Two great theories - one in philosophy, one in architecture - emerge nearly simultaneously in the twentieth century: Gilles Deleuze?s understanding of the?concept,? that is, defining philosophy as an activity that produces concepts, and Peter Eisenman?s idea of the?project? as a platform,?position,? or?theory? of an architect. My intention is to suggest and problematize the idea of the concept as?capacity? or?potentiality? implying the production of a multitude of?concepts? or varying?conceptions.? Deleuze?s great significance for architecture of this century allowed for the construction (...) of the?concept? as?author?s potential,? the source of activity and creative architectural acts. An architectural concept, determined in the course of the text, and thanks to which architectural terminology is redefined, could potentially be quite useful in philosophy and theory of the subject. nema. (shrink)

To open a newspaper or turn on the television it would appear that science and religion are polar opposites - mutually exclusive bedfellows competing for hearts and minds. There is little indication of the rich interaction between religion and science throughout history, much of which continues today. From ancient to modern times, mathematicians have played a key role in this interaction. This is a book on the relationship between mathematics and religious beliefs. It aims to show that, throughout scientific history, (...) mathematics has been used to make sense of the 'big' questions of life, and that religious beliefs sometimes drove mathematicians to mathematics to help them make sense of the world. Containing contributions from a wide array of scholars in the fields of philosophy, history of science and history of mathematics, this book shows that the intersection between mathematics and theism is rich in both culture and character. Chapters cover a fascinating range of topics including the Sect of the Pythagoreans, Newton's views on the apocalypse, Charles Dodgson's Anglican faith and Gödel's proof of the existence of God. (shrink)

Our intention is to construct the conditions for a new position that more closely explains the reality of the object (its location, concreteness, possibility of being seen, extension, instantaneousness, etc.), but also the object’s movement, the “situation” in which it is or becomes a potential agent that “works,” influences us and incites us to _movement _towards us, indeed gives us a _turn_ towards an ideal object and its realization. Using a variety of texts that thematize the object, a few passages (...) from Hegel, we attempt to reveal connections between key architectural (and not only architectural) concepts, form a given epistemological order, and differentiate amongst basic acts and operations that could be ascribed to the object. (shrink)

This article provides a critical evaluation of the central components of Integrative Bioethics, a project aiming at a bioethical framework reconceptualization. Its proponents claim that this new system of thought has developed a better bioethical methodology than mainstream Western bioethics, a claim that we criticize here. We deal especially with the buzz words of Integrative Bioethics – pluriperspectivism, integrativity, orientational knowledge, as well as with its underlying theory of moral truth. The first part of the paper looks at what the (...) claims of a superior methodology consist in. The second reveals pluriperspectivism and integrativity to be underdeveloped, hazy terms, but which seem to be underpinned by two theses – the incommensurability and the inclusiveness theses. These theses we critically scrutinize. We then consider strategies the project's proponents might apply to curb these theses in order to acquire minimal consistency for their framework. This part of the article also deals with the conception of moral truth that drives the theory, a position equally burdened with inconsistencies. In the last part of the article, we observe the concept of orientational knowledge, and develop two interpretations of its possible meaning. We claim that, following the first interpretation, Integrative Bioethics is completely descriptive, in which case it is informative and important, but hardly bioethics; if it is normative, following the second interpretation, it is bioethics as we already know it, but merely clad in rhetorical embellishments. We conclude that there is nothing new about this project, and that its inconsistencies are reason enough for its abandonment. (shrink)

This article provides a critical evaluation of the central components of Integrative Bioethics, a project aiming at a bioethical framework reconceptualization. Its proponents claim that this new system of thought has developed a better bioethical methodology than mainstream Western bioethics, a claim that we criticize here. We deal especially with the buzz words of Integrative Bioethics – pluriperspectivism, integrativity, orientational knowledge, as well as with its underlying theory of moral truth. The first part of the paper looks at what the (...) claims of a superior methodology consist in. The second reveals pluriperspectivism and integrativity to be underdeveloped, hazy terms, but which seem to be underpinned by two theses – the incommensurability and the inclusiveness theses. These theses we critically scrutinize. We then consider strategies the project's proponents might apply to curb these theses in order to acquire minimal consistency for their framework. This part of the article also deals with the conception of moral truth that drives the theory, a position equally burdened with inconsistencies. In the last part of the article, we observe the concept of orientational knowledge, and develop two interpretations of its possible meaning. We claim that, following the first interpretation, Integrative Bioethics is completely descriptive, in which case it is informative and important, but hardly bioethics; if it is normative, following the second interpretation, it is bioethics as we already know it, but merely clad in rhetorical embellishments. We conclude that there is nothing new about this project, and that its inconsistencies are reason enough for its abandonment. (shrink)

Autor u ovom clanku zastupa tezu da se Niceova kritika morala zasniva na njegovoj metafizici, u kojoj pojam volje za moc, shvacen u duhu grckog pojma physisa, igra kljucnu ulogu. On pokazuje da je prevrednovanje svih vrednosti kao prevladavanje platonisticko-hriscanskog nihilizma usmereno na afirmaciju?zivota u skladu s prirodom?, pri cemu je priroda shvacena upravo kao physis. On takodje pokazuje zasto je za Nicea neosnovana pretenzija na univerzalnost i objektivnost vladajuceg sistema vrednosti. Na kraju, autor ukazuje na teskoce Niceovog platonizma i (...) zakljucuje da neuspeh modernosti da opravda moral namece zadatak ispitivanja mogucnosti rehabilitacije Aristotelove prakticne filozofije. (shrink)

Autor u ovom clanku zastupa tezu da se Niceova kritika morala zasniva na njegovoj metafizici, u kojoj pojam volje za moc, shvacen u duhu grckog pojma physisa, igra kljucnu ulogu. On pokazuje da je prevrednovanje svih vrednosti kao prevladavanje platonisticko-hriscanskog nihilizma usmereno na afirmaciju?zivota u skladu s prirodom?, pri cemu je priroda shvacena upravo kao physis. On takodje pokazuje zasto je za Nicea neosnovana pretenzija na univerzalnost i objektivnost vladajuceg sistema vrednosti. Na kraju, autor ukazuje na teskoce Niceovog platonizma i (...) zakljucuje da neuspeh modernosti da opravda moral namece zadatak ispitivanja mogucnosti rehabilitacije Aristotelove prakticne filozofije. (shrink)

In this paper the author reconstructs the meaning of Derrida's concept of "declarative engagement". He shows that Derrida revives the modern idea of the "engaged intellectual" and even develops it in a radical, prophetic/messianic form. The final consequence of such a position, in the opinion of the author, is a paradoxical coupling of political decisionism with social escapism, which renews in a specific way the nostalgia for the "heroic role" of the Marxist intellectual vanguard. This is a major reason for (...) Derrida's popularity in Serbia, it is argued, but can also be taken as the starting point for an analysis of the problem of responsibility of engaged intellectuals. U ovom radu autor rekonstruise znacenje Deridinog koncepta "deklarativni angazman". On pokazuje kako Derida ozivljava modernu ideju 'angazovanog intelektualca' i cak je razvija u radikalnoj, profetskoj/mesijanskoj formi. Prema autoru, krajnja posledica takvog stanovista jeste paradoksalan spoj politickog decizionizma i socijalnog eskapizma, sto na specifican nacin obnavlja nostalgiju za 'herojskom ulogom' marksisticke intelektualne avangarde. Autor smatra daje to jedan od najvaznijih razloga Deridine popularnosti u Srbiji, ali i polaziste za analizu problema odgovornosti angazovanih intelektualaca. (shrink)

Researching ethical problems and their frequency could give us a complex picture and greater insight into the types of ethical issues that pharmacists face in providing health care. The overall aim of this study was to assess the pharmacist’s perception of difficulty and frequency of selected ethical issues encountered by the community pharmacists in their everyday practice. A quantitative cross sectional multicenter study was performed using a validated survey instrument - Ethical Issue Scale for Community Pharmacy. The results of the (...) analysis of 690 completely filled out instruments showed the difference between the ethical issues which always occurred, and the ones that pharmacists found most difficult. The majority of respondents were familiar with the Code of Ethics but the correlation between the familiarity and the perceived usefulness of the code in resolving problems in everyday practice was negative. Results showed that patients’ well-being had a high influence on pharmacists’ behavior. The results provided quantitative data by the examination of specific ethical issues and their occurrence. Further empirical research is recommended in order to systematically identify the ethical issues faced by community pharmacists. (shrink)

The advocates of Integrative Bioethics have insisted that this recently emerging project aspires to become a new stage of bioethical development, surpassing both biomedically oriented bioethics and global bioethics. We claim in this paper that if the project wants to successfully replace the two existing paradigms, it at least needs to properly address and surmount the lack of common moral vocabulary problem. This problem points to a semantic incommensurability due to cross-language communication in moral terms. This paper proceeds as follows. (...) In the first part, we provide an overview of Integrative Bioethics and its conceptual building blocks: mutlidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity. In the second part, we disclose the problem of semantic incommensurability. The third part gives an overview of various positions on the understanding of interdisciplinarity and integration in interdisciplinary communication, and corresponding attempts at solving the lack of common moral vocabulary problem. Here we lean mostly on Holbrook’s three theses regarding the character of interdisciplinary communication. Finally, in the fourth part, we discuss a particular bioethical case—that of euthanasia—to demonstrate the challenge semantic incommensurability poses to dialogues in Integrative Bioethics. We conclude that Integrative Bioethics does not offer a methodological toolset that would warrant optimism in its advocates’ predictions of surpassing current modes of doing bioethics. Since Integrative Bioethics leaves controversial methodological questions unresolved on almost all counts and shows no attempts at overcoming the critical stumbling points, we argue for its rejection. (shrink)

In this paper, author deals with Heidegger's account of the modern age as the epoch based on Western metaphysics. In the first part of the paper, he shows that, according to Heidegger, modern interpretation of the reality as the world picture, is essentially determined by Descartes' philosophy. Then, author exposes Heidegger's interpretation of the turn which already took place in Plato's metaphysics and which made possible Descartes' metaphysics and modern epoch. In the second part of the paper, author explores Heidegger's (...) interpretation of science and technology as shoots of very metaphysics. Heidegger emphasizes that the essence of technology corresponds to the essence of subjectivity and shows how the metaphysics of subjectivity subsequently finds its end in Nietzsche's metaphysics of the will to power, as the last word of Western philosophy. In the concluding part, author argues that the contemporary processes of globalization can be just understood as processes of completion of metaphysics. They can be identified as a global rule of the essence of technology. On the basis of Heidegger's vision of overcoming metaphysics, author concludes that it opens the possibility of a philosophy of finitude which points to dialogue with the Other as a way of resolving the key practical issues of the contemporary world. U ovom clanku autor se bavi Hajdegerovim shvatanjem moderne kao epohe zasnovane na zapadnjackoj metafizici. U prvom delu rada, autor pokazuje da je, prema Hajdegeru, novovekovno shvatanje stvarnosti kao slike sveta sustinski odredjeno Dekartovom filozofijom. Potom izlaze Hajdegerovu interpretaciju preokreta koji se vec dogodio u Platonovoj metafizici a koji je omogucio Dekartovo utemeljenje moderne filozofije i moderne epohe. U drugom delu rada, autor istrazuje Hajdegerovu interpretaciju nauke i tehnike kao izdanke same metafizike. Hajdeger pokazuje da sustina moderne tehnike odgovara sustini modernog subjekta i pokazuje kako se metafizika subjektivnosti konsekventno dovrsava u Niceovoj metafizici volje za moc, kao poslednjoj reci zapadnjacke filozofije. U poslednjem delu rada, autor ukazuje na to da se savremeni procesi globalizacije mogu razumeti upravo kao procesi dovrsavanja metafizike. Oni se mogu prepoznati kao planetarna vladavina sustine tehnike. Na osnovu Hajdegerovog vidjenja prevladavanja metafizike, autor zakljucuje da ono otvara mogucnost za jednu filozofiju konacnosti koja upucuje na dijalog sa Drugim kao nacin resavanja kljucnih prakticnih pitanja savremenosti. (shrink)

The subject of this paper are the implications of Lyotard's critique of the intellectual as a public actor. It is shown that Lyotard's critique of politics results in a rejection of political theory, real politics and political involvement of the intellectual. In place of that, Lyotard develops his concept of "philosophical politics", i.e. "reflexive writing" as a specific form of political disengagement. The author argues that Lyotard's critique of the political involvement of the intellectual is acceptable, but that Lyotard's concept (...) of "philosophical politics" cannot compensate for the lack of an acceptable real politics and an appropriate political theory. It can be viewed only as an individual-existential posture of resistance to the dominant political patterns which, as preconditions of its own possibility, must presuppose the existence of an acceptable real politics and appropriate political doctrine. Osnovni predmet ovog rada predstavljaju implikacije Liotarove kritike intelektualca kao politickog delatnika. Autor najpre pokazuje da Liotarova kritika politike rezultira odbacivanjem politicke teorije, realne politike i politickog angazmana intelektualca. Umesto toga, Liotar razvija koncept "filozofske politike", tj. "refleksivnog pisanja", kao specifican oblik politickog dezangazmana. Za autora je Liotarova kritika politickog angazmana intelektualca prihvatljiva, ali naglasava da Liotarov koncept "filozofske politike "ne moze nadoknaditi nedostatak prihvatljive realne politike i odgovarajuce politicke teorije. Naime, ona moze da se shvati samo kao jedan individualno-egzistencijalni stav otpora prema vladajucim politickim obrascima, koji mora da pretpostavi postojanje prihvatljive realne politike i odgovarajuce politicke doktrine kao uslov sopstvene mogucnosti. (shrink)

Many problems that arise when providing pharmacy services may contain some ethical components and the aims of this study were to develop and validate a scale that could assess difficulties of ethical issues, as well as the frequency of those occurrences in everyday practice of community pharmacists. Development and validation of the scale was conducted in three phases: generating items for the initial survey instrument after qualitative analysis; defining the design and format of the instrument; validation of the instrument. The (...) constructed Ethical Issue scale for community pharmacy setting has two parts containing the same 16 items for assessing the difficulty and frequency thereof. The results of the 171 completely filled out scales were analyzed. The Cronbach’s α value of the part of the instrument that examines difficulties of the ethical situations was 0.83 and for the part of the instrument that examined frequency of the ethical situations was 0.84. Test–retest reliability for both parts of the instrument was satisfactory with all Interclass correlation coefficient values above 0.6,. The 16-item scale, as a self assessment tool, demonstrated a high degree of content, criterion, and construct validity and test–retest reliability. The results support its use as a research tool to asses difficulty and frequency of ethical issues in community pharmacy setting. The validated scale needs to be further employed on a larger sample of pharmacists. (shrink)

Unavailability of published data and studies focused on young researchers in Europe and research integrity issues reveals that clear understanding and stance on this subject within European area is lacking. Our study provides information on attitudes and experiences of European researchers at early career stages, based on a limited sample of respondents. The study provides both quantitative and qualitative results for the examined issues. The data suggest that awareness and interest of the younger researchers surveyed in research integrity issues is (...) high, however, it is often based on self-initiatives, with many of the respondents not having adequate training or any possibility to obtain it. Our attitude survey conducted within the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers indicates that only 22 % of respondents had an opportunity to obtain relevant training, and that only one third believed that institutions and supervisors regularly paid attention to it. Further, we noted certain differences between disciplines. The study also reveals that many younger researchers felt they faced problems due to the misconduct of their senior colleagues and the existing institutional culture. The results of the study indicate a need for better prevention mechanisms, training and raising awareness activities. Preferably, junior researchers should be given an active role in shaping the integrity culture. It should be noted that the presented results should be considered in the context of the limitations stemming from the small-scale survey. This paper encourages further research activities on research integrity practices to provide stronger evidence on the attitudes and experiences of young researchers in Europe and other parts of the world. (shrink)

The concept features as a vital element in architectural protocol and its vocabulary. If architecture and philosophy are defined as creation of concepts, then they are the terra nullius shared by both disciplines. By distinguishing the architectural concept from its philosophical counterpart, this paper analyzes the former as an entity that animates and directs a project as the documental prefiguration of an architectural object. In a more radical move, we consider architecture itself as a concept, that is, what makes architecture (...) what it is and what this discipline can become tomorrow. In addition to decisively participating in the process of generating an object yet to be constructed (the fetus of a building), on a correlative level, the concept has an essential role in theoretical self-thematization of architecture and guards the future of the architectural profession as an autonomous intellectual discipline. (shrink)

The answer to the question of whether there is a tension between the insight that the concept of dispositif reveals to us the variability of objective reality and the theory that the design of an architectural object depends on the various elements captured by the concept of dispositif The primary thesis of this paper is that the application of dispositifs in the field of architecture helps us to better understand this concept – from Michel Foucault to Gilles Deleuze to Giorgio (...) Agamben. In other words, the paper presents arguments that the unstable philosophical concept of dispositif can be made more precise through the experiences of architectural practice and theory. On this occasion, I would like to show not only why architects need philosophy, but also, conversely, how an architect and his practice can help philosophers. (shrink)

The World Health Organization has published a global priority list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to guide research and development of new antibiotics. Every pathogen on this list requires R&D activity, but some are more attractive for private sector investments, as evidenced by the current antibacterial pipeline. A “pipeline coordinator” is a governmental/non-profit organization that closely tracks the antibacterial pipeline and actively supports R&D across all priority pathogens employing new financing tools.

Earl (2019) argues that the current uniform restriction of innovative practice limits clinicians’ ability to provide optimal treatment and stunts progress in medicine. We agree that it is important...

A particularly strong reason to vaccinate against transmittable diseases, based on considerations of harm, is to contribute to the realization of population-level herd immunity. We argue, however, that herd immunity alone is insufficient for deriving a strong harm-based moral obligation to vaccinate in all circumstances, since the obligation significantly weakens well above and well below the herd immunity threshold. The paper offers two additional harm-based arguments that, together with the herd immunity argument, consolidates our moral obligation. First, we argue that (...) individuals should themselves aim not to expose others to risk of harm, and that this consideration becomes stronger the more non-vaccinated people there are, i.e., the further we are below herd immunity. Second, we elaborate on two pragmatic reasons to vaccinate beyond the realization of herd immunity, pertaining to instability of vaccination rates and population heterogeneity, and argue that vaccinating above the threshold should serve as a precautionary measure for buttressing herd immunity. We also show that considerations of harm have normative primacy in establishing this obligation over considerations of fairness. Although perfectly sound, considerations of fairness are, at worst secondary, or at best complementary to considerations of harm. (shrink)

This volume gathers together for the first time are all the key texts in a crucial debate in modern philosophy, centered on Leibniz's famous 1695 essay, the "New System of the Nature of Substances and their Communication," in which he introduced his strikingly original theory of metaphysics. His "system" became increasingly famous and drew him into discussion and development of these ideas, both in public and in private, with a variety of thinkers, most notably the great French philosopher Pierre Bayle. (...) Woolhouse's and Francks's new English edition gives the only full representation of this debate, and will therefore be essential reading for anyone who wishes to gain a proper understanding of Leibniz's philosophy and its intelletual context. All the texts are newly translated and extensively annotated; many appear in English for the first time. (shrink)

When applied in population-level contexts, such as schools or business, mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) find themselves in a crossfire between two different kinds of criticisms. On one side, some worry that MBIs’ normative commitments might be “too thick,” worrying that MBIs might come with a particular conception of the good, and significant ethical and religious commitments. On the other side, some worry that contemporary MBIs are ethically “too thin,” as they shed too many of their original Buddhist ethical and soteriological goals. (...) In this chapter, it is argued that contemporary MBIs should remain normatively thin, as that makes them more suitable for population-level contexts. Against “thickness worries,” it is argued that MBIs are compatible with liberal respect for autonomy, as the benefits are often autonomy-enhancing, which makes MBIs potentially valuable across a broad range of conceptions of the good. The second line of argument is developed through a discussion of MBIs in schools. (shrink)

Antibiotic research and development has failed to produce innovative antibiotics in the past two decades, which is due to both scientific and economic factors. We reviewed national and international funding agencies and critically assessed current grant funding mechanisms. Finally, we propose four complementary grant-funding incentives aimed to help developers along the R&D pipeline. Equally important objective of these incentives is to address some of the known R&D risks and bottlenecks.

This chapter offers a proceduralist argument against capital punishment. More specifically, it contends that the possibility of irrevocable mistakes precludes the just administration of the death penalty. At stake is a principle of political morality: legal institutions must strive to remedy their mistakes and to compensate those who suffer from wrongful sanctions. The incompatibility of remedy and execution is the crux of the irrevocability argument: because the wrongly executed cannot enjoy the morally required compensation, execution is impermissible. Along with defending (...) his key premises, Yost explains the complicated role that sentencing uncertainty plays in the argument. He concludes by noting some of the flaws in substantive consequentialist and retributivist justifications of capital punishment. (shrink)

Plato's dialogues frequently criticize traditional Greek myth, yet Plato also integrates myth with his writing. Daniel S. Werner confronts this paradox through an in-depth analysis of the Phaedrus, Plato's most mythical dialogue. Werner argues that the myths of the Phaedrus serve several complex functions: they bring nonphilosophers into the philosophical life; they offer a starting point for philosophical inquiry; they unify the dialogue as a literary and dramatic whole; they draw attention to the limits of language and the limits of (...) knowledge; and they allow Plato to co-opt cultural authority as a way of defining and legitimating the practice of philosophy. Platonic myth, as a species of traditional tale, is thus both distinct from philosophical dialectic and similar to it. Ultimately, the most powerful effect of Platonic myth is the way in which it leads readers to participate in Plato's dialogues and to engage in a process of self-examination. (shrink)

We present a propositional and a first-order logic for reasoning about higher-order upper and lower probabilities. We provide sound and complete axiomatizations for the logics and we prove decidability in the propositional case. Furthermore, we show that the introduced logics generalize some existing probability logics.

We present a propositional and a first-order logic for reasoning about higher-order upper and lower probabilities. We provide sound and complete axiomatizations for the logics and we prove decidability in the propositional case. Furthermore, we show that the introduced logics generalize some existing probability logics.