Book reviewed in this article: The Needs of Strangers. By Michael Ignatieff. The Health Economy. By Victor Fuchs. Just Health Care. By Norman Daniels.

To the Editor: It was with great interest that our Canadian Palliative Sedation Therapy Guideline working group read Jeffrey Berger's recent article ("Rethinking Guidelines for the Use of Palliative Sedation," May-June 2010). Given our own group's efforts to develop national guidelines, we have rethought the issue of palliative sedation therapy several times over the past year.The use of clear and concise definitions is fundamental to the development of any consensus guidelines on this topic. In the article, the term "palliative sedation (...) to unconsciousness," or PSU, implies the concerning assumption that sedation will knowingly be to unconsciousness in the palliative case under consideration. This conflicts with .. (shrink)

This piece is a review essay on Victor Tadros’s The Ends of Harm. Tadros rejects retributive desert but believes punishment can be justified instrumentally without succumbing to the problems of thoroughgoing consequentialism and endorsing using people as means. He believes he can achieve these results through extension of the right of self-defense. I argue that Tadros fails in this endeavor: he has a defective account of the means principle; his rejection of desert leads to gross mismatches of punishment and (...) culpability; and he cannot account for punishment of inchoate crimes. (shrink)

During the influx of neurological research into France from across Europe that took place rapidly in the late 19th century, the philosophy course in lycées (the French equivalent of high schools) was mobilized by education reformers as a means of promulgating the emergent brain sciences and simultaneously steering their cultural resonance. I contend that these linked prongs of philosophy’s public mission under the Third Republic reconciled contradictory pressures to advance the nation’s scientific prowess following its defeat in the Franco-Prussian war (...) of 1870 without dropping France’s distinct tradition of 19th-century spiritualism, which extended from Maine de Biran’s philosophical psychology to Victor Cousin’s official eclectic spiritualism. Between 1874 and 1902, the French Ministry of Public Instruction transformed philosophy into a national project designed to guide the reception of experimental psychology generally and neurology in particular. This article features original archival research on philosophy textbooks and students’ course notes that illuminate the cultural and intellectual impact of these sciences in the fin de siècle from inside the classroom. I argue that the scientific turn in the psychology section of the lycée philosophy course reflected and brought about a distinct philosophical movement that I call ‘scientific spiritualism’. While historians have analysed philosophy instruction as a mechanism used by the Third Republic to secularize students, this article sheds new light on lycée philosophy professors’ campaign to promote scientific spiritualism as a means to advance incipient brain research and pare its reductionist implications. (shrink)

Diese Studie bietet zunachst das Corpus aller erhaltenen 104 Bibelmanuskripte der Pariser Abtei Saint-Victor dar, insoweit sein geschichtliches Werden, seine materiale und mediale Gestalt, sein Inhalt, seine ikonographische Ausstattung und sein intellektuelles Profil mit geschichtswissenschaftlichen Methoden eruiert werden kann. In einem zweiten Schritt wird die Beschreibung, die Analyse und die Bewertung der Handschriften im einzelnen vorgenommen. Damit wird zum ersten Mal uberhaupt eine bedeutende geistliche Institution des lateineuropaischen Hoch- und Spatmittelalters aus der Perspektive ihrer gesamten biblischen Tradition als ein (...) Ort wissenschaftlicher, sozialer und ordensgeschichtlichter Umbruche charakterisiert und in Vergleich zu anderen geistigen Zentren gesetzt. Der intellektuelle Reichtum und die spirituelle Tiefe dieser Gemeinschaft der regulierten Chorherren im mittelalterlichen Paris sowie seine europaweite Ausstrahlung und Vernetzung zeigen sich mit dieser Publikation einmal mehr und laden zu weiterfuhrenden Untersuchungen ein. (shrink)

Postmodernism -- Classical pragmatism : waiting at the end of the road -- Pragmatism, postmodernism, and global citizenship -- Classical pragmatism, postmodernism, and neopragmatism -- Technology -- Classical pragmatism and communicative action : Jürgen Habermas -- From critical theory to pragmatism : Andrew Feenberg -- A neo-Heideggerian critique of technology : Albert Borgmann -- Doing and making in a democracy : John Dewey -- The environment -- Nature as culture : John Dewey and Aldo Leopold -- Green pragmatism : reals (...) without realism, ideals without idealism -- Classical pragmatism -- What was Dewey's magic number? -- Cultivating a common faith : Dewey's religion -- Beyond the epistemology industry : Dewey's theory of inquiry -- The homo faber debate in Dewey and Max Scheler -- Productive pragmatism : habits as artifacts in Peirce and Dewey. (shrink)

The concept of vulnerability is widely used in bioethics, particularly in research ethics and public health ethics. The traditional approach construes vulnerability as inherent in individuals or the groups to which they belong and views vulnerability as requiring special protections. Florencia Luna and other bioethicists continue to challenge traditional ways of conceptualizing and applying the term. Luna began proposing a layered approach to this concept and recently extended this proposal to offer two new concepts to analyze the concept of vulnerability, (...) namely understanding external conditions that trigger vulnerability and layers of vulnerability with cascading effects. Luna's conception of vulnerability is useful, which we demonstrate by applying her layered view and the new analyses in multiple contexts. We begin by outlining Luna's view and we use vignettes from healthcare involving transgender patients, the care of patients in psychiatric contexts, and research involving prisoners to illustrate how each part of Luna's concept elucidates important moral issues. (shrink)

This second volume completes the biography of the influential philosopher, following Whitehead's move first from Trinity College, Cambridge to London, and then, at the age of 63, to America, where the focus of his work shifted from mathematics to philosophy. Lowe (philosophy emeritus, Johns Hopkins U.) died in 1988 with this biography not quite completed. Vol.2 was edited and seen through publication by J.B. Schneewind, chairman of the Philosophy Department at Johns Hopkins. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

In this, the first book devoted to Peter Achinstein's influential work in philosophy of science, twenty distinguished philosophers, including four Lakatos award winners, address various aspects of Achinstein's influential views on the nature of scientific evidence, scientific explanation, and scientific realism. It includes short essays by Steve Gimbel and Jeff Maynes, Nancy Cartwright, Jordi Cat, Victor DiFate, Jerry Doppelt, Adam Goldstein, Philip Kitcher, Fred Kronz, Deborah Mayo, Greg Morgan, Helen Longino, John Norton, Michael Ruse, Bas van Fraassen, Stathis Psillos, (...) Larry Laudan, Richard Richards, Kent Staley, and Jim Woodward with replies to each contributor from Peter Achinstein. Readers will come away with an understanding of the current debate in multiple areas of philosophy of science and how various contemporary issues are connected. (shrink)

Unethical conduct has reached crisis proportions in business :A1–A10, 2011) and on today’s college campuses :58–65, 2007). Despite the evidence that suggests that more than half of business students admit to dishonest practices, only about 5 % of business school deans surveyed believe that dishonesty is a problem at their schools :299–308, 2010). In addition, the AACSB which establishes standards for accredited business schools has resisted the urging of deans and business experts to require business schools to teach an ethics (...) class, and fewer than one-third of businesses schools now teach a business ethics course at the graduate or undergraduate levels. In this paper we briefly introduce the status of business ethics education and report the results of a survey of business students, deans of the top business schools, and business ethics subject matter experts about ten ethical outcomes. We then offer five specific recommendations to encourage business ethics faculty and decision makers to improve the teaching of business ethics. (shrink)

This text addresses various topics in applied ethics from Western and non-Western perspectives. Multicultural perspectives are fully integrated throughout the text.

L.M. Siedentop's short introduction to Tocqueville's life, work, and contribution to modern political theory demonstrates lucidly both the force and the subtleties of Tocqueville's ideas, and their importance for societies now embracing modern democracy.

De 1904 à 1918, l'écrivain et voyageur Victor Segalen (1878-1919) travaille à la rédaction d'un traité systématique qu'il aurait appelé Essai sur l'Exotisme. Une Esthétique du Divers, mais qui ne sera pas publié de son vivant. Seule demeure aujourd'hui, de ce projet, une série complexe de notes prises au jour le jour, puis conservées à la Bibliothèque nationale de France : c'est sur le dossier manuscrit qu'a été établie ici, sur nouveaux frais, cette édition originale des brouillons de l'ouvrage (...) en devenir. Loin de toute réalisation définitive, et avec sa forme actuelle qui le rapproche d'un journal de travail, ce document apparaît comme capital pour comprendre la pensée et l'oeuvre de Segalen. À l'heure où les sciences humaines et sociales interrogent l'identité et l'altérité, et où la question de la "diversité" agite les cultural studies, l'Essai sur l'Exotisme nous renseigne sur les élargissements que la notion classique d'interculturalité est susceptible de connaître. Il dessine ainsi une éthique particulière qui peut nous aider à considérer les questionnements de notre époque et à les réinscrire dans leur histoire conceptuelle."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

We provide a quantifier-free axiom system for plane hyperbolic geometry in a language containing only absolute geometrically meaningful ternary operations (in the sense that they have the same interpretation in Euclidean geometry as well). Each axiom contains at most 4 variables. It is known that there is no axiom system for plane hyperbolic consisting of only prenex 3-variable axioms. Changing one of the axioms, one obtains an axiom system for plane Euclidean geometry, expressed in the same language, all of whose (...) axioms are also at most 4-variable universal sentences. We also provide an axiom system for plane hyperbolic geometry in Tarski's language L B which might be the simplest possible one in that language. (shrink)

Reverse analyses of three proofs of the Sylvester-Gallai theorem lead to three different and incompatible axiom systems. In particular, we show that proofs respecting the purity of the method, using only notions considered to be part of the statement of the theorem to be proved, are not always the simplest, as they may require axioms which proofs using extraneous predicates do not rely upon.

All the social sciences are now in flux and Soviet studies even more so. Many traditional approaches prove to be useless for understanding the changed world and there is a search for new explanatory models, and even for “alternative organizing myths.” All this fosters confusion and during such periods of “paradigm change” debates assume predictable characteristics. First of all, there appears a large gap between, in John Stuart Mill's words, “the meaning which a term bears in common acceptation” and that (...) which the writer “intends to annex to it.” It provides a great opportunity for sniping and passionately accusing opponents of lack of conceptual rigor. (shrink)

Se presenta la fase inicial de una investigación que trata la despoblación como tema controversial desde una perspectiva interdisciplinar y tratando de identificar el valor de la Historia para el conocimiento de esta temática. Esta primera fase se plantea desde un cuestionario destinado a identificar la percepción del alumnado de Segundo curso de ESO sobre el aprendizaje de la Historia y su relación con temas del presente, su percepción sobre la despoblación y su opinión sobre tópicos. En este artículo se (...) analizan tres preguntas del cuestionario para identificar si existen diferentes percepciones en el ámbito urbano y rural y también entre centros y su ubicación. Mediante un análisis mixto se plantea la detección de diferencias de percepción tanto entre el alumnado de las ciudades de Segovia y Madrid como entre cada uno de los centros. (shrink)

El propósito de esta investigación es hacer una relectura histórico-crítica de la Ética de la Liberación como ética de la vida. Este planteamiento se hace desde la memoria política crítica que permitirá ver la influencia que ella ha tenido con otras éticas que hoy pueden agruparse en torno al concepto de convivencia: la ética intercultural, la ética ecológica, la ética de la economía solidaria, la ética de una ciencia construida socialmente y de una tecnología al servicio de las personas, la (...) ética educativa como expresión de apertura y diálogo y no como adoctrinamiento, la ética religiosa separada de todo fanatismo, la ética civil más allá de todo militarismo, la ética del género más allá de toda exclusión. Lo que implica la necesidad de consolidar una ética de la convivencia, como eje central de la cultura y de la vida de los habitantes de América Latina que no es sólo necesario estudiar sino practicar. (shrink)

Das Thema dieser Abhandlung ist die Begründung der Giltigkeit von Aussagen, 1. von Erkenntnis, 2. von Normen, 3. von Werturteilen. Giltigkeit bedeutet anerkannt-werdensollen. Dazu muß das Verhältnis von Sollen und Sein in einer neuen Weise bestimmt werden. 1. Die Begründung der Giltigkeit von Aussagen einer Erkenntnis rein gedanklicher Sachverhalte erfolgt durch die Logik bei Festsetzung von Axiomen. Die Aussagen von Wirklichkeitserkenntnis sind teils solche von subjektiven Erlebnissen, teils solche über eine objektive Wirklichkeit. Die Giltigkeitsbegründung erfolgt dadurch, daß die Übereinstimmung des (...) ausgesagten Sachverhaltes mit der Wirklichkeit bei den ersteren unmittelbar, bei den letzteren mittelbar festgestellt wird. Für die Begründung von Aussagen über objektive Wirklichkeit sind außerdem noch zwei Voraussetzungen erforderlich: die einer unbeschränkten Gesetzmäßigkeit und die einer Wirklichkeit außer den Erlebnissen. Die Giltigkeit dieser Voraussetzungen, die über die erlebten Erfahrungen grundsätzlich hinausgehen, beruht auf ihrer Unentbehrlichkeit für eine Theorie, nach der sich die Erlebnisse aus gesetzmäßigen Bedingungen ableiten lassen. 2. Die Giltigkeit von Normen beruht teils auf Festsetzung und ist dann nur eine beschränkt allgemeine, teils auf Bedingungen für die Erreichung von Absichten und kann dann unbeschränkt allgemein sein, wenn die Absichten allgemein sind, wie hinsichtlich der Ordnung, der Grundlage der Logik, und bei der Moral. 3. Die Giltigkeit von Werturteilen, sofern sie unpersönliche sind, wird durch ihre logische Ableitung aus Wertungsgrundsätzen und Tatsachenaussagen begründet. Die Wertungsgrundsätze werden entweder durch Festsetzung aufgestellt, dann haben sie nur eine beschränkte Allgemeingiltigkeit, oder sie werden durch die Konstituenten der Kultur gegeben, dann sind sie unbeschränkt allgemeingiltig. (shrink)

Introduction.- Conclusions.- Chronology.- Political activities of Barlow.- Political writings of Barlow.- An evaluation.- Bibliography.- Appendix: The conspiracy of kings, by Joel Barlow.

This article is about reductionism; as a tendency of thought, reductionism tells us that the hole can be explained as the sum of its parts. From this principle, one can deduce that the properties and laws of complex systems can be explained by the laws and properties of simple systems. On the other ..

Since the beginning of the scientific revolution, believers have had to reconcile their beliefs with science. This has always proved difficult. If an all-perfect God created the universe and its physical laws, why would he have to step in to perform miracles and answer prayers? If, as all the evidence indicates, the universe, including humans and their brains, is matter and nothing more, how can we possibly live forever? Theologians try hard, but never come up with satisfactory answers.

Some nonparametric allocation methods are proposed for use in computer-aided medical diagnostics. It may be expected that the replacement of the widely employed parametric models by these methods leads to more realistic results, because the assumptions which are used by parametric models and which are never fulfilled in practice become unnecessary. The overestimation of the discriminating power arising from the non-fulfillment of parametric assumptions are avoided.

Using the axiom system provided by Carsten Augat in [1], it is shown that the only 6-variable statement among the axioms of the axiom system for plane hyperbolic geometry (in Tarski's language L B =), we had provided in [3], is superfluous. The resulting axiom system is the simplest possible one, in the sense that each axiom is a statement in prenex form about at most 5 points, and there is no axiom system consisting entirely of at most 4-variable statements.