본 논문은 고대 그리스철학의 플라톤과 아리스토텔레스와 현대 철학의 한나 아렌트의 활동적 삶과 관조적 삶에 대한 논의를 비교하여, 한나 아렌트가 그리스사상의 전통에서 활동적 삶의 정치적 의미를 어떻게 해석하였는지를 분석하는데 주요 목적이 있다. 고대 그리스철학에서 나타나는 활동적 삶과 관조적 삶에 대한 논의는 크게 두 가지로 설명된다. 첫째, 활동적 삶과 관조적 삶의 상호연관성이다. 둘째, 활동적 삶에 대한 관조적 삶의 우위성이다. 첫 번째 논제에 대해 아리스토텔레스는 두 종류의 삶의 방식이 상호보완적이라고 생각한다. 인간은 본성적으로 정치적 동물이기 때문에 국가공동체 안에서 인간으로서의 탁월성을 발휘할 수가 있으며, 나아가 (...) 지성이라는 신적인 부분을 가졌기 때문에 진리를 관조하는 활동을 하는 것도 본성적이다. 아리스토텔레스가 현실적으로 활동적 삶이 관조적 삶을 닮을 수 있도록 시민교육이 필요하다고 주장하는 점에서 두 종류의 삶의 방식이 상보적이라는 사실을 확인할 수 있다. 아렌트는 전통 철학에 비해 활동적 삶의 방식에 대해 훨씬 더 많은 관심을 가지고 있지만 관조적 삶의 방식에 대한 아리스토텔레스의 입장을 충분히 이해한 것으로 보인다. 그렇지만 두 번째 논제인 활동적 삶에 대한 관조적 삶의 우위성에 대한 부분에 대해서 아리스토텔레스는 그리스철학의 전통에서 관조적 삶의 우위성을 주장하고 있지만, 아렌트는 두 종류의 삶의 방식 간에 위계적 질서를 적용할 필요는 없다는 입장이다. 아렌트가 기존의 활동적 삶에 대한 관조적 삶의 우위성을 부정한다고 해서 관조의 역할 자체를 부정하는 것은 아니다. 그녀는 근대의 세계관에서 나타나는 제작인의 유용성의 원리에 의한 관조를 제거하는 것과, 노동의 자동화의 요구로 인해 인간이 무기력한 수동적 상태에 빠지는 것에 대해서도 경계한다. 아렌트는 전통철학에서 말하는 관조는 아니지만 인류 미래를 위해 사유에 희망을 두고 있다. (shrink)

Leisure time is a time frame which is not included in work and study, does not require any social responsibilities and can be used by a person's own will and voluntarily. An individual manages this time through various recreational activities with his own preference and tendencies. The teaching profession is a special service area. The aim of this study is to determine how teachers, who are affected by negative conditions such as stress, fatigue and monotony in business life, make (...) use of leisure time, and the effects of activities they participate on life happiness and job performance. For this purpose, 1604 teachers working in Karesi and Altıeylül districts in Balıkesir province constitute the target population of the study. According to the sample calculation (0.05 error margin), it has been found sufficient to conduct surveys with 310 teachers. A questionnaire has been applied to 450 teachers and 400 questionnaires have been evaluated. In the study, Recreation activities participation form has been used to collect data, the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire has been used to measure the happiness of the participants and the scale developed by LIT (Lamar Institute of Tecnology, 2009) has been used for performance.According to the findings of the study, it has been determined that the teachers are more interested in activities in the 'other activities' category such as video games, chess, watching television, surfing on the internet, board and card games, magazines and newspapers, attending club meetings, there is a weak positively relationship between recreation activities and happiness and happiness affects job performance. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Task of Criticism: Essays on Philosophy, History, and Community, and: The Active Life: Miller's Metaphysics of DemocracyShannon KincaidJoseph P. Fell, Vincent Colapietro, and Michael J. McGandy, editors The Task of Criticism: Essays on Philosophy, History, and CommunityNew York: W. W. Norton, 2005. 366 pp.Michael J. McGandy The Active Life: Miller's Metaphysics of Democracy Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005. 231 pp.I (...) must admit that my first encounter with the philosophy of John William Miller was not a pretty one. I first read of him in these pages a decade or so ago, and even though I was thinking a lot about pragmatism and democratic theory, and shared many of his interests, I didn't much like his philosophy. While I liked his style, the vocabulary seemed awkward. His finite idealism confused me. I had problems with his ontology, and his tendency towards historicism seemed odd. I even wrote an essay critical of The Midworld (New York: W. W. Norton, 1982), though I never made an aggressive effort to publish it. [End Page 289]This is a good thing, because I would have regretted publishing that essay. I say this because both Michael J. McGandy's The Active Life: Miller's Metaphysics of Democracy, and the new edited collection of Miller's writings entitled The Task of Criticism, do an excellent job of revealing the contemporary significance of Miller's work. Collectively, they have convinced this skeptic that the midworld and its ontology of functioning objects are an important contribution to contemporary American philosophy.The Task of Criticism faces several challenges. First, George P. Brockway supervised the publication of five volumes of Miller's collected works, and Fell himself edited a 1990 volume on Miller's philosophy (The Philosophy of John William Miller, Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press), followed by Stephen Tyman's Decrying the Ideal (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1993). Colapietro published Fateful Shapes of Human Freedom: John William Miller and the Crises of Modernity (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press) in 2003. Do we really need another volume? Second, Miller's brand of idealism is not very fashionable these days. Is there any hope that pragmatic idealism can inform contemporary social theory, and make a contribution to the very real and concrete problems faced by modern democratic institutions?I believe that the answer to both of these questions is "yes." Recognizing the importance of previous volumes devoted to Miller's philosophy, the editors present The Task of Criticism as the first comprehensive introduction to Miller's philosophy, and it attempts to cut a middle ground between a complete collection of essays and a "best of" anthology. The editors want to provide a framework for understanding Miller's philosophy, and in this attempt they succeed admirably.Why? Because the editors have provided a structure for Miller's thought that was lacking in earlier collections, and by focusing on the issues of philosophical method, historiography, and community, they have provided a framework for understanding Miller's philosophy. In so doing, they have also firmly established the continuing relevance of Miller's work. The recent revival of pragmatic idealism (as evidenced by a recent surge in publications on idealists like Royce and Hocking) is an important development in contemporary American philosophy, and I think Miller deserves a significant role in this movement.One of the things I like about this collection is its presentation as a work of three generations of Miller's students, all indebted to the work of Brockway, and all dedicated to the task of demonstrating the fundamental importance of Miller's work. The text itself not only includes a variety of Miller's writing on a wide range of topics, but also a very effective introduction to Miller's philosophy, short introductory passages for each essay, and a comprehensive index, as well as a bibliography of works by and about Miller. This is, in short, the first textbook of Miller's philosophy, and it does a fine job of capturing the breadth and depth of his philosophy.The scope of Miller's philosophical interests is made even more remarkable by the fact that Miller himself showed little interest... (shrink)

Previous research on Physical Activity has been highly valuable in elucidating how PA affects the structure and function of the hippocampus in elderly populations that take part in structured interventions. However, how PA affects the hippocampus in younger populations that perform PA during daily-life activities remains poorly understood. In addition, this research has not examined the impact of PA on the internal structure of the hippocampus. Here, we performed a cross-sectional exploration of the way structural and functional aspects of (...) the hippocampus are associated with habitual PA performed during work, leisure time, and sports in the daily lives of healthy young adults. We assessed PA in these three different contexts through a validated questionnaire. The results show that PA performed during work time correlated with higher subicular volumes. In addition, we found that PA changed functional connectivity between a location in the middle/posterior hippocampus and regions of the default mode network, and between a location in the anterior hippocampus and regions of the somatomotor network. No statistical effects of PA performed during leisure time and sports were found. The results generalize the impact of PA on younger populations and show how PA performed in daily-life situations correlates with the precise internal structure and functional connectivity of the hippocampus. (shrink)

Tabatabai’s theory about the meaning of life can be referred to as active objectivism, where a man plays an important role in achieving the meaningful life, rather than merely discovering the divine view about his existence. If the man chooses the divine purpose from a “real life” perspective as his meaning of life, God’s purpose and man’s purpose will converge in order to shape a meaningful life and the ultimate achievement of Pure Life. (...) However, if he chooses the unreal counterpart, he will be trapped in an unreal life which is referred to as the “pseudo-meaningful life.” It is necessary that human beings discover the divine purpose with the help of conceptual intellect, define the essentials of achieving the purpose with his practical intellect and ultimately, choose the essentials with his own free will. To achieving compliance of a man’s purpose with the divine goal requires faith and good deeds. (shrink)

The following article is a contribution to the rich debate concerning happiness or fulfilment (eudaimonia) in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. It argues that eudaimonia is theōria in accordance with what Aristotle repeatedly says in Book X of the Nicomachean Ethics. However, happy life (eudaimōn bios) is a complex way of life which includes not only theoretical activity but also the exercising of other virtues including the so-called moral or social ones. The article shows that Aristotle differentiates between eudaimonia on (...) the one hand and the happy or fulfilled life (eudaimōn bios) on the other, and shows how this distinction clarifies Aristotle’s account of eudaimonia. (shrink)

The influence of Kurt Goldstein on the thinking of Georges Canguilhem extended throughout his entire work. This paper seeks to examine this relationship in order to conduct a study of the norm as a nexus or connection between the concept and life. Consequently, this work will be a reflection on the approach to life as a normative activity and self-realization. For this, it will be necessary to redefine the concepts of health and disease, and make a crossover between (...) the two. At the end of this trajectory, it will be found that these concepts can explain the identity between the concept and life, which leads to the unexpected conclusion that the cure is ultimately self-healing. (shrink)

Physical activity has wide-ranging consequences for people’s physical, mental, and social health. Although the beneficial effects of physical activity on well-being were widely studied, how it promotes well-being remained unclear. The present study utilized the measure of physical activity rating scale, flourishing scale, Chinese- meaning in life questionnaire, and general self-efficacy scale to examine the connection between physical activity and flourishing and the multiple mediation effects of meaning and self-efficacy with 827 Chinese undergraduates. The results indicated that physical activity (...) positively predicted flourishing; meaning in life and self-efficacy played mediating roles in physical activity and flourishing, separately and jointly. Our findings revealed the mechanism of physical activity fostering flourishing, thereby providing an empirical basis for promoting health and flourishing, especially during COVID-19. (shrink)

Arguing against the dominant developmental theories (e.g., Piaget, 1945; Vygotsky, 1978) stating that pretend play is limited to early childhood, we illustrate that pretend play is an adaptive human activity of adulthood as well as childhood. We advance this argument on three levels. First, we offer an analysis of why the discipline of developmental psychology in the Western world considered play only as an activity of childhood by neglecting to explore whether or how pretend play exists during adulthood. Second, we (...) discuss the similarities between adult improvisational theater and children’s pretend play in illustrating our thesis that pretend continues to exist during adulthood. In this discussion, we focus on similarities in the definitions, psychological origins, social functions, and developmental consequences of pretend play and adult improvisation. Finally, we end the article with educational implications of conceptualizing pretend play as a life-span activity and offer directions for future research. (shrink)

Traditionally, cognitive, motivational, and volitional determinants have been used to explain and predict health behaviors such as physical activity. Recently, the role of affect in influencing and regulating health behaviors received more attention. Affects as internal cues may automatically activate unconscious processes of behavior regulation. The aim of our study was to examine the association between affect and physical activity in daily life. In addition, we studied the influence of the habit of being physically active on this relationship. (...) An ambulatory assessment study in 89 persons (33.7% male, 25 to 65 years, M = 45.2, SD = 8.1) was conducted. Affect was assessed in the afternoon on 5 weekdays using smartphones. Physical activity was measured continuously objectively using accelerometers and subjectively using smartphones in the evening. Habit strength was assessed at the beginning of the diary period. The outcomes were objectively and subjectively measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) performed after work. Multilevel regression models were used to analyze the association between affect and after work MVPA. In addition, the cross-level interaction of habit strength and affect on after work MVPA was tested. Positive affect was positively related to objectively measured and self-reported after work MVPA: the greater the positive affect the more time persons subsequently spent on MVPA. An inverse relationship was found for negative affect: the greater the negative affect the less time persons spent on MVPA. The cross-level interaction effect was significant only for objectively measured MVPA. A strong habit seems to strengthen both the positive influence of positive affect and the negative influence of negative affect. The results of this study confirm previous results and indicate that affect plays an important role for the regulation of physical activity behavior in daily life. The results for positive affect were consistent. However, in contrast to previous reports of no or an inverse association, negative affect decreased subsequent MVPA. These inconsistencies may be—in part—explained by the different measurements of affect in our and other studies. Therefore, further research is warranted to gain more insight into the association between affect and physical activity. (shrink)

Insofar as living well is, for Aristotle, the ultimate end of human life, and insofar as our life comprises different activities (energeiai), the key prerequisite for living well is to rank and choose different activities according to their value. The objective of this article is to identify and discuss different considerations that determine the value of an activity in Aristotle's ethics. Focusing on selected passages from Nicomachean Ethics X, I argue that the structure of an activity's value displays (...) considerable heterogeneity. An activity can be good on account of its excellence, excellence-independent worthwhileness, as well as its continuity; these kinds of value do not necessarily entail each other, and they can even occur at each other's expense. This interpretation shifts the focus from the notion of virtue to the notion of activity, and thus opens up a fresh angle on Aristotle's: virtue or excellence is just one source of activity's value, alongside its worthwhileness and continuity. (shrink)

Regular musical activity as a complex multimodal lifestyle activity is proposed to be protective against age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. This cross-sectional study investigated the association and interplay between musical instrument playing during life, multi-domain cognitive abilities and brain morphology in older adults from the DZNE-Longitudinal Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Study study. Participants reporting having played a musical instrument across three life periods were compared to controls without a history of musical instrument playing, well-matched for reserve proxies (...) of education, intelligence, socioeconomic status and physical activity. Participants with musical activity outperformed controls in global cognition, working memory, executive functions, language, and visuospatial abilities, with no effects seen for learning and memory. The musically active group had greater gray matter volume in the somatosensory area, but did not differ from controls in higher-order frontal, temporal, or hippocampal volumes. However, the association between gray matter volume in distributed frontal-to-temporal regions and cognitive abilities was enhanced in participants with musical activity compared to controls. We show that playing a musical instrument during life relates to better late-life cognitive abilities and greater brain capacities in OA. Musical activity may serve as a multimodal enrichment strategy that could help preserve cognitive and brain health in late life. Longitudinal and interventional studies are needed to support this notion. (shrink)

We have discovered that a single sperm protein, phospholipase C‐zeta (PLCζ), can stimulate intracellular Ca2+ signalling in the unfertilized oocyte (‘egg’) culminating in the initiation of embryonic development. Upon fertilization by a spermatozoon, the earliest observed signalling event in the dormant egg is a large, transient increase in free Ca2+ concentration. The fertilized egg responds to the intracellular Ca2+ rise by completing meiosis. In mammalian eggs, the Ca2+ signal is delivered as a train of long‐lasting cytoplasmic Ca2+ oscillations that begin (...) soon after gamete fusion and persist beyond the completion of meiosis. Sperm PLCζ effects Ca2+ release from egg intracellular stores by hydrolyzing the membrane lipid PIP2 and consequent stimulation of the inositol 1,4,5‐trisphosphate (InsP3) receptor Ca2+‐signalling pathway, leading to egg activation and early embryogenesis. Recent advances have refined our understanding of how PLCζ induces Ca2+ oscillations in the egg and also suggest its potential dysfunction as a cause of male infertility. (shrink)

Contemplative practices, such as meditation and yoga, are increasingly popular among the general public and as topics of research. Beneficial effects associated with these practices have been found on physical health, mental health, and cognitive performance. However, studies and theories that clarify the underlying mechanisms are lacking or scarce. This theoretical review aims to address and compensate this scarcity. We will show that various contemplative activities have in common that breathing is regulated or attentively guided. This respiratory discipline in turn (...) could parsimoniously explain the physical and mental benefits of contemplative activities through changes in autonomic balance. We propose a neurophysiological model that explains how these specific respiration styles could operate, by phasically and tonically stimulating the vagal nerve: respiratory vagal nerve stimulation. The vagal nerve, as a proponent of the parasympathetic nervous system, is the prime candidate in explaining the effects of contemplative practices on health, mental health, and cognition. We will discuss implications and limitations of our model. (shrink)

In this study the author has focused on the impact of activeness and independence on the quality of life of seniors. Activeness is taken to mean the participation in regular everyday tasks. Functional independence is independence in everyday life. Quality of life in old age describes the level of satisfaction with life and indicators of successful ageing. The survey was conducted in October 2013 among four groups of seniors. Two variables determined the distribution of respondents: the (...) level of activeness and the functional independence of the seniors. The study involved 99 seniors from Sopot and Gdansk. Functional independence has a much greater impact on the quality of life of seniors than activeness in as much as independence is influenced by our state of health over which we may always have full control, whereas activeness to a large extent depends on ourselves. (shrink)

This work addresses the autonomous organization of biological systems. It does so by considering the boundaries of biological systems, from individual cells to Home sapiens, in terms of the presence of Markov blankets under the active inference scheme—a corollary of the free energy principle. A Markov blanket defines the boundaries of a system in a statistical sense. Here we consider how a collective of Markov blankets can self-assemble into a global system that itself has a Markov blanket; thereby providing (...) an illustration of how autonomous systems can be understood as having layers of nested and self-sustaining boundaries. This allows us to show that: (i) any living system is a Markov blanketed system and (ii) the boundaries of such systems need not be co-extensive with the biophysical boundaries of a living organism. In other words, autonomous systems are hierarchically composed of Markov blankets of Markov blankets—all the way down to individual cells, all the way up to you and me, and all the way out to include elements of the local environment. (shrink)

Do plants represent according to Kant? This is closely connected to the question of whether he held plants are alive, because he explains life in terms of the faculty to act on one’s own representations. He also explains life as having an immaterial principle of self-motion, and as a body’s interaction with a supersensible soul. I argue that because of the way plants move themselves, Kant is committed to their being alive, to their having a supersensible ground of (...) their self-activity, and to their having desires (although these are not conscious). This has important ramifications for Kant’s teleology and philosophy of mind. (shrink)

This study focuses on nursing in an inpatient mental health setting. Its analytic structure follows from a previous review of nursing studies by Allen, which did not include studies of mental health nursing. Allen's review concluded that the nurses’ role could be understood as that of healthcare intermediary and that nurses’ work could be analysed as eight interrelated bundles of activity. These bundles include such matters as managing the work of others. This study aims to assess the fit of this (...) model to mental health nursing and to add to the body of work concerning the social organisation of nursing. The research materials discussed are derived from an ethnography of a psychiatric unit. The analytic framework employed leads us to conclude that the work of mental health nurses can be understood, too, as that of the healthcare intermediary. However, one bundle is found to fit less well and this is attributed to the fragile uncertainty of knowledge in psychiatry. The use of an additional bundle to describe in‐context nursing interventions is suggested. It is argued that getting to grips with the reflexive relationship between individual patient care and the social organisation in which this is practised is essential for any practice development efforts. (shrink)

The primary challenge for generating a useful scientific definition of life comes from competing concepts of biological activity and our failure to make them explicit in our models. I set forth a three-part scheme for characterizing definitions of life, identifying a binary , a range , and a preference . The three components together form a proper activity in biology . To be clear, I am not proposing that proper activity be adopted as the best definition of (...) class='Hi'>life or even as a desirable definition for life. Instead, I am arguing that some notion of proper activity already exists within common scientific definitions. By making the implicit elements explicit, the notion can be analyzed to see whether it is useful and appropriate in the context of the biological sciences. (shrink)

Using “big data” from sensors worn continuously outside the lab, researchers have observed patterns of objective physiology that challenge some of the long-standing theoretical concepts of emotion and its measurement. One challenge is that emotional arousal, when measured as sympathetic nervous system activation through electrodermal activity, can sometimes differ significantly across the two halves of the upper body. We show that traditional measures on only one side may lead to misjudgment of arousal. This article presents daily life and controlled (...) study data, as well as existing evidence from neuroscience, supporting the influence of multiple emotional substrates in the brain causing innervation on different sides of the body. We describe how a theory of multiple arousals explains the asymmetric EDA findings. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe important role played by Aristotle in Martin Heidegger’s path towards Being and Time during the 1920's is now well documented. Yet an important chapter of this story remains mostly unexplored: Heidegger's early attempt to develop an ontology of life in dialogue with Aristotle. This is because the early seminars in which Heidegger developed his important and highly original interpretation of Aristotle's De Anima remain unpublished : one seminar from the summer of 1921 and one spanning the winter semester (...) of 1922/23 and the summer semester of 1923. In the present paper, I reconstruct Heidegger's key interpretative moves in the latter seminar on the basis of a detailed handwritten transcript preserved among the papers of his student Helene Weiss held at Stanford University. What emerges is a dialogue between Aristotle and Heidegger that enables us better to understand and to question the thought of both philosophers on the phenomenon of life. (shrink)

본 논문의 목적은 삶의 공유에 대한 아리스토텔레스 이론의 도움을 받아 온라인에서의 친구들이 삶을 공유하는 것은 불가능함을 밝히는 것이다. 우선 아리스토텔레스가 왜 삶의 공유가 친구의 존재 목적에 가장 잘 부합하는 친구 사랑의 토대라고 말하고 있는지에 대해서 살펴본다. 이때 필자는 아리스토텔레스가 말하는 삶의 공유에는 바람직한 목적과 도덕적 책무의 공유가 함의되어 있음을 주목한다. 다음으로 소셜미디어를 통한 활동의 공유도 아리스토텔레스가 말하는 삶의 공유로 볼 수 있다고 생각하는 엘더의 논증들을 비판적으로 검토한다. 엘더는 소셜미디어를 통해서 말과 생각을 공유하거나 가치 있는 활동을 공유하는 것, 그리고 비언어적 수단을 (...) 통해 경험을 공유하거나 온라인에서 게임을 하는 것이 모두 삶을 공유하는 방식일 수 있다고 주장하고 있다. 마지막으로 온라인에서의 사악한 활동의 문제를 아리스토텔레스의 시각에서 윤리학적으로 진단한다. 소셜미디어가 인간의 고유한 활동에 미치는 긍정적인 요소를 부인하기란 어려운 일이다. 하지만 온라인에서의 활동 공유가 친구의 존재 목적에 가장 잘 부합하는 친구 사랑의 토대로서 기능하기를 기대하기란 더욱 어렵다는 것이 필자의 결론이다. (shrink)

The role of emotional creativity in practicing creative leisure activities and in the preference of college majors remains unknown. The present study aims to explore how emotional creativity measured by the Emotional Creativity Inventory (ECI; Averill, 1999) is interrelated with the real-life involvement in different types of specific creative leisure activities and with four categories of college majors. Data were collected from 251 university students, university graduates and young adults (156 women and 95 men). Art students and graduates scored (...) significantly higher on the ECI than other majors. Humanities scored significantly higher than technical/economic majors. Five creative leisure activities were significantly correlated with the ECI, specifically, writing, painting, composing music, performing drama, and do-it-yourself home improvement. Keywords: Creativity, Emotional Creativity, Emotions, Creativeness, Affect, Feelings, Leisure Activities, Creative Ability, Artistic Creativity, Creative Thinking, Creativeness, Aging, Cognitive Deficits, Performance. MeSH Headings: Emotions, Creativity, Leisure, Leisure Activities, Hobbies, Recreation, Affect Affective Symptoms, Creativeness. (shrink)

We consider how to discern whether or not evolution is taking place in an observed system. Evolution will be characterized in terms of a particular macroscopic behavior that emerges from microscopic organismic interaction. We de ne evolutionary activity as the rate at which useful genetic innovations are absorbed into the population. After measuring evolutionary activity in a simple model biosphere, we discuss applications to other systems. We argue that evolutionary activity provides an objective, quantitative interpretation of the intuitive idea of (...) biological teleology. We also propose using evolutionary activity in a test for life. (shrink)

Objectives: To evaluate the effects of an 8-week DNS training program on pain, EMG activity, and quality of life in individuals with CLBP. Design: Semi-experimental study. Participants: Thirty male participants with non-specific CLBP, divided into DNS (n=15) and control (n=15) groups. Main Outcome Measures: Pain levels (Quebec Back Pain Disability Scale), lumbar muscle EMG activity (MegaWin EMG device), and quality of life (SF-36 questionnaire). Results: The DNS group showed significant pain reduction (P=0.00), increased EMG activity in rectus abdominis (...) (P=0.000), erector spinae (P=0.002), and gluteus maximus (P=0.002), and improved quality of life (P=0.02). Conclusions: DNS exercises significantly reduce pain, enhance muscle activity, and improve quality of life in CLBP patients. (shrink)

Elemental matter.--From element to plant and animal tissue.--Tissue plant and animal.--The spirit of search.--The method of search.--The need for inquiry.--Difference.--The fluidity of tissue.--Continuous oneness of nature and man.--Definition.--Change of man.--The law of activity.--Life of man.--The growth of water.--The origin of cancer.--Land and houses.--Training.--Acitvity of body.

Introduction In 2007, a national review committee was instituted in The Netherlands to review cases of active ending of life for newborns. It was expected that 15–20 cases would be reported. To date, however, only one case has been reported to this committee. Reporting is essential to obtain societal control and transparency; the possible explanations for this lack of reporting were therefore explored. Methods Data on end-of-life decision-making were scrutinised from Dutch nation-wide studies (1995, 2001 and 2005), (...) before institution of the committee. Physicians received a questionnaire about their medical decision-making for stratified samples of deceased infants up to 1 year, drawn from the central death registry. Results In 2005, 58% of all deaths were preceded by an end-of-life decision, compared with 68% in 2001 and 62% in 1995. The use of drugs with a possible life-shortening effect tended to be lower. In 2005, all four cases in the study in which an infants' life was actively ended were preceded by a decision to forego life-prolonging treatment. In three cases, the infant's life expectancy was short; one case involved a longer life expectancy. Discussion The expected number of cases is probably an overestimation due to changes in medical practice such as the tendency to attribute less life-shortening effects to opioids. The lack of reports is probably also associated with requirements in the regulation; it may be difficult to fulfil them due either to time constraints or the nature of the suffering that is addressed. If societal control of active ending of life is considered useful, changes in the regulation may be needed. (shrink)

A number of influential reports on influenza pandemic preparedness include recommendations for extra-autonomous decisions to withdraw mechanical ventilation from some patients, who might still benefit from this technology, when demand for ventilators exceeds supply. An unintended implication of recommendations for nonvoluntary and involuntary termination of life support is that it make pandemic preparedness plans vulnerable to patients’ claims for assisted suicide and active euthanasia. Supporters of nonvoluntary passive euthanasia need to articulate why it is both morally different and (...) morally superior to voluntary active euthanasia if they do not wish to invite expansion of end-of-life options during health system catastrophe. (shrink)

This contribution explores the connection between health and subjectivity. Up until recently a marginally discussed topic in health theories, recent critical research in health psychology introduces notions of subjectivity to theories of health. These notions can be linked to phenomenology, embodied subjectivity, and psychosocial theories that have moved away from a partial, internal understanding of subjectivity. These recent theories tend to define subjectivity as a coherence of concrete, embodied and situated subjectivity that extends capabilities and activities towards a world of (...) social relations. The article at hand shows that embodied and situated subjectivity is a basic function of health that sustains the qualities of human life. To comprehend health as a subjective practice in human lives, we need an understanding of people’s subjective participation in their everyday social lives. Hence, I will argue for the concept of conduct of life as an important concept for health psychology. The concept of conduct of life enables an analysis of how people conduct their activities and of their access to life possibilities, within social settings and societal power systems. The concept can be used to analyse the connection between subjectivity and health in the cultural and social relations by which people actually live. (shrink)

Aristotle is right to argue that the best life is a life of unimpeded activity, but I believe he went wrong in thinking that ordinary human life is, or must be, far removed from the best life. To establish this claim, I offer a historical explanation of what unimpeded activity involves. I use the class of art patrons in Renaissance Florence to show how mathematical skills acquired in everyday life can be applied to widely differing (...) tasks. As patrons extend their mathematical skills, their activities become more self-realizing and hence more continuous in Aristotle's sense. I argue that the activities of the Florentine patron class, to be sustained over time, require many of Aristotle's virtues. Examples like this show, I argue, that reasonably unimpeded activity is an important human good and that it is genuinely desirable to, and within the grasp of, ordinary people, even those who initially claim no interest in virtue. (shrink)

The view that voluntary active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide should be made available for terminal patients only is typically warranted by reference to the risks that the procedures are seen to involve. Though they would appear to involve similar risks, the commonly endorsed end-of-life practices referred to as passive euthanasia are available also for non-terminal patients. In this article, I assess whether there is good reason to believe that the risks in question would be bigger in the case (...) of voluntary active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide than in that of passive euthanasia. I propose that there is not. On that basis, I suggest that limiting access to voluntary active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide to terminal patients only is not consistent with accepting the existing practices of passive euthanasia. (shrink)

Les enfants polyhandicapés ont des besoins de soutien intenses et complexes. Souvent, ils sont dans des établissements spécialisés, avec peu d’opportunités d’apprentissage, menant une vie passive et isolée. Pour améliorer leur qualité de vie, leurs activités et leur inclusion, en particulier l’éducation inclusive, nous avons développé et expérimenté, dans le cadre du projet Européen Enablin+, une formation continue interprofessionnelle. En 2015-2017, nous avons organisé 64 cours pilotes et ateliers de formation sur 41 sujets dans huit pays européens, suivis d’un cours (...) de formation des formateurs. Sur la base d’une évaluation qualitative par les participants, nous pouvons faire les recommandations suivantes: à côté de la formation de compétences spécifiques à la profession, une formation continue devrait en premier lieu travailler à sensibiliser à la faisabilité et à la nécessité de l’inclusion aussi pour les enfants de grande dépendance. Tous les niveaux hiérarchiques du personnel, ainsi que les familles devraient être impliqués. Bien qu’enracinée dans les cadres conceptuels modernes du handicap (inclusion, qualité de vie, droits, capacités), cette formation devrait offrir un véritable apprentissage interprofessionnel basé sur des cas, une “gestion de cas” centrée sur la personne et la famille, un apprentissage réflexif sur les systèmes de croyances et les pratiques concernant activités inclusives et participation. Les formats de cours doivent être adaptés aux circonstances locales afin de permettre la participation de l’ensemble du personnel. (shrink)

Household confinement due to the rapid spread of the pandemic caused by COVID-19 has brought very significant changes, such as the forced stay-at-home of children due to the closure of schools. This has meant drastic changes in the organization of daily life and restrictions on their activities, including exercise, which could affect the quality of life of the children due to its importance. In order to study the relationship between physical activity and psychological well-being of minors, a study (...) has been carried out with Mixed Methods Research, combining survey methodology with transversal design with qualitative methodology using discourse analysis. A total of 234 parents of minors in Spain and several Spanish-speaking countries in America participated. The instrument was a questionnaire in Google Forms, which included the Kidscreen-27 quality of life scale. The results show significant differences in both the type of physical activity and its frequency due to age, and differences in parents’ perception of whether their children’s physical activity levels were sufficient or not, both on the health, mood and school subscales, and in the categorization of open responses referring to concerns due to the pandemic, analyzed with the ALCESTE technique. The relationship between physical activity of children and adolescents and quality of life is clearly concluded. (shrink)