Harvey and Gurvir’s Law is a bill proposed to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario (Canada) to reduce stigma and bias associated with Down syndrome, by developing and disseminating quality information about Down syndrome in the context of prenatal testing.

From student protests over the teaching of canonical texts such as Plato's Republic to the use of images of classical Greek statues in white supremacist propaganda, the world of the ancient Greeks is deeply implicated in a heated contemporary debate about identity and diversity. In Plato's Caves, Rebecca LeMoine defends the bold thesis that Plato was a friend of cultural diversity, contrary to many contemporary perceptions. Through close readings of four Platonic dialogues--Republic, Menexenus, Laws, and Phaedrus--LeMoine shows that, (...) across Plato's dialogues, foreigners play a role similar to that of Socrates: liberating citizens from intellectual bondage. (shrink)

Aging is an elusive property of life, and many important questions about aging depend on its definition. This article proposes to draw a definition from the scientific literature on aging. First, a broad review reveals five features commonly used to define aging: structural damage, functional decline, depletion, typical phenotypic changes or their cause, and increasing probability of death. Anything that can be called ‘aging’ must present one of these features. Then, although many conditions are not consensual instances of aging, aging (...) is consensually described as a process of loss characterized by a rate and resulting from the counteraction of protective mechanisms against mechanisms that limit lifespan. Beyond such an abstract definition, no one has yet succeeded in defining aging by a specific mechanism of aging because of an explanatory gap between such a mechanism and lifespan, a consensual explanandum of a theory of aging. By contrast, a sound theoretical definition can be obtained by revisiting the evolutionary theory of aging. Based on this theory, aging evolves thanks to the impossibility that natural selection eliminates late traits that are neutral mainly due to decreasing selective pressure. Yet, the results of physiological research suggest that this theory should be revised to also account for the small number of different aging pathways and for the existence of mechanisms counteracting these pathways, that must, on the contrary, have been selected. A synthetic, but temporary definition of aging can finally be proposed. (shrink)

Science starts by using terms such as ‘temperature’ or ‘fish’ or ‘gene’ to preliminarily delimitate the extension of a phenomenon, and concludes by giving most of them a technical meaning based on an explanatory model. This transforma- tion of the meaning of the term is an essential part of its naturalization. Debating on the definition of ‘disease’, what most philosophers of medicine have examined is the pre-naturalized meaning of the term: for that reason they have focused on the task of (...) delimiting disease and non-disease (health), mainly used conceptual analysis as a method of choice, and considered the nosological level of ‘disease judgments’ rather than the pathophysiological or psychopathological level of disease mechanisms, thus making them impervious to most scientific discoveries. By focusing instead on the naturalized concept of disease and following some suggestions by philosophers of biology and scientists in cutting-edge fields of biomedical research, they could gar- ner results from a comparison of the mechanisms of diseases. This would ultimately result in a general theory of disease linked with our most general theories on living beings, among them, systems biology and network medicine. Before undertaking such a task, preliminary questions arise: is it likely that there are biological features common to different types of disease? Is it a philosopher’s job to determine what they consist in? What use would such a general theoretical definition of disease be? (shrink)

According to the received view, the transportation view, animal extrapolation consists in inductive prediction of the outcome of a mechanism in a target, based on an analogical mechanism in a model. Through an analysis of the failure of preclinical studies of TGN1412, an innovative drug, to predict the tragic consequences of its first-in-man trial in 2006, the received view is challenged by a proposed view of animal extrapolation, the chimera view. According to this view, animal extrapolation is based on a (...) hypothesis about how human organisms work, supported by the amalgamation of results drawn from various experimental organisms, and only predicting the ‘predictive grid’, that is, a global framework of the effects to be expected. (shrink)

Françoise Dastur describes her efforts to practice history of philosophy in a non-historical fashion. She discusses her concept of the historical, and argues that the only true way to be of one's time is to be against one's time.

Françoise Dastur describes her efforts to practice history of philosophy in a non-historical fashion. She discusses her concept of the historical, and argues that the only true way to be of one's time is to be against one's time.

Conceptual analysis of health and disease is portrayed as consisting in the confrontation of a set of criteria—a “definition”—with a set of cases, called instances of either “health” or “ disease.” Apart from logical counter-arguments, there is no other way to refute an opponent’s definition than by providing counter-cases. As resorting to intensional stipulation is not forbidden, several contenders can therefore be deemed to have succeeded. This implies that conceptual analysis alone is not likely to decide between naturalism and normativism. (...) An alternative to this approach would be to examine whether the concept of disease can be naturalized. (shrink)

The main thesis of this paper is that mental health practitioners can legitimately infer that a patient's given condition is a case of mental disorder without having diagnosed any specific mental disorder. The article shows how this is justifiable by relying either on psychopathological reasoning, on 'intentional' analysis or possibly on other modes of reasoning. In the end, it highlights the clinical and philosophical consequences of the plurality of modes of 'inferences to mental disorder'.

Despite its vagueness Personalized, Precision, P4, P5, individualized, stratified medicine—or p-medicine in short—has become an increasingly popular term in biomedical literature. Philosophers have attempted to analyze what these various terms involve and have discussed consequences for medical practices. In this article, I argue that an important question remains unaddressed: what has made this project of p-medicine convincing to so many? My argument is that without real achievements, it would never have been. I also make the case that these achievements stem (...) from the domain of monoclonal antibodies, a new type of drug that justifies talks of personalized, precise, stratified, etc., medicine. In conclusion, while it may be possible to label any projection in the future of medicine as ‘p-medicine’, it is impossible to overlook mab-medicine as the spearhead. (shrink)

In Western countries today, a growing number of women delay motherhood until their late 30s and even 40s, as they invest time in pursuing education and career goals before starting a family. This social trend results from greater gender equality and expanded opportunities for women and is influenced by the availability of contraception and assisted reproductive technologies. However, advanced maternal age is associated with increased health risks, including infertility. While individual medical solutions such as ART and elective egg freezing can (...) promote reproductive autonomy, they entail significant risks and limitations. We thus argue that women should be better informed regarding the risks of advanced maternal age and ART, and that these individual solutions need to be supplemented by a public health approach, including policy measures that provide women with the opportunity to start a family earlier in life without sacrificing personal career goals. (shrink)

Yves Lemoine et Jean-Pierre Mignard s'interrogent sur les origines du Droit dans nos sociétés, sur les grandes traditions dont il est issu et sur ses évolutions intellectuelles en Occident. Si leur cheminement passe par l'étude de grandes figures telles que Francisco de Vitoria, Erasme, Thomas More, Portalis, l'abbé Grégoire, William Wilberforce, ou encore René Cassin, leur questionnement sur Athènes et Rome initie une réflexion sur l'humanisme juridique. L'idée que le Droit se réfère à un état supérieur d'Etre et que (...) le droit naturel fonde notre vie en société. Le Défi d'Antigone prévient du danger de former de jeunes juristes à être des marchands de droit et non des jurisconsultes : n'oubliez pas d'où vous venez... N'oubliez pas non plus où vous allez... (shrink)

Au Québec, le régime d’examen des plaintes dans le réseau de la santé et des services sociaux contribue à l’amélioration continue des soins en permettant aux usagers de partager leur insatisfaction auprès d’une instance indépendante pouvant émettre des recommandations aux établissements. Le régime permet ainsi de renforcer la participation active de l’usager et donc de démocratiser les soins et services. En plus de sa parenté évidente avec cet objectif d’autonomisation, la bioéthique est omniprésente dans le travail des instances responsables de (...) l’application du régime, soit les commissariats aux plaintes. Cet article met en lumière l’usage implicite de concepts issus de la bioéthique dans le travail quotidien des commissariats aux plaintes. Nous y abordons l’autonomie, sous l’angle de l’autodétermination et de la confidentialité dans l’analyse de la recevabilité des plaintes. Nous y abordons également la justice, sous l’angle de l’équité dans l’allocation des ressources et de la justice épistémique dans le traitement des plaintes. Ensuite, nous abordons les similitudes entre les méthodologies de la bioéthique et du régime d’examen des plaintes, nommément les grilles d’analyse en éthique clinique et la narrativité. Finalement, nous abordons l’importance de l’impartialité, de l’indépendance et de la transparence dans le travail des commissariats aux plaintes. Nous concluons en offrant des pistes de réflexion en vue d’une mise à jour des connaissances empiriques concernant la concrétisation des objectifs de renforcement de la participation de l’usager dans ses soins et de démocratisation des soins et services. (shrink)

Telling Time takes up Heidegger's ideas of a "phenomenological chronology" in an attempt to pose the question of the possibility of a phenomenological language that would be given over to the "temporality of being" and the finitude of existence. The book combines a discussion of approaches to language in the philosophical tradition with readings of Husserl on temporality and the early and late texts of Heidegger's on logic, truth and the nature of language. As well as Heidegger's "deconstruction" of logic (...) and metaphysics Dastur's work is informed by Derrida's deconstruction of the metaphysics of presence and Nietzschean genealogy. Appealing as much to Humboldt's philosophy of language as to Hölderlin's poetic thought, the book illuminates the eminently dialectical structure of speech and its essential connection with mortality. (shrink)

Most philosophers of science do philosophy ‘on’ science. By contrast, others do philosophy ‘in’ science (PinS), that is, they use philosophical tools to address scientific problems and to provide scientifically useful proposals. Here, we consider the evidence in favour of a trend of this nature. We proceed in two stages. First, we identify relevant authors and articles empirically with bibliometric tools, given that PinS would be likely to infiltrate science and thus to be published in scientific journals (‘intervention’), cited in (...) scientific journals (‘visibility’), and sometimes recognized as a scientific result by scientists (‘contribution’). We show that many central figures in philosophy of science have been involved in PinS, and that some philosophers have even ‘specialized’ in this practice. Second, we propose a conceptual definition of PinS as a process involving three conditions (raising a scientific problem, using philosophical tools to address it, and making a scientific proposal), and we ask whether the articles identified at the first stage fulfil all these conditions. We show that PinS is a distinctive, quantitatively substantial trend within philosophy of science, demonstrating the existence of a methodological continuity from science to philosophy of science. (shrink)

This essay is part of a special issue celebrating 50 years of Political Theory. The ambition of the editors was to mark this half century not with a retrospective but with a confabulation of futures. Contributors were asked: What will political theory look and sound like in the next century and beyond? What claims might political theorists or their descendants be making in ten, twenty-five, fifty, a hundred years’ time? How might they vindicate those claims in their future contexts? How (...) will the consistent concerns of political theorists evolve into the questions critical for people decades or centuries from now? What new problems will engage the political theorists (or their rough equivalents) of the future? What forms might those take? What follows is one of the many confabulations published in response to these queries. (shrink)

En France, l'épistémologie de la médecine est facilement réduite à l'étude du magistral essai de Canguilhem, Le normal et le pathologique. Toutefois, ce livre publié il y a plus de soixante-dix ans ne reflète plus l'état des sciences médicales contemporaines, ni celui des débats poursuivis par les philosophes des sciences depuis. Le présent livre, premier du genre en langue française, a pour ambition d'introduire le lecteur à la philosophie des sciences médicales. Ses dix chapitres initieront le lecteur aux débats qui (...) l'agitent, sans que soient requises des connaissances philosophiques ou médicales préalables. Il répond à la fois à la demande de médecins en quête d'une philosophie qui leur parle de leur discipline et de leurs pratiques, et de philosophes à la recherche d'un guide dans ce champ morcelé et dominé par la philosophie d'expression anglaise. [Payot]. (shrink)

Contrairement aux idées reçues, Hegel n’est pas un précurseur de la pensée totalitaire, auquel on pourrait opposer un Bergson républicain et démocrate. Tous deux parlent de la communauté politique comme d’un organisme, doctrine affectionnée du totalitarisme. Ni chez l’un, ni chez l’autre, on ne peut atténuer la portée de l’affirmation en invoquant un usage métaphorique : il faut entendre, chez l’un comme chez l’autre, l’organisme au sens propre mais large. L’organicité du politique, loin de la menacer, est la seule forme (...) compatible avec la liberté des individus, grâce à la distinction que l’on peut faire entre organisation toute faite et organisation se faisant : si la première traite les individus en rouages d’un mécanisme, la seconde est l’expression immédiate de l’épanouissement de leurs libertés.Popper wrote that Hegel, as a thinker, is a forerunner of totalitarianism ; on the other hand, one cannot but regard Bergson as a true democrat. Both however considered the politic body as an organism, a doctrine supporters of the totalitarian state favoured. The assertion must not be underrated : neither thinker intended to use a metaphorical expression, hence a broad meaning of « organism ». As a matter of fact the organicity of a politic body, far from threatening individual freedom, is the only form that proves compatible with individuality. The important thing is to distinguish all-made « organized organisation » from selfmaking « organizing organisation » : the former treats individuals as mechanical entities, while the latter is the result of the self-development of their freedom. (shrink)

If the healthy and the pathological are not merely judgments qualifiers, but real phenomena, it must be possible to define both of them positively, which, in this context, means as factual contraries. On the other hand, only a privative definition, either of the pathological as ‘non-healthy’, or of the healthy as ‘non-pathological’, can rationally circumscribe all possible states of an organism. This fluctuation between two meanings of the ‘healthy’–‘pathological’ opposition, factual vs. rational, characterizes the ordinary usage of these concepts and (...) puts all philosophical definitions in a hopeless situation. Although a scientific definition may conceal this equivocation by adequately setting out the terms of the problem of discriminating between the ‘healthy’ and the ‘pathological’, it could explain some of the difficulties met in determining ‘gold standards’, in the choice of separators, and in the assessment of the diagnostic qualities of tests. (shrink)

This work was supported, in part, by a Stem Cell Network grant to Françoise Baylis and Jason Scott Robert and a CIHR grant to Françoise Baylis. We sincerely thank Alan Fine, Rich Campbell, Cynthia Cohen, and Tim Krahn for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Thanks are also owed to Tim Krahn for his research assistance. An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Department of Bioethics and the Novel Tech Ethics research team. (...) We thank the participants at each of these meetings for their helpful comments. (shrink)

While many experts and organizations have recognized infertility as a public health issue, most governments have not yet adopted a public health approach to infertility. This article argues in favor of such an approach by discussing the various implications of infertility for public health. We use a conceptual framework that focuses on the dual meaning of the term ‘public’ in this context: the health of the public, as opposed to that of individuals, and the public/collective nature of the required interventions. (...) This analysis highlights the need for a comprehensive public health approach toward infertility, points to some initiatives that are already in place and demonstrates that prevention is currently a neglected—yet much needed——element. We move on to discuss the sensitive nature of prevention initiatives as a probable explanation for their scarcity. We illustrate the complexity of prevention through an analysis of an infertility prevention campaign previously conducted in the United States, which provoked significant controversy. We use a public health communication ethics framework to expose the strengths and the shortcomings of this campaign, and conclude that prevention initiatives targeting infertility can indeed be conducted in a sensible way that promotes autonomy while improving public health. (shrink)

In January 2008, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority issued two 1-year licenses for cytoplasmic hybrid embryo research. This article situates the HFEA's decision in its wider scientific and political context in which, until quite recently, the debate about human embryonic stem cell research has focused narrowly on the moral status of the developing human embryo. Next, ethical arguments against crossing species boundaries with humans are canvassed. Finally, a new argument about the risks of harm to women egg providers resulting (...) from research involving the creation of humanesque cytoplasmic hybrid embryos is elaborated. Taken together these ethical concerns about the moral status of the human embryo, about the ethics of crossing species boundaries with humans, and about the potential harms to women, provide good reason to eschew humanesque cytoplasmic hybrid embryo research in favor of less ethically controversial means to the laudable end of successful regenerative medicine. (shrink)

Suddenly, COVID-19 has changed the world and the way people work. Companies had to accelerate something they knew was imminent in the future, but not immediate and extremely humongous. This situation poses a huge challenge for companies to survive and thrive in this complex business environment and for employees, who must adapt to this new way of working. An effective e-leadership, which promotes companies’ adaptability, is needed. This study investigates the existing knowledge on teleworking and e-leadership; and analyzes the supposed (...) challenges. The literature review shows that companies with effective e-leadership can view teleworking as an opportunity. It is advantageous for not only companies’ productivity but also the environment and people who work remotely. However, a traditional or no leadership can result in some risks. Thriving in remote work environments implies that managers must adjust the companies’ structure, making them less hierarchical, and developing new abilities to establish a strong and trustworthy relationship with their employees to maintain their competitiveness, while retaining a genuine concern for their employees’ well-being. Similarly, successful e-leadership must be able to consolidate and lead effective virtual teams to accomplish organizational goals. This study contributes to the literature and leaders during the pandemic. (shrink)

With the advent of CRISPR gene-editing technology, designer babies have become a reality. Françoise Baylis insists that scientists alone cannot decide the terms of this new era in human evolution. Members of the public, with diverse interests and perspectives, must have a role in determining our future as a species.

We outline a number of ethical objections to genetic technologies aimed at enhancing human capacities and traits. We then argue that, despite the persuasiveness of some of these objections, they are insufficient to stop the development and use of genetic enhancement technologies. We contend that the inevitability of the technologies results from a particular guiding worldview of humans as masters of the human evolutionary future, and conclude that recognising this worldview points to new directions for ethical thinking about genetic enhancement (...) technologies. (shrink)

This issue of Diogenes is devoted to questions of bioethics. This subject was chosen not because bioethics is fashionable but rather because the purpose of this journal is to explore the timely and timeless questions of our era in order to understand what is at stake and to share this knowledge with our readers.I have chosen to call my piece “Bioethics: Between the Plausible and the Thinkable” to highlight at least three themes that are taken up either directly or indirectly (...) in the articles that follow. (shrink)

To those who have observed it for a long time, the People's Republic of China today has the appearance of a convalescent who has made his way back from a long illness and is slowly relearning to use his vital organs. And this is the consequence of the decisive and remarkable measures taken after the death of Mao Tse-tung and the subsequent elimination of his abusive widow, Chiang Ch'ing, by survivors of the great cultural revolution, now in the upper circles (...) of the Chinese Communist party. Explanations were provided in the “Resolution on the History of the Chinese Communist Party” adopted June 27, 1981, at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Eleventh Party Congress. But the real turning point dates from 1978, in the historic third session of this same Eleventh Congress when the opposition to Mao's chosen successor, Hua Guo-feng, called upon participants to “liberate their minds and to seek truth in the facts”. A new People's China had begun to take shape, and although it is not yet possible to pass judgement on its future prospects, visitors who travel there today can only bear witness to the return of this immense population to existential reality, while little by little the “barracks socialism” of the ultra-leftists is dying out. (shrink)

If the healthy and the pathological are not merely judgments qualifiers, but real phenomena, it must be possible to define both of them positively, which, in this context, means as factual contraries. On the other hand, only a privative definition, either of the pathological as 'non-healthy', or of the healthy as 'non-pathological', can rationally circumscribe all possible states of an organism. This fluctuation between two meanings of the 'healthy'-'pathological' opposition, factual vs. rational, characterizes the ordinary usage of these concepts and (...) puts all philosophical definitions in a hopeless situation. Although a scientific definition may conceal this equivocation by adequately setting out the terms of the problem of discriminating between the 'healthy' and the 'pathological', it could explain some of the difficulties met in determining 'gold standards', in the choice of separators, and in the assessment of the diagnostic qualities of tests. (shrink)

We show here that the first order theory of the positive integers equipped with multiplication remains decidable when one adds to the language the usual order restricted to the prime numbers. We see moreover that the complexity of the latter theory is a tower of exponentials, of height O(n).

Appuyé sur un document, cet article esquisse l’histoire d’une organisation mal connue et éphémère : « le Bureau de liaison issu de la rencontre internationale des femmes 1960 », rencontre dont l’initiative revient à la Fédération démocratique internationale des femmes. Il explicite également le rôle qu’y a joué la militante française Marguerite Thibert, animé de l’espoir de dépasser la guerre froide. Mais la neutralité et l’équilibre politiques souhaités pour parler au nom de toutes les femmes se heurtent aux tensions internationales (...) qui alimentent, d’un côté, l’anticommunisme et, de l’autre, des stratégies d’instrumentalisation des solidarités. (shrink)

In September 2007, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in the United Kingdom concluded that "there is no fundamental reason to prevent cytoplasmic hybrid research . . . this area of research can, with caution and careful scrutiny, be permitted." Later, in January 2008, HFEA issued two research licenses to create humanesque cytoplasmic hybrid embryos from which stem cells could be derived. This article critically examines the public consultation process that preceded these decisions, concluding that the process was flawed (...) and demonstrating how the HFEA documents summarizing the findings of the public consultation process misrepresent the public's contributions to this policymaking initiative. (shrink)

In this paper, we provide a macro level analysis of the visibility of philosophy of science in the sciences over the last four decades. Our quantitative analysis of publications and citations of philosophy of science papers, published in 17 main journals representing the discipline, contributes to the longstanding debate on the influence of philosophy of science on the sciences. It reveals the global structure of relationships that philosophy of science maintains with science, technology, engineering and mathematics and social sciences and (...) humanities fields. Explored at the level of disciplines, journals and authors, this analysis of the relations between philosophy of science and a large and diversified array of disciplines allows us to answer several questions: what is the degree of openness of various disciplines to the specialized knowledge produced in philosophy of science? Which STEM and SSH fields and journals have privileged ties with philosophy of science? What are the characteristics, in terms of citation and publication patterns, of authors who get their philosophy of science papers cited outside their field? Complementing existing qualitative inquiries on the influence of specific authors, concepts or topics of philosophy of science, the bibliometric approach proposed in this paper offers a comprehensive portrait of the multiple relationships that links philosophy of science to the sciences. (shrink)

oise Baylis, 1234 Le Marchant Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 3P7. Tel.: (902)-494–2873; Fax: (902)-494-2924; Email: francoise.baylis{at}dal.ca ' + u + '@' + d + ' '//--> . Abstract Recently, there has been a growing interest in public health and public health ethics. Much of this interest has been tied to efforts to draw up national and international plans to deal with a global pandemic. It is common for these plans to state the importance of drawing upon a well-developed (...) ethics framework and we argue that this framework should reflect the values and insights of feminist relational theory. More specifically, we argue that pandemic planning must be squarely situated in the larger realm of public health and that an ethics framework for public health will be one that recognizes the need to pay particular attention to the vulnerability of subpopulations lacking in social and economic power. We propose an ethics framework for public health that builds on the notions of relational personhood (including relational autonomy and social justice) and relational solidarity. In this way, we aim for a public health ethics that, as appropriate, promotes the public interest and the common good. CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this? (shrink)

This paper is dedicated to the analysis of some important points of Patočka’s Heretical Essays on the Philosophy of History in order to question his major thesis of the common origin of philosophy, politics and history shared by Hannah Arendt and based on Husserl’s and Heidegger’s phenomenological conception of the Greek beginning. It tries to show the complexity of Patočka’s conception of Europe, which on one side can be understood as falling into Eurocentrism, but on the other side brings to (...) light the dark face of modern European nihilism and planetary domination and tries to find a remedy for it by appealing to a philosophical conversion leading to the recognition of the diversity of human culture. (shrink)

In this case study, we describe an approach to dealing with a complicated, systemic, and multi-faceted organizational issue: the continuum of maternal care from antepartum care, birthing, to post-natal care.