Violence is a known risk factor for health problems. In this epidemiological study across 5,385 male patients, we investigate the prevalence of perpetrated violence, exposure to violence, their overlap and the relationship between violence, mental, and psychosomatic health, as well as adverse health behaviors, such as self-harming behavior and the consumption of drugs. Participants completed an anonymous questionnaire addressing violence experience, age of victimization/perpetration, frequency, and perceived severity of violence exposure. We considered physical, psychological as well as sexual violence. Information (...) on health status and adverse health behaviors complemented the data. Results showed that 48.4% of the sample reported having experienced violence. The victim-perpetrator overlap formed the largest group, in which the incidence of having experienced multiple types of violence was significantly higher compared to victims and perpetrators. The age-crime curve flattened more slowly with increasing age in this group. Although the perceived severity of exposure to violence is lower in the overlap group, its health status and adverse health behaviors were worse. Interventions should focus on this group since they constitute a burden for the healthcare system. (shrink)

Several authors have recently suggested that moral factors and norms `encroach' on the epistemic, and because of salient parallels to pragmatic encroachment views in epistemology, these suggestions have been dubbed `moral encroachment views'. This paper distinguishes between variants of the moral encroachment thesis, pointing out how they address different problems, are motivated by different considerations, and are not all subject to the same objections. It also explores how the family of moral encroachment views compare to classical pragmatic encroachment accounts.

I was first taken to Mr Gurdjieff's flat at a time very different from the present. Paris during the war, under German occupation, was in the grip of the ...

A dual-language edition presenting Descartes's original Latin text of his greatest work, with a facing-page authoritative English translation.

Hydrogen is troublesome in any periodic table classification. This being so it may as well be placed in a position that confers desirable attributes to the arrangement of the elements, while notionally recognising its lineage to the group 1 alkali metals and the group 17 halogens. Since the noble gases bridge the halogens and the alkali metals, and hydrogen encompasses the transition from the alkali metals to the halogens, there is more to the idea of hydrogen over helium. (Meyer 1870, (...) p. 357) (Proust 1927, p. 559). (shrink)

I have always considered that the two questions respecting God and the Soul were the chief of those that ought to be demonstrated by philosophical rather than ...

The first book that presents key original texts from the modern German philosophical tradition to English-language students and scholars of German, with introductions, commentaries, and annotations that make them accessible.

The Meditations, one of the key texts of Western philosophy, is the most widely studied of all Descartes' writings. This authoritative translation by John Cottingham, taken from the much acclaimed three-volume Cambridge edition of the Philosophical Writings of Descartes, is based upon the best available texts and presents Descartes' central metaphysical writings in clear, readable modern English. As well as the complete text of the Meditations, the reader will find a thematic abridgement of the Objections and Replies (which were originally (...) published with the Meditations) containing Descartes' replies to his critics. These extracts, specially selected for the present volume, indicate the main philosophical difficulties which occurred to Descartes' contemporaries and show how Descartes developed and clarified his arguments in response. This edition contains a new comprehensive introduction to Descartes' philosophy by John Cottingham and the classic introductory essay on the Meditations by Bernard Williams. (shrink)

I argue that inferences from highly probabilifying racial generalizations are not solely objectionable because acting on such inferences would be problematic, or they violate a moral norm, but because they violate a distinctively epistemic norm. They involve accepting a proposition when, given the costs of a mistake, one is not adequately justified in doing so. First I sketch an account of the nature of adequate justification—practical adequacy with respect to eliminating the ~p possibilities from one’s epistemic statespace. Second, I argue (...) that inferences based on demographic generalizations tend to disproportionately expose group members to the risks associated with mistakenly assuming stereotypical propositions, and so magnify the wrong involved in relying on such inferences without adequate justification. (shrink)

I argue that the offense generation pattern of slurring terms parallels that of impoliteness behaviors, and is best explained by appeal to similar purely pragmatic mechanisms. In choosing to use a slurring term rather than its neutral counterpart, the speaker signals that she endorses the term. Such an endorsement warrants offense, and consequently slurs generate offense whenever a speaker's use demonstrates a contrastive preference for the slurring term. Since this explanation comes at low theoretical cost and imposes few constraints on (...) an account of the semantics of slurs, this suggests that we should not require semantic accounts to provide an independent explanation of the offense profile. (shrink)

Desde o ano de 1643, Descartes (1596-1650) e a princesa Elizabeth (1618-1680) já trocavam cartas a respeito da geometria, da metafísica e até da física cartesiana. Todavia, no ano de 1645, por conta de um grave estado melancólico da princesa, houve uma intensa correspondência entre ambos. À princípio, o debate se mantinha em torno das condições especificas da princesa. O tema central girava em torno de questões fisiológicas e morais (ou psicofisiológicas). À medida, porém, em que a troca de correspondência (...) se intensificava, o debate ia tornando-se cada vez mais teórico, passando pela discussão da Vida Beata, de Sêneca, até forçar Descartes a apresentar os primeiros esboços de sua própria concepção moral. Dessa troca de correspondência, escolhemos duas cartas de setembro de 1645: uma do filósofo a Elizabeth (carta CDIII) e outra da princesa a Descartes carta (CDVI). (shrink)

In Descartes's Meditations, one of the key texts of Western philosophy, the thinker rejects all his former beliefs in the quest for new certainties. Discovering his own existence as a thinking entity in the very exercise of doubt, he goes on to prove the existence of God, who guarantees his clear and distinct ideas as a means of access to the truth. He develops new conceptions of body and mind, capable of serving as foundations for the new science of nature. (...) Subsequent philosophy has grappled with Descartes's legacy, questioning many of its conclusions and even his basic approach, but his arguments set the agenda for many of the greatest philosophical thinkers, and their fascination endures.This new translation includes the Third and Fourth Objections and Replies in full, and a selection from the rest of Descartes's exchanges with contemporaries that helped to shape and expound his philosophy. (shrink)

Telling the story of three overlooked revolutionary thinkers, Liberty in Their Names explores the lives and works of Olympe de Gouges, Sophie de Grouchy and Manon Roland. All three were thinking and writing about political philosophy, especially equality and social justice, before the French Revolution. As they became engaged in its efforts, their political writing became more urgent. At a time when women could neither vote nor speak at the Assembly, they became influential through their writings. Yet instead of Gouges, (...) Grouchy and Roland, we speak of Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot. -/- Sandrine Bergès examines the lives and writings of these trailblazing women philosophers, and their impact on philosophical thought during the French Revolution. Featuring pictures, a timeline and a bibliography of their works, this book offers exciting new insights into the history of political philosophy and of the French Revolution. (shrink)

Volume 19, Issue 5, May 2019, Page 31-33.

This paper investigates conceptions of explanation, teleology, and analogy in the works of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) and Georges Cuvier (1769-1832). Richards (2000, 2002) and Zammito (2006, 2012, 2018) have argued that Kant’s philosophy provided an obstacle for the project of establishing biology as a proper science around 1800. By contrast, Russell (1916), Outram (1986), and Huneman (2006, 2008) have argued, similar to suggestions from Lenoir (1989), that Kant’s philosophy influenced the influential naturalist Georges Cuvier. In this article, I wish to (...) expand on and further the work of Russell, Outram, and Huneman by adopting a novel perspective on Cuvier and considering (a) the similar conceptions of proper science and explanation of Kant and Cuvier, and (b) the similar conceptions of the role of teleology and analogy in the works of Kant and Cuvier. The similarities between Kant and Cuvier show, contrary to the interpretation of Richards and Zammito, that some of Kant’s philosophical ideas, whether they derived from him or not, were fruitfully applied by some life scientists who wished to transform life sciences into proper sciences around 1800. However, I also show that Cuvier, in contrast to Kant, had a workable strategy for transforming the life sciences into proper sciences, and that he departed from Kant’s philosophy of science in crucial respects. (shrink)

When mental health professionals or social workers are confronted with a suicidal individual, one approach is to use all means to delay the act of suicide until the desire for death subsides. Encouraging someone to delay suicide while bypassing the individual’s practical reasons for suicide can lead to irrational postponement, which equates to procrastinating suicide. Causing someone to procrastinate in this manner poses a risk of disrespecting the person as a rational agent. However, is it even possible to irrationally delay (...) one’s own act of suicide? Additionally, isn’t it beneficial to do so? The aim of the manuscript is to explore the possibility and value of using procrastination in managing suicidal individuals. First, I will argue that procrastination of a suicide intent is possible, which makes inducing this state of mind in people morally problematic. Second, I will argue that there is no intrinsic value in procrastination, although it does have instrumental value. Procrastination holds instrumental value for individuals who delay an irrational act of suicide. Furthermore, procrastination is valuable for clinical psychology, not by making people irrationally delay suicide but for assessing suicide risk. (shrink)

Quel autre genie que celui de Descartes, pere de toute notre metaphysique moderne, pouvait concevoir le fondement reel de toute la science humaine sur le fait primitif de conscience ou de l'existence du moi pensant, comme sur sa base unique, la seule vraie et solide; quel autre pouvait reconnaitre le caractere de l'evidence, ce criterium de toute certitude, dans un petit nombre d'idees premieres, elementaires et simples, donnees a l'ame humaine comme une lumiere qui l'eclaire d'abord sur elle-meme, avant de (...) lui reveler les autres existences? Maine de Biran, Nouvelles considerations sur les rapports du physique et du moral de l'homme, oeuvres, t. IX, Vrin, 1990, p. 108. (shrink)

There are inherent difficulties in a subject like chemistry particularly the notion of a chemical reaction. In this paper the difficulties are discussed from a teaching and learning perspective and from a history of chemistry perspective. Three teaching/learning studies of the incompleteness of the iron thiocyanate reaction in chemical equilibrium are reviewed and it is shown that a recent historical study of the iron thiocyanate reaction has the potential to challenge the interpretation of the incompleteness of the reaction. This establishes (...) a controversial context where students can be introduced to epistemic thinking, that is, how to interrogate chemistry data and form a conclusion which resonates with what we know about the nature of science. A curriculum suggestion for pre-service chemistry teachers is provided. (shrink)

Theory of Literature was originally published in 1949. It is not a textbook introducing the young to the elements of literary appreciation nor a survey of the techniques employed in scholarly research. The authors have sought to unite "poetics" (or literary theory) and "criticism" (evaluation of literature) with "scholarship" ("research") and "literary history" (the "dynamics"of literature, in contrast to the "statics" of theory and criticism).

Dr André Berge : médecin et psychanalyste, est directeur médical du Centre psycho-pédagogique Claude Bernard. Les données traditionnelles, toutes les valeurs, tous les principes sont discutés et sans cesse remis en cause. Et pourtant, personne ne saurait échapper à la nécessité d’adopter dans l’existence une ligne de conduite — c’est-à-dire une morale — sous peine de sombrer dans l’incohérence. Mais l’homme, s’il a besoin d’une morale, n’en est pas moins enclin à l’utiliser pour s’écraser lui-même et tend parfois à transformer (...) cet instrument en une arme qu’il lui arrive de retourner contre sa propre personne. C’est cela qu’il s’agit d’empêcher. Ce que veut établir cet ouvrage, ce sont les bases d’une morale psychologique tendant à remédier au désarroi des esprits et à contribuer à l’avènement d’un nouvel humanisme. (shrink)

A review of the chemical education research literature suggests that the term constructivism is used in two ways: experience-based constructivism and discipline-based constructivism. These two perspectives are examined as an epistemology in relation to the teaching and learning of the concept of idealization in chemistry. It is claimed that experience-based constructivism is powerless to inform the origin of such concepts in chemistry and while discipline-based constructivism can admit such theoretical concepts as idealization it does not offer any unique perspectives that (...) cannot be obtained from other models. Chemical education researchers do not consistently appeal to constructivism as an epistemology or as a teaching/learning perspective and it is shown that, while it draws attention to worthwhile teaching/learning strategies, it cannot be considered as foundational to chemical education research and tends to be used more as an educational label than as an undergirding theory. (shrink)

A review of the chemical education research literature suggests that the term constructivism is used in two ways: experience-based constructivism and discipline-based constructivism. These two perspectives are examined as an epistemology in relation to the teaching and learning of the concept of idealization in chemistry. It is claimed that experience-based constructivism is powerless to inform the origin of such concepts in chemistry and while discipline-based constructivism can admit such theoretical concepts as idealization it does not offer any unique perspectives that (...) cannot be obtained from other models. Chemical education researchers do not consistently appeal to constructivism as an epistemology or as a teaching/learning perspective and it is shown that, while it draws attention to worthwhile teaching/learning strategies, it cannot be considered as foundational to chemical education research and tends to be used more as an educational label than as an undergirding theory. (shrink)

Historical case studies of scientific concepts are a useful medium for showing how scientific ideas originate and how they change over time. They are thus a useful tool for conveying knowledge about the nature of science. This paper focuses on the concepts of heat and temperature and discusses some issues related to choosing the content for a historical case study which incorporates not only nature of science perspectives but understandings related to what we know about the teaching and learning of (...) these concepts. The case study is designed for first-year university chemistry students as an introduction to their study of thermodynamics. The paper includes a general chemistry textbook analysis of the heat and temperature concepts and a discussion of the caloric theory of heat, thermometry, and a brief survey of how the energy concept transformed our understanding of heat and temperature. (shrink)

Schopenhauer, "le vieux prophete", disait Nietzsche. Paru en 1819 dans l'obscurite la plus totale, son ouvrage majeur, Le Monde comme Volonte et comme representation, lui a valu d'atteindre en 1900 a une celebrite posthume telle qu'aucun penseur n'en a jamais connue - influence que son extension meme a fini par occulter aujourd'hui. Car Schopenhauer a fait cristalliser la crise des croyances qui marque la fin du XIXe siecle, dessinant pour l'avenir la physionomie de l'homme moderne. Un homme qui sous un (...) ciel vide eprouve dans le ressentiment la condition qu'il s'est lui-meme assignee : un intellect regi secretement par des pulsions irrationnelles, une concurrence vitale qui l'isole de ses semblables et de la nature, une sexualite dominatrice mais sans joie, une irresponsabilite aveugle vis-a-vis de son propre comportement comme de l'histoire collective, bref l'enracinement de son existence entiere dans une inconscience fondamentale. Nietzsche et Freud n'ont pas ete les seuls heritiers de Schopenhauer qui a remodele ce territoire invisible sur lequel la litterature edifie son discours. Aussi est-il present, on l'ignore generalement, dans la genealogie de tant de grands ecrivains - de Tolstoi, Strindberg, Maupassant, Conrad, Proust, Pirandello, jusqu'a Kafka, Thomas Mann, Celine, Beckett, Bernhard. Ce sont les voies de ce renouvellement inventif qui sont ici tracees. (shrink)

Some, but not all, of the mistakes a person makes when acting in apparently necessary self-defense are reasonable: we take them not to violate the rights of the apparent aggressor. I argue that this is explained by duties grounded in agents' entitlements to a fair distribution of the risk of suffering unjust harm. I suggest that the content of these duties is filled in by a social signaling norm, and offer some moral constraints on the form such a norm can (...) take. (shrink)

Le projet de réforme de la Chancellerie du 13 mars 2017 consacre pour l’essentiel les solutions dégagées depuis plusieurs décennies par la jurisprudence en matière de réparation des dommages résultant d’une atteinte à un bien corporel dont la finalité est de trouver un juste équilibre entre le droit de la victime à obtenir la réparation intégrale de ses préjudices et la nécessité de ne pas sacrifier les intérêts du responsable.

La présente contribution analyse le rôle du principe de précaution lorsque des médicaments ou des vaccins exposent les patients à un risque d’atteintes corporelles. S’il était pleinement consacré en droit de la responsabilité civile, le principe de précaution permettrait de faire peser sur les laboratoires pharmaceutiques, non seulement la charge des dommages que les médicaments ou les vaccins causent, mais encore celle des risques graves et irréversibles, même scientifiquement incertains, auxquels ils exposent les patients, ce qui peut sembler injuste. L’examen (...) du droit positif montre cependant que le principe de précaution a d’ores et déjà contribué à assouplir les conditions de la responsabilité civile en matière de médicaments et de vaccins. (shrink)

Dette nummeret av Etikk i praksis er i utgangspunktet ikke et temanummer. Profesjonsetiske utfordringer synes likevel å utgjøre et gjennomgangstema i de fleste av artiklene som utgis i dette nummeret. Det er en påminnelse om at en aldri blir ferdig med etiske problemstillinger innenfor et fagfelt, siden fagfeltene og profesjonelle oppgaver samt forventninger til profesjonen forandres hele tiden.

I dette nummeret av Etikk i praksis ønsker vi å fokusere på et betent problemområde, nemlig etikken rundt teknologisk fravalg og tilvalg av fremtidige syke og funksjonshemmede barn. Det handler om abort, medisinsk teknologi og valg av barn. Det kan synes som om vi står overfor nye muligheter for fravalg og tilvalg som ikke bare setter en ny debatt, men som samtidig krever en tilbakevending og nyåpning av tidligere gjennomdiskuterte spørsmål og tema. Debattene rundt «valg av barn» berører dype, eksistensielle (...) dimensjoner ved menneskelivet. I tillegg berører det store samfunnsmessige temaer som inklusjon og menneskeverd, selvbestemmelse, abort, eugenikk og samfunnets forståelse av funksjonshemming. (shrink)

The evidence-based practice movement fails to pay attention to and to respect sufficiently the fundamental differences that exist between clinical practice and the kind of research that is modeled on the natural sciences. According to M. Polanyi knowledge, will always have a tacit dimension that is not possible to operationally define. This paper argues that the tacit dimension is especially important in clinical knowledge. This represents a challenge to the dominance of positivism and to the evidence-based practice movement. As psychiatrists, (...) we must be able to attend to the patient's perspective, his subjective experience and context. Clinical practice is a careful balance between dialogue and technique. Evidence-based psychiatry might tilt this balance toward a more technical attitude. This could pose problems, considering the importance of the so-called nonspecific factors in psychotherapy. (shrink)

Det er muligens ikke lenger et spørsmål om, men når mennesker med Downs syndrom ikke lenger finnes blant oss. Moderne medisinsk teknologi brukt i masseundersøkelser av gravide, tilsier at det nesten ikke behøver å bli født mennesker med Downs syndrom i fremtiden. I den politiske debatten i flere av de nordiske landene er dette kontroversielt. Det handler om et samfunn der det er plass til alle, hevdes det. På samme tid tas moderne genteknologi i bruk for bl.a. å forhindre at (...) mennesker disponert for Huntingtons sykdom eller arvelig brystkreft blir født. Om noen generasjoner kan slike sykdommer være utryddet. Dette påkaller imidlertid ikke henvisninger til «sortering» og «seleksjon». I denne artikkelen undersøkes de viktigste forutsetningene for hvorfor fosterdiagnostikk på noen indikasjoner vekker etisk debatt, mens det ikke skjer i andre tilfeller. Det argumenteres for at den medisinske forståelsen av alvorlighetsgrad ved en sykdom/funksjonshemming ikke gir oss nøkkelen til å forstå den etiske bekymringen rundt seleksjon. Identitets- og anerkjennelsesproblematikk, hevdes det, er kjernen i kontroversene rundt fosterdiagnostikk i Norden. Derfor står det noe vesentlig på spill i fosterdiagnostikkdebatten. Men bare for noen grupper. (shrink)