"--Peter Brooks, Princeton University "This is an important book and a superb piece of writing, combining passionate enthusiasm with calm arguments and informative examples.

As an ethicist trained in narrative, I wondered what I could offer Dr. Darcy at this point, two weeks after the events he described. And what might I have offered those involved if they had called an ethics consult at the time? One of this physician's implicit questions was, “How might this have unfolded in a better way?”When difficult choices must be made, how can a narrative approach help? A narrativist focuses less on principles, rules, and law than would a (...) philosopher or a lawyer. This is not to say that we ignore the law or are unaware of bioethical principles. But where do we go from there? Narrative offers a mode of engagement that asks different kinds of questions than those that law or philosophy might ask about moral agency, context, and values. (shrink)

The eye may be window to the soul, but neuroscientists aim to get inside and measure the interior directly. There's also talk about moving some walls.

Background Older patients in emergency care often have complex needs and may have limited ability to make their voices heard. Hence, there are ethical challenges for healthcare professionals in establishing a trustful relationship to determine the patient’s preferences and then decide and act based on these preferences. With this comes further challenges regarding how the patient’s autonomy can be protected and promoted. Aim To describe nurses’ experiences of dealing with older patients’ autonomy when cared for in emergency departments (EDs). Research (...) design This study adopted reflective lifeworld theory and a phenomenological design. Participants and research context A total of 13 open-ended interviews were performed with nurses working at two EDs in Sweden. Ethical considerations The study was reviewed by the Ethical Advisory Board in South East Sweden and conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants gave consent. Findings Nurses’ experiences of dealing with older patients’ autonomy in EDs are characterized by moving in a conflicting uphill struggle, indicating obscure thoughts on how patient autonomy can be protected in an ethically challenging context. The phenomenon is further described with its meaning constituents: ‘Being hampered by prioritization under stress’, ‘Balancing paternalism and patient autonomy’, ‘Making decisions without consent in the patient’s best interests’ and ‘Being trapped by notions of legitimate care needs’. Conclusion Stressful work conditions and lacking organizational strategies in EDs contribute to nurses maintaining unjustified paternalistic care, regardless of the patient’s ability and medical condition, and questioning who has legitimacy for participating in decisions about care. The nurses’ protection and promotion of older patients’ autonomy is dependent on the opportunity, ability and willingness to create a patient relationship where the patient’s voice and preferences are valued as important. Consequently, strategies are needed to improve patient autonomy in EDs based on the idea of ‘relational autonomy’. (shrink)

This paper contributes to the foundations of a theory of rational choice for artificial agents in dynamic environments. Our work is developed within a theoretical framework, originally due to Bratman, that models resource-bounded agents as operating against the background of some current set of intentions, which helps to frame their subsequent reasoning. In contrast to the standard theory of rational choice, where options are evaluated in isolation, we therefore provide an analysis of situations in which the options presented to an (...) agent are evaluated against a background context provided by the agent’s current plans—commitments to future activities, which may themselves be only partially specified. The interactions between the new options and the background context can complicate the task of evaluating the option, rendering it either more or less desirable in context than it would have been in isolation.  2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. (shrink)

The Healer's Art curriculum is one of the best-known educational strategies to support medical student professional identity formation. HART has been widely used as an elective curriculum. We evaluated students’ experience with HART when the curriculum was required. All one hundred eleven members of the class of 2019 University of New Mexico School of Medicine students were required to enroll in HART. We surveyed the students before and after the course to assess its self-reported impact on key elements of professional (...) identity formation such as empathy towards patients and peers, commitment to service, and burnout. A majority of students reported positive effects of the course on their empathy towards other students. This finding was significantly associated with self-reported willingness to have elected the course had it not been required. One-half of respondents reported positive effects on their empathy towards future patients. At least one-quarter to one-third of respondents reported positive influences on commitment to service, conceptions about being a physician, and self-perceived burnout. Students report benefits on their professional identity formation after participating in a required course on humanism. Empathy-building among peers is one valuable outcome of such curricula. (shrink)

Meditation is an umbrella term for a number of mental training practices designed to improve the monitoring and regulation of attention and emotion. Some forms of meditation are now being used for clinical intervention. To accompany the increased clinical interest in meditation, research investigating the neural basis of these practices is needed. A central hypothesis of contemplative neuroscience is that meditative states, which are unique on a phenomenological level, differ on a neurophysiological level. To identify the electrophysiological correlates of meditation (...) practice, the electrical brain activity of highly skilled meditators engaging in one of six meditation styles was recorded. A mind-wandering task served as a control. Lempel–Ziv complexity showed differences in nonlinear brain dynamics during meditation compared with mind wandering, suggesting that meditation, regardless of practice, affects neural complexity. In contrast, there were no differences in power spectra at six different frequency bands, likely due to the fact that participants engaged in different meditation practices. Finally, exploratory analyses suggest neurological differences among meditation practices. These findings highlight the importance of studying the electroencephalography correlates of different meditative practices. (shrink)

Partimos del supuesto de que la transición política del PLD al PDJ generó la esperanza del cambio en la sociedad japonesa, en los vecinos regionales y en los aliados occidentales. Empero no hay señales de un liderazgo político de este partido que evidencie un cambio de rumbo y un proyecto propio. Las declaraciones de su líder espiritual, Ichir? Ozawa, provocaron una incertidumbre generalizada por lo radical de su discurso. El tiempo que el PDJ lleva en el poder ha estado plagado (...) de desacuerdos internos y crisis. La muy reciente crisis causada por la triple catástrofe del 11 de marzo de 2011 mostró la desintegración al interior del partido y la falta de acuerdos entre sus propios miembros, mostrando que este cambio solo ha traído más de lo mismo. (shrink)

Tanto la filosofía como la literatura, en cuanto búsquedas de la verdad, de respuestas frente a un núcleo de preguntas vitales, recurren a una estructura formal que necesariamente es la expresión de una actitud frente a la vida. Se plantea que la forma literaria no puede separarse del contenido filosófico, pues es el resultado de una indagación que intenta dar respuestas a asuntos particulares sobre la vida humana, así como el contenido filosófico halla expresión en una estructura formal que transmite (...) un sentido de la vida. La forma y el contenido no pueden separarse sin fracturar la visión de la vida que ofrecen tanto el texto literario como el texto filosófico. Sin embargo ¿cómo escribir, qué formas, qué estructuras, qué lenguaje utilizar para hablar de asuntos tan particulares como el amor? ¿Hasta dónde es posible escribir filosóficamente sobre la vida y sus interrogantes particulares? ¿Cuáles han sido los aportes de la literatura en la búsqueda de visiones alternativas frente a la experiencia humana? Tal es el punto de partida en la elaboración de este ensayo que intenta, por lo demás, concederle a la literatura y a sus formas de expresión, un lugar más central en el campo de la reflexión sobre el sentido de la vida y otros interrogantes importantes acerca de los asuntos humanos. (shrink)

This essay examines two tendencies in lesbian ethics as differing visions of community, as well as contrasting views of the relationship between the erotic and the ethical. In addition to considering those authors who make explicit claims about lesbian ethics, this paper reflects on the works of some lesbians whose works are less frequently attended to in discussions about lesbian ethics, including lesbians writing from the perspectives of theology and of literature.

“Ordo,” as it has come to be used, suggests the basic structure of Christian worship that centers on table, font, and pulpit, and the shape of Christian living that flows from these centers. It is a commitment to that which grounds and guides our lives in the world.

A common practice in textbooks is to introduce concepts or strategies in association with specific people. This practice aligns with research suggesting that using “real-world” contexts in textbooks increases students’ motivation and engagement. However, other research suggests this practice may interfere with transfer by distracting students or leading them to tie new knowledge too closely to the original learning context. The current study investigates the effects on learning and transfer of connecting mathematics strategies to specific people. A total of 180 (...) college students were presented with an example of a problem-solving strategy that was either linked with a specific person or presented without a person. Students who saw the example without a person were more likely to correctly transfer the novel strategy to new problems than students who saw the example presented with a person. These findings are the first evidence that using people to present new strategies is harmful for learning and transfer. (shrink)

We provide a qualitative analysis of resistance to calls for gender-neutral language. We analyzed more than 900 comments responding to two essays—one on AlterNet and another on Vox posted to the Vox editor’s Facebook page—that critiqued a pervasive male-based generic, “you guys.” Five rhetorics of resistance are discussed: appeals to origins, appeals to linguistic authority, appeals to aesthetics, appeals to intentionality and inclusivity, and appeals to women and feminist authorities. These rhetorics justified “you guys” as a nonsexist term, thereby allowing (...) commenters to continue using it without compromising their moral identities as liberals or feminists. In addition to resisting an analysis that linked their use of “you guys” to social harms, commenters positioned the authors who called for true generics as unreasonable, divisive, and authoritarian. We conclude with suggestions for how feminists can challenge the status quo and promote social change. (shrink)

We have previously proposed that mothers and infants co-regulate one another’s autonomic state through an autonomic conditioning mechanism, which starts during gestation and results in the formation of autonomic socioemotional reflexes following birth. Theoretically, autonomic physiology associated with the ASR should correlate concomitantly with behaviors of mother and infant, although the neuronal pathway by which this phenomenon occurs has not been elucidated. In this paper, we consider the neuronal pathway by which sensory stimuli between a mother and her baby/child affect (...) the physiology and emotional behavior of each. We divide our paper into two parts. In the first part, to gain perspective on current theories on the subject, we conduct a 500-year narrative history of scientific investigations into the human nervous system and theories that describe the neuronal pathway between sensory stimulus and emotional behavior. We then review inconsistencies between several currently accepted theories and recent data. In the second part, we lay out a new theory of emotions that describes how sensory stimuli between mother and baby unconsciously control the behavior and physiology of both. We present a theory of mother/infant emotion based on a set of assumptions fundamentally different from current theories. Briefly, we propose that mother/infant sensory stimuli trigger conditional autonomic socioemotional reflexes, which drive cardiac function and behavior without the benefit of the thalamus, amygdala or cortex. We hold that the ASR is shaped by an evolutionarily conserved autonomic learning mechanism that forms between mother and fetus during gestation and continues following birth. We highlight our own and others research findings over the past 15 years that support our contention that mother/infant socioemotional behavior is driven by mutual autonomic state plasticity, as opposed to cortical trait plasticity. We review a novel assessment tool designed to measure the behaviors associated with the ASR phenomenon. Finally, we discuss the significance of our theory for the treatment of mothers and infants with socioemotional disorders. (shrink)

Building rapport is considered important in investigative interviewing of children about alleged sexual abuse, but theoretical understanding of the nature of rapport and how to judge its presence remains sketchy. This article argues that the conversation analytic concept of progressivity may provide empirical tractability to the concept of rapport and indeed may be partially what people are detecting when they judge the presence of rapport. A single case is analysed, drawn from a corpus of 11 video-taped interviews with children conducted (...) by police in an Australian sexual crime unit. Analysis focuses on how the interviewer responds when progressivity breaks down, and how restoration is collaboratively achieved. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for future work that might investigate a more thoroughly social interactional account of rapport, and in terms of new ideas about what might constitute skilful interviewing practices amongst investigative interviewers. (shrink)

O sublime vem sendo analisado desde a antiguidade com uma marcante relaçáo com a tragédia, seja como gênero literário, seja por meio da Poética , de Aristóteles que nos traduz pela catarse o sentimento do sublime. Na modernidade, novos nomes foram chegando para colaborar com esta teoria: o próprio Hume, em seu ensaio Da tragédia , mostrou-se impressionado com a capacidade que esta forma de arte tem de produzir efeitos táo intensos no espectador. Porém, quem mais fortaleceu a análise do (...) sublime na modernidade, servindo de base para o próprio Kant foi Edmund Burke, com sua obra Uma investigaçáo filosófica sobre as idéias do sublime e do belo . A terceira crítica de Kant dedicou um momento especial à analise do sublime, a qual já havia servido como base também para Schopenhauer que, no entanto, a partir dela, construíra sua própria estética que viria a ser de suma importância para o jovem Nieztsche, sobretudo devido à consideraçáo da música como arte sublime. Nietzsche, entáo, construiu sua sabedoria trágica,com base na experiência sublime da tragédia. A questáo que este artigo quer tratar é exatamente: é possível pensar numa metafísica do sublime ,com base em Nietzsche ? Palavras-chaves : Kant, Metafísica, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Sublime. (shrink)

El artículo tiene entre sus propósitos valorar los modelos y teorías que han tenido una influencia determinante en el proceso de superación en liderazgo docente, y cómo ello influye en la labor que desarrollan los docentes universitarios para el logro de un rol transformador en su actividad. A través de la historia en este campo son muchos los modelos que han surgido, que han sido utilizados y puestos de moda en algunos momentos por diversas razones. Ante la variedad de los (...) mismos vienen preguntas ineludibles acerca de cuál es el modelo más adecuado o más utilizado cuando de liderazgo docente se trata. The main purpose of this article is to briefly assess the models and theories that have had a determining influence on the bettering process in teaching leadership, and the way it influences the job developed by university teaching personnel, specifically designed to achieve a transformer role of their activity. Through history, there have been many models that have come up, have been used, and have come back into fashion in different moments and for several reasons in this field. In view of their variety, unavoidable questions have come up, about the most suitable or used model when dealing with teaching leadership. (shrink)

The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 12, Issue 10, Page 45-47, October 2012.

Schooling Poor Minority Children: New Segregation in the Post-Brown Era explores the "redesign of school segregation" and explains why resegregation of schools in the post-Brown era is so destructive for poor minority students.

Although not the main point of his target article, Block defends the view that perception and awareness of perception could be functions of different brain systems. I will argue that the available data do not support this view, and that Block's defense of the view rests on problematic eonstruals of the “executive system” and of the components of information-processing models.

When cognitive neuropsychologists make inferences about the functional architecture of the normal mind from selective cognitive impairments they generally assume that the effects of brain damage are local, that is, that the nondamaged components of the architecture continue to function as they did before the damage. This assumption follows from the view that the components of the functional architecture are modular, in the sense of being informationally encapsulated. In this target article it is argued that this “locality” assumption is probably (...) not correct in general. Inferences about the functional architecture can nevertheless be made from neuropsychological data with an alternative set of assumptions, according to which human information processing is graded, distributed, and interactive. These claims are supported by three examples of neuropsychological dissociations and a comparison of the inferences obtained from these impairments with and without the locality assumption. The three dissociations are: selective impairments in knowledge of living things, disengagment of visual attention, and overt face recognition. In all three cases, the neuropsychological phenomena lead to more plausible inferences about the normal functional architecture when the locality assumption is abandoned. Also discussed are the relations between the locality assumption in neuropsychology and broader issues, including Fodor's modularity hypothesis and the choice between top-down and bottom-up research approaches. (shrink)