by crisis type, with a self-threatening crisis leading to a lower level of construal than a society-threatening one. Findings further suggest that in a society-threatening crisis condition, an informational apology was more effective than an (...) emotional one. However, in a self-threatening crisis condition, there was no significant difference between two different message types. These findings offer valuable guidelines for developing effective crisis response strategy. (shrink)

The strategy I adopt in this paper is as follows. First I seek to show that the authors’ formulation of the notion of "determinism" is defective because it elides some important distinctions. Second, I go on to argue that these defects vitiate some of the contentions made in the paper and alert us to the inadequacy of the self-referential argument developed in it.

* This paper was originally given as one of the Doris Lee Lectures on February 20th 1975, at the University of London Institute of Education.

Although campaigns for universal human rights have been intellectually and emotionally compelling for many anthropologists, they have tended to embroil them in fruitless polemics about cultural relativism with non-Western thinkers and policy-makers. Often “universalist” discourses about “rights” depend on values and distinctions that are far from universal and that stem, in fact, from Christian, secular, or “modernist” notions about punishment, suffering, and redemption. To make some practical contribution to the struggle for human dignity in the Middle East, it may be (...) preferable to aim for a more limited goal: the abolition of torture in the region. Consensus about the illegitimacy of torture is more easily reached, since none of the Middle East's religious or philosophical traditions condone it. What is more, empirical data demonstrate that torture has increased in frequency in the region and is widely perceived, both by insiders and outsiders, as a growing problem. Ethnographers could play a role in documenting incidents of torture and in building coalitions of Middle Eastern and outsider activists who, working together, could expose torture and bring pressure to bear on those who inflict it. (shrink)

With the introduction of general management and then of planned markets into the National Health Service (NHS), health care in the UK has gone through a massive amount of change. The effect on those working for the NHS has been ‘challenging’ and often confusing. This paper aims to clarify what is happening by taking an ideological perspective: what ideologies exist, how they are changing and the strategies being used to ensure their survival. Ideologies are basically about power. The relationship between (...) market, managerial and professional ideologies is analysed using charters, codes of conduct and other associated documents. A tentative conclusion is reached that professional ideologies are able to adjust to the overriding market/consumerist ideology. However, the managerial ideology is having difficulty in gaining any real ground against the professional ideology and is having to move strategically by using audit, not just of finance, but also of clinical judgement, to gain power. (shrink)

School connectedness is the leading protective factor against multiple at-risk behaviors for adolescents. Its far-reaching influence, however, is not widely known. This book provides valuable information about school connectedness, including strategies on how to strengthen life-saving ties with students.

The task of transforming Durkheim's sociological perspective into an explanation of poverty in rural areas carries a triple handicap: Durkheim was not concerned with material well-being, he did not conceptualize structures of inequality, and his explanation of the division of labor was flawed. His late book on religion, however, contains an explanation of institutional innovation which offers a new starting point for understanding formal dimensions such as differentiation and pluralism, and these in turn as they are related to poverty. When (...) these dimensions are combined with technical organization, differences in welfare can be explained. When the summary formula for this combination of structure and technology is compared with those for Marxist and conventional economic explanations, the result is a dramatic contrast between the two materialist theories and a true sociological position. (shrink)