Ethicist assumptions about the causes and solutions of environmental problems are widely held within environmental philosophy. It is typically assumed that an important cause of problems are the attitudes towards the natural environment held by individuals and that problems can be solved by getting people to adopt a more ethical orientation towards the environment. This article analyses and criticises these claims. Both the highly mediated nature of the relationship between individuals and the natural environment and the pervasive pressure on firms (...) in market economies to reduce their costs provide reasons to question the ethicist assumptions. (shrink)

The 2012 Varsity Medical Debate between Oxford University and Cambridge University provided a stage for representatives from these famous institutions to debate the motion “This house believes that trainee doctors should be able to use the developing world to gain clinical experience.” This article brings together many of the arguments put forward during the debate, centring around three major points of contention: the potential intrinsic wrong of ‘using’ patients in developing countries; the effects on the elective participant; and the effects (...) on the host community. The article goes on to critically appraise overseas elective programmes, offering a number of solutions that would help optimise their effectiveness in the developing world. (shrink)

Rage against the system : the unity of truth -- A philosophy of hope? The universality of truth -- Absolutely no absolutes? Ricœur's encounter with Thévenaz -- Finitude and the infinite : the God of the philosophers -- Finitude and evil : the crucial distinction -- Rightly relating evil and finitude -- The poetic symbol of creation -- The mysterious unity of creation -- The original goodness of creation -- Conclusion. New frontiers between philosophy and theology.

Let ‘semantic relevance’ be the thesis that the wide semantic properties of representational mental states (like beliefs and desires) are causally relevant to behavior. A popular way of arguing for semantic relevance runs as follows: start with a sufficient counterfactual condition for causal or explanatory relevance, and show that wide semantic properties meet it with respect to behavior (e.g., Loewer & Lepore (1987,1989), Rescorla (2014), Yablo (2003)).This paper discusses an in‐principle limitation of this strategy: even the most sophisticated counterfactual criteria (...) systematically misclassify irrelevant properties as relevant when they stand in certain kinds of modal co‐variation or ‘entanglement’ relations to genuinely relevant properties. This entanglement problem, I argue, is more general and more serious than proponents of the counterfactual strategy have recognized: it threatens recent interventionist arguments for semantic relevance, and is not easily solved by appeal to proportionality or naturalness. I end by suggesting that proponents of semantic relevance may need to shift their attention from patterns of counterfactuals to the lawful psychological generalizations that explain them. (shrink)

At the outset of an ethnographic inquiry, we navigated national and international resources to search for theoretical and practical guidance on obtaining parents and children’s informed consent/assent. While much theoretical guidance debating ethical issues to children’s participation in research was found, a paucity of published papers offering practical guidance on assent processes and/or visual representations of child assent forms and information sheets was discovered. The purpose of this article is to describe our experiences, both theoretically and practically, of negotiating the (...) process of obtaining informed consent and assent with parents and children for a non-therapeutic qualitative research study. We hope this article instigates a platform for others to explicate their experience and contributes to the construction of a coherent body of knowledge which will clearly delineate important elements that must be considered when negotiating children’s agreement to participate in research. (shrink)

In this paper, we examine the scientific, legal, and ethical foundations for inclusion of transgender women athletes in competitive sport, drawing on IOC principles and relevant Court of Arbitration for Sport decisions. We argue that the inclusion of trans athletes in competition commensurate with their legal gender is the most consistent position with these principles of fair and equitable sport. Biological restrictions, such as endogenous testosterone limits, are not consistent with IOC and CAS principles. We explore the implications for recognizing (...) that endogenous testosterone values are a ‘natural physical trait’ and that excluding legally recognized women for high endogenous testosterone values constitutes discrimination on the basis of a natural physical trait. We suggest that the justificatory burden for such prima facie discrimination is unlikely to be met. Thus, in place of a limit on endogenous testosterone for women, we argue that ‘legally recognized gender’ is most fully in line with IOC and CAS principles. (shrink)

This article compares two attempts to return to realism after Kant’s ‘Copernican Revolution’. Quentin Meillassoux, representing the ‘speculative realism’ school, rejects both Kantian and post-Kantian idealism in favour of a materialism based on the epistemology of the modern sciences. But Meillassoux is unaware of the element of choice in his philosophical position, and he does not solve the essential problem posed by idealism which concerns the place of the subject in being. Ricœur, on the other hand, sublates Kant by a (...) deeper embrace of finitude that leads to the self-displacement of the subject, and a ‘Second Copernican Revolution’, one that he freely admits can only be arrived at by Jaspersian ‘Philosophical Faith’. The article concludes by showing how crossing the border into theological faith offers a virtue-ethical perspective on the question of realism and idealism: it is in fact the choice between a childlike humility that receives reality as it is, and an arrogant self-positing that puts the subject in the position of God. (shrink)

The paper aims to investigate the thesis of the so-called Neue Mythologie within the fragment entitled “Das älteste Systemprogramm des deutschen Idealismus” [“The Oldest Systematic Program of German Idealism”]. The latter presents a revolutionary project of social pedagogy linked to the use of the aesthetic character of myth and poetry in the formation of the conscience and the intellect of the people. The program, therefore, formulates a fertile dialogue between the emancipatory potential of the Enlightenment and Jena Romanticism, in that (...) it proposes a re-evaluation of feelings and Sinnlichkeit [sensuousness] in connection to modern rationality and freedom. The links between the rational mythology of the program and Hegelian philosophy will be explored, starting from his early writings, which are strictly concerned with the importance of a popular and sensuous religion (Volksreligion). Secondly, the work will retrace the same sensuous externalization of philosophical ideas within the relationships between art, religion and philosophy in the mature system, addressing the problem of Hegel’s change of heart regarding art and mythology between the two phases of his thought. In the end the value of symbolical mediation of concepts and idea will be established. (shrink)

We study a modal system ¯T, that extends the classical (prepositional) modal system T and whose language is provided with modal operators M inn (nN) to be interpreted, in the usual kripkean semantics, as there are more than n accessible worlds such that.... We find reasonable axioms for ¯T and we prove for it completeness, compactness and decidability theorems.

Un invito a vedere nella vita e nelle opere di don Sturzo delle risposte alle difficoltà del mondo attuale, approfondendo le ragioni di un impegno cristiano per il recupero della dimensione etica dell’economia, della politica e delle istituzioni.

many symbols. We define o, as the probability that an arbitrary machine be circular and we prove that o, is a random number that goes beyond..

It is commonly thought that that the best system account of lawhood ((Mill (1843), Ramsey (1978)[fp. 1928], Lewis (1973)) makes available a nice explanation for why laws are ‘distinctively appropriate targets of scientific inquiry’ (Hall, 2015). The explanation takes the following general form: laws are especially valuable for agents like us because they efficiently encode a lot of valuable (non-nomic) information in a tractable format. The goal of this paper is to challenge this style of explanation: I argue that the (...) general principle it presupposes is in conflict with our best account of practical rationality. After considering and rejecting a number of proposals for dissolving the tension, I conclude that BSA proponents may need to scale back the explanatory ambitions of their theory; in particular, they may need to give up the hope of non-circular explanations of the value of nomic information. I end by outlining some challenges for the humean world-view that results after this shift. (shrink)

We study the following natural strong variant of destroying Borel ideals: $\mathbb {P}$ $+$ -destroys $\mathcal {I}$ if $\mathbb {P}$ adds an $\mathcal {I}$ -positive set which has finite intersection with every $A\in \mathcal {I}\cap V$. Also, we discuss the associated variants $$ \begin{align*} \mathrm{non}^*(\mathcal{I},+)=&\min\big\{|\mathcal{Y}|:\mathcal{Y}\subseteq\mathcal{I}^+,\; \forall\;A\in\mathcal{I}\;\exists\;Y\in\mathcal{Y}\;|A\cap Y| \omega $ ; (4) we characterise when the Laver–Prikry, $\mathbb {L}(\mathcal {I}^*)$ -generic real $+$ -destroys $\mathcal {I}$, and in the case of P-ideals, when exactly $\mathbb {L}(\mathcal {I}^*)$ $+$ -destroys $\mathcal {I}$ ; (...) and (5) we briefly discuss an even stronger form of destroying ideals closely related to the additivity of the null ideal. (shrink)

Machine generated contents note: Chapter 1 -- The Prison of the Known -- Chapter 2 -- Can We Live without Conflict? -- Chapter 3 -- The Meaning of Dialogue -- Chapter 4 -- Practice and Solidarity: We Are the World -- Chapter 5 -- Science and the Religious Mind -- Chapter 6 -- A Call for Active Being: Being at Home in the World.

We live in dangerous times, ruled by the imperatives of what Hannah Arendt calls “the catastrophic interiority of the selfish I” 1 which threatens the planet and the survival of humanity. But I believe, nevertheless, that it is possible to reinvent the world since, by and large, it is evident that its shape reflects our notions of reality and value, the way we weave together the various strands of existence. Antonio Gramsci may have had something like this in mind when (...) he wrote that it is only by “the conquest of greater consciousness” that we will be able to bring a different kind of culture into being because, “man is above all spirit,” a creature, that is, with imagina- tion, the ability to reconfigure the way we see ourselves and the world. Just as importantly, he argues that this may mean returning to some things we once knew but have now forgotten or ignored. Poetry or, to be more accurate, poetic ways of seeing, may be one of these things, to the extent that it generates ways of seeing beyond the merely rational. In this essay I therefore want to explore the work of Judith Wright and the ways in which it explores the possibilities of being ‘true to the earth’. 2. (shrink)

This paper deals with epistemological and methodological complexities in gender studies, when applied to the social movements of indigenous and peasant women in rural Mexico. Their problems, actions, achievements, projects and utopia, allow the appropriation and redefinition of concepts from local ..

It’s relatively easy to say that the debates about whether trans and intersex women athletes deserve full and equal inclusion in women’s sport is a contentious contemporary issue. I’ve already argued for the legal, ethical, and scientific basis for full and equal inclusion of trans and intersex women in women’s sport. In this paper, I want to analyze what I take to be a representative selection of recent arguments against full and equal inclusion of trans and intersex women in women’s (...) sport. In short, these arguments tend to be based on mere assumption, unsupported “common sense,” straw arguments, fallacious question begging, and a number of hypotheticals and unsupported counterfactuals rather than established fact. Essentially, they’re based on a lot of “ifs.”. (shrink)

Background:Ethical competence in nursing practice helps clinical nurses to think critically, analyse issues, make ethical decisions, solve ethical problems and behave ethically in their daily work. Thus, ethical competence contributes to the promotion of high-quality care. However, studies on ethical competence in Malawi are scanty.Objectives:The aim of this study was to explore ethical competence among clinical nurses in selected hospitals in Malawi.Methodology:A cross-sectional survey was conducted in four selected hospitals in Malawi with a sample of 271 clinical nurses. Data were (...) collected using self-administered questionnaires, which included a Moral Competence Scale for Home Care Nurses. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were computed for the dataset using STATA version 12.0.Ethical consideration:The study protocol complied with all ethical requirements and was approved by the College of Medicine Research Ethics Committee under the University of Malawi.Results:The clinical nurses in Malawi are ethically competent. However, there is a significantly high number (p 0.05). Three determinants of high ethical competence level (strong will, judgement skills and recognition of discrepancy of intention) were identified through a reduced model after stepwise logistic regression analysis. Furthermore, results show that indicators of ethical competence include caring, confidentiality and observance of nurses dressing code. The study has also confirmed that the Moral Competence Scale for Home Care Nurses is a reliable tool to assess ethical competence in low-resource settings.Conclusion:The majority of nurses who completed the survey had low ethical competence. However, clinical nurses with high ethical competence level are required to competently manage complex ethical challenges in health facilities. Strategies for enhancing ethical competence such as continuing ethics education, establishment of ethics committees and provision of supportive supervision are recommended to enable nurses in Malawi attain a high level of ethical competence. (shrink)

We present a class of normal modal calculi PFD, whose syntax is endowed with operators M r, one for each r [0,1] : if a is sentence, M r is to he read the probability that a is true is strictly greater than r and to he evaluated as true or false in every world of a F-restricted probabilistic kripkean model. Every such a model is a kripkean model, enriched by a family of regular probability evaluations with range in a (...) fixed finite subset F of [0,1] : there is one such a function for every world w, P F, and this allows to evaluate M ra as true in the world w iff p F r.For every fixed F as before, suitable axioms and rules are displayed, so that the resulting system P FD is complete and compact with respect to the class of all the F-restricted probabilistic kripkean models. (shrink)

Abstract:Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) can enable communication for persons in severe paralysis including locked-in syndrome (LIS); that is, being unable to move or speak while aware. In cases of complete loss of muscle control, termed “complete locked-in syndrome,” a BCI may be the only viable solution to restore communication. However, a widespread ignorance regarding quality of life in LIS, current BCIs, and their potential as an assistive technology for persons in LIS, needlessly causes a harmful situation for this cohort. In addition (...) to their medical condition, these persons also face social barriers often perceived as more impairing than their physical condition. Through social exclusion, stigmatization, and frequently being underestimated in their abilities, these persons are being locked out in addition to being locked-in. In this article, we (1) show how persons in LIS are being locked out, including how key issues addressed in the existing literature on ethics, LIS, and BCIs for communication, such as autonomy, quality of life, and advance directives, may reinforce these confinements; (2) show how these practices violate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and suggest that we have a moral responsibility to prevent and stop this exclusion; and (3) discuss the role of BCIs for communication as one means to this end and suggest that a novel approach to BCI research is necessary to acknowledge the moral responsibility toward the end users and avoid violating the human rights of persons in LIS. (shrink)

We go on along the trend of [2] and [1], giving an axiomatization of S4 0 and proving its completeness and compactness with respect to the usual reflexive and transitive Kripke models. To reach this results, we use techniques from [1], with suitable adaptations to our specific case.

The introduction of new medical treatments based on invasive technologies has often been surrounded by both hopes and fears. Hope, since a new intervention can create new opportunities either in terms of providing a cure for the disease or impairment at hand; or as alleviation of symptoms. Fear, since an invasive treatment involving implanting a medical device can result in unknown complications such as hardware failure and undesirable medical consequences. However, hopes and fears may also arise due to the cultural (...) embeddedness of technology, where a therapy due to ethical, social, political and religious concerns could be perceived as either a blessing or a threat. While Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) for treatment resistant depression (TRD) is still in its cradle, it is important to be proactive and try to scrutinize both surfacing hopes and fears. Patients will not benefit if a promising treatment is banned or avoided due to unfounded fears, nor will they benefit if DBS is used without scrutinizing the arguments which call for caution. Hence blind optimism is equally troublesome. We suggest that specificity, both in terms of a detailed account of relevant scientific concerns as well as ethical considerations, could be a way to analyse expressed concerns regarding DBS for TRD. This approach is particularly fruitful when applied to hopes and fears evoked by DBS for TRD, since it can reveal if our comprehension of DBS for TRD suffer from various biases which may remain unnoticed at first glance. We suggest that such biases exist, albeit a further analysis is needed to explore this issue in full. (shrink)

La 4e de couverture indique : "Du Mutterrecht, l'oeuvre majeure de Bachofen, Walter Benjamin écrivait qu'il s'agissait d'une « prophétie scientifique ». De prime abord, il s'agit là d'une étrange définition pour un ouvrage qui, loin de se tourner vers l'avenir et d'en délinéer les formes, explore les confins du passé pour esquisser, par le biais de l'étude des mythes, le contour de l'origine de nos sociétés. La pensée de Bachofen est prophétique car révolutionnaire, et par là même porteuse de (...) fruits pour l'avenir. Il a en effet avancé une thèse bouleversante : les premières sociétés humaines auraient été régies par un droit maternel, l'organisation patriarcale n'étant qu'une forme plus avancée, certes, mais plus tardive de l'évolution spirituelle et sociale de l'humanité. Sa pensée permet ainsi de réfléchir à la prégnance de l'opposition masculin/féminin, maternel/paternel dans les fondements mêmes de nos sociétés, mais aussi de considérer l'importance que la notion d'origine, et la représentation, pour erronée qu'elle soit, qui en est faite, revêt pour la construction et le maintien de la société et de ses structures. C'est bien là une réflexion avec laquelle, aux dires de Bachofen lui-même, « on n'est pas prêt d'en finir ».". (shrink)

Dans la pensée de Walter Benjamin, le mythe est-il seulement une source de danger et de séduction contre laquelle l'homme moderne devrait se protéger à tout prix? Par une approche qui convoque la philosophie, l'anthropologie et la sociologie, ce livre montre que la réponse à cette question est loin d'être tranchée. Le diagnostic que, au fil de ses oeuvres, Benjamin dresse sur l'appauvrissement de l'expérience moderne est de fait indissociable du problème posé par le mythe, en tant que porteur d'un (...) savoir que la modernité ne sait plus reconnaître et encore moins accepter. La confrontation avec Scholem et Kafka indique que, pour Benjamin, ce savoir relève du langage et participe de ce récit grâce auquel l'individu peut penser son existence au sein d'une histoire commune, d'une tradition avec laquelle la modernité semble toutefois vouloir en finir. (shrink)

The article discusses a relatively obscure but significant aspect of work of the Russian and Soviet thinker Alexander Bogdanov—his science fiction novels. The author points out that, using the form...

O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar uma argumentação sobre a possibilidade de se pensar a justiça como uma experiência do i m possível. Parte-se da distinção derridiana entre justiça e direito. Essa distinção trará algumas implicações no que tradicionalmente é entendido como ética. Partindo do jogo ou da différance marcada entre a presença/ausência, pretende-se estabelecer um ponto de diálogo entre Derrida e Levinas. O ponto de aproximação é a questão do terceiro na relação do face a face. Nesse sentido, problematiza-se (...) se a desconstrução pode ser adotada como um possível modo filosófico que fundamente a compreensão da justiça. (shrink)

We prove a completeness theorem for Kmath image, the infinitary extension of the graded version K0 of the minimal normal logic K, allowing conjunctions and disjunctions of countable sets of formulas. This goal is achieved using both the usual tools of the normal logics with graded modalities and the machinery of the predicate infinitary logics in a version adapted to modal logic.