The historical crisis, by J. T. Marcus.--History and the search for identity, by P. Smith.--The role of history, by J. H. Plumb.--History as progress, by E. H. Carr.--On optimism, by P. Gay.--The purpose of history, by G. R. Elton.--The uses of history, by D. H. Fischer.--The dangers of history, by H. Butterfield.--Unity of history, by P. Smith.--History as private enterprise, by H. Zinn.--The historian and his day, by J. H. Hexter.--Present interest, by S. Kracauer.--On becoming an historian, by M. Duberman.--Vietnam (...) analogy: Greece, not Munich, by A. J. Mayer.--Analogies, by D. H. Fischer.--The tragic element in modern international conflict, by H. Butterfield. (shrink)

According to familiar accounts, Rousseau held that humans are actuated by two distinct kinds of self love: amour de soi, a benign concern for one's self-preservation and well-being; and amour-propre, a malign concern to stand above other people, delighting in their despite. I argue that although amour-propre can (and often does) assume this malign form, this is not intrinsic to its character. The first and best rank among men that amour-propre directs us to claim for ourselves is that of occupying (...) 'man's estate'. This does not require, indeed it precludes, subjection of others. Amour-propre does not need suppression or circumscription if we are to live good lives; it rather requires direction to its proper end, not a delusive one. (shrink)

The essays by celebrated authors in this 1991 book cover themes fundamental to economics: the influence of benevolence, altruism, justice and religious principles in our treatment of others in society; and the bases of rationality in decision making under conditions of uncertainty. These common themes are given a wide range of perspectives by the contributors, who discuss whether not just a 'rational' but also a 'thoughtful' economic man can be fitted into a sophisticated version of the orthodox model of man (...) as a self-interested maximizer, or whether a radical upheaval in economic analysis is needed to accommodate him. The book is an examination by leading authorities of not only the role of rationality and morals in economics, but also the implications of conventional conceptions of rational economic man for all economic study. It constitutes a powerful argument for greater richness and subtlety in ideas about the motivations of individuals in their economic behaviour. (shrink)

This part of the philosophy of psychology I refer to as 'moral psychology'; and, therefore, this book is offered as a contribution to moral psychology. ...

Life, but not as we know it -- Still life in nearly present time -- Driving and the city -- Movement-space -- Afterwords -- From born to made -- Spatialities of feeling -- But malice aforethought -- Turbulent passions.

A central concern of the cognitive science of language since its origins has been the concept of the linguistic system. Recent approaches to the system concept in language point to the exceedingly complex relations that hold between many kinds of interdependent systems, but it can be difficult to know how to proceed when “everything is connected.” This paper offers a framework for tackling that challenge by identifying *scale* as a conceptual mooring for the interdisciplinary study of language systems. The paper (...) begins by defining the scale concept—simply, the possibility for a measure to be larger or smaller in different instances of a system, such as a phonemic inventory, a word's frequency value in a corpus, or a speaker population. We review sites of scale difference in and across linguistic subsystems, drawing on findings from linguistic typology, grammatical description, morphosyntactic theory, psycholinguistics, computational corpus work, and social network demography. We consider possible explanations for scaling differences and constraints in language. We then turn to the question of *dependencies between* sites of scale difference in language, reviewing four sample domains of scale dependency: in phonological systems, across levels of grammatical structure (Menzerath's Law), in corpora (Zipf's Law and related issues), and in speaker population size. Finally, we consider the implications of the review, including the utility of a scale framework for generating new questions and inspiring methodological innovations and interdisciplinary collaborations in cognitive-scientific research on language. (shrink)

Some transgender and nonbinary people undergo phalloplasty and/or metoidioplasty as part of their medical transition process. Across surgical disciplines, a variety of resources are used to assist patients who are preparing for surgeries, including educational materials, workshops, peer support, and lifestyle changes. For gender-affirming surgeries, patients undergoing assessments to discern whether they are ready to undergo the surgery, and to assist them in achieving preparedness when needed. Little research investigates what resources are useful in helping patients to feel prepared to (...) undergo phalloplasty or metoidioplasty, and how assessments and resources can promote patient autonomy in the process. Respect for patient autonomy is one of the central tenets of ethical healthcare, yet historically, scholarship related to pre-surgical assessments for gender-affirming surgery has focused determining the ideal surgical candidate rather than respecting patient autonomy and ascertaining individual patient needs. This study sought to fill this gap by utilizing data from PROGRESS (Patient-Reported Outcomes of Genital Reconstruction and Experiences of Surgical Satisfaction), a cross-sectional, community-based survey of trans and nonbinary adults from the United States of America and Canada who had undergone one or more of these surgeries. Results revealed most participants (86%, n = 186) felt prepared to undergo surgery, though the majority of our sample (53%, n = 105) did not find referral letter assessments to be helpful. Peer support such as online resources/blogs were rated as highly useful, along with surgical consults. In a multivariable logistic regression, higher perceived preparedness was associated with identifying as queer (inclusive of gay, bi and pansexual compared to being straight), and feeling that one’s assessment process was useful (as opposed to not useful). Type of assessment was not significantly associated with preparedness; therefore, what is most useful when preparing for surgery may vary across individuals. Healthcare professionals who interact with preparing patients should develop new or utilize existing resources to assist patients in identifying their preparation needs and achieving preparedness. Our data supports assessments that center surgical care planning rather than assessing level of gender dysphoria. Future longitudinal research could further refine which assessment processes are most effective in helping patients who are preparing for these surgeries. Assessments should ensure that patients are appropriately prepared to undergo and recover from surgery through a robust process of informed consent. (shrink)

Objectives: To gather information about the practices and attitudes of providers of maternity care with respect to informed consent for newborn screening .Methods: A questionnaire concerning information provision and parental consent for NBS was sent to all 1036 registered lead maternity carers in New Zealand.Results: 93% of LMC in New Zealand report giving parents information concerning NBS, most frequently after delivery and in the third trimester . The majority of LMC currently obtain some form of consent for NBS from parents (...) and consider this to be the ideal approach . Despite this a significant minority of LMC reported considering that NBS should be mandatory. Of those in our survey who believed that NBS should be mandatory, paradoxically most still believed that some form of parental consent should be obtained; of those who believed testing should not be mandatory, only a small proportion would accept parental refusal without question.Conclusions: When the results of this survey are considered in conjunction with existing evidence there appears to be a consensus that good quality information in the prenatal period should be an integral part of any NBS programme. The issue of consent is more complex and there is less agreement on the preferred degree of parental involvement in decisions to allow babies to undergo NBS. A policy that both strongly recommends NBS but also allows parental choice appears to be most consistent with the views of LMC in this survey. (shrink)

The recent committee report from the Institute of Medicine in Washington, DC, containing proposals for controlling conflicts of interest 1 reflects the medical profession’s limited understanding of the actual scope of the issues and demonstrates how reactive academic physicians have become to media and congressional priorities instead of those of the medical field. The near-exclusive focus on the compromising of medical decision-making by the receipt of fungible support from the commercial sector fails to identify critical interdependencies of the relationship between (...) academic physicians and capitalist industry, the historical and economic context in which it takes place and the other stakeholders in the process who are trying to, or should be trying to, manage similar issues of ethical prioritisation of manpower and resources, allegiances and alliances.In the process of protecting ourselves, our patients and our institutions from the scourge of the market and its undue influence, we are participating in a much larger discussion, which we are so far neglecting. In redefining academia–industry relations, we are also negotiating over the means of support for translational clinical research, our educational mission as experts and our capacity to serve at centres of excellence in healthcare. Even more fundamentally, the process of examining ourselves and our institutions for conflicts of interest that negatively impact on our ability to protect and to treat our patients, as well as on how we educate the next generations of healthcare workers, goes to the moral core of what it means to be healing arts professionals.The Institute of Medicine report has chosen to overlook the existing complex …. (shrink)

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Language is shaped by its environment, which includes not only the brain, but also the public context in which speech acts are effected. To fully account for why language has the shape it has, we need to examine the constraints imposed by language use as a sequentially organized joint activity, and as the very conduit for linguistic diffusion and change.