In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Theologian's Doubts:Natural Philosophy and the Skeptical Games of GhazālīLeor HaleviIn the history of skeptical thought, which normally leaps from the Pyrrhonists to the rediscovery of Sextus Empiricus in the sixteenth century, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (1058-1111) figures as a medieval curiosity. Skeptical enough to merit passing acknowledgment, he has proven too baffling to be treated fully alongside pagan, atheist, or materialist philosophers. As a theologian defending certain Muslim (...) dogmas, Ghazālī has not met what historians consider the mark of the true skeptic, a mind doubting the possibility of all systems of knowledge. But what is fascinating about him is that he brought into practical operation the tools of what I call "functional skepticism."1He denied the claims to truth of Aristotelian physics—whose basis he showed to rest on groundless belief—then turned and argued for the possibility of the Resurrection tooth and nail. The scholarly debate on The Incoherence of the Philosophers (Tahāfut al-falāsifa) has concentrated on the extent to which Ghazālī qua Ashcarite theologian was seduced into Aristotelian philosophy despite himself.2 In my view this debate has been misguided in the attempt to distill the [End Page 19] essence of Ghazālī from the book's eclectic theology; I will argue for a different view of Ghazālī on the basis of a close reading of key passages. In the unusual sections where Ghazālī applies Aristotelian language to a world not following the ordinary laws of physics, some have found Ghazālī slipping, unconsciously perhaps, into an Aristotelian frame of mind. I will show that, as a skeptical theologian with a dialogic imagination, he was rather deconstructing Aristotelian discourse while playing a Wittgensteinian sort of language game.Natural Philosopher or Speculative Theologian?The disagreement about the extent to which philosophy infected Ghazālī is ancient. Ghazālī might have studied philosophy only in order to refute it. He himself defended his philosophizing with the claim that one cannot deconstruct a system of thought until one has understood it so deeply as to elaborate upon its fundamental principles.3 His Maqāṣid al-falāsifa was in fact received, especially in trans-Pyrenean Europe, as a philosopher's genuine summary of the object of philosophy.4 The book strikes me as suspiciously creative in its representation of philosophical discourse, but it appears in any case as an expert and surprisingly unbiased treatment.5 Arabic readers knew that Ghazālī had also written a polemical treatise against philosophy, Tahāfut al-falāsifa, but they still wondered about his engagement with the ideas he challenged. Abū Bakr Ibn al-cArabī, for example, commented that Ghazālī had been unable to extricate himself from philosophy.6 Other philosophers pondered whether or not he had been a closeted member of their charmed circle and sought in his writings traces of esoteric philosophy.7Averroës's own sober sense of distance between philosophy and theology was partially a reaction to what he perceived as Ghazālī's dangerous and carefree mixture of the two sciences.8 He attacked Ghazālī's book in The Incoherence [End Page 20] of the Incoherence to restore philosophy's sense of purity, an aim he sought to accomplish by separating religious concerns from the philosopher's field of inquiry.9 Ironically, such a separation is precisely what Ghazālī might have wished to provoke by crisscrossing and blurring the line between religion and philosophy.The modern debate on chapter 17 of Tahāfut al-falāsifa has concentrated on defining Ghazālī as either a natural philosopher or an occasionalist theologian. In his defense of the possibility of miracles Ghazālī presented two theories of causation, one denying the logical basis of Aristotelian notions of natural causality, and the other more or less adopting these notions. Jointly, the two theories have seemed incompatible, and for this reason scholars have attempted to sort Ghazālī out of the apparent confusion. In 1978 L. E. Goodman argued persuasively that Ghazālī exploited rather than denied the philosophers' ideas of causality. In two articles Michael Marmura challenged Goodman, contending... (shrink)

Research into the roots of ideological extremism has traditionally focused on the social, economic, and demographic factors that make people vulnerable to adopting hostile attitudes toward outgroups. However, there is insufficient empirical work on individual differences in implicit cognition and information processing styles that amplify an individual’s susceptibility to endorsing violence to protect an ideological cause or group. Here we present original evidence that objectively assessed cognitive inflexibility predicts extremist attitudes, including a willingness to harm others, and sacrifice one’s life (...) for the group. Across two samples (N = 1,047) from the United Kingdom and United States, structural equation models demonstrated that cognitive inflexibility predicted endorsement of violence to protect the national ingroup, which in turn predicted a willingness to die for the group. These statistical models accounted for an average of 31.4% of the variance in willingness to die for the group, after accounting for demographic variables. Furthermore, cognitive inflexibility was related to greater confidence in the decision to sacrifice one’s life in an ingroup trolley problem scenario. Analysis of participants’ performance on the cognitive tasks revealed that cognitive rigidity – distinctly from other aspects of cognition – was specifically implicated as a cognitive antecedent of extremist attitudes. Implications for the study of radicalization and identity fusion throug... (shrink)

The realism-social constructionism debate has been consequential over the last several decades. Silverstein’s vocabulary of micro-/macro-contexts aids in understanding why the tension can be a useful epistemological heuristic for discourse analysts. Narratives were collected in focus groups of Ethiopian-Israeli college students. Five narratives were selected for ethnic mentions and found to have a particular ‘iterative’ ‘emplotment scenario’ – recurrent storylines and settings – across tellers and telling events. ‘the only Ethiopian’ is an IES of being sent away to a majority-White (...) elementary/secondary school, socially isolated and denigrated. How are we to understand it when a particular plotline and setting recur in our corpora? I argue that although each story and storytelling is unique, they all borrow from a larger-than-single-telling, already existent trope, that is, a budding master narrative. Taken together, a unique view of a particular socio-cultural process – in this case, something of what it means to be an Ethiopian Israeli – emerges. (shrink)

The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic quickly necessitated digital learning, which bore challenges for all pupils but especially for groups disadvantaged in a virtual classroom. As some studies indicate persistent differences between boys and girls in use of technologies and related skills, the aim of this study was to investigate gender differences in the digital learning environment students faced in spring 2020. Previous studies investigating gender differences in digital learning largely used biological sex as the only indicator of gender. This (...) study includes both biological sex and gender role self-concept in order to investigate the role of gender in different components of this stereotyped domain in a more differentiated way. A total of 19,190 Austrian secondary school students participated in an online study in April 2020 and answered questions regarding their competence beliefs, intrinsic value, engagement, and perceived teacher support in digital learning during the pandemic-induced school closures. Results showed higher perceived teacher support, intrinsic value, and learning engagement among girls than boys, while no significant sex differences were found in competence beliefs regarding digital learning. Furthermore, our results indicated clear benefits of an androgynous gender role self-concept for all studied components of digital learning. Implications of the findings for theory and practice are discussed. (shrink)

La violencia en México, específicamente en algunos estados de la República mexicana en donde la población se enfrenta a situaciones de peligro, tiene como una de tantas consecuencias la ausencia de personal médico que se desempeñe como profesional y proporcione servicios de salud en estas zonas rurales. En este sentido, es de considerar que la asignación de recursos humanos en salud es fundamental para el funcionamiento de un sistema eficiente y observar las causas por las que médicos que desde el (...) servicio social hasta el desempeño de su especialidad no consideran trabajar en lugares en donde se sienten vulnerables. En este proceso, es importante visibilizar los cuestionamientos éticos que pueden surgir por lo que este trabajo pretende dar importancia al tema de la exposición de circunstancias, hechos y cifras dentro de esta problemática y plantear las cuestiones normativas pertinentes dentro de este contexto. (shrink)

In thirteenth-century Castile, the kabbalist R. Joseph of Hamadan offered an unprecedented articulation of the idea of reincarnation (gilgul), proposing that Jewish men could be reborn as gentiles, women, or even animals. This article studies the formation of the Jewish belief in the transmigration of human souls into animal bodies, focusing on the question of animal pain. It contextualizes the kabbalistic literary treatment of animals by examining the thirteenth-century European genre of bestiaries, which attempted to instill proper morals in readers (...) by associating animals with sinners. Although the idea of animal reincarnation led kabbalists to treat animals as creatures with human souls, it did not lead to a fundamental or radical shift in the treatment of animals. (shrink)

Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and sociologist Norbert Elias are both famous for their influential interpretations of modern European culture as a whole. Nietzsche s On the Genealogy of Morals and Elias The Civilizing Process crossed disciplinary boundaries with respect to both content and method, and both books are still of great contemporary interest. This volume brings international specialists together for the first time to explore the connections between these two works. ".

The term “innovation” or “innovative care” has recently gained attention in the context of the use of novel and not yet fully validated medical interventions and technologies. Most notably, there have been various incidences of medical activities insufficiently validated for its regular use in healthcare that fall into this category, such as stem cell treatments, genome sequencing for diagnostic purposes, or novel reproductive technologies. Latin American countries are among the places where new and non-validated medical activities take place, notably due (...) to a lack of clear regulations and the poor support of authorities of existent legal and ethical guidelines, which is driven by “hidden battles” on the moral status of certain interventions. The increasing importance of innovative care underlines the importance of developing a general framework for these practices. Therefore, the present chapter scrutinizes this nascent field of inquiry in Latin America and offers a conceptual framework for innovation as well as its ethical justification. As we will argue, an important use of the term “innovation” or “innovative care” is best interpreted as “new non-validated practice” and not as a research activity. Then, we will defend that responsible innovation understood as responsible new non-validated practice is ethically permissible and poses an acceptable medical option if done in exceptional circumstances—where no reasonable alternatives can be provided to an individual patient—and following special ethical principles. Finally, we focus on the peculiarities and specific difficulties the concept of new non-validated practice poses to the Latin American context. We will conclude the chapter by some remarks and recommendations we draw from our analysis for individual patients, doctors, and societies in Latin America. (shrink)

Equal access to vaccines has been one of the key ethical challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most scholars consider the massive purchase and hoarding of vaccines by high-income countries, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, to be unjust towards the vulnerable living in low-income countries. A recent proposal by Andreas Albertsen of a vaccine tax has been put forward to remedy this problem. Under such a scheme, high-income countries would pay a contribution, conceptualised as a vaccine tax, dedicated to (...) buying vaccines and distributing them to low and middle-income countries. Proceeding from this proposal, we critically assess the feasibility of a vaccine tax and suggest how to conceptualise and implement a vaccine tax in practice. We present our ‘VaxTax model’ and explore its comparative advantages and disadvantages while considering other possible measures to address the global vaccine access problem, also in view of future pandemics and disease outbreaks. (shrink)

What has the past reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic taught us? We have seen that many low and middle-income countries (LMICs) still lack access to vaccines, and it seems little progress has been made in the last few months and year. This article discusses whether the current strategies, most notably, vaccine donations by the international community and the COVID-19 global access facility COVAX, offer meaningful solutions to tackle the problem. At the centre of our analysis, we compare the concepts of (...) “donations” and “charity” with “vaccine equity” and the “empowerment” of poorer countries. We suggest that the achievement of fair global vaccine production requires that our global approach is supportive of the idea of empowerment. We, therefore, need structural reforms, which would most importantly include capacity building, to positively impact this goal and to take the interests of the global poor seriously. (shrink)

In recent years, the scientific study of meditation and psychedelic drugs has seen remarkable developments. The increased focus on meditation in cognitive neuroscience has led to a cross-cultural classification of standard meditation styles validated by functional and structural neuroanatomical data. Meanwhile, the renaissance of psychedelic research has shed light on the neurophysiology of altered states of consciousness induced by classical psychedelics, such as psilocybin and LSD, whose effects are mainly mediated by agonism of serotonin receptors. Few attempts have been made (...) at bridging these two domains of inquiry, despite intriguing evidence of overlap between the phenomenology and neurophysiology of meditation practice and psychedelic states. In particular, many contemplative traditions explicitly aim at dissolving the sense of self by eliciting altered states of consciousness through meditation, while classical psychedelics are known to produce significant disruptions of self-consciousness, a phenomenon known as drug-induced ego dissolution. In this article, we discuss available evidence regarding convergences and differences between phenomenological and neurophysiological data on meditation practice and psychedelic drug-induced states, with a particular emphasis on alterations of self-experience. While both meditation and psychedelics may disrupt self-consciousness and underlying neural processes, we emphasize that neither meditation nor psychedelic states can be conceived as simple, uniform categories. Moreover, we suggest that there are important phenomenological differences even between conscious states described as experiences of self-loss. As a result, we propose that self-consciousness may be best construed as a multidimensional construct, and that “self-loss,” far from being an unequivocal phenomenon, can take several forms. Indeed, various aspects of self-consciousness, including narrative aspects linked to autobiographical memory, self-related thoughts and mental time travel, and embodied aspects rooted in multisensory processes, may be differently affected by psychedelics and meditation practices. Finally, we consider long-term outcomes of experiences of self-loss induced by meditation and psychedelics on individual traits and prosocial behavior. We call for caution regarding the problematic conflation of temporary states of self-loss with “selflessness” as a behavioral or social trait, although there is preliminary evidence that correlations between short-term experiences of self-loss and long-term trait alterations may exist. (shrink)

What has the past reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic taught us? We have seen that many low and middle-income countries (LMICs) still lack access to vaccines, and it seems little progress has been made in the last few months and year. This article discusses whether the current strategies, most notably, vaccine donations by the international community and the COVID-19 global access facility COVAX, offer meaningful solutions to tackle the problem. At the centre of our analysis, we compare the concepts of (...) “donations” and “charity” with “vaccine equity” and the “empowerment” of poorer countries. We suggest that the achievement of fair global vaccine production requires that our global approach is supportive of the idea of empowerment. We, therefore, need structural reforms, which would most importantly include capacity building, to positively impact this goal and to take the interests of the global poor seriously. (shrink)

What we here show is two-fold. First, there is in certain sectors of the legal community a trend to pronounce negatively on the epistemic credentials of religious belief: many hold that religious belief as such is simply irrational. Our second claim is simply that religious belief need not be irrational: it is perfectly possible for religious believers to have epistemically justified religious beliefs. We discuss here several implications of our two-fold claim. The most important of these is simply that religious (...) citizens’ religious beliefs cannot be barred from the public square for any epistemological reason. (shrink)

Die vorliegende Interviewstudie untersucht ethische Herausforderungen des Pflegealltags in Einrichtungen der Langzeitpflege aus Sicht der Pflegepersonen während der Covid-19-Pandemie. Durch das explorative, wie auch deskriptive methodische Vorgehen liegen Interviewdaten vor, die vier Themenbereichen zugeordnet werden können, die eine komplexe und teilweise konfliktreiche Arbeits- und Lebenswirklichkeit der Langzeitpflege in der Pandemie aufzeigen. Zum einen werden von den Pflegepersonen die staatlich und institutionell getroffenen Schutzmaßnahmen sowie die daraus resultierenden Einschränkungen der persönlichen Freiheit der Bewohner:innen kritisch reflektiert und damit verbunden der Grad der (...) Selbstbestimmtheit der Bewohner:innen von Alten- und Pflegeheimen in der Pandemie hinterfragt. Zum anderen wird – gegeben der pandemiebedingten Maßnahmen – das pflegerische Handeln im Arbeits- und Lebensort Heim als herausfordernd und die Möglichkeiten pflegerischer Fürsorge als stark eingeschränkt beschrieben. Genannt werden hier als konkrete Herausforderungen veränderte pflegerische Prozesse und Pflegequalität, wie auch eine veränderte Beziehungsqualität zu den Bewohner:innen.Diese vier Themenbereiche können grundsätzlich den ethischen Prinzipien der Autonomie und Fürsorge zugeordnet werden und präsentieren eine inhaltlich relevante Konkretisierung der prinzipienorientierten ethischen Herausforderungen. In der Zusammenschau und Interpretation der Ergebnisse wird ersichtlich, dass die interviewten Pflegepersonen die Beachtung und Umsetzung des Autonomie-Prinzips im pflegerischen Alltag eng mit dem Fürsorgeprinzip und dem daraus resultierenden Wohltun für die Bewohner:innen verknüpfen.Unsere Ergebnisse verdeutlichen, dass der in den letzten Jahrzehnten erarbeitete Paradigmenwechsel in der Langzeitpflege durch die Covid-19-Pandemie geschwächt wurde. Zudem machen die berichteten moralischen Unsicherheiten und Konflikte klar, dass Pflegepersonen Unterstützung hinsichtlich der ethischen Reflexion ihres pflegerischen Handelns benötigen und eine nachhaltige Integration von Ethikberatung in Langzeitpflegeeinrichtungen einen möglichen Lösungsansatz darstellen kann. (shrink)

Beck uses the term `subpolitics' to refer to forms of politics outside and beyond the representative institutions of the political system of nation-states. From the perspective of the theory of reflexive modernization, the proliferation of subpolitics indicates a weakening of the `iron cage' of bureaucratic, state-oriented politics. We argue that subpolitics does indeed challenge conventional notions of politics. It mobilizes sources of societal influence that transcend the formal political system. In particular, subpolitics correlates with the command over positive or negative (...) sanctions and the capacity for uncertainty absorption. This can be illustrated in the areas of scientific expertise, corporate decision-making and political consumption. Those cases show that the political system cannot monopolize the means of societal influence. For a political system that regards itself as the centre of society, this must be irritating. For sociology, however, it provides the opportunity to part with such an inappropriate account of the role of politics in modern society. (shrink)

Volume 19, Issue 6, June 2019, Page 42-44.

Risk is the probability that within a certain time some expected negative event will take place. In medicine risk can be related to a decision or to some intrinsic factors which are associated with the probability of the occurrence of a disease. Decisions can be necessary in the individual life with respect to the question of visiting a physician or performing a certain diagnostic or therapeutic procedure. The introduction of new pharmaceutical or technical products into medical use are another set (...) of decisions which can generate certain risks. Intrinsic or inherent risk factors are a set of variables or signs and symptoms which indicate the presence of a certain probability that some disease or event, e.g., arteriosclerosis or sudden infant death syndrome, may occur. Risk is always related to judgement. In a decision process cost, effectiveness and profit can be used to estimate the magnitude of the risk to be taken. In a similar way the problems in connection with an inherent risk are primarily related to the recognition of the magnitude of risk and to the possibility of prophylactic measures.In our own area of research, the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is an event where only risk factors can be observed. We point at two facts in this context: Highly complex patterns of symptoms like behaviour can better be classified by intuitive Gestalt perception. A medical procedure like induction of labour can itself become a risk factor. (shrink)

Mexico's pandemic management and the absence of measures have been harshly criticized as being disproportionate. This paper examines whether the proportionality principle was properly applied to Mexico's COVID-19 response and outlines three reasons against such an endeavor, namely (i) the content of “proportionate measures” remained insufficiently well defined, (ii) there were yet fundamental rights conflicts to resolve, and (iii) the situation was moreover characterized by epistemic uncertainty.

The ‘socially valuable knowledge’ principle has been widely acknowledged as one of the most important guiding principles for biomedical research involving human subjects. The principle states that the potential of producing socially valuable knowledge is a necessary requirement, although not sufficient, for the ethical conduct of research projects. This is due to the assumption that the social value of knowledge avoids exploitation of research subjects and justifies the use of health resources. However, more recently, several authors have started interrogating the (...) validity of SVK in research and offered various lines of argument against the SVK principle as a necessary constraint to research. In this article, I will reconstruct the main arguments of this discussion between defenders and debunkers of the SVK principle and offer a third way to consider the social value of knowledge in research studies. I will argue that the social value of knowledge can be supported by an independent justification. This justification of the SVK principle addresses the rationality and common interest of researchers. Thus, I will introduce the SVK principle as a safeguarding principle for public trust based on a conceptual framework by Alex John London. My approach justifies keeping the principle as a precautionary and rational requirement for human health research that all rational stakeholders can agree upon. (shrink)

A commentary on “Models of Consent to Return of Incidental Findings in Genomic Research,” by Paul S. Appelbaum, Erik Parens, Cameron R. Waldman, Robert Klitzman, Abby Fyer, Josue Martinez, W. Nicholson Price II, and Wendy K. Chung, in the July‐August 2014 issue.

No longer confined to traditional institutions devoted to Talmudic studies, havruta work, or the practice of students studying materials in pairs, has become a relatively widespread phenomenon across denominational and educational settings of Jewish learning. However, until now there has been little discussion of what havruta text study entails and how it might be conceptualized and taught. This book breaks new ground from two perspectives: by offering a model of havruta text study situated in broader theories of interpretation and learning, (...) and by treating havruta text study as composed of textual, interpersonal and intra-personal practices which can be taught and learned. We lay out the conceptual foundations of our approach and provide examples of their pedagogical implementation for the teaching of havruta text study. Included are illustrative lesson plans, teachers' notes and students’ reflections, exercises for students, and other instructional materials for teaching core concepts and practices. (shrink)

En 1965, Karl Rahner et Karl Lehmann publièrent une étude documentée et systématique sur les rapports entre kérygme et dogme, quintessence des travaux en cours dans ce domaine, au moment où s'achevait le concile Vatican II. Un premier principe consensuel allait se dégager de ces travaux. Son impact touchera directement la fonction régulatrice des langages de la foi, autrement dit du caractère principiel et originaire de cette fonction dévolue aux formules de confessions présentes dans l'écriture néotestamentaire. Il s'agissait en somme (...) de poser et de justifier les principes d'une interprétation dogmatique de l'Ecriture. L'une des questions cruciales alors débattues tournait autour de la signification d'un objet de foi saisissable en énoncés de vérité, objet qui ne pouvait consister en une simple sequela Christi, ou être ramené à une anthropologie existentiale. Une place pour le dogme semblait subsister. Ce processus va déboucher sur une interprétation " extensive " du dogme à laquelle V. Holzer consacre ici l'essentiel de ses analyses. In 1965, Karl Rahner and Karl Lehmann published a documented and systematic study of the relationship between kerygma and dogma, the quintessence of work being done in the field when the Second Vatican council was coming to an end. An initial consensual principle would come out of this work. It was to have a direct impact on the regulating function of the languages of faith, in other words the nature of this function as principle and origin allotted to the formulas of confessions present in New Testament writing. In short, it involved laying down and justifying the principles of a dogmatic interpretation of Scripture. One of the crucial questions debated at the time revolved around the meaning of an object of faith that can be grasped in true statements, an object that could not consist of a mere sequela Christi or be reduced to an existential anthropology. A place for dogma seemed to remain. This process was going to culminate in an "extensive" interpretation of dogma, to which V. Holzer devotes most of his analyses here. (shrink)

Wird Sprache gesprochen, erzwingt die Zeit eine Abfolge der Zeichen: Es wird immer nur ein bestimmtes Zeichen gleichzeitig ausgesprochen und somit ergibt sich eine eindeutige zeitliche Reihung. Diese Reihung wurde beim Aufkommen der Schrift beibehalten: Es ist möglich, die Zeichen eines Textes auf einem fortlaufenden Band aufzuschreiben. Diese lineare Ordnung wird aus verschiedenen Gründen durchbrochen, was jeweils mit Abfolgeregeln bezahlt werden muss: Die zweidimensionale Darstellung und das Buchformat erleichtern den Lesefluss; Seiten- und Zeilennummerierungen erlauben einen direkteren Zugriff auf Teile des (...) Textes; Titel sollen die Bedeutung der ihnen untergeordneten Schriftzeichen repräsentieren; im Inhaltsverzeichnis wird daher nicht nur die reine Abfolge der Schriftzeichen im Text fassbar, sondern auch in gewisser Weise die Abfolge der Bedeutungen. (shrink)

This article offers a critical examination of the travel diaries written by Gershom Scholem (1897–1982), a well-known pioneer scholar of Jewish mysticism and a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1946, Scholem was sent to Prague on behalf of the Hebrew University to retrieve the Nazi-looted Jewish libraries from Czechoslovakia to Palestine. In recent years, at the same time as a significant rise of scholarly interest in the fate of the plundered Jewish books and manuscripts, Scholem’s accounts have (...) come to serve as a main source of information on the Jewish cultural property in the Bohemian lands. Where most of the currently available studies take his description of the Czechoslovak restitution affairs almost for granted, this article seeks to adopt a more distant approach to these materials, by undertaking a comparison with the documentation produced by the local Jewish bodies and the archival sources of the Czechoslovak authorities responsible for the management of Jewish assets. Zooming in on the encounter between Scholem and the leaders of the Jewish community in Prague, the paper points especially to the multiple misunderstandings that arose between the two parties during his visit. It then explores the difference between his and the Prague protagonists’ perspectives on the Nazi-looted Jewish cultural property. (shrink)