Economic growth and development remain embedded in the very core of our current international economic system and the so called “material economy”. However, depleting natural resources and environmental degradation, which now threaten the well-being of future generations, has challenged this premise, and placed sustainable development as a necessary objective of business activity and expansion. Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) have emerged as a key tool for governments, businesses, and NGOs to manage the negative impact of their activities on the environment. Businesses (...) in particular play a key role in averting or mitigating current environmental trends given that the economic growth they have stimulated has serious consequences for both the environment and social well-being. However, research on the use of EIAs has been conducted mostly from a governmental perspective producing a clear gap between research development and business (corporate) practice. To bridge this gap in knowledge, we develop a new EIA process tailored to real world business constraints and provide a range of propositions which we hope will stimulate future research efforts toward understanding and guiding how businesses integrate environmental issues into their decision-making processes. (shrink)

Three experiments explored the effects of word problem cueing on debiasing versions of the bat-and-ball problem. In the experimental condition order, participants solved a simpler isomorphic version of the problem prior to solving a standard version that, critically, had the same item-and-dollar amounts. Conversely, in the control condition order, participants solved the standard version prior to solving the isomorph. Across the first 2 experiments, participants cued with the isomorph were more likely to correctly solve the standard version of the problem. (...) In the third experiment, this cueing effect was not replicated, but importantly cued participants were more likely to correctly solve the standard version of the problem with other item-and-dollar amounts, indicating near transfer. Far transfer was evident in faster response times to other problems in the Cognitive Reflection Test following practice. Along with providing converging evidence for the cueing account, these results are consistent with recent attentional debiasing findings. (shrink)

In recent decades the relationship between psychoanalysis and psychotherapy has been a focal point for debate about the distinctiveness of analysis as a particular kind of therapeutic enterprise. In _Interpretation and Interaction_, Jerome Oremland invokes the interventions of "interpretation" and "interaction," rooted in the values of understanding and amelioration, respectively, as a conceptual basis for reappraising these important issues. In place of the commonly accepted triadic division among psychoanalysis, exploratory psychotherapy, and supportive psychotherapy, he proposes a new triad: psychoanalysis, (...) psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy, and interactive psychotherapy. Anchoring his classification in what he terms the "orientation of the therapy" rather than the "orientation of the therapist," Oremland submits that analysis and psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy strive systematically to _interpret_ the therapeutic interaction as expressed in the transference. Interactive psychotherapy, on the other hand, uses the transference selectively to ameliorate psychic stress. _Interpretation and Interaction_ is enriched by a concluding chapter from Merton Gill, a preeminent authority on the therapeutic process. Gill's critical appreciation of Oremland's proposals amounts to an illuminating refinement of his own position on the relationship between psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Scholarly in conception, thoughtful in tone, and pragmatic in yield, _Interpretation and Interaction_ is a clarifying addition to the psychoanalytic theory of psychotherapy. It will have the practical consequence, in Gill's words, of "aiding clinicians in retaining their analytic identities and their analytic orientation across the spectrum of their therapeutic work.". (shrink)

Afropessimism incites controversy within and without the academy for the provocation that modernity’s ethical life, including its purportedly progressive facets, is entirely undergirded by a rejection of blackness. On this basis it squares a self-concept as a non-prescriptive theoretical framework with a negative prescription of “world-abolition.” I reconstruct Afropessimism’s conceptual apparatus in light of its criticism in academic philosophy. I then relate the theory’s negativism with Theodor Adorno’s view that “in wrong life there is no right life,” to argue that (...) Afropessimists should take up the implication that there is no right thinking. (shrink)

Much of our understanding of human thinking is based on probabilistic models. This innovative book by Jerome R. Busemeyer and Peter D. Bruza argues that, actually, the underlying mathematical structures from quantum theory provide a much better account of human thinking than traditional models. They introduce the foundations for modelling probabilistic-dynamic systems using two aspects of quantum theory. The first, 'contextuality', is a way to understand interference effects found with inferences and decisions under conditions of uncertainty. The second, 'quantum (...) entanglement', allows cognitive phenomena to be modeled in non-reductionist ways. Employing these principles drawn from quantum theory allows us to view human cognition and decision in a totally new light. Introducing the basic principles in an easy-to-follow way, this book does not assume a physics background or a quantum brain and comes complete with a tutorial and fully worked-out applications in important areas of cognition and decision. (shrink)

Joshua 13–21 makes the remarkable claim that the Lord conquered, possessed, and gave the land as a gift to Israel. Although these chapters likely originated in political concerns of Israelite kings, the theological cast of the material outstrips any political motivations that gave rise to the material. The enduring role of this section of Joshua is to shape a society devoted to and dependent on God.

Cancers rely on multiple, heterogeneous processes at different scales, pertaining to many biomedical fields. Therefore, understanding cancer is necessarily an interdisciplinary task that requires placing specialised experimental and clinical research into a broader conceptual, theoretical, and methodological framework. Without such a framework, oncology will collect piecemeal results, with scant dialogue between the different scientific communities studying cancer. We argue that one important way forward in service of a more successful dialogue is through greater integration of applied sciences (experimental and clinical) (...) with conceptual and theoretical approaches, informed by philosophical methods. By way of illustration, we explore six central themes: (i) the role of mutations in cancer; (ii) the clonal evolution of cancer cells; (iii) the relationship between cancer and multicellularity; (iv) the tumour microenvironment; (v) the immune system; and (vi) stem cells. In each case, we examine open questions in the scientific literature through a philosophical methodology and show the benefit of such a synergy for the scientific and medical understanding of cancer. (shrink)

Le présent article propose de faire le point sur la façon dont le législateur français appréhende le conflit d’intérêts dans le milieu sanitaire, partagé entre droit commun et déontologie, au moment même où des scandales médiatiques l’obligent à encadrer la profession médicale. Le problème du débat juridique français est de se concentrer sur la définition essentialiste du conflit d’intérêts, alors qu’une approche pragmatique semblerait plus appropriée pour le qualifier pénalement. L’expérience française que nous relatons ici est riche d’enseignement pour d’autres (...) États. Entre déontologie et droit normatif, ce débat montre les limites du langage juridique et nous éclaire sur la bonne méthode à appliquer pour traiter les conflits d’intérêts. (shrink)

Platon, dans les Lois, renonce au vocabulaire des « parties de l’âme » et souligne l’unité de l’activité psychique humaine: nous sommes mus de l’extérieur, comme une marionnette par des fils (I, 644c-645a). Comment comprendre la mollesse de l’or et la dureté du fer dont il est alors question? Y a-t-il nécessairement conflit entre ces différentes impulsions?

The book Identité et primauté d’autrui presents a study of intersubjectivity in Merleau-Ponty. Subjectivity emerges against a background of a world shared with the other, a human world, and is preceded by its relationship to the other. The assumption of the primary character of this relationship takes on the shape of hospitality. Such a politics of hospitality is opposed to state politics aiming for cultural security and the defense of values, taking their origins in neoconservatism and notably deployed against immigration (...) and mixity. This original study of hospitality, departing from Merleau-Ponty in an original manner while remaining anchored in the Phenomenology of Perception, offers a response to the need to protect an unavoidable ontological pluralism. (shrink)

Les écrits manuscrits ou imprimés du chirurgien accoucheur Jean-Louis Baudelocque et ceux de ses principaux rivaux, éclairent les enjeux de pouvoir et les stratégies d’occupation de l’espace pédagogique et éditorial dans le domaine obstétrical dans les années 1770-1780. L’établissement d’un stemma explicitant les modes de production des écrits de Baudelocque, puis l’analyse comparative de ces différents écrits, enfin celle des accusations de plagiat et des jugements contemporains portés sur son œuvre et sur ce qu’il doit à son maître Solayrés de (...) Renhac, permettent de comprendre la production par Baudelocque d’un savoir obstétrical propre associée à de nouvelles stratégies éditoriales. (shrink)

Late in 1990, the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at Illinois Institute of Technology (lIT) received a grant of more than $200,000 from the National Science Foundation to try a campus-wide approach to integrating professional ethics into its technical curriculum.! Enough has now been accomplished to draw some tentative conclusions. I am the grant's principal investigator. In this paper, I shall describe what we at lIT did, what we learned, and what others, especially philosophers, can learn (...) from us. We set out to develop an approach that others could profitably adopt. I believe that we succeeded. (shrink)

Current UK legislation is impacting upon the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of medical record-based research aimed at benefiting the NHS and the public heath. Whereas previous commentators have focused on the Data Protection Act 1998, the Health and Social Care Act 2001 is the key legislation for public health researchers wishing to access medical records without written consent. The Act requires researchers to apply to the Patient Information Advisory Group for permission to access medical records without written permission. We present a (...) case study of the work required to obtain the necessary permissions from PIAG in order to conduct a large scale public health research project. In our experience it took eight months to receive permission to access basic identifying information on individuals registered at general practices, and a decision on whether we could access clinical information in medical records without consent took 18 months. Such delays pose near insurmountable difficulties to grant funded research, and in our case £560 000 of public and charitable money was spent on research staff while a large part of their work was prohibited until the third year of a three year grant. We conclude by arguing that many of the current problems could be avoided by returning PIAG’s responsibilities to research ethics committees, and by allowing “opt-out” consent for many public health research projects. (shrink)

Cet article analyse les liens entre les SEL et l'économie solidaire. Les SEL sont définis comme des associations au sein desquelles des personnes échangent services et biens au moyen d'une comptabilité interne tenue en une monnaie propre ; elles émergent en 1983. SEL et économie solidaire partagent certains objectifs communs. Les SEL revendiquent en effet par leurs actions l'institution de nouveaux rapports économiques procédant d'une solidarité sous la forme d'une proximité relationnelle et spatiale, à laquelle ne répondent pas l'échange marchand (...) et la redistribution étatique. Cependant les SEL peuvent voir leur projet solidaire remis en cause, en particulier pour deux raisons : le risque d'instrumentalisation politique d'une part, la contrainte juridique et sociale d'autre part.This article analyzes links between LETS and a civil and solidarity-based economy. LETS are defined as associations in which individuals exchange services and goods by means of an internal accounting system based on its own currency. The first LETS appeared in 1983. These LETS and the new social economy share some common purposes. By their actions, LETS aim to set up a new system of economic relations based on solidarity proceeding from relational and spatial proximity. Market exchanges and State redistribution do not provide an efficient response to these needs. However, there are certain threats to the solidarity aimed at by LETS such as firstly the risk that politicians may instrumentalize these initatives and secondly legal and social constraints. (shrink)

Reflections on Medicine is a rich sampling of 70 essays from a collection of more than 300 essays Robert Massey wrote for Connecticut Medicine: The Journal of the Connecticut State Medical Society, between 1973 and 2005. It is an elegant buffet of the thoughts and observations of a remarkable man. In his foreword to the book, Sherwin Nuland writes: "he applied his massive erudition to so many [other] themes, universal and specific—he accepted the uncertainty of human wisdom and even knowledge, (...) recognizing that it is for each generation to look anew at dilemmas both modern and ancient" (p. ix). In fact, there are countless references to the writings of Albert Schweitzer, T. S. Eliot, Mark Twain, and Lewis Thomas .. (shrink)

This closely reasoned philosophical study develops two metaethical positions: a pragmatist view of truth in ethics and a pragmatist view of principles in moral inquiry. To reach these notions Heney gives a close reading of Peirce, James, Dewey, and C. I. Lewis. In the process she engages with current debates in ethical theory.Heney makes a strong case for the importance of metaethics, the inquiry into the meaning of and justification for ethical terms and propositions. She focuses on the primacy of (...) practice, which implies consideration of how groups and individuals deal with moral discourse, moral disagreement, and value-laden experience.I will first elucidate her constructive position in... (shrink)

Jérôme Ravat | : Cet article vise à souligner la place centrale qu’occupe l’analogie au sein de l’éthique animale, à la fois d’un point de vue descriptif, explicatif et normatif. Nous montrons que l’analogie joue un rôle décisif dans la compréhension du statut moral de l’animal, puisqu’elle permet d’éclairer ce qui est moins connu à partir de ce qui est plus connu. Nous soulignerons le fait que l’analogie revêt deux fonctions significatives : une fonction critique et une fonction intégratrice. Nous (...) montrons également que l’analogie, en vertu de sa dimension interprétative, suscite également de nombreux désaccords, et produit des représentations morales divergentes de l’animal. | : This paper aims at emphasizing the key role played by analogy in animal ethics, from a descriptive, explicative, and normative point of view. I show that analogy is decisive for the understanding of animals’ moral status, since it can shed light on the unknown thanks to what is known. I will emphasize that analogy has two significant functions: a critical function and an integrative function. Furthermore, I demonstrate that analogy, because of its interpretative dimension, begets many disagreements and produces divergent moral conceptions of animals. (shrink)