Insulin‐dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) is an autoimmune disease whose etiology is complex. Both genetic susceptibility, which is polygenic, and environmental factors, including virus infections, appear to be involved in the development of IDDM. In this review, we have tried to balance the discussion of diabetes by examining both immunological and virological perspectives. Several mouse models, including viral and non‐viral models, have been used to study diabetes. For this review, we include lessons gleaned from the non‐obese diabetic (NOD) mouse and from (...) mouse models of coxsackievirus‐ and encephalomyocarditis‐virus‐induced diabetes. Finally, we present a multi‐stage model in which several viral infections, including the coxsackieviruses, are postulated to play a role in the autoimmune destruction of pancreatic beta cells. (shrink)

Some time ago, the philosopher Luciano Floridi suggested that Western philosophy, and the mainstream contemporary approach to it traditionally called ‘analytic philosophy’, is in dire need of a reboot. The concern was that the discipline might be in a period of decadence. Analytic philosophy would be benefited by greater internationalization, wider and more transparent decision-making, and the reduction (as much as possible) of conflicts of interest as well as of its current habit of hiring and providing publication opportunities on the (...) basis of contacts, networking, and academic pedigree. If we are right, then we need a reconditioning of the institutional framework of analytic philosophy that adjusts it to the current global and interconnected world. (shrink)

Este texto recupera dos posiciones en torno al concepto de destino: la de Diego de Saavedra Fajardo y la de Plutarco. Ambos, a diferencia de algunos estoicos, sostienen que, independientemente de aquellas circunstancias que escapan a la voluntad humana, el hombre posee la capacidad para ser libre y tomar decisiones respecto de sus actos, sin que esto signifique dejar atrás el ideal del sabio. Para ellos, enfrentarse con el destino implica conocer las pasiones que se hallan inmersas en la naturaleza (...) humana, así que no las toman en un sentido negativo. Por esta razón, ambos filósofos insisten en reorientar las pasiones a través de la educación, la moral o la religión y, con ello, en dejar atrás la idea de que el hombre está determinado o bien por su propia naturaleza humana o por las circunstancias que se le presentan. De esta manera, brindan un reconocimiento esencial al ejercicio de la libertad humana. (shrink)

This volume showcases contemporary, ground-up ethical essays in the tradition of Wittgenstein’s broader philosophy and Wittgenstein-inspired ethical reflection. It takes the ethical relevance of Wittgenstein as a substantial and solid starting point for a broad range of ongoing thinking about contemporary ethical issues. The texts are organised in two sections. The first consists of chapters exploring questions around what could be called the “grammar” of our moral forms of life, and thus represents a more traditional approach in ethics after Wittgenstein. (...) The second part represents a recent turn in the tradition towards investigating moral conceptions, perspectives and concepts that are undergoing change, either because the world itself is changing (for instance with new technologies) or because human agency, such as social movements, has brought us to reconsider previously unquestioned ideas and structures. Within the book, the authors’ contributions are inspired, in their ways of working with ethical questions, by Wittgenstein’s conceptions of language, understanding and the nature of philosophical inquiry. This book is of interest to philosophers influenced by Wittgenstein, as well as to all ethicists seeking ideas for how to do philosophy in a manner close to lived experience and practice. (shrink)

Some communitarians about personhood hold that human communities are metaphysically antecedent to individual persons, and that personhood comes in degrees, and that one becomes a person through ethical maturation within a community. I offer a new communitarianism that also endorses those claims. It is based partly on certain African accounts of the person—primarily Menkiti’s account—and partly on Mark Johnston’s extraordinary argument that extremely good persons are literally at one with the human community itself. The theory’s concept of the person is (...) a novel understanding of the social self. I argue that the account helps to solve three puzzles to do with communitarian conceptions of personhood. One puzzle is about understanding the individual person as an individual. Another relates to the alleged metaphysical priority of communities over persons. And a third is a problem for the view that personhood is graded. (shrink)

Standard virtue ethics approach to environmental issues do not go far enough because they often lack significant attachment to local environments. Place provides the necessary link that enlarges the arena of moral action by joining human well-being to a place -based goal of wildness or biotic harmony. Place defines a niche for human activity as part of nature. Virtuous action, then, is understood as deliberation from a position of being in and of the natural world; respect and gratitude are examples (...) of this type of deliberation. (shrink)

For a place that is so familiar, home is peculiarly difficult to define and to research. Based on an extended review of recent literature on home, the article shows that there is no place like `home' because people construct its image in memory and imagination. Home, it is argued, is imaged on many different levels. At a surface level, home is known in terms of its location, fabric, decoration, furnishing and amenity - it is a place that is known intimately. (...) At a deeper level, home is defined in terms of the kinds of relationships people have, or would like to have, with others inside and outside of the home. Deeper still, home is a representation of cultural identity and provides a collective sense of social permanency and security. People rarely think about home at this level, it is argued, unless reappraisal is forced upon them by a significant life event like migration between cultures or because of cultural invasion from without. The article argues for an intensification of research that starts from the domestic sphere is order to explore how home life both shapes and reflects wider social continuities and changes. (shrink)

This research investigates consumers'' perceptions of claims made in Dial-a-Porn commercials. The empirical findings support the view that some of the claims are deceptive. Based on research findings, preliminary public policy guidelines are suggested.