This paper is one of the four interrelated action agenda papers resulting from the National Summit on Public Health Legal Preparedness convened in June 2007 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and multi-disciplinary partners. Each of the action agenda papers deals with one of the four core elements of public health legal preparedness: laws and legal authorities; competency in using those laws; coordination of law-based public health actions; and information. Options presented in this paper are for consideration by (...) policy makers and practitioners — in all jurisdictions and all relevant sectors and disciplines — with responsibilities for all-hazards emergency preparedness.Advancing and protecting the public's health depends upon the coordination of actions by many, diverse partners. For effective public health preparedness, there must be effective coordination of legal tools and law-based strategies across local, state, tribal, and federal jurisdictions, and also across sectors such as public health, health care, emergency management, education, law enforcement, community design, and academia. (shrink)

This paper is one of the four interrelated action agenda papers resulting from the National Summit on Public Health Legal Preparedness convened in June 2007 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and multi-disciplinary partners. Each of the action agenda papers deals with one of the four core elements of public health legal preparedness: laws and legal authorities; competency in using those laws; coordination of law-based public health actions; and information. Options presented in this paper are for consideration by (...) policy makers and practitioners — in all jurisdictions and all relevant sectors and disciplines — with responsibilities for all-hazards emergency preparedness.Advancing and protecting the public's health depends upon the coordination of actions by many, diverse partners. For effective public health preparedness, there must be effective coordination of legal tools and law-based strategies across local, state, tribal, and federal jurisdictions, and also across sectors such as public health, health care, emergency management, education, law enforcement, community design, and academia. (shrink)

This Companion offers a comprehensive introduction to the work and thought of the highly influential twentieth-century critic and theorist Walter Benjamin. The volume provides examinations of the different aspects of Benjamin's work that have had a significant effect on contemporary critical and historical thought. Topics discussed by experts in the field include Benjamin's relation to the avant-garde movements of his time, the form of the work of art, his theories on language and mimesis, modernity, his relation to Brecht and the (...) Frankfurt School, his significance and relevance to modern cultural studies, his formative interpretation of Romanticism, and his autobiographical writings. The volume is aimed at readers who may be coming to Benjamin for the first time or who have some knowledge of Benjamin but would like to know more about the issues and concepts central to his work. Additional material includes a guide to further reading and a chronology. (shrink)

From the timeless wisdom of ancient Greece through to Christianity, the Enlightenment, existentialism and postmodernism, A Brief History of Thought brilliantly and accessibly explains the enduring teachings of philosophy - including its profound relevance in today's world as well as its essential role in achieving happiness and living a meaningful life. This lively journey through the great thinkers challenges every one of us to learn to think for ourselves and asks us the most important question of all: how can we (...) live better? (shrink)

For political and literary theorists working on race, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is a canonical text. Most political theorists approach the novel through what this essay calls a “martyr reading,” though martyrdom is just one of several political strategies explored in the work. This essay highlights an alternative in Ellison’s repertoire. The “trickster reading” developed here better accounts for several key scenes in the novel and also shows the limits of martyrdom as a technique of democratic politics. While other democratic (...) theorists have identified Ellison with redemptive or deliberative aims, the novel’s references to Homer’s Odyssey, with its own trickster-hero, license a trickster reading of Invisible Man. Tricksters do not take on suffering, loss, or sacrifice in the hope of redemption nor are they necessarily committed to the virtues of deliberation. Instead, they evade sacrifice by resorting routinely to irony, cunning, and refusal. This reading demonstrates the importance of these techniques to Ellison’s vision and to our politics today. (shrink)

Quand on a renoncé à démontrer l'existence de Dieu ou l'immortalité de l'âme, est-il encore rationnel de postuler que Dieu existe ou que l'âme est immortelle? Peut-on croire rationnellement dans l'incertitude la plus totale? Jean-Marc Ferry montre précisément en quoi la religion réflexive le permet. Celui qui s'y engage ne se prévaut d'aucun accès privilégié à la vérité. Au départ, cet engagement procède moins d'une croyance que d'une résolution. Il s'agit, en effet, d'un acte de pure liberté, dépourvu d'assise, (...) acte risqué qui fait que l'on accorde ou non sa confiance au réel. Ensuite seulement, entre l'athée et le croyant, les expériences pourront être confrontées ; et c'est quand l'un et l'autre assument pleinement leur absolue ignorance métaphysique que raison et religion peuvent enfin être conciliées. (shrink)

« Ce que j’appelle la “révolution de l’amour”, c’est-à-dire la naissance de la famille moderne, enracinée dans le passage du mariage arrangé au mariage choisi par et pour l’amour, a transformé nos vies. Elle apporte un nouveau principe de sens, qui requiert une nouvelle philosophie. Elle ne bouleverse pas seulement nos existences privées, mais tout notre rapport au collectif. C’est ce que j’appelle le “deuxième humanisme”». Le premier fut un humanisme de la Loi et de la raison. C’était celui des (...) Lumières et des droits de l’homme, des républicains français et de Kant. Le deuxième humanisme est un humanisme de la fraternité et de la sympathie. Ma conviction est qu’il est désormais la seule vision du monde portée par le souffle d’une utopie positive. Car l’idéal qu’elle vise à réaliser n’est plus celui des nationalismes ni de l’idée révolutionnaire. Il ne s’agit plus d’organiser de grands massacres au nom de principes mortifères qui se voulaient extérieurs et supérieurs à l’humanité, mais de préparer l’avenir de ceux que nous aimons le plus, c’est- à-dire des générations futures... » L. F. Luc Ferry s’entretient ici avec Claude Capelier, agrégé de philosophie et conseiller scientifique du Conseil d’analyse de la société. Luc Ferry est agrégé de philosophie, docteur d’État, agrégé de science politique. Il est philosophe. Ses livres sont traduits à l’étranger dans une trentaine de langues. Il a notamment publié chez Odile Jacob Vaincre les peurs et Qu’est-ce que l’Homme? (en collaboration avec Jean-Didier Vincent), qui ont été d’immenses succès. (shrink)

La 4e de couverture indique : "Quelle place accorder aujourd'hui aux religions dans les démocraties? Que peut-on espérer du dialogue entre croyants et non-croyants dans une société devenue plurielle et sécularisée? Quel rôle peut jouer la religion dans la modernité du XXIe siècle? Le philosophe français Jean-Marc Ferry prend à bras-le-corps ces questions difficiles, laissées en déshérence ou livrées aux excès de tous bords. Refusant les pièges d'un laïcisme souvent ignorant, tout comme les hégémonies religieuses, il reprend le fil (...) d'une longue tradition philosophique qui a toujours pris au sérieux la question religieuse, même quand elle s'y opposait. Dans ce livre qui fera date, le philosophe rassemble pour la première fois sous la forme d'une conversation l'ensemble de sa réflexion sur la religion dans la modernité. Au cours de sa réflexion, Jean-Marc Ferry invite à considérer les "Lumières de la religion", une expression malicieuse par laquelle il entend signifier que les religions ne sont pas en opposition avec la modernité. A la condition de devenir réflexives et critiques, et d'accepter les règles du jeu démocratique, elles peuvent apporter une précieuse participation à la vie commune, au bénéfice de tous.". (shrink)

This paper describes the scientific practices of the anatomists from the Société Anatomique de Paris (1803–1873) who were collecting anatomical and pathological specimens in Nineteenth-Century Paris and which led to the building of the anatomy and pathology Musée Dupuytren (1835–2016). The framework introduced by Robert Kohler to describe collecting sciences (2007) is useful as a tool to identify the set of diverse practices within pathological anatomy in nineteenth-century Paris. However, I will argue that anatomy and pathology collecting had specific features (...) compared to most collecting sciences. Two main collecting practices could be distinguished: first, “finding” anatomical specimens and second, keeping these specimens. The first kind of practices were at least rhetorically and explicitly motivated by Auguste Comte’s positive philosophy. But “finding” an anatomy or pathology specimen could not be completely compared to finding an object or making a simple observation, as dissecting as well as some experimental practices were also involved. Heterogeneous practices thus coexisted within collecting in anatomy and pathology. Epistemological as well as pragmatic tensions arose. On top of Kohler’s framework, I introduce Sabina Leonelli’s concept of “data journey” to offer a narrative of the diversity of collecting practices involved in the Société Anatomique de Paris and the Musée Dupuytren. I use the concept to analyse how this diversity of practices impacted knowledge production. (shrink)

Cette parole d'Emmanuel Levinas touche le coeur d'une actualité, celle de notre rapport occidental à la mort, qui résume le contexte dans lequel la mort nous fait problème, C'est ce contexte qui permet aussi d'éclairer la difficile question des "fins de vie" sous nos latitudes. S'engage la bataille idéologique : puis-je ou non disposer de mon existence? Des deux côtés, on invoque la dignité humaine, que ce soit pour réclamer le droit de "mourir dans la dignité" ou pour justifier l'interdiction (...) de toute forme d'euthanasie au nom du "caractère sacré" de la vie humaine. La "dignité humaine" devrait-elle justifier tout et son contraire? Il importe plutôt d'en élucider la notion et le fondement, en commençant par faire le clair sur les interprétations concurrentes et leurs implications pratiques. L'approche pluridisciplinaire de l'ouvrage favorisera une lecture critique au sein de laquelle différents points de vue s'inscrivent dans des moments distincts : Moment d'attestation, celui des praticiens aux prises avec la réalité des hôpitaux et des unités de soins palliatifs. Ils expérimentent au jour le jour le drame et la tragédie des passages de la phase curative à la phase palliative puis à la phase terminale ; Moment d'information, d'analyse exégétique et critique, touchant notamment à l'état du droit ; Moment de problématisation. De quoi et vers quoi? Tout logiquement, en direction des fondements philosophiques, c'est-à-dire de ce qui justifie que l'on prenne telle ou telle décision importante concernant les soins, l'arrêt des soins, la fin de vie, voire l'arrêt de la vie. (shrink)

C’est une longue épopée, engagée depuis l’Antiquité, qui se poursuit encore aujourd’hui, une aventure pleine de passions, de révoltes, de revirements et de coups de génie. Telle est l’histoire de la philosophie, vue et racontée par Luc Ferry : une conquête obstinée, menée au fil des siècles par une poignée d’explorateurs qui, soudain, trouvent une nouvelle clef pour donner un sens à la condition humaine et bouleversent fondamentalement notre manière de penser. Pourquoi et quand s’est-on mis à philosopher? Comment (...) les grands concepts se sont-ils succédé au fil des siècles? Comment et pourquoi Platon, Descartes, Montesquieu, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger, et quelques autres – les grands défricheurs de la pensée ne sont pas si nombreux – ont-ils eu soudain l’intuition qui a tout changé? Dans un dialogue limpide et sans jargon avec Claude Capelier, Luc Ferry déroule le fil chronologique depuis les origines antiques jusqu’à nos jours et décrit les six grandes étapes décisives qui nous ont ouvert un nouvel univers. On le verra, l’histoire de la philosophie, comme celle de l’art, n’aime pas la ligne droite, elle connaît des zigzags, des revirements, parfois des errances, et les grandes idées d’autrefois n’ont pas forcément perdu leur pertinence. Pourtant, Luc Ferry le raconte ici, elle semble quand même avancer dans un certain sens – oserait-on même parler d’un certain progrès? Plus on explore, plus on défriche et plus on s’approche de l’intime, de l’essence de l’homme. Et c’est la grande originalité de ce livre que de nous faire apparaître la philosophie comme une quête essentielle, à la fois millénaire et furieusement actuelle. Où en est-on à l’heure de la globalisation, des espaces virtuels et des intégrismes recyclés d’un autre âge? Comment répondre à notre désarroi face à un monde qui, une fois encore, nous glisse entre les doigts? Par l’amour, suggère le philosophe, ce concept à la fois si banal et si complexe, susceptible de nous offrir une meilleure compréhension de notre temps, et peut-être de nous-mêmes. (shrink)

Assainir moralement la situation internationale requiert sans doute davantage que ce que l’on peut attendre des seules vertus d’une éthique argumentative. Au-delà, il conviendrait de porter l’éthique du discours sur le registre d’une éthique reconstructive. De quoi s’agit-il? – D’une pratique du discours qui, à travers une thématisation que l’on souhaite coopérative, poursuit la reconstitution, par les intéressés, du drame qu’ils ont pu vivre avec toute leur subjectivité engagée dans une relation éventuellement jalonnée par le destin des oublis, des malentendus, (...) humiliations et violences de toute sorte. Cette pratique requiert ainsi une attitude autocritique, une disposition à entendre la réclamation de l’autre et à reconnaître sa souffrance du point de vue de la violence que j’ai pu lui infliger, volontairement ou non, ce qui suppose aussi une attitude correspondante chez l’autre, pour que puisse être menée à bien la réconciliation entre les protagonistes. En cela, l’éthique reconstructive peut être regardée comme une éthique de la reconnaissance doublée d’une éthique de la responsabilité. Rejoignez les fans sur Facebook.../... (shrink)

One of the many faces of Islam in Indonesia is the abangan Muslims or the abangans. As one of the most populous Muslim groups in the country, it is important to know them. To understand Indonesian Islam or Muslims, one cannot overlook them. The article argues that, amid recent escalating Muslim–Christian tension in the country, this majority Muslim group can play a significant role in enhancing Muslim–Christian relations in the future, on account of their worldview that emphasizes and maintains cosmic (...) harmony and balance of all existence. Their open and syncretic attitudes toward other religions may foster religious tolerance and coexistence. These are attested in the author’s personal engagement with them. It is suggested that Christians be more inclusive toward them, but, at the same time, be critical in engaging their worldview. These attitudes are necessary for building a mutual and peaceful Muslim–Christian relationship in the region. (shrink)

'Ici sont les dragons.' C'est l'inscription que, jadis, on portait sur les cartes médiévales pour désigner les terres inconnues. Or, s'aventurer en terra incognita, c'est ce qu'assument, aujourd'hui, certaines tentatives - ou tentations - en appui sur la science contemporaine : Prouver l'existence de Dieu, en prolongeant des découvertes en Cosmologie. Envisager une quasi-immortalité du corps humain, grâce aux progrès de la miniaturisation, de la robotique et de l'intelligence artificielle. Montrer, en référence à une Physique anti-mécaniciste, qu'en tant qu'êtres de (...) conscience, nous sommes libres et immortels. La critique des deux premières tentatives devra éclairer la troisième, là où s'actualise la vocation chamanique de l'être humain, son aspiration à tenir l'interface entre le visible et l'invisible, l'ordre terrestre et l'ordre céleste, quête d'un pont entre le Monde humain et l'Univers physique que notre science charge d'énigmes à mesure qu'elle le dévoile."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

"Ne croyez surtout pas qu'il s'agisse de science-fiction : 18 avril 2015, une équipe de généticiens chinois entreprenait d'"améliorer" le génome de quatre-vingt-trois embryons humains. Jusqu'où ira-t-on dans cette voie? Sera-t-il possible un jour (bientôt? déjà?) d'"augmenter" à volonté tel ou tel trait de caractère de ses enfants, d'éradiquer dans l'embryon les maladies génétiques, voire d'enrayer la vieillesse et la mort en façonnant une nouvelle espèce d'humains "augmentés"? Nous n'en sommes pas (tout à fait) là, mais de nombreux centres de (...) recherche "transhumanistes" y travaillent partout dans le monde, avec des financements colossaux en provenance de géants du Web tel Google. Les progrès des technosciences sont d'une rapidité inimaginable, ils échappent encore à toute régulation. En parallèle, cette "infrastructure du monde" qu'est le Web a permis l'apparition d'une économie dite "collaborative", celle que symbolisent des applications comme Uber, Airbnb ou BlaBlaCar. Selon l'idéologue Jeremy Rifkin, elles annoncent la fin du capitalisme au profit d'un monde de gratuité et de souci de l'autre. N'est-ce pas, tout à l'inverse, vers un hyperlibéralisme, vénal et dérégulateur, que nous nous dirigeons? Certaines perspectives ouvertes par les innovations technoscientifiques sont enthousiasmantes, d'autres effrayantes. Ce livre cherche d'abord à les faire comprendre, et à réhabiliter l'idéal philosophique de la régulation, une notion désormais vitale, tant du côté de la médecine que de l'économie.". (shrink)

Des scientifiques, de plus en plus nombreux, nous promettent que la "révolution de la longévité" est pour demain, que nos petits-enfants pourront vivre cent cinquante ans, voire davantage, encore jeunes et en bonne santé physique et psychique. Ce livre fait le point sur ces recherches, sépare science et fantasmes et pose la question de fond : à quoi bon vivre aussi longtemps? Face à cette interrogation, deux conceptions de la vie heureuse s'opposent. La première nous vient de ces sagesses anciennes (...) que la psychologie positive remet au goût du jour. Elles nous invitent à dire "oui au réel", à nous résigner à l'ordre naturel des choses afin d'accepter dans la sérénité la vieillesse et la mort. Les modernes philosophies de l'histoire et de la liberté plaident pour une tout autre spiritualité : si une éducation tout au long de la vie, voire une perfectibilité potentiellement infinie, sont le propre de l'Homme, allonger la vie en bonne santé pourrait offrir à l'humanité l'occasion de devenir enfin moins bornée, moins violente, et, pourquoi pas, plus sage qu'elle ne le fut au XXe siècle. Ce sont les termes de ce débat désormais crucial que présente ce livre."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Indonesia is recognized as a nurse exporting country, with policies that encourage nursing professionals to emigrate abroad. This includes the country’s adoption of international principles attempting to protect Indonesian nurses that emigrate as well as the country’s own participation in a bilateral trade and investment agreement, known as the Indonesia–Japan Economic Partnership Agreement that facilitates Indonesian nurse migration to Japan. Despite the potential trade and employment benefits from sending nurses abroad under the Indonesia–Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, Indonesia itself is suffering (...) from a crisis in nursing capacity and ensuring adequate healthcare access for its own populations. This represents a distinct challenge for Indonesia in appropriately balancing domestic health workforce needs, employment, and training opportunities for Indonesian nurses, and the need to acknowledge the rights of nurses to freely migrate abroad. Hence, this article reviews the complex operational and ethical issues associated with Indonesian health worker migration under the Indonesia–Japan Economic Partnership Agreement. It also introduces a policy proposal to improve performance of the Indonesia–Japan Economic Partnership Agreement and better align it with international principles focused on equitable health worker migration. (shrink)

Preterm discharge effects: Relationship between the maternal experience and newborn's psychobiological regulation The purpose of this study is to investigate how the past experiences of mothers and their potentially traumatic events during pregnancy may have influenced the processes of psychobiological self-regulation and cognitive development in a child born preterm. Eighty children who had a gestational age of < 32 weeks were examined at the 9th month of the corrected age. The mothers and children were divided in two groups: multipara mothers (...) and their children and the primipara mothers and their children. These children were examined on the basis of sleep disorders, nutritional problems and mental development. Perinatal data from clinical observations and data from standardized developmental tests were used to describe the differences. The children of primipara mothers who had unexpected preterm delivery presented major incidences of sleep disorders while the children of primipara mothers, who programmed preterm delivery, presented a major incidences of nutrition problems. The predictability of preterm delivery has a major influence on the capacity of newborns for self-regulation in the case of primipara mothers. (shrink)

Mabel Cooper and Gloria Ferris lived in St Lawrence's Hospital one of the large learning disability institutions which were built round the edges of London. In this paper, Mabel and Gloria share their memories of three nurses at St Lawrence's, supported by Jane Abraham and in this process reveal a number of ethical issues that remain relevant today.

It is widely accepted that morality does not demand that we do our very best, but our most significant moral traditions do not easily accommodate this intuition. I will argue that the underlying problem is not specific to any particular tradition. Rather, it will be difficult for any moral theory to account for binary moral concepts like permissible/impermissible while also accounting for scalar moral concepts like better/worse. If only the best is considered permissible, morality will seem either unreasonably demanding or (...) implausibly minimal. But if we draw a line of duty below the optimal, then we must explain how the act that is worse is nonetheless permissible. Some have tried to explain this by appealing to non-moral considerations, and others have appealed to agent-relative moral considerations. I argue that no such approach will work. We should instead exploit the distinction between reasons for performing an act and reasons for holding someone accountable for an act’s performance. This approach will also help to clear up a confusion regarding the notion of a moral demand. (shrink)

This book presents a historiographical and theorical analysis of how Husserlian Phenomenology arrived and developed in North America. The chapters analyze the different phases of the reception of Edmund Husserl’s thought in the USA and Canada. The volume discusses the authors and universities that played a fundamental role in promoting Husserlian Phenomenology and clarifies their connection with American Philosophy, Pragmatism, and with Analytic Philosophy. Starting from the analysis of how the first American Scholars of Edmund Husserl's thought opened the door (...) to the reception of his texts, the book explores the first encounters between Pragmatism and Husserlian Phenomenology in American Universities. The study focuses, then, on those Scholars who fled from Europe to America, from 1933 onwards, to escape Nazism - Felix Kaufmann, Alfred Schutz, Aron Gurwitsch, Herbert Spiegelberg, Fritz Kaufmann, among the most notable - and illustrates how their teaching provided the very basis for the spreading of Husserlian Phenomenology in North America. The volume examines, then, the action of the 20th Century North-American Husserl Scholars, together with those places, societies, centers, and journals, specifically created to represent the development of the studies devoted to Husserlian Phenomenology in the U.S., with a focus of the Regional Phenomenological Schools. (shrink)

This paper takes as its starting point the phenomenon of young lawyers in ethical crisis. The teaching of ethics in the classroom and the ethos and environment of the law firm have created dissonance: knowing what it is right to do but being unable to do it. In examining this phenomenon, we develop the idea of commitment as a source of duty, loyalty, and courage that enables someone to accept and overcome reluctance to act ethically. Our conceptual framework combines two (...) models: Fineman’s radical view that vulnerability is universal, but ameliorated by the assets available to the individual, and Rest’s four component model that provides a taxonomy of precursors for ethical action and resilience. We consider how the structures and the relationships between law schools, regulators and law firms, acting in combination, support or degrade ethical resilience and development of a commitment to ethical action. We close by considering how changes to the structure planned by one regulator in England and Wales deplete the assets available to the young lawyer and thereby the profession. (shrink)

" Heidegger and Modernity is an intervention in the Heidegger debate in France which many may see as decisive. Its central claim is that the responses of left Heideggerians to continuing disclosures regarding Heidegger's Nazi affiliations fail to come to terms with central ambiguities in his philosophical responses, both early and late, to modernity and technology. . . . Incisive and hard hitting, Luc Ferry and Alain Renault have condensed in a short and tightly organized book both a judicious (...) and well-informed account of the Heidegger question and an implicit defence of humanism which has a strong political resonance."--Liam O'Sullivan, Political Studies. (shrink)

Schizophrenia spectrum has been associated with a disruption of the basic sense of self, which pertains, among others, the representation of one’s own body. We investigated the impact of either implicit or explicit access to the representation of one’s own body-effectors on bodily self-awareness, in first-episode schizophrenia patients and healthy controls . We contrasted their performance in an implicit self-recognition task and in an explicit self/other discrimination task. Both tasks employed participant’s own and others’ body-effectors. Concerning the implicit task, HCs (...) were more accurate with their own than with others’ body-effectors, whereas patients did not show such self-advantage. Regarding the explicit task, both groups did not exhibit a self-advantage, and patients showed a higher percentage of self-misattribution errors. Neither self/other nor implicit/explicit effects were found in both groups when processing inanimate-objects. We propose that FES patients suffer of a disturbed implicit sense of bodily self. (shrink)

"To think with Nietzsche against Nietzsche." Thus the editors describe the strategy adopted in this volume to soften the destructive effects of Nietzsche's "philosophy with a hammer" on French philosophy since the 1960s. Frustrated by the infinite inclusiveness of deconstructionism, the contributors to this volume seek to renew the Enlightenment quest for rationality. Though linked by no common dogma, these essays all argue that the "French Nietzsche" transmitted through the deconstructionists must be reexamined in light of the original context in (...) which Nietzsche worked. Each essay questions the viability of Nietzsche's thought in the modern world, variously critiquing his philosophy of history as obsessed with hierarchy, his views on religion and art as myopic and irrational, and his stance on science as hopelessly reactionary. Contending that we must abandon the Nietzsche propped up as patron saint by French deconstructionists in order to return to reason, these essays will stimulate debate not just among Nietzscheans but among all with a stake in modern French philosophy. Contributors are Alain Boyer, André Compte-Sponville, Vincent Descombes, Luc Ferry, Robert Legros, Philippe Raynaud, Alain Renault, and Pierre-André Taguieff. (shrink)

Plusieurs aspects du modèle biopsychosocial promeuvent une approche humaniste en médecine. Cependant, Engel a explicitement rejeté un humanisme médical qui s’opposerait à la science. En adoptant une approche fondée sur la science des systèmes pour étudier les êtres humains, la santé et la maladie, Engel défend une approche scientifique pour améliorer la qualité des soins cliniques, ou autrement dit, une approche qui se prête à un examen scientifique de cette question.

The current two-sample investigation explores the role of enactment as a boundary condition in the relationship between experienced incivility and workplace outcomes. We integrate the tenets of the transactional model of stress and sensemaking theory to explain why enactment is a psychological sensemaking capability that can neutralize the adverse effects of experienced incivility on workplace outcomes. The results across two samples of data supported the study hypotheses by demonstrating that experienced incivility had stronger adverse effects on employees’ job satisfaction, OCBs, (...) and turnover intent for employees who reported lower levels of enactment than employees who reported higher levels of enactment. This study’s results make three important contributions to theory and research. First, we make an empirical contribution by examining enactment as a psychological sensemaking capability that can neutralize the adverse effects of experienced incivility on workplace outcomes. Second, we make a theoretical contribution by integrating the tenets of the transactional model of stress and sensemaking theory in a novel way that explains why enactment is a psychological sensemaking capability that can neutralize the adverse effects of stress on strain. Third, we demonstrate that enactment is the boundary condition that explains why incivility does not have universally adverse effects on employees’ outcomes. (shrink)

Eleonore Stump has recently argued that the Aristotelian foundations of Aquinas’s virtue theory have not only been exaggerated but are mistaken. She does not dispute Aquinas’s familiarity with and dependence on Aristotle’s moral theory. Instead, she argues that Aquinas’s ethics must be seen as essentially second-personal, where the central relationship is between the moral agent and the Holy Spirit, specifically the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the theological virtues. Her argument for displacing Aristotle, however, advances on at least two (...) questionable fronts. On the one hand, she claims that the acquired, Aristotelian moral virtues are, for Aquinas, not real virtues at all. Only the infused moral virtues are real. On the other hand, she argues that the pro-Aristotelian character of many descriptions of Aquinas’s moral theory over-emphasizes the role of reason in Aquinas’s ethics. Against this prevailing view, Stump contends that Aquinas is, in a limited way, closer to Hume in privileging the passions over reason. I challenge Stump’s attempted displacement of Aristotle by questioning her on both of these fronts. (shrink)

An examination of how, in literature, silence and veiling are related to moral significance. The paper emphasizes Walter Benjamin’s essay on Goethe’s Elective Affiniites and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” and poses the question of how the literary can possess moral meaning or effect when, as in these two works, silence and veiling appear as a means of refusing or denying intention. Benjamin’s and Hawthorne’s different critiques of the symbol are presented as the central issue around which the possibility (...) of moral meaning is decided as an intentionless act. Benjamin’s preservation of the moral is interpreted as the cause of the paradoxical and contradictory sources of the expressionless and its critical violence as well as the veiling and secrecy he identifies as forming the true work of art. Against this account, Hawthorne’s story is read as the refusal of any preceding secret as the basis of a moral claim and thus as the defining category of the work of art. (shrink)

This essay challenges a growing consensus among Aquinas scholars who attribute to him a pro-passion attitude, linking his virtue theory to accounts of emotion that see the emotions in a primarily positive light. There are good reasons for thinking Aquinas far more skeptical of the role to be played by emotion in the virtuous life—indeed, one can safely argue, in agreement with Aquinas, that the emotions are often threats to and so in need of control by the virtues. I focus (...) on the ideal of reason’s control over the emotions in the essay in contrast with the work of Robert Miner whose understanding of Aquinas on the passions and virtues tends to downplay the dominating role that reason plays in the moral theory of Aquinas. For Aquinas IRC is central to the normativity of the virtues that relate to the emotions. In contrast, Miner appears to minimize the need for the emotions to be controlled, which entails a certain elevation of the emotions to a nearly co-equal status with reason in Aquinas’s moral theory. Miner adopts two argumentative strategies to achieve this valorization of emotion in Aquinas, but I find both exegetically inaccurate and experientially deficient. (shrink)

A look at the relationship between the cosmos and human beings explores the complexity of the human brain and what constitutes real intelligence and the nature of consciousness.

I argue that supererogation poses a serious problem for theories of moral reasoning and that this problem results, at least in part, from our taking too narrow a view of the reasons that can influence an act’s deontic status. We tend to focus primarily on those reasons that count directly for and against an act’s performance. To adequately account for supererogation, we need to consider also a different class of moral reasons. Aside from those reasons that contribute, for instance, to (...) an act’s being morally better or worse than its alternatives, there are moral reasons that govern the ways in which we respond to the performance or non-performance of those acts. These reasons govern the attitudes we express in response to moral acts as well as our practices of issuing demands and of seeking justification in the case of an omission. These sorts of moral reasons are, I argue, integral to an account of supererogation. Attending to them will allow us to accept that the supererogatory omission does actually involve a moral failure of sorts while denying that it is a failure of obligation. And this will allow us to account for our intuitions regarding supererogation while avoiding what I call the problem of supererogation. I begin with a discussion of what we might mean by ‘supererogation’, and I outline the problem that it raises. I then provide an account of supererogation that avoids this problem. (shrink)

What happens when the meaning of life based on a divine revelation no longer makes sense? Does the quest for transcendence end in the pursuit of material success and self-absorption? Luc Ferry argues that modernity and the emergence of secular humanism in Europe since the eighteenth century have not killed the search for meaning and the sacred, or even the idea of God, but rather have transformed both through a dual process: the humanization of the divine and the divinization (...) of the human. Ferry sees evidence for the first of these in the Catholic Church's attempts to counter the growing rejection of dogmatism and to translate the religious tradition into contemporary language. The second he traces to the birth of modern love and humanitarianism, both of which demand a concern for others and even self-sacrifice in defense of values that transcend life itself. Ferry concludes with a powerful statement in favor of what he calls "transcendental humanism"--a concept that for the first time in human history gives us access to a genuine spirituality rooted in human beings instead of the divine. (shrink)

Would randomly selecting legislators be more democratic than electing them? Lottocrats argue (reasonably) that contemporary regimes are not very democratic and (more questionably) that replacing elections with sortition would mitigate elite capture and improve political decisions. I argue that a lottocracy would, in fact, be likely to perform worse on these metrics than a system of representation that appoints at least some legislators using election – a psephocracy (from psēphizein, to vote). Even today's actually existing psephocracies, which are far from (...) ideally democratic, are better suited than a lottocracy would be to meet the demands of democratic citizenship (politics must be legible to ordinary people, who must have low-cost opportunities to participate) and the demands of democratic leadership (powerful representatives should be specialized and constrained by competitions for popular support). Democrats therefore have weighty instrumental reasons to reject lottocracy and work to democratize psephocracy, instead. (shrink)