The main purpose of this article is to discuss the place of the ethics of virtues and char acter in nursing and health care in general, and in psychiatric nursing in particular. To attain this goal, the relationship between the ethics of duty (i.e. rule based ethics) and the ethics of virtue and character will be clarified in order to defend our main hypothe sis that these two types of ethics should complement each other, since both are necessary but neither (...) by itself is sufficient for nursing. This means that any applied ethics, as in nursing, should consider the importance of the agent's moral character. To support our arguments, we shall use cases from the empirical reality of psychiatric and mental health care. (shrink)

The issue of human nature or xing 性 was a major philosophical topic of the mid- and late-Warring States period of ancient China. It was famously discussed, for example, in the Mencius. Zhuangzi 莊子 lived around the same time as Mencius and one might expect that he, too, would have discussed it. Surprisingly, the term xing is absent from the Inner Chapters of the Zhuangzi. There have been different responses to this, namely, that Zhuangzi: used different terms equivalent to xing; (...) believed that human nature is bad (despite not mentioning xing); was deliberately silent on xing as an oblique way of criticizing others such as Mencius. I review these claims and provide an analysis of how xing was mainly conceptualized during the Warring States period in essentialist terms. I shall read Zhuangzi’s philosophy as transcending this conceptual framework. Instead of a theory of human nature, Zhuangzi provides stories and descriptions of the different facets of human behavior and their psychological and other complexities. These often have an epistemic focus that stand independently of any theory of human nature. (shrink)

Developing students’ skills to pose and respond to questions and actively engage in inquiry behaviours enables students to problem solve and critically engage with learning and society. The aim of this study was to analyse the impact of providing teachers with an intervention in inquiry pedagogy alongside inquiry science curriculum in comparison to an intervention in non-inquiry pedagogy alongside inquiry science curriculum on student questioning and other inquiry behaviours. Teacher participants in the comparison condition received training in four inquiry-based science (...) units and in collaborative strategic reading. The experimental group, the community of inquiry (COI) condition, received training in facilitating a COI in addition to training in the same four inquiry-based science units. This study involved 227 students and 18 teachers in 9 primary schools across Brisbane, Australia. The teachers were randomly allocated by school to one of the two conditions. The study followed the students across years 6 and 7 and students’ discourse during small group activities was recorded, transcribed and coded for verbal inquiry behaviours. In the second year of the study, students in the COI condition demonstrated a significantly higher frequency of procedural and substantive higher-order thinking questions and other inquiry behaviours than those in the comparison condition. Implementing a COI within an inquiry science curriculum develops students’ questioning and science inquiry behaviours and allows teachers to foster inquiry skills predicated by the Australian Science Curriculum. Provision of inquiry science curriculum resources alone is not sufficient to promote the questioning and other verbal inquiry behaviours predicated by the Australian Science Curriculum. (shrink)

A common and driving assumption in agricultural research is that the introduction of research trials, new practices and innovative technologies will result in technology adoption, and will subsequently generate benefits for farmers and other stakeholders. In Lao PDR, the potential benefits of introduced technologies have not been fully realised by beneficiaries. We report on an analysis of a survey of 735 smallholder farmers in Southern Lao PDR who were questioned about factors that influenced their decisions to adopt new technologies. In (...) this study, we have constructed measures or states of adoption which identify key elements of an adoption decision-making nexus. Analysis was conducted to statistically group explanatory factors of adoption. The key explanatory factors represented attributes of the farmer, the factors considered when undertaking production decisions and elements of the agricultural value chain that present as opportunities or constraints. We describe the combination of farmer’s personal attributes, perceptions of the value chain, and the introduction of new technologies by external actors as an “agricultural research value chain”, where agricultural research activities intervene to derive greater benefits for local farmers. A generalised linear model, via Poisson regression analysis on the identified explanatory factors, was applied to explore how they influence adoption measures and we found several significant relationships. (shrink)

Armed conflict can destroy both a healthcare system and the people who comprise it. Where the facilities themselves may take decades to rebuild, this collection of essays is evidence of the remarkable resilience of healthcare providers working in these conflict zones. Twelve narratives are shared by doctors, nurses, and other staff working in current crises in places such as Afghanistan, Darfur, Gaza, Iraq, Myanmar, Syria, and Ukraine. The essays reveal logistical, personal, and ethical challenges of providing fundamental healthcare services under.

School quality care has become important in many Western countries. Expectations are high, but little is known about the nature and extent of the use of self?evaluation instruments within schools. From this longitudinal study into the use of a Dutch school self?evaluation instrument, it became clear that schools vary in the extent to which they are able to make use of self?evaluation results. A minority of schools in this study were able to use the self?evaluation results for developing measures at (...) the school and classroom level to improve the quality of education. Potential causes for the findings and alternatives for promoting the utilisation of school self?evaluation instruments are discussed. (shrink)

Workers in East Asia have shown over the past 50 years that they are capable of challenging capital, despite facing vehement opposition by corporations, oftentimes joined by governments and their m...

La filosofía latinoamericana en general, y la mexicana en particular, se han puesto de moda en Estados Unidos en la última década. Seguramente los nombres y la obra de Jorge Gracia, Eduardo Mendieta, y Linda Alcoff les son conocidos al lector de este artículo. Aunque la filosofía latinoamericana y mexicana esté de moda hoy en día, existe una historia larga de interés y trabajo en filosofía latinoamericana y mexicana en la frontera y el suroeste de Estados Unidos. Este artículo pretende (...) (a) elaborar la historia de la filosofía latinoamericana, mexicana y chicana en la frontera México-Estados Unidos, (b) este artículo esboza algunos de los retos históricos y actuales que el campo de la filosofía latinoamericana ha enfrentado y continúa enfrentando, y (c) este artículo discute el valor de los chicanxs para la filosofía mexicana. Palabras clave: filosofía latinoamericana, filosofia mexicana, filosofia chicana, chicanos, frontera México-Estados Unidos. (shrink)

What is attention? How does it go wrong? Do attention deficits arise from genes or from the environment? Can we cure it with drugs or training? Are there disorders of attention other than deficit disorders? The past decade has seen a burgeoning of research on the subject of attention. This research has been facilitated by advances on several fronts: New methods are now available for viewing brain activity in real time, there is expanding information on the complexities of the biochemistry (...) of neural activity, individual genes can be isolated and their functions identified, analysis of the component processes included under the broad umbrella of "attention" has become increasingly sophisticated, and ingenious methods have been devised for measuring typical and atypical development of these processes, from infancy into childhood, and then into adulthood. In this book, Kim Cornish and John Wilding are concerned with attention and its development, both typical and atypical, particularly in disorders with a known genetic etiology or assumed genetic linkage. Tremendous advances across seemingly diverse disciplines - molecular genetics, pediatric neurology, child psychiatry, developmental cognitive neuroscience, and education - have culminated in a wealth of new methods for elucidating disorders at multiple levels, possibly paving the way for new treatment options. Cornish and Wilding use three specific-yet-interlinking levels of analysis: genetic blueprint, the developing brain, and the behavioral-cognitive outcomes, as the basis for charting the attention profiles of six well-documented neurodevelopmental disorders: ADHD, autism, fragile X syndrome, Down syndrome, Williams syndrome, and 22q11 deletion syndrome. Their overarching aim in this book is to provide the most authoritative and extensive account to date of disorder-specific attention profiles and their development from infancy through adolescence. (shrink)

Human cultural life is replete with examples of adaptations to the social, physical, and biological environments that have been built gradually, cumulatively, by hidden-hand mechanisms. The impressive technologies, natural history databases, and exchange networks of traditional peoples have been built in this way. But the ethnological record is also replete with evidence of maladaptive beliefs and practices, and of failures to adapt to changing circumstances. This paper is about such failures. In what ways is cultural evolution constrained, and what explains (...) those constraints? In what ways are those constraints similar to those that affect gene-based evolution; in what ways are they different? In this paper I argue that there are some similar mechanisms of constraint ; there are some differences ; but the major difference results from a division of labor between inheritance systems; the problem of fast change has been offloaded from the genetic to the cultural system. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The problem that the "posthuman" must cope with is complex: how can one embrace both anti-humanistic problematization and deconstruction of the human subject by post-structuralism and, at the same time, link the capacity of techno-science for de-humanization with the possibility for inventing posthuman subjectivity? Consideration of the posthumanization of the human must expand further from the cyborgization based on the strengthening of human individuals' capacity, and there is need of a paradigm shift for us to rethink and reconceptualize the (...) posthuman within the ontological and sociopolitical relational networking beyond the opposition of technocentric determinism and humancentric instrumentalism. Human beings were produced in the disciplinary society in the form of self-disciplined "individuals" and have been produced in the control society in the form of de-individualized "dividuals," respectively. If so, then what will the form of human beings be in the posthuman society outside or after the control society, which has yet to arrive? In this paper, pointing out the limitations of discussions on cyborgization and examining Deleuze's diagnosis of the control society based on digital technology, I argue that we can find a new possibility for posthuman subjectivity in Simondon's "transindividual relationship" complemented by Guattari's "transversality." I propose that it will be possible for posthuman society to be produced when the transindividual relationships based on the transductive operation of technological invention realizing the common natural potentiality are realized, and a high degree of transversal communication that prevents the subjugation of this collectivity is maintained. RESUMO O problema com o qual o "pós-humano" deve lidar é complexo: como alguém pode abraçar tanto a problematização e a construção anti-humanística do sujeito humano pelo pós-estruturalismo e, ao mesmo tempo, conectar a capacidade de tecnociência à desumanização com a possibilidade de inventar uma subjetividade pós-humana? Considerações sobre pós-humanização do humano devem expandir para além da ciborguezação baseada no fortalecimento da capacidade de indivíduos humanos, e existe a necessidade de uma mudança de paradigma para que possamos repensar e reconceitualizar o pós-humano dentro da rede relacional ontológica e sociopolítica trabalhando além da oposição do determinismo tecnocêntrico e do instrumentalismo humanocêntrico. Seres humanos foram produzidos na sociedade disciplinar na forma de "indivíduos" autodisciplinados e têm sido produzidos na sociedade de controle na forma de "divíduos" desindividualizados, respectivamente. Nesse caso, qual será a forma dos seres humanos na sociedade pós-humanista do lado de fora ou após a sociedade de controle, que ainda está por chegar? Neste trabalho, aponto as limitações de discussões sobre ciborguezação e examino o diagnóstico de Deleuze sobre a sociedade de controle baseada na tecnologia digital, argumento que podemos encontrar uma nova possibilidade para a subjetividade pós-humana no "relacionamento transindividual" de Simondon complementado pela "transversalidade" de Guattari. Proponho que será possível que uma sociedade pós-humana seja produzida quando os relacionamentos transindividuais forem baseados na operação transdutiva das invenções tecnológicas, percebendo que a potencialidade comum natural seja atingida, e um alto grau de comunicação transversal que evite que a subjugação dessa coletividade seja mantido. (shrink)

We present an analysis of counterfactuals in terms of stories and combine it with an account similar to Walton’s account of truth in fiction to yield truth conditions for counterfactuals. We discuss unusual features of this account, and compare it to other main approaches. In particular, we argue that our analysis succeeds in accounting for counterpossibles and counterfactuals with true antecedents while the other two main approaches fail, and we give reasons for thinking that it is important to have an (...) adequate account of these two areas. (shrink)

Fraser highlights an unattractive feature of Mohist ethics: the Mohists, while criticizing their Confucian contemporaries, restrict one’s pursuits to the most basic sorts of goods. Fraser suggests that the Mohists assume the perpetuity of scarce resources, which leads to a commitment to austerity, which in turn leads them to deny a plausible third way between austerity and excess. In their defence, I argue that the Mohists do not assume perpetuity of scarce resources but rather the hedonic treadmill. And instead of (...) begging the question by assuming austerity and then denying a moderate alternative to excess, the Mohists take the hedonic treadmill to preclude a principled stopgap between austerity and excess, leaving austerity as the only acceptable option. Finally, these dynamics illuminate a feature that should make us wary of parallels to Millian utilitarianism: the maximization principle of the latter is absent from Mohism, and this goes hand-in-hand with austerity. (shrink)

The Mohists may have been the first consequentialists on earth. Their most important principles are that right action is what benefits the world and that the underlying outlook for benefiting the world is inclusive care, whereby each person receives equal consideration. The early Mohists are clearly objective-list consequentialists, whereby benefiting the world amounts to promoting the most basic goods. Stephens argues that the later Mohists shift to a preference-satisfaction consequentialism whereby benefiting the world amounts to promoting what happens to please (...) individual people. Stephens argues that while the direct texts are ambiguous between an objective-list interpretation and a preference-satisfaction interpretation, the latter better explains later Mohist engagement with opponents. I argue that the direct texts actually preclude Stephens’ preference-satisfaction interpretation, which moreover has the later Mohists concede an implausible amount to their opponents. (shrink)

We show that in a stable first-order theory, the failure of higher dimensional type amalgamation can always be witnessed by algebraic structures that we call n-ary polygroupoids. This generalizes a result of Hrushovski in [16] that failures of 4-amalgamation are witnessed by definable groupoids. The n-ary polygroupoids are definable in a mild expansion of the language.

There is nothing like an overwhelming consensus of opinion to encourage a less than rigourous approach to analyzing complex ethical issues. Unfortunately, this is nowhere more apparent than in the discussion of human reproductive cloning contained in the federal House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs’ report on human cloning, released last August The report may well fulfil the first half of its project, namely the empirical task of adequately summarizing and categorizing the various submissions made to (...) the Committee. However, it is clearly inadequate as a discussion of the ethical and legal permissibility of human reproductive cloning. (shrink)

In this paper, we study the notions related to tree property 1 , or, equivalently, SOP2. Among others, we supply a type-counting criterion for TP1 and show the equivalence of TP1 and k- TP1. Then we introduce the notions of weak k- TP1 for k≥2, and also supply type-counting criteria for those. We do not know whether weak k- TP1 implies TP1, but at least we prove that each weak k- TP1 implies SOP1. Our generalization of the tree-indiscernibility results in (...) Džamonja and Shelah [5] is crucially used throughout the paper. (shrink)