Background Advance Care Planning via Group Visits (ACP-GV) is a patient-centered intervention facilitated by a clinician using a group modality to promote healthcare decision-making among veterans. Participants in the group document a “Next Step” to use in planning for their future care needs. The next step may include documentation of preferences in an advance directive, discussing plans with family, or anything else to fulfill their ACP needs. This evaluation seeks to determine whether there are identifiable subgroups of group participants with (...) differing needs prior to delivery of the ACP-GV program and, if so, to use information about the subgroups to enhance the program offered to veterans in United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare settings. Methods We conducted a secondary analysis of national data from a quality improvement evaluation. Patient- and provider-level data from administrative healthcare records for VA users in all 50 states, territories, and the District of Columbia provides data on veterans attending ACP-GV during federal fiscal years 2018–2022 (N = 26,857). Latent class analysis seeks to identify the various subgroups of veterans based on their level of ACP self-efficacy before attending ACP-GV and any demographic differences across the resulting subgroups of veterans attending ACP-GV. ACP self-efficacy is derived from seven items obtained from a participant worksheet used during the group. Results Analysis revealed two distinct groups of veterans, distinguishable by their pre-ACP-GV levels of one aspect of ACP self-efficacy: prior knowledge of ACP. Veterans with higher prior knowledge of ACP are associated with an identified next step focused on checking their current AD status and updating it, and veterans with lower ACP prior knowledge are associated with identifying a next step to discuss ACP more fully with family. Differences in age, sex, race, ethnicity, and marital status exist across subgroups of veterans. Conclusion Greater attention must be paid to ACP and veterans’ prior knowledge of ACP to consistently encourage annual review and status updates. (shrink)

Why did such highly abstract ideas as truth, knowledge, or justice become so important to us? What was the point of coming to think in these terms? This book presents a philosophical method designed to answer such questions: the method of pragmatic genealogy. Pragmatic genealogies are partly fictional, partly historical narratives exploring what might have driven us to develop certain ideas in order to discover what these do for us. The book uncovers an under-appreciated tradition of pragmatic genealogy which cuts (...) across the analytic-continental divide, running from the state-of-nature stories of David Hume and the early genealogies of Friedrich Nietzsche to recent work in analytic philosophy by Edward Craig, Bernard Williams, and Miranda Fricker. However, these genealogies combine fictionalizing and historicizing in ways that even philosophers sympathetic to the use of state-of-nature fictions or real history have found puzzling. To make sense of why both fictionalizing and historicizing are called for, the book offers a systematic account of pragmatic genealogies as dynamic models serving to reverse-engineer the points of ideas in relation not only to near-universal human needs, but also to socio-historically situated needs. This allows the method to offer us explanation without reduction and to help us understand what led our ideas to shed the traces of their practical origins. Far from being normatively inert, moreover, pragmatic genealogy can affect the space of reasons, guiding attempts to improve our conceptual repertoire by helping us determine whether and when our ideas are worth having. (shrink)

In this précis of The Practical Origins of Ideas: Genealogy as Conceptual Reverse-Engineering (OUP 2021), I summarize the key claims of the book. The book describes, develops, and defends an underappreciated methodological tradition: the tradition of pragmatic genealogy, which aims to identify what our loftiest and most inscrutable conceptual practices do for us by telling strongly idealized, but still historically informed stories about what might have driven people to adopt and elaborate them as they did. What marks out this methodological (...) tradition, I argue, is that it synthesizes two genres of philosophical genealogy that are standardly set against each other: state-of-nature fictions on the one hand and patiently documentary historiography on the other. These two genres of genealogy are usually taken to be mutually exclusive and to answer to radically different philosophical interests and temperaments. But I offer a systematic account of a tradition that combines both genres into a single genealogical method, augmenting genealogy’s power and range by harnessing the strengths and possibilities of both genres. (shrink)

Ce livre que je présente à nouveau aujourd'hui, dans une édition qui évoque publiquement ses origines, n'a pas une histoire comme les autres. Jamais il n'aurait vu le jour sans une étonnante rencontre avec François Mitterrand, dans la Creuse, au début des années quatre-vingt, qui fut suivie d'autres entretiens. Une rencontre sur le ton de la confession, inhabituelle et directe, une conversation surprenante. Une sorte de dialogue contemporain entre celui qui penche vers l'absurde et celui qui croit au mystère. Ensemble, (...) nous reprenions l'éternel débat sur le sens de la vie et la destinée de l'homme. Mais, tous deux, nous mettions Dieu au centre de nos réflexions. J'ai pris conscience du mystère Mitterrand, des secrets de cet homme obsédé par la mort, l'au-delà, les fins dernières, la vie éternelle. Ce texte n'a pas vieilli, garde sa saveur de testament spirituel et dévoile une part de la personnalité de mon visiteur. Fruit du dialogue entre un philosophe et un politique, cet ouvrage reparaît donc plus d'un an après la mort de ce président qui continue d'habiter la mémoire des Français. A un moment où les Français eux-mêmes se posent des questions sur l'avenir et la religion. Puissent-ils trouver des réponses dans ce que j'ai dit au premier d'entre eux : François Mitterrand. (shrink)

J'ai choisi comme sujet de cours, en cette seconde année de captivité, de dresser un tableau de la pensée française de 1870 à 1940, c'est-à-dire entre deux grands désastres pour la France. Il m'a semblé que cette époque avait été en philosophie une grande époque, non seulement parce qu'elle avait été marquée par de très grands noms et de très hardis efforts, mais encore parce que la philosophie, à l'inverse de ce qui se passait auparavant, avait pénétré dans des domaines (...) qui jusqu'ici ne recevaient qu'un éclairage indirect - je songe à la littérature, l'art, la politique, la religion, la mystique. J'ai pensé qu'après la secousse si douloureuse de 1940, et avant que notre patrie retrouve sa place dans le concert intellectuel des nations, il était nécessaire que nous prenions conscience de notre tradition présente, du mouvement des esprits et des directions vers lesquelles ce mouvement tend. Ces tableaux synthétiques des efforts, ces bilans sont utiles à tous les temps, soit pour faire comprendre aux esprits la valeur respective des diverses pensées, soit pour leur permettre de se mieux saisir en se situant à leur exacte latitude, soit enfin pour faire saisir les lacunes et faire surgir des vocations précises. Le Rapport inimitable de Ravaisson est le modèle du genre, et c'est à lui que nous nous référons, c'est de lui que nous partons. Mais un tableau de ce genre est plus utile encore après les grandes crises. Il n'est pas rare, dans l'histoire, de voir les périodes qui suivent les désastres être fécondes dans le domaine des idées. Le relèvement de l'Allemagne après 1806 s'est fait par l'entremise de Fichte et du réveil simultané de la tradition philosophique et de la tradition nationale. Ce sont les fils de ceux qui avaient souffert en 1870 qui ont fait la France nouvelle ; il est frappant de voir quelle sève montait dans ses hommes qui sont nés autour de 1870, qu'ils s'appellent Poincaré, Pétain, Foch, Clemenceau, ou Barrès, Bergson, Boutroux, Blondel. Là se vérifie encore le mot de Pascal, qu'il faut s'offrir par les humiliations aux inspirations, qui seules font le vrai et salutaire effet. (shrink)

Can genealogical explanations affect the space of reasons? Those who think so commonly face two objections. The first objection maintains that attempts to derive reasons from claims about the genesis of something commit the genetic fallacy—they conflate genesis and justification. One way for genealogies to side-step this objection is to focus on the functional origins of practices—to show that, given certain facts about us and our environment, certain conceptual practices are rational because apt responses. But this invites a second objection, (...) which maintains that attempts to derive current from original function suffer from continuity failure—the conditions in response to which something originated no longer obtain. This paper shows how normatively ambitious genealogies can steer clear of both problems. It first maps out various ways in which genealogies can involve non-fallacious genetic arguments before arguing that some genealogies do not invite the charge of the genetic fallacy if they are interpreted as revealing the original functions of conceptual practices. However, they then incur the burden of showing that the conditions relative to which practices function continuously obtain. Taking its cue from the genealogies of E. J. Craig, Bernard Williams, and Miranda Fricker, the paper shows how model-based genealogies can avoid continuity failures by identifying bases of continuity in the demands we face. (shrink)

There is an under-appreciated tradition of genealogical explanation that is centrally concerned with social functions. I shall refer to it as the tradition of pragmatic genealogy. It runs from David Hume (T, 3.2.2) and the early Friedrich Nietzsche (TL) through E. J. Craig (1990, 1993) to Bernard Williams (2002) and Miranda Fricker (2007). These pragmatic genealogists start out with a description of an avowedly fictional “state of nature” and end up ascribing social functions to particular building blocks of our practices (...) – such as the fact that we use a certain concept, or live by a certain virtue – which we did not necessarily expect to have such a function at all. That the seemingly archaic device of a fictional state-of-nature story should be a helpful way to get at the functions of our actual practices must seem a mystifying proposal, however; I shall therefore endeavor to demystify it in what follows. My aim in this chapter is twofold. First, by delineating the framework of pragmatic genealogy and contrasting it with superficially similar methods, I argue that pragmatic genealogies are best interpreted as dynamic models whose point is to reveal the function – and non-coincidentally often the social function – of certain practices. Second, by buttressing this framework with something it notably lacks, namely an account of the type of functionality it operates with, I argue that both the type of functional commitment and the depth of factual obligation incurred by a pragmatic genealogy depend on what we use the method for: the dynamic models of pragmatic genealogy can be used merely as heuristic devices helping us spot functional patterns, or more ambitiously as arguments grounding our ascriptions of functionality to actual practices, or even more ambitiously as bases for functional explanations of the resilience or the persistence of practices. By bringing these distinctions into view, we gain the ability to distinguish strengths and weaknesses of the method’s application from strengths and weaknesses of the method itself. (shrink)

Cycling in traffic requires a combination of motor and perceptual skills while interacting with a dynamic and fast-changing environment. The inferior perceptual-motor skills in individuals with developmental coordination disorder may put them at a higher risk for accidents. A key skill to navigate in traffic is to quickly detect hazardous situations. This perceptual-cognitive skill was investigated in young adults with DCD using simulated traffic situations in a hazard perception test in cycling. Nine individuals with DCD and nine typically developing individuals (...) participated in the study and completed the test while their gaze was tracked using a remote eye tracking device. A questionnaire was used to determine cycling experience and the perception of cycling and anticipation skill in traffic. Despite a longer period to master the motor skill of cycling, individuals with DCD reported to be able to safely cycle in traffic around the same age as TD young adults. In the hazard perception test, individuals with DCD fixated the hazards later, less frequently and for a shorter duration than the TD participants, however, the participants with DCD did not wait longer to react to the hazard than the TD participants. Interestingly, individuals with DCD rated the traffic situations in the test as significantly more dangerous than the TD participants. In conclusion, the differences exposed in the hazard perception test may imply an increased risk of accidents in individuals with DCD. In further research and practice it is recommended that both the motor and the perceptual aspects of cycling are addressed. (shrink)

In ‘What Has Philosophy to Learn from Tort Law?’, Bernard Williams reaffirms J. L. Austin’s suggestion that philosophy might learn from tort law ‘the difference between practical reality and philosophical frivolity’. Yet while Austin regarded tort law as just another repository of time-tested concepts, on a par with common sense as represented by a dictionary, Williams argues that ‘the use of certain ideas in the law does more to show that those ideas have strength than is done by the mere (...) fact that they are part of the currency of common sense’. But what does it mean to show that ideas or concepts ‘have strength’? How does conceptual strength relate to the distinction between practical reality and philosophical frivolity? And what special features of the law are supposed to make it a better test of conceptual strength than common sense? In this chapter, I reconstruct and develop Williams’s answers to these questions. I show why Williams believes that we need to test the concepts forming the currency of common sense against practical reality as embodied by legal practice; I identify seven features of tort law that make it particularly suitable to act as such a test; I distinguish three respects in which concepts can show strength, and unpack Williams’s metaphor of microwave-resistant concepts: concepts capable of holding and presenting material for intense critical scrutiny without succumbing to it themselves; lastly, I show how philosophy can learn to identify systematically weak concepts, and the limits of otherwise valuable concepts, by considering which concepts fail the test. (shrink)

Cross-education is the phenomenon in which repeated practice of a unilateral motor task does not only result in performance improvement of the trained limb, but also in the untrained contralateral limb. The aim of this study was to test whether cross-education or positive transfer of learning is also achieved for tasks in which both limbs contribute in different ways by using modified equipment that switches the limbs’ role. To this end, a reverse field hockey stick was used that requires a (...) mirroring of arm and hand use and dominance. Two groups of young skilled female field hockey players participated in a crossover-design, in which participants received four training sessions with a reverse hockey stick followed by four training sessions with a regular hockey stick, or vice versa. In a pre-test, intermediate test, a post-test and a retention test, participants’ performance on a field hockey skill test with a regular hockey stick was measured. The results revealed that training with the reversed hockey stick led to significantly increased improvements compared to training with a regular hockey stick. We conclude that modified equipment can be used to exploit positive transfer of learning by switching the limbs’ roles. The findings are discussed by referring to the symmetry preservation principle in dynamic systems theory and have clear practical relevance for field hockey trainers and players seeking to further improve field hockey skills. (shrink)

This paper examines three reasons to think that Craig's genealogy of the concept of knowledge is incompatible with knowledge-first epistemology and finds that far from being incompatible with it, the genealogy lends succour to it. This reconciliation turns on two ideas. First, the genealogy is not history, but a dynamic model of needs. Secondly, by recognizing the continuity of Craig's genealogy with Williams's genealogy of truthfulness, we can see that while both genealogies start out from specific needs explaining what drives (...) the development of certain concepts rather than others, they then factor in less specific needs which in reality do not come later at all, and which have also left their mark on these concepts. These genealogies thereby reveal widespread functional dynamics driving what I call the de-instrumentalization of concepts, the recognition of which adds to the plausibility of such instrumentalist approaches to concepts. (shrink)

Phil : Pourquoi la terre est ronde, Socrate? Socrate : Tu aimes les choses rondes? Phil : Je n'aime pas les choses pointues... Socrate : Qu'est-ce qu'elles ont, les choses pointues? Phil : Elles blessent! Socrate : Tu n'aimes pas les choses qui blessent? Phil : J'ai horreur du conflit, c'est toujours inutile! Socrate : Quelle question pourrais-tu avoir alors? Phil : Pourquoi ai-je horreur du conflit? Socrate : Tu as vu la vitesse avec laquelle nous avons accouché d'une belle (...) question? Phil : Etonnant! Cet ouvrage, sous forme de dialogues, nous initie à la pratique joyeuse de la sagesse de Socrate. La confrontation à notre propre parole et à celle de l'autre nous engage à mourir à nos opinions, avec exigence et humour. Le dialogue socratique nous apprend à penser à travers l'Autre et à devenir ce que nous sommes. (shrink)

The paper deals with the life and work of an outstanding Christian French philosop_her of the XXth century Jean Guitton . First, the author exa_mines Guitton's relationships with the important Christian thinkers of the XXth century, in particular with M. Blondel and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. He focuses on three of Guitton's works, namely Temporal existence , Purgatory: A Deep Mystery and Silence about the Essential . In the first of these three books he points out to (...) the originality of Guitton's understanding of time, which enabled him, drawing from Blondel, to develop further the ontology of activity in the evolutionary dynamics of being. Next, he sheds light on Guitton's new understanding of purgatory in his second of the above mentioned works, inspired mainly by the visions of St. Catharine of Genoa. In his third work he focuses on a topical problem of tolerance and truth in the context of the internal Christian dialogue. (shrink)

Three major reshuffles delineate two families within the manuscript tradition of the Commentary on Matthew by Hilary of Poitiers. In the first two cases, J. Doignon in his critical edition favored the text of the α family, judging that the β family generally attests to numerous revisions intended to suppress difficult lectiones. In the third case, on the other hand, he adopted the short text of the β family, thus demoting two short passages in 33, 5 specific to the α (...) family. This article shows that on the one hand the language of these passages is attributable to Hilary and on the other their content fits perfectly with his exegesis. It thus argues for their authenticity. (shrink)

A journey through sound, memory, and landscapes, questioning the origins, perception, and cultural implications of music. A lifelong relation to sound and music underlies Latifa Echakhch’s work. On the occasion of her representation of the Swiss Pavilion for the 59th Venice Biennale, she has edited a volume on sound, memory, and perception. In the book, images of her installation in the Swiss Pavilion, The Concert, accompany her own writings along with this by Alexandre Babel and Francesco Stocchi, the co-curators of (...) the pavilion. The volume also includes interviews with and collected texts by François J. Bonnet, Emanuele Quinz, Maxime Guitton, Alvin Curran, Salomé Voegelin, Antoine Chessex, Jonathan Sterne, Juliette Volcler, and Raphaël Brunner. Confronting knowledge, reflection, and intuition, their combined concert of thoughts confirms how sound and music—and their absence—play a crucial role in our physical and cultural perception of the world, and how they allow us to expand our bodily and cognitive experience. This book is one of the three parts of the Swiss Pavilion; the other two are the installation and a vinyl edition of the piece composed by Alexandre Babel. (shrink)

This comprehensive text shows how various notions of logic can be viewed as notions of universal algebra providing more advanced concepts for those who have an introductory knowledge of algebraic logic, as well as those wishing to delve into more theoretical aspects.

J. B. Schneewind's "The Invention of Autonomy" has been hailed as a major interpretation of modern moral thought. Schneewind's narrative, however, elides several serious interpretive issues, particularly in the transition from late medieval to early modern thought. This results in potentially distorted accounts of Thomas Aquinas, Hugo Grotius, and G. W. Leibniz. Since these thinkers play a crucial role in Schneewind's argument, uncertainty over their work calls into question at least some of Schneewind's larger agenda for the history of ethics.

Jurgen Habermas' construction of a critical social theory of society grounded in communicative reason is one of the very few real philosophical inventions of recent times that demands and repays extended engagement. In this elaborate and sympathetic study which places Habermas' project in the context of critical theory as a whole past and future, J. M. Bernstein argues that despite its undoubted achievements, it contributes to the very problems of ethical dislocation and meaninglessness it aims to diagnose and remedy. Bernstein (...) further argues that the precise character of the failures of Habermas' program demonstrate the necessity for a return to the first generation critical theory of Adorno. Reading across nearly the whole range of Habermas' corpus, Recovering Ethical Life traces the development of the theory of communicative reason from its inception in Knowledge and Human Interests through its elaboration in The Theory of Communicative Action and into its defense against postmodernism in The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity . In separate chapters Habermas' readings of Freud, Durkheim amd Mead, Adorno and Foucault, Castoriadis and Taylor are critically examined. The focus of Bernstein's analyses, however, is always problem centered and thematic rather than textual psychoanalytic theory as an account of self knowledge, the competing claims of ethical identity and moral reason, the place of judgment in practical reason, and the debate between philosophies of language based communities versus those oriented towards world-disclosure. Critical theory is unique among current philosophies in engaging with the problems of social injustice and nihilism by siding with an abstract moral reason that forfeits the processes of intersubjective recognition it intended to salvage. Even in the fine grain of Habermas' account of performative contradictions and the theory of discourses of application, Bernstein perceives a squandering of the resources of an ethical life in need of transfiguration. (shrink)

That space and time should be integrated into a single entity, spacetime, is the great insight of Einstein's special theory of relativity, and leads us to regard spacetime as a fundamental context in which to make sense of the world around us. But it is not the only one. Causality is equally important and at least as far as the special theory goes, it cannot be subsumed under a fundamentally geometrical form of explanation. In fact, the agent of propagation of (...) causal influence is electromagnetic radiation. In this examination, the authors find support for a rationalist approach to physics, never neglecting experimentation, but rejecting a simple empiricist or positivist view of science. (shrink)

In focusing on the story of Darwin's religious doubts, scholars too often overlook Darwin's positive contribution to the study of religion. J. David Pleins traces Darwin's journey in five steps. He begins with Darwin's global voyage, where his encounter with religious and cultural diversity transformed his understanding of religion. Surprisingly, Darwin wrestles with serious theological questions even as he uncovers the evolutionary layers of religion from savage roots. Next, we follow Darwin as his doubts about traditional biblical religion take root, (...) affecting his career choice and marriage to Emma Wedgwood. Pleins then examines Darwin's secret notebooks as he searches for a materialist theory of religion. Again, other surprises loom as Darwin's reading of Comte's three stages of religion's development actually predate his reading of Malthus. Pleins explores how Darwin applied his discovery to the realm of ethics by formulating an evolutionary view of the "Golden Rule" in his Descent of Man. Finally, he considers Darwin's later reflections on the religion question, as he wrestled with whether his views led to atheism, agnosticism, or a new kind of theism. The Evolving God concludes by looking at some of the current religious debates surrounding Darwin and suggests the need for a deeper appreciation for Darwin as a religious thinker. Though he grew skeptical of traditional Christian dogma, Darwin made key discoveries concerning the role and function of religion as a natural evolutionary phenomenon. (shrink)

This article reflects a conversation between Jan G. van der Watt and Stephan Joubert. The article serves as the introduction to the Special Collection: ‘From timely exegesis to contemporary ecclesiology: Relevant hermeneutics and provocative embodiment of faith in a Corona-defined world – Festschrift for Stephan Joubert, sub-edited by Willem Oliver ’. Following a brief bio-statement as introduction, the following issues are discussed: the collection for the Jerusalem church; relevance of theology for society; social-scientific exegesis; the ancient concept of grace; Bible (...) translation in South Africa; public theology on the electronic platform; biblical examples of leadership and electronic media in religious activities and education.Contribution: This Festschrift represents current trends in biblical scholarship and ecclesial leadership. It contributes to the public discourse in church and society, especially the role of the electronic media in current Fourth Industrial Revolution. (shrink)

This chapter focuses on the question of quantitativeness – of identifying the feature that makes quantitative properties quantitative. The chapter begins with two traditional attempts at capturing what makes a property quantitative – being numerical and being determinable – and argues that neither is satisfactory. The chapter then turns to influential recent proposals which, inspired by the Representational Theory of Measurement, attempt to identify particular relations as characteristic of quantitative properties. These attempts fare better than the traditional ones, but have (...) their own limitations. It concludes with a discussion of a new recent criterion for quantitativeness, which builds on a more abstract understanding of the representational theory of measurement. (shrink)