Patient safety has only recently been subjected to wide-spread systematic study. Healthcare differs from other high risk industries in being more diverse and multi-contextual, and less certain and regulated. Also many patient safety problems are low-frequency events associated with many, varied contributing factors. The subject of this paper is the epistemology of patient safety (the science of the method of finding out about patient safety). Patient safety research is considered here on the background of a risk management framework which requires (...) researchers to: • Understand the context - as a subset of healthcare quality, services and systems research, with technical and human behavioural (cultural) components and a range of external and internal organisational influences, a wide range of research disciplines is necessary • Identify the risks - identify the things that go wrong and the frequency and nature of different types of incidents from sources such as medical record review, observational studies, audit, incident and medico-legal reports • Analyse the risks - deconstruct the things that go wrong, identifying contributing factors and trying to detect trends and patterns in contributing factors, detection, mitigation factors, ameliorating factors and actions taken to reduce risk • Evaluate the risks - decide on priorities, identifying preventive and corrective strategies and judging the risk- and cost-benefit of potential corrective strategies such as standardisation or simplification of a process or device • Manage the risk - evaluate and scope preventive and/or corrective strategies and then implement these, or place the problem on a risk register pending solution, or accept that what is needed is unaffordable • Communicate and consult - use interactive sessions, audit, on-going feedback, reminders and patient mediated prompts • Monitor and review the state of the problem - get baseline trends and patterns so that changes can be tracked and properly attributed to an intervention A hierarchy of levels of evidence has been proposed for clinical research and we argue that insufficient weighting has been given to lower ranked levels of research and to qualitative research, although critical interpretive synthesis is now gaining acceptance in mainstream thinking (e.g. by the Cochrane Collaboration). Fundamental challenges remain including how to grasp the elusive concept of patient safety, how to quantify, characterise and cost the problems, how to judge the extent to which harm can be attributed to errors, violations or system failures, how to identify contributing factors and the extent to which they can be implicated, how to judge whether incidents or their precursors are preventable, how to generate strong evidence to make healthcare safer and how to translate research into practice. Future directions include addressing the mundane as well as rare, dramatic events, and developing further research in non-hospital settings and in developing countries. In summary, a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods, using information from all available data sources and combining retrospective, real time and prospective study designs, is necessary to address some of the more difficult patient safety problems. (shrink)

We generalize two well-known model-theoretic characterization theorems from propositional modal logic to first-order modal logic. We first study FML-definable frames and give a version of the Goldblatt–Thomason theorem for this logic. The advantage of this result, compared with the original Goldblatt–Thomason theorem, is that it does not need the condition of ultrafilter reflection and uses only closure under bounded morphic images, generated subframes and disjoint unions. We then investigate Lindström type theorems for first-order modal logic. We show that FML has (...) the maximal expressive power among the logics extending FML which satisfy compactness, bisimulation invariance and the Tarski union property. (shrink)

An algebraic semantics, based on factor algebras, for one-way and two-way implicative verbs is proposed. Implicative verbs denote elements of filters or of ideals generated by identity functions in factor algebras. This semantics explains in particular the problem of implicational equivalence raised by two-way implicative verbs, and shows that the negation necessary to establish the implicativity of these verbs is the negation which preserves the presuppositions of sentences with implicative verbs. In addition, it follows from the proposed semantics that any (...) two implicative verbs denoting in the same algebra but belonging to different categories, are semantically related. (shrink)

The ethics of belief involves an inquiry into what beliefs are legitimate to hold, including religious beliefs. Whatever the criteria determined in such an investigation, adopting a belief that does not meet this criterion is seen as illegitimate and it is considered an ethical violation. English mathematician W. K. Clifford (d. 1879) defines “sufficient evidence” as a criterion in his famous essay, “The Ethics of Belief”. Clifford’s evidence-centered argument becomes one of the most frequent references in the evidentialist objection against (...) theism. It turns out that this argument is not functional in the face of the diversity of beliefs. In this context, different suggestions are presented about what the ethics of belief could be. American philosopher William James (d. 1810), one of the founding names of pragmatism, offers a new proposal. In his classic work, “The Will to Believe”, James claims that Clifford is wrong in seeking the requirement of evidence for all beliefs. Because it is not possible to prove beliefs from the passionate nature of human beings, especially religious beliefs. Following this distinction, James proposes a new criterion for religious beliefs: a religious belief can be vivid or dead, forced or avoidable; and momentous or trivial. If a religious belief is vivid, forced, and momentous, it is necessary to have the courage to believe in it instead of suspending it. James' proposal is often valued as a strong counter-challenge or defense of religious beliefs. However, this argument also has aspects that are open to criticism. One of them is that the will to believe argument concurrently accepts conflicting religious beliefs or, in other words, confronts the issue of religious diversity. According to J. Hick, for example, this argument inevitably results in religious pluralism, even though James does not want to. Contrary to Hick, S. F. Aikin claims that the will to believe does not result in religious pluralism. According to Aikin, who draws attention to the relationship of argument with pragmatism, James obscures religious beliefs and removes them from being claims about truth. Therefore, there is no contradiction in the classical sense. So, which of the objections is valid? Does the will-to-believe argument result in religious pluralism by legitimizing more than one religious belief at the same time, or does it make a purely pragmatic proposition by devaluing religious beliefs? Which religion do I have the right to believe in according to the will to believe? The aim of this article is to provide an answer to the mentioned question. In the article, unlike the current evaluations, it is argued that the argument is closely related to James's theory of knowledge, radical empiricism, not pragmatism as it is usually made. For this purpose, after showing the relationship between the arguments of Clifford and James, the argument will be re-examined in this context and it will be revealed that James has two steps regarding religious beliefs: to make religious beliefs independent from factual beliefs; leaving theism to accept a monistic vision of God and basing religion on mystical experience, which is an emotional experience. As details emerge, it will become clear that James defends a natural religion that excludes traditional religions in his philosophical system and that he defends the beliefs of a humanized religion. With an individual definition of religion based on emotion, James on the one hand ensures the commonality of religious feeling, on the other hand, he makes religion independent from the field of facts. Therefore, with this study, it will be seen that the argument of the will to believe does not aim to legitimize believing in traditional religions, and diversity is not a fundamental problem. (shrink)

The problems and the history of contacts between distant continents in bygone ages and long before the age of fast and easy travel, have always fascinated both professional scholars and the interested public. Was ancient history really nothing but the history of co-existing and isolated geographic, cultural and political “islands?” Already at school we learned too much about migrations of peoples, economic contacts, influences on art styles, conquests, and the rise, expansion and fall of empires to believe that. The (highly (...) improbable) theory that certain archaeological finds in America suggest, or even prove, Mediterranean influence (e.g., the arrival of Phoenician ships), or the alleged Viking discovery of America centuries before Columbus, or Thor Heyerdahl's adventurous journey to prove South American influence on remote Pacific islands did not fail to cause widespread interest and even excitement (although many scholars still feel that Heyerdahl's epic adventure, thrilling as it is, failed to prove what it set out to prove). The island of Madagascar is pretty close to the African continent, but its language exhibits more points of contact with Polynesian than with African tongues. And the blow-bellows used by Malagache smiths are similar to those used in Malaysia and unlike those known to African metalworkers. Clearly the Polynesians, those great ancient mariners, sailed further than originally seemed likely. Musicologists studying the cantillation of the Hebrew Bible in the liturgy of the ancient Jewish communities on the Malabar coast in India discovered to their surprise that it was similar to the cantillation not of the Babylonian but of the Yemenite Jews! This surprise was, of course, no surprise to those who knew anything about trade-winds and shipping routes between South Arabia and the Indian coast. Historians of religion, even more than general historians, studying the spread and expansion of religious ideas and movements have realised long ago that the beginning of all wisdom is a basic knowledge of economic geography. (shrink)

Arvind Thomas has written a remarkable book. That said, however, it must be quickly added that it is not a book for everyone, not even for all students of medieval literature. It is a very thoughtf...

The aim of this paper is to understand the philosophical role of Collingwood’s proposed logic of question and answer. I shall consider its historical background as a response to Bradley, to the “realists” and to the logical positivists. I shall also consider the similarities and differences between it and modern developments in logics of question and answer and also in anti-realist philosophical logic. In analysing Collingwood’s proposed logic, and its potential for development, I shall attempt a sketch of how it (...) would work out in formal terms. To be sure Collingwood dismissed the symbolism of Russell and Whitehead’s Principia Mathematica as “typographical jargon” and he thought the various artificial logical languages of his time to be “numerous and frightful offspring of propositional logic out of illiteracy”. Nevertheless he did recognise an important role for the logician in articulating his system, namely to identify what it is to be a proposition and what it is to be a question and in doing so to identify what constitutes an “absolute presupposition”. Moreover since Collingwood’s day there have been important developments in logic and semantics, which are expressed through typographical jargon, and yet which are highly relevant to Collingwood’s proposed logic and to its philosophical role. (shrink)

Book Information Self-Governance and Cooperation. By Robert H. Myers. Oxford University Press. Oxford. 1999. Pp. vi + 179. Hardback, £30.00.

Regarded as a revisionist historian in the West, Patricia Crone, who wrote many books and articles on various subjects of early Islamic history, was a prolific researcher. The place and role of mawālī, in the Umayyad and Abbāsid society, has been one of the special topics she has been interested in since the very beginning of her academic life. Her works with a revisionist perspective have been faced many criticisms by colleagues, especially the western ones, because of her biased view (...) of the sources written by Muslim authors, her methodology, and her results. However, it is obvious that Crone’s studies on mawālī have positively or negatively affected the Eastern and Western academics in Islamic studies. This article’s main purpose is to reveal Crone’s views on mawālī in Isla-mic society and draw an outline without comment as much as possible. The paper consists of three parts. In the first part, Crone’s revisionist perspective and her works on mawālī have been explained. In the second part, her distinctive views on the mawālī and its origin have been discussed. Finally, in the third part, her findings of the position of mawālī in social, political, military, and economic life during the Rāshidun Caliphs, the Umayyads, and the Abbāsids have been introduced. This study, which tackles Crone’s views on mawālī, aims to encourage the further studies on this subject. (shrink)

Nietzsche’s perspectivism has received restricted and unrestricted interpretations. The latter take the cognitive effects of ‘perspectives’ to be pervasive and general; the former argue they are restricted to special subject matters, have limited effects, or are not essentially cognitive at all. I argue on textual grounds that Nietzsche was committed to the unrestricted view. Comparison to A.W. Moore’s treatment of perspectival representation in Points of View illuminates both the nature of perspectivism and key arguments needed to defend it. Nietzschean perspectivism (...) must deny the very possibility of absolute representations (sensu Moore), and to do so, it must block a form of argument that promises to integrate perspectival representations into progressively less restricted, and ultimately absolute, representations of the world. Such arguments depend on a strong assumption about the unity of the independent world, which Moore accepts and Nietzsche denies. Nietzsche’s pluralism about perspectives thereby turns out to rely on pluralism about the world, which shapes his understanding of us as essentially bounded cognitive agents. Nietzsche holds that the longing for absolute representation manifest in Moore, Leibniz, and many other philosophers, which aspires to overcome the limitations of perspective, amounts to ascetic self-denial about our cognitive condition. (shrink)

Bu araştırma Hz. Peygamber’e izafe edilen “Dünya müminin zindanı, kâfirin cennetidir” rivayetini konu edinmektedir. Zikri geçen hadisle ilgili literatür taraması yapıldığında müstakil bir araştırmaya rastlanmamaktadır. Esasında ilim geleneğimizde tek bir hadisi bütün yönleriyle inceleyen pek çok araştırma vardır. Ancak söz konusu haberin müsellem ve mesajı açık kabul edilmesi hem Arap hem de Batı araştırmalarına konu edilmemesinin gerekçesi olabilir. İlgili rivayetin temel hadis kaynaklarında muhtelif metinlerle, beş ayrı sahâbîden aktarıldığı tespit edilmiştir. Araştırmamızda sözü edilen metin ve senedler ayrı ayrı incelenerek rivayetin (...) hadis ilmi açısından değeri tartışılmıştır. Rivayetin pek çok tariki olduğu için araştırma merfu‘ haberlerle sınırlandırılmıştır. Sözü edilen rivayete temel hadis metinlerinde hangi bâb başlığı altında yer verildiği ve klasik hadis şerhlerinde metne nasıl yaklaşıldığı tetkik edilmiştir. Rivayetin “zühd” konusunun ayrılmaz bir parçası haline geldiği ve buna bağlı olarak vaaz ve irşad literatüründe önemli bir yer tuttuğu tespit edilmiştir. Hadiste müminin dünya hayatıyla ilişkisine dair serdedilen ifadeler, kabaca “fâni olan her şeye yüz çevirmek” şeklinde tanımlayabileceğimiz zühdle ilişkilendirilmesine yol açmıştır. Hadis şârihleri ise mezkûr haberi dünya arzularının cezb ediciliğiyle, süreklilik arz eden meşakkatli ibadetlerle mükellef olmanın verdiği zorlukla ve dünyada bireylerin başına gelen musibetlere karşı sabretmesi gerektiğiyle ilişkilendirmişlerdir. Bu bakımdan musannifler ile şârihlerin hadisi benzer perspektifle değerlendirdikleri görülmüştür. Çalışmamızda, Kur’an ve hadis metinlerinde yer alan metaforik anlatı biçimi göz önünde tutulduğunda hadisi farklı bir bakış açısıyla değerlendirmenin mümkün olup olmadığı tespit edilmiştir. Zira metafor, retorik sanatların önemli bir unsuru olup, benzetme edatlarını kullanmadan farklı konular arasında anlam bağlantısı kurma sanatıdır. İstiare, teşbih, alegori ve kinaye gibi türlerle benzerlikler taşısa da anlatılan konudan ziyade anlatım tarzını vurgulayarak sözleri güçlendirmesiyle diğerlerinden ayrılmaktadır. Metaforlar düşünce dünyasına derinlik katmakla kalmaz, aynı zamanda karmaşık veya soyut kavramların daha anlaşılır ifade edilmesine imkân tanır. Dilin gücünü ortaya çıkarırken, yaratıcı düşünce ve duygusal bağlantılar kurma becerisini pekiştirerek anlatının içerdiği mesajın vurgusunu artırır ve muhatapta daha derin etki bırakmayı sağlar. Tüm bunlardan hareketle ilgili metinde yer alan “zindan” kavramının metaforik bir anlam içerdiği kabul edildiğinde yeni bir yorum denemesine açık olduğu söylenebilir. Özellikle modern dönemde belirgin, açık ve fark edilir düzeyde ortaya çıkan düşünce ve ahlak krizine karşı bir anlamlandırma yolu seçerek ilgili rivayeti “medeniyet ve sünnet” ilişkisini göz önünde tutarak metaforik bir yorum denemesiyle ele aldık. Zira bu sözleriyle Resûl-i Ekrem’in çökmüş ve çürümekte olan medeniyetlerin haksızlık ve sefaletin kaynağı haline getirdiği tek dünyacı anlayışı reddettiği, nimetlere ve mahrumiyetlere karşı gereğinden fazla ya da az değer atfetmeyi kabul etmediği ve ölümle her şeyini kaybedeceğini düşünenlere karşı bilinç uyandırmaya çalıştığı iddia edilmektedir. Bunun yanında modern insanın İslâm medeniyetini yeniden canlandırabilmesini engelleyen bir dizi kriz vardır. Bunlar ruhsal, bireysel, düşünsel, metafizik ve toplumsal krizlerdir. İnsan, ruhsal krizi manevi ilerleme ve aydınlanmayla; bireysel krizi değerleri arzulara bırakmamakla; düşünsel krizi farklı düşüncelere açık bir şekilde eleştirel düşünceyi geliştirmekle; metafizik krizi dünyevi cazibelerden arınarak varoluşsal kısıtlamalara sırt çevirip bilgi ve anlam arayışına yönelmekle; toplumsal krizi toplumdaki değişimlere katkıda bulunarak insan hakları mücadelesi vermekle alt edebilir. Araştırmamızda insanın bu krizlerle başa çıkıp zindandan kurtularak özgürlüğe kavuşacağı ve kendi medeniyetini kurabileceği fikri metaforik bir yorum denemesiyle ileri sürülmüştür. Modern dönemde karşımıza çıkan sorunların tespitinin ve bu sorunlara dair çözüm önerilerinin rivayet kültüründen beslenmek suretiyle yapılmasının mümkün olup olmadığı da bu sayede tetkik edilmiştir. Bu kapsamda “Dünya müminin zindanı, kâfirin cennetidir” rivayetinin ne şekilde anlaşıldığı veya anlaşılması gerektiği etrafındaki tartışmalara temas edilerek yeni bir yorum arayışına gidilmiştir. Söz konusu arayış “deneme” olarak isimlendirilmiş ve sonraki araştırmacıların çok daha kapsamlı denemelerde bulunması hedeflenmiştir. (shrink)

R T Allen; Idealism, Theism and Education: some footnotes to Gordon & White, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 21, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 283–.

Applied to evaluative properties the supervenience thesis is customarily understood as expressing two intuitions: (i) the idea that there is some kind of dependence between the (supervenient) value of an object and some (or all) of the natural properties of the object; (ii) the idea that if you assert that x is valuable and if you agree that y is relevantly similar to x, with regard to natural properties, you must be prepared to assert that y too is valuable. It (...) is argued that the influential account of supervenience by R. M. Hare is problematic in that it only expresses the latter but not the former intuition. Two solutions to this problem are outlined, one of which ought to be endorsable by a prescriptivist such as Hare. (shrink)

Comment l'intention apologétique de Blondel dans L’Action est-elle compatible avec le caractère philosophique de l’œuvre ? Comment éviter le soupçon de préjugé, de pétition de principes ? R. Virgoulay montre comment le projet mis en œuvre dans L’Action et défini dans la Lettre de 1896, ouvrait la philosophie à l'examen du problème religieux par la détermination a priori de la notion de surnaturel. Après avoir exposé « la méthode de L’Action » pour faire passer d'une conviction subjective, d'un témoignage vécu, (...) à une « science », c'est-à-dire à l'exposé qui conjugue nécessité et universalité, il s'attarde sur la cinquième partie de L’Action. Celle-ci, après l'élaboration des quatre autres parties, peut être alors une philosophie de la religion qui porte sur le contenu même du Christianisme, et pour laquelle la notion décisive est celle du surnaturel. Les questions que pose cette notion amènent l'auteur à comparer la problématique blondélienne à celle de Laberthonnière, comparaison qui manifeste la différence entre la démarche théologique de ce dernier et celle, philosophique, de Blondel. Alors que laberthonnière tente de justifier théologiquement l'entreprise philosophique de Blondel, la Lettre distingue rigoureusement la théologie de la philosophie. How is the apologetic intention of Blondel in Action compatible with the philosophical character of the work ? How can one avoid the suspicion of prejudice, of begging the question ? R. Virgoulay shows how the project put to work in Action and defined in the Lettre of 1896, opened philosophy to the examination of the religious problem by the a priori determination of the notion of the supernatural. After discussing « the method of Action » in order to move from a subjective conviction, from a lived witnessing, to a « science », that is to say, to an analyses that conjugate necessity and universality, the author concentrates on the fifth part of Action. This latter, after, the elaboration of the four other parts, could be, then, a philosophy of religion that carries to the very content of Christianity, and for which the decisive notion is that of the supernatural. The questions that this idea brings up led the author to compare Blondel’s field of inquiry to that of Laberthonnière, a comparison that, manifests the difference between a theological approach of the latter and that, philosophical, of Blondel. While Laberthonnière tries theologically to justify the philosophical enterprise of Blondel, the Lettre rigorously distinguishes theology from philosophy. (shrink)

Spinoza felsefe tarihinde ve felsefi düşüncede daha çok monist ontolojisi ve panteist teolojisi ile dikkatleri çeken bir filozoftur. Ancak o aynı zamanda önemli bir ahlak ve siyaset teorisyenidir. Özellikle siyasal felsefesinde düşünce ve ifade özgürlüğüne ve din-devlet ilişkisine dair, çağının sınırlarını aşan özel ve özgün görüşlere sahip olduğu ve yaşadığı çağda önemli bir demokrasi ve düşünce özgürlüğü savunucusu olduğu söylenebilir. Ne var ki felsefesinde ontolojiye ve teolojiye dair görüşlerinin ön plana çıkarılması nedeniyle olsa gerek, onun ahlaka ve siyasete ilişkin görüşleri (...) biraz geri planda kalmış ve görmezlikten gelinmiş gibidir. İşte bu çalışmada Spinoza’nın hem düşünce ve ifade özgürlüğüne hem de din-devlet ilişkisine dair görüşleri, genel felsefesi bağlamında tartışılmaya çalışılmaktadır. (shrink)