ABSTRACTR. G. Collingwood is mostly remembered for his theory that historical understanding consists in re-enacting the thoughts of the historical figure whom one is studying. His first recognizable expression of this view followed from an argument about the emptiness of psychological interpretations of religion, and throughout his career Collingwood offered history as re-enactment as an alternative to psychology. Over time, his argument that the psychology of religion could not be relevant to the veracity of religious beliefs was supplanted by the (...) argument that psychology is self-undermining because the psychologist’s procedure of attributing beliefs to blind psychic needs could apply just as easily to the psychologist him- or herself. As an alternative to what he took to be the self-defeating psychological position, Collingwood put forward the study of the development of beliefs as the motivations for actions, which led him to his views that “all history is the history of thought” and that, in order to understand an historical event, we must mentally re-enact the thoughts that stood behind it. (shrink)

This book analyzes the reasons for organ shortage and ventures innovative ideas for approaching this problem. It presents 29 contributions from a highly interdisciplinary group of world experts and upcoming professionals in the field. Every year thousands of patients die while waiting for organ transplantation. Health authorities, medical professionals and bioethicists worldwide point to the urgent and yet unsolved problem of organ shortage, which will be even intensified due to the increasing life expectancy. Even though the practical problem seems to (...) be well known, the search for suitable solutions continues and often restricts itself by being limited through disciplinary and national borders. Combining philosophical reflection with empirical results, this volume enables a unique insight in the ethics of organ transplantation and offers fresh ideas for policymakers, health care professionals, academics, and the general public. (shrink)

Why do organizations conduct job interviews? The traditional view of interviewing holds that interviews are conducted, despite their steep costs, to predict a candidate’s future performance and fit. This view faces a twofold threat: the behavioral and algorithmic threats. Specifically, an overwhelming body of behavioral research suggests that we are bad at predicting performance and fit; furthermore, algorithms are already better than us at making these predictions in various domains. If the traditional view captures the whole story, then interviews seem (...) to be a costly, archaic human resources procedure sustained by managerial overconfidence. However, building on T. M. Scanlon’s work, we offer the value of choice theory of interviewing and argue that interviews can be vindicated once we recognize that they generate commonly overlooked kinds of noninstrumental value. On our view, interviews should thus not be entirely replaced by algorithms, however sophisticated algorithms ultimately become at predicting performance and fit. (shrink)

Neurofibromatosis type 1 is associated with peripheral and central nervous system tumors. It is noteworthy that the regions in which these tumors frequently arise are the optic pathways and the brainstem. Thus, we decided to trace the procedure of diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging alterations along with Short-Wavelength Automated Perimetry examinations of the OPs after surgery and chemotherapy over 1 year, which enabled us to evaluate chemotherapy's efficacy in an NF1 patient with an OP tumor. In this study, a 25-year-old woman (...) with NF1 and left optic radiation glioma underwent surgery to remove the glioma. Immunohistochemistry revealed a Pilocytic Astrocytoma WHO grade I. Post-operation chemotherapy done using nine treatment cycles of administering Temozolomide for 5 days every 4 weeks. Applying the region of interest differential tractography method and SWAP four times every 3 months allowed us to follow the patient's visual acuity alterations longitudinally. The differential deterministic tractography method and statistical analyses enabled us to discover the white matter tracts anisotropy alterations over time. Furthermore, statistical analyses on the SWAP results along time illustrated possible alterations in visual acuity. Then, we could compare and associate the findings with the SWAP examinations and patient symptoms longitudinally. Statistical analyses of SWAP tests revealed a significant improvement in visual fields, and longitudinal differential tractography showed myelination and dense axonal packing in the left OR after 1 year of treatment. In this study, we examined an old hypothesis suggesting that chemotherapy is more effective than radiotherapy for NF1 patients with OP gliomas because of the radiation side effects on the visual field, cognition, and cerebrovascular complications. Our longitudinal clinical case study involving dMRI and SWAP on a single NF1-OPG patient showed that chemotherapy did not suppress the OP myelination over time. However, it should be noted that this is a clinical case study, and, therefore, the generalization of results is limited. Future investigations might focus on genetic-based imaging, particularly in more cases. Further, meta-analyses are recommended for giving a proper Field Of View to researchers as a subtle clue regarding precision medicine. (shrink)

Big Data and biopolitics are two major issues currently attracting attention in public health discourse, but also in sociology of knowledge, STS Studies as well as in philosophy of science and bioethics. The paper considers big data to be a new form and instrument of biopolitics which addresses both the categories of body and space. It is expected to fundamentally transform health care systems, domestic environments and practices of self-observation and reflection. Accordingly the paper points out some problems and pitfalls (...) as well as open questions that have emerged in the field of AAL, which merit more attention in future public and academic debate. (shrink)

It is widely assumed that religion is responsible for dictating and guiding moral behavior. This study investigated that claim and its relationship to monetary incentive, self-esteem, and gender within the context of academic dishonesty. A sample of 65 undergraduate students were assessed using a revision of Allport's Religious Orientation Scale and then monitored for cheating on a computerized version of the Graduate Records Exam under different experimental conditions. Self-esteem and monetary incentive were manipulated, and gender was selected to measure their (...) effect on cheating behavior. Results of this study found that: participants’ religious orientation was not related to their tendency to cheat in any way; participants cheated significantly more when receiving monetary incentive for their performance than when they did not; participants with induced low self-esteem cheated significantly more than those with induced high self-esteem; and men cheated more than women at a level that bordered on significance. Academic performance was not found related to academic cheating. Findings are discussed in the context of existing literature. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung Der Diskurs um emotions- und soziosensitive Roboter in der Pflege kann aktuell eher als Ausdruck eines technologischen Solutionismus interpretiert werden, denn als realitätsgerechte Beschreibung des pflegerischen Alltags. Aus ethischer Perspektive ist demnach weniger drängend die Frage zu beantworten, wie die Systeme bzw. deren Einsatz aktuell konkret bewertet werden können, sondern welche Rolle dieser KI-gestützten Systemart in den Technikvisionen und -fiktionen zugeschrieben wird und welche normativen Aspekte bei der Entwicklung und dem Einsatz zukünftig Beachtung finden sollten. Dazu werden Elemente eines (...) anthropologischen und ethischen Reflexionsraums skizziert, welcher Aspekte benennt, die bei der Entwicklung dieser Art von Technik zu bedenken sind. Um fundierte ethische Urteilsbildung zu ermöglichen, wird eine fünfdimensionale Heuristik präsentiert, die anhand der Dimensionen Emotion, Interaktion, Kontext, Akteur und Aktant eine konkrete Situationsanalyse gestattet. Auf dieser empirisch informierten Basis können implementierbare technische Lösungen entwickelt werden bzw. bereits entwickelte ethisch evaluiert werden. (shrink)