Drawing on a landscape analysis of existing data-sharing initiatives, in-depth interviews with expert stakeholders, and public deliberations with community advisory panels across the U.S., we describe features of the evolving medical information commons. We identify participant-centricity and trustworthiness as the most important features of an MIC and discuss the implications for those seeking to create a sustainable, useful, and widely available collection of linked resources for research and other purposes.

LEGO reminds that race—both in the world of LEGO minifigures and in the real world—is socially constructed and depends on context, customs, convention, and attitudes. When the modern version of the LEGO minifigure was introduced in 1978 its bright yellow color was a conscious choice, meant to be racially and ethnically neutral. Further, all the yellow‐skinned minifigures had the exact same printing on their faces—the "smiley"—obscuring any differences between minifigures. Any LEGO builds that contain flesh‐toned minifigures (e.g. Kobe Bryant)represent characters (...) that are white, Asian, black, native American, or any of a host of other racial identities, while LEGO builds that contain yellow minifigures represent characters that have no race. The introduction of flesh‐toned figures does not merely introduce race into the worlds of LEGO licensed sets, but the appearance of flesh‐colored minifigures also forces to re‐construe the older non‐licensed minifigures produced in the supposedly racially neutral yellow. (shrink)

I have argued that there is a philosophical problem posed by a need to determine the reference of expressions which seem to refer to kinds of stuff or matter and to make identity claims about it (e.g., ‘the gold’, ‘the same clay’). Ordinary sortal expressions such as ‘lump’, and ‘piece’ have been shown to be inadequate to the task of providing reference for the expressions in question. What is necessary is an expression which does not have an ordinary sortal use (...) and which meets certain other conditions which I have enumerated. There does not seem to be an expression in ordinary language which fits these conditions. The technical term, ‘quantity’, as defined by Helen Cartwright, meet the conditions. ‘Parcel’, suggested V. C. Chappell, fails to meet the conditions. Another technical term, ‘m-elements’, coined by Laycock, comes close to meeting the conditions, but has a number of difficulties. Mose of these difficulties stem from the fact that counting (rather than measuring, as with quantities) is behind the application of ‘m-elements’, and stuff is as a matter of fact measured, rather than counted, in most situations. I have also considered a possible difficulty with ‘quantity’ (that in most cases in which someone talks of ‘same stuff’ strictly speaking we don't have the same quantity of stuff) and shown it not to be a genuine difficulty. (shrink)

Making data broadly accessible is essential to creating a medical information commons. Transparency about data-sharing practices can cultivate trust among prospective and existing MIC participants. We present an analysis of 34 initiatives sharing DNA-derived data based on public information. We describe data-sharing practices captured, including practices related to consent, privacy and security, data access, oversight, and participant engagement. Our results reveal that data-sharing initiatives have some distance to go in achieving transparency.

Advances in technologies and biomedical informatics have expanded capacity to generate and share biomedical data. With a lens on genomic data, we present a typology characterizing the data-sharing landscape in biomedical research to advance understanding of the key stakeholders and existing data-sharing practices. The typology highlights the diversity of data-sharing efforts and facilitators and reveals how novel data-sharing efforts are challenging existing norms regarding the role of individuals whom the data describe.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz war der vielleicht letzte europäische Denker, der das Wissen und den gelehrten Diskurs seiner Zeit noch überblicken konnte. Dabei leitete ihn die Überzeugung, dass die Wahrheit erst in der Pluralität der Perspektiven erfahrbar werde. Dieses ebenso spannungsreiche wie produktive Verhältnis von Einheit und Pluralität erkunden die Autoren der Beiträge auf drei im Leibnizschen Werk eng miteinander verbundenen Gebieten: der Philosophie, der Theologie und dem politischen Denken. Ausgehend von den philosophischen Grundlagen wird die Theologie in Leibniz' Gesamtkonzept der (...) Wissenschaften und besonders angesichts seiner Auseinandersetzung mit der religiösen Pluralität untersucht, seine Bemühungen um die Vereinigung der christlichen Konfessionen und sein Interesse für fremde Religionen und Kulturen. Sein politisches Denken und seine politische Tätigkeit bilden den Prüfstein für die angestrebte Verbindung von Theorie und Praxis. Ein abschließender Blick gilt seiner Rezeption auf diesen Gebieten. Ein Merkmal mehrerer Beiträge ist die präzise Arbeit an Texten zu China, zur Auseinandersetzung mit Thomasius und zum ökumenischen Gespräch, die erst seit kurzem oder noch gar nicht in einer kritischen Edition vorliegen. Mit Beiträgen von: Luca Basso, Friedrich Beiderbeck, Daniel J. Cook, Nora Gädeke, Ursula Goldenbaum, Wenchao Li, Rüdiger Otto, Hans Poser, Patrick Riley, Jaime de Salas, Brigitte Saouma, Heinrich Schepers, Martin Schneider, Lloyd Strickland und Stephan Waldhoff. (shrink)

I. Wesen und entwicklung des humanitätsgedankens.--II. Der socialismus.--III. Der individualismus.--IV. Der utilitarianismus.--V. Der pessimismus.--VI. Der evolutionismus.--VII. Der positivismus.--VIII. Nietzsches uebermensch.--IX. Die hauptgrundsätze einer modernen humanitätsethik.

This volume offers to the English-speaking world a collection of important works by the eminent twentieth century logician, Jan Lukasiewicz, many of which are here translated into English for the first time. This edition differs significantly from the Polish edition which appeared in 1961—containing ten logic papers not appearing there and omitting articles primarily of interest to the Polish reader. In addition to writing in Polish, Lukasiewicz also published works in French, English, and notably in German, and sometimes translated his (...) own works from one language to another. One of the most valuable works on the history of logic is Lukasiewicz’ paper, "On the History of the Logic of Propositions". Lukasiewicz points out the difference between the two basic areas of formal logic, the logic of propositions and the logic of terms, undifferentiated before the development of modern mathematical logic. The understanding of this distinction leads Lukasiewicz to trace the history of propositional logic back to its original development by the Stoics, its further development by the medieval Scholastics, and its axiomatization by Gottlob Frege. The status of mathematical logic is discussed in various works. The most basic system is propositional logic, upon which depend the other logical disciplines and also mathematics. Mathematical logic, also called logistic, is independent of philosophy and espouses no philosophical viewpoint. Early in his career, Lukasiewicz refers to mathematical logic as the logic of algebra and uses mathematical symbolism to represent logical propositions. Later he introduces what we now call "Polish notation," in particular, "Cpq" for "if p, then q" and "Np" for "it is not the case that p" for the primitive functions, eliminating the need for punctuation. He adopts the symbols Π and Σ for quantification from Charles S. Peirce, and also brings to light the almost unknown fact that it was Peirce who invented the matrix method in 1885. The paper, "Investigations into the Sentential Calculus", written by Lukasiewicz and Tarski embodies the results of a decade of research on the sentential calculus initiated by Lukasiewicz at the University of Warsaw systematically compiling the contributions of five logicians: Lindenbaum, Sobocinski, Wajsberg, Tarski, and Lukasiewicz. The approach is metalogical and depends heavily upon set theoretic concepts; it covers both the matrix and axiomatic methods. One of the problems that preoccupied Lukasiewicz was that of determinism, which led to his development of three-valued logic. A proposition such as "I shall be in Warsaw at noon on 21 December of next year" is neither true nor false; a third truth value is needed, one which Lukasiewicz calls "the possible." Another area to which Lukasiewicz contributed is modal logic, proving that modal logic cannot be two-valued. Lukasiewicz’ analysis and axiomatization of Aristotle’s syllogistic is not included in the present volume since an English edition by Lukasiewicz on this topic is available. We have here briefly touched upon a few of Lukasiewicz’ numerous achievements in logic; the best means of appreciating them is to read his works.—T. G. N. (shrink)