The _Turba Philosophorum_ is at the confluence of many Greek traditions, and bears testimony both to the history of the transmission of Greek knowledge, and of its reception in Egypt in the ninth century.

BackgroundThe use of genetic test results in risk-rated insurance is a significant concern internationally, with many countries banning or restricting the use of genetic test results in underwriting. In Australia, life insurers’ use of genetic test results is legal and self-regulated by the insurance industry (Financial Services Council (FSC)). In 2018, an Australian Parliamentary Inquiry recommended that insurers’ use of genetic test results in underwriting should be prohibited. In 2019, the FSC introduced an industry self-regulated moratorium on the use of (...) genetic test results. In the absence of government oversight, it is critical that the impact, effectiveness and appropriateness of the moratorium is monitored. Here we describe the protocol of our government-funded research project, which will serve that critical function between 2020 and 2023.MethodsA realist evaluation framework was developed for the project, using a context-mechanism-outcome (CMO) approach, to systematically assess the impact of the moratorium for a range of stakeholders. Outcomes which need to be achieved for the moratorium to accomplish its intended aims were identified, and specific data collection measures methods were developed to gather the evidence from relevant stakeholder groups (consumers, health professionals, financial industry and genetic research community) to determine if aims are achieved. Results from each arm of the study will be analysed and published in peer-reviewed journals as they become available.DiscussionThe A-GLIMMER project will provide essential monitoring of the impact and effectiveness of the self-regulated insurance moratorium. On completion of the study (3 years) a Stakeholder Report will be compiled. The Stakeholder Report will synthesise the evidence gathered in each arm of the study and use the CMO framework to evaluate the extent to which each of the outcomes have been achieved, and make evidence-based recommendations to the Australian federal government, life insurance industry and other stakeholders. (shrink)

In matters of rights, constitutions tend to avoid settling controversies. With few exceptions, rights are formulated in open-ended language, seeking consensus on an abstraction without purporting to resolve the many moral-political questions implicated by rights. The resulting view has been that rights extend everywhere but are everywhere infringed by legislation seeking to resolve the very moral-political questions the constitution seeks to avoid. The Negotiable Constitution challenges this view. Arguing that underspecified rights call for greater specification, Grégoire C. N. Webber (...) draws on limitation clauses common to most bills of rights to develop a new understanding of the relationship between rights and legislation. The legislature is situated as a key constitutional actor tasked with completing the specification of constitutional rights. In turn, because the constitutional project is incomplete with regards to rights, it is open to being re-negotiated by legislation struggling with the very moral-political questions left underdetermined at the constitutional level. (shrink)

Genetic research into ageing, longevity and late-onset disease is becoming increasingly common. Yet, there is a paucity of knowledge related to clinical actionability and the return of pathogenic variants to otherwise healthy elderly individuals. Whether or not genetic research in the elderly should be managed differently from standard practices adapted for younger populations has not yet been defined. In this article, we provide an overview of ethical and practical challenges in preparing for a genetic study of over 14 000 healthy (...) Australians aged 70 years or older enrolled in the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly Healthy Ageing Biobank. At the time of consent, all participants in this study were free of life-threatening illness, cardiovascular disease or cognitive impairment. ASPREE is thus a cohort of healthy elderly individuals with seemingly minimal burden of genetic disease recruited without ascertainment bias. The cohort presents a unique opportunity to address the penetrance of known pathogenic variants in a population without disease symptoms; however, it also raises a number of ethical concerns regarding the interpretation and disclosure of variants with known clinical actionability. Some of the challenges include how to manage the interpretation, disclosure and actioning of pathogenic variants found in otherwise healthy elderly adults without disease symptoms, whether or not to disclose findings for the benefit of family members rather than elderly consented donors themselves, how to manage the return of genetic findings to the elderly individuals who are now in severe cognitive decline or terminal illness, how to ensure quality of information and clinical service upon disclosure of results to this demographic and how to prepare for the insurance implications of disclosing genetic information under Australian law. We discuss these and other dilemmas and propose a defensible plan of management. Trial registration number ISRCTN83772183. (shrink)

The overarching issue with this case study is poor regulation and quality control over direct-to-consumer genetic testing, delivered in the absence of any medical oversight.

How do people learn to talk about the causal and temporal relations between events, and the motivation behind why people do what they do? The narrative practice hypothesis of Hutto and Gallagher holds that children are exposed to narratives that provide training for understanding and expressing reasons for why people behave as they do. In this context, we have recently developed a model of narrative processing where a structured model of the developing situation is built up from experienced events, and (...) enriched by sentences in a narrative that describe event meanings. The main interest is to develop a proof of concept for how narrative can be used to structure, organize and describe experience. Narrative sentences describe events, and they also define temporal and causal relations between events. These relations are specified by a class of narrative function words, including “because, before, after, first, finally.” The current research develops a proof of concept that by observing how people describe social events, a developmental robotic system can begin to acquire early knowledge of how to explain the reasons for events. We collect data from naïve subjects who use narrative function words to describe simple scenes of human-robot interaction, and then employ algorithms for extracting the statistical structure of how narrative function words link events in the situation model. By using these statistical regularities, the robot can thus learn from human experience about how to properly employ in question-answering dialogues with the human, and in generating canonical narratives for new experiences. The behavior of the system is demonstrated over several behavioral interactions, and associated narrative interaction sessions, while a more formal extended evaluation and user study will be the subject of future research. Clearly this is far removed from the power of the full blown narrative practice capability, but it provides a first step in the development of an experimental infrastructure for the study of socially situated narrative practice in human-robot interaction. (shrink)

This article illustrates instrumental variable (IV) estimation by examining an unexpected finding of the research on career adaptability and job satisfaction. Theoretical and empirical arguments suggest that in the general population, people’s abilities to adapt their careers are beneficial to their job satisfaction. However, a recent meta-analysis unexpectedly found no effect when personality traits are controlled for. We argue that a reverse effect of job satisfaction on career adaptability, originating from affective tendencies tied to personality, might explain this null effect. (...) Our argument implies that the estimates obtained with traditional ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions are biased by endogeneity, a correlation between an explanatory variable and the error term in a regression model. When experimental manipulations are impossible, IV estimations, such as two-stage least squares (2SLS) regressions, are one possible solution to the endogeneity problem. Analyzing three waves of data from a sample of 836 adults, the concurrent and time-lagged effect of job satisfaction on career adaptability was revealed to be more consistent than the reverse. Our results provide an explanation, rooted in affective dispositions, as to why recent meta-analytical estimates unexpectedly found that career adaptability does not predict job satisfaction at the interindividual level. We also discuss IV estimation in terms of its limits, weight the interpretation of its estimates against the temporality criterion for causal inference, and consider its possible extension to analyses of change. (shrink)

The text opening the 'Great Peace Part' ('Taiping bu') in the Ming Taoist Canon, the Great Peace Scripture Digest (Taiping jing chao) is widely confused with the famous Great Peace Scripture (Taiping jing) which follows it in the Canon. The first full analysis and reassessment of the Great Peace Scripture Digest, this paper reviews the textual morphology of its ancient and modern editions, discusses current hypotheses concerning its date and authorship, and investigates its literary structure and form, pointing to clusters (...) of prosodic patterns. Light is shed on strata of diachronic origin coexisting in the text, which should not be regarded as being the product of an inconstant solitary compiler, but rather as the conflation of shortened renditions of the Great Peace Scripture perhaps dating to the Tang and pre-Song or early Song eras. A full linear analysis of the text, including a concordance, completes the literary study. (shrink)

Marcel Mauss published his essay The Gift in the context of debates about the European sovereign debt crises and the economic growth experienced by the colonies. This article traces the discursive associations between Mauss’ anthropological concepts and the reformist program of French socialists who pushed for an “altruistic” colonial policy in the interwar period. This article demonstrates that the three obligations which Mauss identified as the basis of a customary law of international economic relations served as key references in the (...) French debate about the relationships between metropolises and colonies in the interwar period. Mauss made this relation between colonial policy and the ethnology of the gift explicit in his book, The Nation. Moving beyond Mauss’ interwar writings, the article traces the genealogy of his later reflections to his involvement in prewar debate... (shrink)

Interrogating the relationship of the sovereign power of the nation state to the scientist's expert knowledge as a legitimating--and sometimes challenging- ...

Résumé L’objet de cet article est d’analyser les récits de bestialité qui se multiplient dans la littérature des XVIe et XVIIe siècles, dans les écrits juridiques, médicaux, polémiques et surtout dans les relations de voyages. Ces anecdotes qui mettent en scène des accouplements, voire des enfantements, entre hommes et bêtes, amènent à questionner les rapports troubles entre l’épistémè de la Renaissance et les savoirs ethnographiques acquis durant cette première époque coloniale, savoirs qui s’imprègnent parfois des récits mythologiques locaux. Inspirées par (...) une perspective anthropomorphique comme par le modèle de la fable, ces anecdotes zoophiles témoignent de la diversité des réflexions sur un possible interrègne, sur les zones de partage instables entre l’homme et l’animal, mais aussi sur la projection de stéréotypes animaliers sur des populations étrangères. (shrink)

Breast cancer is a major public health challenge. Organized mammography screening (OS) is considered one way to reduce breast cancer mortality. EU recommendations prone mass deployment of OS, and back in 2004, France introduced a national OS programme for women aged 50–74 years. However, in 2012, participation rate was still just 52.7%, well short of the targeted 70% objective. In an effort to re-address the (in) efficiency of the programme, the French National Cancer Institute has drafted an expert-group review of (...) the ethical issues surrounding breast cancer mammography screening. (shrink)

Auxiliaire de justice, indépendant et mandaté par son client, l’avocat occupe une place singulière dans le système judiciaire français et sa parole se caractérise a priori par une grande liberté. A l’examen cependant, on constate que son espace de parole est soumis aux règles rituelles du procès qui tendent progressivement à le restreindre, et que le contenu de cette parole est contraint par les exigences de sa mission même s’il bénéficie d’une protection dont l’effectivité est une garantie fondamentale du procès (...) équitable. Ainsi, si indéniablement l’avocat peut dans certaines situations, dire plus que le citoyen ordinaire, il doit surtout en toutes circonstances veiller à dire mieux que ce dernier. (shrink)

Legislated Rights: Securing Human Rights through Legislation aims to correct certain imbalances in constitutional thought and scholarship that burden the legislature and rights with misconceptions...

Touching on issues of power, authority, and domination, Manhunts takes an in-depth look at the hunting of humans in the West, from ancient Sparta, through the Middle Ages, to the modern practices of chasing undocumented migrants.

Francisco de Vitoria offers a stimulating vision of moral cosmopolitanism that foreshadows the cosmopolitanism implicit in contemporary Catholic social teaching. After drawing a distinction between moral cosmopolitanism and political cosmopolitanism, this essay retrieves Vitoria’s cosmopolitan vision in his efforts to defend “the rights of the Indians” through concepts such as subjective rights, ius gentium, the right to travel, and the inherent human dignity of all people. Nonetheless, he opposes all claims of universal sovereignty. Vitoria thus appears as advocating moral but (...) not political cosmopolitanism, perhaps because his political imagination is shaped by monarchies, with their totalitarian tendencies, rather than by modern democracies. The final part of the essay explores how the distinction between different kinds of cosmopolitanism illuminates the variety of positions on the subject to be found in contemporary Catholic social teaching. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to show how systematic Charles Taylor’s philosophy is. It rejects two opposite readings: one claiming that Taylor’s thought is too diverse to have real unity; the other, that it is the product of a “monomaniac” (Taylor’s own word). I claim that his thought has a very distinct structure, comprising two levels. On the first, “meta-hermeneutic” level, Taylor defends a thesis about hermeneutics (namely, that it cannot be dispensed with): this unifies his anthropology, epistemology, moral (...) philosophy, philosophy of language and political philosophy. On the second, “hermeneutic” level, Taylor builds an impressive historic construal of modern identity and its dilemmas. More importantly, while these two levels are irreducibly distinct, they relate to each other in interesting ways, giving Taylor’s philosophy its systematicity. I finally confront this view with other readings, and argue that it is the best way to understand Taylor’s work. (shrink)

Le présent article s’appuie sur une recherche clinique référée à la théorie psychanalytique et menée à partir de trente entretiens semi-directifs réalisés auprès d’adultes homosexuels engagés dans la parentalité. L’auteur présente deux études de cas qui concernent des sujets ayant choisi la configuration de la coparentalité à quatre. Les hypothèses suivantes sont soumises à l’analyse du discours : d’une part, dans ce genre de configuration, on retrouve une permanence des processus psychiques liés au devenir parent (réactualisation des enjeux œdipiens, deuil (...) développemental, permutation symbolique des places); d’autre part ce genre de configuration met en évidence que ces processus peuvent trouver un étayage sur le lien amoureux entre personnes de même sexe ainsi que sur les liens qui se créent entre les membres du « quatuor » et dans lesquels les fantaisies hétérosexuelles jouent un rôle non négligeable. (shrink)

Fichte's philosophy represented one of the first coherent attempts to provide a utopian philosophical foundation for preventative police power, one which anticipated in surprising ways the fundamental logical premises of modern dataveillance or "datapower." This article examines Fichte's proposals for a new system of police passports and the logic of control on which it rests, contextualizing it within the transformation of police practices during his lifetime. It concludes with a discussion of Hegel's criticism of the logical incoherence of securitarian policing, (...) and its relevance for our situation today. (shrink)

O texto apresenta debates referentes a uma pesquisa bibliográfica que analisou produções escritas sobre o tema do abrigamento de crianças e jovens. Tal pesquisa visou cartografar as narrativas escritas sobre abrigos e convivência familiar a partir do ano 2000, quando, após dez anos da promulgação do..

Cet article prend pour point de départ une critique souvent adressée au minimalisme moral de Ruwen Ogien : il y a bien de la normativité dans le rapport à soi, nous avons des obligations vis-à-vis de nous-même. Après avoir rappelé cette objection (en la reformulant et en la renforçant), l’on se demande si une forme de minimalisme peut malgré tout lui survivre. Cet article répond par la positive, en proposant une reformulation radicale de la thèse minimaliste, qui parvienne à maintenir (...) le rejet du paternalisme tout en prenant en compte l’existence d’une normativité dans le rapport à soi. Il explique en quel sens une telle thèse peut encore être considérée comme minimaliste, puis entreprend d’examiner ses principales conséquences. (shrink)

La question de l’ennemi et de la guerre chez Rosenzweig est importante non seulement pour comprendre l’auteur, mais aussi son œuvre : L’Étoile de la Rédemption. Avec la relation d’hostilité, la temporalité rédemptrice basée sur le commandement d’amour s’affronte au problème des rapports qu’ont le judaïsme et le christianisme avec la guerre et le nationalisme.

Poser la question de la provenance du geste critique instaurant le pré-monde (Vorwelt) revient à s’interroger de manière plus générale sur le commencement ou plus précisément sur le fondement de L’Étoile de la Rédemption. À cette question, qui pourrait être qualifiée elle-même de fondamentale, Franz Rosenzweig fait remarquer tout d’abord, dans « La pensée nouvelle », qu’« à l’égard des premières pages d’un livre de philosophie, les lecteurs ont une attitude singulière : ils croient qu’elles c...

)L’auteur propose un retour sur certains travaux de sciences humaines à propos des familles homoparentales, son objectif étant d’interroger les notions qui nous permettent de rendre compte des changements dont ces familles sont porteuses. Il examine notamment deux notions souvent rencontrées dans les travaux sur les nouvelles formes de familles : la désinstitutionnalisation et la désexualisation. La première, spécifiquement sociologique, semble échouer à décrire le travail complexe de réinstitution de la famille qui est à l’œuvre tant dans le droit que (...) dans les familles homoparentales elles-mêmes. La seconde montre sa pertinence dans le champ socio-anthropologique mais pose question si l’on s’appuie sur les recherches d’orientation psychanalytique auprès de ces configurations familiales. En effet, si, du point de vue anthropologique, l’instauration de la disjonction entre sexualité et reproduction ne fait pas de doute, il en va tout autrement du point de vue des processus psychiques inconscients qui accompagnent le devenir parent en appui sur la représentation d’une scène primitive et sur des fantasmes de bisexualité psychique. (shrink)

La philosophie analytique récente a vu naître d’importants débats de méthode concernant la bonne manière de pratiquer l’ontologie, qui voient s’opposer les partisans déclarés de Quine à ceux de Carnap. Au cœur de ces débats se trouve l’idée que le monde possède une structure ontologique propre, indépendante de notre manière de le conceptualiser ou de l’organiser. C’est cette idée qui est ici plus précisément examinée, dans le but de la clarifier. Cet article défend la thèse que, si le monde possède (...) bien une structure intrinsèque, celle-ci est de nature physique et non ontologique. Quant à cette dernière, elle ne peut être conçue indépendamment d’une subjectivité consciente et constituante. Si cet argument est correct, il donne raison à l’école néo-carnapienne, mais surtout il étaye l’idée qu’il ne saurait y avoir d’ontologie que transcendantale, une idée dont les germes semblent être en train de poindre au sein de l’école analytique. (shrink)