Two crucial topics in the philosophy of medicine are the philosophy of nature and philosophical anthropology. In this essay I engage the philosophy of nature by exploring Anne Fagot-Largeault's study of norms in nature as a way of articulating a Confucian philosophy of medicine. I defend the Confucian position as a moderate naturalism.

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This book addresses the Confucian philosophy of common good and deals with the comparative philosophy on eastern and western understandings of common good. The common good is an essentially contested concept in contemporary moral and political discussions. Although the notion of the common good has a slightly antique air, especially in the North Atlantic discussion, it has figured prominently in both the sophisticated theoretical accounts of moral and political theory in recent years and also in the popular arguments brought for (...) particular political policies and for more general orientations toward policy. It has been at home both in the political arsenal of the left and the right and has had special significance in ethical and political debates in modern and modernizing cultures. This text will be of interest to philosophers interested in Chinese philosophy and issues related to individualism and communitarianism, ethicists and political philosophers, comparative philosophers, and those in religious studies working on Chinese religion. (shrink)

Although informed consent is important in clinical research, questions persist regarding when it is necessary, what it requires, and how it should be obtained. The standard view in research ethics is that the function of informed consent is to respect individual autonomy. However, consent processes are multidimensional and serve other ethical functions as well. These functions deserve particular attention when barriers to consent exist. We argue that consent serves seven ethically important and conceptually distinct functions. The first four functions pertain (...) principally to individual participants: (1) providing transparency; (2) allowing control and authorization; (3) promoting concordance with participants' values; and (4) protecting and promoting welfare interests. Three other functions are systemic or policy focused: (5) promoting trust; (6) satisfying regulatory requirements; and (7) promoting integrity in research. Reframing consent around these functions can guide approaches to consent that are context sensitive and that maximize achievable goals. (shrink)

Objectives: To study the attitudes of both medical and non-medical students towards the do-not-resuscitate decision in a university in Hong Kong, and the factors affecting their attitudes.Methods: A questionnaire-based survey conducted in the campus of a university in Hong Kong. Preferences and priorities of participants on cardiopulmonary resuscitation in various situations and case scenarios, experience of death and dying, prior knowledge of DNR and basic demographic data were evaluated.Results: A total of 766 students participated in the study. There were statistically (...) significant differences in their DNR decisions in various situations between medical and non-medical students, clinical and preclinical students, and between students who had previously experienced death and dying and those who had not. A prior knowledge of DNR significantly affected DNR decision, although 66.4% of non-medical students and 18.7% of medical students had never heard of DNR. 74% of participants from both medical and non-medical fields considered the patient’s own wish as the most important factor that the healthcare team should consider when making DNR decisions. Family wishes might not be decisive on the choice of DNR.Conclusions: Students in medical and non-medical fields held different views on DNR. A majority of participants considered the patient’s own wish as most important in DNR decisions. Family wishes were considered less important than the patient’s own wishes. (shrink)

RESUMENporque somos finitos, porque hay límite, hay sentido. Asimismo, en la medida que precisamente somos, constituyendo tal límite, hay comunidad. Aquello que la configura es el despliegue del sentido. Con lo del sentido, lo que se aborda aquí es la esencia de una misma comunidad, una comunidad sin nombre. En este trabajo se revela la intensidad de su despliegue, en su cierre (Schmitt) y apertura (Derrida).PALABRAS CLAVESentido, finitud, decisión, Schmitt, DerridaABSTRACTBecause we are finite, because there is limit, there is sense. (...) Likewise, insofar as we are precisely, constituting such limit, there is community. It is the display of sense what forms it. With the sense issue, what we approach here is the essence of a community itself, a community without name. In this work we disclose the intensity of its display, in its closing (Schmitt) and opening (Derrida).KEYWORDSSense, finiteness, decision, Schmitt, Derrida. (shrink)

Considerations about the evolution of the concept of "friendship", just as Cicero understands it, along the history (individual, social, political and religious friendship). Repetitions and interpretations of his definition and of other ciceronian texts. His influence on several authors (such as Augustinus, Isidorus Hispalensis, Rabanus Maurus, Petrus Venerabilis) and, above all, on the mediaeval treaties De amicitia written by Aelredus Rievallensis and Petrus Blessensis.

Este artículo analiza lo que nos cuentan las imágenes fotográficas en su reverso y en las huellas del verso, a través de las anotaciones, marcas o descripciones que contienen, que entregan información importante de su contexto de producción, de los sujetos u objetos fotografiados y de su trayectoria. Así, se configura un sentido apropiado de la imagen. Este artículo, pone el foco en imágenes fotográficas escolares porque representan un espacio de convivencia particular y de intercambio de experiencias que, en alguna (...) medida, se captura y resguarda en ellas. En los pliegues, en los bordes oscurecidos o desgastados, en los márgenes marchitos y en las marcas de óxido o de otros materiales, es posible también encontrar historias, restos de memorias, afectos y rostros en un contrapunto que va más allá de la motivación del fotógrafo para captar el instante en un encuadre específico. Para el análisis, se presentan algunas imágenes fotográficas pertenecientes al archivo escolar de un centro educativo de la ciudad de Talca en la región del Maule (Chile), pues permiten develar el significado familiar, mnemónico y comunitario que estas adquieren al reunirse en ese repertorio. Este valor igualmente se desprende de la observación del material oculto en el reverso y de las marcas del verso de las imágenes fotográficas. (shrink)

Within the polemic work which was developed by Eastern Christians it is necessary to underline the transmission of the whole of the religious conceptions, the kinds of argumentation and defence of the dogma, the elaboration of the discourse, the debate techniques used, the vocabulary which was adapted and generated, the rewriting developed from the Biblical material and Quranic criticism, as well as the refutations of the Muslim ideas, and the huge information which is inside the intrachristian polemics. Theology is the (...) most important element to describe the abridged knowledge which is in all of the treatises which make whole the polemic typology. This element allows us to rebuild the rich and involved tram which forms the 'theological knowledge' of the different Ch1istian churches and the several Muslim trends too. This, polemics help to clarify the processes which shape the ideology of the different human groups in conflict. (shrink)

Adequate treatment of pain is essential to alleviate suffering, yet studies show that patients with terminal or serious illness receive inadequate pain relief. In the case of terminally ill patients, adequate palliation of pain may be likely to reduce requests for physician-assisted suicide. This issue of the journal addresses barriers to effective pain relief and suggests how treatment of pain can be improved. The symposium features the Pain Relief Act, which is designed to provide practitioners who prescribe controlled substances for (...) pain with protection from inappropriate legal sanctions. The Act is the product of the Project on Legal Constraints on Access to Effective Pain Relief, whose principal investigators were Nancy Neveloff Dubler, LL.B., Sandra H. Johnson, J.D., LL.M., Robert J. Levine, M.D., and Benjamin W. Moulton, J.D., M.P.H.The Project was supported by the Mayday Fund and the Emily Davie and Joseph S. Kornfeld Foundation. (shrink)

Los diálogos de Casiciaco tienen una dimensión política importante. Sin embargo, los puntos centrales de los diálogos son esencialmente no políticos, y algunas de las afirmaciones pueden parecer hostiles a la vida cívica y a cualquier reflexión sobre cuál es el mejor ordenamiento político. Este artículo estudia cómo estas aparentes incoherencias no son signos de una actitud contradictoria, sino que reflejan una estrategia triple, utilizada por Agustín para forjar la correcta actitud ante la vida política, una estrategia que incluye (1) (...) la desacreditación del fervor patriótico, (2) inflamar el amor a la verdad, y (3) retomar la "ciuitas" desde una perspectiva más alta. (shrink)

Para entender completamente los diálogos de Casiciaco de san Agustín, es preciso comprender cómo se relacionan con las obras filosóficas de Marco Tulio Cicerón. En concreto, "Contra Academicos" de Agustín es una respuesta a "Academica" de Cicerón. "De beata uita" es una respuesta a los ciceronianos "De finibus" y "Tusculanae disputationes". Su "De ordine" es una respuesta a la trilogía de Cicerón sobre la providencia: "De natura deorum", "De diuinatione" y "De fato". Reconocer la conexión entre estas obras arroja luz (...) nueva sobre el sentido e importancia de los diálogos de Casiciaco. (shrink)