The Bubonic Plague outbreak that wormed its way through San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1900 tells a story of prejudice guiding health policy, resulting in enormous suffering for much of its Chinese population. This article seeks to discuss the potential for hidden “prejudice” should Artificial Intelligence (AI) gain a dominant foothold in healthcare systems. Using a toy model, this piece explores potential future outcomes, should AI continue to develop without bound. Where potential dangers may lurk will be discussed, so that the (...) full benefits AI has to offer can be reaped whilst avoiding the pitfalls. The model is produced using the computer programming language MATLAB and offers visual representations of potential outcomes. Interwoven with these potential outcomes are numerous historical models for problems caused by prejudice and recent issues in AI systems, from police prediction and facial recognition software to recruitment tools. Therefore, this research’s novel angle, of using historical precedents to model and discuss potential futures, offers a unique contribution. (shrink)

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has strongly affected oncology patients. Many screening and treatment programs have been postponed or canceled, and such patients also experience fear of increased risk of exposure to the virus. In many cases, locus of control, coping flexibility, and perception of a supportive environment, specifically family resilience, can allow for positive emotional outcomes for individuals managing complex health conditions like cancer. This study aims to determine if family resilience, coping flexibility, and locus of control can mitigate (...) the negative affect caused by the pandemic and enhance positive affect in breast cancer patients. One hundred and fifty-four female patients with breast cancer completed the Walsh’s Family Resilience Questionnaire, the Perceived Ability to Cope With Trauma Scale, the Positive-Negative Affect Schedule, and the Mini Locus of Control Scale. Family resilience and internality of locus of control contribute significantly to positive affective responses. Family resilience is responsible for mitigating the negative affect perceived during the pandemic and is enhanced by external locus of control. Evidence suggests that clinical psychologists should develop and propose programs to support oncology patients’ family resilience, coping flexibility, and internal locus of control, allowing for decreased stress and improved adaptability for effectively managing cancer treatment during the pandemic. (shrink)

A survey was conducted in a naturalistic setting, within wine tasting rooms, to explore how consumers' sustainability attitudes and subjective norms influence their decision to purchase wines from wineries which have adopted an environmental management program. The results indicate that both are significant predictors of intentions and explain over half of the variation in intentions to purchase. In addition, identifying environmental organization members is a useful approach in identifying a segment of consumers having stronger levels of these antecedents and, therefore, (...) more likely to purchase from wineries using sustainable grape growing practices (than non-members) Consumers who are environmental organization members are more likely to be interested in organic products, as well. Information on sustainable grape growing practices is relevant and influential for a specific segment of consumers, those consumers more passionate about the environment, and increases their intentions to purchase from wineries who have adopted these practices. (shrink)

Letters commenting on Hardwig, J "Is There a Duty to Die?" with a reply to those letters by the author.

Purpose This paper aims to formalize long-term trajectories of human civilization as a scientific and ethical field of study. The long-term trajectory of human civilization can be defined as the path that human civilization takes during the entire future time period in which human civilization could continue to exist. -/- Design/methodology/approach This paper focuses on four types of trajectories: status quo trajectories, in which human civilization persists in a state broadly similar to its current state into the distant future; catastrophe (...) trajectories, in which one or more events cause significant harm to human civilization; technological transformation trajectories, in which radical technological breakthroughs put human civilization on a fundamentally different course; and astronomical trajectories, in which human civilization expands beyond its home planet and into the accessible portions of the cosmos. -/- Findings Status quo trajectories appear unlikely to persist into the distant future, especially in light of long-term astronomical processes. Several catastrophe, technological transformation and astronomical trajectories appear possible. -/- Originality/value Some current actions may be able to affect the long-term trajectory. Whether these actions should be pursued depends on a mix of empirical and ethical factors. For some ethical frameworks, these actions may be especially important to pursue. (shrink)

Representation of similarities is not sufficient for most visual tasks. The proposed framework collapses useful dimensions such as position and pose for the sake of naming the object. Collapsing these dimensions leaves no representation of the object itself, but only an internal name that cannot be meaningfully manipulated.

In 1991, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center implemented a policy that permitted the recovery of organs from cadavers pronounced dead using standardized cardiac criteria. This policy allowed families that had made a decision to forgo life sustaining treatment to then request organ donation. This entailed taking the patient to the operating room, discontinuing therapy, and after the patient is pronounced dead, procuring organs.

Objective: Fertility loss due to cancer treatment can be a devastating experience for women and the couple. Undergoing fertility preservation can be a complex decision from both a medical and emotional point of view. The aim of the present study was to evaluate which socio-demographic and psychological factors predict a high motivation to undergo fertility preservation.Methods: Fifty-eight female cancer patients who accessed an Oncofertility Unit completed: a questionnaire to collect socio-demographic characteristics and the level of motivation, the Beck-Depression Inventory-II, the (...) State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Y, and the Fertility Problem Inventory.Results: Almost half of the sample declared a high motivation. At multiple logistic regression analysis only the “Need for parenthood” subscale of the FPI predicted a high motivation. We alternatively evaluated as possible predictor the construct “Representations about the importance of parenthood” in place of the two separate subscales. At multiple logistic regression analysis, only this variable predicted a high motivation to undergo fertility preservation.Conclusion: The most important predictor of a high motivation to undergo fertility preservation is the individual desire for parenthood. This implies that, regardless of socio-demographic characteristics, any woman of childbearing age should receive an appropriate counseling about fertility preservation. (shrink)

While philosophers hold that it is patently absurd to blame robots or hold them morally responsible [1], a series of recent empirical studies suggest that people do ascribe blame to AI systems and robots in certain contexts [2]. This is disconcerting: Blame might be shifted from the owners, users or designers of AI systems to the systems themselves, leading to the diminished accountability of the responsible human agents [3]. In this paper, we explore one of the potential underlying reasons for (...) robot blame, namely the folk's willingness to ascribe inculpating mental states or "mens rea" to robots. In a vignette-based experiment (N=513), we presented participants with a situation in which an agent knowingly runs the risk of bringing about substantial harm. We manipulated agent type (human v. group agent v. AI-driven robot) and outcome (neutral v. bad), and measured both moral judgment (wrongness of the action and blameworthiness of the agent) and mental states attributed to the agent (recklessness and the desire to inflict harm). We found that (i) judgments of wrongness and blame were relatively similar across agent types, possibly because (ii) attributions of mental states were, as suspected, similar across agent types. This raised the question - also explored in the experiment - whether people attribute knowledge and desire to robots in a merely metaphorical way (e.g., the robot "knew" rather than really knew). However, (iii), according to our data people were unwilling to downgrade to mens rea in a merely metaphorical sense when given the chance. Finally, (iv), we report a surprising and novel finding, which we call the inverse outcome effect on robot blame: People were less willing to blame artificial agents for bad outcomes than for neutral outcomes. This suggests that they are implicitly aware of the dangers of overattributing blame to robots when harm comes to pass, such as inappropriately letting the responsible human agent off the moral hook. (shrink)

This volume brings together for the first time all the writings of John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill on equality between the sexes, including John Stuart Mill's _The Subjection of Women_, a classic in the history of the women's rights movement since its publication one hundred years ago. Also contained in this volume is a major interpretative essay by Alice S. Rossi on Mill and Harriet Taylor which describes and analyzes their long personal and intellectual relationship.

European philosophy from the late seventeenth century through most of the eighteenth is broadly conceived as `the Enlightenment', the period of empirical reaction to the great seventeenth century Rationalists. This volume begins with Herbert of Cherbury and the Cambridge Platonists and with Newton and the early English Enlightenment. Locke is a key figure in late chapters, as a result of his importance both in the development of British and Irish philosophy and because of his seminal influence in the Enlightenment as (...) a whole. British Philosophy and the Age of Enlightenment includes discussion of Scottish Enlightenment and its influence on the German Aufklarung , and consequently on Kant. French thought, which in turn affected the late radical Enlightenment, especially Bentham, is also considered here. This survey brings together clear, authoritative chapters from leading experts and provides a scholarly introduction to this period in the history of philosophy. It includes a glossary of technical terms and a chronological table of important political, philosophical, scientific and other cultural events. (shrink)

This is the first book in healthcare ethics addressing the moral issues regarding ownership of the human body. Modern medicine increasingly transforms the body and makes use of body parts for diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive purposes. The book analyzes the concept of body ownership. It also reviews the ownership issues arising in clinical care (for example, donation policies, autopsy) and biomedical research. Societies and legal systems also have to deal with issues of body ownership. A comparison is made between specific (...) legal arrangements in The Netherlands and France, as examples of legal approaches. In the final section of the book, different theoretical perspectives on the human body are analyzed: libertarian, personalist, deontological and utilitarian theories of body ownership. (shrink)

While historians of scientific method have recently called attention to the views of many of John Stuart Mill's contemporaries on the relation between probability and inductive inference, little if any note has been taken of Mill's own vigorous attack on the received "Laplacean" interpretation of probability in the first edition of the System of Logic. This paper examines the place of Mill's critique, both in the overall framework of his philosophy, and in the tradition of assessing the so-called "probability (...) of causes". It also offers an account of why, in later editions of the work, Mill appears to adopt a much more sympathetic stance toward the received view. (shrink)

One. The Glass is Always Half-full? Countering the Optimists - Two. The `Doomsday Clock' is Always with Us: Pessimism in History - Three. Optimists v. Pessimists: Economics and Politics - Four. I Think, Therefore I Expect the Worst: Pessimism in Philosophy - Five. A World Without Meaning: Pessimism in Literary Fiction - Six. Visions of Despair: Pessimism in the Arts - Seven. The Benefits of a Half-empty Glass: Pessimism as a Lifestyle.

This article explores the idea of Parliamentary sovereignty in British constitutional theory. Two general explanations for this idea are considered: firstly, that the existence of a sovereign entity is a conceptually necessary precondition for the existence of a state or constitution; secondly, that Parliament is sovereign, if it is, in virtue of a rule of recognition whose existence and content may be empirically determined. The former account, it is suggested, looms large in orthodox British constitutional theory but cannot be sustained. (...) Herbert Hart's version of the latter account is examined by reference to the decision in Jackson v Attorney General but is also found wanting. Given the inadequacy of these accounts, it is contended that the idea of Parliamentary sovereignty is misconceived. Building on insights in the work of Hart and Dworkin, it is argued that the British constitution instead rests on the ideal of government under law or the principle of legality. The putative value of legality, it is contended, will shape or control the many different principles that condition the exercise of official power. (shrink)

This article was first published in Radical History Review No. 25, 1986. Since then the controversy has escalated dramatically, with articles in the New York Times and Ms magazine and editorials in the Washington Post. Most of the media have used the controversy as a vehicle to attack women's history and women's studies in general. Had I known the direction that this publicity would take I would have written a much stronger piece. Feminist Studies is planning to publish a piece (...) by Ruth Milkman outlining the issues involved in the case, and Signs will publish some of the written testimony in forthcoming issues. (shrink)

feelings (brainstem, limbic system). The best scientific synchrony and consciousness.21,27 Anesthesiology, V 105, No 2, Aug 2006.

v. 1. Autobiography and literary essays.--v. 2-3. Principles of political economy.--v. 4-5. Essays on economics and society, 1824-1879.--v. 6. Essays on England, Ireland, and the Empire.--v. 7-8. A system of logic; ratiocinative and inductive.--v. 9. An examination of Sir William Hamilton's philosophy.--v. 10. Essays on ethics, religion and society.--v. 11. Essays on philosophy and the classics.--v. 12-13. The earlier letters, 1812-1848.--v. 14-17. The later letters, 1849-1873.--v. 18-19. Essays on politics and society.--v. 20. Essays on French history and historians.--v. 21. Essays (...) on equality, law, and education.--v. 22-25. Newspaper writings.--v. 26-27. Journals and debating speeches.--v. 28-29. Public and parliamentary speeches.--v. 30. Writings on India.--v. 31. Miscellaneous writings.--v. 32. Additional letters of John Stuart Mill.--v. 33. Indexes to the collected works of John Stuart Mill. (shrink)

A Page of this MS, which however I discovered independently, is reproduced by M. Chatelain in his Paléographie des Classiques Latins, and for an account of the codex I refer to vol. ii. p. 11 of that work. The volume consists of four parts: Juvenal, ff. 1–47; Persius, ff. 48–59; Horace, ff. 60–93; Juvenal, ff. 94–113. This last part contains Sat. i. 1–ii. 66, iii. 32–vi. 437, i.e. two intermediate leaves, the two outside double leaves of the first quire of (...) eight, of 34 lines on a page, have been lost. The quires b and c are disordered. Foil. 94v–97 contain i. 1–ii. 66, ff. 98–105, v. 98–vi. 437, ff. 106–113, iii. 32–v. 97. (shrink)

There is a striking parallel between w v o quine's 'indeterminacy of translation' thesis and k o apel's 'indeterminacy of textual interpretation thesis. both arguments are based on what is essentially the same 'sceptical dilemma'. the key to resolving these 'hermeneutic problems' is to recognize that such a 'sceptical problem' is unintelligible. this is precisely the point of wittgenstein's discussions of rule-following. many have misunderstood this, however, for they have misconstrued what was intended to be read as a "reductio ad (...) absurdum" establishing the "unintelligibility" of the dilemma, as a sceptical attack on the possibility of our ever solving the problem. (shrink)

An observation of Hume’s has received a lot of attention over the last decade and a half: Although we can standardly imagine the most implausible scenarios, we encounter resistance when imagining propositions at odds with established moral (or perhaps more generally evaluative) convictions. The literature is ripe with ‘solutions’ to this so-called ‘Puzzle of Imaginative Resistance’. Few, however, question the plausibility of the empirical assumption at the heart of the puzzle. In this paper, we explore empirically whether the difficulty we (...) witness in imagining certain propositions is indeed due to claim type (evaluative v. non-evaluative) or whether it is much rather driven by mundane features of content. Our findings suggest that claim type plays but a marginal role, and that there might hence not be much of a ‘puzzle’ to be solved. (shrink)

King, C. R. Touching the earth. --Tracol, H. Thus spake Beelzebub. --Nicoll, M. On the formation of a psychological body. --Fullerson, M. C. Discovery of intimate order. --Halevi, Z. ben S. Order. --Dürckheim, K. G. von. On the double origin of man. --Guenther, H. V. Towards spiritual order. --Eracle, J. The Buddhist way to deliverance. --Blofeld, J. Return to the source. --Werner, K. Spiritual personality and its formation according to Indian tradition.

:The available treatments for disorders affecting large segments of the population are often costly, complex, and only marginally effective, and many have numerous side effects. These disorders include dementias, debilitating neurological disorders, the multiple types of drug addiction, and the spectrum of mental health disorders.Preliminary studies have shown that a variety of psychedelic and similar U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Schedule I drugs may offer better treatment options than those that currently exist and pose potentially the same or even less risk (...) than do legal psychoactive and nonpsychoactive substances. The pharmaceutical industry and academia, however, have largely avoided this avenue of research.Fairness to the affected populations demands that these drugs be adequately studied and, if they or their congeners are shown to be effective, made available with the proper caveats, instructions, and protections that other potentially abused medications receive. These substances may prove to relieve patients’ struggles with less effective treatments and decrease mortality from nontreatment of some conditions. (shrink)

In early 1864, disappointed by the response to his previous work, the young Manchester academic W. Stanley Jevons announced that he was undertaking a study of the so-called coal question: ‘A good publication on the subject would draw a good deal of attention … it is necessary for the present at any rate to write on popular subjects’. When Jevons's The Coal Question was published in April 1865, however, it received comparatively little attention and sales were slow. Jevons and his (...) publisher, Alexander Macmillan, then began sending complimentary copies to luminaries such as Sir John Herschel and Alfred Tennyson. In February 1866 the marketing campaign produced its first substantial return. Macmillan had sent CQ to William Gladstone who responded with letters to both Macmillan and Jevons, noting that the book had strengthened his ‘conviction’ on the necessity for reducing the National Debt. In April, John Stuart Mill praised CQ in the House of Commons, calling for action on the Debt and, three weeks later, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gladstone introduced the budget using half his speech to examine the Debt situation and referring to CQ in support for a proposed measure of Debt reduction. With the extensive publicity given to CQ following Mill's speech and the budget, Jevons had achieved his objective in writing the text which went into a second edition in 1866. On the face of it, CQ 's success was due to its effect of introducing a change in budget policy and this is the impression given by some accounts of the episode. (shrink)

This volume unites, for the first time, Books IV and V of Mill's great treatise on political economy with his fragmentary chapters on socialism. His answers to policy questions are still highly relevant today, and Riley's introduction clarifies his distinctive liberal utilitarian philosophy.