Thinking about God is historical thinking and that in two senses : the idea of God has a history, and those who think about God think through an historically formed mind. The task of the theologian, is not the attempt to move outside his historicity - such an attempt constitutes a fallacy and not a virtue - but to accept its implications and limitations. Methodologically this means that the theologian must point to the historical perspectives that underlie the idea of (...) God in its development and, in his own constructive thought, must work self-consciously with an historical perspective informed by the psychological and cosmological understanding of his own time. This book centers on that idea which traditionally has been associated with the very godness of God - the idea of divine abso luteness - and puts certain historical, logical, religious and, finally, cosmological questions to it. The roots of that idea lie in Greek thought, which entered Christian theology via the early church fathers; even so, there is much indication, particularly in Patristic trinitarian thought, that the Biblical heritage is pushing theological thinking towards a social or relative concept of divine being (ch. 1). (shrink)

Public health decisions made by the state involve considerable disagreements on the course of actions, uncertainties, and compromises that arise from moral tensions between the demands of civil liberties and the goals of public health. With such complex decisions, it can be extremely difficult to arrive at and justify the best option. In this article, we propose an ethical decision-making framework based on the philosophy of Ubuntu and argue that in sub-Saharan African settings, this approach provides attractive alternative conventions of (...) moral decision-making and a useful language for understanding moral reasoning and ethics. Through its emphasis on humanity, compassion, and social responsibility, Ubuntu (“I am because we are”) has the potential to facilitate solutions to and avert conflicts between individual rights and public health. The use of Ubuntu shifts the moral reasoning and ethics of decision-making from a field of philosophy shaped by the global north, to the everyday values, decision-making, and consequent practices of people in much of Africa. Using examples of Ebola, pandemic influenza, and tuberculosis, we illustrate how Ubuntu can be applied to tackle conflicting ethical problems in public health and medicine. (shrink)

Dorfman et al. (2024) make a significant empirical contribution to a growing body of literature pertaining to issues of futility in psychiatry. The authors acknowledge that their survey methodologi...

This article seeks to explain the variable implementation of gender mainstreaming as a `policy frame' over time and across various international organisations (I.O.s). In the years since the U.N. Fourth World Women's Conference in Beijing (1995),mainstreaming has been endorsed and adopted by a wide range of international organisations, and we compare the adoption and implementation of mainstreaming in four specific I.O.s: the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the European Union. (...) The rhetorical acceptance of mainstreaming by various international organisations, however, obscures considerable variation in both the timing and the nature of the mainstreaming process within and among organisations. This variation, in turn, can be explained in terms of the categories of political opportunity, mobilising structures and strategic framing, which have been put forward by social movement theorists. (shrink)

Historically, patients have deferred to physicians′ judgments about appropriate medical care, thereby limiting patient participation in treatment decisions. In this model of medical decision making, physicians typically decided upon the treatment plan. Communication with patients focused on securing their cooperation in accepting a treatment decision that essentially had already been made.

The US neutrino community gathered at the Workshop on the Intermediate Neutrino Program at Brookhaven National Laboratory February 4-6, 2015 to explore opportunities in neutrino physics over the next five to ten years. Scientists from particle, astroparticle and nuclear physics participated in the workshop. The workshop examined promising opportunities for neutrino physics in the intermediate term, including possible new small to mid-scale experiments, US contributions to large experiments, upgrades to existing experiments, R&D plans and theory. The workshop was organized into (...) two sets of parallel working group sessions, divided by physics topics and technology. Physics working groups covered topics on Sterile Neutrinos, Neutrino Mixing, Neutrino Interactions, Neutrino Properties and Astrophysical Neutrinos. Technology sessions were organized into Theory, Short-Baseline Accelerator Neutrinos, Reactor Neutrinos, Detector R&D and Source, Cyclotron and Meson Decay at Rest sessions.This report summarizes discussion and conclusions from the workshop. (shrink)

Since its founding in 1943, Medievalia et Humanistica has won worldwide recognition as the first scholarly publication in America to devote itself entirely to medieval and Renaissance studies. Since 1970, a new series, sponsored by the Modern Language Association of America and edited by an international board of distinguished scholars and critics, has published interdisciplinary articles. In yearly hardbound volumes, the new series publishes significant scholarship, criticism, and reviews treating all facets of medieval and Renaissance culture: history, art, literature, music, (...) science, law, economics, and philosophy. (shrink)

We wish to extend the concepts in Ray and Cooper’s (2024) article entitled “The Bioethics of Environmental Injustice: Ethical, Legal, and Clinical Implications of Unhealthy Environments” to palliat...

This study discusses the numerous challenges that Chinese Muslims experience as a minority in Indonesia, as well as the role of Chinese Muslim groups in providing them with religious direction. This study employs a phenomenological approach that relies on in-depth interviews with 14 informants who were chosen purposively. According to the study, the obstacles faced are domestic constraints, where they are alienated by their extended family, and social constraints, particularly for those from disadvantaged groups. As a result of this situation, (...) they became acquainted with several Chinese Muslim organisations. Although this phenomena demonstrates a constructive cooperation among Chinese Muslims, it also implies that assimilation efforts with local Muslims are not properly manifested.Contribution: Although the decision to convert to Islam has resulted in exclusion from their extended family, they are still able to maintain their new faith by relying on Islamic organisations run by fellow Chinese Muslims. At the same time, this phenomenon illustrates that their assimilation efforts with local Muslims have not been properly realised. (shrink)

Graphical AbstractThe exquisite morphology of a complex body results from the sum of competitive and cooperative interactions among its subsystems. More details can be found in article number 1900245 by Richard Gawne et al. The cover image shows immunohistochemical staining (in red) of the head of a tadpole of Xenopus laevis, showing the brain, nostrils, and peripheral innervation.

The low commitment and meaning of life can be caused by many, but they potentially occur because people in an institution do not know what they get from their work other than just money; people become unhappy with their work, then get bored and uncomfortable at work, apathetic, and ultimately unproductive. An institution that implements workplace spirituality will make people feel connected and meaningful at work. The purpose of this study is to explain how the values of WS can increase (...) staff’s commitment and meaning of life at the institutions. The results of this study indicate that the WS can increase the commitment and meaning of the life of employees in the institution's through several things. First, the value which can increase work commitment is value of togetherness, responsibility, justice, trust, sincerity, integrity, innovative, and professional. Second, the meaning of work for them is a moral call, a form of gratitude, fulfillment, worship, self-actualization, the command of Allahswt, and doing the main duty. Third, the efforts made by the staff are: to build a working atmosphere with workplace culture and climate, improve the quality of institutions by making research and recruiting qualified lecturers,conducting useful activities, adding infrastructure to support activities, friendly communication, social media as means of socialization, religious or coaching and motivation training, oblige Zuhur prayers in congregation, and cooperate with others. Fourth, the impact of workplace spirituality for employees is to feel proud of their institution, to feel comfortable and to have intimacy, to have well self-actualization, to be more productive in their work, to maintain altitude, leadership that refers to the pattern of politics alone will decrease the quality of the institution, mutual visit and sharing information or giving advise, positive activities coloring each institution, and adding enthusiasm to work. (shrink)

In the game theory literature, Garrett Hardin’s famous allegory of the “tragedy of the commons” has been modeled as a variant of the Prisoner’s Dilemma, labeled the Herder Problem (or, sometimes, the Commons Dilemma). This brief paper argues that important differences in the institutional structures of the standard Prisoner’s Dilemma and Herder Problem render the two games different in kind. Specifically, institutional impediments to communication and cooperation that ensure a dominant strategy of defection in the classic Prisoner’s Dilemma are absent (...) in the Herder Problem. Their absence does not ensure that players will achieve a welfare-enhancing, cooperative solution to the Herders Problem, but does create far more opportunity for players to alter the expected payoffs through cooperative arrangements. In a properly modeled Herder Problem—along the lines of an assurance game—defection would not always be the dominant strategy. Consequently, the Herder Problem is not in the nature of a Prisoner’s Dilemma. (shrink)

La publication de The Anatomy of Melancoly de Robert Burton en 1621 marque un tournant dans l’histoire de cette célèbre maladie, déjà analysée dans le Problème XXX du corpus aristotélicien. Burton, en effet, ne se contentait pas de construire une sorte d’encyclopédie du savoir philosophique et médical sur la mélancolie, qu’il considérait comme la quintessence de toutes les maladies ; il en proposait aussi de nouvelles interprétations, notamment en abordant la mélancolie sous l’angle de ses co..

In a conflict between two people, one person wants one thing and the other wants something else and they think they can't both have what they want. Suppose that what they want can only be the outcome of some joint action. Adam must do either y or z and Eve either y ' or z ' – here y -and- y ' would be one joint action, y -and- z ' would be another, and so on. Adam wants the outcome (...) of his doing z while Eve is doing y '. Eve wants the outcome of her doing z ' while Adam is doing y. Each thinks that these outcomes can't both be had. (shrink)

A. Klimczuk, Formalnoprawne aspekty współpracy szkoły z otoczeniem, [in:] M. Juchnicka, Formalnoprawne aspekty modernizacji szkolnictwa zawodowego, Izba Rzemieślnicza i Przedsiȩbiorczości, Białystok 2014, pp. 77-106.

The relations between Russell and three Polish philosophers are considered. Each of them exchanged letters with Russell but their professional interests in philosophy, their meta-philosophical views and their worldviews profoundly varied. Nevertheless, Russell’s wide intellectual horizon enabled him to have fruitful discussions with each of them. Chwistek’s philosophical aim was to improve Russell’s theory of types but he failed to publish his own book in English with Russell’s preface and he never met Russell in person. The English philosopher, however, helped (...) Chwistek in obtaining the post at Lvov University. Lutosławski was unable to develop the professional philosophical discussion with Russell, whom he met at a philosophical congress, but he expressed positive opinion on the chapters on Plato in Russell’s History of Western Philosophy. This opinion was helpful for Russell in his further cooperation with the publishing house. The last of the Poles under discussion was Themerson, rather a writer, artist and a thinker than a philosopher. He met Russell after the WW II in London, while they both lived there. Themerson edited some minor works of Russell, who wrote a preface to Themerson’s novel. Their letters provide evidence that they shared general attitude towards religion, philosophy and the outlook on the world. Key words RUSSEL, CHWISTEK, LUTOSLAWSKI, THEMERSON. (shrink)

Andrzej Szczypiorski (1928–2000) was a writer and journalist. As a journalist he made his debut in 1947 in “Gromada” and then he cooperated with “Życie Warszawy” and “Film". In 1951 he was a member of literary editor’s office of Polish Radio in Katowice, where he was engaged in reportage and radio’s adaptations of literary works. After short period of work in Teatr Śląski in Katowice and departure to embassy in Copenhagen (Denmark) he arrived to Warsaw and he engaged in cultural (...) journalism. Every week’s feuilletons-commentary in radio and numerous texts printed for example in “Przegląd Kulturalny”, “Życie Warszawy". “Za wolność i lud”, “Nowa Kultura”, “Tygodnik Demokratyczny”, “Tygodnik Kulturalny” made him famous journalist. He was reckoned to be a journalist, who supported obligatory political system. Since 1968 his connections with radio and official press have started to come loose. After next few years he cooperated to “Polityka”, “Odra”, “Problemy Alkoholizmu” and “Literatura". Formation independent press made him publicity in “Zapis”, “Biuletyn Informacyjny", "Bez tytułu". During being internee in the state of war he became concentrated on literary activity. In 1989–1991 years he was a senator. Till his death he published very much (e.g. “Gazeta Wyborcza”, “Wprost”, “Polityka” and “Hustler”) and he took part in television and radio programs, symposiums and cultural meeting in the country and foreign countries. (shrink)

Among the composers with whom Wojciech Młynarski collaborated – a brilliant songwriter and penetrating satirist, librettist and translator, as well as a talented singer – was a completely unique artist, often referred to as the “Polish Gershwin” – Jerzy Wasowski. As a result of their nearly twenty years of cooperation, interrupted by Wasowski’s death in 1984, about thirty songs were created, most often being cabaret-satirical works or in the form of “sung columns”. Among the achievements of the Młynarski-Wasowski company there (...) are many “small masterpieces”, which are examples of masterly connections between words and music. The works they wrote together in the last period of their cooperation have been remembered in a special way by Młynarski. These songs were written at a special moment in the history of the People’s Republic of Poland – during the “Solidarity” carnival and during the martial law period. Moreover, the story of their proprietary company closed. The works they wrote last – in 1982 and 1983 – were described by Młynarski as “interesting songs”. During the martial law period, Młynarski decided to suspend public appearances – joining the artists who, in protest, decided to boycott the state media. He only took care of writing lyrics for new songs. At that time, he addressed the proposal to compose music mainly to Wasowski, who, like him, believed that one should continue to write, but – for now – “in the drawer”. Eight works were written then, six of which – Ballada o szachiście, Jestem piłeczką pingpongową, Po Krakowskim w noc majową, W miejskim teatrzyku lalek, Róbmy swoje, Ballada o dwóch koniach – had a satirical and journalistic character and entered Młynarski’s repertoire when he resumed his performances. Whereas the other two songs – Mam złe lata i dobre dni oraz Gram o wszystko – were lyrical-reflective pieces with female texts, and became their performers a few years later: Hanna Banaszak and Ewa Bem. This article analyzes one of these songs – Ballada o szachiście – aimed at explaining – in an elementary way – why Młynarski used the word “interesting” to refer to the songs written with Wasowski during the martial law period. This term is primarily intended to denote a work whose words and music were written in order to “give food for thought” to the audience. (shrink)

This paper examines what it is for a condition to be a disease. It falls into two sections. In the first I examine the best existing account of disease (as proposed by Christopher Boorse) and argue that it must be rejected. In the second I outline a more acceptable account of disease. According to this account, by disease we mean a condition that it is a bad thing to have, that is such that we consider the afflicted person to have (...) been unlucky, and that can potentially be medically treated. All three criteria must be fulfilled for a condition to be a disease. The criterion that for a condition to be a disease it must be a bad thing is required to distinguish the biologically different from the diseased. The claim that the sufferer must be unlucky is needed to distinguish diseases from conditions that are unpleasant but normal, for example teething. Finally, the claim that for a condition to be a disease it must be potentially medically treatable is needed to distinguish diseases from other types of misfortune, for example economic problems and legal problems. (shrink)

I Deliberation, Practical Syllogisms , and Intuition. Introduction Aristotle's views on moral reasoning are a difficult and much disputed subject. ...

Classifying Madness (Springer, 2005) concerns philosophical problems with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, more commonly known as the D.S.M. The D.S.M. is published by the American Psychiatric Association and aims to list and describe all mental disorders. The first half of Classifying Madness asks whether the project of constructing a classification of mental disorders that reflects natural distinctions makes sense. Chapters examine the nature of mental illness, and also consider whether mental disorders fall into natural kinds. The (...) second half of the book addresses epistemic worries. Even supposing a natural classification system to be possible in principle, there may be reasons to be suspicious of the categories included in the D.S.M. I examine the extent to which the D.S.M. depends on psychiatric theory, and look at how it has been shaped by social and financial factors. I aim to be critical of the D.S.M. without being antagonistic towards it. Ultimately, however, I am forced to conclude that although the D.S.M. is of immense practical importance, it is unlikely to come to reflect the natural structure of mental disorders. (shrink)

This collection of Habermas's recent essays on philosophical topics continues the analysis begun in The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity. In a short introductory essay, he outlines the sources of twentieth-century philosophizing, its major themes, and the range of current debates. The remainder of the essays can be seen as his contribution to these debates.Habermas's essay on George Herbert Mead is a focal point of the book. In it he sketches a postmetaphysical, intersubjective approach to questions of individuation and subjectivity. In (...) other essays, he develops his distinctive, communications-theoretic approach to questions of meaning and validity. The book as a whole expands on his earlier efforts to define a middle ground between nostalgic revivals of metaphysical conceptions of reason and radical deconstructions of reason. Jürgen Habermas is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt.The Essays: The Horizon of Modernity is Shifting. Metaphysics after Kant. Themes in Postmetaphysical Thinking. Toward a Critique of the Theory of Meaning. Peirce and Communication. The Unity of Reason in the Diversity of Its Voices. Individuation through Socialization: On George Herbert Mead's Theory of Subjectivity. Philosophy and Science as Literature? (shrink)

Preface This volume represents the proceedings of the First Conference on Situation Theory and Its Applications held by CSLI at Asilomar, California, ...

NEITHER in the scholarly nor in the philosophical literature on Aristotle does his account of friendship occupy a very prominent place. I suppose this is partly, though certainly not wholly, to be explained by the fact that the modern ethical theories with which Aristotle’s might demand comparison hardly make room for the discussion of any parallel phenomenon. Whatever else friendship is, it is, at least typically, a personal relationship freely, even spontaneously, entered into, and ethics, as modern theorists tend to (...) conceive it, deals rather with the ways in which people are required to regard, and behave toward, one another, than with the organization of their private affairs. To the extent, then, that one shares this modern outlook one will tend to neglect, or treat merely as an historical curiosity, Aristotle’s efforts to define friendship and to place it within the framework of human eudaimonia, the theory of which is central to moral philosophy as he understands it. Yet in the Nicomachean Ethics the two books on φιλία make up nearly a fifth of the whole, and this seems to me a fair measure of the importance of this subject to the complete understanding both of Aristotle’s overall moral theory and even of many of the more circumscribed topics to which so much scholarly and philosophical attention has been devoted. If, as I suggest, the failure of commentators to appreciate its importance is partly the effect of distortions produced by the moral outlook that has predominated in modern moral philosophy, the careful study of these books may help to free us from constricting prejudices and perhaps even make it possible to discover in Aristotle a plausible and suggestive alternative to the theories constructed on the narrower base characteristic of recent times. (shrink)

This article explores the challenge of developing a feminist law reform proposal to decertify sex and gender based on research conducted for the ‘Future of Legal Gender' project. Locating the proposal to decertify within a do-it-yourself, prefigurative approach to law reform, the article asks: Can a law reform proposal be both instrumental and radical? Can a proposal take shape as a viable legislative text and as a more subversive intervention to unsettle and reimagine gender’s relationship to law? This article explores (...) this at two levels. First, it considers the ontological challenges of developing a controversial law reform proposal in terms of its realness (or fictiveness), contours, and temporality, turning to ‘slow law' as a credible way of approaching radical reform. Second, it explores the design-based challenges of legal prototyping—foregrounding questions of legitimacy, participation, and purpose, which arise in designing a decertification law. At the heart of this discussion is the relationship between representation and enactment—between what a proposal presents and what its presentation does and does not accomplish. (shrink)

is a term introduced by Ian Hacking to refer to the kinds of people—child abusers, pregnant teenagers, the unemployed—studied by the human sciences. Hacking argues that classifying and describing human kinds results in feedback, which alters the very kinds under study. This feedback results in human kinds having histories totally unlike those of natural kinds (such as gold, electrons and tigers), leading Hacking to conclude that human kinds are radically unlike natural kinds. Here I argue that Hacking's argument fails and (...) that he has not demonstrated that human kinds cannot be natural kinds. Introduction Natural kinds Hacking's feedback mechanisms 3.1 Cultural feedback 3.2 Conceptual feedback. (shrink)

Topics in Cognitive Science, Volume 13, Issue 1, Page 63-78, January 2021.

I discuss the division of the soul in plato's "republic". i concentrate on the arguments and illustrative examples given in book iv, but i treat the descriptions of different types of person in viii-ix and elsewhere as further constituents of a single, coherent theory. on my interpretation plato distinguishes three basic kinds of motivation which he claims all human beings regularly experience in some degree. reason is itself the immediate source of certain desires. in addition, there are appetitive and also--quite (...) distinct from either of the other two--competitive motivations. (shrink)

In this paper I extend the case for a necessitation account of particular laws in Kant's philosophy of science by examining the relation between reason's hypothetical use in the Appendix to the Transcendental Dialectic and the legitimate hypotheses identified in the Doctrine of Method. Building on normative accounts of reason's ideas, I argue that reason's hypothetical use does not describe the connections between objects and their grounds, which lie beyond the reach of the understanding, but merely prescribes the relations between (...) appearances and their conditions, for which the understanding must seek. A legitimate hypothesis, I suggest, is a proposition we hold to be true that fills in one or several of those relations. The problematic character of hypotheses requires that we evaluate our reasons for holding them to be true. While natural modality is grounded in the nature of things, which cannot be fully known, our reasons for assent can and must be grounded on features of objects that are epistemically available to us. (shrink)

First published in 1990, _Existentialism_ is widely regarded as a classic introductory survey of the topic, and has helped to renew interest in existentialist philosophy. The author places existentialism within the great traditions of philosophy, and argues that it deserves as much attention from analytic philosophers as it has always received on the continent.