This paper is based on notes taken during a three day lecture given by Humberto Maturana in St Kilda, Victoria, August 7th - 9th, 1993. It was obvious from the participants that many non biologists have found Maturana's work to be influential in their thinking. The audience included immunologists, family therapists, academics, architects, agriculturalists and information technologists.

One of the central issues in political philosophy is the problem of perspective: if there is a dispute as to how justice is to be defined, or a dispute as to whether a particular situation is unjust, how do we determine who is right? I reject the claim that an idealized speech situation or a transcendental perspective can legitimately be invoked to resolve such disputes. In their place, I discuss critical theory's commitment to the position that all perspectives are ideo (...) logical, partial, and rooted in interests. I then discuss Lukács's notion that, given that ideology and interests are ineluctable, certain per spectives are epistemologically privileged (though not transcenden tal). I discuss the notion of the preferential option for the poor in liberation theology, as an instance of such a claim of epistemological privilege. I argue that this has implications for the concept of alterity, and specifically for the role of the Other in a community of discourse. Finally, I discuss Lyotard's notion of incommensurable phrase regi mens, and the particular kind of harm which is done by exclusion from a discursive community. Key Words: critical theory • epistemological privilege • liberation theology • Lukács • Lyotard. (shrink)

Inspired by Max Weber's thesis on the Protestant ethic, this volume sets out to understand the role and influence of Christianity on overseas Chinese entrepreneurs working in China during its transition from a centrally-planned economy ...

Civics and Moral Educationwas implemented as a new moral education programme in Singapore schools in 1992. This paper argues that the underlying theme is that of citizenship training and that new measures are under way to strengthen the capacity of the school system to transmit national values for economic and political socialisation. The motives and motivation for retaining a formal moral education programme have remained strong. A discussion of the structure and content of key modules in Civics and Moral Education (...) shows how curriculum writers have attempted to integrate separate strands of civics and moral education from earlier programmes and present them in a less divisive manner. The paper also assesses the impact of the written civics and moral education programme on teachers and pupils, and the way in which strategies have been used by curriculum agencies to overcome possible obstacles at the curriculum implementation phase. (shrink)

This book examines the multiple ways that wisdom grounded in life experience, science and theoretical knowledge can contribute to positive local and global futures.

But under the requirement of philosophic consistency, and the impact of the perfectly valid reflection that experience is always my experience, and never part of some object independent of me, the world shrinks to the extension of my experience only, and I am left with bundles of my sensations. What are the natural consequences of such an epistemological sophistication?One plausible and natural reaction is what one might call the ‘Indian’ one. It runs roughly as follows: my experience of the world (...) is, alas, only my experience. It is not ‘the real’. Moreover, the world disclosed in my experience is one of misery, precariousness, insecurity, which ends in old age and death and within which no secure, reliable, undeceptive goods can be found. The flux and precariousness which make it so unhappy a place, also make it most ill-suited to be an object of knowledge. — E. Gellner (1974: 114). (shrink)

The modern Pentecostal movement at its inception in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century was blessed with the ministry of women in key leadership roles. This article gives a brief account of the history of some of the women involved at the beginning. It explores the declining trend through the twentieth century and the reasons behind it. The author then compares the current attitudes towards women in leadership held within different parts of the Pentecostal movement in the United Kingdom. (...) Is there a brighter future where women are once again recognized as worthy leaders of Pentecostal churches? (shrink)

The embryonic vertebrate face is composed of similarly sized buds of neural crest‐derived mesenchyme encased in epithelium. These buds or facial prominences grow and fuse together to give the postnatal morphology characteristic of each species. Here we review the role of neural crest cells and foregut endoderm in differentiating facial features. We relate the developing facial prominences to the skeletal structure of the face and review the signals and genes that have been shown to play an important role in facial (...) morphogenesis. We also examine two experiments one at the genetic level and one at the signal level in which transformation of facial prominences and subsequent change of jaw identity was induced. We propose that signals such as retinoids and BMPs and downstream transcription factors such as Distal‐less related genes specify jaw identity. BioEssays 25:554–568, 2003. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

In much eighteenth-century British literary criticism, passion distinguishes poetry from philosophy, whose ideas are too abstract to evoke emotion. At the end of the century, however, William Wordsworth radically refuses this distinction between poetry and philosophy, rejecting the centrality of passion for poetry. Instead, developing ideas latent in the work of James Beattie, he places affection at the heart of his poetic theory. This essay uncovers "the affections" as a major site of meaning for Wordsworth: calm, rationalized emotions, they yoke (...) together the philosophical and the poetical, enabling poetry not merely to stimulate emotion but moreover to think through it. (shrink)

This essay investigates the marginalisation in eighteenth-century literary theoretical discussions of a category of emotion, ‘the affections’, which plays a significant role elsewhere in eighteenth-century thought, especially in moral philosophy and theology. It proposes that affections are incompatible with a series of principles that underpin dominant concepts of the literary in early and mid-eighteenth-century literary criticism by authors including Kames, Burke, Alison, Duff, Brown, Du Bos, Trapp and Beattie, many of whom were associated with the Scottish Enlightenment. By analysing eighteenth-century (...) theories of the perceived obscurity of literary emotions in comparison with the emotions of the other fine arts , and by highlighting the perceived distinction of literary emotions from what theorists of the period term ‘reality’, it shows how the supremacy of the belief that literary merit is tied to the individuality, particularity, and plausibility of represented emotion gives rise to a prioritisation of passions over affections in literary critical discussions about the emotions. (shrink)

_Postmodernism in the Cinema_ Edited by Cristina Degli-Esposti London: Berghahn, 1998 ISBN 1-57181-106-0 264 pp.

A multidisciplinary text for the health professions, with relevance across the various health disciplines. International scholars, researchers, and teachers contribute their ideas, research findings, and experiences to promote discussion on the nature and teaching of clinical reasoning. Models, guidelines, and strategies are presented. These aim to promote effective clinical reasoning in practice, creative and successful clinical reasoning learning programs, and directions for future research. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Scholars in the early seventeenth century who studied ancient Greek scientific theories often drew upon philology and history to reconstruct a more general picture of the Greek past. Gassendi's training as a humanist historiographer enabled him to formulate a conception of the history of philosophy in which the rationality of scientific and philosophical inquiry depended on the historical justifications which he developed for his beliefs. Professor Joy examines this conception and analyzes the nature of Gassendi's historical training, especially its relationship (...) to his career as a physicist and astronomer. She shows how he rehabilitated Epicurean atomism by bringing together the arguments of the Greek atomists and those of his contemporaries. In doing so, he produced an account of the natural world which made it an object of empirical study and mechanical explanation. (shrink)

Looks at fifty of the twentieth century's most significant contributors to the debate on education. Each essay gives key biographical information, an outline of the individual's principal achievements and activities, an assessment of his or her impact and influence and a list of their major writings and suggested further reading.

This volume explores a central paradox in the evolution of psychoanalytic thought and practice and the ways in which they were used.

In a recent preprint James Owen Weatherall has attempted a simple local-deterministic model for the EPR-Bohm correlation and speculated about why his model fails when my counterexample to Bell's theorem succeeds. Here I bring out the physical, mathematical, and conceptual reasons why his model fails. In particular, I demonstrate why no model based on a tensor representation of the rotation group SU can reproduce the EPR-Bohm correlation. I demonstrate this by calculating the correlation explicitly between measurement results A = +1 (...) or -1 and B = +1 or -1 in a local and deterministic model respecting the spinor representation of SU. I conclude by showing how Weatherall's reading of my model is misguided, and bring out a number of misconceptions and unwarranted assumptions in his imitation of my model as it relates to the Bell-CHSH inequalities. (shrink)

United Nations Security Council resolutions raise distinctive problems of interpretation, particularly in the context of Chapter VII measures. In disputes of interpretation, the stakes are very high, since Chapter VII measures may explicitly or implicitly authorize military action; may override the target nation’s sovereignty; and may put lives at risk. However, there is no direct, binding judicial review of Security Council measures where questions of interpretation can be resolved. Consequently, interpretive disputes are resolved in a highly politicized process. This article (...) considers three situations where the language of the resolutions was ambiguous. The interpretation of these resolutions was then shaped entirely by the political maneuvering which took place within the Security Council. (shrink)

Asset freezes are sometimes viewed as the quintessential form of targeted sanctions—relatively effective in achieving their goals, while affecting only the individuals and companies that are “bad actors.” However, as part of the roundtable “Economic Sanctions and Their Consequences,” this essay argues that there are significant ethical problems raised by asset freezes and other forms of targeted financial sanctions. Sanctioners have long been criticized for targeting individuals and companies for arbitrary reasons or without adequate due process. However, there is a (...) second concern that is less well known. Asset freezes and other targeted financial sanctions may be imposed on government officials, government agencies, or private companies that hold a critical role in the target country's economy. A country's central bank, national oil company, or national shipping line, for example, may be severely compromised as a result of its inclusion on a financial blacklist. In addition to the explicit prohibitions imposed by targeted financial sanctions, there is a chilling effect as well. This can be seen when international banks and corporations withdraw from the target country altogether because the burden of compliance with these measures is so great, and the potential penalties so high. (shrink)

Practice wisdom is needed because the challenges people face in life, work and society are not simple and require more than knowledge, actions and decision making capabilities. In professional practice wisdom enhances people's capacity to succeed and evolve and to assist their clients in achieving positive, relevant and satisfying outcomes. Practice Wisdom: Values and Interpretations brings diverse views and interpretations to an exploration of what wisdom in professional practice means and can become: academically, practically and inspirationally. The authors reflect on (...) core dimensions of practice wisdom like ethics, mindfulness, moral virtue, particularisation and metacognition. The chapter authors tackle the trials that practice wisdom seekers encounter including the demand for resilience, perseverance, finding credibility and humility in practice wisdom, and linking wisdom into evidence for sound professional decision making. Readers are invited to consider what the place of practice wisdom encompasses in pursuing good practice outcomes amidst the turmoil and pressure of professional practice today. Do the imperatives of evidence-based practice and accountability leave enough space for wise practice or is wisdom seen by modern practice worlds as unnecessary, antiquated, unrealistic and redundant? Without a doubt these questions are answered positively in this book in support of the place and value of practice wisdom in professional practice today. (shrink)