Charvet presents a "critical reconstruction" of Rousseau’s argument in the Second Discourse, Emile, and the Social Contract, in order to elucidate the French philosopher’s thought about the problem of "the individual’s relation to others in society." While the book is devoid of reference to other works of Rousseau scholarship, this seeming lack helps to give Charvet’s critical work a refreshing clarity and directness.

Vinit Haksar has written a fairly lengthy book in order to establish a rather simple point : that it is impossible to arrive at an adequate account of justice without judging the objective merit of alternative ways of life. The main target of his argument is John Rawls, whose influential A Theory of Justice purports to sever considerations of justice from those of the human good in precisely this way. Haksar’s argument is also intended, however, as a criticism of the (...) views of such other contemporary liberal theorists as Ronald Dworkin and Robert Nozick. (shrink)

Continuous recordings of brain electrical activity were obtained from a group of 176 patients throughout surgical procedures using general anesthesia. Artifact-free data from the 19 electrodes of the International 10/20 System were subjected to quantitative analysis of the electroencephalogram (QEEG). Induction was variously accomplished with etomidate, propofol or thiopental. Anesthesia was maintained throughout the procedures by isoflurane, desflurane or sevoflurane (N = 68), total intravenous anesthesia using propofol (N = 49), or nitrous oxide plus narcotics (N = 59). A set (...) of QEEG measures were found which reversibly displayed high heterogeneity of variance between four states as follows: (1) during induction; (2) just after loss of consciousness (LOC); (3) just before return of consciousness (ROC); (4) just after ROC. Homogeneity of variance across all agents within states was found. Topographic statistical probability images were compared between states. At LOC, power increased in all frequency bands in the power spectrum with the exception of a decrease in gamma activity, and there was a marked anteriorization of power. Additionally, a significant change occurred in hemispheric relationships, with prefrontal and frontal regions of each hemisphere becoming more closely coupled, and anterior and posterior regions on each hemisphere, as well as homologous regions between the two hemispheres, uncoupling. All of these changes reversed upon ROC. Variable resolution electromagnetic tomography (VARETA) was performed to localize salient features of power anteriorization in three dimensions. A common set of neuroanatomical regions appeared to be the locus of the most probable generators of the observed EEG changes. (shrink)

Brandt's purpose is to clarify and help resolve the fundamental issues of moral philosophy by using "non-traditional types of evidence and non-traditional argument." Observing the deficiencies of common approaches to morality that build on alleged linguistic or moral "intuitions", he proposes instead to build on the findings of "contemporary psychology." Despite the promised novelty of Brandt's approach, however, his ultimate substantive findings differ relatively little from those of other contemporary Anglo-American writers on moral philosophy such as Rawls, and his method (...) of arguing for them suffers from some of the same defects that characterize more overtly intuitionistic approaches. (shrink)

The author of this study aims to provide a synthetic survey of Diderot’s philosophy, as distinguished from the numerous analytic studies that have been made of particular aspects of the Frenchman’s thought. The central thread uniting Diderot’s various works, Crocker contends, is a view of the universe as comprising simultaneously both order and disorder in an ineluctable tension. In the initial chapter, Crocker outlines this rather loose theme by examining Diderot’s "dynamic" conception of the physical universe and man’s ambiguous relation (...) to it. The theme is elucidated in succeeding chapters devoted, respectively, to Diderot’s aesthetic theories, his view of morality, and his political thought. Crocker stresses the evolution of Diderot’s thought on these subjects as a consequence of the very intractability of the central problem that concerned him. Although Diderot often contradicted himself, the author concludes, his self-contradictions were a reflection of the contradictory nature of reality as perceived by both Diderot and the author. (shrink)

There is a widespread disagreement, Drucker observes, about "what an ideology is." He proposes to cast light on the subject, not by proffering his own definition, but by showing that the diversity of opinion about the meaning of ideology is itself the product of differing ideological points of view. Part I of the book describes "the various definitions of ideology which occur in writing directed primarily to intellectual audiences," notably the views of Destutt de Tracy, Marx, Comte, and several contemporary (...) sociologists. In Part II the author examines four individual examples of "manifestly ideological" writing: Milton’s Areopagitica, Paine’s Common Sense, Comte’s Appeal to Conservatives, and Koestler’s Darkness at Noon. The third and concluding section of the book argues "that the various notions of ideology current today fit easily into the scheme of one or other" of three ideologies: Liberalism, Conservatism, and Marxism. (shrink)

Jean Philiponus est un théologien monophysite du VIe siècle qui a commenté le De Anima d'Aristote. Il suit le traitement d'Aristote au sujet de la vue et de la lumière. Il se demande si l'oeil est purement un récepteur passif de lumière ou si il est un émetteur de rayons visuels en interaction avec l'objet et de ce fait rend la vision possible. Jean Philiponus en arrive à une nouvelle théorie de la vision où celle-ci apparaît comme une faculté en (...) interaction avec ce qui est vu en raison de la nature non corporelle de la lumière. On est ici au tout début de la controverse sur les images. (shrink)

This book would more aptly, if wordily, have been subtitled "An Introduction to Contemporary Liberal, Anglo-American Political Philosophy." The author’s purpose is "to bring within a single focus the main lines of thinking in the recent welter of speculation on social justice" as set forth by such scholars as John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and Kenneth Arrow. Pettit’s conception of political philosophy, his selection of views to be considered, and his judgments of those views are bounded by political assumptions derived from (...) liberal egalitarianism, and methodological premises characteristic of the "analytic" school of philosophy: Marxist thought is barely alluded to, and there is no reference to the work of such radically different thinkers as Martin Heidegger or Leo Strauss. (shrink)

Islamic education; Islamic ethics; thesis.

We assess J. Baird Callicott’s attempt in Earth’s Insights to reconcile his land ethic with the “environmental ethics” of indigenous peoples. We critique the rejection of ethical pluralism that informs this attempted rapprochement. We also assess Callicott’s strategy of grounding his land ethic in a postmodern scientific world view by contrasting it with the roles of “respect” and narrative in indigenous “ethics.”.

While outcomes for children with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia have improved dramatically, survival rates for patients with relapsed/refractory disease remain dismal. Prior studies indicate that glucocorticoid resistance is more common than resistance to other chemotherapies at relapse. In addition, failure to clear peripheral blasts during a prednisone prophase correlates with an elevated risk of relapse in newly diagnosed patients. Here we show that intrinsic GC resistance is present at diagnosis in early thymic precursor T-ALLs as well as in a subset (...) of non-ETP T-ALLs. GC-resistant non-ETP T-ALLs are characterized by strong induction of JAK/STAT signaling in response to interleukin-7 stimulation. Removing IL7 or inhibiting JAK/STAT signaling sensitizes these T-ALLs, and a subset of ETP T-ALLs, to GCs. The combination of the GC dexamethasone and the JAK1/2 inhibitor ruxolitinib altered the balance between pro- and anti-apoptotic factors in samples with IL7-dependent GC resistance, but not in samples with IL7-independent GC resistance. Together, these data suggest that the addition of ruxolitinib or other inhibitors of IL7 receptor/JAK/STAT signaling may enhance the efficacy of GCs in a biologically defined subset of T-ALL.Leukemia advance online publication, 30 May 2017; doi:10.1038/leu.2017.136. (shrink)