In this paper we present two compatible hypotheses to explain interest in celebrity gossip. The Learning Hypothesis explains interest in celebrity gossip as a by-product of an evolved mechanism useful for acquiring fitness-relevant survival information. The Parasocial Hypothesis sees celebrity gossip as a diversion of this mechanism, which leads individuals to misperceive celebrities as people who are part of their social network. Using two preliminary studies, we tested our predictions. In a survey with 838 respondents and in-depth interviews with 103 (...) individuals, we investigated how interest in celebrity gossip was related to several dimensions of the participants’ social lives. In support of the Learning Hypothesis, age proved to be a strong predictor of interest in celebrities. In partial support of the Parasocial Hypothesis, media exposure, but not social isolation, was a strong predictor of interest in celebrities. The preliminary results support both theories, indicate that across our life span celebrities move from being teachers to being friends, and open up a list of future research opportunities. (shrink)

The Archaeology of Bhakti II: Royal Bhakti, Local Bhakti. Edited by Emmanuel Francis and Charlotte Schmid. Collection Indologie, no. 132. Pondicherry: Institut Français de Pondichéry; Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 2016. Pp. x + 609, illus.

of (from Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics) Medical Journal of Australia, 188 (2) 100 - 102.

The actions of pregnant women can cause harm to their future children. However, even if the possible harm is serious and likely to occur, the law will generally not intervene. A pregnant woman is an autonomous person who is entitled to make her own decisions. A fetus in-utero has no legal right to protection. In striking contrast, the child, if born alive, may sue for injury in-utero; and the child is entitled to be protected by being removed from her parents (...) if necessary for her protection. Indeed, there is a legal obligation for health professionals to report suspected harm, and for authorities to protect the child's wellbeing. We ask whether such contradictory responses are justified. Should the law intervene where a pregnant woman's actions risk serious and preventable fetal injury? The argument for legal intervention to protect a fetus is sometimes linked to the concept of ‘fetal personhood’ and the moral status of the fetus. In this article we will suggest that even if the fetus is not regarded as a separate person, and does not have the legal or moral status of a child, indeed, even if the fetus is regarded as having no legal or moral status, there is an ethical and legal case for intervening to prevent serious harm to a future child. We examine the arguments for and against intervention on behalf of the future child, drawing on the example of excessive maternal alcohol intake. (shrink)

In clinical practice, and in the medical literature, severe congenital malformations such as trisomy 18, anencephaly, and renal agenesis are frequently referred to as ‘lethal’ or as ‘incompatible with life’. However, there is no agreement about a definition of lethal malformations, nor which conditions should be included in this category. Review of outcomes for malformations commonly designated ‘lethal’ reveals that prolonged survival is possible, even if rare. This article analyses the concept of lethal malformations and compares it to the problematic (...) concept of ‘futility’. We recommend avoiding the term ‘lethal’ and suggest that counseling should focus on salient prognostic features instead. For conditions with a high chance of early death or profound impairment in survivors despite treatment, perinatal and neonatal palliative care would be ethical. However, active obstetric and neonatal management, if desired, may also sometimes be appropriate. (shrink)

A sample of 552 first year undergraduate students, attending a universitysector college in Wales specialising in teacher education and liberal arts subjects, completed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator together with the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity. The data demonstrated that judging types held a more positive attitude toward Christianity than perceiving types. No significant differences in attitude toward Christianity were found between introverts and extraverts, between sensers and intuitives, or between thinkers and feelers.

Background: Caring for a partner with primary malignant brain tumour can be a dramatic life-changing event. Primary malignant brain tumour is known to give poor life expectancy and severe neurological and cognitive symptoms, such as changed behaviour and personality, which demand greater caring responsibilities from spouses. Aim: The aim of the study is to explore ethical dilemmas spouses experience in the everyday care of a partner in treatment for primary malignant brain tumour. Research design, participants and research context: A phenomenological (...) and hermeneutic qualitative descriptive design was adopted as a method for collecting and analysing data. Ten spouses were interviewed twice using an in-depth, semi-structured interview guide. The interviews took place at the spouses’ homes or at the hospital. Ethical consideration: Ethical matters were considered throughout the research process. Permission from The National Committee on Health Research Ethics and the Danish Data Protection Agency was obtained. Findings: The analysis showed that the spouses perceived daily ethical dilemmas in caring for a partner with primary malignant brain tumour. Their life as well as their partner’s life had changed considerably. The main theme that emerged therefore was ‘oscillating in a changing relationship’. This theme was further elaborated in three subthemes that in more detail demonstrated the dilemmas: ‘doing the right thing in unpredictable daily situations’; ‘torn between patience and guilt’; and ‘living in a time of uncertainty, hope and despair’. Conclusion: Caring for a partner with changed behaviour and personality due to primary malignant brain tumour may involve exhausting ethical caring dilemmas. Spouses’ married life may change to a semi-professional asymmetrical relationship, which is challenged by the oscillation between acting responsibly for their partners’ well-being and caring dilemmas with no answer for what the right thing to do is. Mixed feelings of right and wrong, patience and guilt, hope and despair seem to be spousal companions through their partners’ progressing illness. (shrink)

A sample of 552 first year undergraduate students, attending a university-sector college in Wales specialising in teacher education and liberal arts subjects, completed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator together with the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity. The data demonstrated that judging types held a more positive attitude toward Christianity than perceiving types. No significant differences in attitude toward Christianity were found between introverts and extraverts, between sensers and intuitives, or between thinkers and feelers.

This article provides an overview of the scarce international literature concerning nurses’ attitudes to euthanasia. Studies show large differences with respect to the percentage of nurses who are (not) in favour of euthanasia. Characteristics such as age, religion and nursing specialty have a significant influence on a nurse’s opinion. The arguments for euthanasia have to do with quality of life, respect for autonomy and dissatisfaction with the current situation. Arguments against euthanasia are the right to a good death, belief in (...) the possibilities offered by palliative care, religious objections and the fear of abuse. Nurses mention the need for more palliative care training, their difficulties in taking a specific position, and their desire to express their ideas about euthanasia. There is a need to include nurses’ voices in the end-of-life discourse because they offer a contextual understanding of euthanasia and requests to die, which is borne out of real experience with people facing death. (shrink)

Este texto reflete sobre o constructo teórico de massas e a concepção de homem massa como fundantes e estruturais na compreensão dos totalitarismos nazista e stalinista, presentes na obra Origens do Totalitarismo (ARENDT, 1989) de Hannah Arendt. Conclui-se que o totalitarismo é uma organização de massa, que possui características específicas e que as massas são manipuláveis a partir de determinados aspectos específicos dos movimentos totalitários. Analisa-se o que é homem de massa e como tal concepção é fundamental para compreender outros (...) conceitos importantes da pensadora política. Assim, a partir das reflexões aqui desenvolvidas, torna-se possível incrementar novas perspectivas nas análises de conceitos como totalitarismo, banalidade do mal, política, poder, violência, amplamente estudados e debatidos não só na filosofia, como nas ciências sociais, ciências políticas, psicologia, estudos organizacionais e administração. As reflexões aqui propostas permitem também fazer paralelos com a realidade atual, levando em consideração, obviamente, o cuidado de evitar anacronismos analíticos. (shrink)

English summary: Antonio Pellizzari (1747-1845) completed his Italian translation of Francis Bacons De dignitate et augmentis scientiarum in hopes that it would prove useful for Italian youth. It would remain unpublished for two centuries, partly because Bacons work had been place on the Churchs Index of prohibited books. The present edition offers a reproduction of the original manuscript as well as a thorough historical analysis of the translator in his chronological and intellectual context. Italian description: La prima traduzione italiana (...) del De dignitate et augmentis scientiarum (1623) di Francis Bacon e rimasta inedita per due secoli: il traduttore, il canonico trevigiano Antonio Pellizzari (1747-1845), aveva gia dato alle stampe la prima versione italiana del Novum organum (1788) e, ammiratore del filosofo inglese, si era deciso all' impresa di tradurre la piu vasta opera baconiana, con il titolo di Della dignita e degli aumenti delle scienze, convinto che quest' opera avrebbe giovato pur qualche poco la gioventu italiana. Il manoscritto della traduzione, completo di note ed indici, pronto per la stampa, rimase inedito per le lungaggini dovute alla necessaria richiesta dell'imprimatur al S. Uffizio: l' opera infatti era stata messa all' Indice dalla Sacra Congregazione (nel 1669) con la formula donec corrigatur; l' autorizzazione giunse, firmata dal Prefetto dell' Indice Angelo Maj, nel 1847, due anni dopo la morte del pur longevo Antonio Pellizzari. In questo volume si pubblica una trascrizione annotata del manoscritto 1408 del Della dignita e degli aumenti delle scienze conservato nella Biblioteca Comunale di Treviso, corredata, sulla base di carteggi inediti e di fondi manoscritti talora considerati perduti, di una ricostruzione storica della figura del traduttore, inserito nel piu ampio contesto della cultura veneta fra Settecento e Ottocento, segmento significativo per la storia della diffusione della filosofia moderna. (shrink)

Excerpt from The Philosophical Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Albans, and Lord High-Chancellor of England, Vol. 3 of 3: Methodized, and Made English, From the Originals; With Occasional Notes, to Explain What Is Obscure; And Shew How Far the Several Plans of the Author, for the Advancement of All the Parts of Knowledge, Have Been Executed to the Present Time Ibe Nores occafionally added, we bope, will more fully open tbe De fign and Scope of (...) tbe P: ece', jo as to render it generally intelligible, and lead to its fart/oer Advancement. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

This is the third of four volumes presenting all of Francis Ellingwood Abbot's major published articles. Any scholar or library interested in American philosophy, religious thought, and social and intellectual history should find this edition of his essays a useful addition to the collection. Francis E. Abbot was a noted American philosopher and champion of Free Religion. He was a member of C.S. Peirce's Metaphysical Club, the first American philosopher to support Charles Darwin, the founding editor of (...) The Index, a founder of the Free Religious Association, and the founding President of the National Liberal League of America. In addition to over six hundred articles, he was the author of Scientific Theism (1885), The Way Out of Agnosticism, Or The Philosophy of Free Religion (1890), and The Syllogistic Philosophy, or Prolegomena to Science (1906). (shrink)

Charlotte Sabourin | : Cet article se penche sur la contribution de Gabrielle Suchon à la célèbre « querelle des femmes ». J’y démontre que, quoique Suchon défende l’égalité des deux sexes en ce qui a trait à leurs capacités à la liberté, à la science et à l’autorité, elle vise ultimement à montrer que les femmes peuvent se rendre supérieures aux hommes. Je montrerai que son projet d’élévation des femmes ne peut être accompli qu’en soustrayant les femmes à (...) l’influence des hommes, les relations entre les deux sexes étant foncièrement préjudiciables aux premières. | : This paper examines Gabrielle Suchon’s contribution to the famous “querelle des femmes”. I argue that although Suchon is a proponent of the equality of the sexes with respect to their capacities for freedom, science and authority, she ultimately suggests that there is a way in which women can make themselves superior to men. I will show that her project for the elevation of women can be accomplished only by isolating women from men, given that the relationships between the sexes will always be detrimental to women. (shrink)

On analyse les déterminations de la notion d’« usage » chez le premier Heidegger du début des années 1920 et chez le Wittgenstein des Recherches philosophiques. On distingue ainsi la notion d’usage de celle de « pratique de vie », plus précisément de celles d’« accomplissement » et de « forme » de vie pour montrer que, tout en étant très différents, usages heideggériens et usages wittgensteiniens sont des usages spécifiques, déterminés par les contextes qui leur résistent. On s’intéresse ainsi (...) tout particulièrement à la notion d’« indication formelle » heideggérienne et au caractère thérapeutique, délibérément non herméneutique, du « contexte » des Recherches.This paper focuses on the determinations of the notion of « use » in the early Heidegger – from the 1920’s – and in Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations. It aims to distinguish the notion of « use » from the one of « life’s practice », and more precisely, from the two notions of « life’s achievement » and « form of life ». The objective is to point out that, although they are indeed very different, Wittgenstein’s and Heidegger’s notions of « use » both are specific and determined by their resistance to a context. This paper will therefore dwell more specifically on the analysis of the Heideggerian notion of « formal indication » and of a therapeutic and non hermeneutic notion of context in the Investigations. (shrink)

En comparant les vues de Xénophon et de Platon sur la question délicate de l’oikos, nous espérons dégager certains éléments fondamentaux quant à leurs conceptions respectives de la nature des femmes et de leur rôle à jouer dans la société. Alors qu’homme et femme se révèlent tous deux indispensables à une bonne gestion de l’oikos chez Xénophon en vertu de leur complémentarité, l’oikos sera aboli dans la cité idéale élaborée par Platon afin de permettre aux meilleurs hommes comme aux meilleures (...) femmes de se consacrer entièrement au gouvernement. Notre analyse aspire ainsi à mettre en lumière la question, encore trop souvent oubliée, du statut des femmes dans la pensée de ces deux auteurs. (shrink)

InThe Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir argues that women are often complicit in reinforcing their own unfreedom. But why women become complicit remains an open question. The aim of this article is to offer a systematic analysis of complicity by focusing on the Heideggerian strands of Beauvoir's account. I begin by evaluating Susan James's interpretation of complicity qua republican freedom, which emphasizes the dependent situation of women as the primary cause of their complicity. I argue that James's analysis is compelling (...) as far as it goes, but that it implies complicity is the inevitable outcome of women's current existence and fails to adequately account for Beauvoir's claim that women actively embrace their own unfreedom. I then draw out the Heideggerian strands of Beauvoir's analysis, demonstrating how this enables us to systematize Beauvoir's account of women's oppressive situation with her claims regarding the active role women can play in reinforcing their own unfreedom. I argue that this approach preserves the strengths of the republican interpretation, but provides a better account of cases where complicity may not be inevitable and yet some women still act to reinforce rather than resist their own unfreedom. (shrink)

We appreciate that the theme “ethics of ethics conferences” that we introduced in 2023 (Van der Graaf et al. 2023) was echoed by the previous and current presidents of the International Association...

Pan, ou la Nature; Persee, ou la Guerre; Orphee, ou la Philosophie; Sphinx, ou la Science; les Sirenes, ou le Plaisir... Dans cet ouvrage singulier, publie en 1609, le promoteur de la grande restauration des savoirs se livre a l'interpretation des mythes de la tradition greco-latine. Mais en restituant la sagesse des anciens, Bacon expose d'abord, avec une grande vigueur et rigueur, sous une forme particulierement attractive, sa propre pensee, envisagee dans ses multiples orientations: philosophie de la nature, conception de (...) la science, morale, politique... Cette nouvelle traduction du texte latin est precedee d'une etude introductive consacree aux fonctions et enjeux de l'audacieuse et complexe entreprise mythographique. (shrink)

Gesundheitssorge ist von Natur aus eine moralische Angelegenheit. Gute Pflege ist normativ geprägt und beinhaltet stets, entweder explizit oder implizit, das Wählen einer moralischen Position. Dies ist nicht immer einfach. In dem Prozess, der gute Pflege mit sich bringt, werden Mitarbeiter regelmäßig mit schwierigen moralischen Fragen und Situationen konfrontiert. Dies trifft auf alle Pflegebereiche zu, auch auf den Umgang mit Langzeit- und Demenzpatienten.

L’ouvrage d’O. Renaut enquête sur le rôle des émotions dans la pensée platonicienne, prenant pour fil conducteur la notion de θυμός. Cet objet en quelque sorte double permet une traversée à la fois diachronique – des premiers dia­logues dits socratiques jusqu’aux Lois – et synchronique de l’œuvre platonicienne, en en articulant les différents pans (psychologie, éthique, pédagogie, politique). L’intérêt de cette étude tient d’abord dans l’ampleur de la prise de vue qu’elle fournit, non seuleme...

Tradução para o português do verbete sobre Sexto Empírico, de Charlotte Stough, retirado de Jonathan Dancy e Ernest Sosa (org.) A Companion to Epistemology (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997), pp. 475-477.

Paternalism has attracted new defenders in recent years. Such defenders typically either downplay the normative significance of autonomy or deny that we are sufficiently rational for paternalistic interventions to be objectionable.1 Both of these argumentative strategies constitute challenges to John Stuart Mill’s influential anti-paternalistic ‘harm principle’, which states that coercive interference with the liberty of competent adults is justifiable only if such interference prevents harm to non-consenting third parties (Mill, p. 23).2 In this journal, Wilkinson has provided a novel, provocative (...) defence of paternalism in the medical context—one that (provisionally) accepts rather than challenges Mill’s harm principle.3 Wilkinson’s argument is complex. But he begins with Parfit’s influential account of personal identity.4 According to Parfit, Alice at T1 can be the same person as Alice at T2, but the extent to which Alice at T1 and Alice at T2 are similar depends on the extent to which there are ‘chains’ of strong psychological connections between Alice at T1 and Alice at T2. Strong psychological connections, in turn, are mental states such as intentions or beliefs, or psychological traits. For example, if Alice at T2 remembers very little about herself the day before, and the day before that, all the way to Alice at T1, Alice at T2 has completely different psychological traits than Alice at T1—for example, Alice at T1 was courageous, whereas Alice at T2 is cowardly—then Alice at T1 and Alice at T2 are distinct persons. If the harm principle is correct and Alice is autonomous, it is permissible to interfere with Alice’s liberty only if it prevents harm to some non-consenting third party. But if we accept Parfit’s view on personal identity, then a novel defence of paternalistic intervention emerges: Alice at T2 may well be a distinct person from Alice at T1. So, …. (shrink)