DBS Think Tank IX was held on August 25–27, 2021 in Orlando FL with US based participants largely in person and overseas participants joining by video conferencing technology. The DBS Think Tank was founded in 2012 and provides an open platform where clinicians, engineers and researchers can freely discuss current and emerging deep brain stimulation technologies as well as the logistical and ethical issues facing the field. The consensus among the DBS Think Tank IX speakers was that DBS expanded in (...) its scope and has been applied to multiple brain disorders in an effort to modulate neural circuitry. After collectively sharing our experiences, it was estimated that globally more than 230,000 DBS devices have been implanted for neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. As such, this year’s meeting was focused on advances in the following areas: neuromodulation in Europe, Asia and Australia; cutting-edge technologies, neuroethics, interventional psychiatry, adaptive DBS, neuromodulation for pain, network neuromodulation for epilepsy and neuromodulation for traumatic brain injury. (shrink)

The World Health Assembly adopted the new International Health Regulations on May 23, 2005. The new IHR represent the culmination of a decade-long revision process and an historic development for international law and public health. The new IHR appear at a moment when public health, security, and democracy have become intertwined, addressed at the highest levels of government. The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, for example, identified IHR revision as a priority for moving humanity toward “larger freedom.” This article analyzes (...) the new IHR and their implications for global health and security in the 21st century.The WHA instructed the WHO Director-General to revise the IHR in 1995 because the Regulations did not provide an effective framework for addressing the international spread of disease. Doubts about the IHR's effectiveness had, however, been present long before 1995. The critiques identified the narrow scope of the regulations, the lack of compliance by states, and the absence of a strategy for responding to rapid changes in public health's global economic and technological environments. (shrink)

The incident in May-June 2007 involving a U.S. citizen traveling internationally while infected with drug-resistant tuberculosis involved the U.S. federal government's application of its quarantine and isolation powers. The incident and the isolation order raised numerous important issues for public health governance, law, and ethics. This article explores many of these issues by examining how the exercise of quarantine powers provides a powerful lens through which to understand how societies respond to and attempt to govern threats posed by dangerous, contagious (...) pathogens. The article considers historical aspects of governmental power to quarantine and isolate individuals and groups; analyzes the current state of quarantine and isolation law in the United States in light of the recent incident with drug-resistant tuberculosis; and explores global aspects of public health governance and law highlighted by this incident. (shrink)

Dramatic events involving dangerous microbes often focus attention on isolation and quarantine as policy instruments. The incident in May-June 2007 involving Andrew Speaker and drug-resistant tuberculosis joins other communicable disease crises that have forced contemplation or actual application of quarantine powers. Implementation of quarantine powers, which encompasses authority for both isolation and quarantine actions, is important not only for the handling of a specific event but also because the use of such authority provides a window on broader issues of public (...) health and the legal rules, ethical principles, and governance systems that support it. Debates about quarantine powers reflect political and social attitudes about public health that often tell us more about this policy endeavor than acts of isolation and quarantine themselves. (shrink)

The adoption of the new International Health Regulations in May 2005 represents an historic development for international law and public health. This article describes the IHR revision process and analyzes why the new IHR constitute an advance in global health governance.

This paper aims to critique the phenomenon of advanced patient autonomy and choice in healthcare within the specific context of self-testing devices. A growing number of self-testing medical devices are currently available for home use. The premise underpinning many of these devices is that they assist individuals to be more autonomous in the assessment and management of their health. Increased patient autonomy is assumed to be a good thing. We take issue with this assumption and argue that self-testing provides a (...) specific example how increased patient autonomy and choice within healthcare might not best serve the patient population. We propose that current interpretations of autonomy in healthcare are based on negative accounts of liberty to the detriment of a more relational understanding. We also propose that Kantian philosophy is often applied to the healthcare arena in an inappropriate manner. We draw on the philosophical literature and examples from the self-testing process to support these claims. We conclude by offering an alternative account of autonomy based on the interrelated concepts of relationality, care and responsibility. (shrink)

Diagnostic self-testing devices are being developed for many illnesses, chronic diseases and infections. These will be used in hospitals, at point-of-care facilities and at home. Designed to allow earlier detection of diseases, self-testing diagnostic devices may improve disease prevention, slow the progression of disease and facilitate better treatment outcomes. These devices have the potential to benefit both the individual and society by enabling individuals to take a more proactive role in the maintenance of their health and by helping society improve (...) health and reduce health costs. However, the full implications of future home-based diagnostic technology for individuals and society remain unclear due to their novelty. We argue that the development of diagnostic tools, especially for home use, will heighten a number of ethical challenges. This paper will explore some of the ethical implications of home-based self-testing diagnostic devices for the autonomous and relational dimensions of the person. This will be facilitated by examining the impact of diagnostic devices for individual autonomy, for the delivery of accurate diagnosis and for the personal significance of the information for the user. The latter will be examined using Charles Taylor's view of personhood and his emphasis on human agency and interpretation. While the ethical issues are not necessarily new, the development of home-based self-testing diagnostic devices will make issues regarding autonomy, accuracy of information and personal significance more and more demanding. This will be the case particularly when an individual's autonomous choices come into conflict with the person's relational responsibilities. (shrink)

Recent empirical work has offered strong support for ‘biased pluralism’ and ‘economic elite’ accounts of political power in the United States, according a central role to ‘business interest groups’ as a mechanism through which corporate influence is exerted. Here, we propose an additional channel of influence for corporate interests: the ‘policy-planning network,’ consisting of corporate-dominated foundations, think tanks, and elite policy-discussion groups. To evaluate this assertion, we consider one key policy-discussion group, the Council on Foreign Relations. We first briefly review (...) the origins of this organization and then review earlier findings on its influence. We then code CFR policy preferences on 295 foreign policy issues during the 1981–2002 period. In logistic regression analyses, we find that the preferences of more affluent citizens and the CFR were positive, statistically significant predictors of foreign policy outcomes while business interest group preferences were not. These findings are discussed with a consideration of the patterns of CFR ‘successes’ and ‘failures’ for the issues in our dataset. Although a full demonstration of a causal connection between corporate interests, the policy-planning network and policy outcomes requires further research, we conclude that this has been shown to be a plausible mechanism through which corporate interests are represented and that ‘biased pluralism’ researchers should include it in their future investigations. (shrink)

Lawrence P. Ulrich; A Reaction to the Consensus Statement of the Working Group on Roman Catholic Approaches to Determining Appropriate Critical Care, Christian.

Although informed consent is important in clinical research, questions persist regarding when it is necessary, what it requires, and how it should be obtained. The standard view in research ethics is that the function of informed consent is to respect individual autonomy. However, consent processes are multidimensional and serve other ethical functions as well. These functions deserve particular attention when barriers to consent exist. We argue that consent serves seven ethically important and conceptually distinct functions. The first four functions pertain (...) principally to individual participants: (1) providing transparency; (2) allowing control and authorization; (3) promoting concordance with participants' values; and (4) protecting and promoting welfare interests. Three other functions are systemic or policy focused: (5) promoting trust; (6) satisfying regulatory requirements; and (7) promoting integrity in research. Reframing consent around these functions can guide approaches to consent that are context sensitive and that maximize achievable goals. (shrink)

This new study, an updated version of the author's doctoral dissertation, is a detailed investigation of Porphyry's one extant commentary on Aristotle's Categories and Plotinus' critique of Aristotle's doctrine of categories in "On the Kinds of Being". Evangeliou's investigation is limited by the fact that Porphyry's work was written for the student in an elementary "question and answer" format, yet Evangeliou is still able to decipher his general approach to Aristotle, which is respectful and conciliatory. In stark contrast is Plotinus' (...) work, which makes little attempt to interpret Aristotle in a generous manner and rejects most of his doctrine of categories. (shrink)

The nine essays in this volume present a series of specific insights on Aristotle's influence from Plotinus through Arabic thought. The first two essays consider the connection between Aristotle and Plotinus; the next three demonstrate Aristotle's influence on philosophers of the Late Greek era; the final four essays look at Aristotelian thought within the Byzantine and Islamic cultures.

In recent years, a convergence has occurred between the disciples of Leo Strauss and those of Eric Voegelin. Spurred in part by the publication of the Strauss-Voegelin correspondence, and in part by a shared sense of persecution at the hands of the "politically correct," this convergence has taken place almost exclusively on Straussian terms. While few, if any, Straussians speak of "compactness," "differentiation," or "the ground of being," more and more Voegelinians are using Straussian catchwords and phrases like "the conflict (...) between Jerusalem and Athens," "historicism," and "natural right.". (shrink)

Alan Donagan has written frequently on Spinoza's metaphysics over the years but in this recent work he offers the reader "a study of Spinoza's mature philosophy as a whole." His principal intention is "to help philosophers who aspire to work out an adequate naturalism to learn from one of their greatest naturalist predecessors". For Donagan maintains that "Spinoza's seventeenth-century form of naturalism," which is not materialist, "does not fall short philosophically as today's varieties of [materialist] naturalism do". To examine Spinoza's (...) teaching Donagan follows the precedent of Frederick Pollock and E. M. Curley who "paradoxically rescue Spinoza for the twentieth century by restoring him to the seventeenth". Central to Donagan's interpretation, therefore, is a reconstruction of Spinoza's thought in relation to his own time. And he particularly seeks to demonstrate that an appreciation of Spinoza's philosophy demands a realization of the extent to which he conferred such new meanings on traditional philosophic, scientific, or theological language as his naturalist purposes required. (shrink)

In this monograph, Victor Kal sets out to challenge the role that induction is traditionally said to play in Aristotle's thought. The author wishes to distinguish sharply between intuition and discursive reasoning and to place induction squarely in the later category. This leaves open the question of the origin of our knowledge of first principles, and here Kal proposes that intuition and experience find their function.

This volume in the continuing series of translations of the ancient commentators on Aristotle contains three treatises related to Aristotle's Physics: the "Corollary on Place" and the "Corollary on Void" from John Philoponus's commentary on the Physics, and a section from Simplicius's commentary on the Physics which critiques another work by Philoponus on the eternity of the world. Each of these involves the sixth-century controversies surrounding the Christian commentator, John Philoponus, who is unique for his time in trying to turn (...) Aristotle's own arguments against themselves. (shrink)

Scholars of later Greek philosophy will surely be indebted to John Dillon for providing this translation of and commentary on the Didaskalikos. Late Greek thought has often been slighted by scholars, and middle Platonism may be the most neglected part of that neglected period. While none would champion the Didaskalikos as a treatise that itself profoundly influenced the course of Western thought, it is a synopsis of a philosophy that can claim to have had such an influence. As an elementary (...) handbook, it reveals an important brand of Platonism of the second-century A.D., which was a bridge between the philosophies of classical and Hellenistic Greece and the philosophies of Plotinus, Porphyry, and their successors. (shrink)

The contributors in _Expanding and Restricting the Erotic_ offer a multidisciplinary perspective on the ways in which what is considered acceptable within the realm of the erotic has altered over time to the current situation where the erotic is being both expanded and restricted.

In his study of this neglected tradition, Stephen Gersh presents a thorough analysis of early medieval Platonism. His central interest is the transmission of Greek philosophy to the West. He argues against any significant direct transmission of Platonic texts; for instance, the translations by Aristippus are late and uninfluential, and even the partial translation of the Timaeus by Calcidius is so overwhelmed by the accompanying commentary that one cannot truly speak of an unmediated, "direct" transmission. Thus, Gersh focuses on the (...) various indirect routes by which knowledge of Plato and his thought journeyed to the West. (shrink)

This article presents the results of a study that investigated the roles that religiosity and ones money ethic play in determining consumer attitudes/beliefs in various situations regarding questionable consumer practices. One dimension of religiosity – intrinsic religiousness – was studied. Four separate dimensions of a money ethic scale were initially examined, but only one was used in the final analyses. Results indicated that both intrinsic religiousness and one’s money ethic were significant determinants of most types of consumer ethical beliefs.

This article presents the results of a study that investigated the role that religiosity plays in determining consumer attitudes/beliefs regarding various questionable consumer practices. Additionally, other personal factors were examined including idealism, relativism, consumer alienation and selected demographics such as income and age. All of these constructs were examined as antecedents of consumer ethical beliefs. The results of a post hoc analysis indicated that religiosity was a significant determinate of both idealism and relativism, and since idealism and relativism determine consumer (...) ethical beliefs, religiosity is a significant indirect determinate of consumer ethical beliefs. (shrink)

This is the first of four projected volumes in this series that will concern themselves with philosophy. Perhaps before discussing the contents proper it would be best to say something about Aufsteig und Niedergang der Römischen Welt as a whole, since a philosophical audience may not yet have encountered it and its background is relevant to comments below. ANRW began some twenty years ago as a project to publish a collection of articles which would delineate the state of contemporary scholarship (...) on various facets of the Roman period. Part 1 concerned the Roman Republic; it was a relatively modest four volumes with a mere 4,500 pages available for about DM 2,000. Fortunately, the quality of the scholarship was high; most contributors were the recognized experts in their respective fields. Part 2 concerns the Roman Empire. Publication is far from complete, but 62 massive volumes are projected. The cost of the volumes published so far is about DM 20,000. The contents of the second part range over all aspects of Roman history and culture, from Armenian history to New Testament studies. (shrink)

This article presents the results of an exploratory study that investigated the role that religiosity plays in determining consumer attitudes/beliefs in various situations regarding questionable consumer practices. Two dimensions of religiosity – intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness – were studied. Results indicated that an intrinsic religiousness was a significant determinant of consumer ethical beliefs, but extrinsic religiousness was not related to those beliefs.

This article presents the results of a study that investigated the roles that one’s money ethic, religiosity and attitude toward business play in determining consumer attitudes/beliefs in various situations regarding questionable consumer practices. Two dimensions of religiosity – intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness – were studied. A global scale of money ethic was examined, as was a global measure of attitude toward business. Results indicate that both types of religiosity as well as one’s money ethic and attitude toward business were significant (...) determinants of at least some types of consumer ethical beliefs. (shrink)

To better illuminate aspects of stress that are relevant to the moral domain, we present a definition and theoretical model of “moral stress.” Our definition posits that moral stress is a psychological state born of an individual’s uncertainty about his or her ability to fulfill relevant moral obligations. This definition assumes a self-and-others relational basis for moral stress. Accordingly, our model draws from a theory of the self (identity theory) and a theory of others (stakeholder theory) to suggest that this (...) uncertainty arises as a manager faces competing claims for limited resources from multiple stakeholders and/or across multiple role identities. We further propose that the extent to which the manager is attentive to the moral aspects of the claims (i.e., moral attentiveness) moderates these effects. We identify several consequences of managerial moral stress and discuss theoretical, empirical, and practical implications of our approach. Most importantly, we argue that this work paves an important path for considering stress through the lens of morality. (shrink)