Given its non-invasive nature, there is increasing interest in the use of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation across basic, translational and clinical research. Contemporaneously, tVNS can be achieved by stimulating either the auricular branch or the cervical bundle of the vagus nerve, referred to as transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation and transcutaneous cervical VNS, respectively. In order to advance the field in a systematic manner, studies using these technologies need to adequately report sufficient methodological detail to enable comparison of results between (...) studies, replication of studies, as well as enhancing study participant safety. We systematically reviewed the existing tVNS literature to evaluate current reporting practices. Based on this review, and consensus among participating authors, we propose a set of minimal reporting items to guide future tVNS studies. The suggested items address specific technical aspects of the device and stimulation parameters. We also cover general recommendations including inclusion and exclusion criteria for participants, outcome parameters and the detailed reporting of side effects. Furthermore, we review strategies used to identify the optimal stimulation parameters for a given research setting and summarize ongoing developments in animal research with potential implications for the application of tVNS in humans. Finally, we discuss the potential of tVNS in future research as well as the associated challenges across several disciplines in research and clinical practice. (shrink)

This article contends that Jacques Rancière’s aesthetic understanding of corporeality is central to his interpretation of intellectual emancipation. Concretely, I will argue that Rancière’s aesthetic understanding can be viewed as a torsion of a body that affects its vital arrangements, which thereby open paths for political emancipation. I will support my claim with Rancière’s reading of the plebeian philosopher Gauny, as well as works that have not been sufficiently considered in secondary literature, such as The Nights of Labor and The (...) Ignorant Schoolmaster. My reading will, I maintain, help to question common interpretations of emancipation in Rancière that tend to read this notion either in dichotomous terms or as a merely ephemeral, evental practice with no concrete conditions of possibility and without long-lasting or verifiable effects in the world. (shrink)

In this article, Laura Quintana elaborates on a conceptual distinction between violence and rage. Along with this distinction, she recognises that while rage may possess a destructive potential, it can also be politicised in emancipatory practices that confront conditions of injustice and structural violence. Her analysis centers on contemporary political movements in Latin America, which she views as collective manifestations of rage. Within these movements, the manifestation of rage is intertwined with forms of care and communal labor. Quintana (...) characterises such movements as embodying a “dignified rage” (digna rabia) that calls for an emancipatory transformation of the status quo. She contends that these practices can be understood in terms of the notion of “anti-violence,” as it has been coined by Étienne Balibar. In this she diverges from Judith Butler, since, according to Quintana’s analysis, such practices challenge the demand for non-violence that has often served to neutralise the disruptive force of such manifestations and movements. (shrink)

Today, the notion of identity is usually linked with ethical-political discussions like multiculturalism, gender or sexual diversity, recognition of plurality, etc. Nevertheless, the flourishing of this vision that interprets “identity” mainly in its plural form (as “identities”) contrasts sharply with the sense that “identity” has had during most of the history of philosophy (in which identity was understood in connection with “unity” or “selfsameness”, not with “diversity” or “otherness”). In order to explain the passage from one notion of identity to (...) the other (a passage mainly made in the last third of the 20th century), we will focus on the reflections made by Ludwig Wittgenstein towards the middle of that century. Our contention is that these reflections open the way to a more plural understanding of human identity, against the many interpreters of Wittgenstein that defend the opposite: that he offered a strong notion of common human identity in his writings, a notion based on the idea of “human nature”. In order to sustain our thesis, we will have to give an interpretation of some key terms of Wittgenstein’s philosophy (like “forms of life” or “natural history”) from a pluralistic point of view; this is the only way of understanding to what extent he is a predecessor of contemporary discussions about plural identities. (shrink)

For centuries, various disciplines have tried to tackle the topic of how legitimate it is to use violence in order to solve social problems. One of the most recent interdisciplinary approaches, most successful in present-day Latin America, is the so-called "Ethics of Liberation," designed by Enrique Dussel. Based on the Theology of Liberation, this theory goes beyond the limits of theology as a discipline and pleads for three ethical criteria that every political revolution must fulfill to use violence in a (...) legitimate way. The first is a formal criterion, which basically takes after the ideal dialogue situation endorsed by Karl-Otto Apel and Jürgen Habermas, and purports to be rooted in yet another discipline, linguistics. The second is a material criterion, defined as the upshot of an acceptable welfare for all citizens, thus intimately linked with the discipline of economics and political philosophy. The third is a criterion of feasibility, which makes a revolt legitimate if, and only if, it has a reasonable possibility of succeeding; hence strategic issues take a leading role. This essay contends that each of these criteria is conceptually incompatible with violence. Hence, Dussel's arguments involve multiple contradictions as he aims to justify the use of violence precisely with these interdisciplinary criteria. (shrink)

In current discussions on contemporary political philosophy some commonplaces around Rancière’s thought are restated with the effect of neutralizing the potential of his reflections. I refer in particular to the following assumptions: a dichotomic understanding of Rancière’s distinction between politics and the police, an ontological interpretation of this difference, an identification of Rancière’s political propositions as anti-institutionalist; a reading of the practices of emancipation as something ephemeral without a durable effect for the common world. In this article I question these (...) assumptions by emphasizing some usually neglected aspects of Rancière’s arguments. (shrink)

RESUMEN El artículo reconstruye la concepción metodológica de Leibniz de finales del periodo parisino, que subyace al tratado Sobre la cuadratura aritmética del círculo, la elipse y la hipérbola (1676). Se muestra que Leibniz concibió un procedimiento en el cual el hallazgo de nuevos conocimientos de alguna manera coincide con su demostración, y en el que los procesos de análisis y síntesis se emplean de diversas maneras. ABSTRACT The article reconstructs Leibniz's methodological conception of the late Parisian period underlying the (...) treatise On the Arithmetical Squaring of the Circle, the Ellipse, and the Hyperbola (1676). It is shown that Leibniz conceived of a procedure where the finding of new knowledge somehow coincided with its demonstration and in which the processes of analysis and synthesis were employed in various ways. (shrink)

En este ensayo se muestra hasta qué punto en las ideas de Martín Lutero y de Erasmo de Rotterdam pueden encontrarse algunos gérmenes o desarrollos incipientes de un aspecto central del pensamiento en la modernidad: el subjetivismo. Esto es, la vuelta del sujeto sobre sí que está a la base de los modernos conceptos de “yo”, “individuo”, “interioridad”, tal y como se expresa en el giro copernicano kantiano. De esta forma se llega a plantear que en la configuración de una (...) concepción del mundo intervienen elementos diversos que, en principio, parecerían oponerse a ella.---This essay shows to which extent some of Martin Luther’s and Erasmus of Rotterdam’s ideas contain some germs or incipient developments of a main aspect of modern thought: subjectivism; namely, the return to the subject at the basis of the modern concepts of the self, the individual and immanence, such as they are manifest in the Copernican-Kantian turn. Thus the A. contends that several elements initially deemed to be contrary to a new world vision, actually take part in its constitution. (shrink)

This article discusses whether, from Hannah Arendt’s point of view, the being-in-common of singularities can be conceived in terms of mutual recognition. Although it is shown that Arendt’s theory of action involves the idea that the identity of singularities is relational, it is also stressed that it is a fluid identity, thrown into contingency. Therefore, it is not a more solid self consciousness what individuals achieve when they open themselves to each other and when they recognize themselves in their difference. (...) What they achieve is to be exposed to the fact of coexistence, to an experience of plurality in which others are more than just a mirror in which they recognize and affirm themselves. (shrink)

This article tries to display some of the postulations that the German psychologist Rudolf Arnheim sketched out in his 1959 text Form and the consumer. It’s sustained that these postulations conclude that the artistic form is widely implicated in the confrontation of culture and a particular time, so if a crisis in form is to be taken as true, what is to come is an epochal twilight produced by a destabilization in its sense. Throughout this writing, the idea of a (...) crisis in culture is to be confronted with the apparent symbolic crisis of art, examining the consequent question about the loss of a narrative in the work of art. (shrink)

Resumen: En este trabajo examinaremos la evolución del tratamiento de la noción de “espacio” en los escritos de juventud de Leibniz. Distinguiremos tres momentos del desarrollo de esta noción. En un primer momento, consideraremos la concepción del espacio como un “lugar universal” que el filósofo de Leipzig presentó entre 1669 y 1671. En segundo lugar, abordaremos algunos escritos físicos de 1672 en los que introdujo el movimiento en la definición de cuerpo. Esto lo llevó a rechazar su concepción anterior del (...) espacio como “lugar universal”. En tercer lugar, consideraremos algunos textos redactados entre 1675 y 1676 en los que elaboró un examen de la noción de “espacio universal” que difiere de la concepción desarrollada en el periodo preparisino y que se vincula con el surgimiento de la noción de extensión como atributo de Dios.: In this paper we will examine the evolution of the treatment of the notion of “space” in the young Leibniz’s writings. We will distinguish three moments of the development of this notion. First, we will consider the conception of space as a “universal place” which the philosopher of Leipzig presented between 1669 and 1671. Then, we will examine some physical writings of 1672 in which he introduced motion in the definition of body. This led him to reject his previous conception of space as “universal place”. Third, we will consider some texts written between 1675 and 1676 in which he developed an exam of the notion of “universal space” which differs from the conception he held in the pre-Parisian period and which is related with the emergence of the notion of extension as an attribute of God. (shrink)

Colombia has been structured by war, and this situation has permeated the country’s art, with variations that go hand in hand with the transformations of violence. In this chapter, I delve into the work of filmmaker Nicolás Rincón-Gille. What I explore as remarkable in his films is how violence does not “monopolize everything else” but makes life count in the face of the brutal effects of devastation. What persists in these films is the capacity of those who have lived through (...) and been traversed by destruction to reposition themselves in what remains and their ability to give an account of what happened to them by finding everyday resources to deal with it. Thus, these films can break away from the identifications that bind victims to a place of impotence by exploring their capacities, perceptions of the conflict, and experiences of mourning and creating, through this exploration, dissensual works of memory. (shrink)

In this paper, we will consider the theoretical aspects of Leibniz’s thought on infinitely small and infinite quantities in the context of the natural philosophy developed by him in the Parisian period. We will hold that in the texts of this period an attempt of problematizing concepts of infinitary mathematics is found, which is not in the strictly mathematical texts. In this perspective, we also propose that there is in Leibniz a “double methodological record” concerning the question of the infinity (...) and of the infinitesimal. As a mathematician, Leibniz is concerned about technical questions related to the construction of the infinitesimal calculus, in its different aspects, without be concerned about the philosophical challenges its adoption implies. However, as a philosopher and a metaphysician, Leibniz is obliged to deal with epistemological and ontological problems that emerge from the adoption of technical resources in matters of infinitesimal mathematics. (shrink)

Most scholars study postrevolutionary Mexico as a period in which cultural production significantly shaped national identity through murals, novels, essays, and other artifacts that registered the changing political and social realities in the wake of the Revolution. In Biocosmism, Jorge Quintana Navarrete shifts the focus to examine how a group of scientists, artists, and philosophers conceived the manifold relations of the human species with cosmological forces and nonhuman entities (animals, plants, inorganic matter, and celestial bodies, among others). Drawing from (...) recent theoretical trends in new materialisms, biopolitics, and posthumanism, this book traces for the first time the intellectual constellation of biocosmism or biocosmic thought: the study of universal life understood as the vital vibrancy that animates everything in the cosmos from inorganic matter to living organisms to outer space. It combines both analysis of unexplored areas--such as Alfonso L. Herrera's plasmogeny--and innovative readings of canonical texts like Vasconcelos's La raza cósmica to examine how biocosmism produced a wide array of utopian projects and theorizations that continue to challenge anthropocentric, biopolitical frameworks.--Back cover. (shrink)

En este breve comentario discuto algunos aspectos de la interpretación de la epistemología de Davidson que sugiere Willian Duica en su reciente libro. Luego de una presentación somera del libro me centro en tres asuntos centrales de la interpretación de Duica. En primer lugar, argumento que su lectura de la crítica de Davidson al dualismo esquema/contenido es muy restrictiva y deja abierta la posibilidad de un realismo directo empirista. En segundo lugar, argumento que en su lectura el propio Duica se (...) compromete inadvertidamente con un empirismo de este tipo y, de este modo, su interpretación entra en tensión con el coherentismo de Davidson. Finalmente, discuto algunos aspectos de la interpretación que hace Duica de la tesis davidsoniana de la triangulación. -/- In this short comment I discuss some aspects of William Duica's interpretation of Davidson's epistemology in a recent book. After a brief review of the book, I focus on three central issues of Duica's interpretation. First, I argue that his reading of Davidson's criticism of the scheme/content dualism is too restrictive and leaves open the possibility of an empiricist direct realism. Second, I argue in his reading Duica inadvertently commits himself to an empiricism of this sort and, as a result, his interpretation is in tension with Davidson's own coherentism. Finally, I discuss some aspects of Duica's interpretation of Davidsonian triangulation. (shrink)

RATIONALE AND AIMS: Total hip and knee replacements, usually, have long waiting lists. There are several prioritization tools for these kind of patients. A new tool should undergo a standardized validation process. The aim of the present study was to validate a new prioritization tool for primary hip and knee replacements. METHODS: We carried out a prospective study. Consecutive patients placed on the waiting list were eligible for the study. Patients included were mailed a questionnaire which included, among other questions, (...) the seven items of the priority tool and the Western Ontario and McMasters Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC) specific questionnaire. The priority tool gives a score from 0 to 100 points, and three categories (urgent, preferent and ordinary). We studied the content and construct validity. We used Student's t-test or one-way analysis of variance. Correlational analysis was used to evaluate convergent and discriminate validity. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 838 patients (62.3% were female), with mean age of 70.2 years (SD 8.4). A total of 55.5% patients underwent knee replacement. Given that the tool was elaborated by patients and orthopaedic surgeons, it shows a good content validity. The priority score was statistically different (P < 0.001) among the three urgency categories created. The scores of the three WOMAC dimensions showed differences (P < 0.001) by the three urgency categories created. The correlations between the priority score and WOMAC dimensions were 0.79 (function), 0.69 (pain) and 0.51 (stiffness). The correlations between WOMAC items and items from priority tool were greater (0.47-0.69) between items measuring similar constructs than those measuring different constructs (0.27-0.49). These data are similar in both joints. CONCLUSIONS: Results support the validity of the prioritization tool to be used with patients waiting for hip or knee replacement. (shrink)

Our interest here will be limited to decide how we could use the philosophy of Wittgenstein to oppose Marxist theorizations. We will not imply, thus, that Wittgenstein himself made that use or wanted anybody else to make it. Our focus here is not Wittgenstein’s possible intentions against Marxism, but his implications against it. We have found five possible implications of this kind. The first one links his private language argument and Ludwig von Mises’ argument about why Marxists fail in determining (...) prices. The second one goes from that very private language argument to a liberal argument against the dictatorship of proletariat. The third is a skeptical argument for participatory democracy that undermines some of Marx’s ideas about power. Finally, the fourth and fifth implications use Wittgenstein’s philosophy against the Marxist ideas of an essential divide in society and a common human progress, respectively. (shrink)

This paper is concerned with the status of mathematical fictions in Leibniz’s work and especially with infinitary quantities as fictions. Thus, it is maintained that mathematical fictions constitute a kind of symbolic notion that implies various degrees of impossibility. With this framework, different kinds of notions of possibility and impossibility are proposed, reviewing the usual interpretation of both modal concepts, which appeals to the consistency property. Thus, three concepts of the possibility/impossibility pair are distinguished; they give rise, in turn, to (...) three concepts of mathematical fictions. Moreover, such a distinction is the base for the claim that infinitesimal quantities, as mathematical fictions, do not imply an absolute impossibility, resulting from self-contradiction, but a relative impossibility, founded on irrepresentability and on the fact that it does not conform to architectural principles. In conclusion, this “soft” impossibility of infinitesimals yields them, in Leibniz view, a presumptive or “conjectural” status. (shrink)

In the present article we approach different critical interpretations of the figure and the work of the intellectual. We start with Lyotard’s analysis of the decline of universalist parameters and the consequent disappearance of the figure of the classical intellectual. Next, we analyze the description of this figure made by Foucault and Blanchot, of which they defend its validity. These two authors explore the labour of the intellectual from a different perspective than the prescriptive, universalist and liberating discourses that characterized (...) it for a certain time. Proposing in this way a remarkable shift in the way of understanding the intellectual commitment, both bet on the affirmation of some practices without any programmatic theoretical anticipation, which will demand an exposure and alteration of the subject, where knowledge will no longer be safeguard, foundation or orientation. (shrink)

For centuries, several disciplines have tried to tackle the topic of how legitimate it is to use violence in order to solve social problems. One of the most recent interdisciplinary approaches (and one of the most successful in present-day Latin America) is the so-called “Ethics of Liberation,” designed by Enrique Dussel. Based on the Theology of Liberation, this theory goes beyond the limits of theology as a discipline and pleads for three ethical criteria that every political revolution must fulfill to (...) use violence in a legitimate way. The first is a formal criterion, which basically takes after the ideal dialogue situation endorsed by Karl-Otto Apel and Jürgen Habermas, and purports to be rooted in yet another discipline, linguistics. The second is a material criterion, defined as the upshot of an acceptable welfare for all citizens, thus intimately linked with the discipline of economy and political philosophy. The third is a criterion of feasibility, which makes a revolt legitimate if, and only if, it has a reasonable possibility of succeeding; hence strategic issues take a leading role. This essay contends that each of these criteria is conceptually incompatible with violence. Hence, Dussel’s arguments involve multiple contradictions as he aims to justify the use of violence precisely with these interdisciplinary criteria. (shrink)

The objectives of the present study were to adapt a grief intervention program to family caregivers of patients with dementia, and assess its effectiveness in improving the symptoms of grief and other health-related variables. The intervention was based on Shear and Bloom's grief intervention program, with the necessary adaptations for use in the grieving process for a family member's illness. A total of 52 family caregivers of individuals with dementia participated. They were evaluated using a battery of self-report measures assessing (...) grief, overload, resilience, post-traumatic growth, experiential avoidance, health-related quality of life, and benefits of care. The results suggest that the program is effective in improving grief symptoms, caregiver burden, resilience, post-traumatic growth, and quality of life of family caregivers. It is necessary to create and implement interventions targeting caregivers' feelings and manifestations of ambiguous grief, because there is a lack of programs providing an efficient solution for the mental and physical health of caregivers, and because of the human and socioeconomic cost involved in neglecting this group. (shrink)

¿Por qué decimos que la excepción «confirma» una regla? ¿No sería mejor decir lo opuesto, que las excepciones refutan que esa regla se cumpla? Partiendo de ahí este libro plantea, como afirma en su prólogo el filósofo italiano Mario Perniola, «un tema del todo actual». Empieza defendiendo que, por sorprendente que parezca, sí, una excepción confirma una regla. Ya Cicerón o Leibniz se dieron cuenta de ello. Pero no conviene exagerar con tales excepciones. De hecho, este ensayo aventura que en (...) nuestra cultura, durante los últimos siglos, se ha venido dando todo un ataque a la diferencia entre reglas y excepciones. Ataque que alcanzó su mayor virulencia entre los «maestros de la sospecha» del s. xix: Marx, Nietzsche y Freud. ¿Qué hacer, pues? ¿Cabe creer aún en algunas reglas? El autor sostiene que para ello nos será fecundo aprender de fuentes tan variadas como Ludwig Wittgenstein, la filosofía hermenéutica y un detective de ficción creado por G. K. Chesterton: el padre Brown, mucho más razonable que el mismísimo Sherlock Holmes. (shrink)

BackgroundThe nature of a woman’s orgasm has been a source of scientific, political, and cultural debate for over a century. Since the Victorian era, the pendulum has swung from the vagina to the clitoris, and to some extent back again, with the current debate stuck over whether internal sensory structures exist in the vagina that could account for orgasms based largely on their stimulation, or whether stimulation of the external glans clitoris is always necessary for orgasm.MethodWe review the history of (...) the clitoral versus vaginal orgasm debate as it has evolved with conflicting ideas and data from psychiatry and psychoanalysis, epidemiology, evolutionary theory, feminist political theory, physiology, and finally neuroscience.ResultsA new synthesis is presented that acknowledges the enormous potential women have to experience orgasms from one or more sources of sensory input, including the external clitoral glans, internal region around the “G-spot” that corresponds to the internal clitoral bulbs, the c... (shrink)

A partir de una encuesta por correo electrónico a estudiantes de Ingeniería en el SAI de la UAMA en un contexto de enseñanza remota forzado por la pandemia, se caracteriza la gestión de la docencia, desde la visión de los estudiantes, se realiza un diagnóstico de los aspectos relacionados. Es un estudio transversal con un análisis cualitativo y descriptivo de las respuestas. La gestión docente se ve afectada por factores inherentes al proceso, así como también por factores externos. Los resultados (...) obtenidos muestran que fue impactada fuertemente al realizarse el proceso totalmente vía remota especialmente, la comunicación e interacción alumno-profesor. (shrink)

In 1814, Jane Austen published Mansfield Park, which, despite being one of her lesser-known works raised important discussions about the depiction of its historical context. Having one of the characters as a landowner in Antigua, the novel prompted readings from post-colonialist perspectives, such as Edward Said’s interpretation of the “dead silence” scene, and George Boulukos’ discussion about amelioration. These approaches to the text have probably led Patricia Rozema into using the slave-dependency as central to the Bertrams’ lives in her 1999 (...) adaptation of the book. From this point of view, this article intends to compare Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park and Patricia Rozema’s film taking into account their different approaches to slavery.Keywords: Slavery. Adaptation. Jane Austen. Patricia Rozema. Mansfield Park. ResumoEm 1814, Jane Austen publicou Mansfield Park que, apesar de ser uma de suas obras menos conhecidas, gerou importantes discussões acerca da representação de seu contexto histórico. O fato de uma das personagens ser um proprietário de terras na colônia britânica de Antigua levou a uma série de interpretações a partir de estudos pós-colonialistas, como Edward Said, em sua análise da cena do silêncio profundo, e George Boulukos, em sua discussão sobre amelioration. Essas leituras podem ter influenciado Patricia Rozema a fazer da dependência da escravidão uma marca da vida moral dos Bertram em sua adaptação do livro para o cinema. Nesse sentido, este artigo busca analisar as diferentes interpretações da escravidão no romance e no filme.Palavras-chave: Escravidão. Adaptação. Jane Austen. Patricia Rozema. Mansfield Park. (shrink)

Background: In Hospital Emergency Department and Emergency Medical Services professionals experience situations in which they face difficulties or barriers to know patient’s advance directives and implement them. Objectives: To analyse the barriers, facilitators, and ethical conflicts perceived by health professionals derived from the management of advance directives in emergency services. Research design, participants, and context: This is a qualitative phenomenological study conducted with purposive sampling including a population of nursing and medical professionals linked to Hospital Emergency Department and Emergency Medical (...) Services. Three focus groups were formed, totalling 24 participants. We performed an inductive-type thematic discourse analysis. Ethical considerations: This study was approved by ethical committees of Ethical Commitee of Clínic Hospital (Barcelona) and Comittee of Emergency Medical Services (Barcelona). The participants received information about the purpose of the study. Patients’ anonymity and willingness to participate in the study were guaranteed. Findings: There were four types of barriers that hindered the proper management of patients’ advance directives in Hospital Emergency Department and Emergency Medical Services: personal and professional, family members, organisational and structural, and those derived from the health system. These barriers caused ethical conflicts and hindered professionals’ decision-making. Discussion: These results are in line with those of previous studies and indicate that factors such as gender, professional category, and years of experience, in addition to professionals’ beliefs and the opinions of colleagues and family members, can also influence the professionals’ final decisions. Conclusion: The different strategies described in this study can contribute to the development of health policies and action protocols to help reduce both the barriers that hinder the correct management and implementation of advance directives and the ethical conflicts generated. (shrink)

The social media platform Twitter platform has played a crucial role in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. The immediate, flexible nature of tweets plays a crucial role both in spreading information about the movement’s aims and in organizing individual protests. Twitter has also played an important role in the right-wing reaction to BLM, providing a means to reframe and recontextualize activists’ claims in a more sinister light. The ability to bring about social change depends on the balance of these (...) two forces, and in particular which side can capture and maintain sustained attention. The present study examines 2 years worth of tweets about BLM (about 118 million in total). Timeseries analysis reveals that activists are better at mobilizing rapid attention, whereas right-wing accounts show a pattern of moderate but more sustained activity driven by reaction to political opponents. Topic modeling reveals differences in how different political groups talk about BLM. Most notably, the murder of George Floyd appears to have solidified a right-wing counter-framing of protests as arising from dangerous “terrorist” actors. The study thus sheds light on the complex network and rhetorical effects that drive the struggle for online attention to the BLM movement. (shrink)

This article traces the career path and personality of a chancery official or secretary in the service of the Gonzaga, the ruling dynasty of Mantua, in the middle years of the fifteenth century. It relates Giovanni Arrivabene to the contemporary social, political and cultural context of this secondary northern Italian power or signoria but touches the wider Italian world at many points, particularly the papal court, whether in Rome or other locations, where Giovanni’s talented younger brother served first as the (...) secretary of Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga and later as an apostolic secretary. The comparison between the two brothers and their interdependence as property owners is a recurring theme. Giovanni emerges with evident limitations which hampered the succession to his father’s superior role in the chancery, where other privileged families also tended to prevail. Humanist educated and efficient, he seems to have been a bureaucrat of routine abilities, not quite astute enough to outpace certain departmental rivals or to avoid being tainted by association with some possibly corrupt practice which caused loss of favour. His later rehabilitation, first as a provincial magistrate concerned with criminal jurisdiction and later as an estate management official, illustrates that private relationships within the narrow world of a civic quasi despotic government were all important. (shrink)

An anthology of readings in panpsychism, spanning two millennia.

In this bold, challenging book, D. S. Clarke outlines reasons for accepting panpsychism and defends the doctrine against its critics.

Originally published in 1986. Both moral philosophers and philosophical psychologists need to answer the question ‘what is a virtue?’ and the best answer so far give is that of Aristotle. This book is a rigorous exposition of that answer. The elements of Aristotle’s doctrine of virtue are scattered throughout his writings; this book reconstructs his complex and comprehensive doctrine in one place. It also covers Aristotle’s views about choice, character, emotions and the role of pleasure and pain in virtue. The (...) celebrated function is considered carefully as well as the doctrine of virtue being related to Aristotle’s metaphysics and categories. (shrink)

This article asserts that traditionally dominant models of health promotion in the US are fairly characterized by methodological individualism. This schema produces a focus on the individual as the node of intervention. Such emphasis results in a number of scientific and ethical problems. I identify three principal ethical deficiencies: first, the health promotions used are generally ineffective, which violates canons of distributive justice because scarce health resources are expended on interventions that are unlikely to produce health benefits. Second, the health (...) promotions used tend to expand health inequalities between the affluent and the least well-off. Third, the health promotions used are likely to intensify stigma against the least well-off, a deficiency that itself may exacerbate the ‘densely-woven patterns of disadvantage’ that characterize life on the tail of the social gradient. Because Powers and Faden’s health sufficiency model of social justice argues that the amelioration of such clusters of disadvantage should be the primary ethical goal of public health policy, methodologically individualist models of health promotion are ethically deficient and should not stand as primary approaches for health promotion in a just social order. (shrink)