In this article, cluster analysis is used to explore the conflicting results reported when the Defining Issues Test is used to explain moral reasoning ability in business situations. Using a convenience sample, gender, age, work experience, and ethics training were examined to determine their impact on the level of moral reasoning ability as measured by the Defining Issues Test. Using the whole sample, a significant difference was found for average P scores reported for males and females, but no significant differences (...) were found based on age, work experience, and ethics training. However, the sample fell into distinct clusters that identified distinct male and female groupings. While females naturally fell into two distinct high- and low-moral reasoning ability clusters, male clusters were dominated more by work experience and ethics training. Clearly there are other factors mitigating the level of moral reasoning ability for males which require further exploration. The findings suggest that while the P score provides an initial point of comparison, the real benefit to the test is in exploring what is different for males and females in terms of training needs, and the impact of work experience on the moral reasoning ability, and most importantly, how to make ethics training enticing. Recommendations for future research are also discussed. (shrink)

Comprehensive in scope and research, this book will be a crucial resource for researchers in the medical sciences, as well as teachers and students alike.

INTRODUCTION The Questions of Medical Ethics Call him Andrew. His face is gaunt and unshaven but peaceful. His eyelids are gently closed. ...

Within feminist literature from the early 1970s to this day, assisted reproductive technologies have been largely known to divide, replace or eliminate biological motherhood. For example, while in the past biological motherhood was considered a continuous experience, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and IVF using egg donation allowed a split between two biological mothers, one providing eggs (genetic mother) and the other one gestation (gestational mother). This split was considered irreparable: the genetic mother could not be also gestational, and vice versa. (...) On the contrary, this paper aims to show that assisted reproductive technologies may also have a constructive potential towards biological motherhood(s). To explain how it could be possible, two existing techniques are explored: the first is maternal spindle transfer, which allows a double genetic motherhood; the second is reciprocal effortless IVF, which supposedly enables a double gestational motherhood. While in the first part, these techniques are examined singularly, in the second part a feasible combination of them is speculated. The idea is that assisted reproductive technologies could ‘recombine’ genetic and gestational motherhood in two figures that include both, namely in two ‘complete’ biological mothers, both genetic and gestational. (shrink)

Un bambino di quattro anni nascosto sotto il tavolo in cucina, nell'attesa degli eventi che diventeranno poi la sua vita. È questa la prima immagine che appare a Emanuele Severino quando, errando tra i ricordi, riavvolge i fili della propria esistenza. Errando, appunto, perché il ricordo è di per sé falso e distratto. Tra aneddoti e suggestioni, riaffiorano l'infanzia a Brescia e gli anni della guerra; la scomparsa del fratello Giuseppe, arruolatosi come "volontario" sul fronte francese, e l'incontro con Esterina, (...) "la ragazza più bella di Brescia", che diventerà sua moglie ed è lo sfondo di queste pagine; gli studi universitari a Pavia e l'insegnamento alla Cattolica di Milano, a seguito del "maestro" Gustavo Bontadini; la controversia con la Chiesa, che nel 1970 proclamò l'incompatibilità delle sue posizioni con quelle della dottrina cattolica; il rapporto con i figli; la stesura delle sue opere e le conversazioni filosofiche con gli amici. Emanuele Severino, con uno sguardo delicato e ironico, ripercorre la sua vita, illuminando luoghi, volti ed esperienze, perché "ciò che se ne va scompare per un poco. Ma poi, tutto ciò che è scomparso riappare". (shrink)

As biological and biomedical research increasingly reference the environmental context of the biological entities under study, the need for formalisation and standardisation of environment descriptors is growing. The Environment Ontology (ENVO) is a community-led, open project which seeks to provide an ontology for specifying a wide range of environments relevant to multiple life science disciplines and, through an open participation model, to accommodate the terminological requirements of all those needing to annotate data using ontology classes. This paper summarises ENVO’s motivation, (...) content, structure, adoption, and governance approach. (shrink)

It is widely held that all lies are assertions: the traditional definition of lying entails that, in order to lie, speakers have to assert something they believe to be false. It is also widely held that assertion contrasts with presupposition and, in particular, that one cannot assert something by presupposing it. Together, these views imply that speakers cannot lie with presuppositions—a view that Andreas Stokke has recently explicitly defended. The aim of this paper is to argue that speakers can lie (...) with presuppositions, and to discuss some of the implications this outcome has for current research on lying, assertion and presupposition. (shrink)

The distinction between lying and mere misleading is commonly tied to the distinction between saying and conversationally implicating. Many definitions of lying are based on the idea that liars say something they believe to be false, while misleaders put forward a believed-false conversational implicature. The aim of this paper is to motivate, spell out, and defend an alternative approach, on which lying and misleading differ in terms of commitment: liars, but not misleaders, commit themselves to something they believe to be (...) false. This approach entails that lying and misleading involve speech-acts of different force. While lying requires the committal speech-act of asserting, misleading involves the non-committal speech-act of suggesting. The approach leads to a broader definition of lying that can account for lies that are told while speaking non-literally or with the help of presuppositions, and it allows for a parallel definition of misleading, which so far is lacking in the debate. (shrink)

In this Matters Arising article, we outline how the recent article “The impact on patients of objections by institutions to assisted dying: a qualitative study of family caregivers’ perceptions” (White et al., 2023 Mar 13;24(1):22) informed Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) implementation in our large Australian public health setting, where objections do not emanate from, but within, the institution. In reporting the harms to patients and caregivers created by institutional objection, White et al. provide an evidenced-based road map for potential potholes (...) or risks associated with VAD implementation. We discuss the complexities emerging from the diverse views of health professionals and the ethical tensions arising from such, especially within certain specialties, and how we developed systemic strategies that support patients, caregivers and staff alike. We highlighted the need to shift from “Do you support VAD?“ to “How can we support you as healthcare professionals to integrate VAD into your practice, in a way that complies with the legislation, meets the needs of patients and caregivers, and feels safe and does not compromise your moral stance?“. (shrink)

O artigo pretende aproximar as ideias protofeministas desenvolvidas pelo filósofo e teólogo francês François Poulain de la Barre (1647-1723) das estratégias de escrita formuladas pelas autoras seiscentistas da assim chamada literatura preciosa, tais como Madeleine de Scudéry (1607-1701) e Madame de Lafayette (1634-1693). Critica, para tanto, a divisão proposta por Elsa Dorlin (1974-) entre o feminismo lógico e a préciosité duplamente: através de uma reflexão mais ampla sobre os limites da separação entre filosofia e literatura e, num segundo momento, a (...) partir da análise direta dos argumentos de Poulain. Procura, assim, demonstrar a associação possível entre a confecção de uma ordem fabulada como procedimento filosófico legítimo e o emprego da imaginação como modelo da produção literária. (shrink)

This book presents recent advancements in positive psychology, specifically its application across broad areas of current interest. Chapters include submissions from various international authors in the field and cover discussion and presentation of relevant research, theories, and applications. The volume covers topics such as CBT, Student Resilience, Active Aging, Humour, Mindfulness, Character Strengths, Education, Health, Relationships, Workplaces, Performance, Technology, Design, and Communities. With the growing interest in the applications of positive psychology across diverse fields within psychology and beyond, this book (...) will make a worthwhile contribution to the field. It will also fill the current need for a volume that highlights specifically the various recent advancements in positive psychology into diverse fields and as such will be of benefit to a wide range of professionals, including psychologists, educators, clinicians, therapists, and many others. (shrink)

A radical crítica à linguagem efetuada por Spinoza, que insiste em seu necessário potencial falsificador, parece equipará-lo aos seus contemporâneos. Mais do que isso, parece introduzir um problema insolúvel para a possibilidade de comunicação unívoca da verdade – incluindo a expressão dA radical crítica à linguagem efetuada por Spinoza, que insisteem seu necessário potencial falsificador, parece equipará-lo aos seus contemporâneos. Mais do que isso, parece introduzir um problema insolúvel para a possibilidade de comunicação unívoca da verdade — incluindo a expressão (...) de sua própria filosofia. Neste artigo, procuro refletir sobre esta crítica e propor uma alternativa ao caráter imaginativo das palavras, apostando na distinção entre linguagem e método. Esta propostainterpretativa permitirá reclassificar a posição spinozista e manter sua originalidade frente às demais concepções de seu período histórico.e sua própria filosofia. Neste artigo, procuro refletir sobre esta crítica e propor uma alternativa ao caráter imaginativo das palavras, apostando na distinção entre linguagem e método. Esta proposta interpretativa permitirá reclassificar a posição spinozista e manter sua originalidade frente às demais concepções de seu período histórico. (shrink)

The concept of adaptation is employed in many fields such as biology, psychology, cognitive sciences, robotics, social sciences, even literacy and art,1 and its meaning varies quite evidently according to the particular research context in which it is applied. We expect to find a particularly rich catalogue of meanings within evolutionary biology, where adaptation has held a particularly central role since Darwin’s The Origin of Species (1859) throughout important epistemological shifts and scientific findings that enriched and diversified the concept. Accordingly, (...) a conceptual taxonomy of adaptation in evolutionary biology may help to disambiguate it. Interdisciplinary researches focused on adaptation would benefit from such a result. In the present work we recognize and define seven different meanings of adaptation: (1) individual fitness; (2) adaptation of a population; (3) adaptation as the process of natural selection; (4) adaptive traits; (5) molecular adaptation; (6) adaptation as structural tinkering; (7) plasticity. For convenience here, we refer to them as W-, P-, NS-, T-, M-, S- and PL-ADAPTATION. We present the seven meanings in some detail, hinting at their respective origins and conceptual developments in the history of evolutionary thought (references are offered for further deepening). However, it is important to point out that evolution researchers seldom if ever refer to a single meaning purified from the others. This applies also to the authors we cite as representatives of one of the seven meanings. In Discussion and Conclusion draw from our work some future perspectives for adaptation within evolutionary biology. (shrink)

Artificial intelligence surveillance can be used to diagnose individual cases, track the spread of Covid‐19, and help provide care. The use of AI for surveillance purposes (such as detecting new Covid‐19 cases and gathering data from healthy and ill individuals) in a pandemic raises multiple concerns ranging from privacy to discrimination to access to care. Luckily, there exist several frameworks that can help guide stakeholders, especially physicians but also AI developers and public health officials, as they navigate these treacherous shoals. (...) While these frameworks were not explicitly designed for AI surveillance during a pandemic, they can be adapted to help address concerns regarding privacy, human rights, and due process and equality. In a time where the rapid implementation of all tools available is critical to ending a pandemic, physicians, public health officials, and technology companies should understand the criteria for the ethical implementation of AI surveillance. (shrink)

To understand the endogenous components of the event-related brain potential (ERP), we must use data about the components' antecedent conditions to form hypotheses about the information-processing function of the underlying brain activity. These hypotheses, in turn, generate testable predictions about the consequences of the component. We review the application of this approach to the analysis of the P300 component. The amplitude of the P300 is controlled multiplicatively by the subjective probability and the task relevance of the eliciting events, whereas its (...) latency depends on the duration of stimulus evaluation. These and other factors suggest that the P300 is a manifestation of activity occurring whenever one's model of the environment must be revised. Tests of three predictions based on this “context updating” model are reviewed. Verleger's critique is based on a misconstrual of the model as well as a partial and misleading reading of the relevant literature. (shrink)

Columbia University Press's multivolume _Prison Notebooks_ is the only complete critical edition of Antonio Gramsci's seminal writings in English. Based on the authoritative Italian edition of Gramsci's work, _Quaderni del Carcere_, this comprehensive translation presents the intellectual as he ought to be read and understood, with critical notes that clarify Gramsci's history, culture, and sources; an index of names; and a contextualization of the thinker's ideas against his earlier writings and letters. This set includes notebooks 1 through 8 with all (...) attendant notes and materials and is an indispensible resource for scholars in the humanities and social sciences. (shrink)

Many recent definitions of lying are based on the notion of what is said. This paper argues that says-based definitions of lying cannot account for lies involving non-literal speech, such as metaphor, hyperbole, loose use or irony. It proposes that lies should instead be defined in terms of assertion, where what is asserted need not coincide with what is said. And it points to possible implications this outcome might have for the ethics of lying.

This paper invites us to reimagine parents as history makers and parenthood as a political space where parents and adult educators collaborate in reading and acting on the world that is, with a view to achieving a world that is not. The pandemic provides a backdrop to a fundamental understanding that while the virus may claim to be entirely democratic, the pandemic has failed the equity test. The asymmetrical world that is calls for a reinvention of adult education as a (...) space in which the excesses of neoliberalism are resisted in preparation for a shift in consciousness that might promote collective action against today’s far-from-equitable reality. Parents as ‘Subjects’ is a cris de coeur for a liberatory parent-focused education that rehumanizes parents in a world that will be. (shrink)

Traditionally, heated philosophical debates regarding the status of categories have turned on questions of "nominal" vs "real" existence, where the role and significance of rhetoric and politics is obscured. Feminists in the late 20th century acknowledge a variety of elements involved in the construction of categories such as "human," "nature," rhetoric and logic. I argue for a position which undercuts the traditional debates between nominalism and realism, and using "wo men" as a case study, demonstrate the intricacies of the relationship (...) of logic and rhetoric in category construction. (shrink)

This dissertation is comprised of three parts. The first part is an intellectual historical thesis, regarding the place of Jean Piaget in philosophic thought. In Chapter One I outline the differences between my thesis and Piaget's position on the development of spatial concepts. My second chapter places his theory within the context of congruent accounts from the philosophy of nature, neurophysiology, and philosophy of psychology. Chapter Three situates him in relation to a selection of philosophers in the history of western (...) philosophy, through a metapsychology. ;In Part II I provide a dynamic account of the order of conceptual development, and clarification of the concepts of topological space, projective space, and euclidean or metric space.$\sp1$ In three chapters I outline a systematic analysis of the genetic development of the concepts based on an analysis and critique of Piaget's observations. The emergence of each concept is shown to be a result of the experience of some incongruity between the concept immediately preceding, and experience. The order I outline differs in some specifics from that suggested by Piaget's broad outline, and I explain the differences as they occur. ;The third part of this dissertation is the most tentative. Chapter Nine discusses the kind of testing I will employ when I test the logical order of concepts. There are four kinds of modes which I use to test each concept. This is followed by Chapter Ten, which tests the dynamic development of concepts of space. In this I attempt to confirm those changes in the development of the concepts, as well as Piaget's overall framework, through the use of Piaget's pre-logical modes as well as others I have extracted from the dynamic development of concepts. ftn $\sp1$ I note here that Piaget means, by euclidean geometry, metric geometry. The distinction between geometry with a euclidean and a non-euclidean metric is not crucial for the purpose of this thesis. (shrink)

Pilcher, Carmel Review(s) of: Aboriginal church paintings: Reflecting on our faith, by Eugene Stockton Editor with Terence O'Donnell (Lawson: Blue Mountain Education and Research Trust Publishers, 2010), pp.45, $20.00.

Pilcher, Carmel Review of: Earth unites with heaven: An introduction to the liturgical year, by Gerard More, Northcote, VIC: Morning Star, 2014, pp. 75, $12.95.

Book reviewed in this article: Principles of Biomedical Ethics. By Tom L. Beauchamp and James F. Childress.

We introduce the notion of τ-like partial order, where τ is one of the linear order types ω, ω*, ω + ω*, and ζ. For example, being ω-like means that every element has finitely many predecessors, while being ζ-like means that every interval is finite. We consider statements of the form “any τ-like partial order has a τ-like linear extension” and “any τ-like partial order is embeddable into τ” . Working in the framework of reverse mathematics, we show that these (...) statements are equivalent either to equation image or to equation image over the usual base system equation image. (shrink)

In the latter half of the 20th century, Western medicine moved death from the home to the hospital. As a result, the process of dying seems to have lost its spiritual dimension, and become a matter of prolonging material life by means of medical technology. The novel quandaries that arose led in turn to medico-legal regulation. This paper describes the recent regulation of dying in Israel under its Dying Patient Law, 2005. The Law recognizes advance directives in principle, but limits (...) their effect and form through complex medico-legal artifices. It reflects a culture that places high value on both scientific medicine and the sanctity of life as such, and illustrates a medical culture that pitches battle against death. At the same time, the Law constructs the will of the individual in a medico-legal language that is alien to the lay person. The paper suggests an alternative approach to advance care planning that is patient-centred and addresses the psycho-social needs of the individual in terms of her relational autonomy. From this perspective, advance care planning becomes an opportunity to extract the patient from the medical context and allow her to speak about her approaching death with close ones in her own terms of reference. To this end, there is a need for facilitation of an intimate encounter where patients can speak about their concerns with their loved ones. The paper also presents a methodological approach of attentive listening, which can be applied across diverse cultures and circumstances. (shrink)

In the past few years, machine learning (ML) tools have been implemented with success in the medical context. However, several practitioners have raised concerns about the lack of transparency—at the algorithmic level—of many of these tools; and solutions from the field of explainable AI (XAI) have been seen as a way to open the ‘black box’ and make the tools more trustworthy. Recently, Alex London has argued that in the medical context we do not need machine learning tools to be (...) interpretable at the algorithmic level to make them trustworthy, as long as they meet some strict empirical desiderata. In this paper, we analyse and develop London’s position. In particular, we make two claims. First, we claim that London’s solution to the problem of trust can potentially address another problem, which is how to evaluate the reliability of ML tools in medicine for regulatory purposes. Second, we claim that to deal with this problem, we need to develop London’s views by shifting the focus from the opacity of algorithmic details to the opacity of the way in which ML tools are trained and built. We claim that to regulate AI tools and evaluate their reliability, agencies need an explanation of how ML tools have been built, which requires documenting and justifying the technical choices that practitioners have made in designing such tools. This is because different algorithmic designs may lead to different outcomes, and to the realization of different purposes. However, given that technical choices underlying algorithmic design are shaped by value-laden considerations, opening the black box of the design process means also making transparent and motivating (technical and ethical) values and preferences behind such choices. Using tools from philosophy of technology and philosophy of science, we elaborate a framework showing how an explanation of the training processes of ML tools in medicine should look like. (shrink)

We analyze recent criticisms of the use of hyperreal probabilities as expressed by Pruss, Easwaran, Parker, and Williamson. We show that the alleged arbitrariness of hyperreal fields can be avoided by working in the Kanovei–Shelah model or in saturated models. We argue that some of the objections to hyperreal probabilities arise from hidden biases that favor Archimedean models. We discuss the advantage of the hyperreals over transferless fields with infinitesimals. In Paper II we analyze two underdetermination theorems by Pruss and (...) show that they hinge upon parasitic external hyperreal-valued measures, whereas internal hyperfinite measures are not underdetermined. (shrink)