According to the standards of public law, municipal polls have only a local scope : the election of a common council. Do politicians make deductions concerning the formal political power-constellation on national level either from the approach of municipal elections or from their results? Can these elections lead to changes in or of the government and eventually to anticipated legislative elections?After the first world-war, the electorate was called eight times to vote for new common councillors. Half of these elections had (...) no influence on the national power-constellation :they hardly stirred the national political life. In 1958 any possible influence of the municipal elections was even a priori ruled out. A remarkable point is that all municipal elections which took place undergovernments of national union, were only of local importance.Since the first world-war not a single municipal election has led to changes within the government : there was never a redistribution of ministerial portfolios amongst the coalitionpartners, nor did any electioncause the dismissal of an individual minister.It is traditional in Belgian politics that the national opposition, when the results of municipal elections are in its favour and prejudicial to the party in office, tries to call in question the legitimacy of the government in the opinion of the public by the way of motions or interpellations in parliament, claiming dismissal of the government or anticipated legislative elections. At these occasions it appeared unimportant whether the parliamental majority were confortable or not. But never did the governments give in to these attempts.The elections of 1857, 1884 and 1932 constitute an element of power - although of subsidiary importance - in the discharge of the then governments. The governmental crisis of 1884 however can only be explained if the constitutional position of Leopold II is taken into account. With all other factors alike, such a crisis wouldn't arise any more in the context of to-day. The municipal elections of 1932 have moreover led to anticipated legislative elections whose date was an element of power in the election-process. At that time, these elections played the part of an indicator of the electorial condition, comparable to that of the by elections in Great-Britain. And an unreliable indicator too, in view of the difference between national and local electionstatures. (shrink)

Rationale In Belgium, several policies regulating reimbursement of acid suppressant drugs and evidence-based recommendations for clinical practice were issued in a short period of time, creating a unique opportunity to observe their effect on prescribing. Aims and objectives To describe the evolution of prescriptions for acid suppressants and explore the interaction of policies and practice recommendations with prescribing patterns. Method Monthly claims-based data for proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and H-2-antihistamines by general practitioners, internists and "astroenterologists were obtained from the Belgian (...) national health insurance database (1997-2005). The evolution of reimbursed defined daily doses and expenses after introduction of reimbursement regulations and dissemination of practice recommendations was explored. Results Recommendations had no impact on prescribing. All changes can be related to concomitant policies. Lifting reimbursement restrictions for cheaper products did not control growth or save costs in the Iona term. Only restricting reimbursement of all PPIs managed to curb the growth. We observed an unintended increase of non-omeprazole PPIs by gastroenterologists. Conclusions Reimbursement policies influence prescribing, but their effect can be unintended. A dialogue between policymakers and guideline developers, and evidence-based policies that are linked to clinical guidelines, could be an effective way to pursue both cost-containment and quality of care. (shrink)

This article deals with the differences that exist between the profile of Flemish male and female political candidates placed on election-lists. The survey, held amongst all female and male political candidates, shows that male candidates find themselves in a more favourable position due to the accumulation of small gender differences in education, professional and domestic life.Male candidates more often have university degrees and leading functions resulting in more important relations. They are better represented both in the party structure and in (...) corporate life.Child care and domestic tasks seem to be their partner's responsability. Female political underrepresentation is a result of a generally weaker position of women in society. Notwithstanding the enormous progress made over the last five decades, the problem of female underrepresentation in politics remains a structural one. Hence, the question is wether a solution should ask for structural measures by the government. (shrink)

Rational public decision-making is nearly impossible for two reasons : the organisational complexity of public services and the existence of two circuits, a political one, and an administrativeone.Moreover, public decisions are made by different pressure groups, and from different decision centres. In Belgium the impact of political parties is steadily increasing, up to the point where they function as master-organisations that have set up their own institutions to carry out public tasks. In thesocio-economie field the government acts more often as (...) an arbitrator and money-supplier than as a decision-maker.In the welfare state the government's position in the whole field of decision-making amounts to delegating decisions to private organisations and pressure groups, which in due course leads to corporatism andirrationality. Finally, the organisation structure of the civil service itself stimulates irrationality because it was set up as a pyramid hierarchy in a time when the government did not have many tasks. (shrink)

At the genera! elections in Belgium, the voter bas the possibility to bring out a vote for a party or a vote for a candidate of the party. At the general elections of October 13, 1985, for the House of Representatives, the voters have voted for 48 % by preference, whereas, for the Senate 38 % of them have done so. The use of preferential votes is varying from one electoral district to another: from 66 % in the district of (...) Oudenaarde to 34 % in Mechelen.There is also a difference from one politica! party to another. The highest percentage is obtained by the christian-democratic parties : 58 % ; the lowest by the ecologists: 22 %.The preferential votes individual candidates obtain differ widely, pointing out not only their popularity but also to a certain extend their political power. (shrink)

This article describes the consensus and opposition in the Belgian Parliament during 1985, a year of general elections. These phenomena are examined through the nature of voting patterns and the cohesion degree in the Chamber itself, between the ruling parties and between the parties in the opposition, as well as in the political parties itselves.The government vs. opposition gap is the dominant voting pattern. Unanimity counts for only 6 %, especially then in the final voting. VU and RAD/UDRT often join (...) the majority vote.The dominant voting pattern is affirmed by the total Chamber cohesion degree: majority vs. opposition. The cohesion between the parties in opposition reaches lower than the majority cohesion degree. Cohesion in the fractions quotes higher in the smaller fractions, as well as in the fractions of the ruling parties. (shrink)

‘Aha! Zo zit het in elkaar! Nu begrijp ik het! Waarom heb ik dat niet eerder gezien?’ ‘Kwantummechanica is niet te begrijpen, het is onvoorstelbaar, maar je kunt er wel goed mee rekenen.’ Twee even herkenbare als spiegelbeeldige uitspraken over begrijpen in de wetenschap. Begrijpen lijkt een psychologische toestand te zijn die wordt opgeroepen als we door de dingen kunnen heen kijken. De metafoor van zien verwijst naar een invloedrijke Platonistische notie: het schouwen van een diepere, echtere realiteit. Wetenschappelijk begrijpen (...) is dan het ‘voor ogen krijgen’ van de wereld achter de verschijnselen. Deze voorstelling van zaken heeft verwantschap met gewone intuïties, maar er zitten toch een aantal haken en ogen aan. (shrink)

Based on a extensive computation of power capabilities, the position of Belgium in international politics can reliably be assessed. Belgium belongs to a first stratum of followers states. Its best functional fields are international economie relations and those concerning science and technology. A globalisation of all functional fields runs at the expense of its international position.A splitting up of the country would relegate the emerging states, Flanders and Wallonia, to the second more numerous stratum of still less powerfull followers. Whereas (...) a politically unified Europe would mean a participation on a consickrably more powerful level. (shrink)

Organizations such as the EU High-Level Expert Group on AI and the IEEE have recently formulated ethical principles and (moral) values that should be adhered to in the design and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI). These include respect for autonomy, non-maleficence, fairness, transparency, explainability, and accountability. But how can we ensure and verify that an AI system actually respects these values? To help answer this question, I propose an account for determining when an AI system can be said to embody (...) certain values. This account understands embodied values as the result of design activities intended to embed those values in such systems. AI systems are here understood as a special kind of sociotechnical system that, like traditional sociotechnical systems, are composed of technical artifacts, human agents, and institutions but—in addition—contain artificial agents and certain technical norms that regulate interactions between artificial agents and other elements of the system. The specific challenges and opportunities of embedding values in AI systems are discussed, and some lessons for better embedding values in AI systems are drawn. (shrink)

How are we to appraise new technological developments that may bring revolutionary social changes? Currently this is often done by trying to predict or anticipate social consequences and to use these as a basis for moral and regulatory appraisal. Such an approach can, however, not deal with the uncertainties and unknowns that are inherent in social changes induced by technological development. An alternative approach is proposed that conceives of the introduction of new technologies into society as a social experiment. An (...) ethical framework for the acceptability of such experiments is developed based on the bioethical principles for experiments with human subjects: non-maleficence, beneficence, respect for autonomy, and justice. This provides a handle for the moral and regulatory assessment of new technologies and their impact on society. (shrink)

This paper examines why fundamental freedoms are so unevenly distributed across the earth. Climato-economic theorizing proposes that humans adapt needs, stresses, and choices of goals, means, and outcomes to the livability of their habitat. The evolutionary process at work is one of collectively meeting climatic demands of cold winters or hot summers by using monetary resources. Freedom is expected to be lowest in poor populations threatened by demanding thermal climates, intermediate in populations comforted by undemanding temperate climates irrespective of income (...) per head, and highest in rich populations challenged by demanding thermal climates. This core hypothesis is supported with new survey data across 85 countries and 15 Chinese provinces and with a reinterpretative review of results of prior studies comprising 174 countries and the 50 states in the United States. Empirical support covers freedom from want, freedom from fear, freedom of expression and participation, freedom from discrimination, and freedom to develop and realize one's human potential. Applying the theory to projections of temperature and income for 104 countries by 2112 forecasts that (a) poor populations in Asia, perhaps except Afghans and Pakistanis, will move up the international ladder of freedom, (b) poor populations in Africa will lose, rather than gain, relative levels of freedom unless climate protection and poverty reduction prevent this from happening, and (c) several rich populations will be challenged to defend current levels of freedom against worsening climato-economic livability. (shrink)

Forty-nine commentators have reviewed the theory that needs-based stresses and freedoms are shaped differently in threatening, comforting, and challenging climato-economic habitats. Their commentaries cover the white domain, where the theory does apply (e.g., happiness, collectivism, and democracy), the gray domain, where it may or may not apply (e.g., personality traits and creativity), and the black domain, where it does not apply (e.g., human intelligence and gendered culture). This response article provides clarifications, recommendations, and expectations.

Samenvatting van de grote wijsgerige systemen van Plato tot en met Hegel, gevolgd door een kritische analyse van de metafysica als uitingsvorm van westers intellectualisme.

In "Off Track" art and philosophy are the inspiration to look differently at daily life and organizations. The book is a plea to approach the complexity of the current world with new metaphors. The author calls this "hinking around". She sees that in "square worlds" there is a need for tools to approach entrenched patterns and systems differently and to get thought processes moving. Sarai van de Boel challenges the reader to look at one's own systems from the inside with (...) a philosophical approach. In eight chapters there are eight "tracks" to follow, but it is also possible to go off the rails. More than fifty works of art by well-known and lesser-known artists and designers play a role in these traces. The author questions the essence of their works and asks philosophical questions about phenomena they evoke. With Marlene Dumas, Marinus Boezem, L.A. Raeven, Ed Atkins, Wong Ping, Kazumasa Nagai, Remy Jungerman, Otto Piene, Eiko Ishioka, Campana brothers, Ann Demeulemeester and Kara Walker. The book ends with the Art & Philosophy Strategy, a theoretical framework for the use of art and philosophy. (shrink)

Value Sensitive Design (VSD) is an established method for integrating values into technical design. It has been applied to different technologies and, more recently, to artificial intelligence (AI). We argue that AI poses a number of challenges specific to VSD that require a somewhat modified VSD approach. Machine learning (ML), in particular, poses two challenges. First, humans may not understand how an AI system learns certain things. This requires paying attention to values such as transparency, explicability, and accountability. Second, ML (...) may lead to AI systems adapting in ways that ‘disembody’ the values embedded in them. To address this, we propose a threefold modified VSD approach: 1) integrating a known set of VSD principles (AI4SG) as design norms from which more specific design requirements can be derived; 2) distinguishing between values that are promoted and respected by the design to ensure outcomes that not only do no harm but also contribute to good; and 3) extending the VSD process to encompass the whole life cycle of an AI technology in order to monitor unintended value consequences and redesign as needed. We illustrate our VSD for AI approach with an example use case of a SARS-CoV-2 contact tracing app. (shrink)

There is a growing recognition that philosophy isn’t unique to the West, that it didn’t begin only with the classical Greeks, and that Greek philosophy was influenced by Near Eastern traditions. Yet even today there is a widespread assumption that what came before the Greeks was "before philosophy." In Philosophy before the Greeks, Marc Van De Mieroop, an acclaimed historian of the ancient Near East, presents a groundbreaking argument that, for three millennia before the Greeks, one Near Eastern people had (...) a rich and sophisticated tradition of philosophy fully worthy of the name. In the first century BC, the Greek historian Diodorus of Sicily praised the Babylonians for their devotion to philosophy. Showing the justice of Diodorus’s comment, this is the first book to argue that there were Babylonian philosophers and that they studied knowledge systematically using a coherent system of logic rooted in the practices of cuneiform script. Van De Mieroop uncovers Babylonian approaches to knowledge in three areas: the study of language, which in its analysis of the written word formed the basis of all logic; the art of divination, which interpreted communications between gods and humans; and the rules of law, which confirmed that royal justice was founded on truth. The result is an innovative intellectual history of the ancient Near Eastern world during the many centuries in which Babylonian philosophers inspired scholars throughout the region—until the first millennium BC, when the breakdown of this cosmopolitan system enabled others, including the Greeks, to develop alternative methods of philosophical reasoning. (shrink)

The central characteristic of denials is that they perform a non-monotonic correction operation on discourse structure. A second characteristic is that they may be used to object to various kinds of information including presuppositions and implicatures. In this paper we first use standard DRT to capture these features, implement an earlier proposal of van der Sandt (1991) in DRT and point out a shortcoming of that approach. We then adopt Layered DRT. LDRT is an extension of standard DRT designed (...) to represent and interpret different types of information conveyed in a conversation by distributing them over separate layers of the same LDRS. We will then show how LDRT allows us to solve the problems of the classic monostratal system. The resulting system makes use of a directed reverse anaphora mechanism to locate, remove and negate the material objected to. (shrink)

The central characteristic of denials is that they perform a non-monotonic correction operation on discourse structure. A second characteristic is that they may be used to object to various kinds of information including presuppositions and implicatures. In this paper we first use standard DRT to capture these features, implement an earlier proposal of van der Sandt in DRT and point out a shortcoming of that approach. We then adopt Layered DRT. LDRT is an extension of standard DRT designed to (...) represent and interpret different types of information conveyed in a conversation by distributing them over separate layers of the same LDRS. We will then show how LDRT allows us to solve the problems of the classic monostratal system. The resulting system makes use of a di- rected reverse anaphora mechanism to locate, remove and negate the material objected to. (shrink)

_English_ ASD VII, 5 contains the second part of Erasmus’ _Paraphrasis_ on the apostolic letters. It is the first scientific edition of these Paraphrases. _German_ ASD VII, 5 enthält der zweite Teil von Erasmus' Paraphrasis zur apostolische Briefe des Neuen Testaments. Diese ist die erste wissenschaftliche Edition dieser Parafrasen.

_Ordo II_ comprises the work that made Erasmus famous, namely the _Adagia_ (Proverbs) some of which were extended into essays. This first volume of the _Adages_ in the Amsterdam edition of the Latin texts of Erasmus gives a general introduction to the _Adages_ in German, as well as a critical edition of the Latin text of the first half of the first thousand _Adages_.