The recent publication by Wylie et al. is reviewed, demonstrating that the p53 protein regulates the movement of transposons. While this work presents genetic evidence for a piRNA‐mediated p53 interaction with transposons in Drosophila and zebrafish, it is herein placed in the context of a decade or so of additional work that demonstrated a role for p53 in regulating transposons and other repetitive elements. The line of thought in those studies began with the observation that transposons damage DNA and p53 (...) regulates DNA damage. The presence of transposon movement can increase the rate of evolution in the germ line and alter genes involved in signal transduction pathways. Transposition can also play an important role in cancers where the p53 gene function is often mutated. This is particularly interesting as recent work has shown that de‐repression of repetitive elements in cancer has important consequences for the immune system and tumor microenvironment. (shrink)

Abordaré la crítica de Axel Honneth a la primera Escuela de Frankfurt y su aparente omisión de Herbert Marcuse. Defenderé a Marcuse contra algunas de las críticas hechas por Honneth a la teoría crítica temprana de la Escuela de Frankfurt. Luego argumentaré que Marcuse siempre estuvo en busca de una subjetividad radical, incluso cuando advirtió contra los mecanismos unidimensionales en curso de producción de sujetos. Finalmente, mostraré que Honneth también construye su proyecto en torno a la búsqueda de una subjetividad (...) radical, pero aborda el problema a través de una teoría de la intersubjetividad que complementa el proyecto de Marcuse. (shrink)

This document collects discussion and commentary on issues raised in the workshop by its participants. Contributors are: Greg Frost-Arnold, David Harker, P. D. Magnus, John Manchak, John D. Norton, J. Brian Pitts, Kyle Stanford, Dana Tulodziecki.

This book considers how nature - in both its biological and environmental manifestations - has been invoked as a dynamic force in human history. It shows how historians, philosophers, geographers, anthropologists and scientists have used ideas of nature to explain the evolution of cultures, to understand cultural difference, and to justify or condemn colonization, slavery and racial superiority. It examines the central part that ideas of environmental and biological determinism have played in theory, and describes how these ideas have served (...) in different ways at different times as instruments of authority, identity and defiance. The book shows how powerful and problematic the invocation of nature can be. (shrink)

This is the first book published that specifically examines questions of ethics and advocacy that arise in conducting research on homelessness, exploring the issues through the deeply personal experiences of some of the field’s leading scholars. By examining the central queries from a broad range of perspectives, the authors presented here draw upon years of rich investigations to generate a framework that will be instructive for researchers across a wide spectrum of areas of inquiry.

The cremation of human bodies and the incineration of urban waste provide two interrelated examples of technologies using the destructive power of fire that “travelled” in both directions between India and the West in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Rather than granting an automatic ascendency to western ways of burning the dead or disposing of urban rubbish, these case studies indicate the manner in which culture and environment inhibited or prevented their advance and favoured the survival or re-articulation of pre-existing (...) technological practices and the socio-political infrastructure in which they were embedded. In the process of travelling, in part made possible by the agency of colonial personnel and the instruments of imperial exchange, but also through Indian opinion and diasporic dissemination, some technologies substantially changed their meaning, context and material form while others, seemingly untouched, underwent more subtle transformation. (shrink)

Titles and abstracts for the Pitt-London Workshop in the Philosophy of Biology and Neuroscience: September 2001.

The ease with which genotyping technologies generate tremendous amounts of data on research participants has been well chronicled, a feat that continues to become both faster and cheaper to perform. In parallel to these advances come additional ethical considerations and debates, one of which centers on providing individual research results and incidental findings back to research participants taking part in genetic research efforts. In 2006 the Industry Pharmacogenomics Working Group offered some ‘Points-to-Consider’ on this topic within the context of the (...) drug development process from those who are affiliated to pharmaceutical companies. Today many of these points remain applicable to the discussion but will be expanded upon in this updated viewpoint from the I-PWG. The exploratory nature of pharmacogenomic work in the pharmaceutical industry is discussed to provide context for why these results typically are not best suited for return. Operational challenges unique to this industry which cause barriers to returning this information are also explained. (shrink)

The cremation of human bodies and the incineration of urban waste provide two interrelated examples of technologies using the destructive power of fire that “travelled” in both directions between India and the West in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Rather than granting an automatic ascendency to western ways of burning the dead or disposing of urban rubbish, these case studies indicate the manner in which culture and environment inhibited or prevented their advance and favoured the survival or re-articulation of pre-existing (...) technological practices and the socio-political infrastructure in which they were embedded. In the process of travelling, in part made possible by the agency of colonial personnel and the instruments of imperial exchange, but also through Indian opinion and diasporic dissemination, some technologies substantially changed their meaning, context and material form while others, seemingly untouched, underwent more subtle transformation. (shrink)

This essay uses the seminal figure of Jawaharlal Nehru to interrogate the nature and representation of science in modern India. The problem posed by Nehruvian science—the conflict between science as both universal phenomenon and local effect—lies at the heart of current debates about what science means for the non-West. The problematic of Nehruvian science can be accessed through Nehru's own speeches and writings, but also through the wider project of science with which he identified—critiquing colonialism, forging India's place in the (...) modern world, marrying intellectual endeavor with practical nation building. The essay makes a case for looking at Nehruvian science as a way of structuring the problem of postcolonial science, particularly in relation to understanding the authority of science and its evaluation in terms of its capacity to deliver socioeconomic change. (shrink)

This book moves toward building a new and more comprehensive theory of literature, philosophy, psychology, and art. The extremely popular work of Ken Wilber, unites the best of both western and eastern thought and affirms that the stages of consciousness, more refined than that of the reasoning mind, do exist.

In accordance with ethical principles and standards, researchers conducting studies with children are expected to seek assent and respect their dissent from participation. Little attention has been given to assent and dissent in research with toddlers, who have limited cognitive and emotional capabilities. We discuss research with toddlers in the context of assent and dissent and propose guidelines to ensure that research with toddlers still adheres to ethical principles. These guidelines include designing engaging studies, monitoring refusal and distress, and partnering (...) with parents. Research with toddlers requires flexibility and creativity to respect toddlers in the context of their developmental capabilities. (shrink)

An epistemology of art has seemed problematic mainly because of arguments claiming that an essential element of a theory of knowledge, truth, has no place in aesthetic contexts. For, if it is objectively true that something is beautiful, it seems to follow that the predicate “is beautiful” expresses a property – a view asserted by Plato but denied by Hume and Kant. But then, if the belief that something is beautiful is not objectively true, we cannot be said to know (...) that something is beautiful and the path to an epistemology of art is effectively blocked. The article places the existence aesthetic properties in the proper context; presents a logically correct argument for the existence of such properties; identifies strategies for responding to this argument; explains why objections by Hume, Kant, and several other philosophers fail; and sketches a realization account of beauty influenced by Hogarth. (shrink)

Noam Chomsky and Frances Egan argue that David Marr.