Die vorliegende Auswahl von Texten des französischen Sozialphilosophen und Gesellschaftstheoretikers Charles Fourier (1772-1837) hat zwei Schwerpunkte: Zum einen thematisiert sie die wesentlichen Aspekte und die gedankliche Struktur von Fouriers weitreichendem Œuvre; zum anderen macht sie verständlich, welche Überlegungen Fouriers für heutige Theoretikerinnen und Theoretiker anregend oder anschlussfähig sind. Zu den Themen, die Fourier in den im vorliegenden Band publizierten Schriften behandelt, zählen das Ideal einer exakten Sozialwissenschaft; die Grundlagen der Anthropologie; die „neue Welt“ der Liebe und des Konsums; (...) die Relevanz der Arbeit für ein gelingendes Leben; die Grundstruktur nicht-entfremdeter Gesellschaften; sowie die Kritik an der Philosophie und den Gesellschaftswissenschaften, insbesondere der Ökonomik. Zahlreiche der im Band versammelten Texte werden erstmals auf Deutsch veröffentlicht. (shrink)

Projects to restore nature inevitably disrupt the plants and animals that inhabit the land to be restored. This essay addresses the significance of feral animals. Can feral animals remain in a restored nature? I argue that an answer depends on what we mean by nature and restoration. I present several different conceptions of nature and discuss what their differences mean for the goals of restoration. While the presence of feral animals is not compatible with the dualist conception of nature as (...) that which is untouched by humans, other conceptions are more accommodating. Restoration to a benchmark of nature prior to human impact is both practically and conceptually implausible, thus more analysis is needed of alternative conceptions and their impacts on domesticated and feral plants and animals. (shrink)

Alcohol use has long been assumed to alter cognition via attentional processes. To better understand the cognitive consequences of intoxication, the present study tested the effects of moderate intoxication on attentional processing using complex working memory capacity span tasks and a change blindness task. Intoxicated and sober participants were matched on baseline WMC performance, and intoxication significantly decreased performance on the complex span tasks. Surprisingly, intoxication improved performance on the change blindness task. The results are interpreted as evidence that intoxication (...) decreases attentional control, causing either a shift towards more passive processing and/or a more diffuse attentional state. This may result in decreased performance on tasks where attentional control or focus are required, but may actually facilitate performance in some contexts. (shrink)

Objective: To evaluate feasibility of the guidelines of the Groupe Francophone de Réanimation et Urgence Pédiatriques for limitation of treatments in the paediatric intensive care unit .Design: A 2-year prospective survey.Setting: A 12-bed PICU at the Hôpital Jeanne de Flandre, Lille, France.Patients: Were included when limitation of treatments was expected.Results: Of 967 children admitted, 55 were included with a 2-day median delay. They were younger than others , had a higher paediatric risk of mortality score , and a higher paediatric (...) overall performance category score at admission ; all p<0.002. 34 children died. A limitation decision was made without meeting for 7 children who died: 6 received do-not-resuscitate orders and 1 received withholding decision. Decision-making meetings were organised for 31 children, and the following decisions were made: 12 DNROs , 4 withholding , with 14 withdrawing and 1 continuing treatment . After limitation, 21 children died and 10 survived . 13 procedures were interrupted because of death and 11 because of clinical improvement . Parents’ opinions were obtained after 4 family conferences , 3 days after inclusion. The first meeting was planned for 6 days after inclusion and held on the 7th day after inclusion; 80% of parents were immediately informed of the decision, which was implemented after half a day.Conclusions: GFRUPs procedure was applicable in most cases. The main difficulties were anticipating the correct date for the meeting and involving nurses in the procedure. Children for whom the procedure was interrupted because of clinical improvement and who survived in poor condition without a formal decision pointed out the need for medical criteria for questioning, which should systematically lead to a formal decision-making process. (shrink)

The Netherlands is one of the few countries where euthanasia is legal under strict conditions. This study investigates whether Dutch newspaper articles use the term ‘euthanasia’ according to the legal definition and determines what arguments for and against euthanasia they contain. We did an electronic search of seven Dutch national newspapers between January 2009 and May 2010 and conducted a content analysis. Of the 284 articles containing the term ‘euthanasia’, 24% referred to practices outside the scope of the law, mostly (...) relating to the forgoing of life-prolonging treatments and assistance in suicide by others than physicians. Of the articles with euthanasia as the main topic, 36% described euthanasia in the context of a terminally ill patient, 24% for older persons, 16% for persons with dementia, and 9% for persons with a psychiatric disorder. The most frequent arguments for euthanasia included the importance of self-determination and the fact that euthanasia contributes to a good death. The most frequent arguments opposing euthanasia were that suffering should instead be alleviated by better care, that providing euthanasia can be disturbing, and that society should protect the vulnerable. Of the newspaper articles, 24% uses the term ‘euthanasia’ for practices that are outside the scope of the euthanasia law. Typically, the more unusual cases are discussed. This might lead to misunderstandings between citizens and physicians. Despite the Dutch legalisation of euthanasia, the debate about its acceptability and boundaries is ongoing and both sides of the debate are clearly represented. (shrink)

That alcohol provides a benefit to creative processes has long been assumed by popular culture, but to date has not been tested. The current experiment tested the effects of moderate alcohol intoxication on a common creative problem solving task, the Remote Associates Test . Individuals were brought to a blood alcohol content of approximately .075, and, after reaching peak intoxication, completed a battery of RAT items. Intoxicated individuals solved more RAT items, in less time, and were more likely to perceive (...) their solutions as the result of a sudden insight. Results are interpreted from an attentional control perspective. (shrink)

Even though it is often presumed that the use of technology like medication administration technology is both safer and more effective, the importance of nurses' know‐how is not to be underestimated. In this article, we accordingly try to argue that nurses' labor, including their different forms of knowledge, must play a crucial role in the development, implementation and use of medication administration technology. Using three different theoretical perspectives (‘heuristic lenses') and integrating this with our own ethnographic research, we will explore (...) how nursing practices change through the use of medication technology. Ultimately, we will argue that ignoring (institutional) complexity and the various types of important knowledge that nurses have, will seriously complicate the implementation of medication administration technology. (shrink)

Diversos trabalhos têm apontado a existência de correlações entre o Espiritismo, tal como sistematizado por Allan Kardec, e a vertente do Socialismo utópico, ou romântico, fundada por Charles Fourier. As referências do próprio Kardec em suas publicações ao pensamento fourierista e a interação entre seguidores do Fourierismo e o nascente movimento espírita reforçam a presença de conexões que ensejam investigações mais aprofundadas. Este trabalho tem o propósito de confrontar alguns dos postulados fundamentais dessas duas doutrinas influentes e originárias do (...) século XIX, comparando suas concepções a partir de três vértices. O primeiro deles é o moral, em que se pode identificar, entre outros aspectos, a maneira pela qual as duas correntes de pensamento apreciam o problema das paixões humanas. O segundo é a perspectiva de ambas sobre a marcha evolutiva do mundo, culminando com o terceiro, que é a percepção que exibem acerca da sociedade ideal. Esse exame permite uma breve demonstração das semelhanças e diferenças que se podem encontrar nos dois sistemas de pensamento, explicitando que as características similares não implicam subordinação teórica ou equivalência entre suas propostas. (shrink)

Le Nouveau Monde Amoureux n’a été publié qu’en 1967, un siècle et demi après avoir été écrit par Fourier. Fourier y analyse la société de son temps, critiquant sévèrement le mariage monogame et l’asservissement des femmes. Il élabore un autre modèle théorique et politique de société, l’Harmonie, fondée sur la disparition du mariage monogame, la multiplication systématique des relations amoureuses de toutes natures, et une égalité absolue entre les sexes. A sa publication, l’ouvrage de Fourier est reçu (...) avec enthousiasme, comme précurseur de la « libération sexuelle ». Plutôt que comme un utopiste, un prophète ou un rêveur, Fourier peut sans doute être considéré comme un des inventeurs de la science sociale, qu’il conçoit critique et radicale. (shrink)

Beyond being the first substantial publication on Fourier, this work contains the text of Fourier's seminal paper of 1807 on the propagation of heat, marking the first time it has ever appeared in print. This paper incorporates many of the mathematical creations on which Fourier's fame rests, including derivation of the diffusion equation, the separation of the treatment of surface phenomena from internal phenomena, the use of boundary values and initial conditions, and the development of "Fourier (...) series" and the so-called "Bessel functions."When submitted to the examiners of the Institut de France, the originality of the paper and the surprising nature of some of its mathematical revelations caused great controversy, and it was denied publication both in 1807 and in later years. Fourier had the support, among the examiners, of Laplace and Monge, but Lagrange was adamantly in opposition, so that Fourier's work did not appear in print until 1822, reworked into book form.Fourier's mathematical discoveries are intimately related to his interest in the solution of physical problems and their experimental verification. The mathematical methods he developed in connection with heat diffusion apply to physical situations far beyond the boundaries of this area. Generally, Fourier may be credited with one of the first major extensions of mathematical physics beyond the applications of Newton's laws of motion and universal gravitation.The opening biographical chapter of this book follows Fourier's career up to the submission of the 1807 paper, and the two closing chapters take up his life and work from that point on. Fourier had strong political motivations and spent much of his life in the public service. These chapters trace his political difficulties, both before and after 1807, when he was the prefect of a department of France and was subjected to the dislocations of Napoleon's ups and downs. These chapters also describe aspects of the turbulent but productive development of French science from the Revolution to 1830.The core of the book presents the paper of 1807 in its original French and with the original notation. Grattan-Guinness has divided the paper into sections by the sequence of the problems taken up, and he introduces and, where necessary, closes each section with commentary relevant to Fourier's later work in these areas. The paper itself (cllows the chronology of Fourier's discoveries, and among the topics treated are, in this order: heat diffusion between disjoint bodies and in continuous bodies; the appearance of partial differential equations; the special solution for the lamina; sine and cosine series for an arbitrary function; reflections on the vibrating string problem; solution for the annulus; the full Fourier series for an arbitrary function; reflections on n-body analysis; solution for the sphere; solution for the cylinder; steady-state diffusion in the rectangular prism; time-dependent diffusion in the cube; and Fourier's experimental work. (shrink)

Hartry Field argues that conservative rather than true mathematical sentences facilitate deductions in nominalist (i.e., abstracta-free) science without prejudging its empirical outcomes. In this paper, I identify one branch of mathematics as nonconservative, for its indispensable role in enabling nominalist language about a fundamental scientific property, in a fictional scientific community. The fundamental property is electromagnetic reflectance, and the mathematics is Fourier analysis, which renders reflectance ascribable, and nominalist reflectance claims utterable, by this community. Using a recent characterization of (...) conservativeness by Kenneth Boyce, I argue that infinitudes can be rendered inherently mathematical and non-nominalizable in the fictional community, and that rendering infinitudes inherently mathematical for all real communities would yield a convincing counterexample to Fieldian conservativeness. (shrink)

The spirit of computer dating, lacking only the technology, was one of a number of schemes by which Charles Fourier wanted to radically transform human sexual relations. Early 19th century socialist thought, socialist movements and experiments were concerned with the entire catalog of miseries afflicting humankind. Monogamy and all its woes figured far more prominently than surplus value, which (according to pharmacists' records) was rarely the cause of suicidal depression. The Marxist tradition, while paying lip service to the “utopian” (...) critique of bourgeois society, repressed most of the “cultural” concerns of early socialism. The Utopians did not ignore or accept capitalism; it was a major evil, but not necessarily the source of all the other evils. (shrink)