G. C. J. Midgley; XIV—Linguistic Rules, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 59, Issue 1, 1 June 1959, Pages 271–290, https://doi.org/10.1093/aristot.

sirIn a scholarly and thought-provoking paper, Clarke sets out to debunk the concept of “rational suicide” as nonsensical.1 His motivation in this is to undermine any support that the notion of rational suicide might give to a “categorical right to suicide”. If his enterprise were successful, however, it would go far beyond the “rights issue” and would have a profound impact on all arguments raised in support of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide.Clarke's major thrust might be termed the argument from posthumous (...) ignorance. He begins with a claim that the process of making a rational decision involves the process of “gaining all possible facts and `imagining' all possible consequences”. He goes on to say that making a rational decision “in the consideration of life or death . . . would seem to be impossible”. It is “impossible” …. (shrink)

ObjectivesTo determine to which degree industry partners in randomised clinical trials own the data and can constrain publication rights of academic investigators.MethodsCohort study of trial protocols, publication agreements and other documents obtained through Freedom of Information requests, for a sample of 42 trials with industry involvement approved by ethics committees in Denmark. The main outcome measures used were: proportion of trials where data was owned by the industry partner, where the investigators right to publish were constrained and if this was (...) mentioned in informed consent documents, and where the industry partner could review data while the trial was ongoing and stop the trial early.ResultsThe industry partner owned all data in 20 trials (48%) and in 16 trials (38%) it was unclear. Publication constraints were described for 30 trials (71%) and this was not communicated to trial participants in informed consent documents in any of the trials. In eight trials (19%) the industry partner could review data during the trial, for 20 trials (48%) it was unclear. The industry partner could stop the trial early without any specific reason in 23 trials (55%).ConclusionsPublication constraints are common, and data is often owned by industry partners. This is rarely communicated to trial participants. Such constraints might contribute to problems with selective outcome reporting. Patients should be fully informed about these aspects of trial conduct. (shrink)

Four lectures on the Philosophy of Religion are included in this compact book along with an extra chapter on the psychology of belief in God. In a search for an acceptable theism, the author examines religious faith and human personality via many theories and facets of thinking, referring to psychologists, theologians and philosophers who have battled with similar questions. Originally published a year after the lectures were presented, this is an interesting classic volume by a well-known theorist of the early (...) Twentieth Century. (shrink)

In the first part of this article I propose to describe two strongly contrasted situations in the world of thought, one of fifty years ago and the other of to-day. In the second I shall submit to my readers some reflections suggested by the contrast between the two.

Just three years ago I contributed to this Journal a few remarks on the problem of the relation of “God” to “the World.” I propose in the present article to add some observations on the closely connected problem of the relation of “God” to “Man”; especially in view of the theory, by no means a new one, but at the moment much in evidence , that when we speak of God what we have really in mind is our own human (...) nature or some part or aspect of it, imaginatively objectified as a distinct or independent reality. (shrink)

The author sets forth that, especially in later Platonism, some aspects should be noted different from those which are usually considered as being characteristic of Plato's philosophy : in later Platonism the stress is laid on the fact that the visible world is an image of the invisible as perfect as it could possibly be ; soul is superior to body, but not separated from it ; and in the visible world an element of identity is fundamentally admitted. In Parm. (...) and Soph, motion is introduced into the intelligible world. The main theses of Platonism as a whole are : the existence of a transcendent intelligible world, the existence of an analogy between this intelligible world and ours. It neither can be said that modern philosophy as a whole rejects these theses, nor that Antiquity as a whole accepted them. Aristotle and the schools after him rejected the (first thesis, sceptics denied the second ; Neoplatonism restored them both. During the Middle Ages they were generally accepted ; only Occam denied the principle of analogy. So did Kant, and neopositivism seems to have accepted this heritage, when it holds that metaphysics have no sense. On the other hand, the « existentialism » of the school of Sartre denies that an eternal essence of things would precede their concrete existence ; and by this doctrine the first point of Platonism is denied as well. Against these modern philosophers others do accept the first principles of Platonism, and Plato's own attitude towards the materialistic philosophy of nature of his time authorizes the opinion that, on the point in question, Plato would not change his position if he lived in our days. (shrink)