The human sensory system is continuously engaged in experiencing and interpreting every interaction with other living beings, objects, and the environment. The purpose of this article is to describe the impact limited opportunities for rich sensory experiences have on students with severe disabilities in two middle school classrooms situated in a public separate school in the southeastern USA. The study employed a postcritical ethnographic approach and grounded theory thematic analysis of fieldnotes gathered over a two-year period. Three major themes supported (...) by the data are presented and discussed in depth. They are: students are afforded limited sensory rich experiences, everyday routines make students passive recipients to school, and instructional approaches result in little interaction with extended periods of waiting. The implications of the findings for improved sensory experiences and possible future directions are described. (shrink)

Résumé L’œuvre d’art contemporaine, fréquemment, se veut provocante, dans ce but : fouetter les consciences, précipiter un mécanisme de réformation mentale et civique. Elle peut aussi souhaiter privilégier l’exemplarité. L’œuvre d’art suggère alors qu’on peut faire mieux que ce dont s’arrange l’univers des mœurs en termes de qualité de vie. Elle entend alors forcer le cours des choses pour mieux moraliser les conduites. Il y a dans les deux cas défi à l’« éthique », cette délimitation du champ de la (...) moralité publique instituée, le premier délibérément hard, le second plus soft. (shrink)

Notre époque est émotionnelle : elle aime les sensations fortes, les défis délirants, la violence. Ces excès en tous genres, elle se les représente volontiers sous une forme extrême, où l'accent est mis sur ce qui chavire nos sens : l'intensité, la démesure, le moralement inadmissible, l'horreur. Un élan destructeur au point de rendre légitime, en termes spectaculaires, une " esthétique de la limite dépassée ". L'objet de ce livre est double. D'une part, documenter par le menu les formes d'expression (...) contemporaines fortes de ce désir de dépassement esthétique : spectacles superlatifs, performances artistiques engageant la souffrance, documents d'actualité insoutenables, images de la pornographie dure, cinéma violent, mises en scène de la scatophilie, idolâtrie de la mort et du cadavre. D'autre part, analyser le glissement vers l'esthétique extrême que consacre, plus qu'aucune autre, la société occidentale. Magnétique et médiatique, la représentation de l'extrême y constitue désormais une véritable culture, un nouveau référent, un but. Fourmillant d'exemples, cet essai s'attache enfin à apporter une réponse à ce questionnement cardinal : quel avenir, en Occident, pour le spectacle du pire? Car à l'esthétique extrême il y a, en bout de course, une conséquence dramatique : l'épuisement du désir de voir. Que faire dès lors pour revivifier ce désir sinon, à plus ou moins court terme, devoir extrêmiser l'extrême lui-même et ses représentations? (shrink)

This is the first full-length biography of John Langshaw Austin (1911–60). The opening four chapters outline his origins, childhood, schooling, and time as an undergraduate, while the next four examine his early career in professional philosophy, looking at the influence of Oxford Realism, Logical Positivism, Pragmatism, and the later Wittgenstein. The central twelve chapters then explore Austin’s wartime career in British Intelligence. The first three examine the contributions he made to the campaigns in North Africa; the next seven the seminal (...) role he played in ensuring the outstanding accuracy of the D-Day Intelligence; while the final two explore his contributions to Arnhem, the Ardennes, and the post-war administration of Germany. The last main section of the book then outlines and assesses Austin’s contributions to post-war Oxford Ordinary Language Philosophy. The first three chapters discuss the impact on Oxford philosophy of the cultural atmosphere of post-war Britain and the later Wittgenstein’s ideas. The next four look at Austin’s influence on post-war Oxford, particularly his Saturday morning discussion group and his perception lectures. The next five chapters concentrate on America’s influence on Austin and vice versa, paying particular attention to Austin’s work on speech-acts and his semesters in Harvard and Berkeley. The final two chapters examine Austin’s declining influence in Oxford, and his tragically premature death. (shrink)

Ex/in Australia--anonymous architecture -- In/editorial --In/interviews: F. Soler, J. Ferrier, W.J. Neutelings & M. Riedijk, R. Ricciotti, J. Moussafir, P. Gazeau, C. Hauvette, F. Seigneur, MVRDV, J. Nouvel, D. Lyon & P. du Besset, M. Vitart & J-M Ibos, ACTAR Arquitecura, M. Fuksas, A. Gigon & M. Guyer ,F. Druot, J. Herzog & P. de Meuron -- Ex/exteriors--Road movie -- In/reflexion on the peripherical stance--Paul Ardenne --Ex/exhibitions: Cécile Paris, Stalker, Access local, Anne Frémy --In/interests: University Paris 8 St.-Denis, garden shed, (...) Café musiques, etc. (shrink)

Quand on évoque la philosophie comme manière de vivre, on imagine le bleu de la Méditerranée, le soleil d’Italie et les rivages hellènes. Parfois on s’aventure jusqu’à penser à une bibliothèque, au premier étage d’une vieille tour, à ses poutres sur lesquelles le maître des lieux faisait peindre des sentences en grec et en latin ; certains vont jusqu’à évoquer un étang en Nouvelle-Angleterre, une cabane en Norvège. Qui imaginerait un presbytère, des grands marronniers, une église de village, et, en (...) toile de fond la forêt des Ardennes? On trouve la philosophie dans les lieux les plus insolites, et les plus inattendus, là où, les hommes simples vivent, simplement en hommes. (shrink)

Dans les années 2000, Paul Ardenne avec l'art contextuel et Nicolas Bourriaud avec le concept d'esthétique relationnelle, donnaient forme à un nouvel ensemble de pratiques artistiques participatives. Qu'en est-il aujourd'hui de cette activité qui ne vise pas tant à produire des objets que des relations humaines? En donnant la parole à des artistes, des designers, des chercheurs de disciplines associées pour évoquer les questionnements qui sont les leurs, dans le cadre de la plate-forme de recherche Artem (ARt, TEchnologie, Management), ce (...) livre montre comment ces pratiques débordent désormais le champ de l'art et développent une nouvelle conception de la créativité où être créatif n'est pas seulement renouveler un ensemble de produits ou de gestes, mais aussi repenser les milieux auxquels ces produits sont destinés et au sein desquels ils sont conçus, posant les bases d'une nouvelle individuation individuelle et sociale. (shrink)

Vampires are portrayed opposite to humans, depicted as the dichotomy between predator and prey. Being ever so near to their prey, vampires develop a proclivity for imbibing or emulating characteristics that are considered to be in the sole charge of humans. This text employed is The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas. The article will analyse Edward Weyland as a post-human symbol, positing himself as an ever-evolving entity that is both human as well as a threshold to gauge humanity of (...) the other characters involved. The article underlines the ways in which Giorgio Agamben’s concept of Anthropological Machine and Katherine Hayles’s concept of Technogenesis will be used to examine Weyland and other characters as being participants in mutual evolution, tacitly affecting each other through performative actions. The article will inspect the term ‘human’ as more than just a reified concept, as a term that is constantly in flux and how bio-politics is immanent to the very concept of human. (shrink)

Currently, an emphasis is being placed on the integration of ethical issues into the business curriculum. This paper investigates the viability of using student group interaction to induce an upward movement in the stages of moral development as advanced by Kohlberg. The results of a classroom experiment using graduate business law students suggest that formulating groups that mix stages of moral development can provide a robust environment for upward movement. In addition, the results suggest strategies for formulating effective groups, based (...) upon entry levels as measured by the Defining Issues Test. (shrink)

Organ procurement presents several ethical concerns (from what constitutes acceptable criteria for death to issues involved in specifically designating to whom an organ can be given), but none is more central than the concern for what are appropriate means for acquiring organs. The following discussion attempts a different perspective on the issue of organ procurement by arguing that, rather than appealing to our charitable consciences or our pocketbooks, relinquishing our organs after death in this day and age is, in fact, (...) obligatory for most people. Each of us is pressed by the growing demand for our organs should we die ?rightly,? and that desperate need has risen to such a level that not to release our organs for transplantation would constitute a serious moral wrong. (shrink)

Although there are many different moral arguments concerning the use of Best Interests in neonatal decision-making, there seems in practice a firm commitment to application of the concept. And yet, there is still little reflection given by practitioners about what employing a Best Interest determination means in infant care. The following lays out a comprehensive taxonomy of interest-sources in order to provide for more robust considerations of what constitutes best interests of/for neonates.

Introduction to healthcare ethics committees / D. Micah Hester and Toby Schonfeld -- Brief introduction to ethics and ethical theory / D. Micah Hester and Toby Schonfeld -- Ethics committees and the law / Stephen Latham -- Cultural and ...

Sortal predicates have been associated with a counting process, which acts as a criterion of identity for the individuals they correctly apply to. We discuss in what sense certain types of predicates suggested by quantum physics deserve the title of 'sortal' as well, although they do not characterize either a process of counting or a criterion of identity for the entities that fall under them. We call such predicates 'quantum-sortal predicates' and, instead of a process of counting, to them is (...) associated a 'criterion of cardinality'. After their general characterization, it is discussed how these predicates can be formally described. (shrink)

The term community in ethics and bioethics traditionally has been used to designate either a specific kind of moral relationship available to rational agents or, in contrast, the context in which any sense of rational agency can even be understood. I argue that bioethics is better served when both selves and community are expressed through a more processive language that highlights the functional character of such concepts. In particular, I see the turn to processive community in bioethics as a turn (...) towards method, contextualization, and narrative. In clinical practice, such a processive account demands that bioethics concentrate on methods of developing healthy dialogue and deeper understanding from within the problematic situation rather than trying to fix problems using ethical tools developed from outside the present situation. Community, I argue, is in and of the interactive processes of inquiry itself. Such inquiry, such communitying, requires that we engage individual patients in context; it demands more than simply gaining their permission or mere consent; it demands developing a supportive environment for participation. (shrink)

Discourse about knowledge-based economies rarely moves beyond the commercialization of science and engineering, and is locked in the discursive limits of functionalism. We argue that these discourses limit the scope of what knowledge-based economies might achieve because they are uninformed by an adequate conception of knowledge. In particular, knowledge management and knowledge-based economy discourse has not included the axiological dimension of knowledge that leads to wisdom. Taking an axiological perspective, we can discuss policy frameworks aimed at producing the social structures (...) needed to bring fully formed and fully functioning knowledge societies into being. We argue that while the dominant discourse of industrial modernity remains rationalist, functionalist, utilitarian and technocratic, knowledge-based economies will resemble a savant rather than a sage. A wisdom-based renaissance of humanistic epistemology is needed to avoid increasing social dysfunction and a lack of wisdom in complex technological societies. (shrink)

Dictionary entry on Jacques Derrida's relation to Judaism.

All things considered, there are many public assistance recipients for whom there are compelling moral reasons to engage in welfare fraud. For many people, failure to defraud the welfare system, should they find themselves in a position to do so with impunity, would constitute a serious moral offense. This conclusion seems to fly in the face of prevailing notions of common sense. But this is misleading, since it is at the same time implied by principles that are widely embraced, assuming (...) a set of circumstances that can be readily shown to obtain in many cases. Under that set of circumstances, and given our affirmation of certain basic moral convictions, we cannot consistently blame the practitioner of welfare fraud, or excuse, without special justifications, the legal conformist. (shrink)

Children like Baby G, born with complex chronic medical conditions that compromise function in the long term, are an increasing presence in tertiary-level neonatal intensive care units. The parents and health-care providers of these children are faced with profoundly difficult decisions. Whether severe congenital anomalies with poor prognosis are diagnosed antenatally or are discovered at the time of birth, the issues are vexing, and the impact decisions will have on everyone in the family is profound. What should such decisions be (...) based upon? What values and principles might guide the decision-making process? What moral justifications allow for pursuing.. (shrink)

Intentionale und reale existenz: Eine spätmittelalterliche Kontroverse.

Einstein proclaimed that we could discover true laws of nature by seeking those with the simplest mathematical formulation. He came to this viewpoint later in his life. In his early years and work he was quite hostile to this idea. Einstein did not develop his later Platonism from a priori reasoning or aesthetic considerations. He learned the canon of mathematical simplicity from his own experiences in the discovery of new theories, most importantly, his discovery of general relativity. Through his neglect (...) of the canon, he realised that he delayed the completion of general relativity by three years and nearly lost priority in discovery of its gravitational field equations. (shrink)

This CQ department is dedicated to bringing noted bioethicsts together in order to debate some of the most perplexing contemporary bioethics issues. You are encouraged to contact department editor, D. Micah Hester, UAMS/Humanities, 4301 W. Markham St. #646, Little Rock, AR 72205, with any suggestions for debate topics and interlocutors you would like to see published herein.