In this article, cognitivism is understood as the view that the engine of human (individual and collective) action is the intentional, dispositional, or other mental capacities of the brain or the mind. Cognitivism has been criticized for considering the essence of human action to reside in its alleged source in mental processes at the expense of the social surroundings of the action, criticism that has often been inspired by Ludwig Wittgenstein's later philosophy. This article explores the logical extent of the (...) critique of cognitivism, arguing that by positing collectively shared knowledge of criteria as the engine of human action many such critiques themselves display latent cognitivism. (shrink)

Rapid advances in the domain of science and technology are having an unprecedented effect upon the provision of higher education in universities throughout the world, the pace of change often being so fast as to make planning for the development of the “classroom of the future” an extremely difficult task. The Mobile Multimedia University (MMU) project, a collaborative action between four leading UK based research facilities, has been established to investigate these issues. Included amongst its aims is the use of (...) novel research methodologies to determine the factors which will influence the shape and form of future education provision, and thus the distribution of knowledge to society, such as mobility, telecommunications and multimedia services. This paper describes the use of a Delphi survey in predicting the technological trends and innovations which will affect university education in the near future. It describes the theory underpinning the Delphi method, illustrating this with examples of how such a technique has been successfully used in the past. It then details the specific application of the Delphi approach within the current MMU research project, detailing the preliminary results and discussing the implications of these findings for the future of universities and other institutes of higher education. (shrink)

In a range of human sciences, the human relationship to nature has often been viewed as driven fundamentally by religious, philosophical, political, and scientific ideas as well as values and norms about nature. As others have argued before, the emphasis on ideas and values faces serious problems in heeding the structural, socioeconomic quality of the human relationship to nature and thereby the deeply problematic structural character of the human environmental burden. At the same time, alleviating the structural environmental burden generated (...) by global industrial market society represents arguably the single most challenging task in addressing environmental problems. Critically explicating the tendency of our intellectual culture to produce ideological and psychologistic explanations of human ecologically consequential action, and human action more generally, can clarify the notion of the cultural causes of environmental problems and the character of the human collective causing them. Only a structuralist point of view can accommodate the diversity of our positions and perspectives toward nature in the global context in which environmental problems are caused. (shrink)

1. Introduction. It is an amazing thing that, unlike pebbles, clouds and stars, the smallest building stones of Nature—the electrons, the protons and the neutrons—are all completely uniform. There seems to be a necessity in Nature for systems of a very special form, and one can wonder now what kind of necessity this is. I believe that this can only be a mathematical necessity, that consequently the principle of Nature is a mathematical one. How else could Nature obey the mathematical (...) laws of physics if it were not because of her own principle? It can be argued that these mathematical laws, like Newtonian mechanics, the classical theory of electromagnetism and the quantum theory of the electron are all some form of beginner's luck, and that continued investigation will reveal Nature as more and more mysterious and irrational. If that were true, one might as well give up the pursuit of physics completely! But on one hand modern physics has discovered what we believe to be the elementary particles of the material world, and on the other hand it comes out that at least a part of these elementary forms obey mathematic laws to a very high degree of accuracy. (shrink)

The European Clinical Trials Directive was issued in 2001 and aimed to simplify and harmonise the regulatory framework of clinical trials throughout Europe, thus stimulating European research. However, significant complexity and inconsistency remains due to disparate interpretation by EU member states. Critical care research has been particularly impacted due to variable and often restrictive consenting procedures for incapacitated subjects, with some countries requiring a court-appointed representative, while others recognise consent from family members and occasionally professional representatives. Furthermore, the absence of (...) a waiver of consent threatened to put an end to emergency research in Europe and was met with varied responses. Approval procedures by ethics committees are equally inconsistent, particularly those relating to provision of a single opinion for multi-centre trials. Although evidence is somewhat mixed, this complexity as well as a general increase in administrative and financial burden following the Directive has been shown to cause a reduction in clinical trial activity in Europe, particularly academic trials. We aim to clarify some of these inconsistent procedures, particularly those relating to informed consent of incapacitated subjects, as well as discussing some general weaknesses and possible improvements of the Directive ahead of its planned revision in 2011. (shrink)

Miracle and miracle narrative against the background of myth and demythologizing.Religio-scientific perspectives on communication, language, reality conception, myth and the world of the sacred, as well as a different angle on demythologizing, are utilised in formulating a broad theological view of miracles, miracle experiences and miracle narratives.

Although at first sight the Speculum contains ‘too little Augustine’ for theologians who are attempting to discover the originality of this thought, it is in fact a revealing anthology. An examination of the criteria used for the selection of Scriptural quotations brings to light an important facet of his mystagogy. Both the exclusion and inclusion criteria demonstrate that Augustine’s intention is to confront his reader with his own imperfections, and this to a much greater degree than is suggested by the (...) understatement of Speculum 108 that the moral guidelines proffered should have an immediate impact. Augustine’s aim in writing the Speculum is to effect a confrontation of the reader with himself, in a first, but permanent step on the way of mystagogy. Scripture serves as a mirror to reflect as detailed and unpolished an image as possible of the person who looks into it; the confrontation must be as violent as possible. (shrink)

It is the impression of neurologists who deal with cancer patients that the incidence of neurologic complications of cancer is increasing (Posner 1995). ...