There is a widespread disagreement, Drucker observes, about "what an ideology is." He proposes to cast light on the subject, not by proffering his own definition, but by showing that the diversity of opinion about the meaning of ideology is itself the product of differing ideological points of view. Part I of the book describes "the various definitions of ideology which occur in writing directed primarily to intellectual audiences," notably the views of Destutt de Tracy, Marx, Comte, and several contemporary (...) sociologists. In Part II the author examines four individual examples of "manifestly ideological" writing: Milton’s Areopagitica, Paine’s Common Sense, Comte’s Appeal to Conservatives, and Koestler’s Darkness at Noon. The third and concluding section of the book argues "that the various notions of ideology current today fit easily into the scheme of one or other" of three ideologies: Liberalism, Conservatism, and Marxism. (shrink)

Vinit Haksar has written a fairly lengthy book in order to establish a rather simple point : that it is impossible to arrive at an adequate account of justice without judging the objective merit of alternative ways of life. The main target of his argument is John Rawls, whose influential A Theory of Justice purports to sever considerations of justice from those of the human good in precisely this way. Haksar’s argument is also intended, however, as a criticism of the (...) views of such other contemporary liberal theorists as Ronald Dworkin and Robert Nozick. (shrink)

The author of this study aims to provide a synthetic survey of Diderot’s philosophy, as distinguished from the numerous analytic studies that have been made of particular aspects of the Frenchman’s thought. The central thread uniting Diderot’s various works, Crocker contends, is a view of the universe as comprising simultaneously both order and disorder in an ineluctable tension. In the initial chapter, Crocker outlines this rather loose theme by examining Diderot’s "dynamic" conception of the physical universe and man’s ambiguous relation (...) to it. The theme is elucidated in succeeding chapters devoted, respectively, to Diderot’s aesthetic theories, his view of morality, and his political thought. Crocker stresses the evolution of Diderot’s thought on these subjects as a consequence of the very intractability of the central problem that concerned him. Although Diderot often contradicted himself, the author concludes, his self-contradictions were a reflection of the contradictory nature of reality as perceived by both Diderot and the author. (shrink)

Charvet presents a "critical reconstruction" of Rousseau’s argument in the Second Discourse, Emile, and the Social Contract, in order to elucidate the French philosopher’s thought about the problem of "the individual’s relation to others in society." While the book is devoid of reference to other works of Rousseau scholarship, this seeming lack helps to give Charvet’s critical work a refreshing clarity and directness.

Brandt's purpose is to clarify and help resolve the fundamental issues of moral philosophy by using "non-traditional types of evidence and non-traditional argument." Observing the deficiencies of common approaches to morality that build on alleged linguistic or moral "intuitions", he proposes instead to build on the findings of "contemporary psychology." Despite the promised novelty of Brandt's approach, however, his ultimate substantive findings differ relatively little from those of other contemporary Anglo-American writers on moral philosophy such as Rawls, and his method (...) of arguing for them suffers from some of the same defects that characterize more overtly intuitionistic approaches. (shrink)

This book would more aptly, if wordily, have been subtitled "An Introduction to Contemporary Liberal, Anglo-American Political Philosophy." The author’s purpose is "to bring within a single focus the main lines of thinking in the recent welter of speculation on social justice" as set forth by such scholars as John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and Kenneth Arrow. Pettit’s conception of political philosophy, his selection of views to be considered, and his judgments of those views are bounded by political assumptions derived from (...) liberal egalitarianism, and methodological premises characteristic of the "analytic" school of philosophy: Marxist thought is barely alluded to, and there is no reference to the work of such radically different thinkers as Martin Heidegger or Leo Strauss. (shrink)

Continuous recordings of brain electrical activity were obtained from a group of 176 patients throughout surgical procedures using general anesthesia. Artifact-free data from the 19 electrodes of the International 10/20 System were subjected to quantitative analysis of the electroencephalogram (QEEG). Induction was variously accomplished with etomidate, propofol or thiopental. Anesthesia was maintained throughout the procedures by isoflurane, desflurane or sevoflurane (N = 68), total intravenous anesthesia using propofol (N = 49), or nitrous oxide plus narcotics (N = 59). A set (...) of QEEG measures were found which reversibly displayed high heterogeneity of variance between four states as follows: (1) during induction; (2) just after loss of consciousness (LOC); (3) just before return of consciousness (ROC); (4) just after ROC. Homogeneity of variance across all agents within states was found. Topographic statistical probability images were compared between states. At LOC, power increased in all frequency bands in the power spectrum with the exception of a decrease in gamma activity, and there was a marked anteriorization of power. Additionally, a significant change occurred in hemispheric relationships, with prefrontal and frontal regions of each hemisphere becoming more closely coupled, and anterior and posterior regions on each hemisphere, as well as homologous regions between the two hemispheres, uncoupling. All of these changes reversed upon ROC. Variable resolution electromagnetic tomography (VARETA) was performed to localize salient features of power anteriorization in three dimensions. A common set of neuroanatomical regions appeared to be the locus of the most probable generators of the observed EEG changes. (shrink)

Consider the concept combination ‘pet human’. In word association experiments, human subjects produce the associate ‘slave’ in relation to this combination. The striking aspect of this associate is that it is not produced as an associate of ‘pet’, or ‘human’ in isolation. In other words, the associate ‘slave’ seems to be emergent. Such emergent associations sometimes have a creative character and cognitive science is largely silent about how we produce them. Departing from a dimensional model of human conceptual space, this (...) article will explore concept combinations, and will argue that emergent associations are a result of abductive reasoning within conceptual space, that is, below the symbolic level of cognition. A tensor-based approach is used to model concept combinations allowing such combinations to be formalized as interacting quantum systems. Free association norm data is used to motivate the underlying basis of the conceptual space. It is shown by analogy how some concept combinations may behave like quantum-entangled particles. Two methods of analysis were presented for empirically validating the presence of non-separable concept combinations in human cognition. One method is based on quantum theory and another based on comparing a joint probability distribution with another distribution based on a separability assumption using a chi-square goodness-of-fit test. Although these methods were inconclusive in relation to an empirical study of bi-ambiguous concept combinations, avenues for further refinement of these methods are identified. (shrink)

Jean Philiponus est un théologien monophysite du VIe siècle qui a commenté le De Anima d'Aristote. Il suit le traitement d'Aristote au sujet de la vue et de la lumière. Il se demande si l'oeil est purement un récepteur passif de lumière ou si il est un émetteur de rayons visuels en interaction avec l'objet et de ce fait rend la vision possible. Jean Philiponus en arrive à une nouvelle théorie de la vision où celle-ci apparaît comme une faculté en (...) interaction avec ce qui est vu en raison de la nature non corporelle de la lumière. On est ici au tout début de la controverse sur les images. (shrink)

Jean Philiponus s'est toujours opposé à la notion nestorienne des anges servant les hommes à la place de Dieu. Jean Philiponus s'inscrit dans le courant égyptien critique de la fin du VIe siècle de certains récits apocryphes des anges dans l'univers primitif. L'argumentation de Philoponus est anti-dyophysite. Il s'attache à démontrer que l'univers que nous percevons est peuplé d'entités non corporelles puissantes, au service de Dieu et dont le rôle est de faire passer des messages aux êtres humains. Ces entités (...) ont été créées par le Dieu trinitaire avant l'acte divin de création. (shrink)

Live donor kidney transplantation is the best treatment option for most patients with late-stage chronic kidney disease; however, the rate of living kidney donation has declined in the United States. A consensus conference was held June 5-6, 2014 to identify best practices and knowledge gaps pertaining to live donor kidney transplantation and living kidney donation. Transplant professionals, patients, and other key stakeholders discussed processes for educating transplant candidates and potential living donors about living kidney donation; efficiencies in the living donor (...) evaluation process; disparities in living donation; and financial and systemic barriers to living donation. We summarize the consensus recommendations for best practices in these educational and clinical domains, future research priorities, and possible public policy initiatives to remove barriers to living kidney donation. (shrink)

Background: Nursing students on clinical placements as part of their professional training are routinely faced with situations involving ethical conflicts. The initial act of perceiving a situation as causing an ethical dilemma is the result of both the students’ personal values, drawn from their culture and families, and of the professional knowledge and values that they have acquired through training and experience. Objectives: Nursing students’ experiences on clinical placements in primary care settings were investigated in order to identify situations that (...) they perceived as involving ethical conflict and describe the elements they took into consideration during their decision-making processes in these situations. Methods: The research design was qualitative descriptive case study. Around 50 students from three different intakes to a nursing degree answered a questionnaire and discussed it in focus groups. Ethical considerations: The study was designed in accordance with the principles guiding research with human beings and was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee. Results: Synthesised into two principal axes: (a) ethical conflicts in primary care, linked with the domains of working processes, professional nursing ethics and human and social rights and (b) students’ decision-making processes – realisation, reflection and intervention. Conclusion: The student nurses saw themselves both as actors and spectators in situations involving ethical problems and demanding moral deliberation, demonstrating the ability to base their arguments soundly. They tended to emphasise the possibilities offered by dialogue and that different ethical values must be respected to find fair solutions to ethical problems. (shrink)