The tripartite account of propositional, fallibilist knowledge that p as justified true belief can become adequate only if it can solve the Gettier Problem. However, the latter can be solved only if the problem of a successful coordination of the resources (at least truth and justification) necessary and sufficient to deliver propositional, fallibilist knowledge that p can be solved. In this paper, the coordination problem is proved to be insolvable by showing that it is equivalent to the ''''coordinated attack'''' problem, (...) which is demonstrably insolvable in epistemic logic. It follows that the tripartite account is not merely inadequate as it stands, as proved by Gettier-type counterexamples, but demonstrably irreparable in principle, so that efforts to improve it can never succeed. (shrink)

Purpose. The research is aimed at finding out the grounds, forms and essence of the correlation between the projects of information philosophy and transhumanism from the point of view of the problematics of philosophical anthropology. Attention is focused on the status of the knowing subject and the transformations of the forms of its activity within the specified correlation. Theoretical basis. Insufficient thinking on the issue of the functioning of traditional cognitive models, in particular Kant’s transcendental questioning, which formed the basis (...) of modern rationality and classical science, in the new sociocultural reality led the authors to problematize the forms and essence of interaction and operating with knowledge and communication in the information sphere of human existence and communication. A comparative consideration of the worldviews in the information philosophy and transhumanism projects, made on the basis of a study of current scientific literature, provided an opportunity to assume the probability of implicit elimination of the problems of philosophical anthropology from the horizon of meanings of modern science through the blurring of essentially anthropological analytics. Originality. The article proves the ambivalent nature of the correlation between the projects of philosophy and transhumanism information that are externally close on the subject and problematics, and for the first time in the domestic literature, they have been compared. The content of the powerful potential of information philosophy for the development of philosophical anthropology approaches to the phenomena of the human world determined by the technological nature of civilization and the powerful sociocultural issues of modernity have been clarified. The threats of the dehumanization of the problem field in the modern science and spheres of applied digital technologies associated with transhumanism, interpreted as an ideology, are underlined. Conclusions. The analysis of theoretical positions relevant for the philosophy of information and transhumanism resulted in a number of conclusions, central among which is the statement of the "blurring" situation, the hidden elimination in the content of problematics of philosophical anthropology and its humanistic pathos within the limits of modern forms of correlation and existence in the scientific discourse of the philosophemes and ideologemes in the information philosophy and transhumanism. Epistemological phenomena of "cognitive closure" and a man as a "blind spot" in the thinking on the science and technology development, primarily communication, indicate the relevance of a full comprehensive consideration of the problems of philosophical anthropology in projects of the information philosophy and transhumanism. (shrink)

This baseline study was conducted to find out the knowledge, attitudes and practices of medical ethics among the undergraduate medical interns who did not have structured ethics curriculum in their course. A descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out using a self-administered structured questionnaire among the medical undergraduate interns of Maharajgunj Medical Campus, the pioneer medical college of Nepal which enrols 60 students in a year. A total of 46 interns participated in the study. The most common source of knowledge on (...) ethics was lectures/seminars (35.7%) followed by experience at work (24.5%), training (21.4%) and own reading (17.3%). The main contents of Hippocratic Oath were known to 98.8% while 60.9% knew the main contents of Nepal Medical Council (NMC) code of ethics. Great majority (91.3%) regard ethics as very important in medical profession. “Doctors know the best irrespective of patients’ opinion” was disagreed by only 39.1% indicating the paternalistic attitude. However, 78.3% were in favour of adhering to the patient’s wish. None of the participant agreed to abandon confidentiality. Only about one-fourth (26.1%) claim to encounter ethical dilemma every day while the highest number (43.5%) had once in a month. To deal with the situation of ethical dilemma, majority approached to immediate supervisor followed by head of the department and colleagues. Eighty-seven percent of participating interns were involved in research activities involving human subjects. Only one of the participants had encountered the ethical issue on end-of-life and it was do-not-resuscitate consent in a terminally ill patient. On implementation of the curriculum on medical ethics focus should be - principles of biomedical ethics, sensitive ethical dilemmas like end-of-life care and practical experiences with participation in deliberations of the ethics committee. (shrink)

ABSTRACTTask-irrelevant emotional expressions are known to capture attention, with the extent of “emotional capture” varying with psychopathic traits in antisocial samples. We investigated whether this variation extends throughout the continuum of psychopathic traits in a community sample. Participants searched for a target face among facial distractors. As predicted, angry and fearful faces interfered with search, indicated by slower reaction times relative to neutral faces. When fear appeared as either target or distractor, diminished emotional capture was seen with increasing affective-interpersonal psychopathic (...) traits. However, moderation analyses revealed that this was only when lifestyle-antisocial psychopathic traits were low, consistent with evidence suggesting that these two facets of psychopathic traits display opposing relationships with emotional reactivity. Anxiety did not show the predicted relationships with emotional capture effects. Findings show... (shrink)

ABSTRACTEvidence is currently mixed regarding the way in which cognitive conflict modulates the effect of emotion on task performance. The present study aimed to address methodological differences...

Employee attitudes to change are key predictors of organizational change success. In this article, change engagement is defined as the extent to which employees are enthusiastic about change, and willing to actively involve themselves in ongoing organizational change. A model is tested showing how change-related organizational resources influence change engagement, in part through their influence on change-related job resources. Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equations Modeling results yielded good fit to the data in two independent samples: 225 Australian working professionals, (...) and 201 employees from a Prolific sample. As proposed, change-related organizational resources were positively associated with higher order change-related job resources. Change-related job resources were positively associated with change engagement. In contrast to expectations, organizational resources were not directly associated with change engagement. Instead, change-related job resources fully mediated the relationship. Overall, the study provides empirical support for new measures of organizational change resources and employee change engagement. By drawing from well-established models in the change and engagement literatures, the study provides a promising research direction for those interested in further understanding positive employee attitudes to organizational change. Practical implications and future research opportunities are discussed. (shrink)

SummaryRussell's vicious‐circle principle is an endeavour to express a general principle of mathematics which, as the author feels, is fundamental for mathematics. This principle, in a sense warranty of formal consistency, interdicts in some form or other the selfapplication of mathematical entities. It is shown that the VCP is a vicious‐circle fallacy; that, although it can't be given an expression which is simultaneously formal and generally valid, it is generally presupposed by mathematics as far as a consistent formalism is concerned; (...) that this paradoxical situation refers to an essentially informal and non‐mathematical domain which forms a necessary condition for mathematics, but can't exhaustively be expressed in any mathematical formalism. Finally the distinction between semantical and syntactical import and the character of negation are restated in view of these results.RésuméLe principe du cercle vicieux de Russell a, selon l'auteur, une portée générale et fondamentale en mathématiques: il interdit, sous quelque forme que ce soit, lapos;application dapos;entités mathématiques à elles‐mêmes. Ce principe est équivalent au paradoxe de Russell; on ne peut pas le formaliser sous peine de compromettre sa validite universelle, et pourtant il constitue une présupposition de tout formalisme qui veut éviter la contradiction. Cette situation paradoxale nous renvoie à un domaine essentiellement in‐formel et non‐mathématique, qui embrasse le formalisme mathématique, en constitue une condition nécessaire, mais ne peut être exprimé dans aucun formalisme dapos;une manière exhaustive. Finalement le problème logique de la négation et celui de la distinction entre les rapports sémantiques et syntactiques sont repris à la lumière de ces résultats.ZusammenfassungRussells Zirkelprinzip ist der Versuch, ein allgemeingültiges Prinzip der Mathematik auszudrücken, das, wie der Verfasser meint, von grundsätzlicher Bedeutung ist. Dieses Prinzip, das in einem gewissen Sinne die formale Widerspruchsfreiheit verbürgt, verbietet die Selbstbezüglichkeit mathematischer Entitäten. Der Artikel zeigt, dass es mit Russells Paradox äquivalent ist, und dass es eine allgemeine Voraussetzung der Mathematik als eines konsistenten Formalismus darstellt, obwohl man ihm selbst keinen zugleich allgemeingültigen und formellen Ausdruck geben kann; es wird des weiteren gezeigt, dass diese paradoxale Situation auf ein wesentlich informelles und nicht‐mathematisches Gebiet verweist, das eine notwendige Bedingung für die Mathematik darstellt, jedoch selber nicht erschöpfend im Formalismus dargestellt werden kann. Schliesslich werden a) die Unterscheidung zwischen semantischen und syntakti‐schen Beziehungen und b) die Negation im Lichte dieser Ergebnisse neu überdacht. (shrink)

Aristotle's Ethica Eudemia Book 2 Chapter 2 contains, at lines 1220b10–11, a well-known crux in the phrase ἐν τοῖς ἀπηλλαγμένοις. The context makes clear that Aristotle is using this phrase to refer to some writing or other, but scholars have been puzzled both about what the phrase means and what writing it refers to.

There is considerable variability across people in their punitive responses to employee offenses in the workplace. We attempt to explain this variability by positing a novel antecedent of punishment: moral recognition. We find consistent evidence that identifying moral considerations and implications for workplace offenses predicts punitive responses toward employees who commit those offenses. Drawing on functional theoretical accounts of morality and punishment, we posit that people are motivated to punish others to the extent that they believe a moral offense has (...) been committed, because much of what it means to commit a moral offense (as opposed to a non-moral offense) is to act in a way that prevents, or inhibits, cooperative behavior to achieve social goals. Punishment can discourage group members from committing those offenses in the future, thereby regulating behavior in a way that facilitates cooperation and social cohesion. We offer correlational and causal evidence that the link between moral recognition and punishment is explained, in part, by participants’ beliefs that committing these offenses prevents cooperative behavior to achieve organization-related goals. (shrink)

Ethics education has become a priority at many business schools. A common pedagogical strategy in business ethics education has been to encourage students to deliberate and reason about cases and dilemmas. However, relatively little is known about how students actually reason, by default, about business ethics cases and dilemmas. In a large-scale study with undergraduate management students, we investigate how students reason about ethical dilemmas in business. Our results suggest that, after making an initial decision in a dilemma, students rarely (...) changed their minds after deliberating over an extensive set of reasons for both sides of the dilemma. Students evaluated reasons in a way that preferentially supported their initial decisions. This post-hoc evaluation of reasons to preferentially support initial decisions also had implications for decision entrenchment: students actually tended to become more confident in the superiority of their initial decisions after deliberating over the reasons for both sides. We discuss the challenges that our findings pose for teaching business ethics. (shrink)

The first part of this book contains essays on Dostoevski's Christian insights, Marxism compared to Christianity as a religion, and the Christian significance of Sartre's "ontological" interpretation of sexuality. A second group of essays develops the author's concern with Christian social ethics and modern interpretations of the concept of natural law, in the writings of Brunner, Cahn, Maritain, Tillich, H. R. Niebuhr, and Reinhold Niebuhr. Ramsey's treatment of these writers is generally sympathetic and sensitive.--P. F. L.

Five essays on various aspects of Peirce's philosophy, first delivered as a series of lectures at Yale University, plus a brief biography of Peirce by Paul Weiss. The essays are: "Charles S. Peirce as an American," by Rulon Wells, "Notes Toward a Logic of Discovery," by N. R. Hanson, "Action, Conduct, and Self-Control," by R. J. Bernstein, "Community and Reality," by J. E. Smith, and "Charles S. Peirce, Philosopher," by Paul Weiss. Several of these essays contain concise, perceptive summaries and (...) evaluations of Peirce's thought in various areas; the book is an excellent introduction to Peirce's philosophy.—P. F. L. (shrink)

IntroductionBisphenol A is highly debated and studied in relation to a variety of health outcomes. This large variation in the literature makes BPA a topic that is prone to selective use of literature, in order to underpin one’s own findings and opinion. Over time, selective use of literature, by means of citations, can lead to a skewed knowledge development and a biased scientific consensus. In this study, we assess which factors drive citation and whether this results in the overrepresentation of (...) harmful health effects of BPA.MethodsA citation network analysis was performed to test various determinants of citation. A systematic search identified all relevant publications on the human health effect of BPA. Data were extracted on potential determinants of selective citation, such as study outcome, study design, sample size, journal impact factor, authority of the author, self-citation, and funding source. We applied random effect logistic regression to assess whether these determinants influence the likelihood of citation.ResultsOne hundred sixty-nine publications on BPA were identified, with 12,432 potential citation pathways of which 808 citations occurred. The network consisted of 63 cross-sectional studies, 34 cohort studies, 29 case-control studies, 35 narrative reviews, and 8 systematic reviews. Positive studies have a 1.5 times greater chance of being cited compared to negative studies. Additionally, the authority of the author and self-citation are consistently found to be positively associated with the likelihood of being cited. Overall, the network seems to be highly influenced by two highly cited publications, whereas 60 out of 169 publications received no citations.ConclusionIn the literature on BPA, citation is mostly driven by positive study outcome and author-related factors, such as high authority within the network. Interpreting the impact of these factors and the big influence of a few highly cited publications, it can be questioned to which extent the knowledge development in human literature on BPA is actually evidence-based. (shrink)

Selections representing a wide range of 20th century thought, in a book intended primarily for introductory courses in contemporary philosophy. Individual selections are generally well chosen. The short editorial commentaries on the various thinkers and positions are both fair and perceptive.--P. F. L.

The author contends that contemporary analytic and existential philosophies have more in common than is generally realized. Both are committed to the analysis of human experience in its full complexity, and opposed to the simplistic reductionism which Kohl feels characterized the philosophies of the early twentieth century. Short and sometimes quite insightful summaries of the positions of major contemporary philosophers and schools are interspersed with very interestingly chosen selections by a variety of writers, making this in some ways a good (...) introduction to the contemporary scene for the non-philosopher. However, despite some interesting ideas, Kohl's arguments in support of his major thesis are generally superficial, and he shows little sense of the fact that any attempt to reconcile analytic and existential philosophy must first of all take account of the very real differences between them.—P. F. L. (shrink)

This book contains twenty-seven essays prepared for a 1961 conference at Notre Dame, and also includes comments on several of the papers by participants of the conference. The essays trace the concept of matter from its origin in Greek and Medieval philosophy through its function in seventeenth-century science to its current scientific and philosophical status. The essays can stand by themselves, in some cases as useful historical surveys, in other cases as presentations of new ideas or defenses of current viewpoints. (...) However, they are also part of a larger whole; from the confrontation of a variety of philosophic approaches and specialties there emerges a surprisingly unified picture of the evolution of a concept. At the same time, the book is also a study in the different ways in which any explanatory concept can function. Inevitably, the confrontation is not wholly successful; some of the essays are so specialized that it is difficult to relate them to the rest of the book. However, the inclusion of comments and transcribed informal discussion from the conference helps to maintain a sense of dialogue, and the editor contributes a perceptive introduction in which he brings together some themes which run throughout the book.—P. F. L. (shrink)

The topic of the essays in this rather miscellaneous collection range from the nature of post-Christian man to the possibility of banning cars from Manhattan. Most of these essays are not "philosophical" in a technical sense, but there emerges from them a definite philosophical viewpoint, one which shows the influence of pragmatic, existential, and psychoanalytic ideas. Goodman's particular concern is with the relation of the individual to society, and particularly with the problems of meaningful individual action within the context of (...) the community. This concern results in a distinctive fusion of an individualistic and humanistic philosophy with highly concrete social proposals. Despite its rather fragmentary nature, this book is a good illustration of the freshness and immediacy which make Goodman one of the most original and exciting of current social thinkers.—P. F. L. (shrink)

The heart of this book is an extended account of Whitehead's philosophical development, in which Lowe argues persuasively that many of the ideas which appear in Whitehead's metaphysical writings are prefigured in the work of Whitehead the mathematician and philosopher of science. The discussion of the way in which a peculiarly mathematical insight into the structure of the universe can be traced even in the late metaphysical works is especially illuminating. Also included is a brief summary of Whitehead's developed philosophy (...) and a critical discussion of "empirical method" in Whitehead.--P. F. L. (shrink)

Dental tourism is patients travelling across international borders with the intention of receiving dental care. It is a growing phenomenon that raises many ethical issues, particularly regarding the dentist–patient relationship. We discuss various issues related to this phenomenon, including patient autonomy over practitioner choice, patient safety, continuity of care, informed consent and doctor–patient communication, among other factors. In particular, patients partaking in medical tourism should be informed of its potential problems and the importance of proper planning and post-treatment care to (...) guarantee high-quality treatment outcomes. (shrink)

Purpose: A study was made of attitudes of clinical geneticists regarding the age at which minors should be allowed to undergo a carrier test and the reasons they provide to explain their answer. Methods: European clinical institutions where genetic counselling is offered to patients were contacted. 177 (63%) of the 287 eligible respondents answered a questionnaire. Results: Clinical geneticists were significantly more in favour of providing a carrier test to a younger person if the request was made together with the (...) parents than if the adolescent requested the test personally. Although a large fraction of respondents (16%–30%) were “neither unwilling nor willing” to provide a carrier test to a 16-year-old adolescent who requested the test personally, for most disorders slightly more clinical geneticists were “very willing” or “willing”. Conclusion: Age is not the only decisive element when considering the participation of adolescents in decisions affecting their health. The clinical geneticists referred to cognitive, emotional and sexual maturity and the support of parents as crucial elements in their comments regarding when to tell children about their genetic risk or to allow adolescents to request a carrier test. (shrink)

ABSTRACTAdopting a temporally distant perspective on stressors reduces distress in adults. Here we investigate whether the extent to which individuals project themselves into the future influences distancing efficacy. We also examined modulating effects of age across adolescence and reactive aggression: factors associated with reduced future-thinking and poor emotion regulation. Participants read scenarios and rated negative affect when adopting a distant-future perspective, near-future perspective, or when reacting naturally. Self-report data revealed significant downregulation of negative affect during the distant-future condition, with a (...) similar though non-significant skin conductance pattern. Importantly, participants who projected further ahead showed the greatest distress reductions. While temporal distancing efficacy did not vary with age, participants reporting greater reactive aggression showed reduced distancing efficacy, and projected themselves less far into the future. Fi... (shrink)

Watts wishes to engage in a "metatheology" whereby Christianity is looked at from the standpoint of Hindu myth. Viewed in this way, the Christian emphasis on the value of individuality and the absolute separation of creature and Creator is seen as the supreme example of God's maya, the act whereby the Absolute believes itself to be finite and individual. Watts believes that this approach can lead to a mutual enrichment of the two religious traditions. Through most of the book he (...) claims merely to be comparing the Hindu and Christian world-myths; in the end, however, he suggests that the comparison may also have philosophic significance. Though he explicitly denies having written a scholarly book, Watts is often both provocative and perceptive.—P. F. L. (shrink)

‘Some of Martial's shortest epigrams are also the obscurest’, observes P. T. Eden, apropos of 1.102. This two-line poem has certainly generated a remarkable diversity of interpretations. All the critics are agreed that the portrait of Venus owned by the courtesan Lycoris is in some way botched or unattractive, but, beyond this, their explanations differ widely.