The rapid adoption and implementation of artificial intelligence in medicine creates an ontologically distinct situation from prior care models. There are both potential advantages and disadvantages with such technology in advancing the interests of patients, with resultant ontological and epistemic concerns for physicians and patients relating to the instatiation of AI as a dependent, semi- or fully-autonomous agent in the encounter. The concept of libertarian paternalism potentially exercised by AI (and those who control it) has created challenges to conventional assessments (...) of patient and physician autonomy. The unclear legal relationship between AI and its users cannot be settled presently, an progress in AI and its implementation in patient care will necessitate an iterative discourse to preserve humanitarian concerns in future models of care. This paper proposes that physicians should neither uncritically accept nor unreasonably resist developments in AI but must actively engage and contribute to the discourse, since AI will affect their roles and the nature of their work. One’s moral imaginative capacity must be engaged in the questions of beneficence, autonomy, and justice of AI and whether its integration in healthcare has the potential to augment or interfere with the ends of medical practice. (shrink)

It is presently unclear whether a distinct “rural ethics” of navigating professional boundaries exists, and if so, what theoretical approaches may assist practitioners to manage overlapping relationships. To be effective clinicians while concurrently partaking in community life, practitioners must develop and maintain safe, ethical, and sustainable therapeutic relationships in rural and remote healthcare. A narrative review was conducted identifying a significant body of qualitative and theoretical literature which explores the pervasiveness of dual relationships for practitioners working in rural and remote (...) healthcare. Rather than viewing dual relationships as ethically unacceptable, much contemporary work focusses on the lived experiences of healthcare workers and explores what approaches may be available that both protect the therapeutic relationship while recognizing the unique nature of rural and remote healthcare practice. We conclude that practitioners must have a means of operating within a contextually informed ethics of professional boundaries. Drawing on pre-existing work, one schema is proposed that could form the basis for further engagement through interactive teaching sessions, professional development, mentoring, or guidelines. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic has, of necessity, demanded the rapid incorporation of virtual technologies which, suddenly, have superseded the physical medical encounter. These imperatives have been implemented in advance of evaluation, with unclear risks to patient care and the nature of medical practice that might be justifiable in the context of a pandemic but cannot be extrapolated as a new standard of care. Models of care fit for purpose in a pandemic should not be generalized to reconfigure medical care as virtual (...) by default, and personal by exception at the conclusion of the emergency. (shrink)

Volume 20, Issue 3, March 2020, Page 81-83.

Although Kant had to write his Critique of Judgement with an eye to the Prussian censorship, he nevertheless valued in his aesthetic theory the achievements of the French Revolution. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to analyze the underlying political philosophy of Immanuel Kant's third Critique in the context of the aesthetic theories of his time. The paper presents a brief account of his aesthetic theory (especially of his concepts of "harmony" and "free interplay" between the cognitive faculties) and (...) gives special attention to the question why, in Kant's opinion, political speeches were legitimate objects of aesthetic judgments. (shrink)

Charles S. Peirce's epistemological theory of mental diagrams forms the theoretical basis of his attempt to analyze diagrammatic reasoning. Two examples, one from science and another from art, are examined to test the scope of this theory. While the first example shows how scientific diagrams form part of translation processes, similar processes are demonstrated in how paintings are received. The article attempts to connect Peirce and A. J. Greimas's theory of narrative. Relating the two proves useful in allowing Peirce's theory (...) of the connection between the three normative sciences to be discussed on a new basis. (shrink)

Die Interpretationen in diesem Band verfolgen das Ziel, das antike Ideal des Wissens historisch zu rekonstruieren, dem die klassische Philosophie ihre Gestalt verdankt. Denn bei Platon und bei Aristoteles hat die Wissenschaft noch Funktionen zu erfüllen, von denen heute in einer modernen Gesellschaft nur selten die Rede ist: Sie unterhält Beziehungen zu Fragen der antiken Religion, sie will die menschliche Seele von Schlamm befreien und der Begründung einer wahren Ordnung der Gesellschaft dienen. Der Weg von der göttlichen Logik zur menschlichen (...) Politik ist der steile Weg des Philosophen, auf dem er sich denkend abmüht. Winkt ihm dort oben auch die Glückseligkeit der Götter, stellt sich dem Philosophen hier doch zuallererst die Frage: Welche Politik? (shrink)