Open visiting policy in intensive care units is considered a favorable visiting regime that may benefit patients and their family members as well as medical staff. The article examines the conditions and causes of OVP-making process in Ukraine and presents the ethical analysis of its implications with respect to the key stakeholders: ICU patients, family members, and medical staff. The OVP, established by the Ministry of Health in June, 2016, changes current approaches to the recognition of the role of families (...) in critically ill patients’ care dramatically; it does, however, have serious shortcomings. The analysis of risks and benefits showed that OVP does not adequately cater to the needs of all the key players—family members, patients, and medical staff. Moreover, there is no clear mechanism to control OVP implementation via feedback from all the key players. These issues give rise to a concern that the implementation of OVP will die on the vine. In order to prevent this, a range of measures is required: the optimization of the ICU facilities and internal procedures, supervision of OVP implementation by policy-makers, training of medical staff, and providing family members with educational programs. Considering current shortcomings, it is crucially important to develop clear and consistent internal guidelines in hospitals that will guarantee the introduction of open ICU visiting and quality of critical care provisions. (shrink)

У статті розглянуто місто як регіон соціальної реальності. Обґрунтовується, що міські процеси нелінійні, показано, що пошук граничних підстав функціонування соціального порядку міської спільноти може заповнити дослідницьку лакуну в поясненні впливу нелінійних факторів та їх наслідків на зміни в соціальному бутті. Пропонується поглянути на східноукраїнський конфлікт як на результат дії конфліктогенних чинників в купі з детермінованими міфом міста стратегіями поведінки городян.

This article discusses the causes of Lev Shestov’s psychological and worldview crises that he experienced in 1895, forcing the thinker to abandon his idealist philosophy and to embark on a path of...

This article reviews the problem of the marginal communities’ representation in Richard Rorty’s philosophy. The purpose of the research is to analyze a specific character of the legitimating the marginal communities’ representatives in the levels of the social formations, participative democracy, and social antagonism. A theoretical base of the research consists of the works by R. Rorty, A. Badiou, P. Bruckner, J. Ranciere, K. Marx, and B. Latour. On the example of the USA, the right for a state as the (...) legal institution to represent the national interests was reasoned in spite of the cases with the violation of the principle of the fundamental moral action in its history, due to the constructive character of the social experiments and the realization of their creative character. The issue of self-identification with the Other is revealed, based not on the similarity with the particular individuals but rather on the empathy to the other culture’s autonomous subject, who has the right for respect and dignity. The ways of achieving a balance between a social antagonism in the pluralism of the opinions and an intersubjective consensus between the members of a liberal community, necessary to omit the shaping up of a tyranny, are also analyzed. The necessity of toleration of the polyphonic discussions is explained on the example of a possible dictatorship in the ethically unified community, regulated with the strict repressive imperatives. Generally, the inclusivity of a Rortian liberal utopia, where the representatives of different social groups have the voting rights and are solidarized on the principles of the sentimental education, have been analyzed. This research will find its application in the following analysis of the factors of the otherness in the sentimental education. Manuscript received 18.02.2020. (shrink)

This article reviews the problem of the otherness in contemporary Western philosophy. The peculiarities of the representation of the category of the otherness in the 21st-century anglophone continental philosophy were analyzed. A theoretical base of the research consists of the works by Richard Rorty, Bruno Latour, Richard Kearney, Nancy. Fraser, Dan Zahavi, Chad Kautzer, Eduardo Mendieta, and Slavoj Žižek. Within the frameworks of an Anglophone philosophy, we made a comparison of the 20th-century pragmatist approaches based on the exceptionalism and the (...) exclusion of the Absolute Other from the intersubjective consensus and of the modern neopragmatist tendencies shaped on the principles of the generalized patience and extension of the framing of the subjectivity with the post-territorial regulation. The hermeneutical and phenomenological problems of the otherness typical for continental philosophy were covered with the analysis of the genealogy of the feeling leading to the victimization of the Other, its identification with Me, or its recognition with the preservation of the own identity. The author also analyzes ways to find a social consensus in the conditions of the antagonism between the emancipatory interests of different marginalized groups. Generally, the ways of adequate coexistence, which support the universal solidarity in a situation the global challenges humanity, had been demonstrated. That is why, finding out of a compromise in the analysis of the problem of the Otherness will be achieved with a realization of the following factors: all-affected principle, formed on the basis of the equal agency for all the subjects of communicative action for consensus with the help of a network activism, and a realization of the principles of a diacritical hermeneutics on the basis of the empathy to the Other and the termination of his/her marginalization. For this, it was offered to gain the equal rights for all the living forms for their own modes of existence to avoid antagonism between different social groups and to predict the impact of the obscurantist elites on the mass consciousness.Manuscript received 06.09.2020. (shrink)

Ця стаття є спробою проаналізувати інтерпретацію Ричардом Рорті категорії Іншості в контексті глобального проєкту ліберальної утопії – суспільства майбутнього, базованого на відсутності насилля. Еволюцію розуміння поняття Іншості розглянуто в контексті соціально-антропологічних практик американського прагматизму та французького постструктуралізму, де причини відчуження певних індивідів пояснено на міфологічній і лінгвістичній основі, а люди солідаризуються, утворюючи генералізованого іншого. Інший у певній культурі суміщає в собі функції цаба-відбувайла та месії водночас. У підході Рорті проаналізовано різні причини маргіналізації індивіда на класовій, релігійній, гендерній і поведінковій основі. (...) Розглянуто метод сентиментальної освіти у розвитку в дитини емоційного інтелекту та емпатії, опріч загальної ерудиції, за допомогою ознайомлення з художньої літературою. Кантівський моральний імператив піддано критиці за механістичний і легалістський характер. Замість цього запропоновано моральні принципи, основані на братерстві. Це братерство має базуватися радше на персональній ідентифікації з певною нацією, класом або гендером, ніж на праві народження. Також розглянуто переваги й недоліки радикального плюралізму (розуміння відносної цінності всіх способів життя) та його відмінність від постмодерного культурного релятивізму. Результат дослідження оприявнює вторинну роль у відмінностях між людьми для їхньої консолідації у ліберальній утопії Ричарда Рорті, якщо спільним між ними є базовий принцип нетерпимості до насилля, хоч би яким воно було – чи прямим фізичним, чи пасивно-агресивним аб’юзом у насмішках. (shrink)

The paper is devoted to reviewing the materials of “The Human of the Future” symposium, which took place at UNESCO Headquarters from 16 to 18 November on the occasion of the World Philosophy Day. In a hyper-technological world, the very concept of humanity undergoes constant evolution. In view of the scale of modern challenges, within the framework of the event, it was suggested to reflect upon the concept of “the human of the future” from the point of view of their (...) own evolution and historical development, as well as from the viewpoint of the world upheavals causing human to overflow and surpass their own historical formation. The purpose of the article is to determine contemporary philosophical and anthropological tendencies in the development of Humanities and Social studies and to examine the status of a philosophical approach as relevant to the digital world for understanding the “human”. The theoretical basis is represented by the materials of the speeches of contemporary philosophers, anthropologists and researchers within the framework of “The Human of the Future” symposium and focused on the search for alternative anthropocentrism ways of understanding human and technology. Conclusions. The future is presented as a challenge faced with a number of serious crises in the context of information overload and unstoppable speed of data flows circulation. Studying the process of multiplying technological updates and human transformations leads to the idea of reconstructing the nature of philosophical research. Two philosophical and anthropological trends are presented: the expansion of the understanding of “human” through the introduction of technological objects and the biogeophysical dimension into its interpretation, as well as the process of ontologization of digital technologies. There is specified a range of current issues in the Social Sciences and Humanities research: communication between species, life definition, ambiguous relationship of people with technology, with increasingly blurred boundaries between technology and biology. (shrink)

One of the main trends of modern society is a marked increase of the theoretical interest to the sphere of mythology and the theory of myth. And in light of globalization approaches explicitly focus on the impact study of the regional aspects of social phenomena. In this regard, in regional studies of mythology appear attempts seen the myth city's as a socially formalized knowledge about the city or region, a strong regulatory and mobilization element in society, which is capable of (...) forming a regional entity and identity. A problem is in that every city has the own myths and specific municipal culture. It can be one of reasons of conflicts at co-operation of townspeople of different regions because all of us are inclined to identify itself with a sub-group on the sign of place of inhabitation, line of business or the world view. Thus, at all cities have different myths and symbols. We are inclined to see our city as city of the chosen townspeople, while other cities and regions are inhabited by demons and monsters. The article suggests to consider the city like a self-valuable phenomenon. The article submitted to scientific use of the term "the myth city's" which, the author's perspective is not identical to the concept of "myths of the city" and "Mythology of the city." also authors conducted analysis the history of the formation of the Donetsk's myth, identified the main stages of its formation, and conducted explication of its meaningful and functional characteristics. (shrink)

Review of Long, A. A.. How to be free. An Ancient Guide to the Stoic Life. Epictetus. Encheiridion and Selections from Discourses. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Moral philosophers agree that welfare matters. But they disagree about what it is, or how much it matters. In this vital new work, Wayne Sumner presents an original theory of welfare, investigating its nature and discussing its importance. He considers and rejects all notable theories of welfare, both objective and subjective, including hedonism and theories founded on desire or preference. His own theory connects welfare closely with happiness or life satisfaction. Reacting against the value pluralism that currently dominates moral philosophy, (...) he advances welfare as the only basic ethical value. He concludes by discussing the implications of this thesis for ethical and political theory. Written in clear, non-technical language, and including a definitive survey of other work in this area, Sumner's book is essential reading for moral philosophers, political theorists, and welfare economists. (shrink)

Interview of Illia Davidenko, Kseniia Myroshnyk, Daria Popil with Anatoly Loy.

Can philosophy offer reasonable grounds for the existence of a God possessing genuine religious significance and not proposed simply as the solution to a purely intellectual philosophical problem? Certainly many contemporary thinkers have insisted that no genuine religion could be based upon metaphysics. In this book, however, T. L. S. Sprigge examines sympathetically the most notable metaphysical systems of the last four centuries which purport to put religion on a rational footing and, after a thorough examination of their claims, considers (...) what kind of religious outlook they might support and how they actually affected the lives of their proponents. The thinkers studied include Spinoza, Hegel, T. H. Green, Bernard Bosanquet, Josiah Royce, A. N. Whitehead, and Charles Hartshorne, concluding with an exposition of the author's own viewpoint and a general discussion on the relation between metaphysics and religion. There is also a chapter on Kierkegaard as the most important critic of metaphysical religion. (shrink)

Critics of contemporary metaphysics argue that it attempts to do the hard work of science from the ease of the armchair. Physics, not metaphysics, tells us about the fundamental facts of the world, and empirical psychology is best placed to reveal the content of our concepts about the world. Exploring and understanding the world through metaphysical reflection is obsolete. In this paper, I will show why this critique of metaphysics fails, arguing that metaphysical methods used to make claims about the (...) world are similar to scientific methods used to make claims about the world, but that the subjects of metaphysics are not the subjects of science. Those who argue that metaphysics uses a problematic methodology to make claims about subjects better covered by natural science get the situation exactly the wrong way around: metaphysics has a distinctive subject matter, not a distinctive methodology. The questions metaphysicians address are different from those of scientists, but the methods employed to develop and select theories are similar. In the first section of the paper, I will describe the sort of subject matter that metaphysics tends to engage with. In the second section of the paper, I will show how metaphysical theories are classes of models and discuss the roles of experience, common sense and thought experiments in the construction and evaluation of such models. Finally, in the last section I will discuss the way these methodological points help us to understand the metaphysical project. Getting the right account of the metaphysical method allows us to better understand the relationship between science and metaphysics, to explain why doing metaphysics successfully involves having a range of different theories, to understand the role of thought experiments involving fictional worlds, and to situate metaphysical realism in a scientifically realist context. (shrink)

The paradox of knowability, derived from a proof by Frederic Fitch in 1963, is one of the deepest paradoxes concerning the nature of truth. Jonathan Kvanvig argues that the depth of the paradox has not been adequately appreciated. It has long been known that the paradox threatens antirealist conceptions of truth according to which truth is epistemic. If truth is epistemic, what better way to express that idea than to maintain that all truths are knowable? In the face of the (...) paradox, however, such a characterization threatens to undermine antirealism. If Fitch's proof is valid, then one can be an antirealist of this sort only by endorsing the conclusion of the proof that all truths are known.Realists about truth have tended to stand on the sidelines and cheer the difficulties faced by their opponents from Fitch's proof. Kvanvig argues that this perspective is wholly unwarranted. He argues that there are two problems raised by the paradox, one that threatens antirealism about truth and the other that threatens everybody's view about truth, realist or antirealist. The problem facing antirealism has had a number of proposed solutions over the past 40 years, and the results have not been especially promising with regard to the first problem. The second problem has not even been acknowledged, however, and the proposals regarding the first problem are irrelevant to the second problem. This book thus provides a thorough investigation of the literature on the paradox, and also proposes a solution to the deeper of the two problems raised by Fitch's proof. It provides a complete picture of the paradoxicality that results from Fitch's proof, and presents a solution to the paradox that claims to address both problems raised by the original proof. (shrink)

I defend a one category ontology: an ontology that denies that we need more than one fundamental category to support the ontological structure of the world. Categorical fundamentality is understood in terms of the metaphysically prior, as that in which everything else in the world consists. One category ontologies are deeply appealing, because their ontological simplicity gives them an unmatched elegance and spareness. I’m a fan of a one category ontology that collapses the distinction between particular and property, replacing it (...) with a single fundamental category of intrinsic characters or qualities. We may describe the qualities as qualitative charactersor as modes, perhaps on the model of Aristotelian qualitative (nonsubstantial) kinds, and I will use the term “properties” interchangeably with “qualities”. The qualities are repeatable and reasonably sparse, although, as I discuss in section 2.6, there are empirical reasons that may suggest, depending on one’s preferred fundamental physical theory, that they include irreducibly intensive qualities. There are no uninstantiated qualities. I also assume that the fundamental qualitative natures are intrinsic, although physics may ultimately suggest that some of them are extrinsic. On my view, matter, concrete objects, abstract objects, and perhaps even spacetime are constructed from mereological fusions of qualities, so the world is simply a vast mixture of qualities, including polyadic properties (i.e., relations). This means that everything there is, including concrete objects like persons or stars, is a quality, a qualitative fusion, or a portion of the extended qualitative fusion that is the worldwhole. I call my view mereological bundle theory. (shrink)

What does it mean for someone to have a moral right to something? What kinds of creatures can have rights, and which rights can they have? While rights are indispensable to our moral and political thinking, they are also mysterious and controversial; as long as these controversies remain unsolved, rights will remain vulnerable to skepticism. Here, Sumner constructs both a coherent concept of a moral right and a workable substantive theory of rights to provide the moral foundation necessary to dispel (...) such doubts. (shrink)

Aristotle is widely regarded as the greatest of all philosophers; indeed, he is traditionally referred to simply as `the philosopher'. Today, after more than two millennia, his arguments and ideas continue to stimulate philosophers and provoke them to controversy. In this book J.L. Ackrill conveys the force and excitement of Aristotle's philosophical investigations, thereby showing why contemporary philosophers still draw from him and return to him. He quotes extensively from Aristotle's works in his own notably clear English translation, and a (...) picture emerges of a lucid, lively, subtle and tough-minded thinker of astonishing range and penetration. Professor Ackrill identifies many striking connections between Aristotle's ideas and ideas in recent philosophy; he also raises philosophical questions of his own, and exemplifies the way in which Aristotle can still be argued with and learned from. (shrink)

Interview of Amina Kkhelufi, Kseniia Myroshnyk, Nataliia Reva with Natalia Viatkina.

Preterm birth is defined as delivery occurring before 37 weeks gestation.1 Infants born prematurely have increased risks of morbidity and mortality throughout life, especially during the first year. These risks increase as the gestational age at birth decreases.2 Additionally, there are significant racial and ethnic differences in preterm birth rates. In 2022, the rate of preterm birth among non-Hispanic black women was approximately 50% higher than that observed in non-Hispanic white women.1 The outcomes for these infants are also disparate–preterm birth (...) and low birth weight are the second-leading causes of infant mortality (deaths before 1 year of age). Notably, among preterm neonates, infants born to non-Hispanic black women have a mortality rate more than double that of infants born to non-Hispanic white mothers.3 Importantly, there is a small but significant group of neonates that can be classified as severely premature (those born <28 weeks). Infants born before 28 weeks have varied and uncertain outcomes. While this group accounts for only 0.4% of preterm births, it also accounts for 40% of deaths among preterm neonates.4 As noted by Romanis and Adkins, the advent of artificial amnion and placenta technology (AAPT) holds promise for its potential to address the physiologic complications and mortality risks of extreme prematurity by introducing amniotic substitutes that mimic in vivo placental oxygenation and substrate delivery. In contrast …. (shrink)

Interview of Vsevolod Khoma, Kseniia Myroshnyk and Olha Simoroz with Yevhen Bystrytsky.

To practise ‘fairly and justly’ a clinician must balance the needs of both the many and the few: the individual patient in front of them, and the many unseen patients in the waiting room, and in the county. They must consider the immediate clinical needs of those in the present, and how their actions will impact on future patients. The good medical practice guidance ‘Make the care of your patient your first concern’ provides no guidance on how doctors should act (...) when they care for multiple patients with conflicting needs. Moreover, conflicting needs extend far past simply those between different patients. At an organisational level, financial obligations must be balanced with clinical ones; the system must support those who work within it in a variety of roles; and, finally, in order for a healthcare service to be sustainable, the demands of current and future generations must be balanced.The central problem, we propose, is that there is no shared philosophical framework on which the provision of care or the development of health policy is based, nor is there a practical, fair and transparent process to ensure that the service is equipped to deal justly with new challenges as they emerge. Many philosophers have grappled with constructing a set of principles which would lead to a ‘good’ society which is just to different users; prominent among them is Rawls.Four important principles can be derived using a Rawlsian approach: equity of access, distributive justice, sustainability and openness. However, Rawls’ approach is sometimes considered too abstract to be applied readily to policymaking; it does not provide clear guidance for how individuals working within existing institutions can enact the principles of justice. We therefore combine the principles derived from Rawls with Scanlonian contractualism: by demanding that decisions are made in a way which cannot be ‘reasonably rejected’ by different stakeholders, we ensure that conflicting needs are considered robustly.We demonstrate how embedding this framework would ensure just policies and fair practice. We illustrate this by using examples of how it would help prevent injustice among different socioeconomic groups, prevent intergenerational injustice and prevent injustice in a crisis, for example, as we respond to new challenges such as COVID-19.Attempts to help individual doctors practise fairly and justly throughout their professional lives are best focused at an institutional or systemic level. We propose a practical framework: combining Scanlonian contractualism with a Rawlsian approach. Adopting this framework would equip the workforce and population to contribute to fair policymaking, and would ultimately result in a healthcare system whose practice and policies—at their core—were just. (shrink)

I summarize the main argument of Transformative Experience (OUP 2014). The book develops familiar examples from classical philosophical debates, as well as original examples, to argue that an agent’s decision to undergo a transformative experience—an experience constituted by radical personal and epistemic change for the agent—must either be authentic or irrational, but not both. The Precis of Transformative Experience walks the reader through the main ideas involved in epistemically and personally transformative experiences, the problems they pose for rational decision-making, and (...) discusses a number of key original examples of transformative experiences. (shrink)

I address two related questions: first, what is the best theory of how objects have de re modal properties? Second, what is the best defence of essentialism given the variability of our modal intuitions? I critically discuss several theories of how objects have their de re modal properties and address the most threatening antiessentialist objection to essentialism: the variability of our modal intuitions. Drawing on linguistic treatments of vagueness and ambiguity, I show how essentialists can accommodate the variability of modal (...) intuitions while holding that objects have their modal properties independently of contexts. (shrink)

In this book, T. L. Short places the notorious difficulties of Peirce's important writings in a more productive light, arguing that he wrote philosophy as a scientist, by framing conjectures intended to be refined or superseded in the inquiries they initiate. He argues also that Peirce held that the methods and metaphysics of modern science are amended as inquiry progresses, making metaphysics a branch of empirical knowledge. Additionally, Short shows that Peirce's scientific work expanded empiricism on empirical grounds, grounding his (...) phenomenology and subverting the fact/value dichotomy, and that he understood statistical explanations in nineteenth-century science as reintroducing the idea of final causation, now made empirical. Those innovations underlie Peirce's late ideas of a normative science and of philosophy as a branch of science. Short's rich and original study shows us how to read Peirce's writings and why they are worth reading. (shrink)

This chapter offers an overview of the phenomenological approach to delusions, emphasizing what Karl Jaspers called the "true delusions" of schizophrenia. Phenomenological psychopathology focuses on the experience of delusions and the delusional world. Several features of this approach are surveyed, including emphasis on formal qualities of subjective life and questioning of standard assumptions about delusions as erroneous belief. The altered modalities of world-oriented and self-oriented experience that precede and ground delusions in schizophrenia, especially the experiences of revelation that Klaus Conrad (...) termed the outer and inner apophany, are then discussed. The chapter first considers the famous "delusional mood", then the role of ipseity-disturbance. In both cases it is explained how delusions can develop out of these distinctive alterations of perception and feeling. The classic question of the understandability or comprehensibility of schizophrenic delusion, together with the related issues of wish-fulfillment and rationalizing motives are then considered. The chapter addresses the crucial but neglected issue of the felt reality-status of delusions or the delusional world, discussing derealization, "double bookkeeping", and "double exposure". The chapter concludes by discussing delusions typically found in paranoid and affective psychoses, and monothematic delusions found in certain organic conditions. (shrink)

The draft Code of Conduct for Research is an important initiative towards assisting the scientific community in complying with the provisions of the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). However, its approach towards cross-border data sharing should be reconsidered to clarify the ambiguities inherent in the legal requirements for the cross-border sharing of health data in the POPIA. These ambiguities include the concept of ‘transfer of information’, the application of adequacy as a legal mechanism for transfer, the (...) nature of consent for cross-border sharing and the scope of the recipient third party. We suggest that the draft Code of Conduct for Research can be improved by: Explaining or defining the concept of ‘transfer of information’ and when it applies to cross-border sharing in research Clarifying the application of adequacy as a legal mechanism for transfer vis-à-vis the other alternatives Expanding on the interpretation and application of consent as a legal mechanism for cross-border transfers Expanding the category of persons who may be recipients of personal information in a third country. (shrink)

An interview of Amina Kkhelufi and Kseniia Myroshnyk with Tetiana Chaika, dedicated to the formation of the idea of an oral history of philosophy.

A definitive feature of Kant's moral philosophy is its rationalism. Kant insists that moral theory, at least at its foundation, cannot take account of empirical facts about human beings and their circumstances in the world. This is the core of Kant's commitment to ‘metaphysics of morals’, and it is what he sees as his greatest contribution to moral philosophy. The paper clarifies what it means to be committed to metaphysics of morals, why Kant is committed to it, and where he (...) thinks empirical considerations may enter moral theory. The paper examines recent work of contemporary Kantians who argue that there is a central role for empirical considerations in Kant's moral theory. Either these theorists interpret Kant himself as permitting empirical considerations to enter, or they propose to extend Kant's theory so as to allow them to enter. With some qualifications, I argue that these interpretive trends are not supported by the texts, and that the proposed extensions are not plausibly Kantian. Kant's insistence on the exclusion of empirical considerations from the foundations of moral theory is not an incidental feature of his thought which might be modified while the rest remains unchanged. Rather, it is the very centre of his endeavours in moral philosophy. If we disagree with it, I argue, we have grounds for moving to a distinctly different theoretical framework. (shrink)

Interview of Vsevolod Khoma, Kseniia Myroshnyk and Olha Simoroz with Yevhen Bystrytsky.

Interview of Vsevolod Khoma, Illia Davidenko and Kseniia Myroshnyk with Anatoliy Yermolenko.

Language, like other human traits, could only have evolved during one or more stages of development. We enlist the theoretical framework of human life history to account for certain aspects of linguistic evolution, with special reference to initial phases in the process. It is hypothesized that selection operated at several developmental stages, the earlier ones producing new behaviors that were reinforced by additional, and possibly more powerful, forms of selection during later stages, especially adolescence and early adulthood. Peer commentaries have (...) provided opportunities to explain human life history more comprehensively, and to add details to our account of spoken language. We made no attempt to explain syntax in the target article, but we propose here that selection for “vocal plumage” may have increased our species’ capacity for utterance complexity, a development that would have benefited all levels of language. (shrink)