Patient centred diagnosis is best practised through shared decision making; an iterative dialogue between doctor and patient, whichrespects a patient’s needs, values, preferences, and circumstances. -/- Shared decision making for diagnostic situations differs fundamentally from that for treatment decisions. This has important implications when considering its practical application. -/- The nature of dialogue should be tailored to the specific diagnostic decision; scenarios with higher stakes or uncertainty usually require more detailed conversations.

This detailed 1990 book describes the light and dark adaptation of receptoral and post-receptoral mechanisms from a number of perspectives. The authors emphasise the importance of the study of achromatopsia, a rare congenital condition in which the visual mechanisms that mediate day vision are absent whilst those that mediate night vision remain intact.

Judith Shklar was a formative political thinker whose oeuvre defies traditional labels, and whose legacy is subtle but substantial. Her work emerged, as one observer has pointed out, between the "end of ideology" discussions of the 1950s and the early 1990s discussion of the "end of history." Shklar contributed significantly to American political thought by arguing for a new, more skeptical and stripped-down version of liberalism that intends to bring political theory and real-life experiences closer together. This book is the (...) first to comprehensively explore how Shklar's ideas emerged, how her political theory developed, and the impact and legacy she left behind."--Publisher's website. (shrink)

This is the first concise study to give full credit to the collaboration of works between French nobleman, writer and politician Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-59) and his travel companion and friend Gustave de Beaumont (1802-66), and puts this collaboration into its social, historical and theoretical context. It accompanies the two friends to the US and analyses the fruitful encounter between the New and the Old World that was the result of that journey, particularly in relation to emerging Atlantic democracies and (...) revolutions. This includes the hopes but also the problems and contradictions that they have come to represent. The book also follows Tocqueville and Beaumont to England, Ireland, and Algeria. It discusses their political careers and their engagement in the abolitionist movement, their fight for liberal social and political reform, as well as their futile attempt to rationalize French colonization in Algeria. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungKlinische Therapieentscheidungen werden zumeist auf dem Boden einer medizinischen (bzw. ärztlichen) Indikationsstellung und der entsprechenden informierten Zustimmung des Patienten zu der vorgeschlagenen Behandlungsmaßnahme gefällt. Das Recht des Patienten, eine Behandlungsmaßnahme abzulehnen, ist in der juristischen und ethischen Bewertung breit abgesichert. Hingegen ist unklar, welche Rolle ein (positiv geäußerter) Wunsch des Patienten oder gar seiner Angehörigen nach einer bestimmten Behandlung im normativen Entscheidungsprozess spielen sollte, wenn überhaupt. Dieser Beitrag erörtert den Stellenwert des eigenständigen Patientenwunsches aus studienbezogener, klinischer und normativer Sicht. Ein (...) authentisches Fallbeispiel verdeutlicht das Spektrum zugrunde liegender Autonomiekonzepte und das Dilemma divergierender Bewertungsmaßstäbe zwischen Arzt und Patient in der Tumortherapie und Palliativmedizin. Der Beitrag zeigt auf, wie bestehende Konzepte von Autonomie und Indikation genutzt werden können, um einerseits den Behandlungswunsch eines Patienten konkret in den Entscheidungsprozess einzubeziehen, andererseits eine klare Abgrenzung zu einer unreflektierten „wunscherfüllenden Medizin“ aufrecht zu erhalten. (shrink)

O lidský svět -- Samomluvy a rozhovory -- Malé řeči sváteční -- Doplňky 1 -- Doplňky 2.

ZusammenfassungDie Palliative Sedierung als therapeutische Handlungsoption in anderweitig refraktären Behandlungssituationen wird in der Öffentlichkeit und in Fachkreisen in ihrer klinischen Wertigkeit grundsätzlich akzeptiert und weitgehend positiv konnotiert. Im Widerspruch dazu fallen sowohl die Quantität der empirischen Forschung als auch die Intensität der ethischen und klinischen Diskussion ins Auge, mit der konzeptuelle als auch durchführungsbezogene Aspekte der Palliativen Sedierung beschrieben und kontrovers erörtert werden. Anstatt eines distinkten Behandlungskonzeptes stellt sich hier eher ein komplexes Spektrum verschiedener Vorgehensweisen dar. Die folgende Übersichtsarbeit fasst (...) anhand der aktuellen Literatur zusammen, welche Aspekte im Kontext der Palliativen Sedierung als problematisch bewertet werden. (shrink)

In this book, Michael Arbib, a researcher in artificial intelligence and brain theory, joins forces with Mary Hesse, a philosopher of science, to present an integrated account of how humans 'construct' reality through interaction with the social and physical world around them. The book is a major expansion of the Gifford Lectures delivered by the authors at the University of Edinburgh in the autumn of 1983. The authors reconcile a theory of the individual's construction of reality as a network of (...) schemas 'in the head' with an account of the social construction of language, science, ideology and religion to provide an integrated schema-theoretic view of human knowledge. The authors still find scope for lively debate, particularly in their discussion of free will and of the reality of God. The book integrates an accessible exposition of background information with a cumulative marshalling of evidence to address fundamental questions concerning human action in the world and the nature of ultimate reality. (shrink)

Recently, a number of people have argued that certain entities embodied by groups of agents themselves qualify as agents, with their own beliefs, desires, and intentions; even, some claim, as moral agents. However, others have independently argued that fully-fledged moral agency involves a capacity for reactive attitudes such as guilt and indignation, and these capacities might seem beyond the ken of “collective” or “ corporate ” agents. Individuals embodying such agents can of course be ashamed, proud, or indignant about what (...) the agent has done. But just as an entity needs to have its own beliefs, desires, and intentions to qualify as a bona fide agent, the required capacity for reactive attitudes is a capacity to have one’s own reactive attitudes. If fully-fledged moral agency requires reactive attitudes, the corporate agent must itself be capable of guilt and indignation. In this paper, we argue that at least certain corporate agents are. Or, more precisely, we argue that if there are bona fide corporate agents, these agents can have the capacities that are both associated with guilt and indignation and plausibly required for moral agency; in particular certain epistemic and motivational capacities. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungKlinische Therapieentscheidungen werden zumeist auf dem Boden einer medizinischen (bzw. ärztlichen) Indikationsstellung und der entsprechenden informierten Zustimmung des Patienten zu der vorgeschlagenen Behandlungsmaßnahme gefällt. Das Recht des Patienten, eine Behandlungsmaßnahme abzulehnen, ist in der juristischen und ethischen Bewertung breit abgesichert. Hingegen ist unklar, welche Rolle ein (positiv geäußerter) Wunsch des Patienten oder gar seiner Angehörigen nach einer bestimmten Behandlung im normativen Entscheidungsprozess spielen sollte, wenn überhaupt. Dieser Beitrag erörtert den Stellenwert des eigenständigen Patientenwunsches aus studienbezogener, klinischer und normativer Sicht. Ein (...) authentisches Fallbeispiel verdeutlicht das Spektrum zugrunde liegender Autonomiekonzepte und das Dilemma divergierender Bewertungsmaßstäbe zwischen Arzt und Patient in der Tumortherapie und Palliativmedizin. Der Beitrag zeigt auf, wie bestehende Konzepte von Autonomie und Indikation genutzt werden können, um einerseits den Behandlungswunsch eines Patienten konkret in den Entscheidungsprozess einzubeziehen, andererseits eine klare Abgrenzung zu einer unreflektierten „wunscherfüllenden Medizin“ aufrecht zu erhalten. (shrink)

Nurse philosopher Sally Gadow (1999) has proposed the relational narrative between patient and nurse as a ‘postmodern turn’ for nursing ethics. She has conceptualized this moral approach as the construction by patient and nurse of a coauthored narrative describing the good they are seeking, as well as the means to achieve this good. The purpose of this article is to provide an elaboration of Gadow's seminal conceptualization of relational narrative based on her writings and those of other philosophers. The article (...) will further develop relational narrative's foundations in relationship and narrative and will explore engagement as a dimension essential to its creation and growth. The elaboration first builds on the notion of relationship as foundational to this postmodern moral perspective. Narrative then is advanced as being at the heart of the patient–nurse relationship and their relational narrative, based on an exploration of narrative's role in the moral realm as an epistemology for patient and nurse. Finally, the dialogic and embodied engagement expressed by a relational narrative is developed as a critical element of the ethic. (shrink)

The human face conveys a myriad of social meanings within an overlapping array of features. Herein, we examine such features within the context of gender-emotion stereotypes. First we detail the pervasive set of gender-emotion expectations known to exist. We then review new research revealing that gender cues and emotion expression often share physical properties that represent a confound of overlapping features characteristic of low versus high facial maturity/dominance. As such, gender-related facial appearance and facial expression of emotions often share social (...) meaning and physical resemblance. Thus, stereotypic and phenotypic information conveyed by the face are intertwined—sometimes confounded, sometimes clashing. We discuss implications of this work for gender-emotion stereotypes, as well as for emotion and face processing more generally. (shrink)

Since Tversky argued that similarity judgments violate the three metric axioms, asymmetrical similarity judgments have been particularly challenging for standard, geometric models of similarity, such as multidimensional scaling. According to Tversky, asymmetrical similarity judgments are driven by differences in salience or extent of knowledge. However, the notion of salience has been difficult to operationalize, especially for perceptual stimuli for which there are no apparent differences in extent of knowledge. To investigate similarity judgments between perceptual stimuli, across three experiments, we collected (...) data where individuals would rate the similarity of a pair of temporally separated color patches. We identified several violations of symmetry in the empirical results, which the conventional multidimensional scaling model cannot readily capture. Pothos et al. proposed a quantum geometric model of similarity to account for Tversky's findings. In the present work, we extended this model to a more general framework that can be fit to similarity judgments. We fitted several variants of quantum and multidimensional scaling models to the behavioral data and concluded in favor of the quantum approach. Without further modifications of the model, the best-fit quantum model additionally predicted violations of the triangle inequality that we observed in the same data. Overall, by offering a different form of geometric representation, the quantum geometric framework of similarity provides a viable alternative to multidimensional scaling for modeling similarity judgments, while still allowing a convenient, spatial illustration of similarity. (shrink)

Introduction -- Repression, ignorance, and undone science -- The epistemic dimension of the political opportunity structure -- The politics of meaning: from frames to design conflicts -- The organizational forms of counterpublic knowledge -- Institutional change, industrial transitions, and regime resistance politics -- Contemporary change: liberalization and epistemic modernization -- Conclusion.

In ethical thinking we can 't treat the structural unemployment with the glance back in the »golden age« of full employment. Considering the dropping demand for manpower and - at the same time - the rising supply, the »human right of labour« is to create only with reserve: In the same measure as labour is the key to social participation, everyone has the same right to be employed. The necessary generalization of labour would be possible only by downgrading the labour (...) for everybody at the same time. The distribution of work to gender is to overcome: men and women are to participate on labour and housework with the same part. (shrink)

ABSTRACTFacial mimicry has long been considered a main mechanism underlying emotional contagion. A closer look at the empirical evidence, however, rev...

Background:Clinical ethics committees have been broadly implemented in university hospitals, general hospitals and nursing homes. To ensure the quality of ethics consultations, evaluation should be...

ABSTRACTPeople can be moved and overwhelmed, a phenomenon typically accompanied by goose-bumps and tears. We argue that these feelings of being moved are not limited to situations that are appraise...

_A compelling set of lectures on political obligation that contributes to ongoing debates in political theory and intellectual history_ This stimulating collection of lectures by the late Judith Shklar on political obligation is paired with a scholarly introduction that offers an overview of her life, illuminates the connections among her teaching, research, and publications, and explains why her lectures still resonate with us and contribute to current debates in political theory and intellectual history.