Max Weber's fragmentary writings on social status suggest that differentiation on this basis should disappear as capitalism develops. However, many of Weber's examples of status refer to the United States, which Weber held to be the epitome of capitalist development. Weber hints at a second form of status, one generated by capitalism, which might reconcile this contradiction, and later theorists emphasize the continuing importance of status hierarchies. This article argues that such theories have missed one of the most important forms (...) of contemporary status: celebrity. Celebrity is an omnipresent feature of contemporary society, blazing lasting impressions in the memories of all who cross its path. In keeping with Weber's conception of status, celebrity has come to dominate status “honor,” generate enormous economic benefits, and lay claim to certain legal privileges. Compared with other types of status, however, celebrity is status on speed. It confers honor in days, not generations; it decays over time, rather than accumulating; and it demands a constant supply of new recruits, rather than erecting barriers to entry. (shrink)

In his essay, “Negative and Positive Positivism,” Jules L. Coleman extends in two important ways the Legal Positivism of H. L. A. Hart. First, he shows that the “separability thesis”—the claim that no necessary or constitutive relationship exists between law and morality—to which Positivists are wedded does not entail the view, attributed by Ronald Dworkin to Legal Positivists, that law consists in “hard facts.” Instead, the separability thesis requires only the possibility of deciding the truth of propositions of law. This (...) weaker requirement can be met by rules of recognition that are semantically adequate but that fail to set out tests by means of which the legal status of rules and norms may be verified. Second, Coleman argues that one can subscribe to the separability thesis and still maintain that judges may have a legal duty to couch decisions in moral terms whenever the “content or proper formulation of [a] rule of recognition” is in dispute. Such a legal duty may exist in virtue of a convergent practice “among judges of resolving the controversy in a particular way”. (shrink)

A rational reconstruction of the role of moral values in diagnostic reasoning is undertaken. In the context of a case study it is shown how value and ethical considerations come into play in the complex course of making diagnostic and therapeutic decisions.

For more than twenty years, Opinion 6.01 of the American Medical Association's Code of Medical Ethics has specified that “a physician's fee for medical services should be based on the value of the service provided by the physician to the patient.” In 1994, the AMA amended Opinion 6.01, adding a new statement that “a physician's fee should not be made contingent on the successful outcome of medical treatment.”We believe that the amendment is wholly indefensible. Therefore, in this essay, we argue (...) that the AMA should lift this prohibition and encourage the use of result-based compensation for medical services in appropriate circumstances.The 1994 amendment dramatically changed the significance and scope of Opinion 6.01. Result-based compensation arrangements clearly satisfy the original version of Opinion 6.01 because they base compensation on the “value of the services provided … to the patient.” Yet, it is equally clear that result-based compensation arrangements violate the amended version of Opinion 6.01 because they necessarily make compensation “contingent on the successful outcome of medical treatment.”. (shrink)

I have argued that Legal Positivism can accommodate the existence oftheoretical disagreements in law and that Ronald Dworkin is wrongto claim otherwise. As far as Legal Positivists are concerned, evenjudges who differ over both the truth of propositions of law and thegrounds or sources of law can have a legal duty to resolve their dis-agreements on the basis of legal arguments. The duty exists whenconventional legal practice creates it. Moreover, all Anglo-Americanlegal systems impose the duty on judges because all such (...) systemscontain legal practices of the right sort: practices creating expectationsthat cases will be decided on the law even when they raise doubtsabout the content or proper formulation of a rule of recognition.Thus, Elmer's Case poses no threat to Legal Positivism. To the con-trary, it reveals the richness of that theory as few other cases can.Only if Elmer's Case is detached from the context of Anglo-American adjudication can it be said to undermine Legal Positivism.But then no theory of positive law could withstand its challenge. (shrink)

INTRODUCTION In any society relatively few disputes are brought to judges for resolution. Most are handled informally or forgotten. Fewer still are cases that go to trial. Most are settled. Compromises are reached even in cases where issues are hotly contested and where millions or billions of dollars in damages are claimed. Recently, for example, one of the most controversial lawsuits of our time, the Agent Orange case, was settled. In that case, veterans of the Vietnam War, their spouses, and (...) their children alleged that a defoliant — Agent Orange – used in Southeast Asia contained dioxin and was responsible for deaths, debilities, miscarriages, and birth defects suffered by members of the plaintiff class. Class members argued that the manufacturers of the defoliant, seven major chemical companies, knew that it was tainted and should be made to compensate them for their injuries, claiming billions of dollars in damages. The case received national exposure and became a rallying point for veterans, a means they hoped to use to publicize their plight and to spur Congress to come to their aid. On the eve of trial, the case was settled. The defendants, who denied liability throughout the pretrial period, agreed to pay the veterans $180 million. In turn, the plaintiff class agreed to drop the suit. Thus ended a controversy which not only presented novel legal issues and tested the ability of the federal courts to handle complex lawsuits, but concerned the well-being of a large number of veterans, their spouses, and their handicapped children as well. (shrink)

Δημοσίευση μιας ανέκδοτης επιγραφής πού βρέθηκε στό θέατρο της Δήλου καί ερμηνεύεται σάν διπλή συντομογραφία : Hosp(Halis) Ray(mundus). Ή μελέτη των πηγών πού αναφέρουν τους «Ίωαννϊτες» στή Δήλο επιτρέπει νά δεχθούμε τήν παρουσία τους στό νησί άπό τό 1326 : εγκαταστάθηκαν μετά άπό προτροπή τών δουκών τής Νάξου γιά νά καταπολεμήσουν τήν πειρατεία καί εγκατέλειψαν τό νησί στίς αρχές του 15ου αιώνα.

Ce catalogue de l’exposition qui s’est tenue au musée des Beaux-Arts de Bilbao de février à mai 2011 propose, sous la direction de Corinne Charles, une compilation d’articles et une étude en espagnol plus détaillée des objets exposés. Outre la qualité esthétique des reproductions, ce bel ouvrage est le premier du genre sur les représentations des femmes dans l’art à l’époque gothique. Son titre Hay más en ti, « Plus est en vous », reprend la devise de Louis de (...) Bruges (vers 1427-1492) incluant... (shrink)

Responding to volatile criticisms frequently leveled at Leo Strauss and those he influenced, the prominent contributors to this volume demonstrate the profound influence that Strauss and his students have exerted on American liberal democracy and contemporary political thought. By stressing the enduring vitality of classic books and by articulating the theoretical and practical flaws of relativism and historicism, the contributors argue that Strauss and the Straussians have identified fundamental crises of modernity and liberal democracy.

Chapter I The Legacy of the Sixties Throughout the past two decades Christian theology has been passing through a state of ferment which shows few signs of ...

"Charles "Teenie" Harris photographed the events and daily life of African Americans for the Pittsburgh Courier, one of the nation's most influential Black newspapers. From the 1930s to 1970s, Harris created a richly detailed record of public personalities, historic events, and the lives of average people. In 2001, Carnegie Museum of Art purchased Harris's archive of nearly 80,000 photographic negatives, few of which are titled and dated; the archive is considered one of the most important documentations of 20th?century African (...) American life. The book will serve as the definitive publication on the life and work of Teenie Harris, consisting of three significant essays: Cheryl Finley, assistant professor in the history of art at Cornell University, offers the first thorough analysis of Harris as an artist, situating him within the history of 20th?century African American art as well as American documentary and vernacular photography; Larry Glasco, associate professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, draws on new research to present a detailed biography of the photographer; and Joe Trotter, professor of history and social justice at Carnegie Mellon University, explores the social and historical context of Harris's photographs. The book will also include a foreword by Deborah Willis, professor at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. In addition to comparative illustrations within the essays, the book includes 100 plates of Harris's signature work and a complete bibliography and chronology"--. (shrink)

The wages of Dexios. The new Amphictyonic coinage reconsidered In Spring 336 BCE, the Delphic Amphictyony decided to create a full-weight Aeginetic coin-age : the “ new Amphictyonic”. A re-examination of the preliminary estimate of the minting (CID II 75, col. I, l. 46-56) allows us to establish that the minter was paid at a rate of 9 Amphictyonic obols per delivered mina, and had a margin of a sixtieth (1.67%) of the total silver mass, in order to cover (...) the losses in melting. An allowance for those two expenses, as well as the actual weight shortage of the different lots of coins intended for the melting pot, were entered in the account of the global ajpousiva (l. 48-49). Such a complex calculation fits perfectly with the practices of Greek goldsmiths. In Spring 335 BCE, the experiment of the new Amphictyonic was brutally interrupted, while about 46 talents of metal were still to be struck. This raw silver mass, intended to produce 44.31 talents of Amphictyonic coins, was exchanged for 45.31 talents of Attic coins – which meant a saving of a little more than a talent (CID II 76, col. III, l. 38-42). (shrink)

Two reviews of Laurence Lapert's Leo Strauss and Nietzsche.

This article concerns a silver beaker (now at the Residenzmuseum, Munich) decorated with scenes which seem to be related to the Spanish conquest of Mexico. On the basis of stylistic, iconographic and archival evidence the silversmith is here tentatively identified with an Italian-born artist, Stefano Capello, who is thought to have added a decoration to a pre-existing beaker on the eve of the treaty of Cambrai (3 August 1529). Margaret of Austria, aunt of the emperor Charles V, might (...) have given the beaker as a gift to Louise of Savoy, mother of Francis I, king of France. The article argues, relying upon Warburg’s notion of Pathosformeln (formulas of emotion), that in the early 16th century the New World was perceived and made familiar through an Old World idiom, based on visual formulas taken from classical antiquity and mediated by the Italian Renaissance. (shrink)

These fourteen essays were written to honor a philosopher and historian of philosophy who has been associated for more than thirty years with the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies at the University of Toronto. In keeping with Pegis’ historical interests, the essays are on topics relating to the ancient and especially the mediaeval period. Some of the contributions are not directly philosophical in content, e.g., "Nugae Hyginianae" by Wilma Fitzgerald, "Marriage and Family in English Conciliar and Synodal Legislation" by Michael (...) M. Sheehan, "Riddles relating to the Anglo-Saxon Scriptorium" by Laurence K. Shook, "A Middle English Christological Poem" by Edmund Colledge, "Three Forgotten Martyrs of Anazarbus in Cilicia" by Michael R. E. Gough, and "Greek Recentiores, Basil, Adversus Eunomium, IV-V" by Walter Hayes. But each of the essays reflects the meticulous scholarship for which the Institute is justly renowned. (shrink)

David Hyman and Charles Silver are quite right. Opinion 6.01 in the American Medical Association's Code of Medical Ethics is difficult to defend. Ties between compensation and outcomes need not mislead patients into thinking that results are guaranteed; they are widely used in other fields with considerable success, even if they have some disadvantages; they can potentially bring patients more actively into decision-making about whether and from whom to purchase which medical care; and, if carefully tuned, they can (...) promote quality by aligning providers’ welfare more closely with patients’.The purpose of this commentary is thus not to disagree with the fundamental thesis that result-based compensation arrangements can be appropriate and useful in the health-care setting. Rather, the objective is to “cut the next swath,” so to speak. While Hyman and Silver are right that RBCAs have potential to do good, they may be overly optimistic about benefits, while underestimating the potential limitations and hazards. (shrink)

David Hyman and Charles Silver are quite right. Opinion 6.01 in the American Medical Association's Code of Medical Ethics is difficult to defend. Ties between compensation and outcomes need not mislead patients into thinking that results are guaranteed; they are widely used in other fields with considerable success, even if they have some disadvantages; they can potentially bring patients more actively into decision-making about whether and from whom to purchase which medical care; and, if carefully tuned, they can (...) promote quality by aligning providers’ welfare more closely with patients’.The purpose of this commentary is thus not to disagree with the fundamental thesis that result-based compensation arrangements can be appropriate and useful in the health-care setting. Rather, the objective is to “cut the next swath,” so to speak. While Hyman and Silver are right that RBCAs have potential to do good, they may be overly optimistic about benefits, while underestimating the potential limitations and hazards. (shrink)

Ever since Plato it has been thought that one knows only if one's belief hits the mark of truth and does so with adequate justification. The issues debated by Laurence BonJour and Ernest Sosa concern mostly the nature and conditions of such epistemic justification, and its place in our understanding of human knowledge. Presents central issues pertaining to internalism vs. externalism and foundationalism vs. virtue epistemology in the form of a philosophical debate. Introduces students to fundamental questions within epistemology (...) while engaging in contemporary debates. Written by two of today’s foremost epistemologists. Includes an extensive bibliography. (shrink)

For fans of Charles Duhigg, Philip Tetlock and Nate Silver, a brilliant and buoyant investigation into the existence (or not) of streaks, from a rising star at the Wall Street Journal.

This book is concerned with the alleged capacity of the human mind to arrive at beliefs and knowledge about the world on the basis of pure reason without any dependence on sensory experience. Most recent philosophers reject the view and argue that all substantive knowledge must be sensory in origin. Laurence BonJour provocatively reopens the debate by presenting the most comprehensive exposition and defence of the rationalist view that a priori insight is a genuine basis for knowledge. This important (...) book will be at the centre of debate about the theory of knowledge for many years to come. (shrink)