Surgical devices are often marketed before there is good evidence of their safety and effectiveness. Our paper discusses the ethical issues associated with the early marketing and use of new surgical devices from the perspectives of the six groups most concerned. Health Canada, which is responsible for licensing new surgical devices, should amend their requirements to include rigorous clinical trials that provide data on effectiveness and safety for each new product before it is marketed. Industry should comply with all Health (...) Canada requirements to obtain licenses for new products. Until Health Canada requires effectiveness and safety data, industry should cooperate with physicians in appropriate studies before releasing new products and should make balanced presentations of all the available evidence. Surgeons should, before using a new surgical device, assess the evidence on its effectiveness and safety and ensure they are properly trained and competent in using the device. Surgeons should provide their patients with an evaluation of the available evidence and inform them about possible complications and the surgeon's level of experience with the new device. Patients, who should be given an honest evaluation of the available evidence, possible complications, and the surgeon's experience, should be encouraged to evaluate the evidence and information to their own satisfaction to ensure that fully informed consent is given. Health institutions, responsible for regulating practice within their walls, should review new devices for safety, effectiveness, and economic impacts, before allowing their use. They should also limit the use of new surgical devices to surgeons trained and competent in the new technology. Professional societies should provide guidance on the early adoption of new surgical devices and technologies. We urge all those involved in the development, licensing, and use of new surgical devices to aim for higher ethical standards to protect the health and safety of patients requiring surgery. The lowest acceptable ethical standard would require device manufacturers to provide surgeons with accurate and timely information on the efficacy and safety of their products, allowing surgeons and patients to evaluate the evidence (and the significance of information not yet available) before surgery. (shrink)

Se trata de una reseña del libro Doran, Robert (2021) _La Teoría de lo sublime. De Longino a Kant, _traducción de Luisa F., Lassaque, Buenos Aires: Editorial Prometeo, 370 páginas.

Where does the mind begin and end? Most philosophers and cognitive scientists take the view that the mind is bounded by the skull or skin of the individual. Robert Wilson, in this provocative and challenging 2004 book, provides the foundations for the view that the mind extends beyond the boundary of the individual. The approach adopted offers a unique blend of traditional philosophical analysis, cognitive science, and the history of psychology and the human sciences. The companion volume, Genes and (...) the Agents of Life, explores the theme in the biological sciences. Written with verve and clarity, this ambitious book will appeal to a broad swathe of professionals and students in philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, and the history of the behavioural and human sciences. You can download the table of contents here. (shrink)

Is faith that p compatible with disbelief that p? I argue that it is. After surveying some recent literature on the compatibility of propositional and non-propositional forms of faith with the lack of belief, I take the next step and offer several arguments for the thesis that both these forms of faith are also compatible, in certain cases, with outright disbelief. This is contrary to the views of some significant recent commentators on propositional faith, including Robert Audi and Daniel (...) Howard-Snyder. The primary argument revolves around the possibility of maintaining a single faith through drastic changes in cognitive attitude. I argue that once we allow that propositional faith is compatible with weaker cognitive attitudes than belief, such as acceptance or assent, there is prima facie reason to consider propositional faith as sometimes compatible with disbelief. I then consider objections and offer some final reflections on the significance of the thesis. (shrink)

Wir sind Teil einer Natur, die uns übersteigt - Grund genug, die Natur wieder zum Gegenstand philosophischer Reflexionen zu machen. Durch den Essentialismus-Verdacht schien der Begriff bereits für die Philosophie disqualifiziert. Doch Robert Hugo Ziegler zeigt, gestützt unter anderem auf Lukrez und Spinoza, dass die Natur, sobald man sie ernsthaft ins Auge fasst, alles andere als essentialistisch ist. Er ordnet das philosophische Problem der Natur damit in eine Wiederentdeckung metaphysischer Fragestellungen ein, die er originell vorantreibt - und beweist, dass (...) sich die Philosophie dadurch nicht nur zur bloßen Kommentatorin der Naturwissenschaften machen muss. (shrink)

Studies of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) in relation to sexual strategies in humans provide the empirical basis for many arguments in support of good genes sexual selection theory. Many FA studies, however, are flawed by bias in experimental design, inconsistent statistical analysis, and the sloppy handling of data.

Through a detailed analysis of ancient philosophical doctrines of liberty and careful examination of the ethymology of the term "eleutheria", the text gives its reader rich material for consideration which must eventually lead to a conclusion that Greek understanding of freedom as a specifically human entity, is the root of all modern views concerning liberty.

China es el mayor desafío económico de Europa. La aspiración de China por el dominio geopolítico, económico y tecnológico está tensionando gravemente sus relaciones con Europa, que se encuentran en una clara trayectoria descendente. Las posiciones se han endurecido por ambas partes, con China volviéndose económicamente hacia adentro y la Unión Europea etiquetando a China como un competidor total, con limitadas áreas para el compromiso. El enfoque de China es a largo plazo y estratégico, explotando las divisiones internas de la (...) UE y la débil cooperación transatlántica con Estados Unidos. A China le gustaría tener acceso a tecnologías avanzadas con posibles aplicaciones militares, y ha adquirido puertos europeos y otras infraestructuras estratégicas. A través de la Iniciativa de la Franja y la Ruta, se ha convertido en el mayor acreedor bilateral del mundo. En último término, China busca revisar la arquitectura económica internacional y “reescribir las reglas del juego”. La respuesta de Europa no ha estado bien coordinada, ha sido a corto plazo y fragmentaria, lo que refleja las divisiones internas en la Unión. Para responder eficazmente al desafío de China, Europa necesita superar los intereses nacionales, cooperar con sus aliados y actuar más estratégicamente. (shrink)

This was the best-selling poetry anthology of the eighteenth century, edited by the most celebrated publisher of the era, Alexander Pope's protege, Robert Dodsley. It includes poems by Samuel Johnson, Thomas Gray, David Garrick, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Horace Walpole, Joseph and Thomas Warton, James Thomson, Elizabeth Carter, Pope himself, and many others. The Collection of Poems is an invaluable index of literary culture in the eighteenth century, and yet despite its great popularity and influence, it has not been (...) in print for more than two hundred years. (shrink)

There has recently been a considerable amount of research into the influence of 18th century British philosophy--particularly into the thinking of David Hume on Continental philosophy and Kant. The aim of this collection is to provide some of the key texts which illustrate the impact of Kant's thought together with two important 20th century monographs on aspects of Kant's early reception and his influence on philosophical thought. Contents: Immanuel Kant in England 1793-1838 [1931] Rene Wellek 328 pp The Early Reception (...) of Kant's Thought in England 1785-1805 [1990] Giuseppe Micheli 114 pp A General and Introductory view of Professor Kant's Principles [1796] F. A. Nitsch 234 pp Text-Book to Kant [1881] (with a biographical sketch) James Hutchison Stirling 576 pp The Development from Kant to Hegel [1882] Andrew Seth 178 pp Lectures on the Philosophy of Kant [1890] Thomas Hill Green 155 pp On the Philosophy of Kant [1879] Robert Adamson 270pp A Sketch of Kant's Life and Writings [1854] H. G. Henderson 80 pp Inquisitio Philosophica [1866], An Examination on the Principles of Kant and Hamilton M. P. W. Bolton 286 pp Philosophy of the Unconditioned [1829] William Hamilton 38 pp On the Philosophy of Kant [1856] Henry L. Mansel 45 pp The aim of this collection is to provide some of the key texts which illustrate the impact of Kant's thought together with two important 20th century monographs on aspects of Kant's early reception and his influence on philosophical thought. (shrink)

Conduct is determined not just by what we do, but also by why and how we do it. Written by an internationally high-profile philosopher, this is the first full statement of an ethics of conduct, spanning moral theory, practical ethics, and theories of obligation and value.

A ubiquitous feature of the auditory organ in amniotes is the longitudinal mapping of neuronal characteristic frequencies (CFs), which increase exponentially with distance along the organ. The exponential tonotopic map reflects variation in hair cell properties according to cochlear location and is thought to stem from concentration gradients in diffusible morphogenic proteins during embryonic development. While in all amniotes the spatial gradient is initiated by sonic hedgehog (SHH), released from the notochord and floorplate, subsequent molecular pathways are not fully understood. (...) In chickens, BMP7 is one such morphogen, secreted from the distal end of the cochlea. In mammals, the developmental mechanism differs from birds and may depend on cochlear location. A consequence of exponential maps is that each octave occupies an equal distance on the cochlea, a spacing preserved in the tonotopic maps in higher auditory brain regions. This may facilitate frequency analysis and recognition of acoustic sequences. (shrink)

A renowned scholar investigates the "human crisis" that Albert Camus confronted in his world and in ours, producing a brilliant study of Camus's life and influence for those readers who, in Camus's words, "cannot live without dialogue and friendship. As France--and all of the world--was emerging from the depths of World War II, Camus summed up what he saw as 'the human crisis'. 'We gasp for air among people who believe they are absolutely right, whether it be in their machines (...) or their ideas. And for all who cannot live without dialogue and the friendship of other human beings, this silence is the end of the world.' In the years after he wrote these words, until his death fourteen years later, Camus labored to address this crisis, arguing for dialogue, understanding, clarity, and truth. When he sailed to New York, in March 1946--for his first and only visit to the United States--he found an ebullient nation celebrating victory. Camus warned against the common postwar complacency that took false comfort in the fact that Hitler was dead and the Third Reich had fallen. Yes, the serpentine beast was dead, but "we know perfectly well," he argued, "that the venom is not gone, that each of us carries it in our own hearts." All around him in the postwar world, Camus saw disheartening evidence of a global community revealing a heightened indifference to a number of societal ills. It is the same indifference to human suffering that we see all around, and within ourselves, today. (shrink)

Although William James formed his philosophical views in direct reaction to the Hegelianism then dominant in American and British institutions, modern critics have tended to reject James’s criticism of G. W. F. Hegel as superficial and outdated. This is in part due to James’s energetic rhetorical style, but also because James at his most polemical tends to present his pluralistic and pragmatist empiricism as diametrically opposed to Hegel’s monistic and intellectualistic idealism, so that it is not clear how the two (...) theories could engage in any meaningful dialogue. This chapter presents a different interpretation of the engagement between James and Hegel. On this interpretation, James’s criticisms of Hegel emerge from what he perceives to be a common starting point: the attempt to find the world to be “a home.” As such, James’s criticisms of Hegel should be understood as offering a kind of internal critique. According to James, Hegel offers too narrow an account of what it is for beings like us to “feel at home” in the world. This is a unique and internal criticism of Hegel which deserves to be taken seriously. (shrink)

Rice, Robert James William Gleeson was born in Balaklava, a town in the mid-north of South Australia, on 24 December 1920. The son of John Joseph Gleeson and Margaret Mary O'Connell, he was the third born of six children - the elder brother of Thomas, John and Raphael (Ray), and the younger brother of Mary. The first-born child, also Mary, born in Balaklava on 6 May 1918, died one hour after birth. She was baptised during her short life.

The indeterminist theory of free will presented in Chs. 8 and 9 is further developed in this chapter by responding to a series of objections. The issues raised by these objections involve indeterminacy and possible worlds, explanation and probability, non‐deterministic causation, rational explanation of actions, character building and the historical dimension of responsibility, strength and weakness of will, choice, responsibility and indeterminism, action and indeterminism, control and responsibility, agent causation, and self‐determination.

This revised edition surveys current thought on evangelism and encourages development of individual evangelism programs.

I shall argue for two theses, one negative and one positive. The first is that NIODA accounts of the possibility of special divine acts uniformly fail. The second is that conceiving of special divine acts as requiring divine intervention is in no way antithetical to science.

XXXIV. Zeus Thallos. Aux documents cités BCH 1983, s'ajoute une plaque du musée de Kütahya, représentant le dédicant avec deux chevaux. XXXV. Retour à Pergame. 1. Le décret de Pergame pour Attale III. Suite (cf. BCH 1984) de l'étude du décret OGI 332. Les honneurs accordés au roi, une couronne d'or comme «prix de la valeur», une statue équestre, la statue de culte comme parèdre d'Asclépios, ne sont pas des honneurs exorbitants, trahissant un abâtardissement oriental, mais les honneurs courants dans (...) ces circonstances. Il en va de même pour les prescriptions sur l'organisation et le déroulement de la fête d'entrée du roi dans la ville. 2. Strabon et la katoikia de Pergame. Comme dans l'ensemble de l'œuvre de Strabon, le mot katoikia appliqué à Pergame, désigne l'agglomération et non une prétendue colonie militaire. (shrink)

Confusing clinical standoffs, loyalty to self-destruction and abrupt terminations are challenging and under-examined problems for the modern psychoanalytic practitioner. _The Danger of Change_ is a timely book that addresses the so-called resistant patient so many clinicians are familiar with. Robert Waska blends theory based on Melanie Klein’s classical stance with the more contemporary Freudian/Kleinian school, to demonstrate how to understand patients that are resistant to progress. Divided into four sections, this book covers: reluctant patients and the fight against change: (...) caught between the paranoid and depressive world greed and the dangers of change interruptions to the process of change: loss, envy, and the death instinct working toward change in the face of overwhelming odds Extensive and detailed clinical material is used to bring clarity to subjects including symbolism, conflict resolution, projective identification, the depressive and paranoid positions, change and trust. _The Danger of Change_ brings hope and clarity to cases involving patients who experience progress as a threat to their emotional wellbeing. It will be of great interest to all practising psychoanalysts, as well as those studying psychoanalytic theory and practice. (shrink)