Healthcare professionals working in intensive care units are often involved in end-of-life decision-making. No research has been done so far about these processes taking place in Croatian ICUs. The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions, experiences, and challenges healthcare professionals face when dealing with end-of-life decisions in ICUs in Croatia. A qualitative study was performed using professionally homogenous focus groups of ICU nurses and physicians of diverse professional and clinical backgrounds at three research sites. In total, six (...) institutions at the tertiary level of healthcare were included. The constant comparative analysis method was used in the analysis of the data. Differences were found between the perceptions and experiences of nurses and physicians in relation to end-of-life decisions. Nurses’ perceptions were more focused on the context and features of immediate care, while physicians’ perceptions also included the wider sociocultural context. However, the critical issues these specific professional groups face when dealing with end-of-life decisions seem to overlap. A high variability of practices, both between individual practitioners and between different organizational units, was omnipresent. The lack of adequate legal, professional, and clinical guidelines was commonly expressed as one of the most critical source of difficulties. (shrink)

BackgroundDecisions about limitations of life sustaining treatments are made for end-of-life patients in intensive care units. The aim of this research was to explore the professional and ethical attitudes and experiences of medical professionals on treatment of end-of-life patients in ICUs in the Republic of Croatia.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among physicians and nurses working in surgical, medical, neurological, and multidisciplinary ICUs in the total of 9 hospitals throughout Croatia using a questionnaire with closed and open type questions. Exploratory factor (...) analysis was conducted to reduce data to a smaller set of summary variables. Mann–Whitney U test was used to analyse the differences between two groups and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to analyse the differences between more than two groups.ResultsLess than third of participants stated they were included in the decision-making process, and physicians are much more included than nurses. Sixty two percent of participants stated that the decision-making process took place between physicians. Eighteen percent of participants stated that ‘do-not-attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitations’ orders were frequently made in their ICUs. A decision to withdraw inotropes and antibiotics was frequently made as stated by 22.4% and 19.9% of participants, respectively. Withholding/withdrawing of LST were ethically acceptable to 64.2% of participants. Thirty seven percent of participants thought there was a significant difference between withholding and withdrawing LST from an ethical standpoint. Seventy-nine percent of participants stated that a verbal or written decision made by a capable patient should be respected. Physicians were more inclined to respect patient’s wishes then nurses with high school education. Nurses were more included in the decision-making process in neurological than in surgical, medical, or multidisciplinary ICUs. Male participants in comparison to female, and physicians in comparison to nurses with high school and college education displayed more liberal attitudes about LST limitation.ConclusionsDNACPR orders are not commonly made in Croatian ICUs, even though limitations of LST were found ethically acceptable by most of the participants. Attitudes of paternalistic and conservative nature were expected considering Croatia’s geographical location in Southern Europe. (shrink)

Der Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit Husserls Lehre von der kategorialen An­schauung als einem der wichtigsten Momente seines Versuchs der Grund­legung der Phänomenologie als eidetischer Wissenschaft. Ausgehend von Husserls phänomenologischen Kritik an Versuchen einer Naturalisierung des Bewusstseins, werden insbesondere die Probleme der Bedeutungs­intention und -erfüllung, des Unterschieds zwischen sinnlicher und kate­gorialer Anschauung, der kategorialen Formung und der sog. Wesens­anschauung erörtert. In diesem Zusammenhang geht es auch um die Abgrenzung des Husserlschen transzendentalphilosophischen Ansatzes von der transzendentalphilosophischen Axiomatik Immanuel Kants.

O presente artigo tem como objetivo mostrar que a teoria kantiana da possibilidade de juízos a priori, o conteúdo essencial da sua crítica da razão pura, foi elaborada no intuito de garantir a solubilidade dos problemas necessários da razão pura e que essa teoria pode ser interpretada como uma semântica transcendental (a priori). The problems of pure reason and the transcendental semanticsThis article aims at showing that Kant´s theory of possibility of a priori judgments, which is the essential content of (...) his critique of pure reason, was elaborated in order to guarantee the solubility of necessary problems of pure reason and that this theory can be interpreted as atranscendental semantics. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem como objetivo mostrar que a teoria kantiana da possibilidade de juízos a priori, o conteúdo essencial da sua crítica da razão pura, foi elaborada no intuito de garantir a solubilidade dos problemas necessários da razão pura e que essa teoria pode ser interpretada como uma semântica transcendental (a priori). The problems of pure reason and the transcendental semantics Abstract This article aims at showing that Kant´s theory of possibility of a priori judgments, which is the essential (...) content of his critique of pure reason, was elaborated in order to guarantee the solubility of necessary problems of pure reason and that this theory can be interpreted as atranscendental semantics. (shrink)

Many species maintain cytosine DNA methyltransferase (MTase) genes belonging to the Dnmt2 family. Prokaryotic modification‐restriction systems utilize DNA methylation to distinguish between self and foreign DNA, and cytosine methylation in eukaryotic DNA contributes to epigenetic mechanisms that control gene expression. However, Dnmt2 proteins display only low or no DNA MTase activity, making this protein family the odd and enigmatic family member. Recent evidence showed that Dnmt2 proteins are not DNA but RNA MTases with functions in biological processes as diverse as (...) stress responses and RNA‐mediated inheritance. These observations not only raise profound questions regarding the perceived substrate specificities of cytosine MTase, but also suggest links between DNA and RNA modification systems. Here, we speculate that Dnmt2 proteins might be part of an ancient cytosine modification toolbox that is used to successfully respond to environmental challenges, including constantly evolving RNA and DNA substrates. (shrink)

Više začuđuje da je Aristip, koji se smatra rodonačelnikom kirenskog hedonizma, sokratovac, nego činjenica da je rodom iz mediteranske Kirene. Grad u kome je rođen, osnovali su nekoliko stoljeća prije grčki koloni, koji su došli s otoka Tere. Po Pindaru, njegova je porodica bila najbogatija i najuzvišenijeg roda u cijeloj Libiji, čime se objašnjava činjenica što je budući hedonist, od malena, bio naviknut na život u raskoši. Nikada ga nisu smatrali sokratovcem u pravom smislu te riječi , što će biti (...) razlogom spora među Sokratovim sljedbenicima. Svijet čulne realnosti kojem je on pripadao, s jedne strane, te Platonov idealni, s druge, implicira pitanje Sokratova izvornog učenja: hedonistički, kirenski ili onaj platonizirani Sokrat, kako sugerira najveći broj istraživača?The fact that Aristippus, considered the founding father of Cyrenaic hedonism, is a Socratic is far more astounding than the fact that he was born in Cyrene on the Mediterranean. His hometown was founded a few centuries earlier by Greek colonists arriving from the Island of Thera. According to Pindar, his family was the richest and of the noblest lineage in the whole of Libya, which says that this future hedonist had been used to a life in luxury ever since he was born. He was never considered a Socratic in the true sense of the word , which was to become the cause of controversy between Socrates’s followers. The world of sensual reality he belonged to on the one hand and Plato’s world of ideas on the other pose the question of Socrates’s original orientation – was he originally a hedonist, a Cyrenaic or a Platonist, which is what most researchers suggest? (shrink)

This paper analyses one of the main problems of our time in the world of Internet? cyber piracy. It is often said that it is illegal, since pirates who practice it violate certain domestic and international laws. When we ask for justification of this laws and their enforcement, philosophers and legalists usually apply to one of the two sorts of philosophical arguments - deontology and utilitarianism. The former think that piracy is immoral in itself, while the others argue it should (...) be prevented, otherwise it will produce very bad consequences for society sooner or later, and thus diminish the overall happiness of the society. It will be shown, howe?ver, that both of these arguments, when closely considered, fail with their intention, and, if we decide to follow them, we actually arrive to the very opposite conclusion - piracy is justified. Rad analizira jedan od glavnih problema danasnjice u svetu interneta - sajberpirateriju. Cesto se za nju kaze da je ilegalna, jer pirati koji je praktikuju krse odredjene domace i medjunarodne zakone. Kada se postavi pitanje opravdanja tih zakona i njihove primene, filozofi i pravnici obicno se opredeljuju za jednu od dve vrste filozofskih argumenata - deontologiju ili utilitarizam. Prvi tvrde da je piraterija nemoralna sama po sebi, dok drugi smatraju da je treba spreciti jer ce, pre ili kasnije, proizvesti vrlo stetne posledice po drustvo, i time umanjiti ukupnu srecu drustva. Medjutim, pokazace se da nijedan od ovih argumenata, kada se poblize razmotre, ne uspeva u svojoj nameri, i da, ako odlucimo da ih sledimo, dolazimo zapravo do potpuno suprotnog zakljucka - piraterija je opravdana. (shrink)

Tekst analizira jedan od pokusaja da se ideja deliberativne demokratije ucini prihvatljivijom tako sto ce se sprovoditi preko interneta. Pozivajuci se na jednostavnost pristupa i koriscenja interneta, mnogi autori smatraju da je moguce spojiti deliberativnu demokratiju sa direktnom ili neposrednom demokratijom, i time doci do mozda najboljeg moguceg sistema donosenja politickih odluka. Medjutim, pokazace se da, iako ova ideja ima dosta prednosti u odnosu na standardne teorije deliberativne demokratije, ona ne uspeva da resi brojne nedoumice koje sa sobom donosi. Uprkos (...) tome, ideju on?lajn deliberativne demokratije ne treba odbaciti, vec je pridruziti postojecim demokratskim procedurama donosenja odluka, cime ce se ove procedure znacajno unaprediti. (shrink)

Starting from Wilhelm Dilthey?s concept of understanding, the article inquires into modes of forming competencies within the experience of reflexive education. In line with moder?nity?s understanding of science, the text designates the role of sciences as instances of po?ssible real values, whereby the spiritual sciences are ascribed the role of giving meaning by broadening horizons. The article questions the ground that allows for spiritual and pedagogical sciences within the commercialization of university teaching and research activities. In all this, functionalization conducts (...) a process leading to the weakening of the constructive role of these sciences in the formation of competencies. (shrink)

National decline is typically blamed on special interests from the demand side of politics corrupting a country's institutions. The usual demand-side suspects include crony capitalists, consumer activists, economic elites, and labor unions. Less attention is given to government insiders on the supply side of politics - rulers, elected officials, bureaucrats, and public employees. In autocracies and democracies, government insiders have the motive, means, and opportunity to co-opt political power for their benefit and at the expense of national well-being. Many storied (...) empires have succumbed to such inside jobs. Today, they imperil countries as different as China and the United States. Democracy - government by the people - does not ensure government for the people. Understanding how government insiders use their power to subvert the public interest - and how these negative consequences can be mitigated - is the topic of this book by Mark A. Zupan. (shrink)

Why philosophize about comedy? What is the use of investigating the comical from philosophical and psychoanalytic perspectives? In The Odd One In, Alenka Zupancic [haceks over both cs] considers how philosophy and psychoanalysis can help us understand the movement and the logic involved in the practice of comedy, and how comedy can help philosophy and psychoanalysis recognize some of the crucial mechanisms and vicissitudes of what is called humanity. Comedy by its nature is difficult to pin down with concepts and (...) definitions, but as artistic form and social practice comedy is a mode of tarrying with a foreign object--of including the exception. Philosophy's relationship to comedy, Zupancic [haceks over both cs] writes, is not exactly a simple story. It could begin with the lost book of Aristotle's Poetics, which discussed comedy and laughter. But Zupancic [haceks over both cs] draws on a whole range of philosophers and exemplars of comedy, from Aristophanes, Molière, Hegel, Freud, and Lacan to George W. Bush and Borat. She distinguishes incisively between comedy and ideologically imposed, "naturalized" cheerfulness. Real, subversive comedy thrives on the short circuits that establish an immediate connection between heterogeneous orders. Zupancic [haceks over both cs] examines the mechanisms and processes by which comedy lets the odd one in. Alenka Zupancic [haceks over both cs] is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, Slovene Academy of Sciences, Ljubljana. She is the author of The Shortest Shadow: Nietzsche's Philosophy of the Two. (shrink)

What is it that makes Nietzsche Nietzsche? In The Shortest Shadow, Alenka Zupancic counters the currently fashionable appropriation of Nietzsche as a philosopher who was "ahead of his time" but whose time has finally come -- the rather patronizing reduction of his often extraordinary statements to mere opinions that we can "share." Zupancic argues that the definitive Nietzschean quality is his very unfashionableness, his being out of the mainstream of his or any time.To restore Nietzsche to a context in which (...) the thought "lives on its own credit," Zupancic examines two aspects of his philosophy. First, in "Nietzsche as Metapsychologist," she revisits the principal Nietzschean themes -- his declaration of the death of God, the ascetic ideal, and nihilism -- as ideas that are very much present in our hedonist postmodern condition. Then, in the second part of the book, she considers Nietzsche's figure of the Noon and its consequences for his notion of the truth. Nietzsche describes the Noon not as the moment when all shadows disappear but as the moment of "the shortest shadow" -- not the unity of all things embraced by the sun, but the moment of splitting, when "one turns into two." Zupancic argues that this notion of the Two as the minimal and irreducible difference within the same animates all of Nietzsche's work, generating its permanent and inherent tension. (shrink)

Heideggersche erste Bewegungen in Richtung auf die Funda?mentalontologie lassen sich in seinen Vorlesungen der fr?hen 20er Jahren beobachten. Heidegger versucht darin, sich von dem Logizismus der Husserlschen Bewusstseinsphilosophie zu emanzipieren, indem er ein Konzept der Urwissenschaft entwirft. Die Urwis?senschaft soll bei der vortheoretischen Erfahrung, d. h. bei den vorreflexiven Erlebnissen ansetzen. Sie hat der entlebenden Tendenz der theoretischen Einstellung zum Erlebnis?strom entgegenzuwirken und somit die Voraussetzungen daf?r zu schaffen, eine Viel?falt der lebendigen Erfahrungsweisen zum ausdr?cklichen Verstehen zu bringen. Somit kn?pft (...) die Urwissenschaft an das Programm der Ph?nomenologie von Edmund Husserl, modifiziert es aber entscheidend, indem es aus der Sph?re des Bewusstseins in jene des lebendigen Erlebnisstroms verlegt. Hajdegerovi prvi pomaci u pravcu fundamentalne ontologije mogu se posmatrati u njegovim predavanjima iz dvadesetih godina proslog veka. U njima Hajdeger pokusava da se emancipuje od logicizma Huserlove filozofije svesti tako sto razvija projekat pranauke. Ona treba da krene od predteoretskog iskustva, tj. predrefleksivnih dozivljaja. Pranauka treba da deluje nasuprot obezivotljavajucoj tendenciji teoretskog stava spram toka dozivljaja te tako stvori pretpostavke za izricito razumevanje visestrukosti zivotnih nacina iskustva. Pranauka se time nadovezuje na program fenomenologije Edmunda Huserla, ali ga modifikuje na odlucujuci nacin tako sto ga premesta iz sfere svesti u sferu zivotnog toka dozivljaja. (shrink)

Der Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit Husserls Lehre von der kategorialen An­schauung als einem der wichtigsten Momente seines Versuchs der Grund­legung der Phänomenologie als eidetischer Wissenschaft. Ausgehend von Husserls phänomenologischen Kritik an Versuchen einer Naturalisierung des Bewusstseins, werden insbesondere die Probleme der Bedeutungs­intention und -erfüllung, des Unterschieds zwischen sinnlicher und kate­gorialer Anschauung, der kategorialen Formung und der sog. Wesens­anschauung erörtert. In diesem Zusammenhang geht es auch um die Abgrenzung des Husserlschen transzendentalphilosophischen Ansatzes von der transzendentalphilosophischen Axiomatik Immanuel Kants.

Der Beitrag besch?ftigt sich mit dem Verh?ltnis von Hermeneutik und Ethik. Im Fokus dieser Betrachtung steht die narrative Hermeneutik des Selbst von Paul Ricoeur und ihr Versuch, mit Hilfe der Hermeneutik eine ethische Dimension der Wiedereinschreibung der narrativen Rekonfiguration der Handlungswelt in diese Handlungswelt selbst zu er?ffnen. Dabei wird auf die Grenzen eines solchen Ansatzes hingewiesen, dies insbesondere im Hinblick auf die dabei gemachten metaphysiklastigen Schritte in Richtung auf eine Position, die hinter der existential- und fundamentalontologischen Fragestellung des von Ricoeur (...) kritisierten Heidegger zur?ckzufallen scheint. Daher wird hier erneut auf Heidegger und seine Existenzialontologie zur?ckgegriffen, um sie im Zuge einer narrativistischen Umdeutung f?r die ethische Fragestelleung zu?ffnen. (shrink)

Der Beitrag thematisiert vor allem unterschiedliche philosophische Auffasungen der Andersheit und versucht, sie aus einer hermeneutischen Perspektive zu hinterfragen. Dabei wird vor allem die konzeptuelle Radikalität der assymetrischen Beziehungen kritisiert, indem der hermeneutische Ansatz nicht als bloße Aneignungs- strategie des Anderen oder Fremden aufgefasst wird, sondern als offener Prozess der Verständigung, in dem die Heterogenität der Verständigungs- akteure zwar einer ständiger Veränderung unterzogen, jedoch immer auch gewahrt wird. Davon ausgehend wird auch die kulturphilosophische, aber auch gesellschaftliche und politische Relevanz der (...) Opposition zwischen Kulturpessimismus und Kulturoptimismus in Frage gestellt. (shrink)

The article primarily addresses different philosophical views of otherness and tries to question them from a hermeneutic perspective. Above all, the conceptual radicalism of the asymmetrical relationships is criticized through the hermeneutic approach, understood not as mere strategy of appropriating the other or the stranger, but as an open process of understanding, in which the heterogeneity of those involved is subject to constant change, but is nevertheless always maintained. On this basis, the cultural-philosophical, but also social and political relevance of (...) the opposition between cultural pessimism and cultural optimism is called into question. (shrink)

Der Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der Kritik an der Philosophie von Ludwig Klages, die in den 1920-ern Jahren seine Zeitgenossen wie Helmuth Plessner, Georg Misch und etwas später in den 1930-ern Jahren auch Max Bense übten. Der Gegenstand der Kritik war vor allem seine These von der grundlegenden Opposition von Geist und Seele aber auch seine graphologischen Schriften. Im Zentrum der hier vorgelegten Analyse steht die Herausarbeitung der Inkongruenz dieser kritischen Stimmen, die sich darauf bezieht, dass Klages sowohl den naturalistischen (...) als auch irrationalistischen Vorwürfen ausgesetz ist. (shrink)

Tekst najpre ispituje u kojoj meri se kod ranog Hajdegera da primjetiti pomeranje tezista sa okolosvetskog karaktera dozivljaja na?fakticki? tubivstvujuci zivot odnosno na fenomen?Ja sam?. Treba da se zahvati smisao bica toga?Ja sam? i to tako sto ce se odrediti razlika samoiskustva i refleksivno-teoretskog stava. Ovo odredjenje treba drzati podalje od svih regionalnih i stvarskih stranosti. Individuacija onog?Ja sam? ne treba da se zahvati kao opojedinacenje u pogledu na neko opsto, nego kao povesno opojedinacenje. Smisao bica kao smisao egzistencije treba (...) da se zahvati u samoiskustvu i ima smisao sprovodjenja. Osnovno iskustvo sopstva odnosno povesnosti karaktera sprovodjenja sopstva stavice se u novi utemeljujuci odnos spram apriornosti. Pri tome centralna uloga pripada destrukciji istorijskog horizonta problema apriornosti, a pod cim treba da se razumije radikalizacija fenomenologije koja uvijek iznova pokusava da svoju povesnost odnosno povesnu situaciju sprovede sto izvornije. Razjasnice se sadrzajna struktura problema apriornosti tako sto ce se odrediti povest shvatanja apriorija prema stepenu njihove tubicevne imanentnosti. Destrukcija problema apriorija ce se pokusati na rekonstruktivnoj psihologiji Paula Natorpa i kritici povesne svesti Vilhelma Diltaja pri cemu im se prebacuje postvarenje sfere zivoga. (shrink)