This article explores Leila Ahmed’s A Border Passage, and Nawal El Saadawi’s Memoirs from the Women’s Prison, A Daughter of Isis, and Walking Through Fire. It contrasts their works and argues that location and genderawareness play an important role in the writing of autobiographies. The focus is on showing how El Saadawi’s positioning as a feminist activist in Egypt and Ahmed’s location in the USA determine the texts’ themes and shape the construction of the autobiographical “I.”.

There is substantial variation in language experience, yet there is surprising similarity in the language structure acquired. Constraints on language structure may be external modulators that result in this canalization of language structure, or else they may derive from the broader, communicative environment in which language is acquired. In this paper, the latter perspective is tested for its adequacy in explaining robustness of language learning to environmental variation. A computational model of word learning from cross-situational, multimodal information was constructed and (...) tested. Key to the model's robustness was the presence of multiple, individually unreliable information sources to support learning. This “degeneracy” in the language system has a detrimental effect on learning, compared to a noise-free environment, but has a critically important effect on acquisition of a canalized system that is resistant to environmental noise in communication. (shrink)

It is difficult to understand the meaning of ‘dignity’ in human rights, bioethics and nursing literature because the word is used so vaguely. Unless dignity’s meaning is spelt out it can disappear beneath more tangible priorities. In this article we define dignity and show how this can help health workers to maintain the dignity of people in their care.

Background: Compassionate care is an international priority of healthcare professionals. There is little understanding about how workplace issues impact provision of compassionate care in nursing practice. Therefore, it is important to address the workplace issues and organizational factors which may hinder compassionate care delivery within nursing practice. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore workplace and organizational barriers to compassionate care from the nurses’ perspective. Research design: The study used a qualitative exploratory design, and data were analyzed by (...) conventional content analysis. Participants and research context: A total of 15 nurses working in different fields of nursing were recruited from four hospitals at northwest of Iran. Participants were selected by purposive sampling. Semistructured interviews were conducted for data collection. Ethical consideration: Ethical approval of this study was gained from the Ethical Review Board of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. Findings: The main theme which emerged from data analysis was “unsupportive organizational culture.” This theme had two main categories including “excessive workload alongside inadequate staffing” and “the lack of value on compassionate care.” Discussion: Organizational barriers to development of compassionate in clinical practice were identified in this study. A closer examination of these barriers is required to move compassionate practice from an individual responsibility to a collective responsibility that is owned and shared by organizations. Conclusion: For compassionate care to flourish, policy makers, managers, and healthcare providers must foster an organizational atmosphere conducive to compassionate care. (shrink)

During a dialogue, agents exchange information with each other and need thus to deal with incoming information. For that purpose, they should be able to reason effectively about trustworthiness of information sources. This paper proposes an argument-based system that allows an agent to reason about its own beliefs and information received from other sources. An agent's beliefs are of two kinds: beliefs about the environment and beliefs about trusting sources . Six basic forms of trust are discussed in the paper (...) including the most common one on sincerity. Starting with a base which contains such information, the system builds two types of arguments: arguments in favour of trusting a given source of information and arguments in favour of believing statements which may be received from other agents. We discuss how the different arguments interact and how an agent may decide to trust another source and thus to accept information coming from that source... (shrink)

Diverse and dynamic societies face a problem of social control. Institutions of social control, of which the police are a part, are a necessary part of just and legitimate governance. But in our non-ideal world they are also responsible for injustices of their own. This project raises questions of political philosophy as they apply to the professional police agency. It begins by constructing an inchoate, but mainstream view about just policing, legalism, according to which police power is justified by the (...) criminal code, and just policing is just the faithful enforcement of law. This view is undermined by the practical realities of policing, which involves widespread and unavoidable police discretion. It then develops an account of just and legitimate police discretion, including principles of proportionality, liberal neutrality, and democratic responsiveness. This sheds lights on controversial police tactics, order maintenance initiatives, and community policing strategies. This account also informs the just institutional arrangement of police powers, informing ongoing debates about police reform and abolition. (shrink)

Iconicity, the resemblance between the form of a word and its meaning, has effects on behavior in both communicative symbol development and language learning experiments. These results have invited speculation about iconicity being a key feature of the origins of language, yet the presence of iconicity in natural languages seems limited. In a diachronic study of language change, we investigated the extent to which iconicity is a stable property of vocabulary, alongside previously investigated psycholinguistic predictors of change. Analyzing 784 English (...) words with data on their historical forms, we found that stable words are higher in iconicity, longer in length, and earlier acquired during development, but that the role of frequency and grammatical category may be less important than previously suggested. Iconicity is revealed as a feature of ultra-conserved words and potentially also as a property of vocabulary early in the history of language origins. (shrink)

The structure of police agencies, especially how the boundaries of their authority are drawn, is a crucial element of their legitimacy. Poorly drawn boundaries encourage unjustified police power and illegitimate police agencies. Claiming that realized political entities in developed democracies are illegitimate is fraught, in part because the difference between legitimate and illegitimate political power can be subtle in practice. To overcome this difficulty, I propose thinking in terms of “legitimacy-risk profiles.” I develop a way of determining a measure of (...) risk to legitimacy associated with various kinds of police power and agency structure. I then use it to explore the institutional boundaries recommended by the legitimacy-risk profiles of different kinds of policing. The result is a normative framework for thinking about political legitimacy at the realized—that is, not the fundamental and idealized—level. (shrink)

This article focuses on the implicit statistical learning of words and syntax. Monaghan, Schoetensack and Rebuschat introduce a novel paradigm that combines theoretical and methodological insights from the two research traditions, implicit learning and statistical learning. Their cross‐situational learning paradigm has been used in the statistical learning literature, while their measures of awareness have widely been used in implicit learning research. They illustrate how the two literatures can be conjoined in a single paradigm to explore implicit statistical learning.

S’appuyant sur les biographies de sœur Jacinta – responsable de la fondation du premier couvent carmélite féminin de l’Amérique portugaise – et sur les lettres intimes qu’elle écrivit à ses confesseurs, cette étude examine la manière dont son image de religieuse exemplaire a été construite selon le modèle féminin de sainteté catholique qui dominait au XVIIIe siècle. On souligne aussi les différents procédés propres à l’hagiographie décelables dans ces écrits, ce qui suggère que les auteurs ont tenté de construire une (...) aura de sainteté autour de Jacinta. (shrink)

The Hebrew Bible: glimpses of immortality -- Early post-biblical literature: gateways to heaven and hell -- The mishnah: who will merit the world to come? -- The Talmud: what happens in the next world? -- Medieval Jewish philosophy: faith and reason -- Mysticism: reincarnation in Kabbalah -- Modernity: what do we believe? -- The Messiah: the eternal thread of hope.

In several recent issues of this journal, I argued for an account of property possession as strict, numerical identity. While this account has stuck some as being highly idiosyncratic in nature, it is not entirely something new under the sun, since as I will argue in this paper, it turns out to have a historic precedent in Plato⠀™ s theory of forms. Indeed, the purpose of this paper is twofold. The first is to show that my account of property (...) possession can be utilized to provide a novel interpretation of Plato⠀™ s theory of forms. And the second is to show that once it has been divorced from a variety of implausible doctrines with which it has historically been wedded, Plato⠀™ s central insight that all properties possess themselves, far from being of mere historical interest, is independently plausible, ironically enough, even from an empirical point of view. (shrink)

Communities of faith are not perfect and the readings this week invite us to deal with the reality of sin in ways that lead to positive change grounded in our mutual responsibility to and for each other.

Many people wonder as they look at their newborn child about how this perfect child can be marked by original sin. This invites us to look more deeply at our understanding of human nature and our capacity to make choices that can give life to ourselves and others, or take life and diminish it. While we have tended to identify the sin of the first couple as some sort of sexual sin, this is not supported by the text of Genesis. (...) The original sin is one of seeking knowledge, of overstepping the boundaries established by God, and grasping what is not ours. We are created in God's image, but that does not mean being equal to God-clearly not. God intimately and lovingly breathed life into the creature of the earth, but being so richly blessed is sadly not enough. The story is a complex one that leaves the reader wondering why God places the tree of the knowledge of good and evil right in the midst of the garden, where the first couple cannot avoid seeing it and continually have to confront the boundary that God has set. The role of the serpent prompts questions that will remain unanswered about how God allows the serpent to exist in the first place, let alone endanger the peace and tranquillity of the garden. (shrink)

After the episode of the golden calf, in his anger Moses had smashed and broken the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. Despite the shameful apostasy of the people, they were given another opportunity to enter into a covenant relationship with the living God. The first set of tablets God had given to Moses, and now it is Moses who must bring new tablets that God will inscribe. It is symbolic of the fact of the covenant relationship that humanity must (...) do its part and not leave it all to God as passive recipients; no, we must become active participants. Centuries later, the prophet Jeremiah will speak of the law being written on our hearts. All of us are invited to bring our hearts into God's presence so that the process of conversion may continue. Moses' proclamation of the tenderness, compassion and kindness of God in the face of human frailty should never be forgotten. (shrink)

Iran is the only Muslim country that has legislation on embryo donation, adopted in 2003. With an estimated 10–15% of couples in the country that are infertile, there are not any legal or religious barriers that prohibit an infertile couple from taking advantage of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs). Although all forms of ARTs available in Iran have been legitimized by religious authorities, there is a lack of legislation in all ARTs except embryo donation. By highlighting ethical issues in embryo donation, (...) the paper presents a critical review of the Act of Embryo Donation in Iran. The paper argues that the Act does not provide enough safeguards for the future child and assurance for the safety of the donated embryos. It also does not restrict embryo donation to surplus embryos from infertile couples and is silent about the number of embryos that could be donated by each couple as well as the number of recipients for donated embryos by a couple. The Act is also silent about the issues of genetic linkage (nasab) and heritage which are challenging issues, especially in a conservative Islamic society. As a result, the future child may not inherit from their birth parents, as it is not required by the Act, or from the genetically related parents under the anonymity policy. Finally there is no standard national protocol or guidelines to evaluate the safety of the donated embryos. The paper concludes that despite its benefits, the Act lacks clarity, and it is subject to misunderstanding and confusion. (shrink)

Today, the US pursues the global capture of data (understood as a significant engine of growth) by way of bi- and plurilateral trade agreements. However, the project of securing the global free flow of data has been pursued ever since the dawn of digital telecommunication in the 1960s and the US has made significant legal efforts to institutionalise it. These efforts have two phases: In the first 1970s and 80s “freedom of information” phase, the legal justification (and contestation) of the (...) global free flow of data hinged on imagining data as information, and its exchange as a practice of liberty. The second phase began in the late 1990s and continues today. In this phase, the free flow of data is aligned with a free-trade agenda in the context of first e-commerce and, starting in the 2000s, through attempts at creating a global public domain of personal data for the platform economy. The global free flow of data is an intrinsic aspect of informational capitalism. Assuming a constitutive, but not commanding role for law in informational capitalism, we conclude that the US attempt at ensuring free flow for its informational corporations is neither an entirely contingent nor a necessary outcome. It is a product of legal imagination. (shrink)

As artificial intelligence technologies become increasingly prominent in our daily lives, media coverage of the ethical considerations of these technologies has followed suit. Since previous research has shown that media coverage can drive public discourse about novel technologies, studying how the ethical issues of AI are portrayed in the media may lead to greater insight into the potential ramifications of this public discourse, particularly with regard to development and regulation of AI. This paper expands upon previous research by systematically analyzing (...) and categorizing the media portrayal of the ethical issues of AI to better understand how media coverage of these issues may shape public debate about AI. Our results suggest that the media has a fairly realistic and practical focus in its coverage of the ethics of AI, but that the coverage is still shallow. A multifaceted approach to handling the social, ethical and policy issues of AI technology is needed, including increasing the accessibility of correct information to the public in the form of fact sheets and ethical value statements on trusted webpages, collaboration and inclusion of ethics and AI experts in both research and public debate, and consistent government policies or regulatory frameworks for AI technology. (shrink)

The primary method for defending biocentric individualism—a prominent theory of the moral value of organisms—is to appeal to the fact that certain things are good for or bad for living creatures, even if they are not sentient. This defense is typically and frequently met with the objection that we can determine what is good for some living creature without thereby having any moral reason or obligation to promote or avoid undermining it. In this paper I show how a theory of (...) the morality of defensive violence undermines this objection. (shrink)

Dung’s (1995) argumentation framework takes as input two abstract entities: a set of arguments and a binary relation encoding attacks between these arguments. It returns acceptable sets of arguments, called extensions, w.r.t. a given semantics. While the abstract nature of this setting is seen as a great advantage, it induces a big gap with the application that it is used to. This raises some questions about the compatibility of the setting with a logical formalism (i.e., whether it is possible to (...) instantiate it properly from a logical knowledge base), and about the significance of the various semantics in the application context. In this paper we tackle the above questions. We first propose to fill in the previous gap by extending Dung’s (1995) framework. The idea is to consider all the ingredients involved in an argumentation process. We start with the notion of an abstract monotonic logic which consists of a language (defining the formulas) and a consequence operator. We show how to build, in a systematic way, arguments from a knowledge base formalised in such a logic. We then recall some basic postulates that any instantiation should satisfy. We study how to choose an attack relation so that the instantiation satisfies the postulates. We show that symmetric attack relations are generally not suitable. However, we identify at least one ‘appropriate’ attack relation. Next, we investigate under stable, semi-stable, preferred, grounded and ideal semantics the outputs of logic-based instantiations that satisfy the postulates. For each semantics, we delimit the number of extensions an argumentation system may have, characterise the extensions in terms of subsets of the knowledge base, and finally characterise the set of conclusions that are drawn from the knowledge base. The study reveals that stable, semi-stable and preferred semantics either lead to counter-intuitive results or provide no added value w.r.t. naive semantics. Besides, naive semantics either leads to arbitrary results or generalises the coherence-based approach initially developed by Rescher and Manor (1970). Ideal and grounded semantics either coincide and generalise the free consequence relation developed by Benferhat, Dubois, and Prade (1997), or return arbitrary results. Consequently, Dung’s (1995) framework seems problematic when applied over deductive logical formalisms. (shrink)

The paper deals with a doctrine called the analogy theory of thinking. Its contemporary proponents have been Wilfried Sellars and Peter Geach. The paper is an attempt to give an exact formulation for one answer to the question concerning the relation of thought and speech. That answer is a reduced of Sellar's theory. A semiformal explication of the view is suggested by means of the classical analogy theory and Bochenski's treatment of that theory. It is argued that even if the (...) analogy theory of thinking is subject to serious criticism, it offers us tools for considering some old philosophical problems in a new way. (shrink)

This edited volume presents a comprehensive history of modern logic from the Middle Ages through the end of the twentieth century.

This article sketches a case for the importance of allowing and protecting civil disobedience in a democratic society. There are weighty reasons for non-enforcement of certain laws under certain circumstances, which undermines the legalistic claim that justice requires police to faithfully (try to) enforce all laws at all times. Furthermore, questions about how the police should respond to disobedient demonstrations are not settled by popular theoretical treatments of civil disobedience. Police responses to disobedient demonstrations should be guided by a principle (...) of proportionality. This proportionality requirement is more stringent in cases of self-generated needs for self-defense. Common police tactics like “skirmish lines” predictably escalate interactions and create a need for further defensive force, thereby violating the proportionality requirement. (shrink)

Political philosophy often focuses on “major institutions” that make up the “basic structure” of society. These include political, economic, and social institutions. In this paper I argue first that policing plays a substantial role in generating the kinds of inequalities and problems that are concerns of social or structural justice, and therefore that police agencies qualify as a major institution. When we abandon full compliance or similar idealizations, it is clear that policing is not a concern secondary to, e.g., the (...) electoral system or the scheme of property rights in a society. Nor, I argue, does maintaining full compliance or moral character idealizations obviate an active enforcement role. Eliminating that role from an idealized model society requires engaging in a methodologically and substantively unattractive amount of abstraction. The result is that an active enforcement role is at the core of a complete theory of justice rather than something that is significant only “downstream” from more fundamental issues. (shrink)

A concretização do direito à saúde deve ser viabilizada pelo Estado, com foco na efetivação das políticas públicas para garantia da implantação e funcionamento dos serviços demandados pelos respectivos grupos populacionais. Destarte, essa escrita objetivou analisar como o direito à saúde é contemplado em comunidades quilombolas de uma região geográfica baiana. Metodologicamente enquadra-se como de abordagem qualitativa, com informações obtidas por meio de entrevistas estruturadas (sobre a infraestrutura e/ou serviços públicos de saúde) desenvolvidas com as representações das Associações de Moradores (...) de 14 quilombos da região geográfica de Guanambi/Bahia durante o ano de 2016. Os achados indicam que uma comunidade possuía estrutura física específica para atendimentos básicos em saúde, no entanto, estava desativada. Três comunidades não tinham cobertura do Programa de Agentes Comunitários de Saúde (PACS). Entre as 11 que indicaram cobertura do Programa, em sete as(os) profissionais não residiam no território do quilombo. Diante da ampla ausência de infraestrutura e recorrente inadequação na prestação de serviços do PACS, evidencia-se a permanente negligência ao direito à saúde nesta população quilombola. (shrink)

Critical realism provides an alternative to positivism and interpretivism. It foregrounds ontology and an evaluative approach to knowledge, while promoting eclectic reasoning, transdisciplinarity, and ethical research across the quantitative/qualitative, macro/micro and other divides. Health researchers have usefully employed critical realism, though it has also been dismissed as strange, a source of self-deception and hubris. Furthermore, it has been accused of dehumanizing many people. Responding to these charges, this article makes the case for carefully employing critical realism within and beyond social (...) studies of health. It first outlines some basic critical realist tenets before summarizing two exemplars within the sociology of health, illness and medical work. The discussion section, observing the principle of hermeticism, engages with some criticisms before offering a prolegomenon to research on the COVID-19 pandemic response. In conclusion, a ‘radical’ proposal is ventured for possible transformative action so that society is less hierarchical, more equal and salutogenic. (shrink)

I often tell my students that the only thing that is not controversial in philosophy is that everything else in it is controversial. While this might be a bit of an exaggeration, it does contain a kernel of truth, as many exaggerations do: philosophy is a highly contentious discipline. So it is remarkable the extent to which there is agreement in the philosophy of religion amongst theists, agnostics, and atheists alike that John Mackie’s argument for atheism is either invalid or (...) unsound. As a result, the focus has entirely shifted from the logical problem of evil to the so-called evidential one. But I think that this is a mistake, not necessarily because I think Mackie’s argument is sound, but rather because I reject an assumption made by apparently all parties to the debate, which is that there is only one logical problem of evil. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to defend a deductive argument that God* does not exist. As far as I can tell, the basic idea of this argument is a novel one: while Mackie’s argument has a more or less consequentialist framework, mine has a deontological one. The evil of which I will speak is that of our having been thrown into the world. (shrink)

This article discusses findings from a mixed method literature review that investigated cancer patients’ perceptions of what constitutes a good nurse. To find pertinent articles, we conducted a systematic key word search of five journal databases (1998—2008). The application of carefully constructed inclusion criteria and critical appraisal identified 12 relevant articles. According to the patients, good nurses were shown to be characterized by specific, but inter-related, attitudes, skills and knowledge; they engage in person-to-person relationships, respect the uniqueness of patients, and (...) provide support. Professional and trained skills as well as broad and specific nursing and non-nursing knowledge are important. The analysis revealed that these characteristics nurtured patient well-being, which manifests as optimism, trust, hope, support, confirmation, safety and comfort. Cancer patients’ perceptions of what constitutes a good nurse represent an important source of knowledge that will enable the development of more comprehensive and practice-based views on good nursing care for such patients. These perceptions help us to understand how nurses effectively make a difference in cancer patient care. (shrink)

The process of agricultural unification will dominate the German scene for the next few years. At this stage, however, analysis and forecasts are hampered by the considerable problem concerning the viability of East German agriculture in a market economy and by the absence of reliable data in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). This can only be understood in terms of the agricultural situation in the GDR before unification, which is discussed in the first section. The political and economic incentives for (...) German unification are described in the next section of this paper, focusing especially on the integration of the GDR into CAP. The third section considers some critical structural, legal, social, and economic constraints in the process of integrating the two agricultural systems. Finally, the implications for German agriculture as well as the challenges for the CAP will be addressed. Data were collected from interviews with key agricultural policy makers, farm organizations, commodity groups, consumer groups, and agricultural experts, as well as interviewing East German farmers. Additional data were compiled from government statistics, EC publications, and press reports. The conclusions reached in this research show the urgent need for the German government to reconsider the objectives and rationale for structural policies in agriculture, and point out that the new Germany, itself full of paradoxes and uncertainty, stands at the center of European agricultural disorder. (shrink)

This textbook can be used throughout the undergraduate years of study and help develop students' competencies and locate social welfare theory and practice within a global, regional, and national context.

No presente artigo, interessa-nos apontar algumas possibilidades acerca da presença, no século X, da obra Formula Vitae Honestae, escrita por Martinho de Braga, que viveu na Galiza no século VI, na biblioteca de San Millán de la Cogolla, mosteiro localizado em La Rioja. De acordo com nossas conclusões, ainda parciais, vinculamos tal presença à identificação dos dois momentos históricos, o da Galiza no século VI e por La Rioja no X, marcados pela reorganização eclesiástica e monárquica.

This article discusses the nature and content of subsidiary model of state regulation of the social sphere and the possibility of its use in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Model of state paternalism, in which should be a massive and comprehensive support of the living standards of the population due to the state's resources, has exhausted itself and is not compatible with market principles. Defines the principles of vicarious model of state regulation of the social sphere: prevention; social investment; interactivity; tolerance. (...) The conditions of the subsidiary model of state regulation of the social sphere: transparency; openness; continuity and intensity of positive information space; public competition; contractual partnership. Matched procedural elements of interaction that will determine the nature of the practical implementation of the proposed ideological principles, namely, target-oriented approach; expert and assessment activities; contests; nontax incentive mechanisms; meeting site; social contract. Established economic and legal mechanisms and organizational solutions subsidiary structural model of state regulation of social services, such as community foundations. The principles, conditions and procedural elements, economic and legal mechanisms and organizational solutions subsidiary structural model of state regulation of social services allow us to determine the possibility of transition from a paternalistic model to subsidiary for the Republic of Kazakhstan. This means accessible and free to all citizens of basic social services, especially education and health; redistribution of state social spending in favor of the most vulnerable, while reducing assistance provided to families; reduce social inequalities; provide citizens with the highest possible level of social consumption from its own revenues. The need to achieve this transition imposes extremely stringent requirements for economic growth. The main task in this way- providing high perspective, and most importantly, sustainable economic development. (shrink)