Gideon Rosen (2014) has drawn our attention to cases of duress of a particularly interesting sort: the person's ‘mind is not flooded with pain or fear’, she knows exactly what she is doing, and she makes a clear-headed choice to act in, as Rosen says, ‘awful ways’. The explanation of why we excuse such actions cannot be that the action was not voluntary. In addition, although some duress cases could also be viewed as necessity cases and thus as justified, Rosen (...) wisely sets aside that complicating factor by zeroing in on those cases where the action clearly is not justified. So why do we excuse in these cases, where the action is not justified and the agent acted voluntarily?Rosen thinks the key lies in the ‘ill will’ condition, ‘the idea that an act is blameworthy only if it manifests insufficient concern or regard for those affected’. He says this is relatively uncontroversial; much of my paper is taken up with calling the ‘ill will’ condition into question. I also take issue with Rosen on just how justifications and excuses differ. I argue in favour of understanding justifications (in a context where we are asking how justifications and excuses differ) as not requiring truth, but only reasonable belief. (shrink)

Clarke A. Chambers interviews Marcia Eaton, professor in the Department of Philosophy.

Riordan, Marcia Abortion providers and advocates want Australian women who face an unexpected pregnancy to have the option of choosing a chemical RU-486 abortion, instead of a surgical abortion. This article looks at this proposal, and discusses its possible repercussions. There is considerable controversy over this method of abortion, with promoters saying that it is safer, easier and private, whereas opponents call it DIY abortion or home-alone abortion and question its safety.

Le choix de l’unité statistique de segmentation du corpus, ainsi que celui de la distance entre les réponses, induit une structure sur l’ensemble des réponses. Nous proposons d’appliquer une méthodologie statistique, l’analyse factorielle multiple pour tableaux de contingence, AFMTC, pour, d’une part, comparer les structures induites sur un même corpus par différentes unités statistiques et, d’autre part, définir une distance entre textes capable de prendre en compte différentes unités et de profiter ainsi de l’information véhiculée par chacune d’elles. Pour présenter (...) cette méthodologie, généralisation de l’analyse des correspondances aux tableaux de contingence multiples, on utilise une enquête auprès de femmes divorcées qui comporte une question ouverte sur les raisons de leur divorce. Comparison between the structures that are induced by the choice of the statistical unitThe election of the statistical unit, as well as that of the distance between responses, induces a structure on the whole of the responses. We propose to apply a statistical methodology, the multiple factorial analysis for contingency table, MFACT, in order to, on the one hand, compare the structures induced on a same corpus by different statistical units and, on the other hand, define a distance between texts able to take into account different units and so take advantage of the information that they convey. To present this methodology, a generalisation of correspondence analysis to multiple contingency tables, we use a survey carried out on divorced women, that includes an open-ended question about the reasons of their divorce. (shrink)

After summarizing approaches taken previously to the problem of the determination of truth-Value of statements constituting literary works (ryle, Russell, Quine, Strawson, Davidson, Et. Al.) the author argues for a treatment of the problem based upon the linguistic status of such statements as translocutions and their relation to the context in which they occur.

Rapid advances and exponential growth in computer and telecommunications technology have taken individual records and papers revealing the most intimate details of one’s life, habits, and genetic predisposition from the private sector into the public arena in derogation of privacy considerations. Although computerized medical information offers a means of streamlining and improving the health care delivery system through speed and enormous storage capacity, it also presents new challenges as it affects the right of privacy and expectation of confidentiality, creating serious (...) ethical and legal issues. Other considerations include constitutional matters such as loss of liberty when one is compelled to remain in an undesirable or unsuitable job so that insurance will not be canceled or the inability to secure another more suitable position due to genetic predisposition and denial of equal protection of the laws if one is stigmatized because one belongs to a certain ethnic or racial group that exhibits a particular genetic propensity. Collateral questions concern the propriety of disclosure of confidential health care information, including genetic data. This article also considers the proposed federal guidelines for a health information privacy law. (shrink)

This book is a philosophical reflection on the experience of time from within exile. Its focus on temporality is unique, as most literature on exile focuses on the experience of space, as exile involves dislocation, and moods of nostalgia and utopia. Marcia Sá Cavalcante Schuback proposes that in exile, time is experienced neither as longing back to the lost past nor as wanting a future to come but rather as a present without anchors or supports. She articulates this present (...) as a "gerundive" mode, in which the one who is in exile discovers herself simply being, exposed to the uncanny experience of having lost the past and not having a future. To investigate this, the book establishes a conversation among three authors whose work has exemplified this sense of gerundive time: the German philosopher Martin Heidegger, the French writer and essayist Maurice Blanchot, and the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector. The book does not aim to discuss how these authors understand the relation between time and exile but enters in conversation with them in relation to this question. Attempting to think and express this difficult sense of time from within exile, the book engages with the relation between thought and language, and between philosophy and literature. Departing from concrete existential questions, it opens new philosophical and theoretical modes through which to understand what it means to be present in times of exile. (shrink)

Marcia Cavell draws on philosophy, psychoanalysis, and the sciences of the mind in a fascinating and original investigation of human subjectivity. A "subject" is a creature, we may say, who recognizes herself as an "I," taking in the world from a subjective perspective; an agent, doing things for reasons, sometimes self-reflective, and able to assume responsibility for herself and some of her actions. If this is an ideal, how does a person become a subject, and what might stand in (...) the way? One of Marcia Cavell's guiding premises is that philosophical investigation into the specifically human way of being in the world cannot separate itself from investigations of a more empirical sort. Cavell brings together for the first time reflections in philosophy, findings in neuroscience, studies in infant development, psychoanalytic theory, and clinical vignettes from her own psychoanalytic practice. (shrink)

To "look good" and to "be good" have traditionally been considered two very different notions. Indeed, philosophers have seen aesthetic and ethical values as fundamentally separate. Now, at the crossroads of a new wave of aesthetic theory, Marcia Muelder Eaton introduces this groundbreaking work, in which a bold new concept of merit where being good and looking good are integrated into one.

Cavell elaborates the view, traceable from Wittgenstein to Davidson, that there is no thought, and thus no meaning, without language, and shows how this concurs ...

Neste artigo, analisamos algumas das peculiaridades da leitura que Agamben faz de Nietzsche, isto é, o uso que faz das ideias do pensador alemão para constituir a sua própria filosofia política. Assim, refletimos acerca do tensionamento e da polifonia entre a vontade de potência em sua configuração fisiopsicológica, e a grande política a partir da transvaloração dos valores. Indicamos essa tensão e polifonia tendo em vista o outro tipo de potência ao qual Agamben se inscreve, a aristotélica, para pensarmos sobre (...) as aberturas políticas que se descortinam a partir da crítica nietzschiana à política e à democracia liberal. Convém atentar ao argumento de Piazzesi de que a vontade de potência sintetiza os âmbitos mecanicista e valorativo que, em relação agonística, explicam a vontade de potência. O projeto Homo sacer começa e termina com uma crítica à biopolítica que Agamben compreende como sendo aquela nietzschiana. Esse é um tensionamento entre a concretização da transvaloração dos valores como possibilidade de superar o niilismo e criar o lastro para a grande política, pois insere no campo da fisiologia uma questão política, do paradigma da autonomia.Nietzsche e Agamben, com suas concepções divergentes de potência, apontam as possibilidades da política e os limites da democracia liberal. (shrink)

This collection of essays by Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars underscores the significance of sustained and serious ethical, interreligious and interdisciplinary reflection on children. Essays in the first half of the volume discuss fundamental beliefs and practices within the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam regarding children, adult obligations to them, and a child's own obligations to others. The second half of the volume focuses on selected contemporary challenges regarding children and faithful responses to them. Marcia J. Bunge (...) brings together scholars from various disciplines and diverse strands within these three religious traditions, representing several views on essential questions about the nature and status of children and adult-child relationships and responsibilities. The volume not only contributes to intellectual inquiry regarding children in the specific areas of ethics, religious studies, children's rights and childhood studies, but also provides resources for child advocates, religious leaders and those engaged in interreligious dialogue. (shrink)

Riordan, Marcia This article gives the reader an overview of a DVD 'God So Loved the World: A Pastoral Series on Life Issues.' This DVD was produced by the Australian Catholic Life Council, a group established by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference under the ACBC Commission for Pastoral Life. This article discusses the life issues covered in the DVD, which are abortion, euthanasia, and the reproductive technologies. Above all, it explains why it is necessary to de-velop a more positive (...) pastoral response to these issues. (shrink)

The emphasis on duly in Kant's ethics is widely held to constitute a defect. Marcia W. Baron develops and assesses the criticism, which she sees as comprising two objections: that duty plays too large a role, leaving no room for the supererogatory, and that Kant places too much value on acting from duty. Clearly written and cogently argued, Kantian Ethics Almost without Apology takes on the most philosophically intriguing objections to Kant's ethics and subjects them to a rigorous yet (...) sympathetic assessment. (shrink)

In this article I will discuss the dancer’s physical potential and the sensitive knowledge (‘la connaissance sensible’) that emerges from dance practice. For this, I take Lévi-Strauss’ (2010) theory of the ‘savage mind’ as a reference. This theory is important to understand how the discipline of dance does not need to be justified through modern science (Lévi-Strauss 2010). It is understood that dance operates from sensitive knowledge, while modern science is expressed through the intelligible. I will point out how the (...) dancer operates the sensitive, or dancing, thought, stressing that this type of knowledge is created through interest in how to use it and not through interest in how it serves, or what it means. I will then explain how, through sensitive knowledge, dancers propose new challenges during their aesthetic training in order to develop new body technologies, thereby increasing their expressive potential. For this, dancers need to develop body acuity. In other words, I will discuss the processes that dancers use to transform the perception of the self and of the world through danced gestures. In this process, the dancer is always looking for new challenges; he/she constantly deals with new risks in order to discover new knowledge. I will also discuss the problem that dance faces in traditional academia, which disregards sensitive knowledge and values scientific knowledge. (shrink)

Roche, Marcia Sectarianism has been defined as 'adherence or excessive devotion to a particular religious denomination or sect'.1 However, as Kildea notes, dictionary definitions of the term fail to square with its 'distinctive' meaning in the Australian context.2A more accurate representation of the Australian connotation is conveyed by Hogan, who says that it refers to 'the hostility between different churches or "sects" which has manifested itself in the wider arena of social and political conflict'.3 The social, political and economic (...) discrimination and exclusion that has existed in Australia between Catholics and Protestants was most intense from the beginning of European settlement until the 1960s, when the Catholic Church's endorsement of ecumenism offered a means of positive engagement with members of other Christian denominations. (shrink)

Riordan, Marcia Recent advances in genetic technology may mean that the brave new world really is almost here. Non-invasive prenatal genetic diagnosis could finally allow hundreds of thousands of genetic traits to be determined with just one maternal blood test. This could bring genetic screening of the unborn child to a whole new level and mean that as a society we face a new set of challenges in areas such as disability rights, abortion and informed consent.

O nexo entre biopolítica e soberania é de importância central em Michel Foucault e Giorgio Agamben, que possuem um entendimento distinto, porém complementar de tais conceitos. A relação entre essas ideias à luz dos 50 anos de publicação de A sociedade punitiva é abordada em alguns de seus pontos de contato, distanciamento e complementaridade. As interações entre poder soberano e vida humana apontam para um olhar crítico necessário sobre como os governos capturaram a vida como recurso administrável mas, também, passível (...) de inclusão e exclusão através do poder soberano, na figura do homo sacer. Palavras-Chave: Foucault. Agamben. Biopolítica. Soberania. Sociedade Punitiva. (shrink)

In this article, we describe the social and economic changes that have contributed to contemporary problems of work—family conflict, gender inequality, and risks to children's healthy development. We draw on feminist welfare state scholarship to outline an institutional arrangement that would support an earner—carer society—a social arrangement in which women and men engage symmetrically in paid work and unpaid caregiving and where young children have ample time with their parents. We present a blueprint for work—family reconciliation policies in three areas—paid (...) family-leave provisions, working-time regulations, and early childhood education and care—and we identify key policy design principles. We describe and assess these work—family reconciliation policies as they operate in six European countries widely considered to be policy exemplars: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, and France. We close with an analysis of potential objections to these policies. (shrink)

We show that if there is a nonconstructible real, then every perfect set has a nonconstructible element, answering a question of K. Prikry. This is a specific instance of a more general theorem giving a sufficient condition on a pair $M\subset N$ of models of set theory implying that every perfect set in N has an element in N which is not in M.

Friends as well as foes of Kant have long been uneasy over his emphasis on duty, but lately the view that there is something morally repugnant about acting from duty seems to be gaining in popularity. More and more philosophers indicate their readiness to jettison duty and the moral 'ought' and to conceive of the perfectly moral person as someone who has all the right desires and acts accordingly without any notion that (s)he ought to act in this way. Elsewhere' (...) I have argued that such a picture of the perfectly moral person is flawed. In this paper I examine the claim that acting from duty is morally repugnant. There is some truth to this charge, but, I argue, the repugnance attaches not to acting from duty as such, but only to certain ways of acting from duty. In isolating the objectionable elements of acting from duty, I hope not only to vindicate the skeletal concept but also to offer illumination on the question of just how we should understand morally good conduct. (shrink)

...believe that his theory asks too much, demanding total devotion to morality and treating everything worth doing (and perhaps more) as a duty. But, despite their differences, the two sets of...

The processes of learning and memory have traditionally been studied in large experimental organisms (Aplysia, mice, rats and humans), where well‐characterized behaviors are easily tested. Although Drosophila is one of the most experimentally tractable organisms, it has only recently joined the others as a model organism for learning and memory. Drosophila behavior has been studied for over 20 years; however, most of the work in the learning and memory field has focused on initial learning, because establishing memory in Drosophila has (...) not been as straightforward as in other organisms. A major recent advance in this field has been the development of a training protocol that induces long‐term memory in flies. This made possible experiments that implicated the Drosophila CREB gene as a critical component in the consolidation of long‐term memory, and paves the way for future experiments utilizing the well developed tools in Drosophila. This review will briefly summarize what is known in the field of Drosophila learning and memory to date, and discuss why the unique aspects of this field make traditional approaches difficult and reward the use of alternative paths of experimentation. (shrink)

Wives contribute both directly and indirectly to their husbands' careers. For men in some occupations, wives' contributions should lead to higher salaries. In addition, if wives who are not employed contribute more to their husbands' careers than employed wives, men with nonemployed wives should enjoy greater financial benefits than men with employed wives. This study examines data for a national sample of faculty men to determine whether marital status and wives' employment appear to affect men's salary levels. Findings reveal a (...) monotonic increase in earnings corresponding to the hypothesized levels of contributions that men received from wives: men with employed wives had higher salaries than never-married men, while men with nonemployed wives had the highest salaries. This pattern is partly attributable to differences in employment characteristics and achievement levels between these categories of men. However, a direct relationship between salary, and marital status and wives' employment remains after controlling many variables known to affect faculty salaries. (shrink)

ate program and identified the ethical commitments and threats living kidney donors perceive throughout the donation process. Method: This quality improvement project reflects a mixed-methods methodology. Qualitative as well as quantitative data were generated through the donor-advocate consultation sessions and the written Living Donor Satisfaction Survey. Thirteen living donors participated. Results: No threats to donor rights were identified by either the donor or the advocate. Nonrelated donors were motivated by altruism, whereas related donors were motivated by a sense of family. (...) A majority of donors reported being changed emotionally and spiritually by the act of serving as a living donor. The living kidney donors were overwhelmingly extremely satisfied with their decision to donate and perceived the living donor advocacy program as being very good. Discussion: Questions have been raised about what role the donor’s spouse should have during the informed consent process. Further research is needed to better understand the role and power of an advocate when threats to the donor’s rights are noted.... (shrink)