"First, he must guard the faith.""And it must be understood that a ruler … cannot always act in ways that are considered good because, in order to maintain his power, he is often forced to act treacherously, ruthlessly or inhumanely, and disregard the precepts of religion."Despite their apparently contradictory views on the role of religion in statecraft, and despite being separated by 500 years of history and thousands of miles of geography, al-Māwardī and Machiavelli both approach the relationship of (...) power and persuasion in an unapologetically direct fashion that shocked their contemporaries and continues to challenge their readers to this day. Following brief biographical... (shrink)

Among the many obscure sects of sexual fetishism, few remain as perplexing as that of the “crush freaks,” who are aroused by the sight of an insect exploded beneath a human foot. Moving beyond the glib discussions of those entomologists and sexologists who classify this fetish as a subset of foot worship and/or macrophilia, I propose an analysis of the crush freaks through the writings of French thinker Georges Bataille. Employing Bataille’s notions of sacrificial eroticism and mysticism to approach the (...) religio-sexual dimensions of crush freakism, I argue that these practices are best understood as ambivalent manifestations of technophilia . More specifically, crush freakism, I submit, devolves on a violent literalization of the analogies between insects and machines. (shrink)

Genetic roots: Lonergan's understanding of love, 1943/1964 -- Developing the shift to interiority: 1965 to November, 1972 -- The emergence & clarification of the fifth level of consciousness: December, 1972, to November, 1984 -- "What was going forward" in Lonergan's development on love: a history of Lonergan's development -- The scholarly discussion on love and the fifth level of consciousness in Lonergan -- Love as a fifth level of consciousness.

Recent legislation, such as the Patient Self-Determination Act, establishes advance directives as an acceptable procedural means of incorporating patients’ preferences for life-sustaining treatments into their medical care. Advance directives can enhance medical decision making since they provide patients with an opportunity to communicate their preferences before suffering from an acute illness that may preclude their ability to do so.Although patients expect discussions about life-sustaining therapies to be initiated by their physicians, very little is known about what prompts physicians to discuss (...) advance directives with their patients. As in other areas of clinical decision making, there is evidence that patients’ sociodemographic factors influence whether discussions about advance directives occur between patients and their physicians. In one study of persons with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, those who had not had discussions about advance directives with their physicians tended to be non-white, have no prior hospitalization, and were more likely to have been cared for in a health maintenance organization than in a teaching hospital. (shrink)

Bioethical, legal, and professional discussions concerning human stem cell science have moved away from the contentious, and possibly irreconcilable, debates about human embryos to other sources of pluripotent stem cells. While there is an array of ethical and legal issues associated with all types of pluripotent stem cells, in recent years complex issues have arisen with regard to the premature use of somatic or "adult" stem cells. Of particular concern is the global emergence of an industry selling products and services (...) marketed as stem cells direct to the consumer, typically over the internet, for a range of serious medical conditions that lack credible evidence of safety and efficacy (Sipp et... (shrink)

Strong arguments support the notion that much of modern bioethics is a result of appropriation rather than strict application of traditional moral philosophy. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize these sources and approaches associated with them, even when working with appropriated theories, since traditional ethical theory does and should influence modern bioethics.

“The most important thing I got out of my own experience with evil and the inhuman is that one should not live in bitterness, but rather with a sense of humanity. One should always try to find ways of remaining ethical in the face of evil and to look for the humanity in the inhuman.”.

Introduces history's greatest philosophers and explains their major contributions to the field of philosophy, profiling such figures as Francis Bacon, David Hume, John Stuart Mill, and Bertrand Russell.

Jorge Romero is facing a big problem. His neighbours are convinced he is a soulless zombie. What can he say to persuade them he's a conscious being just like them, and save his neck? Is Your Neighbour a Zombie? brings together philosophical puzzles and problems to challenge your preconceptions and change the way that you view the world.

Volume 18, Issue 1, April 2019, Page 69-71.

Gaven Kerr argues that Lonergan is a metaphysical realist but follows an inherently idealist method. Furthermore, Kerr claims, Lonergan’s isomorphism of cognitional and ontological elements does not hold, because ontological act is not parallel to cognitional judgment. In so arguing, however, Kerr conflates ontological act with efficient causality, misunderstands the nature of the parallel asserted by Lonergan’s isomorphism, and involves himself in a priori speculation about the implications of Lonergan’s method. An efficient cause is an extrinsic principle, whereas “act” names (...) an intrinsic constituent of contingent being. The parallel between ontological and cognitional composition, moreover, and the isomorphism of ontological and cognitional elements, are subtler than Kerr appreciates. The suspicion, finally, that Lonergan’s method is somehow inherently idealist is idle and not borne out by the facts. (shrink)