Medical nihilism is the view that we should have little confidence in the effectiveness of medical interventions. Jacob Stegenga argues persuasively that this is how we should see modern medicine, and suggests that medical research must be modified, clinical practice should be less aggressive, and regulatory standards should be enhanced.

Despite its substantial influence, there is surprisingly little agreement about how to read C.I. Lewis’s Mind and the World Order. Lewis has historically been read as a reductionist attempting to g...

Pour des raisons pratiques autant qu’idéologiques, les États socialistes ont souhaité la pleine participation des femmes au travail, qui supposait leur libération des tâches ménagères dévoreuses de temps. Ils ont, pour la plupart, passé un contrat social implicite avec leurs populations féminines : les femmes à l’usine et au champ, en échange d’une réduction des tâches domestiques, soit à travers leur socialisation, soit par la fourniture de produits finis allégeant le travail. L’article entend montrer que la Chine rurale fut une (...) exception à ce modèle. Alors que la participation des femmes rurales au travail augmentait fortement, le rationnement de marchandises peu abondantes et une politique empêchant les paysans de disposer d’argent liquide faisaient que les textiles et autres produits industriels sont restés hors de portée de la majorité des ruraux. En conséquence, des millions de femmes rurales ont continué, au prix d’un travail manuel laborieux, à vêtir et nourrir leurs familles, à un moment où triplait leur participation aux travaux des champs. Cette double charge particulièrement intense a permis à l’État chinois une rapide accumulation. (shrink)

Moral uncertainty and disagreement pervade our lives. Yet we still need to make decisions and act, both individually and politically. So, what should we do? Moral uncertainty theorists provide a theory of what individuals should do when they are uncertain about morality. Public reason liberals provide a theory of how societies should deal with reasonable disagreements about morality. They defend the public justification principle: state action is permissible only if it can be justified to all reasonable people. In this article, (...) we bring these two approaches together. Specifically, we investigate whether considerations of moral uncertainty support public reason liberalism: given moral uncertainty, should we favor public justification? We argue that while moral uncertainty theory cannot vindicate an exceptionless public justification principle, it supports adopting public justification as a pro tanto principle – albeit one that can be overridden when the moral stakes are high. It also provides new answers to some intramural debates among public reason liberals and new responses to some common objections. (shrink)

Philosophers of biology generally agree that causal specificity tracks biological importance: more specific causes are more important. I argue that this correlation does not hold in much research aimed at biomedical intervention. Applying James Woodward’s analysis of causal specificity to the development and design of HIV treatments, I show that drugs that are less causally specific produce better therapeutic outcomes and are more highly valued. Thus, I conclude that the importance of biological causes does not track their specificity but instead (...) varies depending on the biological practice we consider and the goals of that practice. (shrink)

Anglo-Swedish scholarly correspondence from the mid-eighteenth century contains repeated mentions of two merchants, Abraham Spalding and Gustavus Brander. The letters describe how these men facilitated the exchange of knowledge over the Baltic Sea and the North Sea by shipping letters, books and other scientific objects, as well as by enabling long-distance financial transactions. Through the case of Spalding and Brander, this article examines the material basis for early modern scholarly exchange. Using the concept of logistics to highlight and relate several (...) mercantile practices, it examines ways of making scholarly knowledge move, and analyses merchants’ potential motives for offering their services to scholarly communities. As logisticians in the Republic of Letters, these merchants could turn their commercial infrastructure into a generator of cultural status valid in both London and Stockholm. Using mercantile services, scholarly knowledge could in turn traverse the region in reliable, cost-effective and secure ways. The case of Spalding and Brander thus highlights how contacts between scholarly communities intersected with other contemporary modes of transnational exchange, and it shows how scholarly exchange relied on relationships based on norms different from the communalism often used to characterize the early modern Republic of Letters. Thus the article suggests new ways of studying early modern scholarly exchange in practice. (shrink)

While Chomsky subscribes to methodological naturalism, he rejects both metaphysical naturalism and an externalist conception of meaning. This chapter explores some of Chomsky's grounds for rejecting both metaphysical naturalism and meaning externalism, in particular his peculiar attitude towards ontological physicalism and his arguments for an internalist approach to meaning.

This article discusses recent legal conflicts between state universities and conservative religious students in the United States, focusing on Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. In recent years, several universities have denied recognition to religious student organizations that discriminate on the basis of religion or sexual orientation. I argue that scholars on both sides of the issue have failed to recognize the full scope of the privilege that the universities demand. If the courts accept the universities' demands, then the courts dangerously (...) expand the government's authority to suppress dissenters. No proponent of civil liberties should welcome this change. (shrink)

Minor-attracted persons raise multiple ethical and legal challenges. Sexual contact between adults and children is justly prohibited on child welfare grounds. Advances in technology raise the prospect of interventions for minor-attracted persons that have the potential to reduce harm to children by diverting would-be offenders to other endeavors that nonetheless may generate moral disgust This essay examines three of these potential harm reduction technologies (sex robots, haptic devices and synthetic child pornography) and raises the possibility that their use can be (...) justified and their acceptance morally obligatory if doing so reduces harm to real children. (shrink)

Although considerable attention has been devoted to the concepts of “visible” and “invisible” victims in general medical practice, especially in relation to resource allocation, far less consideration has been devoted to these concepts in behavioral health. Distinctive features of mental health care in the United States help explain this gap. This essay explores three specific ways in which the American mental health care system protects potentially “visible” individuals at the expense of “invisible victims” and otherwise fails to meet the needs (...) of great numbers of people with serious psychiatric conditions: prioritization of the wrong patients, incentivization of excessive caution among providers, and a narrow definition of psychiatry's purview. While each of these practices has been discussed elsewhere in the literature, they are rarely considered as part of an interrelated and systemic problem. Reconceptualizing these three issues as aspects of the larger conflict between the interests of “visible” and “invisible” victims may prove a path toward reform. (shrink)

Abstract:In this essay, I argue against the bright-line distinction between ideal and nonideal normative political theory, a distinction used to distinguish “stages” of theorizing such that ideal political principles can be deduced and examined before compromises with the flawed political world are made. The distinction took on its familiar form in Rawls and has enjoyed a resurgence of interest in the past few years. I argue that the idea of a categorical distinction — the kind that could allow for a (...) sequencing of stages of theorizing — is misconceived, because wholly “ideal” normative political theory is a conceptual mistake, the equivalent of taking the simplifying models of introductory physics (“frictionless movement in a vacuum”) and trying to develop an ideal theory of aerodynamics. Political organization and justice are about moral friction in the first instance. I examine both logical and epistemological arguments for the position that we need the uniquely idealizing assumptions of ideal theory in order to arrive at, or to know, a genuine theory of justice or political morality; and I find them wanting. Such assumptions as full compliance, consensus, and the publicity principle of universal knowledge about consensus can sometimes be useful, if used carefully and with justification; but they are not categorically different from other idealizing and abstracting assumptions in generating normative theory. What is referred to as “nonideal” theory is all that there is, and it is many kinds of theory, not one — the many ways in which we learn about justice and injustice, and seek to answer questions of practical reason about what ought to be done in our political world. (shrink)

This edited volume demonstrates that a virtue-centered approach to the ethical life is a consistent feature of William James’s moral reasoning from the 1880s until his death. Yet, little else remains constant within his writings on these subjects, and this inconstancy furthers interest in his work over a century later.

Perhaps "perspective" is a better work than "thesis." For, as Smith unfolds it, this becomes such a large idea that it tends to generate, rather than require, lines of argument. The book as a whole is thus a speculative work in the best, and altogether too rare, sense of the word. In order to assess it, the reader cannot simply "go to his experience." He must also stand before his own ideas about experience. And if he does this in the (...) spirit of impartiality, he may directly observe the sense of Smith's perspective: that we do not understand the basis and meaning of that chain of experience which constitutes our life. Such a realization will surely involve the feelings as well as thought. To the degree it involves both, it may be a moment of that sort of doubt which prefigures what Smith terms "the religious dimension" of life. (shrink)

This paper examines the rise of socially responsible investment (SRI) as a sustainable finance mechanism and discusses the potential of SRI to contribute toward a more socially responsible and environmentally sound model of commerce in the Asia-Pacific region. Using a case study approach, I argue in this paper that the potential of SRI to accelerate the private sector toward greater sustainability has been to date largely explored within the North American and European regional contexts and that the future global development (...) of SRI is likely to depend on whether and to what degree SRI becomes a viable financial instrument in industrialized (Japan) and emerging (Hong Kong/China) economies of the Asia-Pacific region. (shrink)

The Durban Platform for Enhanced Action was adopted at the 2011 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) in South Africa and one of the key achievements of the 2011 UN Conference was the agreement on and the launch of the Green Climate Fund. As the international community prepares for the 2012 UNFCC talks to start in Qatar in November-December 2012, the past history of global environmental and climate change financing issues as well as the role of finance (...) and investment in addressing global climate change will be examined in this article using the Green Climate Fund as a case study. While it is hard to be optimistic about the current international geo-political context and the policy success of the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, the Green Climate Fund does represent a real opportunity to move forward on global climate governance and bring real economic and technological dividends to the developing world. (shrink)

This study examined the effect of the pique technique preceded by a disrupting process. Passersby in the street were asked for money, either for a common amount of change (control) or 37 cents (pique technique). In half of the cases, the requester added a disrupting sentence at the beginning of the request. Results showed that the pique technique alone and the disrupting technique alone increased compliance with the request. Adding a first disrupting sentence to the pique also increased compliance compared (...) with the other three conditions. These results support the theoretical explanation that the initial disrupting sentence associated with the pique could reduce the influence of the refusal script activated by the money request. (shrink)

Il y a plusieurs manières de penser la mort : en«s’exerçant à mourir », c’est-à-dire en acceptant notre finitude, ou bien en promettant d’« en finir avec la mort », en affirmant une vie plus originaire que l’opposition entre vie et mort. Afin de comprendre quelle conception défend Derrida, l’on interroge ses analyses portant sur le deuil et la survivance. L’on montre que, pour échapper à la fois à l’aporie de la relève et à celle de la finitude, il a (...) recours à la littérature ; notamment aux écrits de Blanchot qui esquissent le motif d’une « mort sans mort », de la « demeurance » d’un survivant qui resterait en instance de mourir, dans un interminable deuil de soi. De cette expérience auto-bio-thanatographique, se distingue cependant celle d’autres écrivains comme Artaud qui affirment l’entrelacement de la vie et de la mort sous le primat de la vie. (shrink)

The use of Internet to aid research practice has become more popular in the recent years. In fact, some believe that Internet surveying and electronic data collection may revolutionize many disciplines by allowing for easier data collection, larger samples, and therefore more representative data. However, others are skeptical of its usability as well as its practical value. The paper highlights both positive and negative outcomes experienced in a number of e-research projects, focusing on several common mistakes and difficulties experienced by (...) the authors. The discussion focuses on ethics and review board issues, recruitment and sampling techniques, technological issues and errors, and data collection, cleaning, and analysis. (shrink)

Several hypotheses on the form and function of sex differences in social behaviors were tested. The results suggest that friendship preferences in both sexes can be understood in terms of perceived reciprocity potential—capacity and willingness to engage in a mutually beneficial relationship. Divergent social styles may in turn reflect trade-offs between behaviors selected to maintain large, functional coalitions in men and intimate, secure relationships in women. The findings are interpreted from a broad socio-relational framework of the types of behaviors that (...) facilitate selective advertisement and investment of reciprocity potential across individuals and within groups of men and women. (shrink)

The volume under review is an ambitious undertaking in three parts to edit and analyze the treaties, laws, and covenants of the ancient Near Eastern world, and the authors are to be congratulated for assembling the anthology of texts in part 1. Unfortunately, both the analytic resources provided in part 2 and the historical survey in part 3 are flawed. This article explores the various factors that compromise the comparative approach employed by the authors in these two parts.

The article analyses the constitution of subjectivity in Ruben Östlund’s film Force Majeure. At the centre of attention stands the male protagonist who is uncapable of reconciling his inner nature with the external expectations. If the film may be un- derstood as a critique of existing middle-class conventions, it also reproduces a highly conventional ideal of the self-identical subject. The article argues that this confusion or irony is an expression of a Cartesian subject – still prevalent in the film – (...) in crisis. A neglected aspect of Descartes’ theory is that the autonomy of the subjects presupposes the existence of God. The problem for Östlund’s char- acters is that there is no God. Still, they act as if he, or as if any au- thority might, legitimize their subjectivity. Thus, the whole existence becomes a series of performances. The idea of an inner nature cor- responds with the notion of an outer nature. The latter is certainly very present in Force Majeure, but at the same time this nature is constantly problematized. On an allegorical level, the film may thus be read as a comment on the Anthropocene, a state where we no longer know neither what “nature”, nor “culture” is. (shrink)

What is the antidote to romantic love that all too often exhausts itself over night? This work suggests love can be a reflection of our spiritual being. It states that by the time we are living together something beyond passion is required something intentional and conscious is needed.

The New Alexandrian Library is to be inaugurated at the end of 1998 on the royal site of the great ancient metropolis, that is, on the site of the Museum founded by Ptolemy I to enclose his mythical collection of books. This ambitious project of a “public research library “ was undertaken on the initiative of the Egyptian government and has, since 1986, received the support of UNESCO.