In many countries, prenatal testing for certain fetal abnormalities is offered via publicly funded screening programs. The concept of reproductive autonomy is regarded as providing a justificatory basis for many such programs. The purpose of this study is to re‐examine the normative basis of public prenatal screening for fetal abnormalities by changing our perspective from that of autonomy to obligation. After clarifying the understanding of autonomy adopted in the justification for public prenatal screening programs, we identify two problems concerning this (...) justification: first, the extent to which the government is obliged to meet this demand is not evident; and, second, it is not clear whether the provision of public screening is the most appropriate way to promote autonomy. Next, to tackle these problems, we focus on Onora O’Neill’s argument of rights and obligations. Drawing on this argument, we show that, in addressing the problems above, it is important to change our normative perspective from rights or autonomy to obligation. Our argument will show that since the government does not have an incontrovertibly fundamental obligation to promote autonomy, this obligation needs to be constrained in terms of compatibility with other fundamental obligations. In addition, even if a government is obliged to promote autonomy to some degree, there could be more appropriate means to achieve it than providing public prenatal screening; therefore, it is not necessary for government obligations to extend to the provision of public prenatal screening. (shrink)

Moral relativism is a tragedy and cognitive relativism is a farce – so Gellner argues. First the tragedy: moral relativism is consistent and compelling given moral diversity and contention worldwide. Then the farce: cognitive relativism is self-contradictory and logically false; it is also absurd in view of hard science, which gets testable, cumulative, applicable results that yield high tech; and it is insidious – where logical consistency and empirical accuracy are a dead letter, mummery rules.

It is often asserted that even our own past is a foreign country: the ideas of past thinkers are, in some ways, alien to us today. For the European historian of non- European philosophy, not only is the past held to be a different country, but it is also the past ofadifferentcountry. This is both convenient and problematic all at once. The historian of non- European philosophy faces a double separation from his/her subject matter; she is both a foreigner and (...) an alien. In this paper, I approach questions of how this historian should orientate herself towards her subject, and why she should care about it at all. (shrink)

This paper attempts to bring new insights to a long-standing historical debate over medical specialization by analyzing the formation of medical mycology, a somewhat marginal biomedical discipline that emerged in the mid-twentieth century around studies of fungal disease in humans. The study of fungi predates that of bacteria and viruses, but from the 1880s it became eclipsed by bacteriology. However, in the postwar period, there were moves to establish medical mycology as an independent speciality. I trace the processes that led (...) to the launch of professional societies in the United States, Britain and Japan, three major players in medical mycology, and more broadly in biomedicine. The analysis of the three different national contexts illustrates how geographical, medico-technological, epidemiological, political and social conditions gave the specialty a distinctive character in each country; this was further complicated by the different and changing medical fields in which fungal diseases were studied and treated. The three case studies show medical specialization as a process that is not simply cumulative but responds to specific historical events and developments. (shrink)

Foodways are important in understanding the bio-cultural dynamics of crop diversity. This paper examines the example of tsukemono and their importance for heirloom vegetables. Social histories of heirlooms and tsukemono were difficult to obtain, so various sources from archives, published reports, to interviews were used to stitch together the stories of the tsukemono-heirloom relationships. The paper finds that tsukemono has provided different opportunities for heirlooms. Tsukemono can enhance the taste and flavors of heirlooms. Pickling can make the best of heirloom’s (...) unique tastes even when they are not suited for other uses. Moreover, certain tsukemono has historically been associated with important social customs like gift-giving and seasonal events. The theoretical contribution of this study is to analyze the foodway-heirloom relationships from the vantage point of the political economy of agrofood systems. It is not enough to say a particular foodway is important for heirlooms. The paper reveals the necessity of analyses that situate the heirloom- foodway relationships in the modern agrofood systems. Changes not only in agriculture but also in consumption, retail, and processing are crucial in understanding the heirloom-foodway relationship. (shrink)

In recent decades there has been a significant increase in community rehabilitation programs for people with mental health conditions. One such nationwide programs is Amitim in Israel whose mission is to foster the psychosocial rehabilitation of people with mental health conditions in the community. Amitim’s flagship program consists of arts-based groups that integrate participants with mental health conditions and non-clinical community members. To better understand the experiences of participants in these arts-based groups, five focus groups were conducted with participants from (...) 15 integrated arts-based groups. In total, 17 people with mental health conditions and 21 non-clinical community members were interviewed for this qualitative study. Three main themes emerged from the thematic analysis: creation and expression through the arts promote well-being, self-disclosure in a safe space encourages a sense of belonging, and “we are all in the same boat.” The participants underscored the role of creation and expression through the arts in facilitating emotional expression, self-discovery, interpersonal communication, and spiritual elevation. The findings suggest that the facilitators should instill a sense of equality by enabling intergroup acquaintances without labeling participants’ mental health status. Integrated arts-based groups should be accompanied by a mental health professional who can contain and work through complex emotional situations when needed. Arts therapists who specialize in both arts and mental health are particularly suitable for this role. Overall, the interviewees reported that participation in the integrated arts-based groups positively impacted their personal recovery processes by providing a corrective experience of equality as well as enhancing a sense of belonging to the community and social relationships. The participants also reported being empowered by the final artistic event that not only enhanced their sense of visibility, competence, and aspirations for future development in personal, interpersonal, and artistic realms, but also helped to combat both self- and public stigma. (shrink)

In the film Conte d’hiver directed by Eric Rohmer in 1992, the heroine is passionately in love with her boyfriend who is missing. She has faith in his reappearance. According to Stanley Cavell, she has found her existence within her desire to see him again, irrelevant to the world’s existence. However, her faith materializes in her way of living every day. She wagers her real life on the encounter and thus situates her existence in the world’s existence. At the ending,she (...) really encounters him in the bus. According to Cavell, an encounter is an everyday event, because the world consists of strangers passing and we are destined to be passers-by who are coincidentally here and now with others. This can be seen when she moves from place to place among the crowd, including the scene ofthe encounter. Furthermore, in the scenes of her being in the transportations, the views from the windows look passing against passengers, as also in the scene of the encounter. The view, the world, looks itself passing in film, because its medium specificity is motion. Then film can show: we as passers-by encounter someone and something here and now in the world itself passing. That we choose how to live in the coincidental situation is our existence in the world’s existence. (shrink)

This paper will discuss the correlation between the world of everyday life, finite provinces of meaning, and religion. To this end, the paper will start out by explaining Schutz’ considerations on “paramount reality” of the world of everyday life as well as the theory of “multiple realities” and “finite provinces of meaning”. Schutz’ considerations will then be elaborated upon and taken a step further in a discussion of the various ‘realnesses’ of the multiple realities. Special attention will be paid to (...) a finite province of meaning only mentioned in passing by Schutz: religion. The paper will first analyze the special features of religion as a finite province of meaning and highlight the correlation it enters with the world of everyday life. Subsequently, hereafter and paradise conceptions will be described as “ultimate provinces of meaning,” and it will be shown how their realnesses connect to the world of everyday life. Finally, the “fundamental anxiety” will be studied as the motor of the relevance structures of the world of everyday life, the finite provinces of meaning as well as the hereafter conceptions. (shrink)

This article discusses the status of transcripts in Conversation Analysis. Repeatedly, the function and the epistemic state of transcripts have been the subject of discussions and reflections in Conversation Analysis. Drawing on a range of empirical examples taken from various authors, this article discusses the question of how present forms of visuality and multi-modality in the data material or the handling of artifacts can be captured in transcripts and how the problem of ‘representation’ of complex and interactive situations can be (...) solved. It turns out that the evolution of recording media along with the medium shift in Conversation Analysis has altered the status of transcripts, effecting a twofold ‘in-between-ness’: transcripts inhabit the conceptual space between orality and literacy on the one hand and between artwork and figure on the other hand. This oscillating hybrid nature proves to be the central property of transcripts in present-day Conversation Analysis. Transcripts are described as scientific ‘objects of knowledge’ and discussed with respect to their methodological and epistemic status. (shrink)

Nishida Kitaro, originator of the Kyoto School and 'father of Japanese Philosophy' is usually viewed as an essentially apolitical thinker who underwent a 'turn' in the mid-1930s, becoming an ideologue of Japanese imperialism. Political Philosophy in Japan challenges the view that a neat distinction can be drawn between Nishida's apolitical 'pre-turn' writings and the apparently ideological tracts he produced during the war years. In the context of Japanese intellectual traditions, this book suggests that Nishida was a political thinker form the (...) very beginning of his career, and consequently, his later political works cannot be dismissed as peripheral to his philosophical project. Counter-intuitively however, Christopher Goto-Jones argues that a consistently political reading of his philosophy reveals a dissenting standpoint even during the height of the Pacific War. This book argues that the prevailing postwar tendency to dismiss interwar and wartime Japanese culture as fascist or ultra nationalist en total neglects a lively political discourse, which contained some serous and profound political insight and even dissent. By suggesting that Nishida tetsugaku was a voice of dissent during Japan's Great East Asia War, Goto-Jones presents a case for the rehabilitation of Nishida as a political thinker, and as an example of a Japanese resistance, able to make a valuable contribution to contemporary debates about international political, globalization , and inter-cultural relations. Offering a unique and potentially controversial view of the subject of Nishida and the Kyoto School, The Political Philosophy of Japan will be of huge interest to anyone studying Japanese History, Political Philosophy and comparative philosophy alike. (shrink)

The Japanese government and medical professionals have negative attitudes toward the provision of prenatal testing and related information due to social concern regarding discrimination against persons with disabilities. However, with the rapid increase in the number of non-invasive prenatal tests, particularly at non-certificated medical facilities, in response to the growing demand from pregnant women, the Japanese government and medical professional associations have enacted radical changes marking an active commitment to the provision of information on these services. While a major justification (...) for these policy changes is to ensure respect for reproductive autonomy and women’s self-determination, they may reinforce the concern regarding discrimination. This article investigated the argument that these new policies may reinforce discrimination and examined three objections to this argument. The results revealed that the recent policy changes, particularly for specific fetal traits, may imply a negative belief about people living with the same traits. Consequently, fundamental institutional changes are necessary. (shrink)

La psicología es una rama científica relativamente nueva y a la que todavía le faltan bases metodológicas consistentes para fundamentar sus investigaciones. Dada su inmadurez, tal ciencia tiene dificultades para delimitar su estatuto ontológico, lo que genera diversos equívocos epistemológicos y metodológicos. Así, se impone una cuestión fundamental para la aclaración del objeto de la psicología: el problema mente-cuerpo. En ese sentido, el objetivo de este artículo, basado en la fenomenología de Edith Stein, es analizar algunos trabajos de la filósofa, (...) a saber: “Causalidad Psíquica” e “Introducción a la Filosofía”. De esa manera, a través de las investigaciones de Stein acerca de la psique y del cuerpo, se concluye que es posible concebir la cuestión psique/mente-cuerpo como una unidad-dual que se instancia en el Leib.Psychology is a relatively new scientific branch that still lacks consistent methodological foundations to support their investigations. Given their immaturity, that science still faces difficulties to delimit its ontological status, which raises various epistemological and methodological misconceptions. Thus, there is a fundamental question for an elucidation of the object of Psychology: the mindbody problem. The proposal of this article, in this sense, is to discuss the mind-body problem in the light of the Phenomenology of Edith Stein, seeking from there lay the fundation of Psychology. For this, some works of the philosopher was analysed, namely: “Psychic Causality” and “Introduction to Philosophy”. In this way, through the investigations of Stein about the psyche and body, concluded that it is possible to conceive the psyche/mind-body issue while a dual-unit that instantiates in the Leib. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Naharaim Jahrgang: 11 Heft: 1-2 Seiten: 167-192.

Editorial do periódico Filosofia e Educação.

Classical Marxism is apparently a past topic. But, Marxist methodology is still useful to treat several contemporary problems of science and technology studies (STS). Marx had criticized the capitalist economy of his time and classical economic theory by analyzing the commodity production of the industrial revolution. But, he accepted western science and industrial technology as given factors in the capitalist economy. Though Classical Marxism attributed knowledge to the ideological superstructure of social relationships, it did not treat knowledge production as an (...) economic and social process. Now knowledge, especially scientific and technological knowledge, is an essential feature of the contemporary economy of the developed countries. Now the, critical study of production and distribution of knowledge, the object of STS, is an essential subject of our time. It includes the problems of ever expanding new working class: technical specialists, professionals, software workers, and health-related professionals. They, once independent proud professionals, are now in unstable working conditions. Improved Marxist methodology might make possible such a critical study. (shrink)

The paper elaborates the theory of imagination in Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of Judgment. From the first Critique to the third Critique, the imagination emerges under different titles such as reproductive, productive or transcendental imagination. The paper shall try to decide whether its functions suggested in the first Critique and its performance in the third Critique are contradictory or developmental with respect to Kant's critical philosophy. Thus, it will examine of the power and the scope of (...) the imagination in the first Critique and of its status and performance in the third Critique. El artículo discute la teoría de la imaginación en la Crítica de la razón pura y la Crítica del juicio de Immanuel Kant. Desde la primera Crítica y hasta la tercera, la imaginación recibe diferentes calificativos, tales como imaginación reproductiva, productiva o trascendental. El trabajo intenta determinar si las funciones de la imaginación sugeridas en la primera Crítica y su papel en la tercera Crítica son contradictorias o si implican más bien un desarrollo respecto de la filosofía crítica de Kant. Para ello, se examina el poder y el alcance de la imaginación en la primera Crítica y su estatus y papel en la tercera. (shrink)

The global increase in patients with chronic conditions has led to increased interest in ethical issues regarding such conditions. A basic biomedical principle—respect for autonomy—is being reexamined more critically in its clinical implications. New accounts of this basic principle are being proposed. While new accounts of respect for autonomy do underpin the design of many public programs and policies worldwide, addressing both chronic disease management and health promotion, the risk of applying such new accounts to clinical setting remain understudied. However, (...) the application of new accounts of respect for autonomy to clinical settings could support disrespectful attitudes toward or undue interference with patients with chronic conditions. Reconsidering autonomy and respect using Kantian accounts, this paper proposes respect for persons as an alternative basic bioethical principle to respect for autonomy. Unlike the principle of respect for persons in the Belmont Report, our principle involves respecting any patient’s decisions, behaviors, emotions, or life-style regardless of his or her “autonomous” capabilities. Thus, attitudes toward patients should be no different irrespective of the assessment of their decisional or executive capabilities. (shrink)

Sexes are normally taken to be fundamental categories in biology – many sexually reproducing organisms fall under the categories of female/male. Much research aims at explaining differences between sexes. Sexual selection forms a central framework for explaining “typical” distributions of traits among sexes, and explicating circumstances leading to “reversal”. I claim sexual selection models needn’t make use of sexes, that sexes lack explanatory significance in such models. I offer a framework of reproductive dimorphism and argue it’s better than that of (...) sexes, because it (i) is more compatible with explanations of sexual selection and (ii) allows for their greater applicability. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Naharaim Jahrgang: 10 Heft: 2 Seiten: 169-173.

Shamanism is an ancient system centered on individuals chosen from shamans who gained access to extraordinary information through meditation or trance to meet the psychological, medical, and spiritual needs of a community. "Neoxamanism" is thus the current attempt to reconcile this wisdom with modern elements and ideas. This research aimed to understand,through the phenomenological-empirical method, the sense of the neoxamanic religious experience from five collaborators of the city of Uberlândia-MG. After the interviews, a process of analysis was followed which obtained (...) variant elements in the reports and other invariants, through which this religious experience is synthesized: Being a neo-shaman is to relate to the sacred; is to connect with yourself; is to connect with nature; is to understand the uniqueness between us and nature. Thus we could make connections with meditation, religiosity and health, concluding that the study of this phenomenon has much to add in the way of thinking and doing human health nowadays. (shrink)

This book, Emerson, the Philosophy of Obedience, attempts to trace Emerson who sought to integrate Western and Eastern thoughts to found a new philosophy in the new world. An ardent admirer of Plato, he is at the same time an enthusiast of Eastern philosophy. "Memory," for example, is one of his last lecture series, "Natural Method of Mental Philosophy," in which men are all taken as the halves, because men have aftersight, but not aforesight. Memory is, to Emerson, not only (...) to call forth the past knowledge to the present, but also there is something related to the future, because some past things memorized in the mind are changed into "a possession of its law." This is called "a mutation in quality," by which past things in the mind come into "a possession of its law," obeying the law, just as, in Phaedo, "all the apparent equals strive to attain absolute equality." The Platonic method of Analogy works doubtlessly in Emerson. Men obey this law, because "Nature and [Man] are from one source, and that he, when humble and obedient, is nearer to the source." The mind is such a movement, as he finds that "The mind yields sympathetically to the tendencies or laws which stream through things." The idea of "humble and obedient," or humility and obedience, comes originally from the Chaldæan Oracles and the Heetopades, which have a decisive influence on Emerson, through "the light-armed arrive at the summit," and "the flower of the mind." Because of this profound Eastern thought and ideas, he is called "this student of Eastern philosophy.". (shrink)

We consider several variants of Keisler’s isomorphism theorem. We separate these variants by showing implications between them and cardinal invariants hypotheses. We characterize saturation hypotheses that are stronger than Keisler’s theorem with respect to models of size $\aleph _1$ and $\aleph _0$ by $\mathrm {CH}$ and $\operatorname {cov}(\mathsf {meager}) = \mathfrak {c} \land 2^{<\mathfrak {c}} = \mathfrak {c}$ respectively. We prove that Keisler’s theorem for models of size $\aleph _1$ and $\aleph _0$ implies $\mathfrak {b} = \aleph _1$ and $\operatorname (...) {cov}(\mathsf {null}) \le \mathfrak {d}$ respectively. As a consequence, Keisler’s theorem for models of size $\aleph _0$ fails in the random model. We also show that for Keisler’s theorem for models of size $\aleph _1$ to hold it is not necessary that $\operatorname {cov}(\mathsf {meager})$ equals $\mathfrak {c}$. (shrink)

This study aimed to examine whether social support promotes identity meaning among older adults. We hypothesized that when two spouses exchange social support, their sense of marital identity is enhanced. Among older adults, parental identity may be more strongly enhanced when parents provide social support to their children rather than receive social support from them. We conducted a longitudinal survey of 355 older adults, who were assessed four times over 2 years. First, we confirmed the relationship between social support and (...) identity meaning using an autoregressive path model. Second, we examined the effect of social support on the trajectory of role identities in a growth curve model. The intercepts of receiving support and providing support were significantly associated with the intercept of marital identity. In addition, the intercept of identity meaning for parents correlated with the intercept of providing support to their children but not with that of receiving support from their children. Social support between family members promotes role identities in family relationships. In particular, providing support to children correlates with parental roles which connect to subjective well-being. (shrink)