This article discusses various dangers that accompany the supposedly benign methods in behavioral evoltutionary biology and evolutionary psychology that fall under the framework of "methodological adaptationism." A "Logic of Research Questions" is proposed that aids in clarifying the reasoning problems that arise due to the framework under critique. The live, and widely practiced, " evolutionary factors" framework is offered as the key comparison and alternative. The article goes beyond the traditional critique of Stephen Jay Gould and Richard C. Lewontin, to (...) present problems such as the disappearance of evidence, the mishandling of the null hypothesis, and failures in scientific reasoning, exemplified by a case from human behavioral ecology. In conclusion the paper shows that "methodological adaptationism" does not deserve its benign reputation. (shrink)

When natural selection theory was presented, much active philosophical debate, in which Darwin himself participated, centered on its hypothetical nature, its explanatory power, and Darwin's methodology. Upon first examination, Darwin's support of his theory seems to consist of a set of claims pertaining to various aspects of explanatory success. I analyze the support of his method and theory given in the Origin of Species and private correspondence, and conclude that an interpretation focusing on the explanatory strengths of natural selection theory (...) accurately reflects neither Darwin's own self-consciously held views, nor the nature of his support. Darwin's methodological and philosophical arguments were at once consistently empiricist and more sophisticated than such interpretations credit to him. (shrink)

In this paper I distinguish various ways in which empirical claims about evolutionary and ecological models can be supported by data. I describe three basic factors bearing on confirmation of empirical claims: fit of the model to data; independent testing of various aspects of the model, and variety of evident. A brief description of the kinds of confirmation is followed by examples of each kind, drawn from a range of evolutionary and ecological theories. I conclude that the greater complexity and (...) precision of my approach, as compared to, for instance, a Popperian approach, can facilitate detailed analysis and comparison of empirical claims. (shrink)

Most models of generational succession in sexually reproducing populations necessarily move back and forth between genic and genotypic spaces. We show that transitions between and within these spaces are usually hidden by unstated assumptions about processes in these spaces. We also examine a widely endorsed claim regarding the mathematical equivalence of kin-, group-, individual-, and allelic-selection models made by Lee Dugatkin and Kern Reeve. We show that the claimed mathematical equivalence of the models does not hold.

I address the controversy in evolutionary biology concerning which levels of biological entity (units) can and do undergo natural selection. I refine a definition of the unit of selection, first presented by William Wimsatt, that is grounded in the structure of natural selection models. I examine Elliott Sober's objection to this structural definition, the "homogeneous populations" problem; I find that neither the proposed definition nor Sober's own causal account can solve the problem. Sober, in his solution using his causal view, (...) imports precisely the information needed to make the structural definition effective. Finally, I indicate how the proposed definition can clarify which sorts of evidence could be brought to bear on the controversial case of the Myxoma virus. (shrink)

Background: Food is an important part of nursing care and recognized as a basic need and a human right. Nutritional care for older adults in institutions represents a particularly important area to address in nursing education and practice, as the right to food can be at risk and health personnel experience ethical challenges related to food and nutrition. Objective: The present study investigates the development of coursework on nutritional care with a human rights perspective in a nursing programme for first-year (...) nursing students and draws upon reflections and lessons learned. Research design: The study utilized educational design research. The coursework, developed through two rounds, combined on-campus learning and clinical placement in nursing homes. Nursing studentsʼ perspectives and experiences gathered through focus groups and a written assignment informed the development and evaluation of the coursework. Participants and research context: In the first round, multistage focus group interviews were conducted with 18 nursing students before, during and after placement. In the second round, four focus group interviews with 26 nursing students were conducted shortly after placement. Ethical consideration: The study was approved by the Norwegian Centre for Research Data. Findings: Three main ʽlessons learnedʼ emerged regarding introducing a human rights perspective in nursing education: 1) the contribution of the human rights perspective in changing the narrative of ʽvulnerable and malnourished patientsʼ, 2) the importance of relationships and experiences for learning about human rights and 3) the benefit of combining development of ethical competence with a human rights perspective. Conclusion: A human rights perspective enabled the students to give meaning to nutritional care beyond understanding of food as a basic physical need. Incorporating human rights in nursing education can support nursing students and nurses in recognizing and addressing ethical and structural challenges and being able to fulfil the right to food for patients. (shrink)

In many Western countries, studies have demonstrated extensive use of coercion in nursing homes, especially towards patients suffering from dementia. This article examines what kinds of strategies or alternative interventions nursing staff in Norway used when patients resist care and treatment and what conditions the staff considered as necessary to succeed in avoiding the use of coercion. The data are based on interdisciplinary focus group interviews with nursing home staff. The study revealed that the nursing home staff usually spent a (...) lot of time trying a wide range of approaches to avoid the use of coercion. The most common strategies were deflecting and persuasive strategies, limiting choices by conscious use of language, different kinds of flexibility and one-to-one care. According to the staff, their opportunities to use alternative strategies effectively are greatly affected by the nursing home’s resources, by the organization of care and by the staff’s competence. (shrink)

Stories told about violence, trauma, and loss inform knowledge of post-conflict societies. Stories have a context which is part of the story-teller’s life narrative. Reasons for silences are varied. This article affirms the importance of telling and listening to stories and notes the significance of silences within transitional justice’s narratives. It does this in three ways. First, it outlines a critical narrative theory of transitional justice which confirms the importance of narrative agency in telling or withholding stories. Relatedly, it affirms (...) the importance of story-telling as a way to explain differentiated gender requirements within transitional justice processes. Second, it examines gendered differences in the ways that women are silenced by shame, choose silence to retain self-respect, use silence as a strategy of survival, or an agential act. Third, it argues that compassionate listening requires gender-sensitive responses that recognize the narrator’s sense of self and needs. (shrink)

This paper defends a ‘noetic’ conception of aesthetic experience whereby such experience is best conceived as a kind of explorative thought process. Although not directly aimed at acquiring knowledge, this process often leads to an enhanced understanding or improved epistemic grasp of the object of appreciation itself and the world. On this conception, aesthetic value acts as an invitation to engage in a series of contemplative and reflective processes during which we rely not only on the perceptual, imaginative, and affective (...) abilities which have occupied such a central role in aesthetic theory, but also on our capacities for sense-making, problem-solving and theory-building. Cases of intelligible beauty or aesthetic value should thus lie at the heart of accounts of aesthetic experience. (shrink)

Unlike a great deal of research on expert/non-expert communication, most of which is based on written materials, this article focuses on face-to-face communication. The analysis is based on a large corpus of transcribed recordings of medical seminars in rehabilitation centres and of interviews with chronically ill patients suffering from heart conditions. The focus is on procedures of illustration, which are often combined with reformulation procedures. Four main types are described: metaphors, exemplification, `scenarios', concretization. Whatever the type of illustration used, participants (...) in face-to-face interaction show a marked preference for procedures which relate abstract medical information to everyday life and experience. After a brief outline of the theoretical approach adopted the analysis proceeds in two steps: first, the emphasis is on techniques employed by the `experts', then on those used by `non-experts', i.e. patients. This is followed by an examination of the question how the roles of expert and non-expert are constituted in and by interaction. (shrink)

‘Left melodrama’ is a form of contemporary political critique that combines thematic elements and narrative structures of the melodramatic genre with a political perspective grounded in a left theoretical tradition, fusing them to dramatically interrogate oppressive social structures and unequal relations of power. It is also a new form of what Walter Benjamin called ‘left melancholy’, a critique that deadens what it examines by employing outdated and insufficient analyses to current exploitations. Left melodrama is melancholic insofar as its use of (...) older leftist critical methods disavows its attachments to the failed promises of left political-theoretical critique: that it could provide direct means to freedom and moral rightness. Left melodrama is melodramatic insofar as it incorporates the specific melodramatic narrative, style and promise of the text that stands in for its disavowed attachments: the Manifesto of the Communist Party. Whereas the Manifesto's critical power promised radical political transformation, left melodrama incorporates the Manifesto's melodramatic style in an effort to revivify that promise. It thus inhibits the creation of new critical methods appropriate to our current historical moment and occludes Marx and Engels' warning that the possibility of radical transformation is diminished when the past furnishes the vision for the future. Left melodrama can be found in the texts of Giorgio Agamben, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri; their reincorporation of the Manifesto's melodrama both contributes to their widespread success and undercuts their critical capacities to examine and challenge the inequalities, injustices and unfreedom that shape the present moment. (shrink)

The aim of this report is to present an example of a multidisciplinary Indian-Swedish co-operation on ethics in health care. It is based on a conference held in Asia Plateau, Panchgani, Maharasthra, India in 1998. The emphasis is on ethical values that are important for consumers of health care and professionals, and also for different cultures in developed and developing countries. The importance of human dignity is stressed. Sixteen recommendations are given in an appendix.

In this paper, I outline various pedagogical practices that I believe are important for diversifying the field of philosophy. I outline these practices through a discussion of knowledge and its production, the production of relations through collective acts, the creation of space in and beyond the institution, and finally moving beyond inclusion narratives. The various pedagogical practices that I outline have been developed in, and drawn from, a workshop titled the Feminist Decolonial Politics Workshop. Ultimately, in this paper I utilize (...) what I call a “tenderness approach to philosophy”—tenderness as devotion of time and concentration, as directional, relational, and embodied—in order to demonstrate how tenderness can be applied to a pedagogical context. (shrink)

Much debate concerning ‘precedent autonomy’ – that is, the authority of former, competent selves to govern the welfare of later, non-competent selves – has assumed a radical discontinuity between selves, and has overlooked the ‘bridging’ role of intimate proxy decision-makers. I consider a recent proposal by Lynn et al. (1999) that presents a provocative alternative, foregrounding an imagined dialogue between the formerly competent patient and her/his trusted others. I consider what standards must be met for such dialogues to have moral (...) force, appealing to narrative and feminist ethics. I then critique the dualistic construction of selves implicit in much of the advance directive literature, noting the continuities of dependence, character, and body, as well as the social dimension of the construction of selves. (shrink)

This book defines, through a survey of the European tradition of literature, art, poetry, and music, some of the philosophical and psychological implications and developments of that myth.

Proceedings of the Pittsburgh Workshop in History and Philosophy of Biology, Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, March 23-24 2001 Session 2: Female Orgasms and Evolutionary Theory.

Longtemps oubliées des études consacrées au monachisme féminin, mais également de celles sur les chartreux, les moniales cartusiennes ont fait l’objet, depuis les années 2000, de plusieurs travaux dont ceux d’Augustin Devaux, de Nathalie Nabert ou encore le colloque Moines et moniales dans l’ordre des Chartreux : l’apport de l’archéologie, paru en 2007 sous la direction de Martine Valdher. L’ouvrage de Quentin Rochet est le fruit de la publication d’un master 2, soutenu à l’université Lumière...

Cet article porte sur l’introduction du principe de précaution en matière de gestion du jeu. Il repose sur les réflexions suggérées par deux recherches effectuées au cours des dernières années par le Laboratoire d’éthique publique. Ainsi, il tente de répondre aux questions posées par ces deux recherches précédentes : comment gérer de façon responsable? Au nom de quel principe agir? Où tracer la limite de ce qu’il devrait être ou non permis de faire dans la commercialisation et l’exploitation des jeux (...) de hasard et d’argent? Les auteurs tentent donc de démontrer que l’adoption par l’État du principe de précaution lui permettrait de faire preuve de plus de rigueur dans la gestion d’une industrie qui pose de sérieux problèmes de santé publique. (shrink)

RésuméL'héritage kantien dans la philosophie fregéenne de la connaissance est aujourd'hui largement reconnu. La présente analyse porte sur la point, déjà réputé central par J. Vuillemin , du jugement de recognition. On tente de montrer: °) le style transcendantal du traitement fregéen du problème des objets logiques, dont la nécessité s'introduit a partir des Grundlagen avec celle des extensions de concept, absentes de la première idéographie; style dont on tente d'expliquer les changements qu'il opére dans le modèle de la Begriffsbildung (...) kantienne. 2°) l'ambiguité de la recognition fondée par la source logique de connaissance d'objets logiques, ou par un principe d'image logique, qu'explicitera Wittgenstein, des invariants les plus généraux des opérations de pensée dans l'idéolographie. 3°) le lien du principe de recognition avec une supposition de détermination complète et son ultime formulation dans la théorie de la source géométrique; ses racines dans la formation mathématique de Frege. On conclut par la question posée par l'algébrisation de la logique, étrangére au style transcendantal de l'une des œuvres qui lui ont, fût‐ce de manière voilée par un principe de recognition, donné naissance. (shrink)

The principal concern of my paper is a distinction between two ways of appreciating works of art, characterised here in terms of the phrases ‘seeing is believing’ and ‘believing is seeing’. I examine this distinction in the light of an epistemological requirement at times at least grounded in what David Davies, in his Art as Performance , refers to as the ‘common sense theory of art appreciation’ in order to assess exactly what aspect of the philosophical approach generally known as (...) aesthetic empiricism his account commits him to reject. I argue that the ‘experiential requirement’, if only conceived in a slightly broader way than is usual, might very well have an important role to play not only in the appropriate appreciation of works that do not demonstrate the need for such a requirement (primarily works of late modern and conceptual art), but also in the ontological account Davies himself favours. (shrink)

The general objective of nursing supervision is to support the development of the super-visee’s job identity, competence, skills and ethics. This can be achieved through the stages of the supervision process. The aim of this article is to describe and discuss such a nursing supervision model, as well as the supervisor’s competence and moral responsibility, by analysing the interpretation of nursing supervision. Three main concepts are described: confirmation, meaning and self-awareness. The findings suggest that these concepts need to be established (...) in the nursing supervision process by the supervisor, who is morally responsible for applying the process and for establishing a relationship with the supervisees. (shrink)